Aliens Canon: Fitting the jigsaw together

It's currently cool to hate Aliens: Colonial Marines. Every blogger out there has taken out their knives, sharp sticks. Sure, it may have not been quite what we saw in the demo, and the textures and AI could have been a little better, but is it FUN?  I'd have to say YES! Fighting through the actual locations of the film, untarnished by Predators, has been exhilirating.

Warning- Spoilers ahead!

The icing on the cake has been that the story is officially Aliens canon, picking up soon after Alien 3. You're not just walking around game levels here, what's going on is actually going down in the Aliens universe.

That's where some fans get even more rabid. Corporal Hicks, the badass survivor of Aliens who was stupidly killed off in Alien 3, has been resurrected (well, shown not to have died) and a lot of gamers have been left with questions, the main ones being:

1. How did Hadley's Hope survive the thermonuclear explosion of the reactor?
2. What's the Sulaco doing back at LV-426?
3. The queen was killed in Aliens and Ripley sacrificed herself to make sure the company wouldn't get another specimen, so how come there are aliens running all over the Sulaco and LV-426?
4. How and why did Weyland-Yutani (WY) exchange another body for Hicks?

At first glance this list, coupled with the need to resurrect Hicks, looks like an insurmountable jumble of jigsaw pieces. How can we get a clear story out of this?

Hell, I'll even throw in the one we used to rant about on the net before it turned into the web:

    5. How the hell did eggs get on the Sulaco?

Total mess, right? I don't think so. In the absence of an official timeline, I think we can don the writer's hat and examine the motivations of the various parties (most notably the ruthless and well-resourced WY), and piece together a sequence of events that, given the premise, falls within the bounds of credibility. Let's pick it up with Ripley in the queen's chamber, surrounded by eggs:

The story

• Ripley torches the Queen's egg chamber with her flamethrower. The Queen calls all her children to her. Two facehuggers survive the incineration and cling to the queen, guards come running and are shot down.

• Ripley boards the dropship. The Queen hangs from it as it flies from the atmosphere processor.

• The underground fusion reactor detonates. The atmosphere processor and the surrounding mile in diameter is vapourised into a Nebraska-sized cloud. The colony half a mile away, partially protected by geography and built to withstand the extreme conditions of LV-426, nevertheless sustains heavy damage. Much of the structure is left standing similar to some buildings at Hiroshima's ground zero.

• Dropship 02 boards the SULACO. The two facehuggers detach from the queen and scuttle through the ship in search of prey.

• Ripley fights the queen and expels her from the SULACO's airlock.

• Cpl Hicks issues a transmission describing the facility as destroyed and the marines KIA. They enter hypersleep.

• Not finding any signs of life aboard the ship, the facehuggers excrete a hibernation shell of resin (similar to a small egg) in a corner and wait.

• Weyland-Yutani intercept the transmission and watch an acid-burned Hicks explain the situation. They realise that they have lost the facility, that Ellen Ripley's report about the valuable bio-weapon is true, and that they are responsible for the deaths of the colonists and marines.

• Weyland-Yutani has assets closer to the SULACO's flight path than the USCM does. They opt for a covert approach. 

• WY mercenaries intercept the SULACO over Fury 161. They download information from Bishop  and take who they believe is the only combatant to have faced the creatures, Cpl Hicks. In its place they leave the acid-burned body of one of their enemies, to prevent or delay the USCM from discovering the crime. They depart.

• The boarding of the ship puts the SULACO in alert and rouses the two facehuggers. Following scent and heat, they find the cryo-tubes.

• The SULACO ejects the tubes in the EEV over Fury 161 and holds orbit.

• WY torture Hicks, who only gives the information already contained in Ripley's report.

• WY receives information about the aliens on Fury 161. They arrive in time to see Ripley sacrifice herself to prevent them getting a specimen.

• WY abandons their covert approach. They return to the SULACO to find evidence of the creatures, brazenly steal the ship and turn it around, and take it back to LV-426.

• Using Carter Burke's coordinates, they discover the derelict spacecraft. They deploy shake-n-bake buildings to set up laboratories and other resources. They bring in prisoners and other disposables, gestate a queen and study the creatures. They work fast, intending to get their specimens onto the SULACO and leave before the USCM arrives.

