Lost in (and FOR) Time

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Clifford Simak has at least one novel in which his character, being teleported, finds himself in a parallel world, which he, at first, doesn’t realize isn’t his.  This morning I woke up feeling rather the same.

I think I’ve confessed already that I created a future history mostly because I was terrified of not doing this science fiction thing right.  I mean, Heinlein had a future history and I was fairly sure that Heinlein had done Science Fiction as it was meant to be done.  All those other people since… well, some of them were all right, but..

But I really wasn’t sure they were as right as Heinlein, which meant, of course, I was going to follow his route.

This was shoved along by the fact that my writers’ group decided – around the time I really started trying to do short stories (this is probably one of those things I wouldn’t do if I knew what was coming down the pike.  I’d just have gone with novels, full strength ahead and d*mn the rejections) – that we were now going to do a short story a week, come rain, high water, colicky babies, or annoying four year olds who were reading their (his) way through my research library and asking the oddest questions.

While my invention is not … cramped (I was very shocked last month when Amanda Green told me that most people are afraid of writing because they’re afraid they can’t make up anything original.  Honestly, my science fiction isn’t (probably) as original as it could be, because I feel myself to be but an egg and am still leaning on the example of Heinlein, but my issue, at least in school was not usually being “original enough” but not being so original that my teachers and class stared at me open eyed and went “uh, what?”) it is also not infinite and it particularly wasn’t so fifteen years ago, when I was even more busy than I am today (assure you.  I was still refinishing/fixing most of our furniture, doing a lot of our sewing, cooking everything from scratch – how from scratch?  I never bought pasta.  Waste of money.  I bought flour – and juggling two active young kids – hard too, since Robert was as wide as he was tall.)

So I’d routinely come up on Saturday and find myself staring in mute horror at a blank screen, with not a thought in my head.  (This must serve by way of explanation for the bee story which I will never let see the light of day, for things like Tum at Eventide, and even for things such as Sugarbush Soul.)

Having a future history at least gave me a setting to throw my bad ideas at.  I need to copy this thing fair, but it started in 2030 – when I figured I’d either be too old to care, or too obscure to matter – with our discovery that Russia, upset at its impending demographic catastrophe, has been creating laborers in labs (mostly from ova and sperm donated for research or leftover from infertility) and gestated in large animals.  (I want you to keep in mind here, that the “demographic” thing was 15 years ago and a bit of a brainstorm, since no one was admitting Russia had/would have a problem with that back then.  At least no one I’d read.)

By then the rest of the European nations would be in demographic free-fall, and no bad idea goes uncopied.

Because most (but apparently not all, according to Angel in Flight.  Who knew) of the people gestated in that way will be subnormal (my science advisor tells me it has to do with enzymes and wrong timing of hormones) these people were not full citizens, but wards of the state, and truly slaves in all but name.  Also, because a lot of people recoil at the idea of people made in that way joining, as it were, the human genetic stream, these “made people” are all male, and at least theoretically sterile.  Hence the title of “Mules”.

At the same time, of course, parents would be bio-improving their kids, and well, there’s a lot of genetic keeping up with the Jones.

This is around the time that the seacities are being built.

It is also when they get the brilliant – nay, stunning – idea of creating “ideal” men to govern us.  Although the funny thing is that initially they don’t think of them as rulers, but people who will keep things running.  You know, the natural humans will have their brilliant ideas, etc, and the made humans will keep them from crashing (because, yep, that’s what’s wrong with top down control.)

These are made in two tiers, the very best ones as sort of super administrators and the others for various less “daylight” tasks, which is where we get people like Simon’s unlamented father who was trained as a spy/assassin.

These were still special works, and the reason most of them have a string of names, is that people got to name ‘the project.’

Of course, the superadministrators – who were never called mules THEN because they were gestated in surrogate mothers and clearly more than human – take over government during the war between the landstates and the Seacities.  (Neptune’s Orphans is the aftermath of that.)  This inaugurates the era of the bio-Lords as they call themselves, or the government by Mules as people start to call them, because frankly they’re not well liked.  (They weren’t raised as humans, and even though I have a soft spot for Jarl, this left them rather maimed when it comes to BEING human.)

