Tag Archives: Dystopian

Wrecking Balls of Extinction

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Dystopian Subjects, Future Trends

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Meteorite shower on a planet

From: GL0CK – Depositphotos.com

 

Extinction is a fascinating subject to me as a writer, especially if it has a dystopian plot line around a group of humans barely surviving a decimated landscape from any one of natural or manmade calamities. It’s all about the human equation, but what makes it really compelling, is a natural disaster by which we have no control. I’m obsessed with The Apocalypse Waiting Beneath Our Feet, and other earth-based, regularly-scheduled natural disasters mentioned in an article I wrote a couple years ago. Not to say meteor impacts are passé, it’s been a hotly debated subject for decades, but I viewed heavenly body impacts as random events, like chances of winning the lottery (or in this case … losing).

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Your Brain’s PnP Driver Has Been Hacked

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Future Trends, Sci-Fi Themes

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From: vectorguru - DepositPhoto.com

From: vectorguru – DepositPhoto.com

In science fiction, we love the premise of enhanced brainpower. Wouldn’t you like to be Lucy, the main character in a recently released movie, who overdoses on a synthesized drug and ends up stimulating access to over 90% of her brain capacity to become a superhuman?  Or how about Gabriel Vaughn in the TV series, Intelligence, an operative with a super-computer microchip in his brain and the first human directly connected to a globalized information grid.

We’ve been tinkering with the brain for centuries. Ever since cave dwellers discovered certain plants instilled feelings of euphoria, mankind has been on a quest to unlock the mysteries of our human processor, find ways to upgrade its abilities, repair and improve upon original sensory input devices.  A recent article on the future of “wired” brains had me wondering if we were pushing a concept destined to backfire on us.

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I’m Guest Blogging this Week with Author M.V. Freeman

24 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in Guest Blog, Writing Dystopian Themes

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Paperbacks Papercuts

It’s not often I get to hobnob with bestselling authors, and this week, I’m with M.V. Freeman, author of Urban Fantasy and Romance.  We share a similar taste for stories of shadow and light, and coffee with cream.

Check out my answers to her interview questions at Paperback’s n’ Papercuts.

 

Guest Blogging This Week with Ariel Swan

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by in Dystopian Subjects, Guest Blog, Writing Dystopian Themes

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Photopin-Flickr Charlie Reynolds

Photopin-Flickr Charlie Reynolds

This week, I’m guest blogging with author, Ariel Swan.  

Ariel and I share a similar taste for old Victorian homes, rural New England settings, art by Lori Nix, and a make-believe world in our heads that would make Walter Mitty proud. In a departure from my usual postings, I’ve decided to share a sneak peak of my current story: Lasty, a dystopian tale of mankind’s date with extinction, and a young couple’s reluctant journey to prevent it.

Ariel Swan

“As a novelist, by definition I live in a world of make-believe.”

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Mosquitoes Have a Hall Pass from Extinction

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in Musing, Writing Dystopian Themes

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František Czanner-Depositphotos.com

František Czanner-Depositphotos.com

I’m sure you’re first thought upon reading the title, there goes ole DT, off on another weird subject.  Can’t help it, I like unusual subject matter, especially if it can relate to the dystopian, apocalyptic stories I write.  Summer is nearly over, but the Culicidae parasite is still in high season.  Plenty of biting insects fill the roster of least favorite critters in this world, but none are as universally despised by the global community than mosquitoes, or mozzies as the Aussies like to say.  In my latest tale, a future where humans teeter on the edge of extinction, our hero ponders why mosquitoes continue to have free reign of the environment when 95% of the human race has perished from a plague virus.

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The Science of Boring

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Writing Dystopian Themes

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Alexandra Thompson – DepositPhoto

Alexandra Thompson – DepositPhoto

When was the last time you reached a point in the day where the Sandman showed up prematurely from its vampire coffin and lulled you into closed-eyes of boredom?  If you have kids, what parent doesn’t know the siren song, There’s nothing to do. Kids naturally come with the attention span of a gnat, so boredom is one of the hazards.  For adults, tedium and its sidekick, bored, is the pheromone that attracts Sandmen to daylight hours.  I’ve lost count how many times I considered stapling my eyes open in corporate meetings.  As a writer, quaffing caffeinated beverages is the shield of choice, though a flimsy one if the story isn’t going so well.  I knew something was wrong when I thought to myself, would anyone living in a dystopian world, ever be bored? Clearly a time to walk away from the word processor.

