A Place To Build Worlds, A Place To Write Well Of Them
Donna Hirsekorn
M. Alan Kazlev and I met on ICQ and discussed the possibility of writing together. Both of us were interested in esoteric concepts, particularly in writing. At this time I was writing esoteric poetry. With a strong interest in the science fiction genre I agreed to this work with him on a novel/movie script venture. After viewing his website I was very interested because a lot of his views were compatible with my own.
To write about the future takes a special acknowledgement of the past. Global histories,community histories, family histories all reflect actions on personal levels as seen by individuals and not en mass. No one can write about history without distorting it because of our genetic as well as environmental exposure to the world. Little lies that we all tell become legend after telling and retelling. The living of a life is never clear-cut when filtered through memories.
My ability to write about the future is a step into unreality and distortion based upon the notion of how the world is today and could be in the future. The history of Orion’s Arm is a look
into the future based upon the past and reflecting mirror images of humanity based upon
life as I know it and distorting it and stretching it as far as it will expand.
My main goal is primarily to keep humanity alive and well in Orion’s Arm. I think it is relevant that we have humanity portrayed in an elegant way and not just as pets, baselines controlled by intelligence of artificial life forms — better known as AIs. There should be characters that have risen head and shoulders above the crowd even with all the enhancements, but at the same time have foibles and defects.
Anders Sandberg and Bernd Helfert joined our developmental team and we emerged with a World Building Universe. Many people have joined in the efforts to produce a complete and comprehensive science fiction site based upon hard science. Thus Orion’s Arm grew and
everyone’s imagination and own life experiences have created a look into the future that has a prism effect of different histories, pasts, accomplishments, tragedies, comedies, forbidden worlds and worlds that are nothing more than utopias.
The idea of the Café OA Writing Workshop came from the short story that I wrote when out one night with my husband. I looked around and wrote the beginning of a story on a napkin. Within a short period of time the story was written. I was taking a Writing Workshop at the
University of North Florida at the time. In a classroom environment with 15 other people and their perspectives it opened my eyes to the world of other creative people giving meaningful critiques.
The Café OA was introduced, September 5, 2003 and since then we have produced and developed stories, art, poetry, music thus balancing out the hard side of Orion’s Arm. I think now that if my husband and I had never gone out that night and I had never written a short story called Cafe OA then perhaps the workshop would never have been conceptualized.