Alexander Jablokov

 

I'm a writer, mostly of science fiction, with a new novel, Brain Thief.

The name is pronounced Yablokov, and the legal name is Jablokow.  My best friends can't spell or pronounce it, so you shouldn't worry about it either.

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Write me at alexjablokow [at] comcast.net

I'd love to hear from you.

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"Bad Day on Boscobel", The Other Half of the Sky, upcoming

"Since You Seem to Need a Certain Amount of Guidance", Daily Science Fiction, November 6, 2012

"Feral Moon", novella, Asimov's Science Fiction, upcoming

"The Comfort of Strangers", short story, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January/February 2012

"Blind Cat Dance" reprinted in Gardner Dozois's Best Science Fiction of the Year 28

"The Day the Wires Came Down", novelette, Asimov's Science Fiction, April/May 2011

"Plinth Without Figure", short story, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2010

"Warning Label", short story, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine August 2010

"Blind Cat Dance", short story, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine March 2010

Brain Thief, a novel, Tor Books, January 2010

 

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« That which does not destroy us: delivering a novel to the workshop | Main | The Matt Ridley Prize for Environmental Heresy »
Thursday
Mar152012

In search of a fruitful idea, like the Trinity

In a recent post, I characterized novel ideas as something like fugue subjects, something that can be reversed and transformed and played against itself, in the form of other characters, subplots, locations, etc. If it has that flexibility and extensibility, it can serve as the basis for a novel.

The same is true, I think of a variety of other ideas. Some ideas are fruitful, that is, they lead to other ideas. In another post, I wrote about the writer Ron Carlson's notion that, when writing, you should make sure your narrative choices give you "inventory". You make initial story choices not just on behalf of the plot, but on behalf of the future self that will be writing the rest of the story. You want to keep that person from running out of stuff to use. I've also written about how irritated that person will be if you aren't careful to do that.

In Christian theology, the Trinity plays something of that role (how's that for a dramatic transition?) The Trinity became dominant as a concept, not because it is, in some sense "truer" than, say, Arian monotheism, Monophysite spiritualism, or Nestorian humanism, but because it allowed for an incredibly complex narrative. Someone could always grab some part of that idea and develop an entire theology out of it. As a result, Trinitarian sequels, spin-offs, and fan fiction outcompeted the more closed-off and conclusive narrative notions of other Christological constructs. 

Having explained both post-Nicean theology and novel writing, what can I do next?

I can go in search of a fruitful idea.  I just sent my novel to my workshop, and have new tasks to take on.

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