My latest writing project has me exploring how humans integrate “the other,” and being me, you know this means a wild and (I hope enjoyable) exploration.
The core issue is the recognition that humans are highly social creatures. An amazing part of our neural design is specific to sociality, and we’ve evolved both physically and mentally to be social (most people know humans are one of the few species with pronounced sclera (the white of the eye). This evolved over time as it became increasingly important for A to know where B was looking. Humans have several socio-physical signatures absent from other species).
There are several gradations humans assign to “the other,” and it’s all based on the tripleted concepts of kin-recognition, social distancing, and group dynamics. The technology my last company developed made great use of these gradations to determine how to mass market ethnically based products. Example: Falafel, pita bread, espresso, et cetera, were all foreign and alien to the dominant US culture when introduced and usually looked down on. Now they are staples of the American diet regardless of class and ethnic origin, and this applies to more than food.
The gradations are (in order of social distance from an individual):
- Selfness
- Sameness
- Difference
- Strangerness
- Otherness
Some examples:
- You and your immediate family are within the your personal Selfness social sphere, meaning you neurologically recognize them in the same way your recognize yourself, your being, your person. They are of you and part of you. There are exceptions, of course. Anybody living in Tudor England knows this all too well.
- Sameness is further out from you and encompasses your extended family and non relatives you’ve accepted into your family, and are recognized via kin-selection and kin-recognition. Special Ops teams, corporate teams, sports teams, et cetera, rely on Sameness to function efficiently.
- The last is Otherness and is where those things we don’t recognize as having any similarity to ourselves exist. This is where most people place spiders, bats, bug-eyed monsters, and the like. The most terrifying cultural images are those things which jump levels. The undead, for example, are both Sameness and Otherness. This confliction confuses us and, not being able to resolve the conflict, causes distress, anxiety, hiding under the covers, the brandishing of crosses, and widespread panic.
All of which brings us to the current seemingly global xenophobic atmosphere. I routinely chat with folks across the globe and fear of the alien, the foreigner, the “other,” is everywhere, and it does seem to be Otherness-based. Prejudice, bigotry, and fear are escalating.
Another aspect of our species is that we routinely produce explorers, people who want to know what’s over the next hill and not because they believe it’ll be better, only curious to know what it’s like over there. Much like Tiziano Terzani’s musing in A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, What a fantastic combination of stars there must have been in the fifth century before Christ! So many great spirits, all born at the same time: Sophocles, Pericles, Plato and Aristotle in Greece; Zoroaster in Persia; Buddha in India; Lao Tse and Confucius in China. All, more or less, in the space of a hundred years. Today many, many more people are born, but not a single one who can measure up to those. Why? Is the reason in the stars?”
The people on Terzani’s list share a common trait; a willingness to self-explore, to travel as far inside as they do outside, meaning there’s as much to be learned from exploring inner space as there is outer space, inside one’s self as outside one’s self.
But the current atmosphere of fear and anxiety? Perhaps it’s due to the global state of insecurity; nothing is safe, nothing is sacred, the world changes too rapidly and what we once held close is taken away in less than a heartbeat (as the protagonist in my The Book of The Wounded Healers (A Study in Perception) asks in the book’s opening line, “How many heartbeats does it take to change the world?”.
It is difficult to trust when our cores are filled with fear (as the protagonist mentioned above discovers).
Let me offer my solution. Use it or don’t, or find one that works for you. It is quite simple: smile. You’ll quickly recognize those with non-fearful cores; they’ll smile back. Follow it up with a nod, a pleasant word, perhaps a simple thirty second chat.
A good way to decrease the volume of your Otherness sphere is to increase the volume of your Sameness and Selfness spheres.
Work at it and you’ll notice their placement reverses. The only other you need to concern yourself with is the one inside you telling you who outside of you is other, alien, foreign. Maybe it’s time to ask the one inside you for direct evidence, not hearsay, not assumption, not innuendo, but a clear A to B to Z trail.
You might be shocked what on the inside waiting to get out and what’s on the outside waiting to get in.