This future history goes all the way to 3500 when Earth has become just one of the many human worlds.

I called this future history Forever Fighting – because it is – but my husband plain hates that name, so how about the Usaian future history.  In the far future there is a Usaian planet, though the human race is so hyper extended that in most places it is a legend about a world with a statue of a woman with a torch beside their spaceport.  Anyway…

I know The Brave And The Free fits in there about five hundred years after the DST World Revolution series  (Might be more than that.  I only see “dates” when I am working fully on the book, and even then I find it good to leave it as fuzzy as possible.  (I was told there would be NO math.)

BUT here’s the thing – I just realized alongside this one and without my noticing, another time line spontaneously generated.  I don’t see MUCH of it yet.  It’s foreshadowed by a rather horror/like story in Crawling, where humans are the diplomats of the stars and so far-flung that sometimes a world has only one.  It’s a future history filled with aliens, which I so far haven’t written except in that short and maybe a couple others.

The YA that will be written – yes, to those who said it, I’m starting to wake up with more energy, etc.  Good heavens.  Have the issues of the last ten years been “bad air”?  How Elizabethan – is also in that universe, though the ratio of human per world is usually higher… and the novel that insists on going by the working name Winter Prince (it can’t keep it.  It’s a fantasy title, and the novel definitely isn’t) seems to be in the far future of THAT time line.

I have this vague idea that that time line diverges sometime this century with first contact (which mean I should write it, right?)

Anyway, I thought I had a future history but I have two.  Did I take the wrong turn at time central?

How does stuff like this happen to a nice writer like me?  Whom did I offend in a past – or perhaps simultaneous life?  What have I done to deserve this?

I now have two unnamed history lines, and good heavens, do you know how hard it will be to keep them separated?  Like a cat with crochet yarn!

So “Woman, why are you complaining?  Now you have more stories to write!”

Those  of you who are writers know why I’m complaining.  Time, my dears, time!

On the other hand, I am feeling a ton more energetic.  So, wish me luck.  Right now I’m going to plunge back into Through Fire… and the rest will be taken one at a time. Imagine if you will, all these novels standing in line, holding tickets in their papery little hands :-P  “Come up and you’ll be served in the order you’re called.”

I think the line extends out the door.

And because I’m very weird even for me, today, if you want to read something saner, sashay on over to mad Genius Club and read Dave Freer’s post.

100 thoughts on “Lost in (and FOR) Time”

  2. “… in most places it is a legend about a world with a statue of a woman with a torch beside their spaceport…”

    Like RAH, you can bring on my allergies with just a few words. Do you know how it’s done? Would you tell? Or is this that “Art” thing?

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  4. I believe it was RAH himself that once remarked that there are only seven plots, each of them redone and retold countless times. I think I had read something like a half dozen of David Gerrold’s books when I suddenly realized that every last one of them was a take on something by Heinlein. That’s not a criticism, it’s a complement.
    Tell a good story, draw your readers in, make them care about your characters whether they love them or hate them, and the fans they will come. Now it helps to keep things straight, for the surly knaves will nit pick every bobble and inconsistency you fail to catch, damn their black souls, but still and all as long as they keep buying your books it’s all good.

    Sounds like now that your brain is getting oxygen without all the crud you’re starting to hit on all cylinders again. Hope that portends a new and prolific period in your career.

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    2. “I believe it was RAH himself that once remarked that there are only seven plots, each of them redone and retold countless times.”

      I don’t know. RAH turned out some rather distinctive stories. Those with a mathematical bent need to read “-And He Built a Crooked House-“. I wonder what someone like Sarah’s Dan thinks of that story.

      Since my work has been in the audio field, I loved Dean Ing’s “Silent Thunder” with is the only work of Audio Science Fiction I am aware of. The first (and only?) publication was as a double with RAH’s “Universe”.

