ChrisBFL

Just a thought but as a science fiction fan, I see lots of interesting technical interaction but not to much human interaction with respect to men and women (and no, not inter-species relationships either). So, in writing my book, I really anted to include real man-woman relationships as part of the over all theme of the book (human realationships against a back drop of aline invasion. Tell me if this works. I have a couple of agents showing interest in the book:

Even though the air inside the hanger was comfortable, Hewette felt a chill cross his body when he read the second document...” Alexi? Director Romanov… you’ve seen these?”
“Da… ah yes we have. We have seen them and accept the data as accurate”
“And your opinion?” Colin asked.
Konstantine Romanov drew himself up in a stoic, almost heroic pose. “It is a difficult proposition we face but face it we must. Had it not been for the incredible good fortune of discovering the alien probe we would have not known anything until these visitors appeared in the skies above our world. Now by grace of God we have been given time to prepare and if we must… we fight! We have a saying, Russians never give up. This must now include all mankind. It looks as if we may be facing the very survival of our species.”
With that sobering thought, Colin and the others entered the car and Romanov directed the driver to head north east to Star City, the cosmonaut training center and rocket design facility. As the ZIL threaded its way though evening traffic, the darkening sky lost its last shades of orange from the earlier sunset. The lights of clubs and restaurants came on along with the warm glow from the windows of apartments. Here families were gathering for dinner, lovers were embracing and people were enjoying the companionship of just being friends. Colin Hewette and Marina Asamova both shared the same disturbing thought, of the blissful innocence of those behind the passing windows, an existence unaware of the terrible secret shared by the occupants in the passing car. They were oblivious to the sword now hanging over their heads.
As they drove on, Marina moved closer to Colin and, exhausted from her non stop work on the alien transmissions, laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Colin carefully reached down and draped his leather RAF jacket over her thin frame and slipped his arm around her shoulder. The tension had drained from her face and she fell into a pattern of soft rhythmic breathing. Her dark hair fell across his own shoulder. He hoped she would be able to rest until they arrived at Star City. Then he considered the situation. Yes, he was very attracted to her and yes he felt an attraction from her in return but falling in love? Was that an option? Love meant commitment. Commitment meant a life together. What if his worst fears were correct and any life together would end with the arrival of alien invaders? The last data he looked at from Marina and Jake Feinberg certainly supported his deep concern. Now all that was needed would be the photographic images from the thirty meter telescope. If these images showed what he suspected they would, then his worst nightmares would be confirmed.


and:

“I would love to do that Doctor Hewette but unfortunately these men have the protection of diplomatic immunity and are well protected so long as they remain in the Chinese embassy. However, Ukrainian security agents will be watching out for the both of you, so please rest assured we will guard your safety. One last thing, I received calls from both Washington and Moscow simultaneously concerning this incident. What is it that you and Marina Asamova are involved with that would bring such unwanted attention by the Chinese?”
“Sorry major. We cannot say. This is a security matter between our respective governments. I hope that you understand.”
“Of course I do. I have been in this business quite a while. Good night Doctor Hewette. Spkoinya notche Doctor Asamova.”
Marina turned to Colin, “Oh my God. You were so brave! You saved my life, saved both of our lives… I want to say that I feel very safe with you and…I want to say that you should cancel the second hotel room. I want you with me in my bed tonight and every night… Okay?”
Colin held her close to him and kissed her. “I’ll cancel one of the rooms in the morning. As for now, your place or mine..?”
The night that Colin Hewette and Marina Asamova shared was one of deep emotional as well as physical intimacy. The soft light of the dawn sky, now free of clouds filtered through the curtains and into their room. Colin felt as if he were floating up to a bright surface through warm honey. He came fully awake to find Marina’s head nestled in against his shoulder. He had not felt such peace and contentment in many years. Looking over at the beautiful line of her jaw, her long eyelashes and dark hair, he knew that he was in love; something that had been missing from his life for a very long time. As he listened to her rhythmic breathing, her thoughts still far away in a land of dreams, the weight of his responsibility to be a part of defending the Earth somehow seemed much lighter to him. He held Marina closer to him and closed his eyes; Morning could wait for them just a little while longer.
Later as Marina came out of the bathroom, she saw Colin sitting on the edge of the bed with his personal data partner, a palm top computer that he always carried.
“Anything interesting that you are working on Colin?”
“No, I’m just deleting some unnecessary files that I no longer need.” Once again he glanced at the data file with the names of eight very attractive women with addresses and telephone numbers from Florida to California. Then hit the enter button on his palm top. A little box came up asking if he was sure that he wanted to delete these files. Colin quickly clicked “yes” and closed the mini-computer’s cover and at the same time opened the door to commitment with Marina.

