My Work

September 2, 2024

About “Planet 42 Beta”

Throughout this entire arc of 74 stories Resada Gestae is married. The wedding was done on impulse and had no clergy, witnesses, and was done at gunpoint – not valid for any and all of those reasons. When the law catches up with Lt Gestae and sends Mrs. Resada on a years-long mission of reconstructive justice, this marriage becomes a long separation.

That said, Resada regards the marriage as real, writes this husband frequently, and wonders what it will be like to spend decades with this someone at their assigned post: a vacant colony world. Rain, the husband, replies with letters about replacing tents with simple houses and sheds, growing crops, digging wells, and building a marriage bed, weaving the bedding, painting the walls, putting glass in the windows, sweeping the floor – and not able to ask a single question in real time about colors or layout or architecture. The marriage, the house this bedroom is in, and the whole world it sits on, are unknowns. They will all be Resada’s next assignment for decades on end.


Most narrators might panic and back out of such a marriage: Resada holds to the conviction that the initial impulse was right. (To see how it turned out read “Crush” in Tree and Stone: https://lisashapter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/b92e7-qafissue3.pdf.)

This story, “Planet 42 Beta” (https://4starstories.com/story_4.htm) is a rest from Lt Resada Gestae’s years of mandatory visits to widely separated worlds (none of which is ‘home’). Reunited with a police escort (which would have come in useful in “Planet 42 Alpha” (https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue28/story_4.htm)), Resada is safe and rescued and protected by two hosts: Vester and Edward (last seen newly married and considering their own colony world posting in “Life on Earth” in Expanded Horizons (archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160405132428/http://expandedhorizons.net/magazine/?page_id=3643). “Planet 42 Beta” is one of the few places in sequence of 74 visits to 74 worlds where everything stops and the visit is both peaceful and happy.

To get a glimpse of how these planetary stopovers usually go, read the rest of these travels in: 1) “No Woman, No Plaything” in Kaleidotrope (https://kaleidotrope.net/archives/autumn-2012/no-woman-no-plaything-by-lisa-shapter/), 2) “Planet 38” in 4 Star Stories (https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue10/story_4.htm), 3) “Planet 42 Alpha” in 4 Star Stories (https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue28/story_4.htm), and 4) “Planet 42 Beta” in 4 Star Stories ( https://4starstories.com/story_4.htm). The background of why Resada Gestae is under orders to visit 74 worlds appears in: “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 ( https://www.bdlit.com/searching.html).

If half of Lt Gestae’s police escort seems familiar, Ke narrated several related stories that take place before, during, and after Lt Resada Gestae’s 74 world mission: 1) This is Not a Love Story in Black Denim Lit ( https://www.bdlit.com/this-is-not-a-love-story.html) (the two police escorts meet), 2) “Inducement” in Black Denim Lit ( https://www.bdlit.com/inducement.html) (the two cops work on a crime), 3) “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 (https://www.bdlit.com/searching.html) (the two are assigned to find Resada Gestae), 4) “Planet 42 Beta” in 4 Star Stories ( https://4starstories.com/story_4.htm) (they catch up with Lt Gestae), 5) “Planet 50” in Black Denim Lit (https://www.bdlit.com/planet-50.html) (they guard Lt Gestae – on a ship between worlds in galactic space), and finally 6) “Crush” in Tree and Stone (https://lisashapter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/b92e7-qafissue3.pdf) (Ke’s married – to Resada Gestae), (and in 7) my play “The Other Two Men”) (A review: https://www.portsmouthnh.com/stirring-sci-fi-at-the-ring/) (Ke’s clone wrestles with the same troubles as “Crush” (https://lisashapter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/b92e7-qafissue3.pdf) – while aware of being an artificial twin living in a distant future).

If Resada’s absent husband rings a bell, he appears in: 1) “Grave’s First Day” in A Coup of Owls (https://acoupofowls.com/2021/08/01/issue1/) (parenthood – before marriage!), 2) “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 (https://www.bdlit.com/searching.html) (working as a cop), 3) “Planet 42 Beta” in 4 Star Stories ( https://4starstories.com/story_4.htm) (this story), then 4) “Crush” in Tree and Stone (https://lisashapter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/b92e7-qafissue3.pdf) (still married, after all).

To read the entire network of stories that take place over 1,000 years of galactic colonization (or, with the exception of the centuries jump forward “the Other Two Men”, a hundred-year slice), see “Read my Short Stories in Order” (https://lisashapter.com/2024/02/13/reading-my-stories-in-order-not-that-its-necessary/).

