Growing up – Lights In The Sky

Back to the future

By C Stevens | 30th June 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

I’m cutting it fine even by my recent standards with this month’s blog, writing it on the very last day of June. Apologies also for using a rather obvious SF film reference for the title, however it is appropriate because I’ve actually started a completely new literary project by reaching back into my past. However this doesn’t mean that Lights in the Sky has been abandoned; I’m roughly halfway through the eighth novel, and I’m enjoying writing my allegory of the Spanish Civil War, but finding the title that fits is still proving tricky.

But back to my new project; a very long time ago I spent two years living in Liverpool, not the smart tourist destination of today, but the crumbling remains of a once great port that featured levels of deprivation not seen elsewhere in the country, whose people had become the butt of national humour. I loved living in the city, even though I knew there was nothing there for me long term, and out of the experience came a song, Saturday night in another Western town, written in 1985, and the first really good song I wrote (for a long time it was the only good song!).

Looking back, the title was far too good to be wasted on a simple song, and after an inordinately long gestation period it’s finally become a story, set in ’pool at the time I was living there and featuring a protagonist who’s an amalgam of me and a friend of mine (now dearly-departed). The story is set in the world of local bands and the longing for fame and occasional brushes with success that characterise this milieu. It features (and will feature) incidents that actually happened, but being fiction, will take a turn into the might-have-beens of life. There will also be a time travel element to the story, as SF always lurks in my fictional universe, sometimes dead centre, but here more on the periphery.

At the moment, I have the basis for a good short story, or the first chapter of another long novel. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out…

The Author June 2021

Housekeeping

By C. E. Stevens | 29th August 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Housekeeping
Lights in the sky is many things: it’s a vast sprawling meta-novel of ideas and scientific, philosophical, societal, economic and theological speculations; its a series of picaresques; it’s a postmodernist tribute to my sources and influences; it’s a romance, an adventure story, a coming of age novel; it’s a mystery story with the author as detective; it’s all these things and more…
It’s also now finished…
Perhaps I should qualify this; the main narrative is complete, on both on Earth and on Alpha 5, we now know what happens to all of the protagonists, and have a fair idea of what comes next. We have followed our characters (for the most part) from birth to death, and the central enigma behind the world of the series has been laid bare.
However there are a number of other stories within this vast concept (six novels, 2314 pages, and nearly seven hundred thousand words) referenced or alluded to in passing, that I feel deserve to be told, either in short story form, or in additional novels. I’ve already started this process and written a number of short stories, which I intend to collect together at some point, perhaps under the title Tales from the Collapse.
But one or two of these stories would appear to merit a longer treatment. An obvious candidate is the story of the original Marta, Miss da Guia, from her strange conception as part of the breeding programme undertaken by the Alpha Mission, through her unusual childhood in Sao Paulo, her short-lived media stardom, and her brutal and untimely death…
I’ve just remembered that I have title for this putative novel, ‘When You Wish upon a Star’, which plays with various layers of meaning; The Journey to the Stars undertaken by the Alpha Mission carries the hopes of millions marooned on an apparently-dying world, Miss da Guia is a media star worshipped by those millions, and she is following her own star…
Given that the title I have arrived at neatly pitches the novel, I think it’s now highly likely that I will write it.
The other candidate a further volume is the fate of Clara and all the other automatons unlucky enough to have remained on Earth after the departure of the Probe in 2048. The leftover girl hints at the likely fate of such entities towards the end of the novel; Clara has been rejected by her creator Dr Helen Choi, who now sees the robot as the product of her pursuit of false scientific gods, of literally being in error, in Christian terms. By definition Clara is thus demonic, and shares the fate of the Creature rejected by his creator, Victor Frankenstein, in Mary Shelley’s famous novel.
We have also been given a glimpse of the forces of reaction ranged against the Alpha Mission and all its works in the person of the ‘Mayor of Ibara City’, the formidable Ester Almeida, and we know things aren’t going to end well.
I often think that the dichotomy within the series between ‘the scientific vision’ as exemplified by the Alpha Mission, and ‘the spiritual vision’ personified by the Camposettas and their adherents (including eventually Dr Choi), is essentially a dramatisation of a battle that I’ve fought within myself my whole life. A struggle between a belief in science (and its delinquent offspring, technology), and a countervailing attachment to the natural world, primitive socialism, and a non-specific form of spirituality, most akin to Buddhism.
Seen in these terms, Lights in the sky becomes an actualization of this inner debate…
The Author August 2019

