Unabashed

Someone should put together an anthology of humorous science fiction. Maybe even make it a tribute to Douglas Adams, the man who proved that humor and scific was possible. It’s been almost 30 years since the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published, and Adams remains the only successful author of humorous SciFic that I know of. It’s a genre that needs some attention, I think. I say this, of course, because I sometimes write funny SciFic, and I need a market to sell my stories to. There are some markets that say they’d like to have it, but either they don’t really want it or the usual applies: “this story just wasn’t right for us.”

Whether humorous SciFic is being written now I don’t know, I only know that the only SciFic that seems to be enjoying any success in the market isn’t written with humor being the first intent. Some say that it’s been done, to which I would counter by saying hasn’t everything? I’ve heard it said before that there are no original stories left to write, that we only substitute new characters into stories that, to one degree or another, have already been done at one time before. Humorous science fiction is something I would like to read, so, I think it hasn’t been done enough.

I’ve even thought about doing an anthology myself, except for all the problems related to that, the two most pivotal being: I don’t have the time to do it, and I’m not an editor. The only thing I could really contribute is that I know what I like to read, and sometimes that jives with what other people like to read, too. But then I would still have the problem of placing my own stories, since, you know, it wouldn’t be a good idea to put my own story in the anthology I was “editing.” That would just be wrong and smack of amateurism, like when someone builds a website for fiction and when you visit it all the stories you see are written by the same person. That’s one of the best ways to ensure your work never gets read.

Would it be better to self-publish an anthology than a book you’ve written yourself? I don’t know. I know that indie writing doesn’t get much respect these days, primarily due to the fact that at least 90% of what’s ever been self-published in the history of indie writing has been manure. With an anthology you’d have to get submissions, but I don’t really think that would be a problem. You always hear editors bemoaning the sheer numbers of subs in their slush piles. The plus would be that you could use CreateSpace, and thereby sell your anthology on Amazon and to Kindle readers. The only publicity you’d get would be what you could put together yourself on the web. Very few reviews, very little marketing, all could add up to very few sales. And if your reason for doing an anthology is sales, well, you probably should have known in the first place that it wasn’t going to make you rich. If your reason for doing an anthology is because you want to see more of a certain type of story that’s not getting much attention, then maybe. Maybe.

This is no call for subs, by the way. This is just me pondering possibilities on my blog, public forum that it is. Feedback is welcome, as usual.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: amazon, Anthology, createspace, douglas adams, indie, kindle, science fiction, scifi, scific, short story, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tribute, writer, writers

What is the Dark Matter that exists between the visible patches of space? We can't see it, and we (so far) can't prove it exists; but we've theorized its existence and we think we know what's there: beer foam. Dark Matter is a wonderfully wicked-sounding word that describes the mysterious murk of the universe.

I think it's best if we start at the beginning: “Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is.” ~Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.”

Despite the assertions of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, astronomers know of no Restaurant at the End of the Universe. However, there is a very nice Bar at the Center of the Galaxy.

Because our galaxy, like many others that astronomers have observed, appears to be spinning much too quickly. The rapid rotation should be tearing it apart unless it is held together by a lot more gravity than can be explained by the stars, gas and dust we can see. More gravity means more mass.

Scientists call this unseen mass “Dark Matter.” The Majewski team plans to sniff it out by observing its gravitational effect on stars within the Milky Way disk and on groups of stars that orbit the disk.

There are possibly entire solar systems and globlular clusters in orbit around the Milky Way that are entirely composed of Dark Matter. In fact, there may be a full third of our own Milky Way composed of the stuff. Right under our noses, but invisible to our detection. (Anybody remember Buckaroo Banzai?)

Also: “The fabric of space-time is thought to be “foamy” rather than smooth, and soon the largest telescopes could look for signs of that foam.

Mmmmm; galactic quantum beer foam.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: dark matter, douglas adams