I've been working (with my brother) on a short story for the Grantville Gazette these last couple of weeks. It is a different world working on a project for a targeted audience, inside a pre-defined world. I've actually been doing a fair amount of historical (or hysterical?) research as I go, trying to keep both characters and locale accurate, historically, as well as fictionally for the series 1632.
We started by bouncing ideas off each other, looking for something that hasn't been done in the world yet, as well as trying to play to our strengths, we eventually started on "Ole the Weatherman" (Tentative Title). Ole, a norwegian student and part time fisherman, ends up learning how to forecast the weather. We'll see where it goes.
On the research side, I've found it necessary to track some historical characters from that era, both those mentioned in previous books, and those as yet unknown. We eventually selected the historical character, Evangelista Toricelli, an Italian scholar and occasional correspondent of Galileo. Galileo played a part in the novel 1634 The Galileo Affair, which runs takes the up-timer Americans (from the future) to Venice and eventually Italy as Galileo's trial by the catholic church comes to a head. It's a good read, really well researched and fun.
Toricelli eventually became known for inventing the Toricelli Barometer in 1643, but there is an interesting gap in his real history from 1631, when he wrote Galileo in support of his theories on planetary movement, just prior to his incarceration by the inquisition ("No-one expects..." <wince> (sorry, inside joke)) until his publication scientific papers and reappearance in 1641, when he returned to the public eye. We're going to take him from 1633 or so and run with it, having him end up in Germany, where he gets tapped by the future-americans to help establish a weather forecasting office. There are other twists we're working is, so... Stay tuned.
Why a weather forecast unit? That has to do with my observation that in the series, though weather reports are mentioned by many writers, none have taken the time to define the how, where and why. Weather forecasting without computer models or satellite feeds was in real life far different that the forecasting we have now, and in the 1632 universe, that's exactly what they'll have to do. Though there was some beginning research into weather data back then, forecasting didn't really take off until much later, at least on a scale other than locally. We'll see if we can turn it into an interesting story.
Imperfect Hope has been tabled for a while. However, it's not forgotten, and every so often I think of something and write a note to myself. A growing folder of random thoughts awaits me when Jeff and I finish our project.
At any rate...
CLear skies,
Jim
We started by bouncing ideas off each other, looking for something that hasn't been done in the world yet, as well as trying to play to our strengths, we eventually started on "Ole the Weatherman" (Tentative Title). Ole, a norwegian student and part time fisherman, ends up learning how to forecast the weather. We'll see where it goes.
On the research side, I've found it necessary to track some historical characters from that era, both those mentioned in previous books, and those as yet unknown. We eventually selected the historical character, Evangelista Toricelli, an Italian scholar and occasional correspondent of Galileo. Galileo played a part in the novel 1634 The Galileo Affair, which runs takes the up-timer Americans (from the future) to Venice and eventually Italy as Galileo's trial by the catholic church comes to a head. It's a good read, really well researched and fun.
Toricelli eventually became known for inventing the Toricelli Barometer in 1643, but there is an interesting gap in his real history from 1631, when he wrote Galileo in support of his theories on planetary movement, just prior to his incarceration by the inquisition ("No-one expects..." <wince> (sorry, inside joke)) until his publication scientific papers and reappearance in 1641, when he returned to the public eye. We're going to take him from 1633 or so and run with it, having him end up in Germany, where he gets tapped by the future-americans to help establish a weather forecasting office. There are other twists we're working is, so... Stay tuned.
Why a weather forecast unit? That has to do with my observation that in the series, though weather reports are mentioned by many writers, none have taken the time to define the how, where and why. Weather forecasting without computer models or satellite feeds was in real life far different that the forecasting we have now, and in the 1632 universe, that's exactly what they'll have to do. Though there was some beginning research into weather data back then, forecasting didn't really take off until much later, at least on a scale other than locally. We'll see if we can turn it into an interesting story.
Imperfect Hope has been tabled for a while. However, it's not forgotten, and every so often I think of something and write a note to myself. A growing folder of random thoughts awaits me when Jeff and I finish our project.
At any rate...
CLear skies,
Jim
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