Saying goodbye

By C. E. Stevens | 4th May 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

Saying goodbye

I left the majestic world of Alpha 5 once again, half an hour ago…
Perhaps I should explain; I have just finished the latest edit of the original Lights in the sky trilogy, and this gave me a chance to reassess my magnum opus. Each book has its strong points, its favourite moments, but I was reminded that the last volume, The Lost Colony, is the best of all. The last two chapters in particular are both gut-wrenching and unbelievably sad, as I say goodbye to the characters (both human and non-human) that I’ve lived with and loved. Of course, I will read these books again, but each time I return I will know that the story is complete, the lives of the characters have run their course, their entry on the slate of probability decided.
The reason for doing this edit was threefold: I had reached a natural pause in my writing of the last book in the series, Maya, secondly I knew that I would need to ensure that the ending of the series as a whole was consistent with the conclusion of the original trilogy, and this required me to re-read this (and re-reading naturally leads to re-editing!), and a third reason has emerged, I now realise that I will need to up my game if the series as a whole is to get the finale it deserves.
The appeal of the series is not merely emotional. The final chapters of the original trilogy contain a great of cosmological and philosophical speculation, and the task in finishing Maya is to be true to what has been revealed so far, and (if possible) build on these revelations. Each volume of the original series ends with a paradigm shift, where the nature of the world is shown to be at variance with what the protagonists (and the reader) had previously believed.
My challenge in finishing the series will be to pull off a similar trick at the close of the sextet as a whole. I know this will be difficult and so far the new paradigm has not emerged. But I have faith; in writing the series so far I have often felt the unseen hand on my shoulder guiding me towards the direction I need to go.
This is not intended to be a mystical explanation for the roots of my creativity, merely a restatement of the commonplace that a work of art (and this is especially true of an extended work of fiction) takes on a life of its own, and eventually starts to make its own demands.
I need now to listen and be in a position respond when these manifest themselves…
The Author May 2019

Blog entry twenty three: On the road

By C Stevens | 18th March 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

On the road is the first chapter of The leftover girl, a companion volume to the Lights in the sky trilogy. This chapter is now available on this website as a taster for the new and so far uncompleted novel.
The title is an obvious literary reference, but our hero is an independent young woman rather than stereotypical male character normally found in the ‘road’ genre. We’ve met Tata before, and her narrative picks up a few months after when we last saw her, at the end of chapter five of The lost colony.
The novel is cast as a picaresque with Tata as the roguish proletarian heroine living on her wits among the corruption of post-Collapse Earth. She can shoot, fix her truck, scavenge, find work and fuel etc…
Occasionally she uses her body as part of the transaction, but always on her own terms. We learn little about why she’s on the road, apart from that she is fleeing unspecified ‘trouble!’ We do learn that she has hopes and dreams, poorly defined though these are…
The opening chapter also introduces to the post-Collapse world, characterised by migration, lawlessness, and the sense that towns and cities are becoming more isolated as communication between them breaks down.
The narrative takes the form of a picaresque odyssey as our hero journeys west from Olinda, her home of the last fifteen years, into the interior. We are introduced by dream sequence and flashback to one of the other narratives that will constitute the novel.
A dream the adult Tata has, while sleeping out under the stars in the high sierra, introduces us to her childhood self. We learn about her relationship with her over-protective mother, and we are also introduced to the other woman in her life, her mysterious benefactor, Mrs Choi. If this all seems rather Dickensian, this is, of course, my intention. The leftover girl is an adventure story; the emphasis here is on story, as much as on character, form, or mood. Lots of things happen, and the action is episodic, but this deliberate!
The plot of the opening chapter concerns itself with two chance encounters; firstly, with the mechanic who sells her the methanol she needs to move onwards in her quest. Tata doesn’t have the money to buy all the fuel she needs, so they settle on a different kind of trade. Although brief and perfunctory, the exchange has long term consequences that only become clear later on.
Her second encounter, with refugee family from Venezuela, lasts much longer (in fact it temporarily interrupts Tata’s quest), and has far more emotional resonance, especially as it reminds our hero of what she has lost. But in the end, the urge to move forward overcomes the temptation to stay, as Tata runs away again…
C.E. Stevens – March 2017

