…and we’re back! Welcome to the Grand Re-Opening! After much of life’s business getting in the way, I return at last to life as it should be. Here we are together again in the land of speculation and imagination.

Let’s continue with book or video reviews and something new – free original short fiction content. You can expect one of my short stories to appear in the “Pocket Storyverse” page currently under construction. It seems that in order to be considered a writer, one must cease editing and publish something. All this time, my manuscripts were like Schrodinger’s cat existing both in the completed and draft states. Since no one opened my desk drawer, it seemed a new location was needed and the “Pocket Storyverse” was born. Some of my longer projects are still in a quantum superposition. Announcements of their observable state will be swift to seal them into our reality.

Is it just me or does the Harvest Moon herald ghost story season? I’m not a fan of the seasonal pumpkin spice frenzy. Please don’t misunderstand. It’s perfectly lovely and if others enjoy it tremendously, I’m happy that it is available for them. The spooky themes of autumn are mu kind of autumn spice. Perhaps something to read by the fire will find its way into the Pocket Storyverse at the next full moon.  

Currently, I am reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” and hope to have a spoiler-free review for you in the near future. Contact information will be updated for anyone wishing to offer constructive feedback or requests relating to our explorations in speculative fiction. Thank you for joining me here.

Today was the last super moon of 2022. How can that be? Didn’t the year just start a few days ago? It seems to go by so quickly and with little to show for it. Lately, my time has been spent reading. I feel like a lot of the classics are set aside because the writing styles of the past are not always easy for the modern reader. The pacing was different. The science might be outdated. Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” It seems reasonable that any aspiring writer should work hard to discover which shoulders are available for their best vantage point.

I recently revisited Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity. At first, I caught myself questioning the pacing, the character development and other elements of the story. Honestly, I feel like a complete jerk. I couldn’t even begin to climb as high as those shoulders. The paradoxes and theories he played with to construct the story are the reason I fell in love with science fiction to begin with. If you haven’t read it and you are interested in time travel theory, you might find it worth your while. There are so many great modern science fiction authors, but let’s not forget the builders of this genre.  

Lately, I have been reading about artificial intelligence as research to a work in progress. The similarities between the development of artificial intelligence and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein are a little unsettling. In a more recent example and maybe more relevant to advances in computer technology, Star Trek: The Next Generation gave us the episode “The Measure of a Man,” in which they explored the philosophical aspects of creating technological life and the definition of life.

Of course, technological and scientific developments bring fear of its unknown potential. If it learns on its own and its processing abilities far exceed ours, will it surpass us? If we abandoned progress out of fear, we would never have looked beneath the sea or into space. No adventure worth having is without danger.

I am not suggesting we throw caution to the wind. Artificial intelligence is a frontier worthy of careful exploration. We should encourage transparency and regulation of a tool which could impact human life in unimaginable ways. I am unaware of any regulatory agencies overseeing something which may redefine life and its creation. For me, the greatest anxiety is who will make the decisions which shape what could be the greatest paradigm shift in history.

Happy Full Moon! Here is a beautiful photo of the lunar eclipse featured on Space.Com. I wish it was one of my own photographs, but due to a storm, we were not invited to share the sky. The internet is saturated with photos of the eclipse, but how does it compare to seeing it with your own eyes? Should it even compare? If an artist were to create a stylized rendering of their experience of the eclipse, it wouldn’t be considered wrong or inaccurate. It’s art. And yet, people (like me) tend to diminish or invalidate movies for deviating from the exact letter of the beloved book which inspired it.

Until recently, I was one of those people who refused to see a movie until I read the book. I zealously declared their superiority to their movie counterparts. I can’t cite the exact source of the change. Someone wrote that each media should be considered for its own merits. What I was doing amounted to comparing Van Gogh’s Starry Night to the Venus de Milo and choosing a winner. Film is its own art form and offers different perspectives to the same stories.

Photographs capture an instant. They are stories without words. The artist might draw an image on the face of the moon to commemorate some great love. Whether the artist is trying to accurately record an event or show it through their own eyes, neither is wrong and both deserve to be seen without the shadow of the other blocking its light.  

Halloween is right around the corner here in the U.S. What’s not to love about a holiday that includes costumes and snacks?! What makes you think of October? Caramel apples? Popcorn balls? Pumpkin spice, right? Not me. Mold, not pumpkin spice.
When I was a preschooler, my older cousin and his wonderful girlfriend took me to my first haunted house at a carnival. I don’t remember too much because every time something scary popped up, they covered me protectively. (Incidentally, I suspect they covered my eyes every time they wanted to kiss as well. For years, I wondered what was so scary in the Tunnel of Love. It seemed much worse than the haunted house. I saw almost none of it.) Since I saw so little of the haunted house, my strongest impressions came from other senses. I remember the air felt humid and there was a distinct smell that I now equate with all things frightening – mold. I remember the beginning and ending of that haunted house were decay-green and the light was pale.
Many years later, as an adult, I enjoyed working on haunted house projects as fundraisers for charity. That particular smell of mold never seemed to show up. I’m not sure what it came from, but it is imbedded in my emotional memory as the smell of decay and all things scary.

This autumn has been particularly hectic for me, but I’m still working on getting some content out here. Please check back at the beginning of November for a free read in celebration of… (drum roll) …NaNoWriMo 2021!!!

November 1 is an important day for me every year, not just for the leftover Halloween candy, but because it is the beginning of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). If you’re not familiar, it’s basically a writing marathon throughout the month of November. My goal this year is to reach the 50,000 word count and end the month with a completed first draft of a novel. There is a link below to the NaNoWriMo site. If you enjoy writing, come join in the fun. There is no pressure except what you wish to impose on yourself.

