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Michael Offutt is graciously hijacking my blog today, so that I’d have the last weekend prior to my deadline free to work myself into a frenzy. Good planning by me, but not needed. The polished draft of Boomtown Craze is done. We’ll chat more on that next week. Now, take it away, Michael…
I have been accused by a reviewer of trying to capitalize on the vampirism craze by developing the concept of liquid life (life green) in my books. All I have to say is, if I wanted to capitalize on vampirism, I would have written a book about vampires and made it a paranormal romance.
Liquid life is a completely fundamental part of my entire storyline, and I’m rather proud of it. When I first came up with the concept in 2008 when writing the first draft, I hadn’t heard of anything like it anywhere (and I’m pretty well read). And it arose out of a need to anchor the economy in a world where gold would be meaningless. So I thought about what everyone always wants and that led me to “eternal life.” Just like that, I had the basis for my currency and the world that valued this “base line” would be shaped by the greed for this substance.
For those of you who haven’t read Slipstream, I’ll explain it to you. I had this idea that cells replicate a certain number of times and that with the proper technology; you could harvest these unused replications and sell them for cash. Buyers could then add these replications to their own bodies, replenishing their own cells, and essentially restoring them with youth and vitality. They could literally prolong their lives. I had created a “fountain of youth.”
In our world of 2012, I have read articles reprinted from Stanford research journals saying something very similar could one day reverse the aging process.
Really? I guess Carl Sagan said it first when he recorded that “Science and science fiction are in a kind of dance, forever circling one another.” I have to say, I feel validated by my ideas. I feel like I’ve joined the ranks of other science fiction writers who accomplished the same thing. You know, writers like Jules Verne or William Gibson (who essentially invented the idea of the internet).
So I’m just gonna say that liquid life is not vampirism, but a foretelling of things to come. And I’m pretty sure my idea has more of a chance of coming true than actual vampires walking the earth, having high school girlfriends, sparkly skin, and driving black Volvo’s.
In the short story I wrote called “The Insanity of Zero,” the knowledge to extract liquid life is given to men by an omnipotent, immortal being who suddenly becomes afraid that he will die of old age. He passes the knowledge to scientists of his world in exchange for the most precious kind, Life Green, which he can use to ensure his immortality. That’s part of why he goes insane. A part of him realizes that this is stupid and destructive because he, in fact, cannot die of old age. But a less rational part of him is firmly entrenched in the emotional anguish associated with watching oneself age and die.
And the conflict of these two worlds of thought has catastrophic consequences for everyone.
If you’d like to know more about my writing, please check out the link below:
http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html
Occulus
But Jordan also has a quest. He must find the Black Tower, a monolithic edifice housing a thing that defines the very structure of the universe. Jordan believes it is buried somewhere in Antarctica under miles of prehistoric ice.
October finds Jordan earning a starting position with the Cornell hockey team. But a dark cloud gathers over his rookie season. Unexplained deaths, whispers of a cannibal cult, a prophecy, and a stone known only as the Oculus, cast a shadow over his athletic ambitions. It is the start of a terrifying journey down a path of mystery, murder, and to a confrontation with an Evil more ancient than the stars.
Free short story that’s a lead-in to this book series: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236636
About Michael Offutt:
Michael Offutt writes speculative fiction books that have science fiction, GLBT, and paranormal elements. His first book, “Slipstream” has received some critical acclaim and was published by Double Dragon in the spring. The sequel, “Oculus” is slated to be published in 2013. He has one brother, no pets, and a few roots that keep his tree of life sufficiently watered. By day, he works for the State of Utah as a Technical Specialist. By night, he watches lots of t.v., writes, draws, and sometimes dreams of chocolate.
Michael Offutt graduated from the University of Idaho in 1994 with a Bachelor’s degree in English.
Blog / Art Page/ FB / Goodreads
Twitter @MichaelOffutt
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Doesn’t sound like vampirism to me.
And don’t get too frenzied, Mary!
Vampires? Snort. There will always be detractors, no matter what you write. You have a fabulous concept, Michael! And you’re right – Sci/Fi is truly the Science of tomorrow.
This sounds like such a cool concept! I don’t see why anyone would say this is connected to vampirism at all. Not sure why some people always feel the need to make a snide remark about something.
Kudos on beating your deadline, Mary!
That’s a fascinating concept. It doesn’t sound like vampirism at all. And I thank you so much for not having sparkly vampires in your stories!
I’m done being frenzied, Alex. Yay!
Ain’t that the truth, Laura!
Thanks, Julie!
I’m grateful, too, Christine.
