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The Streetcar To Andromeda
by
Celeste Streiff, Hammond
Copyright 2011 Celeste Streiff, Hammond,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0467-7
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This Book is dedicated to
James Streiff
1924 – 2007
and to
Thornton “Lee” Streiff
1932 – 2004
“To Veri, to Veri, to a place in the Stars”
James Streiff
PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge, Dr. William W. Strickland (of Slug Sherman and his Strickland Glider fame) for his loving and continuous support over the many years, and especially for the long hard work of listening. Also a special Thanks to Dr. Bill for recommending the title of my book.
To Lee Streiff, my wonderful brother (the books Narrator) who gave tirelessly of his time and support, with great suggestions, timelines to work by, and even created the Star Map of the 81st Dimension and Carter’s Vortex, I owe him a tremendous amount of credit on this book, and my deepest gratitude to both he and Phyllis Streiff, his wife, for listening and laughing, thank you Phyllis!
To James Streiff (Jesse), who in his magnificent imagination created the concept of this wonderful, magical world to begin with, and who was a great, and loving brother to us all.
To my loving brother, Billy Streiff, I owe countless Thanks, for with out his help this book could have never been realized.
My deepest regards go to my first cousin Valieria Rosemary Hornsby, for her loving encouragement and for taking the time to read and review my first efforts.
Also I wish to give exceptional recognition to Robert Mc Daniel for his fantastic enthusiasm of the project, which in turn gave to me most importantly, the confidence to persist.
I wish to acknowledge my long time friend Barbara Allen, for her encouragement and support.
A Super Thanks goes to Brent Edmund, my Editor, thewriterpro.com
for his superb astuteness of the work and his understanding and honest enjoyment of it, and especially for going the extra mile for me when I was lost.
I particularly want to thank my Screenwriting Instructor Tom Stempel for his immense wisdom and talent as a Teacher, and for his keen observation, understanding and analysis of my work that encouraged me to persevere.
And last but not least to all my Readers, now, Elsewhere and Elsewhen for all of your support, A Veri Special Thank you!
INTRODUCTION
A few years ago my older brother, Lee Streiff, a retired high school English teacher in Wichita, Kansas sent me a booklet he’d put together and published, in a small quantity on his own “Vortex Press.”
The booklet was entitled: CVC VERI, A Guide to the Epic of the Martian Empire. Eagerly I set out to read it, and to my delight, was greatly amused. When I finished reading, I sat in wonder, and as a tear streamed down my cheek I thought, “What a wonderful loving tribute Lee has written to his older brother James.” You see, our father was always away at work and so it was James that had really raised Lee and given him from his own vast knowledge and creativity, the priceless gift of “imagination.”
I immediately called Lee and told him that I thought his Guidebook could be developed into a unusual and magical short story that he should write. He laughed and said he thought it would make a wonderful children’s book and suggested that I should write it. Of course I was greatly flattered by his proposal and so in my spare time, set out to work on it.
It seems that back in 1937’ our brother James, an extremely imaginative thirteen year old had begun to fashion in his imagination, a cosmic Empire filled with strange and wonderful creatures and beings. The chief players and heroes in the Epic of the Martian Empire were a stalwart band of Martian Exiles, (James and his friends, of course) that were driven from their home planet of Mars during a great Revolt by the evil and vile Madman Roth. And now the goal of the Exiles was to reclaim their home planet of Mars. With this premise in mind, the group created many situations and characters to achieve their goal and have a lot of fun along the way. So over a period of the next eleven years the Epic of the Martian Empire grew and grew.
Basically the guys were way ahead of their time, because back in 1937’ they had actually created and were playing a game that was rather like a version of Dungeons & Dragons that erupted some 50 years later in the 1980’s. James and his friends became the lead characters in the game of the Martian Empire. They made up stories about each other and would then embellish on them. Now, not every member, friend, or fan involved, was an alternate character in the Empire fables, and a lot of the character were just “hearsay” that is, they were usually included and often talked about, but not “real” people like; the Mighty Moscovitch, The Ex-robot Dictator, the Dragons, and especially the most prominent Character, CVC VERI. Several members of the group played roles as themselves and so in a way, this is how “The Streetcar to Andromeda” is all loosely based on a true story.
The Stories of the Martian Empire eventually spread over most of the known universe before it finally faded around 1948’. During the 11 years it flourished however the Martian Epic became very elaborate, covering some 15 billion years of Martian History, Martian technology, manners morals, art, music, religion, language and literature. It generated a narrative Epic that encompassed many galaxies.
Although a number of people became involved in the game playing of this Epic, like Bob Parks, John Roth, Robert Frickel, Charles Goodrum, and Robert Arnold among others, It was first and foremost the vision of James, who worked out and brought together the maps, timelines, the celestial spaces, the songs, the customs and almost all of the characters that made up the Martian Empire in its diverse grandeur.
Central to the Epic were the cultural Hero; The Mighty Moscovitch (whose name must always be written in red ink or in someway be made distinctive); Madman Roth(John Roth)The demon Veri; The Evil Martian Aristocrats (who drove the Exiles who created the Empire, off Mars itself) and Shultz’s Beer Parlor;(the meeting place of the Exiles): Varnish (a virulent elixir); various gods and creatures, like Veri, Erf and Merf, the Dragons; Klono, god of Justice; Noshabkenning, god of space; the Little Men, messengers of Klono, ( Paul Carter),
