Category: writing

Posted on

Truncated 30 Days of World-building, part 2

Back to 30 Days of World-building!  Some of this I actually did yesterday before my classes began, while I was having some lunch.

Day 4 and Day 5 – I skipped both for now; Day 4 is really something that is important for a world that’s not newly settled (30 Days of World-building was originally designed to help people build fantasy worlds rather than science fiction worlds–a world such as the one I’m designing is recently colonized).  Day 5…yeah, that’s a map.  I just don’t have the brainpower (or the time) to dedicate to making one of those right about now.  But soon.  Probably after next weekend.

Day 6 – Spend 10 minutes figuring out what people who evolved in each major area of your world would look like. Then spend another 5 minutes asking “what if this group encountered that group?” Would they fight? Trade? Both? Inter-marry and blend their genetic types? Would they remain largely separate, with pure strains of both racial groups co-existing (not necessarily peacefully)? How would that encounter be brought about in the first place?

This got me running off in random directions.  What follows is directly taken from my handwritten notes on the subject.

 Because the world is terraformed and there are no true indigeneous people extant, all of the people that come to E557 come from New Earth or near-New Earth settlements and stations.  A few may even be from one of the spacefaring congloms and have only seen land briefly in their lives.

* Genetic mixing – Some congloms are a mixture of different racial types (though this has largely lost meaning since departure from the Solar system thousands of years ago).

– Other congloms, such as Chinasia Corp, are largely of one racial type.  Chinasia Corp members are Oriental in appearance with some Indian/Polynesian features in some, but these are rare (and sometimes the subject of ridicule by their peers).  Members of this Corp are more often considered as numbers rather than individuals. (This idea spawned the idea for one of the characters that will probably play a large role in the story, named Brendan Cho).

– In these congloms, you’re born to them.  You can leave, but no one who does not look the part and match certain genotypic requirements can join.

– Russian/Scandanavian Conglom?

* Psychics – Humanity has produced them for centuries, but largely they have been shunned, feared, or even disbelieved in.  For a time, there was a movement to sterilize any recognized psychic in order to prevent the production of more.  This is still practiced uner some Congloms, but most either ignore psychics or try to turn them to their advantage.  One psychic conglom exists: the Psychean Guard, which specializes in information–how to get it and how to protect it.

– The Psychean Guard was understandably instrumental in the work of the Foundation.

* Congloms are the equivelant of nation-states, for better or worse, but with an economic twist–thye’re also major corporations that have control over a large portfolio of activities and interests.

* Slavery?  Possible – “racially” based in some congloms (Chinasia, Eurydice Compact).  In most cases, it is more a state of eternally extended indentured servitude.

 

Day 7 – Spend 15 minutes outlining the major historical events of the last 100 years before your novel begins.

Well, I started with a little more than 100 years, since the history of my world, E557, is actually pretty short comparitively.  These are just notes I jotted down and will probably get changed quite a bit as I develop the story more — shuffing dates so they make more sense is something I do a lot.  For sake of ease, I started with Year 1 (I haven’t figured out my actual system of dates yet).

Year 1 – Colonization planning begins in earnest when Foundation scouts land on E557 and declare it “extremely habitable.”  Within six months, the first advance party lands on E557 and begins erecting infrastructure for Foundation colonization.  The sites settled are on two continents on either side of an ocean about 2500 miles across.

Year 3 – Infrastructure largely in place for the advance colony, the first settlers arrive on E557 and begin new lives.

Year 10 – Persecution drives some psychics to settle on E557.

Year 15 – First great drought.  The colonists begin to figure out the patterns shortly thereafter.

Year 30 – Second great drought.  Major droughts are determined to be cyclical.

Year 50 – Eruption of offshore undersea volcano creates the island of Tobie off the southeast coast of the western continent.

Year 100 – A new O’Neill colony is established near New Earth.  Three more are completed in the next five years.  Congloms begin making overtures to the Foundation, requesting resource and settlement rights to unsettled areas of the planet.  The requests are firmly denied.

Year 110 – The Eurydice Compact attempts to colonize an area of E557.  Their colony is discovered and dismantled, the equipment seized or destroyed.  Colonists from Eurydice Compact are given the option to leave and return to the Compact or remain and adopt the Foundation’s ideology of sustainability and racial and religious tolerance.  Some settlers elect to stay.  They tell horror stories baout what’s going on “back home.”  The Psychean Guard makes it clear that further interference with E557 will result in dire consequences.

