Okay, so it’s a small milestone, perhaps. Still, I’ve made it this far, and I want to thank everyone reading this post. I don’t think I would’ve kept going if it weren’t for all you lovely people clicking the little like buttons at the bottom of my posts and leaving comments. It’s been especially helpful for the short stories. Writer’s egos are so fragile, even those of us who tell ourselves that we have thick skin. I can sling off harsh criticism, but the occasional compliment really goes a long way to mitigate that. I think both criticism and praise have been useful to me.
Baen had a contest recently. The entries consisted of a 250 word defense of humanity, to keep aliens from wiping us out. I thought we could do the same thing here, if anyone is interested in trying. Paste it into the comment box below, and as a prize, I’ll give out a critique on a piece 2,500 words or less to the winner next week. And I’ll be sure to include some praise, so both writer food groups will be represented. Here’s the entry I submitted:
***
“Wait just a moment! Hear me out.
“I know it seems like the easiest way to solve the problem is to get rid of us. Then you can move on and consolidate–get your next solar system before the Vorlecks beat you to it. And that makes sense.
“But consider this–you can’t be everywhere. If you’re going to be out there grabbing systems, who’s looking after all the planets you’ve already taken? No matter how advanced you are, there’s a finite number of you.
“You don’t want our planet for resources, and we can’t travel further than Mars, so we’re no threat to you. But what we can do is keep an eye on this system–and we can do that better than you. We live here. We’re highly motivated. This isn’t just one of our many planets; it’s the only one we have.
“We don’t mind being part of your coalition. After all, you won’t affect our day-to-day affairs. We won’t even contact you unless we sight a Vorleckian ship. And we’ll want to tell you. You’ll leave us alone. The Vorlecks might not be so kind.
“So it’ll cost you nothing to gain you eyes on a route into your system. One thing we have studied thoroughly is war. You need as many eyes as you can spare on your perimeter–or you might find the Vorlecks have snuck into your home system.
“Now isn’t that worth holding off on our destruction?”
***
How would you defend humanity?
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Avid writer and reader of Faerie tales and noblebright fantasy.
Cathleen Townsend 
congrats 100 posts 🎉🎁
Save humanity because this tiny lil blue and green planet with carbon based lifeforms is a most idyllic rock hurtling around a sun, a yellow sun.
It is paradise on the milky way and the next such place is millions of light years away. A nice quiet neighborhood, it’s the perfect planet for you guys to come and live on.
But see the tricky bit they are such ingenious organisms, these humans if you overtly attack them they will rally they will roust. They make a formidable fighting machine that brings about regime change, collapse dynasties, end tyranny even change destiny. They can accomplish the impossible, simply with the sheer resolution of the masses. It’s in their history books, current affairs on their news even their social media which is like a virtual world and some of the things they accomplish with trending hashtags is impressive if you look past the absurd reasons why some things trend. And you, you will gain nothing but annihilation or victory over a pile of rubble, let me tell you, you do not want this.
Yes, save humanity because pretty soon they will be all gone and the planet will keep hurtling along, around the sun, it won’t miss them and you can claim an uninhabited land without a single casualty to your species.
Save them if even just for laughs, it should be amusing to watch the antiques of mankind struggling with the meaning of life the universe and everything else……
That is where my 250 words end but I was on a roll, I continued writing, I think I will post the rest of this to my blog ^_^
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I love it! I commented on your blog, too, but I’ll say it again here. 🙂
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