writing prompt and stuff.

Hey, all.

     Took some much needed time off, Irma and I spent a couple of days up in Estes Park at the Stanley hotel to celebrate our 15th anniversary.  Didn't do anything but rest, relax, and hike.  We had really nice weather, warm for this time of the year, and normally windy this time of year Rocky Mountain National Park was clear, sunny, and not much below freezing, made for a really relaxing hike.  We both came back refreshed, and I'm ready to write something.

     To get me in the mood, I dug out some writing prompts and tackled an amusing one, write a short bit from the point of view of a rope about to snap. 

    “Shaddup, If I hear you groan one more time, Mast, I’m going to snap.  You think you have it so tough, well let me tell you, mast, you don’t know what tension is.”  Rope creaked as another gust of wind stretched him taut as the mainsail belled out under the growing gale winds.

    As soon as the gust let up, rope sagged for a moment.  Under his breath, he mumbled to himself.  “No respect.  I’m pulled this way and that, and only time I ever get off is when I get so wound up my head’s tucked under my ass so tightly I can’t move an inch.  Splashed with salt water.  And so help me, if those stinking sailors smear that tar on me again, I, I, I don’t know what I’ll do.” 

    “You think you got problems, Haul line?  Try life as a belaying pin.  Either I got you wrapped around my neck, or I’m plucked outta my hole and swung left and right smacking hard headed sailors about by the first mate.  That’s right, discipline, rope.  And you ain’t got it.”

    “Shaddup, I said, you and mast both.”  Rope readied another curse, but fell silent as he caught sight of the rogue wave bearing down on ship.  “Ohhh, man, this is gonna hurt.”, he said to himself, then shouted over the wind.  “Hang on, fella’s, here it comes again...”

     The point of a writing prompt for me is to just write, don't edit, don't revise, so, there it is.  Now to tackle something with more meat...

Clear skies,
Jim

Channel changed...

     Well, I took my own advice, and changed my channel for a bit, I put Imperfect Hope on a back burner, and started fiddling with some ideas for a short story for the 1632 slush pile.  I have jotted down a couple of IH ideas and filed them away with the rest of the stuff for when I get back to it, but otherwise, I've put a fair amount of effort into just clearing my mind of the logjam that had developed...

     Writing a short for the 1632 universe is a complete change of channels for me.  Going from an entirely self-created universe to a shared world with some pretty exhaustive rules is a challenge.  I read a fair amount on the ground rules for writing there, they all make sense, (and would make really good sense in a shared ifgs writing world).  Major characters are "owned" by specific writers, new writers may petition to obtain rights to one of the 3000 or so "uptimers" known to have existed when Grantville jumped back to 1632, or may create any number of non-historical, non-major characters for their stories.  Technology has major restrictions, for example, no airplanes were transferred back to 1632, so when the Grantville army needed an airplane for scouting, they had to cobble one together using a vw bug engine and a relatively primitive design. 

     I've been bouncing ideas back and forth with my brother, comparing notes on "what we know", between my aviation background and his engineering background.  Jeff had spent a fair amount of time working in the north sea, and so has met some unique characters both on the offshore oilrigs, and on the mainland itself.  Me, I've dealt with aviation ups and downs, seen technology change over the last 23 years (oh so slowly in our bureaucracy), and handled many types of emergencies, from "ohgodfireinthecockpitwegottalandthisthingnowcentercanyouhearus" to an open-cockpit 1930's era restored monoplane stuck on top of solid cloud layers, no navigation equipment, and no holes in the clouds within 100 miles.  The latter is something that just might translate to a good 1632 type story.

     See, the way I figure it, one of the biggest lacks in the down time of 1632 for aviation wanna-be's (after the shortage of reliable aircraft powerplants is addressed) is navigation and weather.  No gps nav systems, no vor nav aids, no radio beacons.  No satellite weather forecasts, no current upper wind readings, no dopplar radar.  A pilot flying from point a to point b in 1635 will have to reinvent (or resurrect) dead reckoning navigation if he wants to fly in any kind of weather.  Even flying visually, there will be very few roads to follow.  Visual navigation will rely on geographic features, not terribly easy even in clear skies visibility 100 miles.  If you've not flown somewhere before, you'll have almost no visual references to tell where you are, one small hamlet will look exactly like another, and unless you've planned your flight carefully, chances are you'll be lost most of the time.  Rivers will become critical for knowing where you are, and since cities tend to be near rivers, they'll be a useful air highway...

