Phone first ...
I like my latest phone but it has a massive problem. There's a bug somewhere in the software that means I randomly don't receive text messages. Or rather, the message will be received and a delivery receipt will go back but it gets lost somewhere between receipt and inbox. The thought was that the cache memory (where the message goes between receipt and inbox) is having trouble but the fix for that hasn't proved particularly constant.
So if you've sent me a message and I haven't replied, this is why ! I only know about this problem because my close friend has been upset at messages being lost.
I'll be fixing the problem by getting a second phone for texts and emergency calls only (it just so happens that Vodafone apparently do a pay-as-you-go with unlimited texts ... bargain !) (essential disclosure note - I have nothing to do with Vodafone and they ain't paying me ! But I do have a very good and close friend who's messages have been going astray who is on that network.) That'll be tomorrow evening's job after work and before replenishing some very slim munchie stocks here ...
Back to work tomorrow, which I'm not particularly looking forwards to. I really should have gone to the doctor this week. In hindsight of course. Healing has been steady .... but I'll be back to wearing protective bandages tomorrow because my legs are still bad. Very frustrating.
On that writing though .... I have clearer ideas.
And a potential front runner character for the story. That's always a good thing to have, especially if you can use that front runner character as a means of drawing the reader into the world that you're setting up.
I'm still looking at the new colony story thing. And a potential borrowing of the TV series Arrow's tendency to have parallel timelines going in its narrative. So one timeline would be increasing tension as the colony group departs the world, the other timeline would be the first steps on the new planet. Terra Nova did this very well too, although in that case the parallel timelines were literal. Part of the story was set in our future, part of it was set in our distant past .... with dinosaurs.
And this story would be all set up around the idea : This world is turning into a terrible place while we watch and no one is doing anything about it. How about we leave ?
That's fairly familiar sounding isn't it ?
I guess I'm getting somewhat cynical about our leaders and their increasingly destructive tendencies. I've always tried to live my life with as little interference as possible from the idiots in charge but you can't avoid all that they do. And this story would be about those who have the opportunity to quietly slip away from the increasing hell they are a part of.
Wouldn't that be great if we could do that ?
Well, apart from Elon Musk and his plans to go to Mars, there sadly aren't all that many opportunities to do that with the technology we have. Well, outside of finding some place to go off the grid but that isn't really getting away from the core problem, it's hiding from it. You can isolate but not really get away that far. But I still would like to retire to that boat and live on that away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. I would miss my uncapped internet data though.
This story ... who's the main character ?
Well, the people I want to appear being collected up by this rogue group are the unwanted. The people who want to leave. The disadvantaged. The ones subject to prejudice. I suspect you're seeing a theme there, I see the reports in media and social media about the persecuted groups and can't see a way to help them.
So my main character is likely to be a homeless person, picked up from the streets of the main city of the world this will initially be set on. And like probably all of the homeless here, he's not there of his own choosing. He's educated, smart and has been picked out for potential. This means he's especially useful to me as the one writing, as I can explain the concepts as if to an intelligent person and through that, treat the reader with the respect of thinking they're intelligent people too.
And I'll pick up on the concepts from today's scenarios of Twit/Book and Discord chat servers too. Except definitely better run because Twit/Book has major issues with the sites (especially Twitter) allowing toxic users to run rampant. Also streaming .... because people need their news and entertainment.
But you also need an adversary. And this one will have that as another echo to our present - terror groups getting increasingly bold with the reaction from uninformed leaders being ever more trigger happy, leading to a situation that our rogue group eventually have to react to before it's too late. I'm unsure about the adversary for where they're going though. I sense it might be a reaction to the first major crime, where an exile suddenly .... disappears. Mysteriously.
Or maybe not so mysteriously, just messily. Nothing messes with the mind more than the impression of being totally safe being turned into sudden mortal danger !
I need to get more thoughts in my head though. Perhaps something for NaNoWriMo which is just coming up ...
There are a number of inspirations for this though. From The Expanse, which I hugely enjoyed watching. To Elysium, a scifi movie vehicle for Matt Damon which was showing off all sorts of tech that was handy for its narrative. Over to the two Heorot books by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes and the dearly departed Jerry Pournelle. And all that inspiration from real life and what I come into contact with.
It should be fun to write, it'll definitely be an outlet for many ideas I've wanted to write about as well as being an outlet for what I think of what I see around me in this world !
Back to work tomorrow though, definitely not looking forward to the wrestling with the beard. It's got fuzzy and needs to be annihilated ...
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Tuesday, May 09, 2017
A novel meeting in a pub, far, far away
I mentioned book writing a while ago didn't I ? The ideas have been bubbling away still. I thought I should probably let some of them out of my head. Because you know, there isn't that much room in my head and sometimes it rattles.
A "vomit draft" excerpt starts after :
"So, what are you having Charles ?"
"Thanks Matt. After that meeting, something really strong but .... just a soda please."
"Ahh. Yes. Ok !" said a slightly confused, rather worried looking Matt on his way over to the bar.
The two suited men made a curious counterpoint to the varied denizens of the Lonely Spaceman, a joint most people would describe as a den of despair, a pit of piracy, a lounge of larceny or a place where they sell drinks you can't get anywhere else on the planet. The spacers' bar was actually a central point for the various traders ... and smugglers ... filtering through the planet of Larson's Point. You could obtain almost anything in the Lonely Spaceman, an always temporary cure for loneliness in whichever form you chose, legal items and the occasional illegal item. But don't tell anyone about the latter.