Year 115 – Most of those individuals who were invovled in the Foundation have left for E557 (or died subsequently).  The Psychean Guard remains a staunch defender of the rights of those who have chosen to settle E557.

Year 125 – Open war breaks out amongst the congloms.  The Psychean Guard, usually neutral in these conflicts, becoems a major target.

Year 131 – Most of the Psychean Guard is wiped out in an attack on their capital/headquarters.  Those who survive go into hiding and prepare to flee to E557.

Year 134 – “Oracle” is born, the daughter of two members of the Psychean Guard’s inner circle.  They are still struggling to flee to E557 while creating havoc amongst the congloms to avenge their murdered brothers and sisters in the Guard.

Year 136 – “Oracle” is brought to E557 by an aunt.  Her parents are missing and mourned as lost.

Year 142 – War amongst the congloms ends.  A few smaller congloms have been absorbed or destroyed.  The Psychean Guard is largely regarded to no longer exist.

Year 150 – Another large-scale attempt at colonization of uninhabited areas of E557 is repulsed.

Year 159 – Current year.  War with E557, the remnant of the Psychean Guard, and the Foundation against the other congloms and New Earth seems imminent–and Oracle says it is, though no one knows who she really is.

Posted on

Truncated 30 days of World-building…

In browsing the NaNoWriMo forums, I came across a link to Stephanie Bryant’s 30 Days of World-building.  I decided “Huh, that could be interesting” — especially in light of one of the two ideas I have for my NaNoWriMo project this year (the project that parallels the colonization of the Americas is sounding more and more attractive the more I think about it versus “Universe,” a project that’s going to require a lot more research and thought since it takes place in a much, much nearer future and deals with MMORPGs, MMORPG culture, computer/gaming technology, ect).

So, that having been said, I’m going to do some world-building for the terraformed planet colonists have begun to settle–one a war will be fought over–for one of the potential projects, since the other is pretty much Earth about ten or so years in the future.

 

Day 1 of world building involved making a list of climates and feelings of climates; I’m skipping it, really.

Day 2 – “Jot down ten plot devices that relate to weather, and what you think they do to the story”

– Nor’easter – A sudden cold blow off the coast ravages settlements along one of the coastlines, wrecking some of their precious wind-catchers (which provide ecologically sustainable power for the settlements).

– Spring floods – The spring melt out of the mountains wasn’t ancitipated to be quite this quick or this large–some of the hydroelectric dams are overwhelmed, which cause flooding.

– Major earthquake leads to fires and coastal flooding–and a tsunami that wipes out an island settlement twenty miles off the coast. Some people will lose loved ones in the ensuing mess.

– Drought – east of a mountain range, alluevial plains suffer a major drought, causing food shortages throughout the colonies. This may cause some debate over whether it’s a good idea to build some irrigation devices or not — and still maintain ecological stability.

– Dust storms – the summer dry season (drier than anticipated) results in dust-storms. Some people will pick up and leave, others will become sick because of the dust and what’s in it (bacteria, ect).

– Hurricane – The terraformed world of one of the invading congloms has never experienced a hurricane–they think it’s just a big thunderstorm. While the locals have battened down the hatches and riding out the storm, the conglom sends down landers full of troops–most of which crash either along the coast or in the ocean.

– Long winter – An unusually long winter causes food shortages and stresses the communities on the colony world. Cannibalism will NOT happen, but there’s always the spectre of it.

– Summer storms – Sudden summer thunderstorms sweep down out of the mountains and bring down trees and wind-catchers. Some of the colonists (especially the newer ones) have never seen anything like it and have to depend on second and third generation settlers to help them figure out how to deal with these wild storms — and, more importantly, how to predict them.

– Tornado – A major settlement is completely obliterated by a tornado, and no one realizes what hit the settlement until later. It may have been an educational center that’s hit, which would cost the colony some major brainpower.

– Wind shears – these can easily wreak havoc with landers of any kind, which could work both for and against the colonists. The colonists come to understand their weather, whereas any invaders might well not have any idea how to handle it.

