TweetFiction Experience

One of my dreams, since I was in 5th grade, has been to write science fiction and I have dabbled here and there over the years with my most creative spurt in the mid 1990's at UNC Greensboro where I took two Fiction Writing courses and a course in Science Fiction as well as learning about hyperfiction at the ACM European Conference on Hypermedia Technology in Edinburgh.  My friend Joe has been encouraging me to pick up my writing over the years through the odd email, comment or media reference.  One of the more creative attempts was his response to a discussion group in which someone was looking for stories in which the Artificial Intelligence had a little more depth of character than is traditional. He cited The Turing Horse, story I had written while a student at UNCG, as a reference even though it had not been published!

At the beginning of this year, I resolved to pick up my writing again, in part inspired by the success of one of my dear friends who is working on a sequel to her wonderful book Myrtle Takes Tea.  Stacey, and her husband, Nick, shared with me their experiences in writing and integration of social media forms such as Twitter and Facebook.  The discussion brought back to mind The Turing Horse. I had been struggling with this one; it had originally been written as an email epistolary (a story told in letters), but the ending never quite worked.   All this discussion about twitter, blogging and social media got me thinking, "perhaps the next incarnation of The Turing Horse could be in the blogosphere, as a form of hypermedia fiction!"

On my way back to Manchester from their home in London, I sent out a lone tweet that would change everything: Is anyone using twitter as a medium for short fiction? #shortshortstory   I didn't get much response back and pretty much left it there, but about a month later one of my writer friends from UNCG days, Chris C., had received the tweet and asked me if I was going to be entering the TweetFiction Twitter stream contest.  Contest, what contest?


The British Science Fiction Association was founded "to encourage science fiction in every form" and during Olympus Eastercon 2012 they challenged writers to tweet good short science fiction or fantasy in 134 characters or less through their TweetFiction Twitterstream #TBSFA contest.  I took up to the challenge on two fronts!

The first front was to tell The Turing Horse as a series of stand alone tweets, but I didn't want to just leave it there.  2012 is the centennial celebration of 100 years since the birth of Alan Turing, whose Turing Test concept had been inspiration for the original short story.  I could not pass up this opportunity to launch The Turing Horse as a hypermedia fiction blog, tying in real world stories and events into the work of fiction, and I really enjoyed setting it up!!!!

The second happened in the course of writing and reading the fiction of the TBSFA TweetFiction contest; I had more stories to tell! I began converting other short stories or story concepts from over the years into TweetFiction shorts.  Here they are:

TweetFiction	Background
Know how fast you're going? Speedometer. Check. Know where you are? GPS. Check. So, when do you want to go to in #Schrodinger's car? #TBSFA	Schrodinger's Car - draft short story
The 5th Atheist Crusade killed 99% of true believers, a few prayed giving thanks 4 all. One final Crusade & the sun never rose again. #TBSFA	The Last Sunset - draft short story
The first signs of the deadly black hole cluster devouring galaxies came from afar, as the stars in the sky shifted from red to blue. #TBSFA	Brand new
Werewolf grooms for her / She plans . . . he'll join her tonight! / Surprise! Vampire pups. #TBSFA #haiku	Nuzzles and Bites, No Howling - short story combined with my friend's sequel The Dog Catcher   retold as tweet and haiku
Travel to the alternate universe was impossible, but data was easy & once the alternet was setup the movie downloads were to die for. #TBSFA	Story Concept inspired by desire to view episodes for TV shows cancelled or great films that were ruined (e.g., Firefly, the fifth season of Babylon 5 that would have been produced if JMS's notes on 5th season hadn't been lost at hotel during convention, Alien Ressurrection with the ending filmed as Joss Whedon' had intended, and many others)
Earl breathed, tucked his tail & sprinted, Tires screached & cheers chattered down from the trees and telephone wires. #RiteOfPassage #TBSFA	Squirrel Rite of Passage Story Concept
Timemachine connects to iPad, launches chron app, quick check of 2morrow's stocks & he's rich! iOS 9 installs...update failed. Retry? #TBSFA	Chrond Geek Fiction Short Story Concept inspired by the notion of alternative uses of the crond unix process
The dark elf pulled the jack of the smart gun from his temple No way! he yelled at the producer That dragon's real, princess can burn #TBSFA	Merging two role playing games in consecutive years of StellarCon: Drow Quest, an AD&D game in which dark elves are on a quest to save the evil princess from the good dragon, and Drow Quest II: Sweet Home, Seattle a Shadowrun game in which the dark elves from the original Drow Quest are transported to a cyberpunk world in which magic and technology coexist, provided new technology and are sent on missions as part of a reality TV show: "ratings are high"

A culmination of encounters and events inspired me to pick up my dream to write science fiction again; You have to pay attention to see how God works in our lives; sometimes, on reflection, you can see His fingerprints in serendipitous events that only become apparent on later reflection and I think that is why we are called to meditate on these things.  I'm grateful to my friends and family for continuing to encourage me.  I hope it makes for some fun reading along the way.

