"The Stars So Green and Bright" (part 1) by Christopher Rowe

 

This is the first part of a science fiction short story I'm writing that I will post in brief sections as they are completed. Please consider reading this on my ko-fi page, click here to get there, where you can leave me a tip if you feel like it. But remember, my model is always "Pay What You Want, But You Don't Gotta Pay Nothin.'"

I will continue to work on this story and post it as I go, here and elsewhere, whether anyone tips me or not. Please let me know what you think! Are you intrigued? Spot any infelicities? 

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"The Stars So Green and Bright" (part 1)

by Christopher Rowe

Many years ago, before this last, great war began, I spent a week at the University of Montana studying basic concepts of astronomy as part of a government-funded program promoting better understanding of the sciences among artists. My cohort—there were a dozen of us—numbered mostly writers of fiction, like me, but there was a screenwriter there, and a cartoonist. There was a dour man who told us he was a comedian. His humor was such that everything thing he said was wickedly funny, but you didn’t realize so until hours, sometimes months after he’d spoken.

 

That was the world in those days. Tax money spent so that a cartoonist might learn to properly plot a star on the main sequence, something every surviving human now knows how to do. I have told my stepdaughters about this and they indulge me with their usual eye rolling smiles. They do not know how much I love what they think of as their indulging me, just as they do not know how much I love them in general.

 

I am no longer a writer, of course, just as you are no longer a grocer, or a homemaker, or an educator. Like you, like my stepdaughters, I am a soldier.

 

I mean, they did ask what I thought of the "help" I was given...

The full text of what I typed into the provided box of the survey response form (see image below) I was sent after using the "Chat With A Representative" feature on HBO Max's help page read:

Okay, listen up. My one star rating not withstanding, THE GUY HIMSELF DID GREAT. Or the robot, if he was a robot. He's probably a robot. If he was a robot, he probably performed precisely to your specifications. I imagine, probably being a robot yourself, that your specifications are pretty precise. My question was, "Where can I find a schedule listing the dates and times of all these hundreds of bicycle races y'all say you're streaming?" His answer was, in its substance, "No such information exists." Now, I don't actually believe that, but, precision in no way being the same thing as accuracy, y'all are most likely delighted with his performance. Please don't send fake nude photos. Don't send any nude photos, actually. Tell you what, just no photos, full stop.

 You can send me a tip by clicking here if you liked this enough to send a tip!

 

Pay What You Want 'Cause You Don't Gotta Pay Nothin'

As eventually all men must, I have decided to become a cross-platform multi-media internet “content creating” millionaire.

The "tip page all this is about can be found by following this link:

https://ko-fi.com/christopherrowe

That, like much of what I post here and elsewhere, cannot strictly be said to be true. 

The short version is that, going forward, I’m going to keep doing exactly what I’m doing now (plus maybe a little more) and post stuff on social media and at other places online and y’all can read it or watch it or listen to it exactly as you do now, wherever you do now. Which is probably on Facebook, for I walk the old roads. And that’s pretty much it. Below this paragraph, I have, with my usual brevity, written about this thing I’m trying to set up that’s like a tip jar.

Since I basically scrabble together such a living as I have from working on the farm, writing fiction, and teaching classes at colleges and workshops, I can always use some cash. People seem to and probably mostly don’t make cash putting stuff on the internet. What I’ve done (I think, I’m not actually all that good at the internet) is made a way for anyone so inclined to tip me for stuff I put up if they want to.

I’m using what I’m calling the “Pay What You Want ‘Cause You Don’t Gotta Pay Nothin’” model. I’m not launching a Patreon, I’m not starting a newsletter you can pay to read, and I’m not providing “premium content” for anybody by any means. I’m just gonna put up stuff like I do now, where I put it up now. The only difference you will notice is that on a lot of stuff I put up here and elsewhere, I’ll add a link to this thing called a Ko-Fi page, where the exact same thing you just read for free is reproduced, also for free. But there’s, I don’t know, a button or something you can push if you want send a tip. 

If you don’t like the idea of paying for any of this stuff, be of good cheer! Just ignore the link if you’re reading it here or the button (if it’s a button) if you’re reading it there. Which, I guess, is actually here, if you’re there. Man, this crossposting thing is gonna take me a minute.

The first “tipable” thing I’m putting up is this right here you’re reading right now. This is on my Facebook page, on my blog (UnCommonwealth), and on the Ko-Fi site. Future stuff will read less like instructions for one of those games with a thousand counters, a hundred figurines you have to paint yourself, and eleven decks of cards for each player.

Here are my promises.

(1) Everything stays free.

(2) Anything available at the place where you can tip will also be available at places you can’t. 

(This seems a shaky business model, good thing this isn’t a business. Unless it is? I’m not filling out any paperwork, government officials, so back off! But see point 4. about taxes, below.)

(3) You don’t have to click through to read anything someplace else if you don’t want to. It’s the same stuff. It’s just that (I think?) you have to go to the Ko-fi version to hit the button.

(4) If anybody actually sends me any money, I will pay all taxes due on it.

(5) I sometimes post stuff of a political bent on Facebook and Instagram and Bluesky. I will not share those on the Ko-Fi page or include a Ko-Fi link on those because I think my dad will report me to the Federal Election Commission if I do.

Okay, if I’ve done this right, there should be a link here somewhere or in the comments maybe to the Ko-Fi version of this post.