All posts by Jeremy Varner

“New Sci-fi” Part One! The “Huh?”

Okay, I’ll be honest, I’m bad at this blog updating thing. Though I don’t know of anyone who’s really any good at it. I guess it’s just hard for me to sit here and talk to myself and possibly one other person when I can just simply go and do that on a regular basis. I mean, I can talk to myself anytime I want to, usually do. And as for the idea of talking to one of the few people who even realizes this page exists, well that’s just a message away.

Still, there are a few topics worth discussing here that I feel would be beating a dead horse if I kept talking about them to others on a regular basis… plus I kind of stopped listening to myself too. So I guess if the blog has a function at all it would be to vent the things that have built for a few days (or weeks, or months) and get them out in the open 100%. And what’s got me stewing this month? (aside from the sun)

“New Sci-fi”

Continue reading “New Sci-fi” Part One! The “Huh?”

Life’s too short

For a while, looking to have some regular content, I considered analyzing books from a psuedo-futuristic perspective. I thought it was a pretty witty idea. After all, after hearing enough lunatic concepts of what writers must have been thinking when they gave a little girl a red cape, I’ve come to appreciate that people who analyze fiction are often looking for something more than is actually there. To me, that’s hilarious. But then something happened…

See, when it came time to sit down and think about the books or series to review in this fashion, I realized a few things that were troubling to me. First, I couldn’t think of many books or series that I figured would survive past our generation that I could analyze in a real tongue-in-cheek fashion. Second, of the ones I could think of that I could poke fun at, none of them seemed truly worthwhile to me. Third, Edward was a vampire. Fourth, I honestly didn’t want to go there.

Not to say that I don’t see a point in analyzing that which shall not be named. On the contrary, I analyze it often, because there’s a troubling undercurrent to the concept that it exists and that it’s as popular as it is. Quite honestly, I don’t think those around me understand why exactly I analyze it as much as I do, they all know my opinion of it, but at least one of them would rather I just shut up about it. For one thing, no, I am not a fan of it. I can’t say I entirely hate it either because I really feel more of a neutral curiosity towards it. You see, it brings my world view of the industry as a whole into question.

Continue reading Life’s too short

The Bunny

Easter’s coming and I have something to get off my chest. Something’s bugging me and it’s time to set the record straight. Time and time again I’ve heard the same joke: “What does a rabbit have to do with Easter?”

You see, the problem with Easter’s traditions is that they’re not really from a Christian holiday so much as a Christian holiday overlapped them (like Halloween). In fact, when you look up the origins of Easter you start to realize just how much the holiday has stayed exactly the same but was given a different story.

Continue reading The Bunny

Impact!

While searching for music to inspire me, I found something interesting. I’ve been working on a short story to submit to this anthology that required an overall theme of music and needed to find just the right kind of music to really drive me. But when I asked for suggestions, I found something else to inspire me that I hadn’t expected. I found a little piece of my own memory.

Continue reading Impact!

The “Little” Details

Over the last few days, my relatives have been posting on Facebook about how terrified they are of things going on in politics. They have this irrational fear that their world will be completely turned upside down in an instant. Sadly, it’s more common for changes to be incremental and gradual over time even if they’re desperately needed. So when they share those posts it’s usually not rooted in reality but instead in their personal fears.

Personally, what’s going on at a federal level doesn’t worry me often. I’m generally optimistic that, even if we backslide, we’re always headed in the right direction. And, if we aren’t, that there’s something we can do about it (…no matter how slowly).

No, the thing that bothers me the most in the last few weeks is going on in Texas. As of this writing, Texas has been doing their 10 year review of the curriculum. It’s a simple process, almost simple enough to have been explained by School House Rock, which I’m sure would have had some detractors today…

“I’m just a bill, yes I’m only a bill, most of congress refuses to read me still.”

But, because it’s so simple that people don’t realize how big an impact it’s going to cause. And, as it happens under our noses, they’re doing some not so kosher things.

Continue reading The “Little” Details

But I’ve never been to Kansas

I’ve been, happily, calling myself an “aspiring author” for a long time. Saying it is my way of reminding myself that I’m still working towards my goal without actually having been there. I know I’m also a writer. After all, I’m doing it right now. But the term “author” so often carries with it that feeling like you’ve actually accomplished something and only arrogant jerks try to use it without having done so. Even some published authors have never actually referred to themselves as authors in public, it would be a “douche” move.

So I call myself an aspiring author, which is akin to saying I’m a daydreamer with a keyboard. Sometimes, that thought haunts me.

“Oh god no,” you say about now, “not another writer complaining about how hard their life is!”

Nope, not complaining. I’m sure I could and no one would notice, but I’m instead going to discuss what form this “haunting” takes! What form is that you ask? Tornadoes!

Continue reading But I’ve never been to Kansas

A Brave New World

Last week, I was thinking about how self-centered the human race is as a whole and how we tend to do things that put us at the center of our personal worlds. I got off on a tangent, ironically starting to think about myself. But I come back to it a week later remembering why I was thinking about it in the first place.

We’re starting to create new life.

It’s a cute little toy, but it represents the way we approach a lot of this. We make them look like us, we make them sound like us and, theoretically, to serve us. But there’s always this assumption that they would somehow think like us too. Why? Because many of us assume that our morality is an objective morality.

Continue reading A Brave New World

What’s in a name?

After some poking, prodding and a little helpful advice from someone identified to me as a “published author” I have come to start a blog. Something about the idea of doing one of these has always chafed me slightly. Maybe it’s because in this day and age it seems that everyone has one of these in some form or another. Though if I try to be a non-conformist and buck the trend it would mean I’m trying to be an individual… just like everyone else. We’re all precious and unique snowflakes until we get added to the pile, after all. Still, it can’t hurt much to have a space to air my observations, display some of my work and share the curiosities I’ve seen around me.

So I broke down, signed up for an account and got to work on setting up a blog for myself. Most of it was an easy enough endeavor: sign up an account with an e-mail, put in your personal information, choose a template. But there was one detail that escaped me for some time and required a small focus group to try to tackle: the title.

Continue reading What’s in a name?