Day 3: “Close your eyes and think about what kind of feeling you like to have when you write or read.  Write down four words that fit into that feeling: two adjectives, a verb, and a noun.”

Tenuous
Dark
Imperiled
Hope

These are supposed to match up with a climate for day 1.  I skipped Day 1, and these terms are really very limiting anyway, so…moving on!

Day 4 will be tackled tomorrow….Day 4 involves geological history.  It’ll be fun times.

Posted on

On Google books…

Checking my university e-mail is always an adventure, in part because of the RSS feed that gmail automatically puts at the top of my e-mail list (Oakland University’s e-mail is powered by gmail).  Today, I hit a link about the continuing controversy over Google Books and the negotiations, concerns, and the like brought up by its existence.  That link led me to this one, which just begged to be shared.

The author of the article, working on a book right now about green technology, is a visiting scholar at the University of California.  And he makes some good points.  Library catalogue software as it stands these days is limited, though it’s come light years since card catalogs (yes, I remember those, and moreover I remember how to use them–I worked in my high school’s library for the equivelant of two years).  Keywords don’t tell you what’s in a footnote, or an index–and the index doesn’t always tell you what’s in a book, if the book has an index at all.

That’s where things like Google Books come in.  A completely searchable engine for books, especially those out of copyright?  I’ve become in the past year an avid user of the Internet Archive, which has been all but invaluable to my research.  Google Books, in its limited capacity, has become equally useful to me when dealing with older tomes and even primary documents such as the Rolls Series and collections of Welsh poetry–even works by William of Malmesbury and Geoffrey of Monmouth are to be found between the two.  This sort of thing is invaluable to a researcher.

Publishers and authors are concerned about the fate of the publishing industry and having enough funds to keep it going–and I can understand and sympathize with this.  Traditional libraries are concerned because they may become very quickly obsolete (I pray this never happens–there’s something about actually having the book in your hands).  But at some point, the cost-benefit analysis has to match up with the reality of the situation as well as examining who’s using the service–and for what.  I imagine that a lot of the people who have been using Google Books are in fact researchers, writers, and scholars working on their next project using a combination of all the resources available to them–databases like JSTOR and FirstSearch, the Internet Archives, their local and university libraries, and Google Scholar and Google Books.  It’d be  a very sad thing if Google Books was shut down for good, and would set back the ability for researchers to do their work by miles.

Posted on

Reconnecting with my research

It’s no secret to a lot of people who know me–in the wake of not getting one last little bit of feedback from my late advisor at the end of the Winter 2009 semester, I took a long break from my thesis work.  It was something I probably shouldn’t have done, but I kept expecting to get somethingfrom him after I sent one last update to him this past April.  But nothing.  We corresponded via e-mail about some housekeeping things regarding my thesis and he said he would get to the submission, but he never got back to me.  In some morbid way, I wonder if it’s sitting there on his hard drive with a mess of fantastic comments just waiting to never be sent.  But I suppose I’ll never know.

For the past week since I heard about his death, I’ve been avoiding really trying to work on my thesis, instead focusing on a paper I need to submit for the Great Lakes History Conference, deadlined in mid-October.  But the research overlaps a bit when I start reading about Edward I, and that’s tripped synapses in my brain that have pointed me back toward my thesis.  This is dangerous, considering that I don’t even know that I’ll even have this be my thesis come next week, or come the end of the OUAAUP strike, whichever happens first (personally, I’m hoping it’s settled after negotiations today so I won’t actually miss any of my classes this semester).  It’s in part hinging on a conversation I need to have with Karen Miller, the head of the history department here at Oakland University.  But in the end, I don’t know what’s going to happen other than I have a pile of research and information floating around in my brain that may turn into a book someday, regardless of whether or not it becomes my master’s thesis.  I’m sure if I have to change gears and start another project, I can find something.  I’m just not sure at this point what.

When I went to Dr. Finucane a couple years ago to talk about potential thesis ideas, I brought with me a short list of potential topics.  I’d originally wanted to do something with the Crusades, but I don’t speak French or Arabic (to be honest, even my Latin is shaky at best, though I’m working on that) so it would be very difficult for me to do that sort of research.  So changing gears, I brought the following list: 

–          Impact of the War of the Roses on English society

o       Potentially limited to women, church, or the aristocracy?

