But, I guess it COULD happen...

I already had today's post in mind when I read Beth's post from yesterday about "What Don't You Think Will Happen?"

The responses were interesting. I, too, had heard that there are physicists working on teleportation - so, yeah, I think that's eventually going to happen. And... I'm pretty sure that there are parts of today's world that are as bad as The Hunger Games. Yup... and, honestly - it hasn't been the too distant past where societies were pretty darn close (uh... Roman gladiators, Christians vs Lions... ) Sadly, I think humans are capable of Hunger Games' kind of thinking.

But... the one that I was totally in agreement with Beth about was the whole zombie thing. I mean, come on... zombies? For realz? Until... I saw this article on Zombie Animals! And, duh... I found it really disturbing. As in... O.M.G.! Disturbing!

Zombie Grasshopper!

Whew!

Anyway... what I was really planning on posting about today are two things that I think COULD happen - one of which that might not seem too creepy - at first.

Keeping track of people by GPS . Of course, this article shows the advantages of having each student fitted with a GPS. It's all about safety. Yep - it is. When my kids were younger, as a parent, I think I would've loved being able to see where my child was - at any time.

However, as said child... there would come a point where I wouldn't want my mom, or anyone, to be able to track me down 24/7. And, as an adult - no way - nuh uh - keep your hands off my whereabouts!

Sure, there is a place for something like GPS fitting - I bet you can give me instances where you think it would be a good idea. Please let me know, in the comments, what's an acceptable level - in your estimation - of being able to be tracked!

Male overpopulation. (or The Batchelor Generation!) This is not necessarily good news for single females. For some time now, I've been wondering when countries that favor male births over female were going to realize that it won't be long before they have a huge surplus of marriageable age young men. When testosterone levels rise - and there are not enough women to go around - what is going to happen? That's a capped toothpaste tube just waiting to be squeezed!

So - what kinds of things do you see happening that you think are harbingers of the future? (Oh, I wanted to write harbingers of Spring - cause, darn it!, I want it to be Spring - NOW!)  Anyway... it's your turn - what d'ya think?

Oh - and for the next two weeks, I'll be up to my eyeballs in edits on the sequel to XVI --- TRUTH. So, I'm having a guest poster for those two days. Be sure to tune in next Tuesday to find out what dystopian author Susanne Winnacker  has in store for League readers!

What DON'T You Think Will Happen?

Previously, we've talked about how close we are to certain technologies that were once just a part of fiction. I, personally, think this is a great time to be alive--we're on the cusp of so much cool stuff!

But...there are a few things that I think are just never going to happen.

It might be possible that far into the future, people will fly around in their hover cars, look this post up in their holodecks, and laugh at my foolish disbelief, but here are the top three things that are common in literature but...just not gonna happen (in my humble, and often wrong, opinion).

And any way you go about it, these things are all great for fiction!

1. (Can't) Beam Me Up, Scottie

Star Trek wouldn't be Star Trek without the transporters. Just a quick command to the ship and you're beamed down to the alien planet--or back up to your ship. And while this tech is cool--and arguably, one of the best scenes in the latest Star Trek movie--I just don't think it will ever happen.

Maybe, maybe, we'll get to the point where we can transport simple things, like a block of carbon or gas or something. But a human being? Nope. We're too complicated. It's just way too unlikely that we can develop the technology to not only separate people atom-by-atom, but also to put us back together.

According to one website:

One intriguing estimate of what it would take to teleport a 150-pound human involves calculating the amount of processing power necessary, and that quickly gets into unimaginably high numbers, consisting of ones followed by dozens of zeros just to count the person's atoms. Each atom would need to be scanned and recorded.

That said: DUDE. How cool would it be to actually have this?!

2. Zombies 

My husband may divorce me for this...but I don't think zombie are gonna happen. Sorry. I just...don't. I don't think it likely that (a) the zombie plague can even exist in the first place (the reanimation of dead flesh aside, even if we could do that much, how likely is the flesh going to have a conscious or even primal instinct to feed on others?) and that (b) we as a society would let it get as bad as is often portrayed in books and movies.