-Lisa Shapter

February 16, 2024

About “Crush”

My new short story “Crush” is out in Tree and Stone’s “Queer as F” themed issue #3 (December 2023). Download the .PDF by clicking on the cover of Issue 3 here: https://www.tree-and-stone.com/queer-as-f

This story is part of a larger network of stories that has been leading up to this: Ke and Resada’s ultimate futures as a colonial governors, parents, and spouses. Things that were unlikely, only undercurrents, in previous stories between them and those around them have become a future where their worst problem is straw in the wool (a minor nuisance). This is a story about contentment and unlikely love.

Yet all of the stories I write have something larger going on, some thing larger that the characters in the story may not see or notice. All of the characters are on a journey that may not have been part of their initial mission briefing but they are participating in something much larger than themselves: history. Their own personal successes or failures affect their teammates, for certain, and the next generation – but also their ship or base or colony world, and their sector of space, and the whole success of humanity in unforgiving environments. Each of the stories in the 74 stories network is not just “Did I inspect the stored space suits, again, today, for the nth time” but “Can I stay on this ship, with this team, or this career track?” ‘All of humanity’s future’ is a distant abstraction: less-than-ideal circumstances, tedious meals, and ‘no where else to go’ are ever-present realities – how does that shape the larger story: history?

All of these stories are part of a set of works covering the thousand year history of the colonization of the Milky Way galaxy. They are stories about how mundane choices and daily chores become a future for all of humanity: less grand diplomatic missions and decisions from orbit; more remembering to put the tarp over the firewood and raking out the livestock paddock. Some of this is Ursula Le Guin‘s influence in her attention to the practical and everyday even among the fantastic (i.e. The Tombs of Atuan is set in a desert but it’s quite clear how they get food and clothes).

Yet in that grand sweep of my 1,000 year galactic history are smaller, more individual stories, of how people cope with the distances, mission plans that cover more time than most people can keep in mind, the delayed communications, and the limited company. As Resada’s first husband notes, people respond in the way they often have in difficult, isolating circumstances: by creating found family. (How much of this is planned ahead of time by base staff and whether it quite works as intended is another matter.) These are stories about people looking for peace, for hope, for happiness, for community: in “Crush” someone has found it.

To understand where the characters in “Crush” start from, read “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 (December 2014). To travel with Ke through prior stories read “Inducement” in Black Denim Lit (September 2016), “Planet 50” in Black Denim Lit (July 2015), and This is Not a Love Story in Black Denim Lit (October 2015).

(To travel with Resada through prior stories (most of them appearing in 4 Star Stories) read “No Woman, No Plaything” in Kaleidotrope (October 2012), “Planet 38” in Four Star Stories (Summer 2013), “Planet 42 Alpha” in Four Star Stories (out now!), and “Planet 42 Beta” in Four Star Stories (forthcoming). To see Resada’s first husband beginning a family before they ever marry, read “Grave’s First Day” in A Coup of Owls (August 2021)).

To just read the entire network of stories in internal chronological order, see “Read My Short Stories in Order.”

Follow Tree and Stone Magazine at:
February 15, 2024

About “Planet 42 Alpha”

I set out to write how a character changes over 74 sequential stories. The main character, Resada Gestae, is not always the narrator, but the entire arc of 74 stories is Resada Gestae’s story over a number of years. I thought there would be exactly 74 stories, one for each planet my narrator visits, but in writing the stories there were some surprises: the 42nd stop included two worlds, an asteroid belt, and a break in the journey – two stories set in the same solar system.

These two stories will appear in 4 Star Stories: “Planet 42 Alpha” and “Planet 42 Beta”. The first story, “Planet 42 Alpha” is out now. It starts as a typical stop on Lt Gestae’s mission of reconstructive justice. (None of these visits turn out as base staff may have envisioned them.) If this sounds familiar, the 38th stop also appeared in 4 Star Stories: “Planet 38” in 4 Star Stories (Summer 2013).

Five stories in this arc of 74 are now out and I am tremendously pleased to have two appearing in 4 Star Stories. To follow Lt Gestae across this larger story, read: 1) “No Woman, No Plaything” in Kaleidotrope (October 2012), 2) “Planet 38” in 4 Star Stories (Summer 2013), 3) “Planet 42 Alpha” in 4 Star Stories, 4) “Planet 42 Beta” in 4 Star Stories (forthcoming), and 5) “Crush” in Tree and Stone’s “Queer as F” themed issue (December 2023). This last story may be a bit disorienting: we see Lt Gestae from the outside and not as a narrator.