October 2025 Announcements
Dan Linton gave me a chuckle and Fran Tabor a nod with their responses to last month’s Little Game. Dan wrote “Re: the little game – personally, I don’t recommend reading while driving home, or reading while driving anywhere for that matter, but I know a good author if you want some recommendations ;).
Or maybe the warehouse is a defunct optometry supply store. Hah, I kill me!”
Fran brought up morphic resonance theory and Sheldrake’s work, and offered “Fun fact: Canada’s Artic tundra has layers showing a very long history or tundra and pine forests alternating. We are in cycles beyond human meddling although human hubris pretends otherwise.” (you can find Fran’s books here.
Neither provided a solution and I did appreciate their comments. Both receive a signed ePub of That Th!nk You Do Volume 2: Romance and Relationships.
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RoundTable 360° – Our 30 Oct 2025 RoundTable 360° session is Navigating and Redefining Creativity in a post AI world.
What is art for and what is the importance of the human element? With the rise of artificial intelligence and its deployment in generating imagery, music, writing, and more at fractional monetary costs it begs the existential question of where artists young and old fit into the future.
This discussion is led by Character Voice Actor, Narrator, and Senior 3D Artist Kyle Ouellette.
This is your invitation to discuss the hopes, dread, and ideas on how this technological revolution can change how we think of art, value creativity, and choose to adapt or not in the face of this metaphorical meteoric impact.
The October RoundTable 360 is on Thursday, 30 October 2025, 7:30pmET. Grab your seat at the table now. |
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Brother Bry Willis’ takes on all things fiction and not – Bry writes “I don’t necessarily write like Kafka or Barthelme, but I can get adjacent. I tend toward literary speculative fiction, so the models are typically the same as genre fiction, and alternate between fiction and non-fiction. Lately, I’ve been in a non-fiction mode, though I take breaks to edit material in my pipeline.”
You can find Bry’s fascinating explorations at Ridley Park and his Homo Sapiens Universe Wiki |
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That Think You Do Volume 2 Romance and Relationships – is out and about, getting reviews and with more on the way. Feel free to get a copy and add your review.
“Carrabis shares some astute insights into the human condition and differences between the sexes based on solid research and personal observations. He offers these up with a pinch of humor, making reading this book feel like chatting with an old friend.”
“Approaching male/female relationships from refreshingly unique directions, Carrabis educates us in such an engaging, comprehensive way that you’ll be tempted to write a thank-you note.”
“I’ll be sending a copy to a relative who’s studying to become a counselor.”
“I wish my therapist had the sensitivity and understanding Carrabis has.” |
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Writers’ Month Long Workshop – October 2025’s writers’ workshop covers many if not all phases of craft and storytelling. The workshop is on Wednesdays, 5-26 Nov 2025, morning and evening openings available. Sign up here.
You can an idea of what craziness (and learning!) will ensue on my Experiments in Writing posts. |
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Greg Hickey’s AI in the News – Greg shared “After artificial intelligence company Anthropic downloaded 500,000 illegally pirated ebooks (including my novels Our Dried Voices and To Build a Dream) and used those texts to train its AI chatbot, a group of authors filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. In a recent settlement, Anthropic agreed to pay over $1.5 billion to hundreds of thousands of authors. According to a lawyer for the authors, it’s the largest ever recovery for copyright violations.
In his mixed verdict, federal Judge William Alsup distinguished between the role of technology and the role of the humans developing that technology. Training AI technology on books didn’t violate copyright law, Judge Alsup determined. But training AI on pirated books did.
In other words, it’s not the technology that was the problem. It was the fact that the decision makers at Anthropic thought they could use 500,000 stolen books to further their aims.
Like the technologies that came before it, the benefits and drawbacks of AI largely depend on its human designers and human users. Recent research indicates that regular use of AI large language models like ChatGPT is associated with lower brain engagement and reduced critical thinking skills. The more you rely on AI, it seems, the less you are capable of doing on your own.
To be clear, this concern crops up with the emergence of every new technology. As an adolescent, I remember adults warning me that overreliance on a calculator would compromise my ability to learn math. In the end, I think I turned out all right, perhaps because I learned when and how to best use a calculator and when not to use it. As I’ve pointed out several times before, problems with technology typically arise when we rely on technology to do everything for us.”
