Tag: Robert A. Heinlein

OT: One Last Landing

Posted on by bryon

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.
– Robert A. Heinlein

Earlier today, Atlantis, America’s last space shuttle – America’s last means of reaching even low orbit – landed safely.

Now, our nation, like our astronauts, is grounded. The best we can do is to beg or buy a ride with the Russians who, despite their many problems, haven’t given up on spaceflight. Before too many years pass, the Chinese may be able and willing to take an American up with them.

We are too beaten down to lift our eyes to the stars and dream and dare. Where once our questing spirit rode rockets it now rides Rocinante and pines for a hitching post.

The last word goes to the Apollo-era flight director who oversaw our glory days:

I pray that our nation will someday soon find the courage to accept the risk and challenge to finish the work that we started.
– Gene Kranz

Pen to Paper: The Villain

Posted on by bryon

I took a quick spin through my stories and discovered, as I suspected I would, that very few of them have a traditional villain. Catsignal appears in black on white, but the stories are in varying shades of gray.

Suzannah Freeman reminds us why villains are villains and what villains do in a story. David B. Coe writes about how the traditional villain has given way to a more nuanced character as well as the greater use in fiction of the anti-hero. He tells us about some of the villains in his stories and how he made them believable.

Melissa Donovan sees villains everywhere she looks, which is an approach I appreciate and have used. Similarly, Marie Brennan suggests that rather than out-and-out villains, we can set up antagonists for our protagonists. Her line of thinking seems to be along the same lines as what Brannon Braga has said: “The key to writing villains is to make them feel that they are the heroes of the piece.” Before that, Robert A. Heinlein’s Lazarus Long said, in part, “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.” That’s also useful for writers to remember.