Whatever happens in the Lonely Spaceman, stays in the Lonely Spaceman. Or in the various docks around the port. The spaceport was typical for a developed planet like Larson's Point. It could handle all sorts of ships, from the smaller hyperspace capable fighters, through shuttles, through orbital cargo lifters, up to the sub capital corvettes. Proper freighters, trade ships, naval warships stayed up in space. Once those came down to a planet, which was possible, they didn't tend to leave. Built in space, staying in space.
"Here you go Charles. It looks like you have something on your mind, out with it bro." As Matt made his way back through the smoke to the private booth Charles had taken up residence at.
"After that meeting ? After what's been on the news lately ? Tonnes. Booth, privacy screen activate." Charles had invoked a rather standard feature in the Lonely Spaceman, a system that isolated them from the rest of the lounge. No observation was possible, either by visual means or recordings. Now you see why this bar was so popular with those who didn't necessarily want to have the authorities knowing all about their business.
"Matt, I'm worried. Sooner or later, this planet is going to blow. We're seeing it already with intolerance, some very strange politics, hell there's a general breakdown in the behaviour of people around here."
"Sure Charles, we saw some of that today as well. The board were definitely looking to protect their own interests even ahead of the company. They've never done that before, the company has always come first. But now ? They'll happily drive the company into the ground if they can retire, fat and happy on what the asset strippers will pay them for the shell of the company."
Matt looked up at this point, the first dawnings of comprehension that his friend might well be about to suggest something radical. Dangerous even. But definitely out of character.
Matt asked, intrigued, "You have a plan don't you. Go on, out with it ! And you're right too, the board will tear down what we built together. How come you let them in anyway ?"
"Aww Matt, you know that we're the builders and the movers ... all that corporate stuff is just downright boring." And, hiding a smile behind the glass holding his untouched drink Charles whispered in a conspiratorial tone "I have a plan."
"You're going to make beat it out of you aren't you. Come on ! I'm damn curious now."
"The next colony mission, I want you", pointing a finger, "Matt on it. With me. And we stay this time instead of running at the first sign of authority starting up."
"Yep. Setting up is fun, running the show is boring. Are you sure though ? Being the Man in charge is a huge step."
The two directors of Larson's Point Colony Movers paused and looked at each other as if contemplating something so unpleasant, they would prefer a short spell in the New Snowdon Uranium mines. Nobody had long spells in the uranium mines. Even with the advent of biological prolong, which effectively ended ageing and 33rd century medicine which largely eliminated natural causes of ill health and death, there were occupations so dangerous that they were widely regarded as death sentences on a world where the death sentence had never been introduced.
However, Larson's Point was not a unified world, it had fractured shortly after establishment and some of the factions were, let's say, not as enlightened or forgiving as others. There was no death penalty but there were the mines where the unwanted might end up. Temporarily. And there were places around Larson's Star which were deadlier than the mines.
Charles broke the silence with a sentence laden with foreboding, "Something is coming Matt, I can feel it." And the drink disappeared in one gulp.
"Gosh Charles, you are spooked ! Ok. I'm in, your instincts are always spot on, although there was that incident on Obsidian Rift." Matt chuckled, that twinkle in his eye shining all the way into a half smile. And a wink.
"Oh Matt ! What happened on Obsidian Rift, has to stay on Obsidian Rift. How was I to know she was a nephew ! I mean, I got nothing against gender fluid people ... but I don't hop into bed with family."
"Haha, ayeaye Captain Admiral Charles. They had me fooled too. Besides, I think they were trying to drag you back to the rest of the family on Earth. You would have had to follow if it had got serious. True Earthers treat family ties like iron chains. And the mess they made of our old home ! So crowded. Earth is a dead hulk of a planet now, a shadow of what it was. The only thing living there now are the people and with True Earth Unity in charge, I'm not sure if they count as living."
It was now Matt's turn to down the remnants of his drink, as Charles saw a pair of particularly noticeable individuals at the bar.
"Another one Matt ? My round."
Charles left his friend in the booth and made his own way through the scented atmosphere of the bar, stopping beside two figures, as conspicuous as the two men in suits. In their own way. One was short, with a clean crisp naval uniform. His eyes darted across the bar, simultaneously sizing up the denizens, evaluating whether they would be threats both in the bar and whether he would be facing them in space. The other was a very imposing figure. She also had the bearing that instantly identified her as military but in an effort to blend in had attempted to wear civilian dress. Clothing that apparently had been acquired in a rush, from a person 20 centimetres shorter and considerably less wide.
"Ken, Carrie, you had to murder anyone here yet ?"
The short man replied in a drawl that must have had its origins with the TexAm faction, "Hell Chuck, we've only been here 5 minutes ! I was getting worried about Hulk though. People round here are looking upwards at that outfit ..."
"Ken, one more word about this outfit and that pole you keep glancing at after looking at me ? I will bend that around your head." Commander Carrie "Hulk" Banso of the Naval Auxillary was not one to be taken lightly. Especially by tailors who were typically gripped with feelings of terror at seeing her walk into their shop in search of new dress uniforms.
"Chuck - two spacehoppers, whatever shortie is having and we're yours for an hour. Seriously, just an hour, we have to be back at Wellingrad before we're missed."
