Anybody else want to give this one a shot?
"Bugg in the System"
Johnny Bugg works as an asteroid miner. He enjoys the solitude of operating the mostly AI controlled mining machinery on the tiny planetoid Cantinflas, processing ore to send metals to the factories on bigger worlds. He likes his occasional encounters with Niall Sedge, the operator of the mining shuttle that brings him supplies and takes away his product. But one day, Niall does not show up, the shuttle is being operated by a beautiful and sexy woman named Liana. But Liana really is Niall and she wants a closer relationship with Johnny now. How can two old friends cope with a totally new relationship in a society where gender is more like a brand name than a personal identity?
Hugs,
Erin
Comments
Sick
Are you sick or something?
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
Well, yes...
I've been ill for a while (nothing Sirius) but I'm also near the middle of my 8th decade. I have a couple of decades of story ideas already and new ones are sort of surplus. I'm not anticipating an imminent demise, just an eventual one.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Is the AI a third character?
Does it just work? Or does it converse with Mr Bugg? Does it make jokes and express sincere concerns for his well-being? Does it harbor hopes of seeing lots of little Buggs running around the asteroid?
I have to say I never thought you were in that age range. You certainly give a very young vibe.
- io
Whoever writes the story can
Whoever writes the story can answer that question. :)
Most of the time I'm not feeling my age so much, but the lack of exercise the last couple of years has taken a toll on my stamina.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Youth
Erin- you're the personification of my favorite essay.
Youth
Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips, and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair - these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being’s heart a love of wonder; the sweet amazement at the stars and starlike things and thoughts; the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what comes next, and the joy in the game of life.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, grandeur, courage, and power from the earth, from men and from the Infinite - so long are you young. When the wires are all down and the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then are you grown old, indeed!
by Samuel Ullman
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Thanks, hon
These old knees need encouragment. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Continuing another's story.
I was in a creative writing group until COVID wrecked it.
We would select a photo from among those brought by our leader, then each of us spent 20-30 minutes writing a story inspired by the photo. Of course the stories were vastly different. And usually very good.
An 'outsider' reading the stories would likely pick the photo out of a line up. But a (different) outsider would be hard pressed to imagine/describe our starting photo.
I think it will be the same here. Vastly different, and with more time to write, very good stories.
---
A (perhaps better known, but non-TG) "continuation" is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_Star.
This story is right up my
This story is right up my alley. I'll give it a go. :)
And I agree with everyone else. You do give off a young vibe. I thought you were a lot younger,