Blog entry supplemental six: The leftover girl

By C Stevens | 3rd February 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

As I’m now more than one hundred pages into the prequel to Lights in the sky, currently called The leftover girl, although this may change (mainly because the ‘such and such girl’ as the title of a novel has become something of a publishing cliche in the last few years!). If it does change it’s likely to change to The leftover world which is also apposite. One decision I have made is to use my SF non de plume C.E. Stevens, rather than Stephen Clare. This is practical reasons as I can continue to use this website, and I am less likely to confuse potential readers.
As I’ve probably said previously the new novel is written in a mainstream SF style with magical realist elements, and is set entirely on Earth. It has three narrative strands; opening with the story of the protagonist as an adult, continuing with a flashback to Tata’s childhood and adolescence, and then the third strand which follows the life of a third character, Helen Choi.
The Tata narrative dramatises life in Brazil, and by extension throughout the world, following the Collapse (a breakdown of civilisation resulting from climate change and resource depletion). Helen’s story is essentially the story of the Alpha Mission.
The book thus tells the story of Earth in the run up to the departure of the Alpha Mission probe, and what happens afterwards!
There obvious crossovers both within the book, and between this book and Lights in the sky. Tata knew Mrs Choi when she was a child, but never knew why the old woman had taken an interest in her. Her quest is geographical (to reach the fable ‘free communities in Amazonia), but also spiritual (to discover the truth about her own life and origins).
Both characters appear in Lights in the sky, although Helen Choi is only referred to (by Han, she’s his role model!). Tata appears on three separate occasions; twice in dreams/visions experienced by Marta Fernandes, and finally in a chapter of her very own!
One possible strategy I may employ is to use this chapter (The Jungle) as part of the text at the appropriate point in the narrative, which a nice exercise in intertextuality.
My intention is to post the first chapter of the novel on this website on the near future to act as an introduction, once I settle the question of the title!

Blog entry twenty two: O brave new world

By C Stevens | 28th December 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

O brave new world is the suitably emotional climax to volume one, and is now available on this website. I make no apologies for pulling out all the stops on this one! The title is (of course) taken from Miranda’s speech in The Tempest, and was adapted by Aldous Huxley as the title of his famous novel.
In full the couplet reads ‘O brave new world, That has such people in’t!’
In the same way that Shakespeare’s ingenue marvels at the strange new visitors to her father’s island without being aware of the secrets they are concealing, the Children on Alpha 5 have hitherto marvelled at their world without comprehending its darker side…
The chapter marks the start of their disillusionment…
The title is doubly pertinent given the parallels between the eugenics practised in Huxley’s book, and the peculiar circumstances of the Children’s conception!
And at the end of volume one the world is remade, in a way that could not have been foreseen when the novel opened…
The shock and sorrow the crew feel after their friend Sal’s death is palpable to me, and I hope it comes over as forcefully to the reader; I have also tried to put across the new and unwelcome awareness of their own mortality that our little band all feel, as well as dramatising the sheer banality of what we experience in grief and loss…
Significantly it as Jorja who makes the overtures to Marta in the immediate aftermath, not the other way ’round. They have a mutual interest, the welfare of their friend, but it is the younger girl who has maturity, sensitivity and understanding to realise what is needed. This marks a change in Jorja, she’s growing up and making a conscious effort to become a better person, in the aftermath of her experience in the Barrier Range.
Marta, on the other hand, raises another nagging doubt about the benevolent intentions of the Nurses in their conversation on the way back to the Dome, although this is not immediately followed up.
Both girls find their new intimacy awkward, but grief makes strange bedfellows!
There are also further indications of Alphanian sentience (and, for the first time, possible benevolence) in their actions at the crash site, although Han, typically, is sceptical!
A few days later, we have a heartbreaking scene when Priya finally articulates her loss to Marta, together with her feelings of guilt that she wasn’t there to save him!
With the funeral coming up Jorja and Marta have to take charge and more or less shanghai Priya, forcing her to attend Sal’s funeral.
I’m also proud of this scene; both visually (where I reference the Lon Chaney film version of Phantom of the Opera), and for its dialogue.
Nurse Gee stage manages the event, and is of course, in her element! We learn that Salvatore was a practising Roman Catholic, and Marta’s observation as she views his corpse is based on personal experience.
Marta then makes a great speech where she articulates not just the grief our community feels, but also their collective hopes and fears in the troubling new world they find themselves in.
There are of course shades of Romeo and Juliet in Priya’s last goodbye to her love…
Time moves on; we join Marta and Jorge in a discussion which moves beyond the personal into metaphysics, as our heroine explains fully for the first time her new understanding of the world. This takes in predestination, the true meaning of her vision of the Midgard Serpent, and an overt reference to the ‘lights in the sky!’
Later they put their ‘modest proposal’ to Nurse Gee, and are surprised to find she is in full agreement with their plans. Later Marta is cynical about the reasons for Gee’s new enlightened viewpoint; the main narrative closes with Nurse Gee’s ringing declaration that signals a new chapter in the life of the Mission.
But we end with the vision Marta experiences when she links again with the Alphane sentience, foreshadowing some of what is to come later on…
So there we have it, book one closes, but plenty more to come…