WriterDude

Hm... I like parts of it. Your writing is good and the whole alien attack never quite gets old if done right. But that said, I can't really comment on the overal story without knowing more.

As for the "romance and sex" part, maybe it's just me, but I don't get what you are asking. What's the big deal about romance and sex in sci-fi that makes it so much different than any other category? To me, all it comes down to is two people (or creatures) in love with each other. It's been that way since we first discovered sex, and it will stay that way until mankind is eventually destroyed. I would imagine aliens have it the same way, unless they are fundamentally different from humans. Personally, I think everything should fit into the story without drawing too much attention away from the main story. Colin and Marina fall in love and spend the night together? That's fine by me, but how important is it to the rest of the story? Enough to write an entire paragraph talking about their... spending.... in detail, or would a simple "They kissed and walked towards the bed" do? The reader knows what happened next. It's a though decition, and more important, yours. I'm just giving you my advice as best I can.

And last, what do you mean with "science fiction" anyway? Sci-fi is a very loose term. Dune is about two rival families fighting over control on a specific planet and rated one of the best sci-fi stories of all time. While there aren't really aliens in it (some, but only a few unimportant ones), it does take place on several planets and involve space travel in some way. Star Wars include a lot of aliens, space travel, strange technology and you name it. Then there's Terminator, which could easily have been a true story if we have killer robots in the future. All of these fit into the sci-fi category. Sci-fi is far more than just aliens and space travel, you know.

But in the end, it's your decition. If you want more romance and sex in sci-fi, by all means go ahead and write some. The best advice I can give is that you write stories you want to read. It's the best way to get a really good story, and if a publisher doesn't like it, go to the next one. And the next one, and next one and so on. Eventually someone will pick it up and publish it.

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ChrisBFL

Thanks for the comments. I am trying to build aroud my two cental characters within the story. I like a lot of sci-fi as well as military fiction but often too much of the human element seems to be missing. Anyway, thanks. That is exactly what I saind in my pitch to the literary agents I had sen this to. I wrote the kind of novel that I like to read.

JosephB

Romance and sex in science fiction? Most science fiction readers don't get much of either, so it's probably not going to work.*

*I am joking. Kidding. Not being serious. So un-wad those drawers guys. I just refuse to use smilies.

I think a lack of honest interaction between actual humans seems to be missing from a lot of sci-fi. Probably one of the reasons I'm not a big fan. So go for it. But of course, this is just my impression based on reading a smattering of sci-fi, so a real fan is going to give you better read.

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WriterDude

Again, Dune, Star Wars, Star Trek and quite a few other sci-fi stories have a lot of romance in them. I just think it depends a lot on what you call "science fiction". Sci-fi doesn't have to include aliens, space travel, the future, past or anything. It can be as simple as modern people in a modern world using modern equipment. Like the movie Day After Tomorrow, it's kinda a sci-fi movie. It takes place in the present world, doesn't have super-gadgets from the future, aliens or anything. Or The Core, which is all about traveling to the core of the earth. And what about Jules Verne? That's classic sci-fi at it's best, and there's no aliens or high-tech gadgets anywhere to be seen. Mostly, at least.

And on top of that, I don't see why the "sci-fi" part even matter in the first place. A great story is a great story, sci-fi or no sci-fi. If the story is great, who cares about romance or lack of it? Either way, go for it. I liked it so far, although you might want to re-write the last part a bit. "You saved my life! Weeee! Let's have sex!" Sounds just a bit too cheesy for me, like you have a sex scene just to have a sex scene. But that's just me.

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Brendan N

I'm thinking that, for a sincere attempt at incorporating love and sex into sci-fi, this is far too rigid. If the romance and sex is functional, don't turn it into too much of a euphemism, don't put it through the filter of sci-fi. You might want to introduce a contrast between the emotional character interaction and the inflexible technomilitaryhooha.