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  5. One of the earliest SF novels I recall reading is Poul Anderson’s Brain Wave. Perhaps your decade operating under the adverse atmospheric conditions has had the similar effect of rendering your respiratory system more robust. As Nietzsche said, that which does not kill me leaves me weakened and vulnerable to lesser predators.

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    1. I have a love/hate relationship with that story. Considering my misgivings from a perspective of many more years and much more experience, I think I always felt (I haven’t read it in more than 15 years) that he missed the mark on the psychology angle by a considerable margin.

      As always with an opinion of a story, YMMV.

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  7. I feel your pain, Sarah. My problem is that I write stories where there _HAS_ to be a way to explain how things got so screwed up. I mean, my fantasy novel is set in a world where humans are enslaved, dwarves, elves and halflings have kingdoms that are slowly expanding and the bulk of the world is ruled by dragons using orcs, goblins and dark elves. I mean, I realize that it doesn’t all have to be explained word for word, but it HAS to be there for consistency’s sake, even if I’m the only one that ever sees it. Especially once I finish this thing and go indie. Because if it sells, I’m going to write a sequel..

    My other novel size WIP is, in some ways, even worse because it’s set in the not-so-distant future in The United Soviets of America. Yeah, you read that right. I may have to change that though, because it comes across as a little heavy handed. Part of that storys is told in flashback too, so it could get a little ugly if I can’t keep it all straight.

    The good news for me is that it’s hard to cross the two. The history of a fantasy planet and the Dragon Conquests won’t get mixed with the history of the USA right? Unless, of course, one of the generals of the USPA (United Soviet Peoples Army) was nicknamed ‘The Dragon’. Um.. STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!! Ahhh.. now the stories are mixing themselves. AHHHHH!!!!!

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    2. Sympathies. I couldn’t start writing the science fiction story I’m writing now until I plunked some pretty heavy info dumps right in the beginning. Then the rest started to move. And now I’m trying to slim them down, and eliminate everything I can because that beginning is way too boring with them. But some of the information needs to show somewhere. Difficult to find the places where.

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      1. The Liberated States of America? Newspeak or doublespeak being something of a specialty of the statists I would expect something along those lines, and both socialist and soviet do have bit of a taint when it comes to some of your citizens. Better not to scare the rednecks, unnecessarily, right? They might even dig out the guns which the enlightened ones have not yet managed to confiscate if they get riled up enough (I presume there is going to be some some sort of resistance going on in the story…)

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        1. Yeah, the MC finds himself as part of it accidentaly. That’s kind of the point. Being Herself’s blog though, I didn’t want to get too far into it.

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        2. Seems like People’s Democratic American Republic should fit there, but it wants to be an acronym and I can’t shuffle it about or find the extra letter to make it work. Democratic Republics of the American People calls out foe a concluding E, don’ it?

          Of course, it is neither Democratic, comprised of Republics nor by the people, of the people and for the people, and possibly no longer really American.

          Democratic Republics of the American-Mexican Alliance? Run, of course, by a queen … Hillary the III? Oprah the XV?

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  8. Yeah, it’s bad enough when your characters run off and do things you hadn’t planned on them doing. Whole futures? Have you been hanging around Progressives again, Sarah? Fantasy futures are their specialties, you know?

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      1. So, Cliff hangers are a sort of nuclear Schrodinger devices? Too many in a fictional universe and it reaches critical mass. Then the cat both lives and dies?

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  9. All I ask, Ms. Author, is that you not pull an Asimov – or a gloaming-days Heinlein for that matter – and try to unify your multiverse.

    Better to have multiple but separate future-histories that don’t necessarily relate than a jumbled, forced attempt at reunification.

    Mew

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    2. YES! I have gotten into the habit of quitting the book when Lazarus Long shows up, because that is the end of the story as far as I am concerned.

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  13. Speaking of lost and found time . . . does anyone know where the giant hourglass from the last party we had at Sarah’s while she was out of town went? Yeah, that one, with the bat wings on the frame and the glittery sand that glowed in the dark. It was by the mammoth head in the living room, IIRC. Halloween’s coming and if we’re not going to have a party at Chez Hoyt, I thought I’d borrow it and scare someone.