• The SEPHORA arrives before this transfer is complete. It hails the SULACO but receives no response from the WY team aboard.

• Marines from SEPHORA board the SULACO. When it is clear that they outmatch the WY security forces, WY scientists release the captive xenos and quarantine themselves in the bridge and command sections of the SULACO.

• When it is apparent that the USCM marines (led by Winter) are breaking through the xenos, WY turns the SULACO's weapons on the SEPHORA. Both ships go down.

• Winter and the USCM marines fight their way through the xenos, disrupt and destroy the research facilities, rescue Hicks and escape in the other WY FTL vessel.

That's how I see the pieces naturally falling together. Hopefully we'll get an official timeline soon, to tell me "F@#$ A" or "Bad call".

Harry Harrison, RIP

One of the greats, Harry Harrison, has left us. I grew up reading the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero books, and they shaped my writing. Anyone familiar with Harry's work should easily be able to spot his influence in my stories (e.g. "Save Galaxy Fast" or "Elf Esteem"). His takes on bureaucracy, the military (in which he served) and other groups of people that generate their own idiocy were wonderous to behold.

Slippery Jim DiGriz has shed the cover identity of Harry Harrison and left the planet- nobody can catch him now. We'd give two left arms to have him back, but all we can do is raise our plate of okra and salute him.

Consolidating at Goodreads

I've registered myself as an author at Goodreads, tracked down most of the books I'm in and linked it all up.
It not only gathers my works together, but allows you, the prospective reader, to see that well-paid lackeys think the books are awesome. It also provides one more place for me to have to upload a photo when I get around to it.

My author page also shows the feed from this blog, so you can keep clicking forever! Check it out!

New Light Fantasy/Sci Fi Antho released!

Plate Armor and Spacesuits Both Hold Farts is now up at Smashwords! The fruit of my blood, sweat and chyle is now available for you completely FREE, in the hope a small percentage of you will favourably review it.

These quirky tales of sci-fi and fantasy will take you to realms where lightspeed meets light-hearted and you can't say awkward without orc. From the perils of being a dragon's beauty consultant to hidden benefits of software in whiteware, S J Cavanagh shows that he's outstanding in left field. Includes "Elf Esteem", which made ASIM's Best of Fantasy Vol 1. 

Waddaya waiting for sweethearts, breakfast in bed? Go get it!

New antho coming soon!

With Axefall Echoes taking the world by.. uh.. light breeze, I'm also compiling some of my comic sci-fi and fantasy into a new anthology!

This anthology will be FREE and is entitled Plate Armor and Spacesuits Both Hold Farts. It includes Girl Power and Elf Esteem, short and flash fiction, the high fantasy to the lowbrow (but you already knew that).
Watch this space!

" " <-- and this one. Really.

Axefall Echoes is out!

Axefall Echoes, an antho collecting seven of my horror stories, is out now on Amazon and Smashwords. Inspiration for the stories came from all over; my life growing up on the farm, commuting in the city, how a relative was treated when they got old, etc. Below are some things people have said about the stories so far:

Finding the words

Easily the most powerful piece in issue 11 of Shadowed Realms. While technically horror, it’s a touching story of a man laying his daughter to rest. Cavanagh’s style is fluid and uses sense imagery to ground the reader in reality. It’s touching and it's tender and it's heartfelt, something I’m not used to seeing in horror.
-TangentOnline.com

a great story that really rounds out #11 well, and is a worthy winner of the 2006 AHWA Flash Fiction competition...a tale of parent-child tragedy, a topic that almost approaches taboo status to some authors and readers.
Mr.Cavanagh handles the subject deftly and with the greatest of sensitivity. This isn't really a scary story, just a very emotional and heart breaking one where we hear and feel every gust of wind, every rattle of a branch, every flutter of the narrators heart and, in the end, I shed his tears too.
-HorrorScope

Steven Cavanagh paints a heart-breaking portrait of a father’s loss
-Dark Scribe Magazine