Imagine my surprise to discover there is a field of study dedicated to the science of boredom. Little is known how boredom affects the brain, but a few University Psychology Departments are floating theories it may be a failure in the neural pathways that control attention.  I couldn’t help chuckling to myself.  Has the research community been so bored with trying to find credible fields of study, they have decided to explore why they’re bored?  Apparently, boredom is a fascinating field, which in itself seems an oxymoron.

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Going Off The Grid

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Writing Dystopian Themes

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At the end of the world.Scenicreflections.com

At the end of the world.
Scenicreflections.com

Ever find yourself off the grid for a couple weeks, away from all forms of normal communication?  Not the kind where you go hiking with expectations of returning later in the day or week. Even then, you probably had a cell phone with you.

I grew up in a time of rotary telephones that only needed five numbers to dial.  Making calls in a remote hamlet of New Hampshire required operator assistance.  It was the age of letters … you know, that form of communication that required penmanship, paper, and pen.  Mail didn’t zip electronically through servers, real humans with the Postal Service walked neighborhoods to deliver it. GPS back then was called a compass.  Get caught without access to a phone or two-way radio, and you could get really lost … signal fire or message-in-a-bottle lost.

Let’s face it, many of us go ape-shit when cell signal is lost, bang keyboards when the internet goes down.  Adolescents enter that special cranky state when cable or satellite goes blank with, “no signal available,” and how does anyone make it through the day without texting?

It isn’t so much what would happen if it all went down, like the popular dystopian TV show, Revolution.  It’s how you’d handle it.  How would you feel?

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Coming Soon: A Unique Dystopian Tale

18 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Writing Dystopian Themes

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Claudio Gedda - DepositPhoto.com

Claudio Gedda – DepositPhoto.com

A fellow author with Aponte Literary Agency, Debby Herbert, recently invited me to participate in a Goodreads Interview process with other writers. Not yet on the bookshelves, I was asked to offer a sneak peak at my latest project, a unique dystopian tale where humankind stands on the cliff of extinction.

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Broken Places of Broken Humanity

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Dystopian Subjects

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UnKreatives-DepositPhoto.com

UnKreatives-DepositPhoto.com

Nothing got the adrenaline flowing as a kid than crawling around an old abandoned house or factory.  The world is full of deserted sites, some of them comprising the ever-changing top ten lists of creepily beautiful places.  To me, broken cities are often reminders of broken humanity.  It is the stuff of dystopian tales and you don’t have to go far to see what it looks like.

My fascination of places where corners are defined by shadow, comes from an old Victorian house I grew up in as a child.  Built around 1900, its three-story temple of dark wood, creaky stairs and a catacomb basement was a sanctuary for a loner kid who liked to feel his skin crawl. Adolescent years in rural Connecticut discovered dozens of abandoned homes to risk life and limb on rotted floors.  It always fascinated me how these places could stand relatively unchanged for decades.  I would not realize until later that it was just cheaper to leave it be.

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Expiration Date – Never

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Writing Dystopian Themes

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DepostPhoto: Kostyantin Pankin VIPDesignUSA

DepostPhoto: Kostyantin Pankin VIPDesignUSA

The media has had a field day lately with the possibility that Twinkies will go by way of the passenger pigeon.  For those of you who are praying for a miracle, you can take comfort in the likelihood that a white knight will ride in to save the cakes from extinction, even though the cakes themselves, will remain edible until the actual apocalypse.   In my latest dystopian story, I toy with the concept of a time when over 95% of the world’s population is killed off in two years.  I won’t get into the challenges survivors face with cleanup activities, but it sparked a question as to what happens to all the manufactured foodstuffs in a supply chain for 300 million?

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