Next, I need to figure out how I can get some of those short stories published as eBooks . . . .

---

Update 07 May 2012:   

Chris. has won two tickets to Beyond the Border - Wales International Storytelling Festival for his entry in their Twitter contest:  "Eyesight. Wits. Tongue. Sword. All should be sharp." Way to go Chris!!!!  

BSFA has advised they will be announcing the winners of their TweetFiction contest on 9th of June 2012 at something called the AGM.
 

The Passover Season

When I look out my window, I see the dead and dark tree limbs returning to life with budding green leaves as we shift from the death and despair of winter to the hope and new life of spring. It is a seasonal shift, reflected in the season of Passover and Easter.

In The Selfless Way of Christ, Henri Nouwen describes how tied our lives are to the Christ-event,

What is truly taking place in our lives is not determined by random ups and downs of our personal and communal lives, but rather by the events of Christ's life being realized among us in and through the church.

It is Advent, Christ is coming;
it is Christmas, Christ is being born;
it is Lent, Christ is suffering;
it is Holy Week, Christ is dying;
it is Easter, Christ is risen;
it is Pentecost, Christ is sending his Spirit.

That is what is truly happening! All other events -- personal, social, or political -- derive their meaning from the Christ-event.

Nowhere in the Coptic Orthodox tradition is this experienced more fully than during Holy Week (Holy Pascha) following the Great Lent which ends today.  We follow the events that happened during this week in real time:

On Palm Sunday, we follow the Lord Christ on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We then follow the Lord Christ on His way to the Cross through the Passover or Holy Pascha, the Passover that the children of Israel were commnded to keep in remembrance of the Lord passing them over in the last plague against the Egyptians . . . passing them over because of the lamb's blood on their doors. It is the Passover that foretells of the sacrifice of the Lord Christ on the Cross, that we may be passed over in the final judgement. 

The Holy Pascha readings follow the older reckoning of days. On what we would normally term as Sunday evening, we find the beginning of Monday with Monday Evening. Mornings and evenings throughout Holy Week are steaped in prayer and worship. The path of Christ to the Cross is experienced through prophetic readings from the Old Testament, interpretations and meditations from the early Christian fathers, and readings from the New Testament in which the prophecies are fulfilled. 

On Holy Thursday we learn of the betrayal kiss of Judas, who was one of the disciples, performed miracles, and, yet, he fell, setting the Lord on the path to the Cross. Oh Lord, that You would give us the strength to be firm in our faith and not betray You! Thursday is also the day in which the Lord washes the feet of the Apostles, teaching them that true leadership is to serve with a heart of humility. Holy Thursday is sometimes referred to as Covenant Thursday, as it is when the Lord declared the new covenant with the Last Supper, the Passover meal that declares the new Passover.

On Good Friday, we follow the Lord as he is tortured and crucified, those same voices who heralded His entry into Jerusalem, now condemn Him to death. The services end as Joseph of Arimathea takes Christ's body down from the Cross to bind in linens and spices and place in Joseph's tomb (see John 19:38-41). 

On Bright Saturday, we sit outside Christ's tomb from midnight to early Saturday morning readings from prophecies, the New Testament and all of the Book of Revelations, culminating in an early morning Liturgy. 

Then later on Saturday, Sunday evening by the old reckoning, a lovely Liturgical service from 7pm to midnight during the peak of which the lights are dimmed and with a loud noise, the seal of the Tomb is broken and Christ is Risen!!! , Death is defeated and the Feast of the Ressurrection on Easter Sunday is celebrated!!!

If you want to learn more about how the Coptic Church celebrates Easter,  Premier Christian Media has produced a wonderful presentation called A Very Coptic Easter or follow the Coptic experience as they trend #CopticPascha on Twitter.

For my Western Christian friends, I mourn the passing of Christ with you this Good Friday, for my Jewish friends, I wish you a blessed Passover, for my Orthodox friends, well you know, Thok, te ti gom . . .

---

References:

1. The Selfless Way of Christ: Downward Mobility and the Spiritual Life by Henri Nouwen (UK)
2. Holy Pascha Readings on Amazon (US, UK) - also available on Kindle in both countries!!
3. A Guide to Holy Pascha