That said, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief in certain cases. In fact, if zomies ever do exist, I think the closest they'll get is a zombie-rabies hybrid as detailed by National Geographic.

Though dead humans can't come back to life, certain viruses can induce such aggressive, zombie-like behavior, scientists say...Combine rabies with the ability of a flu virus to spread quickly through the air, and you might have the makings of a zombie apocalypse.

The basic theory (and the one the hubs defends most often) is that there can be a combo disease of rabies and something else that spreads quickly and slowly decomposes the body while it's still living.

But the whole rise-from-the-dead-eat-your-brains thing? Yeah. Not happening. (Thankfully.)


3. Too Extreme Sociological Situations
One problem with much dystopia (even, arguably, my own), is that the worlds created are so bad that they become a little unbelievable. Take, for example, The Hunger Games.

First: disclaimer. I love the Hunger Games. The whole trilogy, actually. Adore it. Sucked them all up the day they came out. These books are awesome.

But...I think the basic premise--that children are sent out as tributes--wouldn't actually happen.

Or, at least, it wouldn't happen for as long as it's assumed it's been happening in the books. I love that Katniss heads the rebellion, but in all honesty--I think the rebellion would have happened much sooner. I just find it hard to believe that people would allow their children to be slaughtered for so long.

That said--please don't papercut me to death with Hunger Games! I love love love love the books, and this didn't detract from my reading. I am 100% willing to accept something that doesn't seem likely--be they transporters, zombies, are a harsh-world-situation--in order to get to the story, and in the case of Hunger Games in particular, the story was so good that any reservations about the premise are left on the way-side.

Which, honestly, is true for most of these stories. While I don't think zombie are going to come staggering down my street, I get chills reading Carrie Ryan's stories (and am eagerly awaiting some new titles, such as Carrie Harris's) (speaking of, what is it with Carries and zombies?) (but I digress). And far be it from me to do away with one of the most iconic Star Trek technologies!

But, for me at least, these are things that will always remain in the fictional world.

What do you think works well on paper in stories, but won't ever actually happen in real life?

Favorite Part of the Publishing Process

There are so many sides to publishing, I think we need to build a triangular prism or something, beam a bunch of light through it, and each of the separated rays would be one little slice of the publishing journey. It's that multi-faceted.

Today, I'm going to discuss the creative side--my favorite side. The writing side. Even within this scope of things, there are several different angles to consider.

Today, I'm wondering which you like more: the actual writing of a first draft or the revising/editing of that draft.

For me, there's nothing quite like spewing up the story the first time. It's freeing and joyous and rewarding.

But let's face it. That first draft isn't usually cohesive, well-paced, or our best writing. (Unless you outline. Then I think the first draft isn't quite in shambles. But I don't outline. So my first drafts? A bit on the messy side. And by "bit," I mean, "undeniably horrifically messy.")

And even if you do outline, I'm willing to bet you still have some revisions to do.

This is my favorite part of publishing. Since I have world-building to do, I love to go back into a story and strengthen the world I've created. Most of the time, I'm not really sure I know everything about the world until that first draft is written. So it's a treat to go back in and really make it shine.

I like to revise to make my character more human. Make them fit (or not fit) into the newly-polished world. Just like with the world, I often don't really know my character until the first draft is written. And I believe the world and the character are intertwined to the point that they influence each other heavily.

So revising is absolutely the best part of the publishing process for me. What's your favorite part? Are you more into the creative aspect? The business side? What specifically about publishing do you just love with all your heart and liver?

2012, Pseudoscience, and Conspiracy Theories

I don’t know why I bothered to stay up the other night to watch 2012. (Oh, yeah. John Cusack.)

With no real explanation—although the world powers have been building arks in the Himalayas for years—the Earth’s core turns to goo and the crust destabilizes.  Amidst the chaos, John Cusack must get his family from LA to China (by way of Yellow Stone National Park) post haste to get on one of those arks. The erupting, crumbling landscape nips at his heals all the way there as the poles shift and land is engulfed by tsunamis.  More monuments and landmarks bite the dust than in Independence Day or War of the Worlds combined.

