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I remember a special on how long it would take things to decay if all the people left the earth some years ago. Now that idea is a television show. There is just one small problem, it is based on a silly premise.

The entire show is based on the idea that the entire planets population of humans disappears all at once. By disappear the show assumes that we humans have not left in space ships or have died off from disease. We just disappear.

How is this a problem? Because how we leave the planet is critical to figuring out how things fall apart.

If we all die of disease then there will be stack of bodies everywhere. The wildlife will eat well for a time, and then we will really nourish plants.

If we all got on spaceships or were teleported away in some planned excursion to another reality in a planned manner then we would shut down the power plants and open the gates so the animals can fun free and fend for themselves.

The idea that we all suddenly disappear does not make this fantasy or horror, it is just a bad premise. The producers chose one easy scenario and it allows them to take 10 minutes following the Queen of England’s Dogs around presuming how they would get out of Buckingham Palace.

Why not use the possible extinction scenarios and then talk about how the planet would react. It is just bad science and ultimately a waste of time. No research endeavor is good if it starts with a failed premise.

After reading the most horrific science fiction story intended for young adults, which I won’t name here, I was trying to figure out what made it so bad. I wanted to blame poor writing, but that would have been wrong. The grammar was good, the syntax correct, I can’t always say that about my writing. The problem became obvious as I stepped away from the work. The author had no idea what he was writing about and did not care to learn. I have read stories and articles about deep sea fishing and trust me, I have no interest in fishing of any sort, but the look into the life of men risking their lives on the open ocean to gather food in a commercial operation was enthralling. Why? Because the author cared about the story, and they knew what they were doing.

I am by no means an expert in NASCAR and I am sure that people who work for the racing organization who read my stories could point out dozens of ways I am wrong about details, but I try to make sure that I never lose sight of what NASCAR means to the drivers, the teams and the fans. If I have taken a liberty with a detail it is to advance a story, but it is not to say that I don’t like the way they are doing it so in my fantasy world I will make it work this way. If I were going to do that I might as well just make up everything.

I hate when an author does not take the time to care about the details it shows. If I kill a character, it hurts those around them. If I introduce a technology it has an impact. Things do not happen in a vacuum. I will of course give up my high ground if someone offers a large pile of money and insists I write something a certain way, but have no fear, I would never lie about selling out. I will tell you, then I will take the money and go back to what I want to write.

Thanks to the folks who noticed for formatting errors in the previous PDF version of the Spotter. While taking the time to update the PDF, I added an HTML version in a zip file for download. Going forward, I will make both versions available with all future publications on the site. Thanks for catching the format errors.