Behind the Green Door

…

The end is nigh!

Sounds prophetic. I see what’s going on in the world these days, with people discussing the possibility of World War 3.

If there is, I suspect it will be the end of mankind.

And having said that, why do we lump all of humanity into ‘mankind’?

I think the threats of such a war are what fuels a lot of the dystopian books we read, especially those about life after a nuclear exchange. The point is that there is no life after the nuclear bombs go off. They are not like those used in Japan in 1945.

They are one hell of a lot worse, they will poison the atmosphere and will kill everyone and everything on this planet. We cannot come back from it which is why for many years it was the threat of using nuclear bombs was the deterrent.

There are no safe places other than a special bunker, but given the life of nuclear fallout, we would, if there were any bunkers which there are not, be in them for thousands of years.

Oddly enough many, many years ago when I was in secondary school, I saw a film that was about a war where nuclear bombs rained down on cities and the after effects, and it was horrifying because the visual results were horrifyingly real. This was being shown to 14 year olds, and some were physically sick, others had nightmares for months afterwards.

I suspect it was to educate the next generation of leaders, to make them realise that the only result of a nuclear war was utter annihilation.

They were showing it to the wrong people. It needed to be shown to the Russians and the Americans and her NATO allies and the Chinese and the North Koreans, the people who are constantly toying with the idea of using such weapons. I thought we had treaties to get rid of all the nuclear weapons. Seems I was wrong.

Let’s hope someone sees the light and soon.

And I think I’ve just found a theme for my next story.

…

Word written today 2,400, making a total of 55,467 words

Behind the Green Door

…

The end is nigh!

Sounds prophetic. I see what’s going on in the world these days, with people discussing the possibility of World War 3.

If there is, I suspect it will be the end of mankind.

And having said that, why do we lump all of humanity into ‘mankind’?

I think the threats of such a war are what fuels a lot of the dystopian books we read, especially those about life after a nuclear exchange. The point is that there is no life after the nuclear bombs go off. They are not like those used in Japan in 1945.

They are one hell of a lot worse, they will poison the atmosphere and will kill everyone and everything on this planet. We cannot come back from it which is why for many years it was the threat of using nuclear bombs was the deterrent.

There are no safe places other than a special bunker, but given the life of nuclear fallout, we would, if there were any bunkers which there are not, be in them for thousands of years.

Oddly enough many, many years ago when I was in secondary school, I saw a film that was about a war where nuclear bombs rained down on cities and the after effects, and it was horrifying because the visual results were horrifyingly real. This was being shown to 14 year olds, and some were physically sick, others had nightmares for months afterwards.

I suspect it was to educate the next generation of leaders, to make them realise that the only result of a nuclear war was utter annihilation.

They were showing it to the wrong people. It needed to be shown to the Russians and the Americans and her NATO allies and the Chinese and the North Koreans, the people who are constantly toying with the idea of using such weapons. I thought we had treaties to get rid of all the nuclear weapons. Seems I was wrong.

Let’s hope someone sees the light and soon.

And I think I’ve just found a theme for my next story.

…

Word written today 2,400, making a total of 55,467 words

Behind the Green Door

…

It’s almost done, and another story has made it to fruition.

I have to say, this one started as a short story. I was in the process of writing 26 new stories for next year’s April A to Z Blog. That notion of being able to write a short story every day, particularly the length mine seem to get to, has become quite daunting.

This one was called Behind the Green Door, and the little note I made for myself to prompt an idea, a game show with a difference.

I’m not quite sure what I had in mind as I was writing those titles.

Another example title: Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining – a romance ala Hallmark. As if I could stick to the brief! Every romance I’ve written has veered off into adventure territory.

Enough Already…

I have had a lot of ideas doe Miranda over the month. Making her a robot was fine at the start, but then it evolved into a robot that was very hard to tell from the real thing.

Originally I wasn’t going to give her Elsie’s persona. She was just going to be loaded up with memories of her, so Elsie wouldn’t be forgotten.

I had no intention of making Elsie the creator of the life-like robots. But, then, when I thought about men being involved, it veered off into weird territory, because men don’t quite think the same as women, and have other ideas for female robots, and super soldier is not one of them.

I liked the idea of making her a guidance counsellor, to see those who were going to meet their end a little easier, and it seemed like I had gone exactly where I did;t want to go. Making her the robotic equivalent to Michael’s wife of many years might seem cruel, but it salved my conscience for about ten minutes.

But this is a different society borne out of disaster and forced to find a new way to live over a very long time in difficult circumstances. One thing I can say, in my imaginary world, men might be in charge, but women are the people who make it work.

When I discussed the story with my three granddaughters, as I do quite often with all of my stories, they were surprised. They, like me, could not begin to imagine what the world would be like in 200 years, except it would be without mobile phones and computers, cars, except for the odd electric vehicle, that men and women would be on equal footing, and that everyone would get along, after a fashion, because there was always an oddball or two.

