Rebecca Carlson is a MG writer and blogger, a tremendous critique partner, and a fellow advocate for putting more science in kidlit science fiction. She is on her way to Hawaii (to live!), but promises she will soon write more of that story I want to read (hint, hint).
AND she is my first guest poster this summer!
Science Fiction for Breakfast
by Rebecca J. Carlson
My family loves science fiction. Right now my husband is reading “Ender’s Game” aloud to the children every night (editing some of the language of course), and we’ve enjoyed several other science fiction stories together in the past. But this happy habit can have a peculiar effect on our meal-time conversations:
This morning at breakfast I randomly burst into song, “Oh have you heard tell of sweet Betsy of Pike, who crossed the wide prairies with her husband Ike…”
My husband choked on his pancake, then came up laughing. “Sounds like an evil geneticist’s plot.”
“What?” I was confused.
“She crossed the wide prairies with her husband Ike!”
The kids burst out in a round of wild giggles.
“You wait, it gets better!” I said, then kept singing, “With two yoke of oxen, an old yeller dog, a crate full of chickens and an old spotted hog!”
My twelve-year-old son could barely breathe, he was laughing so hard. “What would THAT look like?”
“It would be the Prairie Monster!” I said, envisioning a grass-covered behemoth with chicken wings, cow horns, a curly tail, a human face, and a dog’s nose.
“I’m so sorry,” my husband chuckled, “I’ve ruined that song forever.”
“You’re not sorry. You’re proud of yourself,” I told him.
So maybe that’ll be the story for my next science fiction novel. Steam-punk geneticist Betsy of Pike creates the Prairie Monster.
Thank you, Rebecca! Aloha!
Since I live on the prairies, I hope the monster doesn't have a thing for cities. That would be a real downer. 😉
Ooo … I like that storyline. 'Twould be quite funny.
Can we have video of you singing that?
There's bad language in "Ender's Game?" Great book. One of the few in a series that has an even better sequel (though Xenocide kind of jumped the shark).
Ha ha ha ha ha! What a great breakfast that must have been! I wish I could have seen (and heard) it for myself! LOL! 🙂
What a funny breakfast! That would be an interesting manuscript.
I've never had my family members all reading the same thing. My children and I got into Harry Potter, but my husband never read it on his own. We did listen to Hatchett on a road trip, and it was nice to have that in common.
I'm convinced most of education of children happens around the dinner table (or breakfast in this case). Where else are you going to find out the repercussions of genetic engineering?? 🙂
Thanks for the guest post!
Thanks for your comments, everyone! I may whip out my ukulele and do a rendition for Youtube. With some big-budget special effects of the Prairie Monster of course.
What an awesome story! I can't wait to read it in book form. Also can't wait to read Ender's Game to my kids 🙂