User:Concerned Reader

I'm just what the name says. A reader. I grew up on Science Fiction and saturday morning cartoons. In the 90's transformation was commonplace in toons. From Digimon to Beastwars to my personal favorite, Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century. I read Philip K. Dick Prolifically, and am just starting to get into Scott Westerfeld's stuff.

Recomended reading below:

• Evolutions Darling - Scott Westerfeld

A story about a space ship AI that grows to Turing completeness. This classifies it as human, with human rights. The captain, not wanting to lose his ship ai, tries to erase it, leading to its escape and evolution over time. A word of caution. All of Westerfelds earlier, non Young Adult, work has very vivid and violent sexual imagry

• The Midnighters Trilogy - Scott Westerfeld

The story of a girl who stumbles into the world of Midnight in Bixby, Oklahoma. Trapped for the thirteenth hour every night in a frozen time where Darkness comes alive, and thirteen is a powerfull number. The series, Westerfelds first foray into Young Adult fiction, is well built. A strongly developed mythos and world that is inhabited by well developed characters. If all you care about is transformation, the second book in the series will interest you, but I recomend reading the whole thing.

• So Yesterday - Scott Westerfeld

Any book that can incorperate the siezer inducing episode of Pokemon, and still make perfect sense has to be good.

• Peeps and The Last Days - Scott Westerfeld

A fresh and scientific aproach to the common vampire story. Parasites and STD's oh my.

• The Ugglies Series - Scott Westerfeld

His newest work to come out. "Set in a future post-scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery upon reaching age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her new found friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "pretty"." From the Wiki. The series as a whole is very good. Definitely an eye opener.

I'm tired of summarizing, and Dicks work is very hard to sum up, so I'll treat you to the wiki pages.

• A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick

This was made into a movie by the name of BladeRunner. Perhaps you've heard of it?

• [The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick] - Philip K. Dick

In these collections, some of the short stories to look for are:

• The Short Happy Life of The Brown Oxford

And a few shorts, probably more than I know, use transformation as a device for greater character development:

• Oh, To Be a Blobel!
• The Golden Man
• Planet for Transients
• Strange Eden

I highly recommend picking up one of his short story collections.

I view TransformaFiction as an extension of Science fiction. Much like Science Fiction isn't just fiction with science in it, TransformaFiction isn't just fiction with transformation in it. It has to present a new idea, or draw parallels to the real world to be great fiction. The Transformation can't just be a plot device, it has to further the development of the characters. The transformation in good TransformaFiction stories isn't of the body, but the mind.

I might post my faves at some point. We'll see, but I have about as much credibility right now as the chair you're sitting on.

work in progress

I'm currently attempting to write a short in the Pig and Whistle universe. It's not just my first short on shifti, it's my first short ever. I have no experience with writing narratives, and suffer from what I call "Block of Text Syndrome." So be warned.

Allan Wilson-WIP