I don’t recall having read anything by author Steven Cavanagh before, but I shall certainly be searching out his work in future. This story is an absolute gem.
-Chuck McKenzie

Finding the Words is a very innovative tale which explores the emotional power of loss (specifically the death of a child) under the guide of a horror tale. It is a superb and creative use of a genre tale to explore personal emotional pain.-Robert Black

Street Smarts

good thought for detail and a sensation of realism to it.-Flames Rising

Starting [the anthology] off on a good foot. Keen-esque.-Skullring.org

The book starts off strong with “Street Smarts”.-monsterlibrarian.com

World of Hurt

A rivetting piece of flash fiction.-Sue Crawford

It's a well structured narrative with some original humour and is sharply written, especially towards the end.
-Prof Jane Goodall

Moving Dad

Moving Dad presents a clever parody of life after death. This story was highly original… Moving Dad has strong central characters that express real emotions, and we are able to feel for them because they are so lifelike.
-Shadowed Realms.

Steven Cavanagh’s “Moving Dad” was another favorite of mine... Using a magic-realism style, Cavanagh manages to capture a strange sense of grief and remorse, and it transfers through to the reader.-LitHaven.com
Cavanagh writes in a deliberately matter-of-fact style regarding a situation that is anything but and this, for me, is one of the highlights of the story

Beginning with whimsical familiarity, moving to poignancy. A lovely slow reveal, blurring the line between the infirmity of advanced age, and the shambling corruption of undeath. An exploration of a universal horror – the realisation of the mortality of the father – I won’t spoil the ending, but Cavanagh kicks off beautifully into an even deeper horror in the last line. Fantastic dialogue in this one too.
-Australian Specfic In Focus

Well, what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

I'm awake!

It's been a lot longer than I expected, but I'm out of hypersleep. It's really just blind luck that a deep salvage team found me when they did, I could have been drifting out there forever, not writing.

But even in hypersleep, I haven't been able to stop creating. My writing has been on hold for so long because I've been forging a weapon. This weapon will be wielded by those who suffer food allergies and intolerances, and used to fight against the lack of awareness most people have about their situation. It finds the food they can eat and (just as importantly) allows their friends and family to find food they can eat. It's called WotUEat, and now that it's out of the code-cutting stage I'm hoping to get back to writing. 

Oh, I'm also finishing up an Android game that has involved some tight fiction writing, but nobody knows about that yet. Ssshhh.

Another Best Of!

In spite of me not being able to write for months, my work is still moving on without me!

Girl Power has been selected to appear in Arcane Whispers 2: The Best of Sorcerous Signals 2008!

Oh, I also got a commendation in the last AHWA short fic competition with The Biting of Nails. Still haven't found a market for it though.

On Hold

I have stacks of short stories half written. I've planned out a novel and was gonna rip into it in NaNoWriMo, but now I've been hit with crippling arm pain. I'm talking can't lift a chocolate bar or use my left arm kind of pain.

Factor in that I've got a full time job that's the only income for my family of five, then factor in that I have three small boys.

Writing is, by neccessity, on hold. And I've already heard of voice recognition software, okay? I just don't write that way, though if this persists I'll be forced to try.

Vote for Girl Power!

Sorcerous Signals has a voting page where you can vote for Girl Power. It already seems to have eight votes, so if everyone who reads this blog goes there and votes for it too, it might even reach double digits!

PMCT Conclusion Published.

Part 5 of Pardon Me, Coming Through has now been released to the wild by Infinitas. After a tantalising five months, I hope the ending has the punch to meet your expectations.

I origially envisioned the story as the start to a novel, but I'm so busy with the three other novels I'm chipping away at (and the tyranny of Normal Life) that it'll never happen. Maybe a novella sometime...

AHWA Commendation

The Australian Horror Writers Association has just judged their 2008 Flash & Short fiction competition, and my Pacific Highway themed story The Biting of Nails came up for a commendation! I didn't think it had the layers or resonation to win, so I didn't have high hopes for it. This is a pleasant surprise.