Blog entry twenty one: Making amends

By C Stevens | 15th December 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

Making amends is very much the morning after the night before, when the consequences of Marta’s actions come home to roost. I misquote Genesis 1:1 in the opening passage (substituting world for Earth. as we are on another planet!).
Marta comments that the greyness she thought confined to her dreams has now penetrated everywhere; it has become actual, and has now invaded her waking hours! This is a reference (obviously) to the ‘…grey plain on which…[she]…walked forever…’ from Sleeping Beauty, and the imagery will probably be familiar to readers of the works of Philip K Dick.
The following day she observes, ‘…Now everything was sharp and painful…’ (in contrast to the peace she felt during her suicide attempt), ‘…[and] the world felt raw pitiless and unforgiving…’
I owe a debt here to the writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, specifically the scene in Season six when Buffy tells Spike of the struggle she faces just to keep on living after being returned from Paradise. This is not to suggest that Marta’s actions were justified, or that she was necessarily bound for a better place, merely that she sought release from a life she found intolerable…
Our heroine is left to her own devices for a day and half after waking from her coma; Nurse Gee comes to see her but merely informs her that she has been sedated and must sleep, the nursemaid tending to her does not (and maybe cannot speak!). The implication is that Marta is being made to confront her actions (and perhaps repent!).
When people do finally come to see her her their reactions are very different…
Priya is angry, and the scene where she castigates her friend for her selfishness and her thoughtlessness (and ask her why she doesn’t want to live!), still makes me cry…
Nurse Gee is next; as befits a machine she is not judgemental or emotional, in fact she is impressed by Marta’s insight, perception and initiative in solving another piece of the puzzle that is the Children’s origins!.
This is not the reaction that Marta was expecting, but gives me as author the opportunity to provide more background and furnish explanations for what has transpired, by putting this in the mouths of the main characters…
Jorge is next, and he’s scared because he thinks he’s lost her! But when he realises that he hasn’t, that she does now want to live, then their relationship begins to return to familiar patterns and they begin to speculate; this time on the nature of the Alphanian intelligence. This again is a device for putting across what could be indigestible information in a natural way; they are scientists after all, and one of the main ways they relate is through science!
Finally Nurse Amber appears with the twins, and she reproves Marta for her selfishness and stupidity, reminding her (like Priya) that she is now a mother and has a responsibility to her children. As Marta ruefully observes,
‘…my conscience is machine, who’d have thought it…!’
When we reach the coda, time has passed and things have returned to normal; Priya is proposing that they have ceremony, a formal recognition of the unions between all the couples, and is seeking Marta’s support for this!
But the chapter ends on a darker note, setting up a cliffhanger for chapter 22…