M, I looove your new banner. Absolutely gorgeous.
I like Kolin much better in Oculus and I wonder how Kolin and Jordan are going to work things out in the long run wrt the liquid life…
Mary, congrats on getting that draft finished up and polished. It’s a great feeling isn’t it! (:
Not at all like a vampire novel…thank the Lord! Interesting post, Mike!
Thank you, Suze. It’s from a photo I took a few years ago. From around here.
Thank you, Elise. It does feel great to have it done. Except I decided to torture myself by formatting paperbacks this weekend.
I’m thankful, too, Nancy.
Hmm, not sure how they got vampirism out of liquid green. But it does sound fascinating, Michael. I have Slipstream in my Kindle and a huge TBR list, but I will get to it. Great post, Michael!
Hi Mary! *waves*
Yeah I think the people doing the accusing didn’t pay attention to what they’re reading.
Sigh.
Your description of your character reminds me of a quote by William Faulkner: “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about”.
Great post!
Life Green and vampirism? There’s absolutely no connection whatsoever… even my sci-fi challenged brain understands that…
I just got my Kindle sorted out and I’ve downloaded The Insanity Of Zero…
Mary, that’s a beautiful banner!
Since I’ve read Slipstream I can’t figure out why anyone would associate your “liquid life” with vampirism! To me, it sounded like a concept grounded in science. I’m really looking forward to Oculus.
Hello Lady Gwen!
It does get interesting, Misha.
Have a wonderful weekend, Eagle!
Thank you, Michelle.
Slipstream is steadily making its way up my super long TBR list. Soon, sir, soon!
As everyone else has said, it’s a great concept, but it ain’t vampirism! Not sure I would actually like eternal life – I’m far too lazy for that!
I’ve finally been able to start it, Libby. Slipstream is a good read.
I’m not sure I’d like it either, Annalisa.
@Alex: Thanks for visiting, Alex.
@Laura: I feel validated. Thank you :)
@Julie: I recently got a review of my short story on Amazon. Was a 2-star. It was super short and rather rude and said, “Soylent Green is people!” As if somehow my concept of Life Green stole from Soylent Green the old Charlton Heston movie. I’ve honestly been surprised at how heavily I’ve been “trolled” with bad reviews. I’ve gotten snide remarks on Amazon UK, on the iTunes store (I got that one removed)…but yeah…it’s like there’s this whole group of people out there who I’ve never met who were paying attention to me and actually don’t want me to succeed so they leave shitty reviews that have nothing to do with my book. I’ve noticed that other authors don’t seem to have as much of a problem with this.
@Christine: You bet. And I’m gonna get to your stories soon. I’m finishing up “Lyon’s Legacy” and then I’ll review that and move on to some others on the TBR list.
@Mary: Thank you my Pacific Coast friend for hosting me. I’m so jealous of your clean air. During an “inversion” which is what Salt Lake City has right now, we have the worst air quality in the nation. People are literally wearing masks here. It’s as bad as Beijing.
Looking at Suze’s comment, do you have a professional that works on your website or is all of this just you? Your website looks really awesome.
@Elise: Kolin has already taken enough liquid life from Jordan to live another fifty years. The stuff Jordan and Kathy produce is extremely potent (and getting stronger) which is why it was almost fluorescent green at the end of “Oculus.”
@Nancy: Thank you dearie!
@Gwen: It’s cause Kolin has a prosthesis in his jaw to extract it. Basically, he’s got retractible fangs. Kolin has a few interesting sexual fetishes. He doesn’t like “vanilla” sex (but he’s not into bdsm). There’s a reason behind this that I explored in a short story I published free online called “Wraith.” Kolin is a genetic experiment. Basically, after Avalon’s apocalypse, the world is overrun by mutants and monsters. Zero (a computer) had this idea for destroying all the monsters but it would also destroy all the humans because they are genetically linked. So he sent a machine called Wraith back into time before the apocalypse to establish a laboratory in St. Louis to create a perfect man and woman from existing genetic samples. The lab would be built to withstand the holocaust, have it’s own energy, etc. Anyway, this robot machine called Wraith made a lot of mistakes but eventually created two human beings who have a perfect genetic code. Kolin (whose real name is Adam 719 or something like that “I can’t remember”) and a girl whose name is Eve. The idea was to launch these two into space, cleanse Avalon, and then these two would come down and repopulate the planet. But it didn’t work out because Kolin escaped from the lab and never came back, and they couldn’t reproduce the results because the scientists who helped Wraith all died off. When Kolin eventually did return with Jordan in tow, he’d fallen in love with Jordan and so mating with Eve to fulfill his destiny was off the table (Kolin is bi-sexual which means equally able to be attracted to both women and men). And because Kolin is monogamous the whole plan fell apart, and it made Wraith struggle with it’s directive and programming.