–          Hundred Years War

o       Religion and politics

–          Folk beliefs and spirituality in late medieval England

o       Mysticism in England?

o       English Saints?  Shifting views of what was seen as evidence of the divine working through a person or related to a person? (ties into witchcraft, ect)

–          Kingship and royalty in England, late medieval

o       Touches on the political and diplomatic; alliances through marriage, blood claims to “foreign” territory – importance of women in this context?

o       Political legitimacy and the tools used to convince people of such

–          The Black Death

o       Impact on cultural norms and religion

–          Mystics and miracles in late medieval England

–          Pilgrims and saints

–          Left field: Arthurian mythos and its impact on English culture orthe historical evolution of the Arthurian mythos

o       Use of the Arthurian mythos by English royalty

o       Folklore and stories of medieval England

 

 

I had hesitated to even bring to him that last topic–about the Arthurian mythos.  But I’ve been fascinated with it for easily ten years, so I put it on there, never dreaming that he would look at that and say “Hm.  That’s interesting.  Why didn’t you think you could do that, again?”  Necessary cutting brought the project down to a manageable size and focus, bringing me to where I am now, looking at the uses of the Arthurian legend under (and mainly by) Edward I and Edward III (and consequently the failure to use it by Edward II).  Looking back, I think I’d write on any of those subjects, except for perhaps the Black Death–which is fine, since the Plague has been done to death (no pun intended).  But if I have to change my thesis topic, would I be able to do any of those?  The Hundred Years War, perhaps, since my second reader is a specialist in French history.  But this having been said, I don’t read or speak French (though I have to learn).  It would be a difficult project to gather primary source material for.

The medieval period is something I’m fascinated by and would rather write about than the Renaissance, which I have a feeling would be the period I would end up having to write about, simply based on the makeup of the department.  But we’ll have to see.  I was blessed to work under one of the most preeminent medieval historians of the past thirty years, but cursed to lose that mentorship before my thesis was complete.  Only time will tell what’s going to become of the work I began under his tutelage.

Posted on

Musings on NaNoWriMo

So I’ve kept saying over and over again since last year (actually, since before last year) that I wasn’t going to try to do NaNoWriMo again since graduate school inevitably prevents me from actually getting it done.  The ideas tend not to be my strongest or my best (When All’s Said and Done, my first NaNo, is a huge exception to that; I really need to go back and do a second draft on it to add in some more stuff regarding miss Allyson and suchnot) or my longest stewed over, which hurts whatever I write to begin with.

Of course, I keep saying that I’m not going to put myself through the stress of it again, especially with so many half-started (half-finished, mostly finished) writing projects already, plus my thesis, plus two classes, plus everything else.  Shiawase, among others, talked me into doing it last year.  I got about 26,000 words in and had to call it there.  I’ve kept the project, still untitled, and poke it every so often (it’s a prequel to a post-apocalyptic Arthurian reimagining that I want to write someday–another one of those half-started projects–that’s based in part on a short story I wrote in college), though not often at all.  Epsilon more often captures me (that’s trying to become three books from two, with one focusing on the resistance movement in the Borderworlds.  We’ll see what happens).  But I digress, as I often do.

An idea has been tugging in the back of my brain for the past several days, a confluence of some things that happened at work and some random musings.  I work in retail clothing sales, so I meet all kinds of people and help people find clothes for all kinds of occassions.  An incident this past weekend got me to thinking about one of the strangest customers I’ve had in the thirty-some odd months I’ve worked there, and that in part triggered the idea for what may or may not end up being my NaNoWriMo project for this year.  The other part that’s inspired me was thinking philosophically about World of Warcraft, the internet, and how we meet and come to know people through cyberspace without actually knowing much about their “real lives,” their “real” circumstances.  These things coming together have given me a starting point for a potential NaNoWriMo project for this year.  I’ll probably do some scribblings about it today before work, maybe, while I’m grabbing my dinner (otherwise, I’ll be reading in the cafe at Macy’s like I usually end up doing–one or the other).  I suppose in part the idea is also inspired by .hack//sign though only in a vague sense–some of the elements of my idea are similar, but only on the surface.

