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Return To The Index (This does NOT open a new window) Note, to make reading multi-part stories easier, story links (links with dejanews.com or www.qz.to, NOT the review or profile links) will open up a new browser window. When you are done reading the story, or section of the story simply CLOSE the story window. |
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Celestial Reviews 299 - August 4, 1998 Note: I am going to take a vacation. The next issue of Celestial Reviews will appear on or around August 22. If the people who write guest reviews would simply choose a story of their choice and write an extra review and send it to me, that would help me get a good issue together really quickly at that time. Second Note: Occasionally good writers stop writing stories for this newsgroup. If you rarely or never respond to authors, then THIS IS YOUR FAULT! What in the world do you think keeps an author going? You can call it ego or whatever you want to call it. I call it the Blow Job Principle. Simply stated, if a person expects to get a second blow job, the recipient should make the giver glad to have performed the first. Applied to these stories, if you like a story, take the trouble to say so. Some writers on this newsgroup are incoherent and don't intend to improve. If they give up and go away, that's fine with me. But there are good writers who have already abandoned this newsgroup and others who will do so, because there's nothing in it for them. I'm not suggesting that you kiss up to the authors. But if you enjoy a story that you obtained for free, why not take two minutes to give the author some feedback? I don't think most authors want idle flattery; but they write stories with the hope that they are getting a reaction - for example, they may want to make people happy. They'll never know they have succeeded unless somebody tells them so. Third note: Entries have been slow for the Fourth Celestial Story Contest. Here are the rules: About 50 years ago Ray Bradbury wrote a story called "The Veldt." In that story a family has a nursery for their children that includes what we would now call a virtual reality playroom. When the children go into the playroom, they get the authentic feeling of being in an actual veldt - a jungle area populated by mysterious and dangerous animals. Complications arise when the playroom takes on a life of its own - when the virtual reality becomes more real than virtual. You can imagine what happens when Mom and Dad decide to close down the playroom - or you can read the story (which is in Bradbury's book entitled "The Illustrated Man") to see how Bradbury handles the ending. Your job is to write a story based on the general premise of a virtual reality playroom. Feel free to change almost everything. You can have adults rather than children, and you don't need non-human animals at all. In fact, it might be best not to even look at Bradbury's story at all - let your own imagination have full play. Bradbury's story is actually a Frankenstein story with a moral - what happens when we fail to understand technology and its limitations? Your story doesn't have to be like that at all. You don't even need to know that Bradbury himself once said that "man's machines are indeed symbols of his most secret cravings and desires, extra hands put out to touch and interpret the world." Post your stories as you feel they are ready. Send me a copy. Deadline is August 24. Final note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my reviews for me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com. - Celeste |