@Misha: LOL that happens a lot with me.
@Eagle: Oooh…I love Faulkner. Thanks for posting that.
@Michelle: Thanks for downloading that. If you are interested in a free copy of Oculus, I’d totally email you one. I have them in pdf, epub, mobi, etc. The least I can do is send you a bookmark.
@Helena: Thanks for saying so, Helena
@Libby: Oooh that makes me excited.
@Annalisa: hahahah. Fair enough. Honestly, it sounds like we may have the equivalent already. Have you heard of Provigil? I saw the ABC Nightline report on it and was blown away. A drug with no side effects that increases your focus and energy as if you were half your age.
I can see the way some people extract the Liquid Life in Slipstream could be like a vampire’s way to get blood, but Liquid Life definitely has nothing to do with vampirism.
I never thought “liquid life” seemed life vampirism until I read this post; maybe I’m slow on the uptake and others saw more of a connection?
I’m not sure that “cashing in” is a bad thing, though. It’s MEANT as a bad thing but there was a pretty hearty debate not long ago by a bunch of famous-ish authors on Twitter about whether giving any thought to the sales potential of your ‘art’ demeans that art.
I say no; I say if you look around and say “MAN, people sure are buying YA books about teen girls taking on weird authoritarian regimes” and so you write your own TGTAWAR (you’ll get it) book, there’s nothing wrong with that provided you WRITE A GOOD ONE.
So if you HAD decided to cash in on vampires, I wouldn’t blame you. But I don’t think you did. First of all, you’d have likely mentioned a vampire if that was your goal. Secondly, liquid life extraction and vampires biting necks are two entirely different things, even if at the heart (ha!) they both deal with the same essence: stealing someone else’s life to stay alive.
That’s why I said on Twitter that maybe vampirism is a savager form of this; you could maybe have fun with the idea that vampire legends arose from people clumsily trying to steal liquid life, or some such.
That’s all I was thinking until I read your comment about people trolling you on the Internet. I hadn’t realized people were giving you bad reviews. I find your writing quite skilled and your ideas imaginative — and the books heartfelt, giving a human dimension and complexity to characters that you don’t see in a lot of alternate-world scifi.
But what you’re probably dealing with is a level of popularity and ubiquity that I don’t enjoy (?): your blog is superpopular and your books sell well and a lot of people know you. That means people are going to want to say good stuff, but you’re going to attract haters, as well. Everyone popular enough to get noticed is popular enough to get hated on for no reason whatsoever. I wouldn’t worry about it so much, if I were you (assuming you worry about it much, which maybe you don’t.) Remember how many terrible things people said about Stephanie Meyers? Or EL James? Or even Stephen King? They can absorb it because millions of people like their books, so a bad review doesn’t affect them (or ought not to.) You’re hitting that rarefied air where you draw the attention of trolls merely by existing. That’s a compliment.
Now, I kind of want you to write a vampire story. Just to see what your creativity would do with it.
theres always someone trying to dis or dismantle or discredit an original idea! did you hear about the aussie who measured subway’s foot long and it came up short? petty attention is what they crave!
yours is a cool idea! totally unique & unvampire like!
Maybe he should have made the life force sparkle, Cherie. :D Just teasing.
I don’t see anything wrong with an author tweaking things to make a living at what they love to do either, Briane. I mean, it’s done all the time. But somehow we’re special and are supposed to starve and suffer. Aww. That was sarcasm.
There are plenty of petty folks, Tara. You’ve got that right.
Mary, I’ve just completed reading Backworlds (the prequel)
Yay! My first space opera story… and I enjoyed it.
I posted a short review on Goodreads!
Thanks for signing up for the Blog-o-versary Giveaway Bash cartoon strip with Elise and I! :)
I’m glad you liked it. Thank you, Michelle. I look forward to your blogfest. It should be very entertaining.
Hey! I’m buying into the “liquid life” concept and I’ll take a few pounds right now. I need some cellular regeneration if I’m to finish this project.
Great to read the interview.
Thanks, Michael. My brother set the site up with a WordPress template. That allows me to change pages and move things around. We chose a template where I could change the header, too. Sometimes he has to come rescue me, but for the most part, I manage the site myself these days.
Great to see you, Lee. :) Hope you had a nice weekend.
I loved your “liquid life” concept when I read Slipstream. It was one of those moments while I was reading where I said to myself, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that!” Thanks, Michael and Mary!