Charles passed the order onto the now very apprehensive barkeep. You see, if naval personnel entered the Lonely Spaceman, it usually ended with violence ... and breakages of furniture. Or violence and breaking of people. There was usually less fuss about the furniture and Carrie was starting to look at the people instead of the furniture. The party made their way back to Matt and the booth.
"Matt, I brought friends. I think it's time."
Matt responded with "Your plan ? Let's have it then. I sense these two are involved ? The typical colony set up with an Auxillary ship as base and a Destroyer having far too much fun running around the system ?"
"Aye. Commander Ken Warner here is in charge of the LNV Dauntless, which is due to pay off in a year. It'll be his last command. Commander Carrie",
Carrie interjected with a "Just call me Hulk, babe, I don't bite."
Matt laughed, said "No biting huh ... I'm guessing that with a nickname like Hulk, you smash instead ?"
"I like this one. He can stay. Do we have to keep the Navy Pygmy though ?" There was a light chuckle from the giant, plus an actual half smile towards Commander Ken.
"Hey ! That's Commander Pygmy to you ! Or I'll call you Stoopy again." The look of feigned indignation from Ken drew a giggle from Hulk and relieved laughter from the two men in suits. There was to be no violence today. Perhaps.
Charles gave a quite cough before continuing, "Yes, Hulk of the LNA Star Rider, which is, you guessed it, due to pay off in a year."
"It is so convenient for us when ex Larson Navy Vessels and Larson Navy Auxiliary ships are about to pay off isn't it ? Older ships, still capable", Matt had noticed the knuckles of the two military personnel whiten as they tightened their grip on their spacehoppers. Navy people don't like the suggestion that their vessels might not be useful any more. Matt continued, "Ideal for our purposes actually. Still used, still maintained, usually with good systems, much better than pirates at least and ...."
".... Yes. We use the Destroyer to run around the system scaring off the pirates and setting up the space side infrastructure, while we land the Auxiliary and make her the centre of the colony. And you two are happy to join us ? We're not planning to bail out at the first sign of impending responsibility this time, we're staying."
A chorus of nods, accompanied sips of spacehoppers.
Matt was curious, "Say, what's in those spacehoppers, I've never actually had one."
Ken explained, "It's a traditional Navy drink. It's related to old Navy Rum from the old days. Legend has it that press gangs would descend upon a bar, offer a free round of the rum to everyone and then the locals who couldn't handle it would be carted off to a sailing ship and wake up in the Bay of Biscay, next stop Australia."
Hulk continued, "And now all the young, smart spacers have left, the old spacers are looking at the exits instead of us and the young, dumb, drunk spacers have been left in the middle as a target. We don't do pressgangs any more but .... Well, Larson Navy doesn't. I wouldn't say the same of those nutters over at New Holyhead. Either a pressganging onto one of their hulks they call frigates or ... the New Snowdon mines."
Charles laughed, "You know New Snowdon might be on the list of places to grab people from ?"
Matt nudged his friend, "You should be aware, this one is a bit of a risk taker with who he takes on board."
"Ahh, you start with a strong core, people you trust for skills, motivation, persistence, loyalty. You need investors as well, we try and get skills and motivation with them too. This planet has tonnes of money, you can usually afford to be choosy although you do need a certain amount of muscle around too."
"And your Colony Movers company foots the big bills and does the negotiations for ships like ours that you need ?", an interested Hulk said.
"Yes. We still need the company to actually make it happen. Usually, we'd land the colony, stay for 6 months and then come back to start preparations for the next. There is so much population pressure here that the Larson government, at least, help subsidise fairly constant emigration. But that's typically for flearidden rat trap setups that can't fend off pirates, or set up with an infrastructure that can't sustain itself. We move someone in, they stay."
Ken looked at his watch, "Hulk, we better get back to Wellingrad. You have to be back for repairs, I'm shipping out for patrol tomorrow. Chuck, you got an idea of where we'll go ?"
"As you happen to mention it ... there is an interesting looking system on your next patrol route. Goldilocks zone planet, normal 0.9g gravity, Nitrogen Oxygen atmosphere. That's what spectrograph tells us anyway. It could do with a proper survey. If you happen to find yourself there. I'll send the coordinates."
"Haha, I think I could find an excuse to find a new home to bounce around for a while. Maybe even set foot there, scope out my house, pick the best beachfront spot before you two reprobates and Hulk get a chance. Hulk will need the whole beach. OW !" Ken started to rub the sore rib that Carrie had just tested.
Charles stood, turned off the privacy field and said "That's great. It was fantastic catching up with you two again. And you bro. I'll see if I can get the barkeeps here to lay in an ample supply of Space Hoppers for next time."
The older spacers remaining in the bar started shuffling towards the exits at this point.
And with this, the group of 4 departed the Lonely Spaceman and melted into the gathering gloom.
That's enough for now I think !
That would be an opening chapter perhaps after a prologue that saw these 4, plus assorted other characters actually departing. I'd see these meetings in the pub being interludes showing a tension gradually building before the leaving date happened. Perhaps even having a couple of elements of tension building in parallel. Danger before, danger after, with both dangers getting steadily getting more real as the story progresses.
