Author Archives: CWJohnson
Clockwork Argument
Jorge sat down at the breakfast table. He was feeling good; he had slept through the whole night, and woken to gentle rays of morning sun curling their fingers around the window curtains. A bird sang in the distance, and even though it had been programmed to sing this song, he found the rising ditty … Continue reading
A Few Good Chincillas
It isn’t all fluffy bunnies and puppy dogs in the animal control biz. Well, there are a lot of fluffy bunnies and bathtubs full of puppy dogs, but there’s a darker side, too, and not dark like some nice shade to get out of the sun before you catch a raging case of melanoma, but … Continue reading
Cry for Me, Stara Zagora
Exercise Oct 11 2011 I know you won’t feel sorry for me. Stara Zagora is the most fabled city of the twenty-three real worldlines, and has sparkling echoes in nearly every of the one hundred and forty-four thousand shadow worlds. Perched on a marble hill overlooking a crystalline blue bay, the weather is near perfect … Continue reading
Bad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen originated as a small German seaside resort town on the North Sea, where a tiny geothermal vent pressed up through the narrow crust, producing hot springs with a far higher than typical sulfur content. Hence the name–in the marginal dialect of Lower Middle Flendish, “kissen” means “to break wind.” (It is a little … Continue reading
His Baryonic Life
He lay on the couch–a very tiny couch, so microscopic it took a cyclotron the size of an Ikea to resolve it–and told me his story. Here’s my story, Prof, he said. He was very still, though not quite motionless, but barely more than the quantum zero point motion. I was born in violence, Prof, … Continue reading
Make brains! Make Brains! or, The Laser of Life and Thought
Planetary atmosphere are entropy pumps. The surface of a atmosphere-clad planet is out of thermodynamic equilibrium, providing an inversion of available free energy, in the same way that a laser works through pumping a population inversion of metastable states. Life can be approximated as a classical refrigerator, using the locally available disequilibrium to pump out … Continue reading
Story Analysis: “Erosion” by Ian Creasey
Note: As part of my own personal effort to try to plot better, I plan to try to do some plot analyses of SF stories, mostly those published in Year’s Best collections. “Erosion” by Ian Creasey, from Year’s Best SF 15, Hartwell and Cramer, eds. (2010) Summary: in the 22nd century, Earth is (still) … Continue reading
Tenth anniversary gifts
for Donna, of course Ten seconds — a kiss. Ten minutes — hands clasped tight. Ten hours — warmth of our bodies nestled together. Ten days — a watch to count the seconds when we must be apart. Ten weeks — a secret joke only we two share. Ten months — salt tears for the … Continue reading
Remembrance of Time Defeated
The Hadronic Empress is startled awake by the sound of bleating klaxons. When she opens her eyes the flashing lights stab her vision, and she throws an arm, thin and wobbly like a chicken wing, across her face. She tries to uncoil herself from her gilded Throne of a Million Triumphs, but her left leg … Continue reading