(Copyright by WyoJones. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)
Why does anyone cross the
galaxy? Why to get to the other side.
Of course, you know I went
looking for chicken-crossing-the-road jokes and was actually surprised there
were so many. Here’s some, modified for our galactic theme:
Q. Why did the chicken cross
only halfway across the galaxy: A: She wanted to lay it on the warp line…
Q. Why did the monkey cross the
galaxy? A: Because the chicken got refried…
Robert Frost: to take the
wormhole less traveled…
Captain Kirk: To boldly go where
no chicken has gone before…
Sir Isaac Newton: Chickens at
rest tend to stay at rest. Chickens in the wormhole tend to cross the galaxy…
Albert Einstein: Whether the
chicken crossed the galaxy or the galaxy crossed the chicken depends on your
frame of reference…
Darth Vadar: because it wanted
to go to the dark side…
I know, pretty lame. The thing
is, chicken jokes and space travel have a lot in common.
They are about getting to the
other side. Or the other planet. Or from point A to point B. And to accomplish
it in a time frame that is a) reasonable; and b) believable.
The first truth of writing (and
reading) about fictional space travel is that it is (mostly) made up. While
this seems obvious, since we haven’t managed to get a human being further than
the moon, there are those who want only “reality” in their fiction.
(Personally, I’d like a little more fiction in my reality. I think it's past
time we got transporters...)
From the time science fiction
first appeared, authors have been making up ways for their characters to move
through space and time. Some feel more “real” than others, but they all require
us to suspend disbelief in order to take the ride with the story.
Some of my personal favorite
types of fictional space travel are:
Warp Drives and wormholes (Star Trek)
Hyperdrives (Star Wars)
Infinite Improbability Drive (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
FTL - (Battlestar Galactica)
Tardis (Dr. Who)
Starburst (Farscape)
Stargates (Stargate SG-1, etc)
Jump Gates/Jump Space (Lost Fleet, Dock Five)
In my own Project Enterprise novels, I use a mix of types, though I tend to
focus more on the story than the science of getting around. I start from the
point of: it just IS. The technology is there and now we’re off on an
adventure, so that the hosing of my characters can commence.
When I went to mix some
steampunk into my science fiction romance (Tangled
in Time: Project Enterprise 3), I made the mistake of asking the scientist hubs if a concept I
wanted to use sounded “real.” We ended up in this painful causality loop:
Hubs: But it’s not real.
Me: It’s fiction. Does it SOUND
real?
Hubs: But it’s NOT real.
Me: It’s FICTION. I’m making it
up.
Hubs: But it’s not real.
Me: You want my science FICTION
to be real?
Hubs: Of course.
I left him with a puzzled
expression, turning instead to a friend who is a physicist at NASA. I
asked her the same question and her response was, “It’s fiction. It sounds fun.
Go for it.”
I suspect your enjoyment of any
science fiction romance novel will be predicated on how real the science is,
and how real you like your fictional science.
In the end, the means aren’t as important as the fact that the chicken
(or the characters) do get to the other side—or where they need to go.
Why (and how) does your chicken
cross the galaxy? And while you're figuring that out, don't forget to hop over and check out the category that the SFR Brigade is sponsoring for the Brenda Novak Online Auction. For the month of May you can bid on some cool SFR related goodies, including signed, print editions of my Project Enterpise series and some yummy soaps.
Dream Realm
Award winner
When Sara Donovan joins Project Enterprise she finds out
that what doesn’t kill her makes her stronger…
"From
the beginning, action is non-stop and filled with suspense. Sara is more than
the quintessential kick-butt heroine. She is the perfect warrior, a woman
confident in her abilities in the air and on the ground, and so loyal to her
country that she is willing to make personal sacrifices to ensure its safety…This
sci-fi adds a nice dose of romance and a touch of humor, placing it at the top
of the list for a danged good read." Midwest Book Review
Pauline Baird Jones had a tough
time with reality from the get-go. After “schooling” from four, yes FOUR
brothers, she knew that some people needed love and others needed shooting.
Pauline figured she could do both. Romantic suspense was the logical starting
point, but there were more worlds to explore, more rules to break and minds to
bend. She grabbed her pocket watch and time travel device and dove through the
wormhole into the world of science fiction and even some Steampunk.
Now she wanders among the
genres, trying a little of this and a lot of that, rampaging through her
characters' lives like Godzilla because she does love her peril (when it's not
happening to her). Never fear, she gives her characters happy endings. Well,
the good characters. The bad ones get justice.
Pauline released her 13th
novel, Relatively Risky,
in 2013. She's not superstitious about it, well, maybe a little. But the whole
loving/killing thing that needs to be done? Doing it fictionally is just better
for everyone. And for Pauline, who hates the thought of getting strip searched
and jailed.
Love this post, Pauline. I too want more fiction in my reality. Your NASA friend has the right idea. Fun. BTW, the chicken jokes are hilarious.
ReplyDeleteLOL! thanks, Diane! I will admit to have some low down fun with them.
ReplyDelete