There would be lots more to come, as well as what I've written above. That's essentially a Vomit Draft, where the words come out of your head unedited and unpolished. Names would change, although I'd like to keep Ken and Carrie in there as tributes to Kenny Baker and Carrie Fisher.
I'm curious as to what people think. Did you enjoy looking in on that meeting in the far off spacer bar ? Would you want to read more if I wrote the rest of the book ?
A "vomit draft" excerpt starts after :
"Thanks Matt. After that meeting, something really strong but .... just a soda please."
"Ahh. Yes. Ok !" said a slightly confused, rather worried looking Matt on his way over to the bar.
The two suited men made a curious counterpoint to the varied denizens of the Lonely Spaceman, a joint most people would describe as a den of despair, a pit of piracy, a lounge of larceny or a place where they sell drinks you can't get anywhere else on the planet. The spacers' bar was actually a central point for the various traders ... and smugglers ... filtering through the planet of Larson's Point. You could obtain almost anything in the Lonely Spaceman, an always temporary cure for loneliness in whichever form you chose, legal items and the occasional illegal item. But don't tell anyone about the latter.
Whatever happens in the Lonely Spaceman, stays in the Lonely Spaceman. Or in the various docks around the port. The spaceport was typical for a developed planet like Larson's Point. It could handle all sorts of ships, from the smaller hyperspace capable fighters, through shuttles, through orbital cargo lifters, up to the sub capital corvettes. Proper freighters, trade ships, naval warships stayed up in space. Once those came down to a planet, which was possible, they didn't tend to leave. Built in space, staying in space.
"Here you go Charles. It looks like you have something on your mind, out with it bro." As Matt made his way back through the smoke to the private booth Charles had taken up residence at.
"After that meeting ? After what's been on the news lately ? Tonnes. Booth, privacy screen activate." Charles had invoked a rather standard feature in the Lonely Spaceman, a system that isolated them from the rest of the lounge. No observation was possible, either by visual means or recordings. Now you see why this bar was so popular with those who didn't necessarily want to have the authorities knowing all about their business.
"Matt, I'm worried. Sooner or later, this planet is going to blow. We're seeing it already with intolerance, some very strange politics, hell there's a general breakdown in the behaviour of people around here."
"Sure Charles, we saw some of that today as well. The board were definitely looking to protect their own interests even ahead of the company. They've never done that before, the company has always come first. But now ? They'll happily drive the company into the ground if they can retire, fat and happy on what the asset strippers will pay them for the shell of the company."
Matt looked up at this point, the first dawnings of comprehension that his friend might well be about to suggest something radical. Dangerous even. But definitely out of character.
Matt asked, intrigued, "You have a plan don't you. Go on, out with it ! And you're right too, the board will tear down what we built together. How come you let them in anyway ?"
"Aww Matt, you know that we're the builders and the movers ... all that corporate stuff is just downright boring." And, hiding a smile behind the glass holding his untouched drink Charles whispered in a conspiratorial tone "I have a plan."
"You're going to make beat it out of you aren't you. Come on ! I'm damn curious now."
"The next colony mission, I want you", pointing a finger, "Matt on it. With me. And we stay this time instead of running at the first sign of authority starting up."
"Yep. Setting up is fun, running the show is boring. Are you sure though ? Being the Man in charge is a huge step."
The two directors of Larson's Point Colony Movers paused and looked at each other as if contemplating something so unpleasant, they would prefer a short spell in the New Snowdon Uranium mines. Nobody had long spells in the uranium mines. Even with the advent of biological prolong, which effectively ended ageing and 33rd century medicine which largely eliminated natural causes of ill health and death, there were occupations so dangerous that they were widely regarded as death sentences on a world where the death sentence had never been introduced.
However, Larson's Point was not a unified world, it had fractured shortly after establishment and some of the factions were, let's say, not as enlightened or forgiving as others. There was no death penalty but there were the mines where the unwanted might end up. Temporarily. And there were places around Larson's Star which were deadlier than the mines.
Charles broke the silence with a sentence laden with foreboding, "Something is coming Matt, I can feel it." And the drink disappeared in one gulp.
"Gosh Charles, you are spooked ! Ok. I'm in, your instincts are always spot on, although there was that incident on Obsidian Rift." Matt chuckled, that twinkle in his eye shining all the way into a half smile. And a wink.
"Oh Matt ! What happened on Obsidian Rift, has to stay on Obsidian Rift. How was I to know she was a nephew ! I mean, I got nothing against gender fluid people ... but I don't hop into bed with family."
"Haha, ayeaye Captain Admiral Charles. They had me fooled too. Besides, I think they were trying to drag you back to the rest of the family on Earth. You would have had to follow if it had got serious. True Earthers treat family ties like iron chains. And the mess they made of our old home ! So crowded. Earth is a dead hulk of a planet now, a shadow of what it was. The only thing living there now are the people and with True Earth Unity in charge, I'm not sure if they count as living."
It was now Matt's turn to down the remnants of his drink, as Charles saw a pair of particularly noticeable individuals at the bar.
"Another one Matt ? My round."
Charles left his friend in the booth and made his own way through the scented atmosphere of the bar, stopping beside two figures, as conspicuous as the two men in suits. In their own way. One was short, with a clean crisp naval uniform. His eyes darted across the bar, simultaneously sizing up the denizens, evaluating whether they would be threats both in the bar and whether he would be facing them in space. The other was a very imposing figure. She also had the bearing that instantly identified her as military but in an effort to blend in had attempted to wear civilian dress. Clothing that apparently had been acquired in a rush, from a person 20 centimetres shorter and considerably less wide.
