Hey all. The old guildies may remember me. I was pretty active about a decade ago (has it really been that long? :huh:), and have popped on and off the board since then.
In the last couple years I've been writing again, this time in long-form. I just released my first novel last month, to good reviews (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28678856-crystal-society). It's science fiction set in 2039, so not exactly the standard CBG-fare, but I feel like my experiences on the CBG really helped my sense of worldbuilding and my general ability to write. Though it's not a setting, I thought that the community (especially those who know me) might find it amusing.
Anyway, it's free to read online at http://crystal.raelifin.com/ (http://crystal.raelifin.com/). (It's also on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Society-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B01AYT6A3C).) If anyone wants to talk about it, or just catch-up, I'd love to have a chat. :)
That's a fantastic achievement, Raelifin.
The blurb makes your imagined future sound (very plausibly) bleak. The idea of moonbases and the like as being nothing but "government trophies" rings rather true. I was recently at the Kennedy Space Center and there was a bit where kids could ask questions of astronauts and other NASA personnel. One of them asked a deceptively simple question along the lines of "why even go to space?" and I was a little appalled at how inadequate the answer was - basically a variation on "because it's there." Kennedy's "We choose to go the Moon" speech may have worked in 1962 but it doesn't seem quite as credible when kids in Flint are boiling water and millions of Syrians are filling migrant camps (when they're not drowning in the Aegean).
EDIT: Which isn't to say that all space exploration is stupid... only that I think there are significantly better answers to the question "why go to space" than something about mountains made to be climbed and the indomitable human spirit etc.
Hey man, that's fantastic. Glad to hear you're still writing and working on stuff.
I like the second chapter. It reminds me of that one episode of Twilight Zone "From Agnes-With Love".
Thanks, all. :)
Steerpike, I totally get you with regards to space. The concept of an Eisenhower matrix comes to mind. So many things about the world are urgent, and space just isn't. It is important, though, and we have to be careful not to neglect important things just because they're not, metaphorically, on fire.
I may have dialed up the drama a bit in the blurb. My world of 2039 is actually very nice in many ways, but humans aren't particularly good at celebrating what's been done. The focus is always on what's wrong, and I wanted to emphasize that in the blurb, as social tensions are central to the plot.
Unfortunately I don't have time to properly check your book out right now, but I did just want to say it's good to see you around again!