View Single Post
Old 05-25-2010, 12:59 AM   #39
Randolphlalonde
Author
Randolphlalonde has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.Randolphlalonde has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.Randolphlalonde has a complete set of Star Wars action figures.
 
Randolphlalonde's Avatar
 
Posts: 55
Karma: 284
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Ontario, Canada
Device: iPhone
The general consensus of the Mobileread and Syfy forums as well as my blog, the twitter activity on this, Email responses and the threads on Facebook commonly agree that alcohol has a future. That’s actually a good thing for the series of books I’ve written and continue to work on.

As for the side commentary on the topic of self censorship, well, it was far over blown. The simple truth is that these science fiction books have nothing to do with substance use or abuse, and the reason why I reduced the mention of non-alcoholic substances was because I didn’t want drug use to steal attention from the story and characters. If some Church Lady came along and started screeching about heavy drug use, well, she’s either overreacting or I overdid it on the depiction of substance use in the book, handicapping my own main plot. Why bother risking any of it when it’s not central to the story?

What have I decided after reading the thousands of words written on this topic over the last week or so?

Well, space opera is a funny space to write fiction in. Before drugs and alcohol were used as a tool to help set a scene. Now I feel I can employ them in to a sub plot that I've been considering, and I'm fairly certain that they'll help support the main story in the way I'll be using them, not draw attention away from it. More will be happening in social settings as well, so the role of a casual drink or five at a favorite watering hole will become more visible, and while they will serve alcohol there, other substances and “treatments” will be featured as well.

There will be a nod to consequences and that includes addiction. Why would addiction go away in the future? That’s something so many people supposed, and frankly, current day studies on soon to be approved pleasure substances prove that drug and “leisure substance” companies are constantly trying to find ways to make the new buzz as addictive as possible without breaking the law. That’s not even considering the back room chemist, who is a growing concern in smaller towns across Europe and North America. His stuff is so addictive that, according to addicts, entire lives change with one hit.

Now that I’ve had your help, and I’ve been led down several different paths of consideration, I’ve decided that the future is bright (or dark, depending on your point of view), for alcohol as well as other substances in Spinward Fringe. In fact, I’m ready to write it all in stone. The alcohol loving characters in my little science fiction series will have plenty to drink. The characters inclined to enjoy chemicals will do so right along side them, and the cyborgs will have their neural manipulation software packages and memory packets.

I’ll still balance all that so it doesn’t overwhelm the main plot, but that’s something any writer should do. Thanks to this debate, however, I’ll be using all the brushes in my kit to paint a broader, more interesting backdrop when it comes to what people are up to in night spots and watering holes.

Bring it on Church Lady.

[If you'd like to see the Spinward Fringe Encyclopaedia entry, you can find it on my blog: http://randolphlalonde.blogspot.com/...dia-entry.html]
Randolphlalonde is offline   Reply With Quote