"Ken, Carrie, you had to murder anyone here yet ?"
The short man replied in a drawl that must have had its origins with the TexAm faction, "Hell Chuck, we've only been here 5 minutes ! I was getting worried about Hulk though. People round here are looking upwards at that outfit ..."
"Ken, one more word about this outfit and that pole you keep glancing at after looking at me ? I will bend that around your head." Commander Carrie "Hulk" Banso of the Naval Auxillary was not one to be taken lightly. Especially by tailors who were typically gripped with feelings of terror at seeing her walk into their shop in search of new dress uniforms.
"Chuck - two spacehoppers, whatever shortie is having and we're yours for an hour. Seriously, just an hour, we have to be back at Wellingrad before we're missed."
Charles passed the order onto the now very apprehensive barkeep. You see, if naval personnel entered the Lonely Spaceman, it usually ended with violence ... and breakages of furniture. Or violence and breaking of people. There was usually less fuss about the furniture and Carrie was starting to look at the people instead of the furniture. The party made their way back to Matt and the booth.
"Matt, I brought friends. I think it's time."
Matt responded with "Your plan ? Let's have it then. I sense these two are involved ? The typical colony set up with an Auxillary ship as base and a Destroyer having far too much fun running around the system ?"
"Aye. Commander Ken Warner here is in charge of the LNV Dauntless, which is due to pay off in a year. It'll be his last command. Commander Carrie",
Carrie interjected with a "Just call me Hulk, babe, I don't bite."
Matt laughed, said "No biting huh ... I'm guessing that with a nickname like Hulk, you smash instead ?"
"I like this one. He can stay. Do we have to keep the Navy Pygmy though ?" There was a light chuckle from the giant, plus an actual half smile towards Commander Ken.
"Hey ! That's Commander Pygmy to you ! Or I'll call you Stoopy again." The look of feigned indignation from Ken drew a giggle from Hulk and relieved laughter from the two men in suits. There was to be no violence today. Perhaps.
Charles gave a quite cough before continuing, "Yes, Hulk of the LNA Star Rider, which is, you guessed it, due to pay off in a year."
"It is so convenient for us when ex Larson Navy Vessels and Larson Navy Auxiliary ships are about to pay off isn't it ? Older ships, still capable", Matt had noticed the knuckles of the two military personnel whiten as they tightened their grip on their spacehoppers. Navy people don't like the suggestion that their vessels might not be useful any more. Matt continued, "Ideal for our purposes actually. Still used, still maintained, usually with good systems, much better than pirates at least and ...."
".... Yes. We use the Destroyer to run around the system scaring off the pirates and setting up the space side infrastructure, while we land the Auxiliary and make her the centre of the colony. And you two are happy to join us ? We're not planning to bail out at the first sign of impending responsibility this time, we're staying."
A chorus of nods, accompanied sips of spacehoppers.
Matt was curious, "Say, what's in those spacehoppers, I've never actually had one."
Ken explained, "It's a traditional Navy drink. It's related to old Navy Rum from the old days. Legend has it that press gangs would descend upon a bar, offer a free round of the rum to everyone and then the locals who couldn't handle it would be carted off to a sailing ship and wake up in the Bay of Biscay, next stop Australia."
Hulk continued, "And now all the young, smart spacers have left, the old spacers are looking at the exits instead of us and the young, dumb, drunk spacers have been left in the middle as a target. We don't do pressgangs any more but .... Well, Larson Navy doesn't. I wouldn't say the same of those nutters over at New Holyhead. Either a pressganging onto one of their hulks they call frigates or ... the New Snowdon mines."
Charles laughed, "You know New Snowdon might be on the list of places to grab people from ?"
Matt nudged his friend, "You should be aware, this one is a bit of a risk taker with who he takes on board."
"Ahh, you start with a strong core, people you trust for skills, motivation, persistence, loyalty. You need investors as well, we try and get skills and motivation with them too. This planet has tonnes of money, you can usually afford to be choosy although you do need a certain amount of muscle around too."
"And your Colony Movers company foots the big bills and does the negotiations for ships like ours that you need ?", an interested Hulk said.
"Yes. We still need the company to actually make it happen. Usually, we'd land the colony, stay for 6 months and then come back to start preparations for the next. There is so much population pressure here that the Larson government, at least, help subsidise fairly constant emigration. But that's typically for flearidden rat trap setups that can't fend off pirates, or set up with an infrastructure that can't sustain itself. We move someone in, they stay."
Ken looked at his watch, "Hulk, we better get back to Wellingrad. You have to be back for repairs, I'm shipping out for patrol tomorrow. Chuck, you got an idea of where we'll go ?"
"As you happen to mention it ... there is an interesting looking system on your next patrol route. Goldilocks zone planet, normal 0.9g gravity, Nitrogen Oxygen atmosphere. That's what spectrograph tells us anyway. It could do with a proper survey. If you happen to find yourself there. I'll send the coordinates."
"Haha, I think I could find an excuse to find a new home to bounce around for a while. Maybe even set foot there, scope out my house, pick the best beachfront spot before you two reprobates and Hulk get a chance. Hulk will need the whole beach. OW !" Ken started to rub the sore rib that Carrie had just tested.