Post-NaNo plan – Once the novel is complete, the real work begins. I will leave a brief synopsis on the Works in Progress page. The next goal will be to have the editing completed and send the second draft to my beta readers for feedback. Rather, that would be the plan, but for one hiccup – since I am just starting out, I have no beta readers. If you think you might be interested in being a beta reader, please contact me via the link on the main webpage. Once the editing process is complete and the butterflies in my stomach have been replaced by Murder Hornets, I will announce the publication details and updates here and on my Facebook page which is linked to this page.

As promised, the link to the NaNoWriMo site: https://nanowrimo.org/

Welcome to the night of the full Harvest Moon of 2021. The clouds have just broken above the horizon enough to allow me a view of an amber moon. What does it look like to you? Not from your religious, political, or cultural view. What does the moon look like through your eyes? This little space, this “cosmos” of mine is where we can look together at different viewpoints without bias or propaganda. It’s a peaceful pocket universe. You are welcome here and invited to participate.

This is a space to explore speculative fiction. It is made of imagination and possibility. This Harvest Moon is a great time to consider what the last full moon of the summer brings. Will you walk in its glow with a sweetheart? My own thoughts traveled to the moon itself. The last ball of the summer should be ON the Harvest Moon. I will likely spend the rest of the night coming up with a playlist of music and agonizing what I would wear to such an event – something warm and heavy most likely.

Well, dear readers, you are the stars in the dawn of my cosmos. I see you shining your light for me in the darkness. I will leave you now to go finish a story for you. Wishing you health and happiness!

So much of our fantasy fiction takes place in medieval conditions. As citizens in a world polluted by light, we take it for granted. It would be interesting to experience medieval life and to deal with untamed surroundings and true darkness. There are so many stories about what dwells in that darkness. When the sun goes down, familiar landscapes change and leave us disoriented, lost, and vulnerable. It’s a place for our unconscious minds to really get creative. In our current world, we can just flick on a light and find comfort in its beam. What if that wasn’t possible? There is a non-fiction book by William Manchester called A World Lit Only by Fire. He does a great job of offering a bit of that experience.

Also, if you are interested in seeing what the light pollution might be like in your area, there are several resources online. Here is a link to a map: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/.

It is a Blue Moon! I couldn’t think of a better time for a “grand reopening” of my website and a new start on regular blog posts.

Do you remember when you were first captivated by science fiction or fantasy? For me it was when I found Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Though I read it in English, it was originally written in French. I didn’t realize until recently how much of the speculative fiction I have cherished came from other countries. Foreign films, television, and books translated to English offer perspectives from other cultures and new dimensions to explore. The sharing of stories is vital to the human experience. The love of stories knows no borders. As a writer and a student of writing, I don’t want my influences to be limited a single culture or historical era.

It’s a bit early to talk about New Year’s resolutions. I only mention it because in lieu of that tradition, I like to create a reading list. My 2021 list was mostly made up of Nobel prize winning authors. This year’s list has brought titles from all around the globe. I would like to continue exploring international works (translated in English), but with a focus on speculative fiction in 2022.  

My most recent read overlaps both criteria. It is from Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, a British author originally born in Nagasaki. He wrote a speculative fiction novel called Never Let Me Go. This is a dystopian novel set in an English boarding school. Right away you get the sense of some dark secret in the school. One of the things that draws me science fiction is the tendency for the stories to slap us in the face with philosophical questions. Ishiguro dives right into the depth of some hard questions. It would be interesting to experience this through the movies as well. A star-studded cast brought it to life in 2010, but I haven’t found the time to enjoy that yet.

I look forward to sharing book and movie reviews as well as updates on my own writing projects. Please contact me with constructive suggestions and feedback. It would be great to hear from you.  

I will begin with a confession. I was unaware of Octavia E. Butler until just a few years ago. What an amazing talent! Recently, I read her novel Parable of the Sower, which she wrote in 1993. The dystopian future she presents us with is set in 2024. That’s just a few minutes away. The main character, Lauren Olamina, is a preacher’s daughter living in a walled community in Los Angeles. The world has continued to degrade. The economy has failed, and our society is in ruins.

This novel hits so close to home, you may wonder why I wanted to read it after all the world has been through recently. It may seem counterintuitive, but nothing cheers me up better than a good disaster story. Think of all the movies of impending doom – giant asteroids, hostile aliens, earthquakes, zombie apocalypse – they really do cheer us up. We aren’t brightened by the ones who are lost, even when their deaths are heroic. It’s the survivors. The survivors bring us hope. We identify with them and they offer us a hope that after the twister has ravaged the countryside, the sun will shine down on us once more. After all that we have been through lately, hope can soothe our ragged nerves.

Butler certainly gives us sympathetic characters. She is adept at illustrating the complexities of human relationships. Her work makes you want to hug or slap her characters. You cannot remain indifferent to them. Although, as compelling and poignant as the story was, I will say that I hope it isn’t made into a movie. If it is, you might want to skip the popcorn. I won’t offer any spoilers, but anyone who has read it would likely agree that there are parts we just don’t want to see.

Parable of the Sower is the first in a duology. The second book is called Parable of the Talents. I am saving that one to reward myself for finalizing some proofreading and editing of my own things. Her stories are a worthy treat after a job well done.

Welcome to this budding multiverse of thoughts and ideas. It may seem a bit dark with the first twinkling of lights. Soon, it will be overrun with new worlds to explore. My name is Kiyomi and I love science fiction and fantasy. Join me here on every new moon and full moon for a new blog post about all things relating to speculative fiction. There will be book and movie reviews old and new, current event discussions, and updates about my original works.

If you would like more information or would like to offer a suggestion for a book or movie, please see the contact page and either send me a message or join me on Facebook.