Fortunately, Greg has a novel covering just this topic! Our Dried Voices is a dystopian novel about a future human community that uses technology for everything and the long-term consequences of that choice. While it doesn’t specifically predict the current stage of AI development, Our Dried Voices imagines a fully automated society where machines do everything for the human inhabitants and asks what it means to be human in a world where our most human qualities have become obsolete. |
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Talk with the Editors – Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets.
Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET.
So, want to know how to write for us? Want to know what gets our attention? Want to know how to write better for whatever market you’re interested in? Join us for our next “Meet the Editors” Zoom session on 26 Sept 2025, 9-10amET. Seats limited! Sign up and talk with us. We’re relatively easy going and fun to be with. |
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Zen Citizen – Sister Vineeta Kommineni‘ Zen Citizen makes the news! – Vineeta writes:
- The Hindu republished its online article about us in the print edition.
- Zen Citizen was featured on RJ Anjali Muralidhar’s segment on Mirchi 95 FM on October 11, 2024.
- The Times of India appears eager to write an article about our work – fingers crossed! We dropped by their office and asked to speak with a reporter, just as we did with The Hindu, and it worked this time too! Interestingly, the reporter was trying to get a marriage certificate and immediately recognized the pain points we are addressing. Aside: Meeting someone else who understood the quirks of the Kaveri portal felt like running into a school or college alum – we instantly connected and found plenty to commiserate and laugh about
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Oh, and Red FM has also reached out to cover us.
WOOT! WOOT! WOOT! |
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Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires Volume 2 Needs First Readers/Reviewers/Blurbers – The second volume of Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires includes short stories and poetry published in on- and off-line publications and anthologies since 2016.
Reader comments include:
“It’s hard to choose a favorite, but I want to call out a few, and I’ll tell you why: … The Last Drop (tight; bleak; great tone), The Tomb (strong character development)”
“I liked some of the stories more than others (which is to be expected), but want to mention Mercy, which was a particular favorite.”
“Mercy was the only story that actually freaked me out. It was creepy and disturbing in all the best ways, and it could easily be turned into a full novel on its own, or even a fantastic scary movie.”
“Don Quitamo Sails, by Joseph Carrabis, which is a delightful tale of high adventure between father and son.”
“In Rachel, Above The Clouds, While Flying, by Joseph Carrabis, I was captivated with the exchanges between Benny and Rachel—endearing resolution. The bantering is relatable, “‘Something light’, ha ha. Funny, Raech. You’re so close to the sun you could take a bath in its radiation and you want to hear something light?””
“The cherry on top was the story of The Little Knitty Dragon by Joseph Carrabis which just blew me away.”
“I wish there were more stories by Joseph Carrabis. I enjoyed Mercy…”
“Carrabis’ Tales of the Woods are children’s stories for adults.”
“I cried reading The Little Knitty Dragon, so beautiful.”
“The Boy in the Giant deserves multiple readings, so many layers to that one.”
“The Raping of Cyrynda Strong, Rachel, Above the Clouds, While Flying, and Striders all demonstrate Carrabis can tell a woman’s story as well as most women.”
“Sanctuary shows flash fiction can be perfect fiction.”
“Sanctuary is f*ing perfect!”
I laughed out loud reading My Wife’s An Alien.”
Steam left me weak and sobbing. I felt everything the main character suffered.”
“MorningSong and The Magic Tassels must come from the same place as Carrabis’ The Shaman. Beautifully done.”
“Grafton’s Ghost-Child really captures the quiet tenderness of a parent’s love.” |
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A Little Game – Consider the first three sequences below
- 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 8 9
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- 1 2 3 3 5 6 7
Figure out what generates the number sequence of each line. Once you do, complete the following sequence
1 1 2 2 ?? ??
HINT: Think Geometrically!
The first five people to get back to me with a solution get a signed Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires Volume 2 ebook. The first person to get back to me with a solution which makes me laugh gets a signed print copy (and no looking it up on the internet, folks!). |
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| I’m Published Here – My Oct 2025 publications are
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That’s it for October. See you next month!
Enjoy!
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