What will the world look, feel and sound like by 2100? For those of us who imagine possible futures, the graphics in this article may be helpful.
Climate change is forcing map makers to redraw the world
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Posts Tagged ‘writing’
What May Be
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, climate change, science, Thoughts, writing on April 11, 2023| 2 Comments »
Past Is Future
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, genre fiction, history, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on April 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
What did the futurologists of a century ago think our era would be like? And how close will today’s predictions be in a hundred years?
See predictions for 2023 from 1923 newspapers
“Watch-size radio telephones will keep everybody in communication with the ends of the earth,” they added, hitting the nail on the head.
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Making Murderbot
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Murderbot, Writers, writing on April 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I have mentioned my love of all things Murderbot before, and I am not alone in that sentiment. Here’s an interview with author Martha Wells, discussing the making of this cranky yet beloved character.
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Forge Ahead!
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, this is spring?, Thoughts, writing on April 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Ice storm today, with a side of thunder and potential power loss.
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
— Marie Curie
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Short on Books
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on April 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I’m short on good books at the moment, and while I find that an uncomfortable place to be, maybe it’s a good thing?
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison
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Make Something, Anything
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, perfectionism, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“If you’re always aiming for perfection, you won’t make anything at all.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
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Climate Futures Contest
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, cli-fi, climate change, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, sff, Writers, writing, writing contest, yay on March 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »
It’s that time again, when Grist rolls out its annual climate fiction short story contest! Have something to say about the future, and how we might win it? This could be the contest for you!
Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest 2023: Submit your story
We’re looking for stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the next 180 years of climate progress – roughly seven generations – imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope.
Hopeful doesn’t mean “fatuous” or “unrealistic” or even “easy.” It does mean light at the end of this particular tunnel. If you’re wondering what a winning entry looks like, here are stories from previous iterations of the contest:
- Imagine 2200 Editors’ Picks
- Imagine 2200: The 2022 climate fiction collection
- Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
Here’s the listing on The Submissions Grinder (best submission tracking platform out there and did I mention it’s free?).
All genres welcome, no cost to enter, submissions close June 13, 2023. Head to the link for more details and the submissions portal.
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Doing My Best
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
― Andy Warhol
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The Power of the Word
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The power of the word to help transform our own emotions and our own belief in what’s possible for us? I don’t think anything transcends that.
— Oprah Winfrey
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We Are Mirrors
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 15, 2023| 3 Comments »
I found this short in a digital pile of old draft material. If I remember correctly, it was written after seeing a documentary on nature in cities, and the problems that can cause for people and especially animals.
So I won’t lie, it’s a little bit of a downer (unless you are an alien? If so, maybe try talking before breaking out the ray guns?). But there is much more to humanity than the negative, and (oddly) capturing some of the not-great like this helps me remember what’s good.
And since it’s the Ides of March, a day to remember that not everything in life is what it seems, the theme of this story could also apply to AI.
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You and Yours
I came from the stars to meet you. I was happy. Excited, even. First contact with your verdant world. Think of all that we could share with you.
“You” could have meant a lot of things. I started with one of the most populous. An insect.
I remember little of what it was like, a flash of light, a warm wriggle in a puddle after rain. The feel of wind in my wings.
It’s embarrassing to say this now, but I was promptly eaten.
I was a spider next, all cool calculation and advanced engineering. A small corner of a log, beaten down by storm and time, dark with possibilities. I lasted longer there. Ate my former fellow insects and waited, and watched.
A bird came next. Such wondrous flight! I could barely remember what it was to crawl on the ground. I wasn’t as happy, though, too busy searching for more of my kind, for clean water and air, for food that didn’t come in a take-out container. What is it about those golden arches that you like so much, anyway?
The weather turned, and I lost a step. Two, if you count both feet, and I do because the cat got them both along with all the rest of me. Stealth, fear, and longing. The shivers began then, side effects of the sickness building up inside me. Without my equipment I couldn’t tell you the cause, but I felt it deep inside.
The coyote came next, hungry for an earlier time and a better place. I made do with city food, crippled squirrels and bird’s eggs, mice and the occasional half-eaten burger.
It was a hard life, hemmed in by development, but I found someone, as one does. I built a den, raised a family and was almost ready to send them out into the world when you came.
Too much wild near their streets, they said. As if they hadn’t put those streets into the wild in the first place.
I escaped, but my kits did not. Now the twisting in my gut was more than sickness, more than an accumulation of multiple lives.
I waited. I watched. And now I am the officer who shot my kits rather than wait for animal control.
I no longer remember the happiness I felt when I began this journey, this introduction to you and yours.
All I feel now is sorrow, and an aching need for my people to collect me and my data. They will be able to cure the accumulated poisons but they cannot give me back what I’ve lost. Optimism and hope have been replaced by something darker, something sharp and selfish and hard.
We came to meet you, to understand, in the most fundamental ways, who and how you are. We are mirrors. We observe you, absorb what’s yours. Reflect it with intention until we achieve comprehension.
Then we introduce you to me and mine.
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