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    1. Wasn’t that in the pile of stuff the EPA crew in hazmat suits carried away after that last raid?
      Anyone have decent (so to speak) pictures from that party, by the way. All the ones I took with the polaroid failed to come out well. Films all foggy for some reason.

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      1. “Decent” pictures? By the time that party really got under way none of the pictures could be even remotely considered “decent.”

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          1. If I were you I’d keep that envelope in a cool, dry place. Preferably behind a few inches of lead and a couple feet of water.

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      1. *cough* I was checking the granularity, for it was very fine sand. Last I saw it there were two dwarfs trying to cajole a troll into carrying it off for them, saying something that sounded like “powered gold.”

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        1. Awww, I hope not. I just finished forging, um, correcting yeah that’s it, the local permits I needed to put it in the front yard for a few days (and nights). The glow-in-the-dark part makes clerical types nervous for some reason, so there were a lot of typos I had to correct.

          Mile and a half in twenty minutes and 3800 words. And batted cover art ideas around. The one that vanished under the sofa with the cat’s toys wouldn’t have worked anyway. Really.

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          1. Whoever brought that real-looking flying pteradactyl device, or creature, or whatever, likely ended up with it – the last I saw it was in the things talons.

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            1. That crash landed in the alley. I have no explanation for the load of no. 4 goose shot fired from a 12 gauge shell brand name “Estate” … no explanation at all.

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  14. I’m starting to wake up with more energy, etc.

    If you’re having problems with sleepiness and lack of energy, have you had a sleep study done? My doctor, many moons ago, ordered one for me and it turned out that while I didn’t have any sleep apnea (I continued breathing quite well thank you) my nighttime blood O2 dropped, causing the sleep to not be restful and, as a result, sleepiness during the day.

    For a while I was on 2 l/m oxygen at night and that made a big difference. (Since then, I’ve gotten into better shape, lost a significant amount of weight, and am doing fine without the oxygen).

    Just some thoughts from a concerned friend.

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    1. Well, I’m not having the issue now, but I did for ten years. I knew what it was — pretty continuous upper respiratory issues. What I DIDN’T know was that the reason was the stupid vent the HVAC people cut in the basement AGAINST my protests.

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  15. I think that the term you’re groping towards for your “truly slaves in all but name” people is serf. There has to be a natural limit to the number of them you make and so you tie them to a dedicated bundle of resources (the future version of tying them to the land). If the resources disappear, your serfs are culled to bring them into balance (as if the system already wasn’t already long on creepy).

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      1. So legally they’re no different than the factory equipment? A company goes bankrupt and the assets for liquidation are listed as

        Plasma smelter 1 ea.
        trolly crane, 50 ton 1 ea.

        industrial mule 100 ea.

        office furniture, assorted

        clerical mule 30 ea.

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              1. Creepiest part is that a very similar philosophy was used as justification for universal public education back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Public schools were needed to produce workers for the factories while the elite sent their progeny off to get a very different education suitable for the movers and shakers of this world.

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    2. I’m not too strong on my history, but pretty sure “serfs” had more rights than slaves– not being able to be sold, for example, but also… argh, not having right words, the guy-in-charge had legally enforceable obligations, and there was recourse if they weren’t met.

      Note, the examples that come to mind are from freaking BROTHER CADFAEL mysteries, and since we’re humans those obligations and rights did get violated, but violated rights are better than none at all.

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      1. Yes. Not much more rights, but rights.

        OTOH, we talk about Russian serfs, and those serfs could be sold and forcibly moved. so the question is whether there is a subset of rights that a serf MUST have. The right (as well as the duty) to be bound to the land can’t be it on the Russian theory.

        Unless of course the Russians were actually slaves.

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        1. Eh, not entirely, although slavery existed in Russia on a very small scale. And Russian serfs lost lots of their earlier rights in 1649. By the mid 1800s, entire villages of serfs were sold to work in the factories in the eastern part of European Russia. Which has led to some suppositions that US slavery might have shifted that direction as well, had it not been terminated in 1865.

