It seems that my marathon training is getting in the way of drawing!
The event is in three weeks…
The latest issue of Galaxies includes my SF short-story, La Cousine Entropie (A Cousin named Entropy).
This is my third publication in this French SF magazine, occurring shortly after my publication in Géante Rouge 23. La cousine Entropie is a long-winded, galaxy-spanning hard SF story, with some bits of humor. And there is more than one cousin…
The text was commissioned by Jean-Pierre Laigle, who sent me an extensive article on the topic of cosmanthropy (that you’ll find in this issue).
Cosmanthropy?
Imagine humans colonizing the entire volume of space, not only planet surfaces, without environmental suits. That trope is less often exploited in science fiction, because of the challenges. Three authors who addressed this topic are interviewed: Jorge Luiz Caliph (Contact diagrams), Laurent Genefort (Thick-skins) and Linda Nagata (The tides of Saturn, which is published in French in this issue).
I remember reading with pleasure Les Peaux Epaisses (Thick Skins) by Laurent Genefort, featuring gen-modified workers in order to survive in the vacuum (and shamefully exploited). I am reading Memory by Linda Nagata, a planet-opera.
Spider and Jeanne Robinson had created Star Dance, a title also mentioned in the article by Jean-Pierre. Star Dance chronicle the birth of Homo caelestis. Jeanne was an accomplished dancer and very Zen. She left us, regretfully in 2010, but the Star Dance project page is still there to make us dream.
Posted in Event, Science-fiction, Society, Writing
Tagged Entropy, Galaxies magazine, humor, Jean-Pierre Laigle, Jeanne Robinson, Linda Nagata, Science-fiction, Spider Robinson, Writing
Reactions to the Brussels attacks on social media have devolved into an ugly blame game that solves nothing. And a fierce joy explodes when some assumptions reinforces our established prejudices!
Unfortunately, Facebook is an easy outlet. Compared to what one can express safely in the lounge with friends, the audience is the entire planet.
During my meeting in Oregon with pros writers, an important directive (given along with the earthquake and tsunami warnings) was “Do not talk about politics!” Many of my professional colleagues chose not to intervene on heated Internet debates (and in the USA, they are in elections!) as they have lost too many friends .
I could talk in length about the origins of the scourge, and the mental conditioning that is now called “radicalization”. Mental cages grow everywhere, sects or radicals recruit even the young educated or the rich (Patty Hearst, anyone?)
It only takes a small seed of frustration, fueled by the fertilizer of prejudice. Over time, the mental cage produces its evil flowers, sweet fruits of hatred providing a “hit” of pleasure, inflating the ego with the steroids of a “good” cause.
I could also talk about polluters of sources, spreading seeds of anger in the medias. Those professionnals emits a thinly veiled call to the lynching of a religious community or ethnic group, deemed guilty by association because some of the assassins may have been recruited among them.
I could talk about heavy weapons manufacturers who make fruitful business with the States that need to protect themselves, and covert business with shady groups.
I heard the worst insults this week; several of my Facebook friends have left their reserve to the locker room. Those issues that tear us down concern all authors.
We, the creators of comics, magicians of words, regardless of the size of our audience, have a responsibility not to inflame the debate with simplistic hate calls.
To write is to weave a dream, to offer a glimpse into a future different from a brand of capitalism focused on fear. As a science fiction writer, I want to feed the imagination to build, through education and respect, a more convivial world.
Posted in Art, Event, Science-fiction, Society
Tagged art, blame game, Comics, Facebook, Mental cage, radicalization, Science-fiction, terrorism, Writing
This apple tree was there long before the neighbourhood was built, a remnant of the farmstead that once occupied this strip of land.
It was a small wonder to have trees like this, belonging to no one, and giving away its fruits. It was a small, gnarled tree that had been ill for some years, and his fruits spotted, acid, imperfect. I knew the city would remove it eventually, but never forgot to offer my thanks.
The poem did rhyme in its French form, but I endeavoured to keep the rythm alive.
Posted in Art, BD, Comics, Event, Society
Tagged Apple, apple trees, art, Comics, Gratitude, Mississauga, poem, street apples, urban trees
When I began my first science fiction series, the first novel of the space-opera was a self-contained story, quite straightforward to write. The second felt more difficult, and I thought the third would be the last, but the story arc spilled out and I wrote a fourth (and last!) of the Jules-Verne saga series.
It felt like my training running hills. The first time is easy, but by the fourth time, my legs were almost quitting under me! That fourth and last novel of the series was the most difficult to write, since I had to wrap up the leads to complete the neat story arc.
Posted in Art, BD, Comics, humor, Science-fiction, Society, Writing
Tagged art, Comics, humor, novel, Running hills, Science-fiction, space-opera, Writing, writing a series
Books are like boats.
Readers swim from one reading to the next, and some boats are more easy to access than others.
(I hear it often: How come my genius novel cannot find any readers? ) For my science fiction novels, I often add lexicons! But there are other ways to lower the bar for your readers, by shorter chapters, for instance, or not crowding too many characters in a scene, etc.
Your writer’s task is paradoxically to help your readers to get on board!
Posted in Comics, Event, humor, Science-fiction, Society
Tagged art, books, books as boats, Comics, humor, Science-fiction, Writing
Giving big sums to charity via our own Foundations can be rewarding… and it helps evading taxes. But most of us do it with any recognition.
So this demo tried to follow me as I strive to found my small company offering something, but eventually ending up only speculating. Speculating is needed to render exchanges more efficient, like oil lubrifying the mechanic. But too much wealth in speculator’s hands begets a sea of oil in which float a few services/goods. Hence a relative scarcity of money for most valuable endeavours (education, health, transportation…) and new jobs.
I don’t have a billion in my pockets to create jobs. But I am training myself to put every profit dollar to good use; invested away to make other work for me.
(The French words aura de respectabilité means “appearing respectable”. )
Posted in Art, BD, Comics, humor, Science-fiction, Society
Tagged art, Comics, creation of jobs, Creation of wealth, Game of Thrones, humor, poverty, Science-fiction, Writing
As your business grows, you reach a point where you stop creating wealth, and jobs.
Posted in Art, Comics, humor, Society
Tagged art, business, Comics, Creation of wealth, Economy, Growth, horizontal integration, humor, vertical integration, Webcomic
.
This is a particular problem in French language, and many French-speaking locutors are unconsciously copying the English usage of the word problematic.
The adjective form is the same in both languages.
A problematic (noun) is a thing poses a problem; the word problématique in French means an ensemble of problems linked by a common root cause.
In English the usage is in plural form only: the problematics are the uncertainties or difficulties inherent in a situation or plan.
Example: Something that poses a problem or difficulty: “[a book that] poses the problematics of memory in another light altogether”
So translating this comic has posed a problem!
Posted in Art, BD, Comics, humor, Society, Writing
Tagged English usage, French-speaking, humor, problematic, problems, Writing
Echoes of a Sunday artist 