A Sci-Fi Writer’s Guide to Reminiscing the Future

When children grow to become adults, they tend to lose their imagination. They forget how to play. Even if a child has siblings, the imagination can be a very powerful part of the child’s mind. A good storyteller never loses the ability to imagine… to create a whole new world of wonders. Most create these worlds in their heads and write to convey what they think of. A few, however, create these worlds within the physical world. Just be careful if you do this; it could possibly lead to a white jacket that buckles in the back.

I spent many years of my youth being a prolific reader and writer of many [award winning] unpublished stories. Of course, they didn’t really win awards, but they were still very popular with teachers and other kids my age (a brief moment of nostalgia there). I remember the days long passed (past?) of using my machete to fight my way out of hordes of tall plant-monsters on an alien world and of the hand-to-hand combat with something invisible.

I remember that I was unaware at the time that one of the giants watched with amusement from the safety of their fortress. When I was a teen, I was allowed to stay at the space station alone when the commissioned officers went to the nearby moon for something. Oh, the adventures I had when that space station was attacked while I was on watch.

Don’t tell anyone, but I enjoy the gift of a childlike imagination even today. Almost every day, I’m piloting my small spacecraft through the great expanse of darkness. Although in this century, you’d think the speed limit would be faster than point six or point seven the speed of light. This is, of course, more entertaining and fun when it’s nighttime (switching between the long-range and short-range sensors when encountering another spacecraft. The waves given off of the long-range sensors are detrimental to the ocular wiring of androids as well as the retinas of humans and aliens). It’s even better when it’s snowing (for obvious reasons).

Well, there you have it. Always imagine, always play, always write… and publish; because if you don’t, people will just think you are crazy.

Joe Stewart is a Science Fiction writer and occasional poet. Stewart is a member of the Monrovia Writers Group.