“Byron” is a very sick young man, probably in his early twenties or so, with little hope of survival.  He retreats into “Universe,” a VR-equipped (though not required) MMORPG that’s become popular in the past several years.  He’s played since launch and is somewhat popular and powerful as a result.  “Iryn” or “Ryn” is a more recent comer to the game and isn’t a big fan of Byron’s at first, until she gets to know him thanks to a mutual friend (maybe the mutual friend gave her the account?  I have to brainstorm more).  Byron and Ryn form a tight bond and after a while, Byron opens up to Ryn, telling her about his out-of-game circumstances.  Out of the blue, after this, she receives a VR rig for the game.  Not too long after this, she realizes that he’s stopped logging out of the game and starts to worry.  She ends up tracking him down thanks to some other friends and meets his terrified parents.  Byron, having suffered some painful, difficult setbacks, has completely retreated into the game through virtual reality and cannot be pulled out–he has to make the choice to log out, which he will not do.  Ryn convinces him to log out for the sake of his parents, at least for a little while.  I don’t have much more than this figured out (it’s a very new idea, after all), but it’s a start, at least.  Maybe I’ll be attempting NaNoWriMo this year after all.

Posted on

Maintenance day update

So, I got some news the other day that is exciting and daunting all at once.  My paper that I proposed for the Great Lakes History Conference was accepted.  Now I just have to put together 20-30 pages for my session and make hotel reservations for that weekend in November.  Professionally, this is about as huge as my winning the assistantship at OU.  Personally, it’s a little scary.  The last time I did a presentation like this I was a junior (was I a junior?  I think that was the summer between sophomore and junior year) at Grand Valley State presenting on our work at 20KT275 and 20KT276 at Student Scholarship Day–a completely different animal.  I wasn’t flying solo on that one, for starters–I was presenting with two other people.  This is all me, and while the work on the subjugation of Wales under Edward I dovetails with my thesis research, it’s different enough that it’s going to take a bit of additional research to really get this together to my satisfaction.

On another note, officers and I announced that we’re shaking the RoA tree.  Some people are enthused, I’m not sure how others feel.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed, since I’d definately hate for this to fail.  I’m glad that we’re no longer working in the dark, though.  Folks know that we’re doing something, which is good.  Very good.  I have to get myself working on the charter documents based on what we have so far, since the whole IC angle of the mess seems to be my strength (well, no, is my strength).  And think of what the next set of things on deadline are going to be, since we have a deadline on some things coming up…gee….tomorrow.  And then roll from there.  I want everything in place before I start my assistantship in September.

Still haven’t told my boss at the mall about the assistantship.  I’m putting off the inevitable panic she’s going to have.  I’ll tell her in a few weeks.

Posted on

Post-vacation update #1

Back from Wisconsin, and what a glorious trip without worrying about work calling me it was.  I got a bit of writing done, both WoWFic–including starting a new story, “Family Ties“–and work on Epsilon (Jen mentioned last night after her perusal that there was a marked shift between Sam Cooper’s attitude toward Aaron in one scene and her reaction to him the next morning.  I promised her it’d make sense later).

I’m still working in part on the revitalization efforts for Sentinels (US) — the RP community has suffered since the opening of Wyrmrest Accord and everyone has seen a sharp decline in numbers.  But at the same time as it’s brought out the lazy in some folks, it’s brought out the best in others.  One of the new blogs on the blogroll is one of those “bests” — Ravine of Lichbane has started a new blog with fiction and discussion of RP issues that I plan to be following closely myself.

Other recent addition to the blogroll is Erik’s blog.  I’ve known Erik and gamed with him for a long time (back since the days when I was almost exclusively doing things ISRP).  Lately, he’s been getting his campaign setting ready to hopefully query more gaming companies with.  I’ve seen bits and fragments of it, and while 4E is Greek to me, the flavor bits and pieces (which I think he really wanted me to pay attention to) are looking pretty good.

Also poked at Aurora Force with a stick, got set up for Michael Bullian’s tragic death at the Battle of Ithor.  I probably need to start drafting how that’s going to happen so I have it together and ready to go when we get that far.  If we ever get that far.

All in all, considering I spent several hours by a pool every day I was away, it was a pretty productive trip!  I’ll have to post pictures up here soon.