I Dream in Science Fiction!

By Kathryn Lane

Fiction writers take ideas from everywhere, the reason a saying says, “Be careful what you say around me – I’m a fiction writer.” To prove the point, I’ll paraphrase one of T.S. Eliot's quotes: “Good writers borrow; great writers steal.”

Dreams offer me a favorite reservoir of ideas to borrow. I dream in full technicolor, and in Spanish and English. Several short stories have come directly from stuff obtained during my REM sleep.

However, I was shocked when I had a science fiction dream, complete with language from an Orwellian future. I read sci-fi, but I’ve never attempted to write it. I do not have the grasp of physics, astrophysics, astronomy, chemistry, and artificial intelligence to write convincing sci-fi, so I limit myself to simply reading it.

Years ago, I’d read a lot of Ray Bradbury, who said, “Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science; therefore, the whole history of humankind is nothing but science fiction.”

Now back to my sci-fi dream. I was at a party, complete with fireworks, set in futuristic surroundings. An older couple left the party and drove away in a self-driving car. In the amorphous environment of dreaming, I was concerned about them so I called to make sure they were okay.

I heard an automated voice inform me through my implanted earphone that “Public driver 00Z1921 was detained by a squadron of public protectors for bypassing the self-driving controls of 00Z1921’s auto.”

“What’s the accusation,” I asked.

“Reckless speeding and endangering the disciples,” the automated voice responded. The voice further instructed me to locate 00Z1921 at the hostile crisis center.

Still dreaming, I arrived at the center and found the small self-driving car surrounded by ten hostile-looking storm trooper types.

Then I woke up! Unfortunately, the dream ended before I learned the outcome of poor old 00Z1921.

Guess I’ve been reading too many futuristic articles on the speeding up of technological advances resulting from our lockdown, and those ideas zoomed me into a future time zone!

Or maybe, as Ray Bradbury might have said, we are all living in a science fictional world.

***

Do you dream in technicolor? Do you have dreams set in a sci-fi future?

Kathryn Lane started out as a starving artist. To earn a living, she became a certified public accountant and embarked on a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. After two decades, she left the corporate world to plunge into writing mystery and suspense thrillers. In her stories, Kathryn draws deeply from her Mexican background as well as her travels in over ninety countries.

https://www.kathryn-lane.com

https://www.facebook.com/kathrynlanewriter/

The Nikki Garcia Mystery Series: eBook Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZNF17G

Photo Credits:

Fireworks: "Looks like the Sky will bleed with Colors tonight. Wishing everyone a wonderful evening of fun & excitement!" by williamcho - licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Waymo self-driving car front view by Grendelkhan - licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Storm Trooper at Oxford by Sheng P. - licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Kathryn’s books – designs by Bobbye Marrs