event

What
A commemoration to mark the 10th Anniversary rewrite
of the "Daughter of Time" trilogy

When
Wednesday, December 8, 2027

Where
Heidelberg, Germany (venue to come)

Description

"An Evening with the Daughter of Time" is a commemoration to mark the 10th Anniversary rewrite of my "Daughter of Time" trilogy. Of my ten novels, this trilogy is the most important to me in nearly every aspect of a book that might matter. In its pages I explored through an space operatic narrative certain themes and ideas from a variety of science fiction authors and modern cosmology, trying to find my own "mythology" to harmonize some of the disparate conceptions of reality. Ideas of the subjectivity and limitations of human perception and understanding played important roles, as did ideas of causality, time, superstructure, divinity, and infinity.

So few days after my 58 birthday, I am inviting people from my life across the world to share in an evening focused on this story. There will be food and drink. There will be a listening session to hear the seven poems of the last novel brought to life as music. I hope to form some kind of quasi-academic panel for a question and answer session with me and attendees. And finally, I give a little talk about the trilogy, how it came to be and why, and what it means to me.

“One thinks Heidelberg by day - with its surroundings - is the last possibility of the beautiful; but when he sees Heidelberg by night, a fallen Milky Way, with that glittering railway constellation pinned to the border, he requires time to consider upon the verdict.”

— Mark Twain

All this will happen in the picturesque town of Heidelberg, a city hugging the river Neckar and home to one of the oldest universities in Europe. The exact venue is still to be determined. The Christmas season here wish rich with traditions concerts, Weihachsmarkt (Christmas markets), and other festivities. It's a great place for a Christmas vacation.

I plan to host the events on Zoom as well, as I know it's asking a lot to travel so far because of Erec's damn book. But it would be fun to have you attend virtually as well.

Program

Accomodations

Local Attractions

SUMMARY

“Songs from the Sands” is an album of music accompanying the release of the 10th Anniversary edition of the Daughter of Time trilogy, a complete rewrite of the books by the author (preserving plot, characters, and scenes, but altering the style to reflect his evolution as a writer). The lyrics are taken from the poetry found at the beginning of each of the seven parts of the third book Maker, a sonnet cycle ascribed to the character Sepehr Mazandarani in the novel.

BACKGROUND

Mazandarani is the name of a minor but tragic figure in the trilogy. He was deeply but unrequitedly in love with, and utterly devoted to, the Daughter of Time. And he served her well.

The conceit in this new project, mirroring that of the trilogy itself, is that powerful forces from the future who can shape space, time, and consciousness, have reached back in time to communicate with the author's mind. This is in order to pass on messages in the “now” that will positively affect the future.

As the first novel, Reader, notes in its first chapter:

“On the cover of this book, you’re reading an author’s name. He believes this story is full of his ideas, born from his own mind. It’s not. I am writing it through him. In his delusion, it’s all part of a clever plot he’s stitched together, down to this very sentence saying he isn’t writing it. Instead, it is the effort of my mind reaching out, back through what you call time. I inspire him, shape his thoughts, convince him of this reality.”

In this musical project, the Daughter of Time chooses to speak through the poetry of Mazandarani, not only in the static verse on the pages of the novel she inspired Erec Stebbins to write, but also through music that she has led him to produce. It is another attempt through various media to shape the consciousness of the past toward building a better future.

SYNTHETIC MUSIC

To be completely transparent, the music in “Songs from the Sands” is 100% AI generated. Given the author's current means, time, and talents, he could not have composed or commissioned 8 songs in completely different genres that are made to his own tastes and hopes for the poetry. AI music generation empowered him to realize this vision.

For the AI-pathic: In the midst of how the greedy billionaires and power-drunk rulers of our world abuse all technology, you might consider “Songs from the Sands” as a positive example of what this tech could be. Plowshares or swords, every technology was built upon the efforts of many in our species and each has brought beauty and horror depending on how it was wielded. AI is no different. While some pervert it for the darkest evils and mundane slop, it doesn't have to be that way. In that spirit, “Songs from the Sands” is offered as a counter example. Imagine the better future if our tech were used exclusively for beauty and good. The choices are always in front of us.

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The “Daughter of Time” trilogy rewrite (including poems) and associated synthetic music are placed into the public domain (CC0) by the author and producer, Erec Stebbins, with no restrictions on use. There is no monetization.