     My job as a writer is to introduce a stick of gum into the gears, though.  One storyline to fiddle with involves a young swede or nordsk, trying to learn his now profession as a United States of Europe certified "weather guesser".  Stay tuned, we'll see if anything comes of the concept...

Anyway, more to come
TTFN,
Jim


     Weather forecasting today relies on computer models and satellite feeds.  60 years ago, though, forecasters depended on amassing hourly readings from all across the US, fed to the weather forecast offices where trained scientists analyzed the data and gave out limited forecasts.  Predicting conditions beyond a day or so was iffy.  Local conditions could be predicted several hours in advance with some accuracy, but...  Not the degree that we have now. 

     Since navigation and weather go hand in hand in early aviation, I think I've got a good story to piece together.  Gonna toss an idea football back and forth to Kuala Lumpur and see what come up.  More to come soon...

Another year...

Welcome to 2011.  And I thought 2010 looked like science fiction.  Time to look back at accomplishments of the past year...

     Okay, enough of that.  Things I didn't get done:  Imperfect Hope.  Yah, I know, it's been number one on my topics these last few months.  Time to change the channel...

     Got a note from my brother Jeff a few weeks back (Hi Jeff, know you're reading this), He'd gotten a short story published in the Grantville Gazette, a ezine dedicated to Eric Flint's 1632 universe.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a shared world speculative fiction (sci-fi) series based on the concept of a time-transference of a small area surrounding Grantsville, WV from the year 2000 back to 1630 germany right smack in the middle of the 30 years war.  Eric Flint set up some very specific rules about writing in that era, most important of which is that the modern resources available to the uptimers (those from the year 2000) are restricted to an accurate inventory of what was actually in Grantville at the time of the transfer.  Population 3000 or so, coal miners and librarians and school teachers, no rocket scientists, no aeronautical engineers, no lost detachment of special forces soldiers on leave. 

     The grantville Gazette is an ezine consisting of non-fiction articles on recreating technology under those circumstances, historical references and conjecture on societal changes, and fiction short stories or serials based around the events of the print books co-written by Eric Flint.  Some years past, Jeff wrote a non-fiction article on "oil mining", a low tech source of much needed hydrocarbons that the Transplaced Grantsville residents might use.  From that article came his short story, co-written with Kiwi (I believe) Kerryn Offord about another potential low tech means of obtaining oil in 1634.  It's a good read, I have to admit. 

     Because it's published in an E-zine, I shouldn't post the entire story for the entire world to read, since it is a subscription e-zine, but they do allow previews of about half the story without buying a subscription.  You'll find it online at http://grantvillegazette.com/ .  For those interested, email me and I'll "loan" you my copy to read as long as you promise not to spread it willy-nilly about the internet.  (I'm sensitive to the needs of copyright protection, and since writers to ezines get paid through the 'zine's subscription, if you subscribe, you'll be supporting starving writers like my brother...  And perhaps me...)

     Not that he's starving, he and Bess Anne are in Kuala Lumpur living in a 3700 square foot penthouse working for a multinational oil company, and has to walk 15 minutes to his office on some upper floor of the Petronas Towers.  Other than being half a world away from the triplets, I suspect he's doing fine.  ;-) 

     I hadn't kept up with the 1632 series of late, though it's always been a fascinating storyline to me.  They've been pretty strict about keeping the limits of the recreation of technology realistic, and I've enjoyed the meshing of historical characters such as Galileo (tried for heresy in 1632 historically, I won't tell you how the writers have changed history in the book dealing with that case), and Richelieu with fictional characters such as Tom Stone (resident "non-traditional chemist known to the locals as stoner) and his rather undisciplined teenage boys, and challenging topics such as the catholic reformation, the plague, and politics, politics, and more politics.  Give it a read.  Perhaps I'll have a short story there someday...

Anyway, more to come soon, I promise...
TTFN,
Jim