Atlantis Rises

Anyone who knows me knows I can be pretty emotional, so they won’t find this as a surprise but I’m deeply saddened by the passing of Sir Arthur C. Clarke. During my formative years as a writer and a wannabe writer I started reading Clarkes work. It inspired me to write him as a fan when I was 12 and was just starting my first and very ill-fated novel (the title of which I refuse to mention out of utter embarrassment). I told him I was a fan and of my desire to be a writer. The fact that he responded to me was very influential. Somewhere I still have the autographed picture he sent me. Were it not for that letter I don’t know that the smattering (that’s right I said smattering) of Atlantis that’s been published would have ever seen the light of day. I know that my newest project wouldn’t have survived and the same for my proposed Script Frenzy project. There’s more to this man than writing though.

Arthur C. Clarke was a technological visionary. The man has been credited with many concepts including geosynchronous orbits, which a vast majority of communications and weather satellites use today. It’s safe to say, without Clarke our world would be very different. While Clarke certainly wrote Sci-Fi he was very grounded in the realities of science and where humanity could be by the time his stories took place. Were it not for NASA and the US Government completely flubbing our entire space program we would have been where he predicted in 2001 and beyond (O.K. so maybe no HAL). I owe not only my passion for writing but my passion for exploration and my thirst for knowledge about worlds beyond our own to the man and he will be sorely missed.

A friend said that a part of her had died with Vonnegut last year and I feel the same way about Clarke. I’ve seldom been moved to tears at the passing of a famous person but I find myself even now barely holding them back. Throughout my life I have admired 4 Authors beyond any others, Sir Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony and Sir Arthur C. Clarke. These men have been my heroes and inspiration and only one of them is left. So please (and those of you who know me will know how strange it is for me to ask this) take a moment of silence today in memory of Clarke and his contributions to the world.