The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: apocalypse

  • Ten Minutes until the End of the World

    In ten minutes, the world was going to end. Henry watched the news, barely believing it was actually happening. If reports hadn’t been on every channel, every affiliate turned into the national news, he might have thought it was all a hoax. But unless it was the most elaborate hoax in human history, this was real. The Earth was doomed. This was The End. Armageddon. Ragnarok.

    Call it whatever, it didn’t change the fact that Henry Irvine, resident of 127 BB Lame, Apartment 16, had less then ten minutes to live. He pressed the channel buttons on the remote, scrolling through nearly identical pictures. Every time the screen flickered, it showed a stunned newscaster trying to make sense of the unthinkable, while in the lower right corner a digital timer ticked down. The faces changed, but the countdown stayed the same.

    Nine minutes. Henry got up and took a look outside. Yep, definitely looked like Doomsday. Outside, people were running around, screaming, crying, flailing about like children in a playground. He couldn’t quite explain his disgust with it all. “C’mon, at least have some dignity,” he muttered. His focuses changed, and his own reflection mouthed the same to him. He hadn’t shaved in two weeks. His eyes were baggy from alternating between being unable to sleep and being unable to wake up. His hair was a jumble of untamed curls. His last shower had been… when? (more…)

  • Worry Wart

    I write about things that worry me.

    When I think about the stories I’ve written over the years, the common theme is:

    • Flawed characters
    • Struggling to overcome a societal issue
      • usually caused by overreliance or abuse of technology
      • sometimes caused by scientific hubris
      • often compounded by environmental collapse
      • often a result of overcrowding and/or overuse of natural resources

    Why do I write stories that deal with these types of issues? Because these questions and concerns are the ones that plague me every day. How can humankind sustain itself given the rapid depletion of natural resources we’re currently experiencing? Can technology provide solutions? If so, can it do so quickly enough to halt or reverse the damage we’ve done already? And will there be unintended consequences to our corrective actions? As a teacher of technology, I’m constantly bombarded by the wonderful advancements we’re making in science and industry. I’m also constantly struck by how much harm many of those advancements can cause, either directly or tangentially. And it worries me.

    I love science fiction, and one of the major reasons why is that, as an author, I can choose to answer the questions above any way I see fit. I can (and usually do) choose to provide salvation for my characters and the planet on which they reside – a light at the end of the tunnel. Usually that light is much too faint for my characters to see at the beginning of their journey, hidden in the far distance behind many twists and turns. And more often than not when they return from their subterranean adventures, blinking and confused, they’re nowhere near where they expected to be. But sometimes, just making it back to the surface and breathing fresh air again is enough.

    Because, frankly, sometimes I feel like the real world’s not going to be so lucky.

    As for whether or not any particular people I know make it into my stories, the short answer is: sure. Not exact copies, but caricatures of friends, family, and coworkers sneak into my stories all the time. More telling is that my protagonists are almost always some shade of myself. Given that my main characters are often trying to save the world from imminent destruction, who wouldn’t want to be cast in that role, at least in some small part? I’m guessing that’s true of most authors, and authors that deny it aren’t being completely truthful.

    So, returning to a common writing mantra: I write what I know. What I know is what worries me, how I feel about it, and what I wish I could do about it. That’s what (and why) I write.