New Story -- "Insignificant Differences"
Oct. 27th, 2020 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coryleaI'm feeling a bit better than I was the last time I posted, but then, there was nowhere to go but up. :-)
Today I wrote a story — written, edited, and posted all in one day. It's only 1500 words, and it's not exactly deep — or maybe it's just profound in its simplicity :-) — but any day where I feel good enough to write even a bit of fluff is a good day. Especially since what I'd planned on doing today was the laundry. :-)
It's "Insignificant Differences."
Today I wrote a story — written, edited, and posted all in one day. It's only 1500 words, and it's not exactly deep — or maybe it's just profound in its simplicity :-) — but any day where I feel good enough to write even a bit of fluff is a good day. Especially since what I'd planned on doing today was the laundry. :-)
It's "Insignificant Differences."
Great to see this!
Date: 2020-11-01 03:43 am (UTC)Glad to hear you're feeling better! *hugs*
Lovely story. Impressed that you did it all in one day!
I really liked Bauren. You don't see sentient plants done very often. I'm only really familiar with the Skroderiders from Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, and, of course, Tolkien's Ents, though I'm sure there are others. I think like your Cusan better than Ents. :-) "Rest under my branches and tell me of yourselves, and I will tell you of the Cusan, and together we will be a mighty forest." Oh, and I am reminded that in the SimEarth game, it was apparently possible to evolve intelligent Venus flytraps.
I have so many question about the Cusan, and would enthusiastically read anything else you write about them. (Okay, I would enthusiastically read just about anything short of a grocery list that you right...)
Re: Great to see this!
Date: 2020-11-01 04:03 pm (UTC)I'm sorry I've been mostly MIA. I've been in a bad place and have wanted to refrain from inflicting my negativity on my friends.
I bought you a present about a month ago, when I was shopping online for TOS tee shirts; I need to remember to get that in the mail.
I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the story! I was inspired by Tolkien's Ents, but I wanted my sentient trees to be less slow and solemn and more jolly and curious. I think a lot of xenophobia comes from plain old fear, and a lot of fear is a byproduct of our having been prey once upon a time, and hence having evolved that necessary fear response. Trees were never a prey species, so their fear response is WAY harder to trigger than ours, which means that they're happy to meet anything except perhaps sentient fire. :-) Given how MUCH fear is in the world right now, I wanted a species for this story that had very little reason for fear, as a counterbalance.
I'm glad you called out that line, because it was an intentionally Trekkian kind of line, so I think it's the heart of the story.
I haven't played Sim Earth; it's interesting that the developers thought it was a PREDATORY plant that could evolve sentience. I guess they agree with the Kzin that one needs to be a hunter to develop intelligence. Since elephants are very smart animals, and they're also vegetarians, I disagree. :-)
It's sweet of you to compliment my stories! I think you were too busy to read the one I posted before this most recent one -- more than a year ago, yikes! -- but if you missed that one and would like to read it, it's "Eye of the Beholder."
I miss you! I hope my upward trend continues, so we can talk on Skype someday soon. Maybe if we get the right results on November 3rd, that'll give EVERYONE a shot of positivity.