This is a trait of my work: the minor characters in one work may be the narrators in another. To follow the broader story of Ke, Resada’s spouse who narrates “Crush”, read: 1) This is Not a Love Story in Black Denim Lit (October 2015) (two partners meet), 2) “Inducement” in Black Denim Lit (September 2016) (two partners solve a case), 3) “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 (December 2014) (two partners get a new case, that of one Resada Gestae), 4) “Planet 42 Beta” in 4 Star Stories (September 2024) (trying to keep tabs on Lt Gestae), 5) “Planet 50” in Black Denim Lit (July 2015) (stuck on one ship with Lt Gestae), and finally 6) “Crush” in Tree and Stone’s “Queer as F” themed issue (December 2023) (married – to of all people, Resada Gestae), (and in 7) my play “The Other Two Men”) (cloned in the far future – to solve a problem in “Crush”).

To follow the wider story of Resada’s first husband Rain (who, despite his importance, never narrates any of these stories), read: 1) “Grave’s First Day” in A Coup of Owls (August 2021) (becomes an unmarried father), 2) “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 (December 2014) (brings future spouses in on an ongoing case that will change all their futures), 3) “Planet 42 Beta” in 4 Star Stories (September 2024) (a brief chance to be married), then 4) “Crush” in Tree and Stone’s “Queer as F” themed issue (December 2023) (married for good).

Since all of these works are part of a network of related stories, to understand why Resada Gestae is making these visits start with: “Searching” in Black Denim Lit #8 (December 2014). To read about previous stops read “No Woman, No Plaything” in Kaleidotrope (October 2012) or “Planet 38” in 4 Star Stories (Summer 2013). The people Resada speak to in the opening paragraphs of “Planet 42 Alpha” are introduced in “Life on Earth” in Expanded Horizons (January 2015) and appear in other works that are not yet out. To take a jump into the future read “Crush” in Tree and Stone’s “Queer as F” themed issue (December 2023).

To see the entire arc of stories laid out in chronological order (and, in fact, all the stories happening during a thousand-year effort to colonize the galaxy) see “Read my Short Stories in Order”.

  • Lisa Shapter
February 13, 2024

Reading My Stories in Order (Not That It’s Necessary)

My new short story “Planet 42 Beta” is out!

This story is a sequel to “Planet 42 Alpha“: both appear in 4 Star Stories.

Read the new story “Beta” here: https://4starstories.com/story_4.htm

Read its prequel “Alpha” here: https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue28/story_4.htm

Read an earlier prequel to both, “Planet 38,” here: https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue10/story_4.htm

Since these stories are part of a linked set of stories, some fans have been asking me where to catch up on the other stories.

Here is a list of the stories in internal chronological order, with links:

1) This is Not a Love Story  in Black Denim Lit (October 2015)

     Link: https://www.bdlit.com/this-is-not-a-love-story.html

2) “Nightskyman Hope” in Expanded Horizons (January 2016)

  Archival link: https://web.archive.org/web/20160405075704/http://expandedhorizons.net/magazine/?page_id=3825

3) “The World in His Throat” in Things We Are Not: An M-Brane SF Magazine Queer Science Fiction Anthology (2009)

    Buy a copy here: https://tinyurl.com/yc3x663c

4) “Inducement” in Black Denim Lit (September 2016)

    Link: https://www.bdlit.com/inducement.html

5) “Grave’s First Day” in A Coup of Owls Issue #1 (August 2021)

    Read or Download the .PDF here: https://acoupofowls.com/2021/08/01/issue1/

6) “Searching” in Black Denim Lit Issue #8 (December 2014)

    Link: https://www.bdlit.com/searching.html

    Get a copy of the ebook here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-denim-lit-8-black-denim-lit/1120945723?ean=2940046470680

7)  “Nightskyman Hope” in Expanded Horizons (January 2016)

   Archived site here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160405075704/http://expandedhorizons.net/magazine/?page_id=3825

8) “Life on Earth” in Expanded Horizons (January 2015)

    Archived site here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160405132428/http://expandedhorizons.net/magazine/?page_id=3643

9) “No Woman, No Plaything” in Kaleidotrope (October 2012)

    Link: https://kaleidotrope.net/archives/autumn-2012/no-woman-no-plaything-by-lisa-shapter/

