"I believe in my dreams for my brain works hardest when I am asleep."
Aaron Showalter/Kansan .
Kij Johnson, a creative writing instructor, showed off the first two books in a three-part series Thursday at the Oread Bookstore in the Kansas Union. Fudoki, the second book in the series, is set in Medieval Japan. Fudoki has gained acclaim as one of the best fantasy and science fiction novels published this past year.
In this chapter, Candelaria wrote from the point of view of an alien bird that has been given the opportunity to meet the first diplomatic envoy sent by Earth. He nods and takes notes on his copy. Agnew started off this time and when he finished his appraisal, Seay laughed.
"I think you're being a mammal, Harold," Seay says.
Terms like "world building," "wing taboos" and "spot-on description" fly about this group like rockets intermittently bursting towards the stars. Sitting in with them is like bearing witness to a chop shop with a cadre of the world's top international chefs. Seeing them all together: Candelaria, Seay, Kij Johnson who recently published her new novel Fudoki you experience a rare and alien creative treasure in Lawrence. Experience now, how they formed through the work of James Gunn, a moment where they shined and what may be next.
Birth and Life of a Smaller Universe
At 80 years old, James Gunn, professor emeritus and director of The Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, sees some aspects of the future he dreamt of in decades past. He's witnessed technology progress from the day of the dime magazine to a world filled with flashing screens and racing circuitry. He's a rare link that connects science fiction's past with its future. More importantly he's the link that brought this group to Lawrence.
Today, he sits in his office flanked by books. Yellowed pulps and glossy new paperbacks crowd the bookshelves behind him. Titles such as H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Gunn's own series, The Road to Science Fiction are only drops in an ocean of words that fills the office space. Everything in it, from the Star Trek coffee cup sitting on his desk to the fantasy, inspired screen saver on his computer, makes this place a temple to
speculative thought and fiction. Gunn, calm and relaxed, is science fiction's equivalent to an all-knowing, soft-spoken Indian guru.
"I think science fiction today has a reached a comfortable middle age," he says as he leans slightly into his computer chair. The genre had a boom in the late nineteen sixties, he says, when the youth wanted more color in the books they read and a way to rebel against the conservatism of their parents. Because of this, schools at the time, especially colleges, started offering classes on the study of science fiction.
Gunn, in turn, having already made a name for himself in the genre by publishing numerous short stories, realized that if the genre was going to be widely taught in the schools, then teachers needed a way to be educated in it. So, in 1974, he started a summer seminar to help teach science fiction in class rooms.
As the years progressed, this turned into a conference of some the nation's leading science fiction writers such as Frederick Pohl and the late Theodore Sturgeon. Then, as sci-fi was losing popularity in the classrooms throughout America, the conference and seminar evolved into a writer's workshop. There is still an academic portion to the summer program, but the writers that the workshop produces are truly amazing.
The workshop is where the seeds of this group were planted. It began in the early '90s when a writer named Chris McKitterick, now a lecturer in the University's English department faculty and one of the bright new minds in the highly technical subdivision of hard science fiction, came to take part in the workshop. Once through it, he knew he enjoyed working with Gunn and the program. He left for few years to write technical manuals for Microsoft. Eventually he met Kij Johnson, another lecturer in the English department who has been
through the workshop, and they married. As the years passed, and they were living in Washington, they got a call from Gunn and decided to come back to Lawrence to help with center and to teach.
Then came Candelaria. He'd been involved in science fiction since he was 11 years old, he even wrote a novel at 16. When he came to Lawrence, he had no idea about the Center for Science Fiction. As he spent more time here, that changed quickly. He went through the workshop and found a mentor and a place where he knew he wanted to be. Today he works on numerous projects with Gunn, his own novel and teaches in the English department.
Eventually word of the success that writers, such as John Kessel and Patrick Cadogan, had who attended the workshop reached other striving writers. That's how Seay arrived. He'd heard of Gunn and wanted to attend a school where he could eventually perfect his craft. He too went through the workshop and now is working on his masters. He expects a short story to be published in Boys Life next summer.
Rocket On
Today they all gather again. It's the homecoming celebration and book signing for the returning hero, Candelaria. The Oread Bookstore is changed. In the back, a long table is set out with a set of books beside it there is a podium and in front of that there are about six rows of dark wooden chairs. People mill about drinking coffee. McKitterick, Johnson, Gunn, Seay and Candelaria are all there. So is Mitch Breur, vice president of sales for Galaxy Press, the publisher that released L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol. XIX.
Candelaria's grand prize winning story, Trust Is A Child, is the topic of discussion before things begin. In it, similar to the story he submitted to the writer's
group, he writes of a meeting between two species. One is human and the other is a gelatinous slug-like species, and they meet to come to terms on a peace treaty. Both sides are steeped in secrecy, and the story itself is filled with sense-numbing descriptions.
After a few minutes pass, people gather and the signing begins. Breur begins by explaining the contest. It was created to give unpublished writers a chance to get into the business. They have a contest every quarter of the year, and the winners from each quarter compete to win the grand prize. Every year the contest gets thousands of submissions from around the world. The top winners from the year earn a trip to Hollywood to receive their prize and to work with the masters of science fiction. Sometimes the writers get to mingle with Hollywood celebrities. When Candelaria won the grand prize he accepted the award from David Carradine of Kung Fu and Kill Bill fame. Following the explanation, Breur says that three of the last four Grand Prize winners have all been students of Gunn.
A wave of applause follows, then something special happens. Candelaria walks towards the podium with Breur. At this point, they both recognize Gunn. They present him with a massive set of books bound in glistening red leather of fiction by L. Ron Hubbard. Gunn walks up and accepts the gift, which will reside in the huge science fiction library in the Spencer Research Library. He stood there with Breur and Candelaria, bathed in the flaring camera flashes and applause. The group of writers taught and molded by Gunn beamed. It was a fine day for them. Their teacher recognized, their fellow reading and their futures limitless. They are true treasures in Lawrence, and they may just know what the future holds for them.
Patrick Cady, Jayplay writer, can be reached at pcady@kansan.com.
thursday, december 4. 2003
jayplay
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