If this more character-centric aspect has a significant role in your story, I suggest you look at the way other writers/storytellers handle it. The film Solaris (the one with Clooney) does this very very well, and though it is firstly a love story and secondly sci-fi, the sci-fi is still central. Make sure both elements complement each other.

The latest rendition of War of the Worlds, however, does not sufficiently establish a connection between these two aspects for me, felt the aliens where too interchangeable with Nazis or whatever.

Anycase, I'm rambling. You're writing is good, and seems to achieve what it needs to where intimate character interaction is not too involved. But I think you can take character interaction, especially love and sex, to where few sci-fi novels have been. I agree with writerdude - the "thanks-for-saving-me-ima-bang-you-now" isn't convincing. I also have a few gripes with the main character, but they are nitpicky, so unless you are interested I'll not divulge.

hope this helps, would love to see more on this! I think it's a largely unexplored area and I think you can do a lot of new things with it!

ChrisBFL

Hi
Thanks for the positive comments here. I think what I am trying to contrast is the difference between my aliens (a non-human collective intelligence, like African Army Ants) and my human characters. Also, I wnated to show how individual priorites in human relationships radically shift when faced with possibly the end of everything we know. I also wanted to develop the characters based on what I know. My second wife and I were both young widows, having lost our mates before their time. My wife is also Russian and I met her in the former USSR and I lived there for a few months so this was farily easy to write by fictionalizing real experiences. See what you think of this:

The hazy sunshine of a chilly late November afternoon shown through the cabin window accentuating the delicate features of Marina Asamova, seated next to him. They had talked and held hands during the flight from Moscow. Colin felt that a real bond and a connection was growing between them. This was a military flight and except for a few hundred kilos of computers and documents, they had the plane to themselves. A lot was said between them. Marina was the first woman that he had really opened up to about the loss of Susan six years ago in the crash on the Pacific Highway. It still hurt and even though those six years and put some distance between Colin and her death, a tear still came to his eye. It was then that Marina spoke to him of her own loss, five years earlier when her fiancé Ivan Siminov was at Star City involved in cosmonaut training. Flying a specially modified MIG-25 fitted with thruster controls and booster rocket packs, he had taken the aircraft to nearly the threshold of space. Something happened with the computer that balanced the thruster controls. Ivan Simonov was feeding in corrections with the stick just like he would to the aerodynamic flight control surfaces. At that altitude there was almost no air and normal ailerons were useless. The computer was to take those corrections and translate them into commands to fire the thrusters that would act to control the aircraft at two hundred thousand feet. Something went wrong; the thrusters over corrected and the plane went into a wild spin, completely out of control and plunged toward the ground. As the airspeed and dynamic forces over stressed the airframe of the MIG, it broke apart. Her fiancé never had the chance to eject. Here eyes grew red as she told the story and tears stained her cheeks. He reached across the seat and held her close to him letting her tears flow as she buried her head in his shoulder. Colin knew they had more in common then their work in the field of space exploration; they had both been the survivor, the one left to carry on when the person that they loved had died.

Mike C

If that's the case, the question is moot, wouldn't you say?

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WriterDude

I like the new part you wrote, Chris. It helps develop the characters and show they have a past.

If I may, I want to suggest you keep going on from here before you get to the romance and sex part. Instead of "you saved me, let's have sex", I would prefer if they save each other on several occasions. This creates a bond between them, and it's easy to let that turn into love. The sex part should come natural later on, but not be a "big deal". Most people prefer to imagine what happens instead of having every detail explained to us. I think what you need to consider is if you want to give us a sex scene or let the characters make love. There's a difference there. A sex scene can be detailed and have no real purpose other than being a sex scene, but having two characters make love means they consider each other equals and are really in love. Isn't this what you are trying to do in the first place? I've read quite a few stories where we slide into the first part of the sex and skip the rest. (they kiss, dim the lights, clothes fall off... and it's suddenly next morning). It certainly gets the job done, and prevent the whole thing from being too cheesy and distracting. And even if you want the "You saved me, let's have sex", why not have her save him for a change? Just because she's a woman, it doesn't mean she has to be a weak character. Likewise, who say he has to be the hero just because he's a guy?

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