The movie was engrossing—highly improbable, laughable at times, but still engrossing—but it was purely the special effects that propelled the movie along. Literally. The plot was all about staying ahead of the next cataclysm.  And it was rather obvious who was going to die along the way – mostly because they were sucky human beings.

And this Apocalypse didn’t even happen on 12/21/12.  What’s the point of a movie called 2012 if you’re not going have it happen on that date? (There was mention in the movie that things started happening earlier than the powers that be anticipated. Still.)

For those of you not familiar with this particular Armageddon, according to Mayan prophecy (allegedly), a great cataclysm or some kind of transformation will happen on December 21, 2012.  This is the last date in the 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar. 

I would venture to say most actual Mayan scholars say this is pure crap.  There are no such prophecies, and the end of the calendar doesn’t mean the end of everything. (The ancient Mayan’s had to stop somewhere with their calendar.)

For more on the pseudoscience and general quackery behind the 2012 apocalypse, check out Penn &Teller's take on it: (may contain some offensive language):




Pseudoscience and conspiracy theories can make for good stories. (Notice the can part.)  Dan Brown has made a mint on the Da Vinci Code. Can you guys think of any other good examples?

Blood Red Road Giveaway Winner

Hi everyone!


First off thanks so much for the wonderful reaction to the INTERVIEW WITH THE SMARTEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD!  Gretchen had a great time coming over to the League and chatting with everyone and appreciated all the great comments. Hopefully we'll get to have her back soon!


But most importantly! The randomly chosen winner of an ARC of the as yet unreleased, sure to be a hit dystopian novel, Blood Red Road, is.....
Mrs. DeRaps!

Congratulations. I'll be emailing today to get your address and will send the book off just as soon as Gretchen puts it in my hot little hands.

I'll leave you all with just a little bit of stellar inspiration. This is time lapse video of one night at an observatory in Chile. As a New Yorker I sure do miss getting to see skies like this!

Could it really happen?

I never cease to be amazed at what has happened and is happening in our world that so many people dismiss as impossible except between the pages of a dystopian novel.

More than one reviewer has suggested that the bleak world I've painted in XVI is an impossibility. Yet - certain things - like surveillance (in Chicago - and the sex-ing up pre-teen girls (see the January French Vogue spread - or any current teen fashion magazine) - are already happening.

One thread in XVI has to do with Mike's dad, as a welfare recipient, having to be a human guinea pig for medical research. Imagine my lack of surprise when I saw this article. (Much of which you may have already heard of on the news.)

As a dystopian author, I look at the world around me, and imagine - given any certain trajectory - what could be next. It isn't always pretty, and it may seem far-fetched, or even impossible. But... some of it is already being unearthed behind us - and is hiding around the next corner, if we aren't vigilant.

What have you noticed lately that is indicative of a dystopian world come to pass? I'd be more than interested to hear...

Real Life Science: What Inspires You?

io9 recently posted some amazing footage caught by a passenger in an airplane of the last launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.

It is a gorgeous and awe-inspiring image of man's reach towards the heavens. It reminded me of one of my favorite recent pictures. It's an image of astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson staring out of the window of the International Space Station at home.

I like the images of the astronauts all suited up floating over Earth, and they, too, are awe-inspiring. But there's something about seeing her face, knowing what she's looking at, how she's looking down and not up.

So then I had to go further out.  With Hubble, there's so many amazing images at our fingertips. My favorite, though, isn't the one where you see the amazing colors or the highly detailed surfaces of the planets. Nope. The one I love is the one with the galaxies.

What I love is that those balls of light aren't stars--they're galaxies. Full, glorious, spinning, chaotic, amazing galaxies. The universe is just so vast.

In searching up these images, I found this: a view of the Orion constellation from the ground all the way into the starstuff. It's mostly magical.



This is what inspires me: the giant universe. This is why I write my books.

What inspires you?