by Kaye George
I’m thrilled to have a story included in
the anthology called NIGHTFALLS: Notes from the end of the world, edited by
Dark Valentine’s Katherine Tomlinson! When I first started considering my
story, which was to include the thoughts of a person who knew it would be the
last night on earth, I had to start with how I should have the world end.
Apocalypse literature is not new to me, as
a reader and a moviegoer, but it sure was as a writer. I once wrote a humorous
zombie piece, but it only involved the death of one person, within the story.
The threat of world annihilation was there, but only implied.
But now I had to get serious and think how
the world might really end, if it ends soon. I’ll have to give a little
background on myself for this to make sense. I’m a teensy bit neurotic. When a
new strain of flu is announced on TV, I have it. (A mild case not worth going
to the doctor for.) When anything contagious is going around, I have it. (Same
parenthetical statement as above.) When a new form of mental deviation is
discovered, I’m prone to it. Some people call it hypochondriasis, others call
it hysteria. Whatever, it works for me.
Another thing about me is that I like to
read popular physics, Isaac Asimov, Brian Greene and the like.
One thing I worry about is radio waves.
Every day there are more and more devices in the US, and around the world, that
get data from waves. The towers surround us. Waves are being beamed for our
TVs, our phones, our Ipads, wireless Kindles, WiFis are everywhere. I even have
a router filling my house with waves. We can print, remote, with no wires, from
anywhere in our house and even from across the street.
All those waves are everywhere! And they’re
going through our bodies. The only thing controlling all this chaos is keeping
track of band widths. I’m scared.
Throw in a little physics, like the fact
that colliding waves give off heat, and I had my plot.
My story is called 'The Last Wave'.
Kaye is the author of a number of titles including Choke, the Imogen Duckworthy Mysteries and the collection A Patchwork Of Stories.
Thanks for letting me post here, Nigel! Can't wait to read all the stories in NIGHTFALLS.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being here, Kaye. And me too.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be in there with you Kaye. A couple of great SF/Hard Science/Physics writers out there are Greg Bear and Gregory Binford and on the distaff side, the cleverest of them all, Anne McCaffrey -- whose Dragon Riders Of Pern had everyone convinced they were reading high fantasy . . . until in book three (I'm pretty sure it was book three)revealed she'd been writing hard science all along. I like your ending better than some stone calendar's predictions. We'll drink a virtual toast to Mayans and waves and even Mayan wave riders on stone surfboards on Dec. 22nd 2012, M'Dear.
ReplyDeleteMaya wave riders! Stone surfboards! Looks like you have another story to write. I can't wait until I get to read all the stories. I was happy to see your name there, AJ!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is a huge Pern fan and I've read some of them, too. Great stories. My science is as real as I can make it, except I'm not a scientist.