Blog entry twenty: The young person’s guide to time

By C Stevens | 11th December 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

This blog is designed to be read in conjunction with chapter twenty, The young person’s guide to time, now published on this website. The title is a riff on Benjamin Britten (for all you classical buffs), although I think it’s something of a misnomer; as our heroine is not being confronted with the true nature of time (at least not in this chapter!), but rather the true nature of her existence!
The opening section of chapter twenty was written several months before I reached this stage in the story; so there was always an element of trying to find a narrative pathway through to that particular moment in time, the moment when Marta has to confront the fact that she is not a unique individual, that she is not even a ‘real’ child. This serves to dramatise the fears that all children have at some point in their development; that they are not in fact the offspring of their parents, that they have no place in the world, that they are not special, and that no-one actually loves them!
When I first re-read this chapter I thought I had gone over the top; thinking that Marta’s reaction was too extreme given the circumstances! But while editing for publication I’ve changed my view!
My reaction was partly emotional; as I found (after a period of ambivalence), that I was moved once more, as I had been when I originally wrote the piece! But this was also an intellectual response; because when you factor in the peculiar nature of Marta’s upbringing (as a child with no parents), and combine that with all the traumas (admittedly, mostly self-inflicted) that she has had endure so far in her life, her suicidal impulse is entirely predictable…
But I do think I have put my heroine through too much; in the process stretching dramatic license to the limit ( this is fiction after all!), and if some hypothetical future editor were to suggest changes, one I would probably agree to would be reducing the number of times she is placed in mortal danger…
I like the language in the passage that opens the chapter; the moment when Marta concludes that she’s essentially a forgery achieves the lyricism that I strive for, and the rest of the chapter is basically a flashback to the events that led her to that revelation.
I also decided to lift the lid on the true nature of the Nurses (peeking behind the scenes of the Alpha Mission), presenting Six Gee as ‘she’ actually is, rather than how she presents herself to the Children.
The ‘Eve’s Rib’ passage in Marta’s final remembered dream is an obvious play on Christian creation mythology, Marta also misquotes Matthew 5.29 in line seven; and, of course, her first words (which also close the chapter), are adapted from Shylock’s speech in The Merchant of Venice!
As I mentioned, I went through a period where I became ambivalent about this chapter, thinking it was too melodramatic; but now I think that it is important to demonstrate that there are psychological consequences to the kind of trials that the Children undergo. All too often in contemporary televisual SF, the main characters experience things that would have most of us in therapy for the rest of their lives, without any apparent psychological damage; and I wanted a counterbalance to this.
It’s also important to stress that Marta is now ‘different’; she has grown-up, and views her world (the Mission, her companions, her partner, and Alpha 5 itself!), with a new kind of detachment, that distances her from everybody else.
And this is important for what is to come…
Happy Reading

Blog entry nineteen: Recovery

By C Stevens | 4th December 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