But the warning was that we were always just a short distance away from there being classes of people (like in India where they are labelled castes), such as the university types, the professionals, not self-entitled but a little above everyone else, the working class, the tradesmen, the people who keep everything working, and the nerdy types, university educated, but they live on their own planet. They were unanimous in believing that over time in such a confinement, crime would become non-existent.

After all, where can you hide?

But just the same, because of human nature being what it is, there would always be the odd person who would steal, be envious of his or her neighbour, have affairs and illicit relationships, kill, irrationally or not, and want to wage war on others because sadly that’s who we are.

Oddly enough they never considered 200 years in confinement a cause to go stir-crazy!

…

Word written today 1,389, making a total of 53,067 words

Behind the Green Door

…

It’s almost done, and another story has made it to fruition.

I have to say, this one started as a short story. I was in the process of writing 26 new stories for next year’s April A to Z Blog. That notion of being able to write a short story every day, particularly the length mine seem to get to, has become quite daunting.

This one was called Behind the Green Door, and the little note I made for myself to prompt an idea, a game show with a difference.

I’m not quite sure what I had in mind as I was writing those titles.

Another example title: Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining – a romance ala Hallmark. As if I could stick to the brief! Every romance I’ve written has veered off into adventure territory.

Enough Already…

I have had a lot of ideas doe Miranda over the month. Making her a robot was fine at the start, but then it evolved into a robot that was very hard to tell from the real thing.

Originally I wasn’t going to give her Elsie’s persona. She was just going to be loaded up with memories of her, so Elsie wouldn’t be forgotten.

I had no intention of making Elsie the creator of the life-like robots. But, then, when I thought about men being involved, it veered off into weird territory, because men don’t quite think the same as women, and have other ideas for female robots, and super soldier is not one of them.

I liked the idea of making her a guidance counsellor, to see those who were going to meet their end a little easier, and it seemed like I had gone exactly where I did;t want to go. Making her the robotic equivalent to Michael’s wife of many years might seem cruel, but it salved my conscience for about ten minutes.

But this is a different society borne out of disaster and forced to find a new way to live over a very long time in difficult circumstances. One thing I can say, in my imaginary world, men might be in charge, but women are the people who make it work.

When I discussed the story with my three granddaughters, as I do quite often with all of my stories, they were surprised. They, like me, could not begin to imagine what the world would be like in 200 years, except it would be without mobile phones and computers, cars, except for the odd electric vehicle, that men and women would be on equal footing, and that everyone would get along, after a fashion, because there was always an oddball or two.

But the warning was that we were always just a short distance away from there being classes of people (like in India where they are labelled castes), such as the university types, the professionals, not self-entitled but a little above everyone else, the working class, the tradesmen, the people who keep everything working, and the nerdy types, university educated, but they live on their own planet. They were unanimous in believing that over time in such a confinement, crime would become non-existent.

After all, where can you hide?

But just the same, because of human nature being what it is, there would always be the odd person who would steal, be envious of his or her neighbour, have affairs and illicit relationships, kill, irrationally or not, and want to wage war on others because sadly that’s who we are.

Oddly enough they never considered 200 years in confinement a cause to go stir-crazy!

…

Word written today 1,389, making a total of 53,067 words

Behind the Green Door

…

We’re near the end, and it’s a little late to be having second thoughts…

But…

Yes, there’s always a but there somewhere, isn’t there?

I have been thinking about the end, and it has changed a few times in the last week, based on how the story has progressed. It seems the end I had in mind was not really the end that would work. I had them heading for the stars.

Silly me.

The notion that the death has been restored sounded a lot better. And I did;t want to keep them underground for four hundred years, so I halved it to 197 and a half, for the moment.

I’ve also been thinking about Elsie and over the course of several hundred pages
I made her good, bad, indifferent, evil, horrible, nice, and everything in between. Can one person be so many different things?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

The only thing I’m sure of at the moment is the rewrite is going to be monumental.

Oh and I forgot to brag about the fact I reached the 50,000 word mark yesterday.

Yea!

…

Word written today 1,628, making a total of 51,678 words

Behind the Green Door

…

We’re near the end, and it’s a little late to be having second thoughts…

But…

Yes, there’s always a but there somewhere, isn’t there?

I have been thinking about the end, and it has changed a few times in the last week, based on how the story has progressed. It seems the end I had in mind was not really the end that would work. I had them heading for the stars.

Silly me.

The notion that the death has been restored sounded a lot better. And I did;t want to keep them underground for four hundred years, so I halved it to 197 and a half, for the moment.

I’ve also been thinking about Elsie and over the course of several hundred pages
I made her good, bad, indifferent, evil, horrible, nice, and everything in between. Can one person be so many different things?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

The only thing I’m sure of at the moment is the rewrite is going to be monumental.