Charles stood, turned off the privacy field and said "That's great. It was fantastic catching up with you two again. And you bro. I'll see if I can get the barkeeps here to lay in an ample supply of Space Hoppers for next time."
The older spacers remaining in the bar started shuffling towards the exits at this point.
And with this, the group of 4 departed the Lonely Spaceman and melted into the gathering gloom.
That would be an opening chapter perhaps after a prologue that saw these 4, plus assorted other characters actually departing. I'd see these meetings in the pub being interludes showing a tension gradually building before the leaving date happened. Perhaps even having a couple of elements of tension building in parallel. Danger before, danger after, with both dangers getting steadily getting more real as the story progresses.
There would be lots more to come, as well as what I've written above. That's essentially a Vomit Draft, where the words come out of your head unedited and unpolished. Names would change, although I'd like to keep Ken and Carrie in there as tributes to Kenny Baker and Carrie Fisher.
I'm curious as to what people think. Did you enjoy looking in on that meeting in the far off spacer bar ? Would you want to read more if I wrote the rest of the book ?
Saturday, April 01, 2017
Engineering .... or writing ?
I'm pondering one of those career moves again.
Except this one is both more realisable and less realistic than the Band thing from a couple of years ago. You know ... the one written on April 1st 2015 (have a peek in the list on the right!) promising an album out in exactly one year to the day. Yep. Not suspicious at all right ? š
Oooo - I see emoticons that I didn't realise I had .... I promise not to abuse them ... too much š
You'll have hopefully seen and enjoyed a couple more April 1st Secret Projects today. Here is my last one for this year. Of course the secret of the April 1st Secret Project is to make you wonder if the story is true or not. This one is completely about fiction. But is it actually fiction ? I'll leave that to you to ponder ... But first .... the post demands a thumbnail picture !
We need more books. Yep. This post is all about that book I've been talking about writing for ... how long now ? I have ideas. Some of them I think are good ideas. What I really need is a plot to write around. Plus characters. One issue I've seen in some writing is that the characters are all the same. I'd have to base my characters partly around people I know. And me as well. Could you be a character in this book ?
Could there be inspiration coming from a couple of awesome novelist ladies. That'd be Nika Harper, who I first spotted via the name Nikasaur. She's done some amazing short videos where she plays with words and ... be still my beating heart when I watch them. Check out the first Wordplay playlist. And the amazing Thumper too (link on the right in the blog list and here!) who's sense of humour and fun is something I marvel at.
Wait ... what would it be about. Here are a few of the ideas. I've meant to write these down for ages now, in order to frame them into some kind of logical structure in my head.
Premise - it's a future scifi where we have escaped Earth and are on colonies amongst the stars. Faster than Light travel is plentiful and easy to procure. It is feasible to set up new colonies without too much investment or interference. But as always .... it's the people that dominate. Technology amongst the stars is easy, being around Good People is tough.
As it is on our Earth today. Don't you feel like you want to escape the worst of society today and just take the Good People with you ? I feel like that a lot. It's good being amongst the two Twitch communities of HeyChrissa and Radderss (links on the right!). They broadcast on the Twitch, let me chill out and I've found that hugely valuable over the past year or so. I have a small circle of friends too who are hugely valued and let me talk through thoughts that would otherwise send me barmy. Erm ... make that send me "even more" barmy. But a lot of the society around me ? No. I see stuff on the news from our leaders and other people that is just horrific and appalling.
So the main premise of this book is that people on a developed world get sick of what's going on and organise a departure. An escape. A chance to start over as they would like to have society arranged. An opportunity to leave behind the worst of the society on their developed world.
It would take a lot of inspiration from what is going on in the world today. And there's a lot of Really Bad Stuff going on in the world at the moment. The trick in the book is to present it and the solutions like the norm.
The latest (and you'll guess when I started writing this post from this !) is what Youtube have done to the LGBT community (basically - a complete censorship of all their material even if it has nothing to do with sexuality). Censorship is really bad but it is an extension of the abuse and prejudice aimed at the LGBT+ community today. I'm a straight bloke that way but .... I'll defend LGBT to live the way that is right for them. And that doesn't include censorship, prejudice or the abusive practices that some of our politicians would like to inflict on them.
No - the first group of escapees would be LGBT who just don't feel safe in their community any more. They feel out of place. They want to be part of a community that values them for their skills and who they are, not who they sleep with. We should judge nobody for who they sleep with. (I do feel strongly about this).
But ... there's also an imperative which would mean that all colonists would need to contribute to genetic diversity (not made my mind up about this - selective breeding of people must be a last resort only). This does not mean LGBT must do the Deed with someone else, as artificial means would get around the ... incompatibility ? :-). Problems with birth that require IVF today have been solved in this future society and this extends into allowing Gay Man + Gay Man or Lesbian Lady + Lesbian Lady to have a kid together. The only imperative remaining is that genetic diversity but outside of that, anything is possible and reasonable ... unless societal prejudice gets in the way. And the book will present that prejudice as being an archaic legacy of societies long left behind in the dust of history.
And there are the other issues in our modern society ...
Random attacks like the recent one in London, following other attacks around the world. It's not so much the attacks (which are bad enough), it's how our society responds to them. And if society responds with a kneejerk which is bad for our freedom, that's another reason to move away from both the oppression and the terrorism.
