immortal – Stephen Oram

Where do you get your ideas from is a question often asked of authors, particularly speculative fiction writers. A question seldom fully answered because it’s more difficult than it appears.

“I don’t know, they sort of come to me,” is not a good answer, but true in part.

“I spent five years undercover in a cutting edge medical facility,” is also not a good answer, mainly because it’s not true. Except for when it is of course.

Here’s my answer for a story that has just been published by The Centropic Oracle as an audio piece read by a professional actor.

So, how did Happy Forever Day come about?

Firstly, I was intrigued by listening to Aubrey de Grey at a Virtual Futures event titled End Aging (https://www.virtualfutures.co.uk/salon/end-aging).

Secondly, I ran a survey to find out people’s attitudes to living forever, in particular what age they’d like to stop aging and why.

Then I mulled stuff over and wrote Happy Forever Day. I hope you enjoy the story and the way that Rob Gillespie brings it to life.

photo credit: Theo Crazzolara light Bulb via photopin (license)

Recently I was thinking about writing a story set in a world where you never die.

Now, that’s not an original idea I grant you, but nonetheless it is a fascinating idea that can be used to illuminate a lot about the human condition. I guess that’s why it’s been used so often.

We often think of health when we think about living for ever, but what about experience, knowledge, and good judgement – let’s call it wisdom.

And, that’s the twist in this particular tale – you have to choose the age you’re going to stay at. This then determines not only your health but also how wise you are, for ever. In other words, you keep maturing until the age you choose and then you stop and your health can’t get better or worse and you can’t gain any more wisdom.

I wanted to understand what age people would choose so I asked my mailing list if they wanted to help me, anonymously of course, and luckily they did.

Responses are coming in; their creative juices are flowing and enlightening me. Almost half of the survey respondents have chosen a similar age to their present age and the remainder are split 50:50 between choosing to be younger or older.

Of course, the explanations are the most fascinating and that’s where the real ‘flavour’ of the story will come from.

I wonder if you can you guess what age this respondent chose? “It was my last hurrah. I had tasted it all, learned my knowledge and experienced the ups and downs of love, life, friendship and work. Children yet to come, dreams still alive and ambition still believable.”

The survey will run for a little while longer and then I’ll write The Age of the Ageless. I reckon it’s going to be interesting to write and hopefully it’ll be a good read.

If you’re not on the mailing list and would like to contribute feel free to leave a comment at the foot of this post.

photo credit: byronv2 Carnival 2017 073 via photopin (license)

Tag Archives: immortal

Where do they come from?

The Age of the Ageless