Oh and I forgot to brag about the fact I reached the 50,000 word mark yesterday.

Yea!

…

Word written today 1,628, making a total of 51,678 words

Behind the Green Door

…

This is where, when you get to the end of the story the ending starts to look a little lame and there are other scenarios dancing in the back of your mind.

The original – Michael has the adjudication, goes through the green door and meets Elsie who is alive, had hijacked a rocket, put Michael into a robot form and they head for the stars.

Silly huh?

For a few weeks that scenario was basically the same but with different variations. Michael was always going to wake up in a new form with Elsie either as a human or new form too.

It’s why in some many places in the last few chapters Michael believes Elsie is still alive.

She isn’t.

She died, and I’m still not sure how she died yet, but there’s at least three different versions. I will need to refine that when the next edit is done. The one I like the most is that a debilitating disease killed her, that she was not murdered by the Pendletons or anyone else.

To be honest, I didn’t want her to die, but Michael needs the motivation to do what he needs to do, using his investigative skills spurred on by a dislike of management to work out what is really going on.

The adjudication proceeds.

The jury gives its decision.

And…

It’s not what you think.

…

Word written today 2,500, making a total of 50,050 words

Behind the Green Door

…

This is where, when you get to the end of the story the ending starts to look a little lame and there are other scenarios dancing in the back of your mind.

The original – Michael has the adjudication, goes through the green door and meets Elsie who is alive, had hijacked a rocket, put Michael into a robot form and they head for the stars.

Silly huh?

For a few weeks that scenario was basically the same but with different variations. Michael was always going to wake up in a new form with Elsie either as a human or new form too.

It’s why in some many places in the last few chapters Michael believes Elsie is still alive.

She isn’t.

She died, and I’m still not sure how she died yet, but there’s at least three different versions. I will need to refine that when the next edit is done. The one I like the most is that a debilitating disease killed her, that she was not murdered by the Pendletons or anyone else.

To be honest, I didn’t want her to die, but Michael needs the motivation to do what he needs to do, using his investigative skills spurred on by a dislike of management to work out what is really going on.

The adjudication proceeds.

The jury gives its decision.

And…

It’s not what you think.

…

Word written today 2,500, making a total of 50,050 words

Behind the Green Door

…

Michaels last day proceeds, another case, another sparring session with, well Michael isn’t quite sure who he’s sparring with anymore.

I’m still refining the parts of Elsie that exist inside Miranda. Since this is a story, and science fiction, I like the idea that Miranda is really Elsie, but to me that sounds a little far fetched.

It’s why in the orginal plan, Miranda is a blank slate in which a person’s essence could be transplanted, so that form then became that person. Then she was supposed to behave as Miranda until a secret word was uttered, and she transformed.

But…

You can program articifical intelligence into a robot but it is only as good as the programmers who created it. It’s not possible to covered every eventuality, and it will never be as adaptable or reactive as a human. Ai needs to know every single nuance and thats not possible for one or two proagrammers or a whole bunch of them.

It’s why I’ve been wrestling with the how Miranda/Elsie should and does react to Michael and others, and it will require a bit more work in the first edit. Having Elsie hiding within the programming gives me the opportunity to allow Elsie and their relationship to shine through.

It’s now time to front up to the adjudication, face the jury of his peers, and see old friends for the last time.

And hear what Miranda has to say about him as a final wrap up of his life.

To say the least, it’s underwhelming.

…

Word written today 1,925, making a total of 47,550 words

Behind the Green Door

…

Michaels last day proceeds, another case, another sparring session with, well Michael isn’t quite sure who he’s sparring with anymore.

I’m still refining the parts of Elsie that exist inside Miranda. Since this is a story, and science fiction, I like the idea that Miranda is really Elsie, but to me that sounds a little far fetched.

It’s why in the orginal plan, Miranda is a blank slate in which a person’s essence could be transplanted, so that form then became that person. Then she was supposed to behave as Miranda until a secret word was uttered, and she transformed.

But…

You can program articifical intelligence into a robot but it is only as good as the programmers who created it. It’s not possible to covered every eventuality, and it will never be as adaptable or reactive as a human. Ai needs to know every single nuance and thats not possible for one or two proagrammers or a whole bunch of them.

It’s why I’ve been wrestling with the how Miranda/Elsie should and does react to Michael and others, and it will require a bit more work in the first edit. Having Elsie hiding within the programming gives me the opportunity to allow Elsie and their relationship to shine through.

It’s now time to front up to the adjudication, face the jury of his peers, and see old friends for the last time.

And hear what Miranda has to say about him as a final wrap up of his life.

To say the least, it’s underwhelming.

…

Word written today 1,925, making a total of 47,550 words