In chapter nineteen we’re back in the real world with a vengeance, and the consequences of Marta’s willfulness have become apparent…
The scene in the desert owes much to Wim Wenders classic arthouse film Paris, Texas, and the line ‘…her eyes fixed on her own far horizon’ is adapted from the lyrics of a song I wrote in the 1980’s while under the spell of that particular movie.
The landscape of Alpha 5 again becomes a character in its own right, with the scale and implacability of the landscape contrasted with the insignificance, frailty and sheer ephemerality of individual human lives.
A friend of mine recently said to me, ‘…I wish we could all go to your planet!’ and she hits the nail on the head, Alpha 5 is a means of escape (for me as much as anyone!), from a scary and increasingly hostile world; but I would like to make the point that although A5 is a refuge (both metaphorically and literally!), the ‘real world’ is still presented in this novel (most notably in chapter twelve), and the likely future consequences of our present actions are laid bare…
But this, after all, is the role of science fiction (or it should be!), the genre providing an escape from the real world, while at the same time commenting on it…
We can also glimpse the power relationships within the world of the Children, and it is clear that (in the absence of Marta) Priya, although the youngest, is the dominant personality.
The first two sections of Recovery are a fairly conventional search and rescue drama, but what surprised me is how much it moved me when I was re-reading it for the purposes of online publication. The eagle-eyed among you will have noted that Priya uses an outmoded version of CPR when reviving Marta after the rescue ’plane crash-lands. This is because the chapter was written before the new guidelines emerged; I’m minded to keep it that way, it’s my world after all!
In section three we return to the subjectivity of Marta’s unconscious mind. In essence this is a continuation of Sleeping Beauty; our heroine’s physical body may have been rescued, but her mind is still away with the fairies!
Section three, appropriately enough, uses a three part structure:
i) Marta’s debates the nature of Time with ‘the serpent’
ii) Marta as Goddess transcends the Cosmos
iii) Marta (as her childhood self) rides the very-slow-moving train and receives her gift from the Dark Lady
I’d like to acknowledge two influences here; firstly, the late Iain Banks’ wonderful second novel The Bridge, which has had a hold on my imagination since first reading; and secondly, Lewis Carroll (if you haven’t noticed that Marta takes the role of Alice in her exchanges with the serpent, then you haven’t been listening!).
Our sojourn in Marta’s unconscious ends when she wakes…
Another influence, which has only just occurred to me (even ‘though I actually quote his lyrics in Sleeping Beauty), is Jimi Hendrix’s 1983, which can be found on Electric Ladyland.
In section 4, we (and Marta), are back in the real world, and our heroine is finally facing up to the consequences of her actions…
There is some foreshadowing here (in Jorge’s reaction to Marta’s dream), and some bitter self-knowledge on her part; but Jorge’s love for her is able to transcend the barriers that have sprung up between them…
But then we always knew it would…
Bye for now

Blog entry seventeen: Disobedient child

By C Stevens | 5th November 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

After the introspection of the previous chapter, the action resumes in chapter 17. We’re also back with privileged third person narrative as Marta embarks on her long-threatened escape from the suffocating embrace of the Mission…
Disobedient child is self explanatory as a title; although sixteen, Marta still is a child, and even though she’s faced many dangers, she has, in a very real sense, been protected and cosseted by her minders! But rebellion is part of growing up, learning self-reliance and gaining independence; so we have to see her disobedience in this context…
Marta finally confronts one of the fearsome pseudo-crustaceans face to face in this chapter, and her ambivalence about doing so finds an echo in the different terms used to describe the Alphanian in the text. The extreme action she takes, in defying her protectors and risking her life in this way is indicative, not only of her alienation, but also of her wilful nature. Miss Fernandes knows she is right, and is prepared to risk her personal safety to progress her research and prove a point!
The chapter is deliberately episodic, and the sub-headings are designed to emphasize this (as well as being another nice narrative variation!); Disobedient child takes the form of a quest, and indeed Marta refers to her progress as an ‘odyssey’ just before she links to the pseudo-plant at the chapter’s close.
Her final comment before she loses consciousness is testament to both her self-absorption, and her nascent victim complex… She’s not called Marta for nothing!
I also wanted to describe Alpha 5 more fully, and convey a sense of how beautiful the world is, and how much Miss Fernandes loves the place of her birth… A5 is essentially Eden (you’ll not be too surprised to hear!), but it is an eden with both a past, and an uncertain future! The characterization of the planet in this way is essentially canonical, and a tribute to my influences…
There’s also a mythic, almost folkloric aspect to Marta’s quest, illustrated by the language used to describe her alien encounter. Obviously I’m aiming for lyricism in the prose; as well as psychological depth, and that old SF staple, ‘a sense of wonder’! As these qualities are by nature subjective, I’ll leave it to others to decide if I achieve this.
Marta engages in an exercise in Cartesian doubt when she questions her own conclusions regarding the vaIidity of the exchange between her and the pseudo-crustacean; but she decides that true communication (in the sense of a meeting of minds and an exchange of ideas) has taken place between a human being, and a member of another intelligent (and truly alien) species…
Incidentally the comment about true communication only being possible between equals was made by Friedrich Nietzsche!
Re-reading the chapter it’s clear that I owe a small debt to Quatermass and the Pit, and a slightly larger one to the short story The Sound by AE van Vogt.

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