Dream Waking

I've gotten unstuck! Pretty thrilled about that - only wrote about 5 new pages, but the story now has a path out of the spot I was stuck. Even if I re-write/re-think it all later, at least I'm MOVING the story forward again.    

For the first time in the novel, I'm attempting to incorporate a dream (really a nightmare) into the story.  I'm also thinking a lot about world building for the story. A large portion of the story will happen in an underground city and I need to balance futuristic technology with the realities of space, energy and resource limitations in a circumstance where above-ground is mostly not available to the people anymore.  

A small example is beds. Beds take up quite a bit of floor space in a dwelling.  I'm toying with ideas of beds that retract into walls, suspended hammock-like beds, inflatable beds that deflate when not in use, or beds built into the floors that have sliding covers so they can be walked on in daytime. 

Here's the dream and wake transition I'm working on...(very first draft, no edits yet!):

"The sand burned her feet as she walked. She should have worn her sandals, she thought. Then her feet hit the cool wet sand. She pulled her sunglasses over her eyes and watched her daughter’s blonde curls spray sea water as she jumped and chased the waves to shore with some new little friends. The sky was a deep, perfect cloudless blue and the air was filled with the sound of ocean waves, seagulls and the happy shrieks of children. Miranda stepped back to take a photo and realized she had lost some of her light. Looking up, she saw a single ominous cloud blocking the sun. As she watched, that one cloud seemed to grow in all directions, sending the beach into sudden darkness. Goose bumps sprang out on her arms and she began to shiver violently. Something was wrong - the sky was dark green - not the muddy gray of storm clouds. She couldn’t hear the waves any longer. She couldn’t see the ocean which had pulled back out of sight. Then…the blood curdling screams began. She could see her daughter’s wet hair and skin freeze into ice, while the muddy sand solidified around her ankles…"

"Miranda bolted upright in bed, dripping with sweat."

Why Write?

I am currently reading APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur by Kawasaki and Welch (really good tips by the way, I'm enjoying it).  One of the questions posed is WHY, as an aspiring author, we we want to write a book, and what we hope the book will offer when it is done.

I did not even have to think to answer that question.  I love scientific discovery, researching and pondering science questions and have a vivid imagination! I have been an avid science fiction and horror reader since I was a kid, I devour scientific magazines, blogs and articles regularly and wanted to direct all that learning in a creative way. 

My full time job (yes, this is a side gig!) is fulfilling in other ways, but provides me no reason to learn about genetic engineering, climate control, hologram computers, and other futuristic science and technology. I am not looking to replace one career with the other, just to have an enjoyable outlet for the latter.  And hopefully, along the way, I'll share some ideas and stories that others find cool and enjoy reading as much as I enjoy so many authors books today.

Some of my favorite authors of all time that inspired me to write:  

• Orson Scott Card
• Octavia Butler
• Michael Crichton
• Margaret Atwood

"Computers don't get headaches"

I imagine all the computers in my novel similar to the 

hologram ones seen in the movie Iron Man which 

Elon Musk believes are really build-able. Can't wait!

No long post today.  Just a quick snippet from the novel.  Enjoy.  As always, comments and critiques welcome.

"Verne’s dark eyes were red-rimmed with exhaustion and he felt a migraine lurking like an inevitable train wreck.  After weeks staring at three dimensional images of goo for ten hours a day, he had dealt with more than his usual share of migraines. Each day he reminded himself how lucky he was to have landed this contract gig and how it would be the shining star of his resume for years.  Still, with the throbbing behind his right eye intensifying, he decided a short break was in order." 

"In reality, his role there was more like an assembly worker than the highly trained expert he really was.  He just had to swap the physical samples after the completion of each analysis routine, ranging from two to seven minutes.  An analysis routine must never exceed seven minutes or the samples risked defrost and destabilization. The computerized microscopes record everything and are programmed to 'look' for certain anomalies. As he stood and walked away, his work station automatically locked and the screen darkened, but Verne knew it was still awake, still analyzing.  Computers don’t get headaches.  Human workers were still a necessary evil, at least for now.  Walking past a dozen rows of other engrossed lab techs, he knew they were doing the same drudge work.  The volume of comet debris collected from Antarctica was massive and NASA wanted every single droplet analyzed."

(As a side note, I'm kind enough to cure Verne's migraine with a futuristic treatment, currently studied but not yet available to the public called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist. Read about it here.)

Ice-minus Bacteria

Zenna is a major protagonist in the novel.  She's introduced early on, in a near-future world, living in a Citiburb with self-driving vehicle and cool holo-gloves that melt onto her hands.  She's a leading microbiologist, who bioengineered microbes for cloud seeding. Here I describe her work, a key in the plot that develops.  (Side-note: the past tense doesn't quite feel right here, but it is consistent with the rest of the novel.  Re-thinking my tense throughout.)

Question:  is this too much hard science?  Will most readers skip over this stuff? Can I pull it off?  

(By the way, I didn't make this stuff up, its based on real science!  Wikipedia describes bioprecipitation and Ice-minus Bacteria.)


It is interesting to me, but maybe slows the story line surrounding it.  I'm contemplating having someone else describe Zenna's relevant work with cloud seeding bacteria and mention her name, rather than including it in the chapter that introduces this character.

"Zenna was a microbiologist, specializing in bioengineering of microbes for various industrial purposes, including weather manipulation. She had done some ground-breaking work to bio-engineer Pseudomonas Antarctica IN-74, a hardy variety of bacteria found extensively in Antarctica. It has superb ice-nucleating properties, ideal for snow creation at temperatures higher than would normally support it. The ski resorts bought tons of it, allowing them to extend the season a month on each end. Then the weather providers wanted to get their hands on it, but due to climate regulations for weather modification couldn’t use it."