10) “Planet 38” in 4 Star Stories (Summer 2013)

    Link: https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue10/story_4.htm

11) “Planet 42 Alpha” is out in 4 Star Stories‘ Issue #28 (February 2024)

    Link: https://4starstories.com/4StarStories_Archive_Issue28/story_4.htm

12) “Planet 42 Beta” is out now in 4 Star Stories‘ Issue #29 (September 2024)

    Link: https://4starstories.com/story_4.htm

13) “Planet 50” in Black Denim Lit (September 2015)

    Link: https://www.bdlit.com/planet-50.html

14) “Crush” in Tree and Stone‘s ‘Queer as F’ Issue #3 (December 2023)

    Download the .PDF at this archival link: https://lisashapter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/b92e7-qafissue3.pdf

15) “The Other Two Men” (Play, produced Summer 2016)

    Archived review: https://www.portsmouthnh.com/stirring-sci-fi-at-the-ring/

And an unrelated alternate history novella set in New England about the unintended side effects of a WWII-era drug developed to create affinity between an interrogator and interrogatee:
A Day in Deep Freeze Aqueduct Press (Conversation Pieces series no. 46)  (April 2015).

Buy a copy here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-day-in-deep-freeze-lisa-shapter/1121682868?ean=2940151492928

An finally, sign up for my mailing list for early access to future announcements.

-Lisa Shapter

Planet 42 Alpha, Planet 42 Beta, Crush, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
July 21, 2016

Stirring sci-fi at The Ring (Review of “The Other Two Men” in the The Sound)

Stirring sci-fi at The Ring

Jul 21, 2016

Emery Lawrence (left) and Bailey Weakley star in
Emery Lawrence (left) and Bailey Weakley star in “The Other Two Men.” photo by Jasmin Hunter

“The Other Two Men” is thought-provoking theater

review by John Brescia

Modern society’s interpretation of history is never certain. Despite our best attempts to learn from the past, our current resources limit us from experiencing the proper lesson. We try anyway, for as the old saying goes, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”

A new play on stage at The Players’ Ring in Portsmouth is spinning that popular belief into a reverse concept: If we were to repeat the past, would we learn from it?

In “The Other Two Men,” presented by Oz Productions, this question is explored through the interactions between Saskatoon II (Emery Lawrence) and Nebraska II (Bailey Weakley), clones of two of the four long-dead founding fathers of a future society built upon a colonized Milky Way galaxy. Saskatoon and Nebraska are under observation by their creators, who hope to discover historical intricacies by replicating the lives of the original two founders through their clones. But the controlled nature of their existence causes the clones to question and debate the ethics and value of such an endeavor.

Written by Lisa Shapter and directed by Tomer Oz, the two-man show is great entertainment for fans of the sci-fi genre, particularly those seeking a production with non-traditional plotlines. “The Other Two Men” is attractively unorthodox, a good choice for anyone looking for a different kind of theater experience.

The scenery and detail of the set is refreshingly sparse, allowing the audience to devote all of its attention to the two actors onstage. The spotlight remains on Lawrence and Weakley, who cope with the pressure through a dedicated maintenance of character. Their dialogue is steady and their facial expressions reflect the strong emotions their characters are feeling. The two stars develop and maintain a clear chemistry.

photo by Jasmin Hunter

Despite the compatibility of the actors, Nebraska and Saskatoon have conflicting reactions to their circumstances. While Nebraska continually expresses worry and doubt about their situation, Saskatoon is more resigned to his fate and optimistic about the outcome of the experiment. Although this dynamic creates an interesting tension between the two, Saskatoon gets somewhat short-changed as a character, lacking Nebraska’s depth and vulnerability. This results in a slight imbalance in the plot.

The lighting for the production is well done, but some of the sound effects are vague, particularly the source and meaning of the sounds the characters hear in their heads. Furthermore, the narration that accompanies different scenes is often difficult to understand and too brief for the audience to adequately consider.

But the artfulness of the writer and director, the performance of the actors, and the skill of the crew are all on full display in this production. The cast and crew’s ingenuity has created a compelling and thought-provoking show out of scant resources.

Audiences will not easily brush off the effects of “The Other Two Men” once they leave the theater — they will be made to think, and they will be made to feel.

“The Other Two Men” is onstage at The Players’ Ring in Portsmouth through July 24. Show times are Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12, available here.

Link: http://soundnh.com/stirring-sci-fi-at-the-ring/