Where's the Science?

I have enjoyed science fiction over the years, but have seen the genre become more involved with fantasy as time has passed. Nothing wrong with that. It's compelling, interesting, entertaining -- but often contains more of kings and queens, princes and princesses, vying for power and interfamilial conflict than it is a reflection on science as a root value. Having an Arthurian legend work itself out on the third moon of a planet of a star in the Andromeda Galaxy is good storytelling...but the connection to Earth/Terra science is lost. Our own current scientific advances are so interesting, fascinating and enthralling that I would hope we could create stories around such information that could still excite readers. (Anyone read about Nigerosaurus this week, the latest dinosaur find that alters theories of how some herbivorous dinosaurs fed?) My hope is that we can create stories of intense action in the PlanetCare Discoveries which incorporate the latest findings in geology, archeology, astronomy, physics, biology and the other fields of research,that the reader might be intrigued to do research in those fields herself/himself. So I see action science fiction as a field where current Earth science provides the background for adventures that will not only grip readers but urge them to go behind the stories to adventures of their own.

Edgy Expeditions

When I finished composing my first novel, Season of the Plant, I felt great satisfaction in completing something that I'd been working on for decades. It was even greater that WindstormCreative, a publishing house in Seattle, Washington, gave me a contract to have it published! I conceived Season of the Plant as a short story many years ago, wrote it as a novella in later years, and even created a movie script out of it and filmed it with a group of teens and adults in my church! However, to develop the story into a full novel was a long-standing dream, able only after I retired. What's exciting is that Jennifer DiMarco, CEO of WindstormCreative, publishers of the book, suggested that I make it the first of a series. Since "PlanetCare" was the sponsoring organization of the adventurous expedition in Season of the Plant the series is called "The PlanetCare Discoveries". The action-adventures are centered on various scientific expeditions to all corners of the earth. Since then I've written The Jewels of Stonehenge, about a mysterious set of tourmaline crystals which, if assembled, can create havoc. Windstorm Creative will be releasing that book next year. The publishers have made this series part of their "Shared Universe" project, where other authors are invited to contribute volumes to the series. I've written a Sourcebook which will help any person who'd like to join the project, and will gladly discuss and help any such person. All the adventures are to be rooted in real scientific investigation, but wild and terrible things may happen, like the horrific Plant creature in Season of the Plant, or the otherworldly destructive gems in The Jewels of Stonehenge. This can be great fun, in writing over-the-edge-adventures, I look forward to having others write these edgy expeditions with me.