"Business being business, a compromise was finally reached. If they could make the bacteria self-destruct before it could replicate, anti-GMO fanatics would be calmed. And if the bacteria could also photosynthesize, then the global warming folks would also be happy."

"Meeting the secondary requirements changed the whole game, but Zenna managed to isolate the ice-nucleating properties from the IN-74 bacteria and inject the critical properties for ice formation into already genetically modified photosynthetic Cyanobacteria which naturally input carbon dioxide and output oxygen."

"These photosynthesizing Cyanobacteria were then modified by injection with an 'enemy bacteria' – bacteriophages - that expand as the bacteria gobbles up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere until they burst like a water balloon in approximately 8-12 hours. This served three purposes: first, it would release the ice nucleating artifacts; second, it would prevent the bacteria from reproducing; and third, the bacteria are destroyed, therefore posing no threat to the earth as they fall to the ground inside the snow or rain.That project was a true masterpiece and those bacteria are now utilized all over the world, probably a key reason that weather service providers have been able to expand their business so rapidly."

* ALL RIGHTS RESERVED * COPYRIGHT © 2014 *

Aerogel

So, in the novel, a comet is going to hit Earth. A big comet. (This is not a spoiler as this happens very early in the novel, its where the story starts.)

I've invented a way to eliminate the comet (the method I used later plays into the story). But, what I want to know is: am I going into too much detail? Should I just skim over an approximation of how its done, or maybe, no explanation at all is required? (The orange aerogel is featured in several later chapters, and by the way, is a real thing: Wikipedia explanation, and it really has been used to catch comet dust: NASA Stardust Mission.)

"Projections for impact were dire, from massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to a change in the earth’s axis from the impact, ultimately resulting in catastrophic changes to our relationship with the sun. Many scientific schemes were proposed to either eradicate the comet or to move it off course. In the end, its size prevented the latter solution from being viable with available science and materials, so eradicating or minimizing it became the focus. Laser technology was not yet advanced enough to take out an object flying at that speed; nuclear warheads were too imprecise and posed other negative side effects. Despite having the ability to track the comet’s path, humans did not yet possess space travel technology to send humans safely on a mission to take out the comet closer to where it originated."

"Given these limitations, the team adopted a multi-pronged approach. Satellites were put in orbit around the comet, first for tracking, then for probe insertion. Each diamond tipped probe would carry multiple chemical payloads, the first being a caustic acid, capable of boring through nearly any material on earth, released from a hole in the synthetic diamond tip. This acid, combined with heat delivered on initial impact, would bore clean holes into the ice and then into the rocky core. Each probe was equipped with a GPS tracker and unique ID for identification. Almost two thousand probes were embedded at key fracture points deep within the comet’s core. When the time was right, they would all be remotely triggered with precise timing."

"The trigger event would open chambers inside each probe, combining chemicals that would create a powerful blast at thousands of carefully calibrated points for maximum damage and minimal fragment size. The orbiting satellites would have a secondary role to play, self-destructing nanoseconds before the blast and bursting into a sticky, fluffy foam substance – “aerogel” - to capture as much of the debris from the blast as possible and float it to Earth in the gel. The blast location in space would be timed to maximize potential of any remaining fragments falling to earth over Antarctica."

Thoughts on the above excerpt?

• Too wordy? 
• Too complicated? 
• Too much information?

Herding Cats

Herding Cats: According to Wikipedia: "An idiomatic saying that refers to an attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors."

This is how I feel about my novel right now. I have 13 Chapters finished (how ironic, not that I'm superstitious) and each one sort of lives as a mini-story on its own, though there are tiny silver threads in there to (hopefully) tie the story together. Protagonist's character definition and back-story is being done in nearly every chapter. To make matters worse, the chapter timelines sometimes overlap and sometimes skip around in time.

Challenge: make the tiny silver threads between chapters into steel cables so hopefully a less segmented back-story for each character is needed and a more seamless timeline emerges.

Related Tasks for Self:

• Find a way to mention other characters in the context of earlier character story lines before all the characters come together later in the story. Build up the character connection thread. 
• Consider removing the dates at the beginning of each chapter and segment the book into sections (with multiple chapters in each section) then associate dates to each book section. 
• Try out free apps such as Gingko to attempt to organize my chapters by section and keep notes about each Chapter, areas to work on, etc. Using just Microsoft Word is getting cumbersome. 

Un-abandoning my novel!

I've been working on my very first novel for over 3 years now, minus the past year that I mostly abandoned any effort to write significantly on it.

I ask myself why I have abandoned it, when I was formerly working on it so actively.  I answer friends and family who ask how my writing is going: "Oh, slowly, I have been so busy!"  Truth is, I was not less busy previously when I was working on the novel, I just made time for it.

A few things happened that slowed me down, I believe, and I need to conquer each one:

1.) I got some non-glowing feedback from a few people I shared a few chapters with;
2.) I realized I have too many protagonists, all but one a woman (very unusual for science fiction!)
3.) I am stuck on a particular point in the book where all my protagonists come together in one place at one time, and I have found the event impossible to navigate for some reason;
4.) I did too much research and realized I was getting bogged down in scientific details that most readers would not care about;
5.) I have been over-editing (repeatedly!) the chapters already written, rather than moving forward with new ones (due to #3 and #4 above);

So this blog is going to be about getting un-stuck from each of the challenges above and moving forward to get my novel drafted in 2014!

I hope to get feedback in this blog on my writing, my characters, and even my plot, to give me a push in the direction I need to finish, good or not.