Galaxy Tall Tales Blog by Mike Van Horn

My Favorite Ideas

There are worlds out there with strange alien races.
Will we find connection in their eyes, in their faces?

These are the words from my home page. My theme. I don’t assume that alien races are out to get us, due to their insatiable lust for power and conquest.
Why not?
Even though hostile, implacable aliens are always good Hollywood fodder, my premise is that what advanced aliens want most is diversity—to avoid boredom.

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What’s My Genre?

I write science fiction, but that covers a wide swath. When I look at a list of the sub-genres, it seems like my stories cover about half of them. So where do I fit? First of all, what my books are NOT: – Dystopian, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic – Cyberpunk, steampunk – Military, shoot ‘em up – Alien invasion. – Hard sci fi, i.e., based on gee whiz technology What my stories are: – First contact, Earth-alien relationships – Near future, familiar landscape: could be today. – Character driven – Story of personal discovery – Light, humorous – First person…

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When Life Gives You Music . . .

I can’t sing. When others sing, I stand there and move my lips. So imagine my surprise when I started writing music. I now have five songs produced. I’m amazed at myself. How the heck did this happen? The protagonist of my sci fi trilogy is a singer. (So is the alien.) I started writing snatches of songs she sings at gigs. Just a few lines, or maybe a verse. Then I expanded some of these into entire songs. By the time the story was finished I had maybe twenty song lyrics.

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California Woman Risks Fate of Entire Human Race

This is Chapter 1 of Aliens Crashed in My Back Yard. “Secrets of Immortality Gleaned from Alien Remains,”trumpeted The New York Times on page 1, sounding like the tabloids. ... Yeah, those were the aliens they dug up from my property up along the California coast near Bodega Bay. And yes, I admit it, I was the one who had buried them, with the help of my friends. Had to. They were dead, and we didn’t have enough freezer space to hold them. 

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When Life Gives You Lyrics, Make Music

I can’t sing anything more demanding than “Happy Birthday.” So imagine my surprise when I became a lyricist.  In my just-published book “Aliens Crashed in My Back Yard,” my main character and narrator—Selena M—is a singer who nurses a surviving alien back to health so she can send it home. The alien is also a singer, and that’s how they learn to communicate. They help each other recapture the passion of their singing. 

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Interview with my heroine, Selena M, narrator of my trilogy

Where did the “ditzy chick” label come from? Did you ever hear a man called a “ditzy guy?” No, only women can be ditzy—according to the men who diss us and bully us. The government spooks going after my spaceship laid that name on me. Even though I outwitted them at every turn, and have kept the spaceship—Star Choice—to this day.

Continue ReadingInterview with my heroine, Selena M, narrator of my trilogy

The Usurer’s Proposal—a Guest Story by Jim Webster

Here's a short piece by fellow author Jim Webster aka Tallis Steelyard. I confess that usurers have a name as being distinctly dour and miserable folk. This is something of a canard, I've known several who have a sense of humour. They have been known to chuckle dryly at a fumbled attempt to hide something embarrassing in a set of accounts.

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Happy National Science Fiction Day !

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https://mybook.to/WingsofEarth_1

January 2 is the day every year. So invite your favorite bug-eyed monster to stop in and raise a toast to our favorite genre. I’m going to tell some stories from my own trilogy, starting with this post. My heroine, Selena M, is a well-known singer who lives on the coast north of San Francisco. When an alien spaceship crashes on her back hillside, she decides to nurse the sole survivor back to health, rather than notify the authorities, as any good citizen would do. Turns out the alien is also a singer, and they learn to communicate by singing.

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