Immigrants ? People who have the resources to smuggle their way into a spaceship leaving for another world would be valued ... They have the motivation to want to escape and the skills to allow them to do so. That could make them Very Useful .... I'd be able to weave in the discovery of stowaways as well, because it would be trivially easy to find them on a spaceship.
Persecution of anyone "different" - like we're seeing in a lot of societies today ... needs to be excised. It would be presented as a reason for why people are wanting to abandon their safe lives where they are. As in, they want to walk away from a society that they think is going to come for them next with the prejudice and persecution.
And I would need to take inspiration from many other elements today ... I might even put a streamer lady in there who entertains the colony despite being so disabled she can barely do anything else. But sitting in that streaming chair is an incredible personality who just .... entertains. People need something to relax and listen to and as I mentioned above, watching streamers on Twitch is one way I unwind at the moment.
Future tech ... I've already mentioned light speed travel. I think this colony needs advanced 3d printing too ... but I'll rule out teleporters. Those always seem cheaty plus there is the moral black hole with teleporters of destroying the original and creating a copy. I'll say that the technology is possible but was banned. Medicine would be very much advanced, eliminating most problems of today.
How would I start it all off ?
The Captain of the ship and organiser of the whole "Let's get outta here!" thing would hear something and immediately go to the comms and say "Comm ? Send Lifeboat, timescale - 24 hours". As in, an announcement has been made which will shortly lead to it being very much more difficult to up sticks and leave. The Lifeboat is the signal for everyone to drop what they're doing and run.
And then in interludes through the book, there would be essentially minutes from meetings leading up to the departure. I've seen this narrative trick used before, where the book will zip forwards and back through time, with extra exposition explaining more about the world the book is set in. This would present a world getting steadily more and more scary as the departure date got nearer. Actually, I don't think this would be a formal meeting. A conversation in the pub would work better, maybe even after one of these meetings takes place. Meetings tend to have too much talk for little actual information being passed. A pub conversation might be more ... normal ? Also more compressed.
Another narrative trick is to have someone completely clueless along as a surrogate for the reader. New concepts are explained to the surrogate to develop them for the reader.
What I'm missing though is something to tie it all together.
I enjoyed a book called Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven ... It was a similar tale of a new colony among the stars. They were doing pretty well until the dragons (grendels) appear and start eating people ...
An unexpected threat is a great way to get your tale going. And you need drama to keep people interested.
How about some other things to think about .... how do you deal with crime ? Do the new place have capital punishment ? Corporal punishment ? Imprisonment ? Banishment ? Sometimes banishment is worse than execution .... On an untamed world, a banished citizen may slowly starve to death ... or be eaten by predators. A quick end might be preferable. But no society is perfect even if its people go into it with the best of intentions.
But that's a thought for later.
I have embryonic ideas there. Not enough to give up the Engineering Day Job for novel writing. Yet. Perhaps. I have the other idea of a close future post apocalyptic Earth, where my analogue and crew are looking to rebuild, with pretty much everything based out of a barge with the Isle of Wight being our home base.
I'm curious to know what people think about this one.
And they're my letters now ...
This is the last of my 3 April 1st Special Projects for today. I hope you enjoyed them all and in the case of this one, made you think a bit. And one last thought to leave you with :
Not all you think is fiction, is false.
Watch out for what you read today ! Hopefully you spot the false stories but I hope you get a few chuckles from them too. April Fools Day should be about poking harmless fun at the world we live in.
Except this one is both more realisable and less realistic than the Band thing from a couple of years ago. You know ... the one written on April 1st 2015 (have a peek in the list on the right!) promising an album out in exactly one year to the day. Yep. Not suspicious at all right ? š
Oooo - I see emoticons that I didn't realise I had .... I promise not to abuse them ... too much š
You'll have hopefully seen and enjoyed a couple more April 1st Secret Projects today. Here is my last one for this year. Of course the secret of the April 1st Secret Project is to make you wonder if the story is true or not. This one is completely about fiction. But is it actually fiction ? I'll leave that to you to ponder ... But first .... the post demands a thumbnail picture !
Could there be inspiration coming from a couple of awesome novelist ladies. That'd be Nika Harper, who I first spotted via the name Nikasaur. She's done some amazing short videos where she plays with words and ... be still my beating heart when I watch them. Check out the first Wordplay playlist. And the amazing Thumper too (link on the right in the blog list and here!) who's sense of humour and fun is something I marvel at.
Wait ... what would it be about. Here are a few of the ideas. I've meant to write these down for ages now, in order to frame them into some kind of logical structure in my head.
Premise - it's a future scifi where we have escaped Earth and are on colonies amongst the stars. Faster than Light travel is plentiful and easy to procure. It is feasible to set up new colonies without too much investment or interference. But as always .... it's the people that dominate. Technology amongst the stars is easy, being around Good People is tough.
As it is on our Earth today. Don't you feel like you want to escape the worst of society today and just take the Good People with you ? I feel like that a lot. It's good being amongst the two Twitch communities of HeyChrissa and Radderss (links on the right!). They broadcast on the Twitch, let me chill out and I've found that hugely valuable over the past year or so. I have a small circle of friends too who are hugely valued and let me talk through thoughts that would otherwise send me barmy. Erm ... make that send me "even more" barmy. But a lot of the society around me ? No. I see stuff on the news from our leaders and other people that is just horrific and appalling.
