Quantum Visions 5: Quantum Visions Chapbooks, #5

By OCSFC Writers Orbit

Tales of identity and imagination from the Orange County Science Fiction Writers Orbit.

Join writers Shauna Roberts, Chrome Oxide, Robin Walton, Jamie Cassidy-Curtis, Timothy Cassidy-Curtis, Wendy Van Camp, Ralph Cox, David R. Moore, and Wolfgang Shane in journeys across space, time, and consciousness.

Including an introduction by Jude-Marie Green.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jude-Marie Green
• Release date: Nov 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540125774

Book preview

Introduction:

The Big Question: Who Am I?

By Jude-Marie Green

Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang is the subject of a documentary, Sky Ladder, about his struggle to create a 500m high ladder of fireworks.  Since 1994, the project was cancelled several times due to weather, funding, timing, or other disaster, but he ultimately succeeded.  Sky Ladder was realized at Huiyu Island Harbour, Quanzhou, Fujian, on June 15, 2015 at 4:49 am.  And it was glorious!

So what does a Chinese fireworks master have to do with scifi stories?

Cai searched to define his identity all of his life.  He started as the son of a government-run bookstore employee, reading voraciously before the government insisted on having the books burned.  He starred as a villain in Chinese dramas, turning off his wife-to-be at first glance.  He's had art installations around the world, using gunpowder and pigments to create canvases but also using space and ideas to create displays. He uses his fireworks displays to tell stories and to protest.  His wife says he has too much energy.  He says he is an artist searching for his medium.

Aha.  That's us right there.  We are artists using our medium – words – to explore the big questions of the human condition.

I did not expect all the submissions for this year's chapbook to have a central theme; we do not require a theme.  However, all my authors sent in stories that explore identity from different angles. 

Shauna Roberts explores the idea of mind-blindness in her story of the magic that makes a writer.  Wolfgang Shane wonders what would happen if you could talk to yourself.  Robin Walton knows that Santa Claus is everyone.  Jamie Cassidy-Curtis explores the changes time travel can make on memories.  Chrome Oxide has a tale of remembering and wanting to forget.  David R. Moore's characters survive a palace coup, but who is whom and who knows what details of each rejuvenated life?  Timothy Cassidy-Curtis takes us to Siberia and temporary amnesia for his series characters Artie and Lance.

Wendy Van Camp contributes scifaiku and illustrations.  Ralph Cox came up with a simplified geometry-based explanation for the theory of relativity.

And me?  I'm still exploring my identity as an artist of words and an editor of stories.

Enjoy.

Jude-Marie Green

The Writing Tutor Who Lacked an Eye

By Shauna Roberts

The young man leaned forward—Tim? Tom? Tad?— and an ocean of papers poured from his open satchel across Mr. Magic’s desk.

Mr. Magic gracefully swept up his coffee cup before the papers could engulf it. He had had plenty of practice rescuing his coffee from clients. They were always as overeager as puppies.

Sorry. Sorry. My friends say you can make me a better writer. Tariq grabbed some of the fallen papers and shoved them before Mr. Magic’s eyes. Here’s one of my stories. What do you think?

Please, sit down and relax. I’ll take a look.

Tupac sank into the comfortable armchair in front of the desk but he didn’t relax. He tapped his feet and drummed his fingers on the plush arms.

Mr. Magic glanced over the printouts and nodded. The young man could put correctly spelled words into grammatically correct sentences. There was only one other thing he needed to know.

Picture a pink elephant, he commanded.

Trey’s brows flew up then beetled in concentration. His fingers and feet stilled. Got it!

Good. He can visualize mentally. A cold pulse of jealousy ran through Mr. Magic, who had never been able to picture an elephant of any color in his life, let alone the scenes he had once wanted to write. He had a serious birth defect: He lacked the mental eye that most people had and took for granted.

Tycho bounced a little in the chair. "Now you want me to not think about the pink elephant for two minutes, right?"

We’re done with the elephant. Mr. Magic brushed the papers still fluttering on his desk together and straightened them into a pile. We’re done with your story too.

His client’s face fell. He looked ten years older.

Mr. Magic quickly added, I’m happy to say I can help you. He turned and took some papers from a tray behind him. He cleared his throat and handed them to Terry. Here’s the contract. Read and sign. Or just sign. Whatever. Did you bring the cashier’s check?

Here it is. Tyrion tapped the corner of a pink check sticking out of his shirt pocket. He bent his head over the contract and scanned it in half a minute. He returned to the front page and read it slowly, line by line, underlining words and sentences. He looked up at Mr. Magic. "This contract says nothing about what you do. I still don’t understand how you can make me a better writer in one afternoon or how you