Story Details
Categories Science Fiction Aliens
The enemy is in the eye of the beholder. No matter what the facts may be, it’s perception that drives our response to them. We all know that the “enemy” is wildly different from us, has many terrible attributes, and is responsible for much evil done against our kind. Or is that just us?
Author Details
R.J.K. Lee is a native Oregonian residing in Japan for nearly two decades where he plays games with his two wonderfully awesome kids, bicycles through typhoons, and works as a language teacher, proofreader, and voice actor. Since he was young, he’s written and imagined strange characters and worlds. During his elementary school years, he drew crayon maps, wrote story fragments in journals, adventured around the wilderness with his siblings and friends, and played roleplaying games of various sorts. He continued dabbling in writing, showing up in a local newspaper after performing his poetry and snagging a few awards at universities for a non-fiction essay and a literary fiction story about USA-Japan relations. After moving to Japan and taking a break from writing, he’s returned to push himself to get his work published, the idea being that shorter work will eventually lead to his yet-to-be published longer work. His current publications include Don't Trust Molters in DreamForge Magazine (2022), Stone Shaper Tanukis Estranged in Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging - Volume Blue (2021), and Memo from the Jolly Overlords in the Weird Christmas Podcast (2020). He also has stories forthcoming in Clamour and Mischief and Tales & Feathers Magazine. His awards include semi-finalist from the Writers of the Future contest (2021) and a third-place fiction award from the University of Oregon KIDD contest (2005). Follow his posts at https://figmentsdiehard.blogspot.com/ or @rylandjklee on Twitter. Story Notes for Don't Trust Molters My writing often springs from a combination of far-fetched imagination running wild and outraged musings on real world injustice. I need my writing to speak to a broken part of the world in some way. The idea for this particular story started out as a response to police violence, which can be seen in the protagonist’s misunderstanding and approach to dealing with trouble from “others” without much thought for what might be more peaceful routes. I also love exploring characters who are not human and differ from us in major ways. Hence, the molters. The Molters story found its early form through different exercises with Wulf Moon’s challenge group in the summer of 2020, in particular dialogue training that also tied into setting the stage with clarity. This was a strong story from the start thanks to those exercises. A final version made the rounds of rejections as our stories do, receiving some personal rejections after which I put the story through several more rounds of revisions, as I do. Eventually, it found its home here with DreamForge Magazine, a perfect place to help its positive aims shine. I think misunderstandings that blow everything way out of proportion because they are never dealt with in a fair, reasonable, and, well, understanding manner, is often a key reason for all sorts of violence and abuse that occurs in the world. I hope for far better.
Don't Trust Molters, by R.J.K. Lee
Author Details
R.J.K. Lee is a native Oregonian residing in Japan for nearly two decades where he plays games with his two wonderfully awesome kids, bicycles through typhoons, and works as a language teacher, proofreader, and voice actor. Since he was young, he’s written and imagined strange characters and worlds. During his elementary school years, he drew crayon maps, wrote story fragments in journals, adventured around the wilderness with his siblings and friends, and played roleplaying games of various sorts. He continued dabbling in writing, showing up in a local newspaper after performing his poetry and snagging a few awards at universities for a non-fiction essay and a literary fiction story about USA-Japan relations. After moving to Japan and taking a break from writing, he’s returned to push himself to get his work published, the idea being that shorter work will eventually lead to his yet-to-be published longer work. His current publications include Don't Trust Molters in DreamForge Magazine (2022), Stone Shaper Tanukis Estranged in Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging - Volume Blue (2021), and Memo from the Jolly Overlords in the Weird Christmas Podcast (2020). He also has stories forthcoming in Clamour and Mischief and Tales & Feathers Magazine. His awards include semi-finalist from the Writers of the Future contest (2021) and a third-place fiction award from the University of Oregon KIDD contest (2005). Follow his posts at https://figmentsdiehard.blogspot.com/ or @rylandjklee on Twitter. Story Notes for Don't Trust Molters My writing often springs from a combination of far-fetched imagination running wild and outraged musings on real world injustice. I need my writing to speak to a broken part of the world in some way. The idea for this particular story started out as a response to police violence, which can be seen in the protagonist’s misunderstanding and approach to dealing with trouble from “others” without much thought for what might be more peaceful routes. I also love exploring characters who are not human and differ from us in major ways. Hence, the molters. The Molters story found its early form through different exercises with Wulf Moon’s challenge group in the summer of 2020, in particular dialogue training that also tied into setting the stage with clarity. This was a strong story from the start thanks to those exercises. A final version made the rounds of rejections as our stories do, receiving some personal rejections after which I put the story through several more rounds of revisions, as I do. Eventually, it found its home here with DreamForge Magazine, a perfect place to help its positive aims shine. I think misunderstandings that blow everything way out of proportion because they are never dealt with in a fair, reasonable, and, well, understanding manner, is often a key reason for all sorts of violence and abuse that occurs in the world. I hope for far better.