I should also point out that fellow writer Christian Girard came up with an er.. killer title for the story: Speed Demon, but I moved this title into the story instead, for two reasons. One, the story starts out realistic and then punches into speculative, and the title would have clued the reader in, and two, it made the protag's final revelations that much stronger.

While it was great getting a commendation (ie being in the top 5 out of 100 or so), it means that the story hasn't actually been accepted for publication, and now I have to send it out. Psst! Wanna buy a story?

Girl Power (finally) published!

Well, it's been a long road but my comic fantasy Girl Power finally found its way into a publication at Sorcerous Signals.

The story of the story:

I wrote it.
It was critiqued by my colleagues in the Prose Nest at AuthorsByDesign.com.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected again.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was accepted by ShadowSword Magazine!
Then months went by (which is normal, to inform non-writers)
Then a notice appeared on the ShadowSword Magazine web site that they'd gone out of business.
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected again.
Then it appeared on an honourable mentions list in Allegory Magazine (who had rejected it. WTF?)
Then I submitted it.
Then it was rejected again.
Then the rejection was rejected- they'd made a mistake!
Then came the usual rewrites, etc.
Then TODAY it's finally been published!

So after a lead up like that, what are you waiting for? Click on the pic of Noelene and Shaz, and go read it!

PMCT part 4 Published

Part 4 of Pardon Me, Coming Through is now online at the Infinitas site.

PMCT Part 3 Published

Part 3 of Pardon Me, Coming Through is now online at the Infinitas site.

You finally get to see the other side of the dimensional membrane for the first time. Where/When/What could it be?

Comp entry

Well, the Australian Horror Writers Association has their competition on again this year. I came second in the 2005 flash comp, won the 2006 flash comp, then didn't enter in 2007, so I thought I'd better do something this year.

I've written a story about deaths on the Pacific Highway, set at a particular point on it that I saw a lot growing up. If you click here you can see a bridge to the left with a sharp bend on the left side of it, on the Old Pacific Highway. The reason that section is now the old Pacific Highway is that it was a nasty black spot. A family friend's brother died there when his tractor went into the river, and they get a mention.

I'm not sure the story has the legs to win a comp, but you'll never, never winnit if you never, never submit.

No fate but what we make.

I've discovered something interesting about having a serial piece published.

See, it's kinda hard to get good feedback about a story. If you show it to your friends and family, they will ALWAYS say the same three words, without variation (do I even need to say what they are?).

The stories might get reviewed, but reviewers (for the most part) are pushing an agenda: This story rocks/sucks because it's new wierd/flash fiction/humour/australian/insert flavour of bigotry here.

Critique groups are the best for useful feedback, but they take up a lot of time and it's hard to find one that a)has writers experienced enough to tell you something helpful, b)Has the courage to tell you what sucks and not just stroke your ego, and c)has the courage to tell you what really works well, and not just feel good about themselves because they can criticise others.

You want to know so many things. Are the characters believable? Did the setting serve the story or was it distracting? Was the pacing just right? And the holy of holies:

Was tension maintained?

Eloquent prose and slick science and funny gags are ALL subservient to keeping the reader moving along and wondering ANOTHER three words.

Which brings me back to serials, because I've received those sweet three words over and over with Pardon Me, Coming Through: What happens next?

When that happens it's great, but the responsibility then rests on the writer to deliver a payoff/ending that justifies that tension. Even more so in this case, because you the reader are waiting a month for every installment. Pearson, mate, your fate had better be worth it. Both our necks are on the line here.

PMCT Part 2 Published

Part 2 (of 5) of Pardon Me, Coming Through is now downloadable in PDF format in the May 2008 Infinitas Newsletter.

I've read it so many times while writing and proofreading, and only just realised the freudian name I gave the protagonist. It should become apparent to you this episode.

I'm writing again! For the last couple of weeks I've been chipping away at a horror that is going to end up between 4000 and 5000 words. That's pretty long for me. It's about a black spot on the Pacific Highway.
I still need a title, and will consider all suggestions.

PMCT Pt 1 Published

That was quick! Part 1 (of 5) of Pardon Me, Coming Through is now downloadable in PDF format in the April 2008 Infinitas Newsletter. Let me know what you think.