Raymond Frazee - TTC VBT

It is an honour to host Raymond on my blog today. 

Adrift Upon a Sea of Moondust

I’ve never made any secret that my favorite writer has been Arthur C. Clarke.  And why wouldn’t he be?  Were it not for him, I might not be where I am now—which some would say is struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck, but I beg to differ.

Clarke was the first one I read when I decided to set up from kids books to adult readers.  The first adult novels I read were actually part of a two-novel omnibus.  Earthlight was on the front end, and A Fall of Moondust was the second feature on the bill.  As far as science fiction goes, both were short novels, both were very easy to read—and for some reason both touched me quite well.

See, I have a mind that wanted to get “out there”.  I make no secret that, as a kid, I was a geeky little dude who had very little in common with most of the people I joined in school every day.  True, I might have watched Chicago Cubs baseball every day on WGN, but when I wasn’t watching that, or a monster movie in the afternoon, I would start looking for something to read.

Clarke’s prose was easy to read.  His characters were always competent and almost never ruffled, which is how you expected people living in space to be.  Yes, he loved to put robots out there to explore, and he tried to stick as close to “hard science” as possible, but it always made it so damn interesting.

2001:  A Space Odyssey.  I loved the movie, but the novel was so much better for me, to be honest.  I missed that they didn’t go to Saturn in the movie, that they didn’t find the monolith on Iapetus, and that they didn’t name the Star Gate—first time I read those words.  I loved that Discovery had wings.  And that book was the first that showed me how you could have two different versions of the same story, and each, in their own way, would give you something that would make you think.

However, I liked 2010:  Odyssey Two, much better.  I liked the complexity of the story.  I liked how the Chinese were the ones that discovered life on Europa, and paid for that.  The feel was so much better, and the departure from Jupiter was better than in the movie.  I read through that novel maybe two dozen times, and there are parts of it that are committed to memory.

It’s funny that my writer voice isn’t more like Clarke, but that doesn’t matter:  one could see his style change over the decades, and a lot of that was due to illness forcing him to rely on other writers to actually write the novels, while he told them the story.  You can see the change during the Rama Series, when the second book, Rama II, starting roaming away from the original novel, both in prose and style, and by the time Rama Revealed was published, the original story arc was completely off the rails.

Still, I miss Arthur.  I feel fortunate that I grew up at a time when I could say, “Oh, new Arthur Clarke novel!” and spend a day or so with that sucker.  I can look back over the books I have, and love and cherish them, remember how they made me feel when I read them, but I know there will never be more.  They are finished.  They are done.

Come to think of it, I think Arthur would have wanted it that way.  After all, he was one of the first people to take out the whole universe, so dealing with the end wasn’t that big of a deal for him . . .

Which reminds me:  why isn’t Childhood’s End a movie?  Why does Hollywood spend nearly a billion dollars on three movies about toy robots and blowing crap up, and one of the greatest novels ever has been stuck in development hell since the 1950’s?  Do you need a story?  I’ll write the story for you, Jack:  I did it in my head during a trip to China.  Are you worried about how the Overlords look?  Are you worried it talks about evolution?  Are you worried it actually has some real science in it that might confuse people?

The hell with it.  Don’t make a movie.  But, everyone:  read it.  See what science fiction can be when one decides to go beyond the realm of the possible into the impossible.  See what happens when someone allows their mind to open and consider so many different things.

See what can happen when one sets out to write something that’s not just filler, but will still entertain while making you think.

If Arthur left us nothing else, he left us Childhood’s End.  And you owe it to yourself to read it.

If only, for a moment, so you can understand what it’s like to imagine greatness.

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Blog: http://wideawakebutdreaming.wordpress.com/

Bio: A long time resident of Northwest Indiana, Raymond Frazee has long dreamed of joining the writers who grace his bookshelves. And now he is making that dream come true--

His first story, Kuntilanak, was self-published September, 2011. His second story, Captiavate and Control, as published by Naughty Nights Press, in May, 2012. Both can be found on Amazon,Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. At present (June, 2012), he has two novels that are currently being considered for publication.

He sincerely hopes that you, the reader, enjoy his stories as much as he enjoys writing them.