          Interestingly, Eastern European peasants were enserfed in the mid 1600s as well, largely as a result of the population loss and chaos of the 30-Years War.

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  16. We bought a wind tunnel vacuum because I wasn’t satisfied with our old one. Yep, I was right. I have been on a whirlwind dust tour and we have hauled out several bags of dust. *sigh I think part of my problems have been the dust… I am still sneezing and working on getting the last of it.

    So I am sure your problems with dust and mold are greater. I only have two bedrooms and a combined kitchen/living room.

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      2. At times I wonder if one of those HEPA air filters in our bedroom would help.

        I pay our HVAC folk extra each time they change the air filter on our furnace to get the high efficiency version. I do know I breath easier at night every time I change the little air filter in my CPAP. Given both those steps would a HEPA air filter still make things better?

        Anyone use one of these and can report on what they experienced?

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        1. It’s kind of an extreme solution (because the dang things are loud), but a Filter Queen vacuum will take everything out of the air that a HEPA filter will, and circulate the air like you would not believe. They will also suck baking powder out from beneath a carpet.

          Note: I am not a paid spokesperson for these vacuums (they call them, “Home Sanitation Systems”, but when I answered an ad for “Delivery and Installation”, it turned out to be door-to-door sales of these babies, and in the training (before I told them it wasn’t the job for me), I was IMPRESSED (not an easy trick). One of the sales tricks was to take a high-intensity lamp and shine it behind the exhaust, and one of these has NO particulates coming out that can be seen that way.

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          1. I can’t pop two grand for a vacuum.

            But… Amazon has some for a couple hundred….

            I may have to start saving my pennies. I’m really tired of getting pounds of cat hair and such when I vacuum “clean” carpets.

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                1. Can’t speak to one of those. The trainer said they still let some stuff through, but didn’t have one to demonstrate on. But I’d be willing to bet they don’t have the suction. And besides, I would think that emptying the reservoir would be like emptying a steam cleaning machine. Ew.

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                  1. Years ago, when I was still living at home my parents had an in home demonstration of a Rainbow (those are the ones with the water tank, right?) vacuum. It was amazing what it picked up out of a freshly vacuumed rug.

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    2. On Clayton Cramer’s advice, I got the “Shark” vacuum (The pet edition, which unfortunately has a lower capacity but some unique attachments, like a suction-operated beater brush, which is great for carpeted stairs). The thing is amazing, especially on the cat hair. I seem to recall it was under $150 at WalMart.

      Of course, the only thing I’ve got to compare it to was my grandmother’s old 30 lb Eureka, which filled the house with the lovely smell of hot rubber from the belt.

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      1. Yea– mine was from WalMart too. Plus it was around 200 dollars. A little high for my budget, but it has done wonderful things. I must have had half of the desert in my house (still do by the way I am sneezing).

        I remember the Eurekas and the other old vacuums. They were marvels of their time though.

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  17. Winter Prince.

    Probably because of the games I’m playing right now, but it conjures up a mental image of a knight in powered armour, at least in a scifi setting.

    I wonder, why that name?

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      1. So… Princesicle?

        More seriously: Frozen Valor? Prince in Amber? Prince In Suspension? Within the Alien Ice? Sublimating Princedom? Prinsublimated? The Once and Future Prince?

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      1. Seems as if that’s your answer: title the book Winter Prince and use cover elements to identify as SF — space-suit/powered armor, space ship and other SF background details and fonts. Perhaps a blurb or subtitle to reinforce SF aspect. Use the “fantasy title” to indicate a more Human Wave approach to story and character.

        If all else fails, imagine what the cover of a Heinlein or Asimov or Clarke or (insert classic Hard-SF author of your choice) novel with that title might be. WWJCD (What Would John Campbell Do) should be your marketing watchword.

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        1. Kinda like the cover of “Hairballs.” Which may be one of the strangest combinations of title and cover yet generated.

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  18. I think the diverging timelines come from writing under multiple names. Before you know each name wants their own timeline/universe to play in.

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