Books

Hold Still the Sky started as a short story. It then evolved into a collection of short stories that was inspired, in small part, by Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. Hold Still has a stronger narrative through line than Bradbury’s collection as I do follow a certain cast of characters and I didn’t write the stories over years like Bradbury did but, rather, I wrote them over the course of a few months. For a while, I had the separate stories on sale in kindle versions. I took them down when I finished the story arc and collected it into the book. That’s why the subtitle is “the complete story.”

Kara, the main character in the first story (and then again later), was inspired by the Daedalus and Icarus myth. Her name is a play off the second syllable of Icarus’ name. I remember reading that myth when I was very young and hating it. I thought it was a horrible thing that Icarus should be punished for trying to reach for the heavens. Now that I’m older, I see a bit of wisdom in the story. But only a bit. I found a much more satisfying sense of striving in the novelization of the very first Star Trek movie (lovingly referred to by those who still, rarely talk about it as Star Trek: the Motion Picture or ST:TMP (“Stimp”)). I think I was one of three people who read that novelization. I can’t even find it now on amazon.com. There is a scene in which Captain Kirk meditates on his youth and what he calls (if memory serves) “the dream of the stars.” This dream, this longing drove him on to join Starfleet then on to be captain and to have all the adventures that we know he had (will have?). Kara has her own version of that dream. But she runs into some problems fulfilling it. First are the constraints of the post-mass eruption world she lives in. Second is her sense of duty to help others – to stay alive and help others stay alive. There’s also a robot dog named Dido. The more well-read of you out there will get the reference. My family actually had a dog named Dido when I was very young. I felt compelled to put her in as a character. My wife really likes Dido. The character, not the pet.