science fiction 19:31
This is an old story with quite twisted timeline. It’s about an apocalyptic future, with few surviving humans, and many robots. It has the unexpected ending — once you grasp what happened when. Apart from all of the above, it’s very unremarkable.
science fiction 14:23
Since I can’t remember why I wrote this short story, or what the title really means, I guess I can’t say much this time. All I know is that it was written back in 1997, and it’s just kind of a crime story with a touch of science-fiction. I admit that before posting it here, I read it like new. So new, that I could have sworn that it wasn’t written by me, if I didn’t know better. This is also based on the fact, that this is the second short story with a criminal vein that I post. Sometimes I wonder if I really write sci-fi and fantasy, because what I try to do is write about people, who just happen to be in different times and places than our own. And, in fact, I’m pretty stingy when describing the said times and places. I’ve always preferred the type of dialogue-driven stories of Heinlein, so this one might be considered uncharacteristic for me, because the dialogue is quite scarce, and not too witty at that. But who knows — someone might like it.
humor and science fiction 23:23
Imagine the human head as a computer. The eyes can be compared to the video card, the ears are the sound card. But that’s just the hardware. It is important alright, but it would just be a piece of junk, if it’s not for the software that makes it tick. The brain inside the skull is both hardware and software. Our short-term memory is just like the RAM, our long-term memory is just like the hard drive. There are all those subconscious processes going on in our head, that we’re unaware of, just like the processes in a computer — we see only those of them that are displayed on the monitor. But why imagine it — it’s exactly the same, so it’s got to be true.
I wrote this short story back in 1996, for the competition L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future. It’s an old piece, and it shows how much Bulgarian language constructions I have used at that time. Looking back, 11 years seem to be a lot of time (and experience, too). I still find it a fun read (hence, it’s categorized as humor) — it’s never been meant to be taken seriously. It was also the time when I adopted the pen-name El Volgero. I guess I do owe an explanation about it. So, here goes.
I admit I shamelessly stole the El part from El Greco. I’m not a great fan of painting, but I love the way his name sounds. So I took El; and the second word had to sound similarly, i.e. ending with O. Then I took a word, and made a simple letter transition. Let me put them one above the other, and it’ll be more clear.
VOLGERO
BULGARO
In our language, the letter B is substituted with V in some names from the history. For example, instead of Byzantium, we say Vizantia. This accounts for the first letter. O and U are often substituted in the oral pronunciation. L and G remain the same. A was substituted for an E just for melodiousness. The final R and O remain the same.
It also contains the name of the Volga, the river where our people lived by (Great Bulgaria — just north of the Black Sea), before fleeing from the consecutive Khazar invasion, and then biting a chunk of the Byzantine Empire in the seventh century, thus creating the country Bulgaria, south of the Danube, on the same territory it is now.
So, in the end, El Volgero simply means The Bulgarian.
But enough about me, just enjoy the story.
science fiction 11:31
I wrote a neat draft of the introduction, with a lot of questions. Then I said to myself, “You’re giving away the ending of the story again. The surprising part is supposed to be after the asterisks. Besides, do not insult the readers’ intelligence. They’ll see what you’ve had in mind. Or they’ll see what they’ll see, and that’s it.” I believe my inner voice was right. So I deleted the draft, and started the intro anew.
This piece was written several years ago, during a somewhat long period of unemployment for me. Suddenly I had too much free time on my hands, and nothing to do. Instead of focusing all my efforts on finding a new job, I took the skeleton of my dream of becoming a professional writer out of the closet, resurrected it, and got down to writing. When I gave this story to a friend of mine to read it, he said it reminded him of Minority Report. To this day, I still can’t find any similarities. Maybe you will.
science fiction 10:20
Fortune-tellers, soothsayers, seers, prophets — do we believe in them? Do we dare not to believe in them? Ultimately, there’s a grain of belief in even the most skeptic of us. Black cat, knocking on wood, breaking mirror, etc., etc. — insert your own superstition here. This is not about the answer. This is about the question: What if they’re right?
