Ask the Author: John M. Burt
Answered Questions (9)
John M. Burt
My late wife had a very distinct and detailed memory of going out onto her high school's football field with her science class, where the science teacher set up a short wave radio so they could listen to the beeping of Sputnik I, the first satellite ever launched into orbit, as it passed over Portland, Oregon.
But . . . she was graduated from high school in 1955. By the 4th of October, 1957, when Sputnik I was launched, she was married and living in another state.
She was a woman of very sound mind and meticulous about details, so how could she have gotten such a substantial thing wrong? Is there anything besides a satellite that her science class could have been listening for that day, which they could have been listening for? Is there any way she could have conflated her high school science class with any other situation in a different state?
Could she have, at some point over the years, slipped from one timeline to another . . . ?
But . . . she was graduated from high school in 1955. By the 4th of October, 1957, when Sputnik I was launched, she was married and living in another state.
She was a woman of very sound mind and meticulous about details, so how could she have gotten such a substantial thing wrong? Is there anything besides a satellite that her science class could have been listening for that day, which they could have been listening for? Is there any way she could have conflated her high school science class with any other situation in a different state?
Could she have, at some point over the years, slipped from one timeline to another . . . ?
John M. Burt
1) If I am allowed to take things home with me, I would go with my wife to visit John Varley's Eight Worlds so we could get our bodies refurbished without any obvious external changes.
2) If I'm not allowed to take anything away, I'd like to visit Robert Heinlein's version of the year 2017, and take a tour of the (densely-inhabited) Solar System.
2) If I'm not allowed to take anything away, I'd like to visit Robert Heinlein's version of the year 2017, and take a tour of the (densely-inhabited) Solar System.
John M. Burt
Alas, I am not that John Burt. I run into John Burts, or other people seeking John Burts contact me (sometimes police -- eek!), that I used to send out membership cards in the John Burt Society (motto: "My name is John Burt").
The worst John Burt of all was a pastor in Florida who had goaded one of his followers to murder a doctor for performing abortions -- and the scumbag even looked like me!
Anyway, I do hope you find your John Burt. My guess is he will be delighted.
The worst John Burt of all was a pastor in Florida who had goaded one of his followers to murder a doctor for performing abortions -- and the scumbag even looked like me!
Anyway, I do hope you find your John Burt. My guess is he will be delighted.
John M. Burt
I am never not inspired. That's not intended as a brag, just an observation. Inspiration happens. It probably happens to you, too, but you might need to work at it to notice when it happens.
John M. Burt
A novel set in a world where Victor Frankenstein was a real person, and his commercial manufacturing of "hoovers" (ouvriers) has changed the world.
John M. Burt
As you write, remember the proverbial million words of garbage you must write before you reach the good stuff, but never *intentionally* write garbage -- give every page your best effort.
John M. Burt
I have never not been a writer. I wouldn't know how not to be one.
John M. Burt
I put aside the story I'm working on, and work on something else. I have dozens of files on my hard drive, some only a single sentence long, of stories I will finish some day: the boy who wants to know who lived on Mars before the terraformers arrived, a special ceremony at the Tranquility Base monument, a "herebote" delivering the mail in a high-fantasy world, what happened when Gandhi confronted Hitler, &c.
John M. Burt
My most recent book, The Christmas Mutiny, was inspired by the historical Christmas Truce of 1914, and my first thought when I heard about it: how could the soldiers ever have brought themselves to go back to fighting?
Most of what I write is based on the same sort of question: what if Victor Frankenstein had been a real person, and his discoveries had inspired a biology-based industrial revolution? How would an elderly misanthrope who had decided to cross the Pacific on his own react to a young stowaway? How would saving President Kennedy from assassination have changed history (if at all)?
Most of what I write is based on the same sort of question: what if Victor Frankenstein had been a real person, and his discoveries had inspired a biology-based industrial revolution? How would an elderly misanthrope who had decided to cross the Pacific on his own react to a young stowaway? How would saving President Kennedy from assassination have changed history (if at all)?
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