So the main premise of this book is that people on a developed world get sick of what's going on and organise a departure. An escape. A chance to start over as they would like to have society arranged. An opportunity to leave behind the worst of the society on their developed world.
It would take a lot of inspiration from what is going on in the world today. And there's a lot of Really Bad Stuff going on in the world at the moment. The trick in the book is to present it and the solutions like the norm.
The latest (and you'll guess when I started writing this post from this !) is what Youtube have done to the LGBT community (basically - a complete censorship of all their material even if it has nothing to do with sexuality). Censorship is really bad but it is an extension of the abuse and prejudice aimed at the LGBT+ community today. I'm a straight bloke that way but .... I'll defend LGBT to live the way that is right for them. And that doesn't include censorship, prejudice or the abusive practices that some of our politicians would like to inflict on them.
No - the first group of escapees would be LGBT who just don't feel safe in their community any more. They feel out of place. They want to be part of a community that values them for their skills and who they are, not who they sleep with. We should judge nobody for who they sleep with. (I do feel strongly about this).
But ... there's also an imperative which would mean that all colonists would need to contribute to genetic diversity (not made my mind up about this - selective breeding of people must be a last resort only). This does not mean LGBT must do the Deed with someone else, as artificial means would get around the ... incompatibility ? :-). Problems with birth that require IVF today have been solved in this future society and this extends into allowing Gay Man + Gay Man or Lesbian Lady + Lesbian Lady to have a kid together. The only imperative remaining is that genetic diversity but outside of that, anything is possible and reasonable ... unless societal prejudice gets in the way. And the book will present that prejudice as being an archaic legacy of societies long left behind in the dust of history.
And there are the other issues in our modern society ...
Random attacks like the recent one in London, following other attacks around the world. It's not so much the attacks (which are bad enough), it's how our society responds to them. And if society responds with a kneejerk which is bad for our freedom, that's another reason to move away from both the oppression and the terrorism.
Immigrants ? People who have the resources to smuggle their way into a spaceship leaving for another world would be valued ... They have the motivation to want to escape and the skills to allow them to do so. That could make them Very Useful .... I'd be able to weave in the discovery of stowaways as well, because it would be trivially easy to find them on a spaceship.
Persecution of anyone "different" - like we're seeing in a lot of societies today ... needs to be excised. It would be presented as a reason for why people are wanting to abandon their safe lives where they are. As in, they want to walk away from a society that they think is going to come for them next with the prejudice and persecution.
And I would need to take inspiration from many other elements today ... I might even put a streamer lady in there who entertains the colony despite being so disabled she can barely do anything else. But sitting in that streaming chair is an incredible personality who just .... entertains. People need something to relax and listen to and as I mentioned above, watching streamers on Twitch is one way I unwind at the moment.
Future tech ... I've already mentioned light speed travel. I think this colony needs advanced 3d printing too ... but I'll rule out teleporters. Those always seem cheaty plus there is the moral black hole with teleporters of destroying the original and creating a copy. I'll say that the technology is possible but was banned. Medicine would be very much advanced, eliminating most problems of today.
How would I start it all off ?
The Captain of the ship and organiser of the whole "Let's get outta here!" thing would hear something and immediately go to the comms and say "Comm ? Send Lifeboat, timescale - 24 hours". As in, an announcement has been made which will shortly lead to it being very much more difficult to up sticks and leave. The Lifeboat is the signal for everyone to drop what they're doing and run.
And then in interludes through the book, there would be essentially minutes from meetings leading up to the departure. I've seen this narrative trick used before, where the book will zip forwards and back through time, with extra exposition explaining more about the world the book is set in. This would present a world getting steadily more and more scary as the departure date got nearer. Actually, I don't think this would be a formal meeting. A conversation in the pub would work better, maybe even after one of these meetings takes place. Meetings tend to have too much talk for little actual information being passed. A pub conversation might be more ... normal ? Also more compressed.
Another narrative trick is to have someone completely clueless along as a surrogate for the reader. New concepts are explained to the surrogate to develop them for the reader.
What I'm missing though is something to tie it all together.
I enjoyed a book called Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven ... It was a similar tale of a new colony among the stars. They were doing pretty well until the dragons (grendels) appear and start eating people ...
An unexpected threat is a great way to get your tale going. And you need drama to keep people interested.
How about some other things to think about .... how do you deal with crime ? Do the new place have capital punishment ? Corporal punishment ? Imprisonment ? Banishment ? Sometimes banishment is worse than execution .... On an untamed world, a banished citizen may slowly starve to death ... or be eaten by predators. A quick end might be preferable. But no society is perfect even if its people go into it with the best of intentions.
But that's a thought for later.
I have embryonic ideas there. Not enough to give up the Engineering Day Job for novel writing. Yet. Perhaps. I have the other idea of a close future post apocalyptic Earth, where my analogue and crew are looking to rebuild, with pretty much everything based out of a barge with the Isle of Wight being our home base.
I'm curious to know what people think about this one.
This is the last of my 3 April 1st Special Projects for today. I hope you enjoyed them all and in the case of this one, made you think a bit. And one last thought to leave you with :
Not all you think is fiction, is false.
Watch out for what you read today ! Hopefully you spot the false stories but I hope you get a few chuckles from them too. April Fools Day should be about poking harmless fun at the world we live in.
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