Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Anthony Lawrence, Comics, Denise Crosby, entertainment, Ethan Lawrence, sci-fi

Do You Like Your Sci-Fi Short And Your Interviews To Be Moving?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2014 22:00:30 -0600

Do you like your science fiction stories short? Like really short? Like one page long? More like sci-fi pitches rather than stories… Well over on a website called fireballtim.com they are doing Hypershorts, a series of one page science fiction pitches written by Anthony Lawrence who worked on sci-fi classic TV like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits and his son Ethan Lawrence who has written for The Pretender and Eureka. They switch off back and forth. Here is the most recent one written by Anthony.

MEMOIR by Anthony Lawrence

Okay, so here's the story. I'm a rock, see. Yeah, that's what I said, a rock. I don't care if you believe me or not. Maybe you will in time. If a rock's got anything at all, it's patience. I was sitting there in that same spot for, oh, maybe a couple million years. What was I doing? Pretty much what most rocks do. They sit and watch and listen. That's what I did. Now, it's pretty obvious I couldn't communicate with anybody or anything. I don't have the proper apparatus for that. All in all, back then I was pretty much nothing more than weathered igneous debris, which is just silica, alumina and various other oxides making up the balance. But I still retained some organic molecules associated with ancient microbes. So, the fact is if you have some form of life sustained for a while, it can be there and do something and persist.

So anyway, I was sitting there for all that time watching the rise and fall of a various number of empire builders. Yeah, they'd come and go over the years for a variety of reasons. They fought for security, believing they could protect themselves by expanding into areas where threats might arise. They went to war for economic gain, taxing the people they conquered, collecting tribute in land and resources, taking prisoners for slave labor. Warfare was pretty much justified on the grounds of religious beliefs and conquest was considered the divine mission of the kings. I learned a thousand languages just sitting there and observing. Sometimes they'd make a road or a garden out of me but it was mostly just hanging around.

Over the centuries, torrential rains and shifting sands destroyed much of the mud-brick architectural heritage. Only crumbled mounds remained as evidence of the great cities. But as one would fall, another would rise to take its place. I saw slavery and entrenched social hierarchies. Some held great promise with literacy, sophisticated architecture, advanced economic interaction and, not least, the rule of written law. But then I began to see the death knell of education despite the fact that these sentient beings were beginning to create modern empires with vast and complex cities. Even in the modern world religion still seemed to retard progression and the differing theologies led to endemic warfare. These creatures just couldn't seem to create a world that valued all human beings more equally. Criminal and civil law dealt ruthlessly with anyone seeking to remedy the highly unequal distribution of property.

Then began again the violent process of collapse. But this time it was final, not only because cultural patterns were transformed beyond recognition, but because they refused to recognize that their addictive uses of fossil fuels was causing severe and totally destructive weather changes. So even the dark ages gave way to environmental catastrophe and the beings that I thought had such great potential disappeared from sight and once again I was left alone where the lakes and oceans dried up and beautiful lands became seas of my brothers and sisters. Another million years passed silently with only the wind and the sun caressing us.

Then, the Curiosity Rover came, scooped me up and took me to another world.

©2014AnthonyLawrence

Check out their website for more.

Now if you are asking who the heck is Fireball Tim? Well, that would be Anthony's other son and yes he is legally named Fireball Tim Lawrence. And not to be outdone by his writing brother, Fireball has worked in Hollywood designing vehicles for such movies as The Fantastic Four, Thor, The Green Hornet and more. And he has a hobby of taking brand new cars, picking up stars and interviewing them as he drives. Here is a recent interview he did with Star Trek alum Denise Crosby.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/apm_jAFs2Mk[/youtube]

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