HAPPY (DAY AFTER) HALLOWEEN!

As I write this it's Halloween day, so I'll take the opportunity to wish you a fruitful Samhain. If you live in Mexico (or maybe New Mexico, lol), I can wish you a Feliz Dia de los Muertos, which is celebrated today, In any case, blog topics are scarce this week, so the pics will have to do.

Happy day after Halloween.

 

 

Or, if you prefer, Feliz Dia de los Muertos.

Back in the day, Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays. I used to love dressing up and taking on an alter-ego for the night. These days, I'm happy to grab a seat in the outdoor area of the local brewpub  and watch the families parade by in costume on Main Street for the Marshall Safe Halloween festivities. Much tamer, but visually quite entertaining. Folks in my little mountain town can be pretty creative!

However you choose to celebrate, I hope you have/had a good time communing with the spirits!

Cheers, Donna

 

Pippa's Journal - 10/23/2013

Just over a week ago, I was struck by inspiration. For the past two years I've seen holidays come and go, without ever once being inspired to write something with a holiday theme, even when tempted by submission calls. The ideas just weren't there. And as a scifi author, somehow, I found it hard to visualize the holidays we celebrate now once we've moved out beyond our own system to new worlds. For example, the times for the solstices will change with the planet. Our calendars may have to change to fit with these new worlds. And when we've traveled to new continents, such as Europeans arriving in what is now the USA for example, a new holiday was born - Thanksgiving. Invasions have brought in new beliefs and new celebrations, or genocide has eradicated the previous ones. Will we give up our old traditions and holidays for new ones on new planets? Or will we already have left such things behind?

But after making a couple of notes on my smartphone about a book title, and a couple of vague ideas for a character, muse suddenly took off with an idea for a Halloween story. And it wasn't science fiction. Muse wanted to do a PARANORMAL story! *gasp* Now, look, I have nothing against paranormal. But it isn't something I've read a lot of, nor had I ever considered writing it. I know paranormal is very big still, and I don't want to look like I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I somehow doubt that one paranormal short is going to increase my fanbase any. But that was the way muse wanted to go, and I've learnt to let her have her way. Even though I still have two projects I set myself to finish this year.

In six days, I put out 11K words, and finished the story. Not only had I written a new-to-me genre, but I did it linearly from start to finish, with only the odd pause to research. I couldn't quite believe it. I'm not intending to try and put this out for THIS Halloween (I am not going to rush something for the sake of it even if it does mean sitting on this story for ONE WHOLE YEAR! *shudders*), but the whole thing was done in just six days. That's 1.833 words a day. At that rate, I could do NaNoWrimo. I could put out a novel a month. A longer length novel every two months. If only! Sadly it doesn't work like that (or at least not for me).

But the research was fun. After looking into what happens to bodies exposed to vacuum and theoretical anti-gravity systems, I was reading up on the history of Halloween and the different varieties of fairies and sprites. I still got to do a bit of science by looking up the composition of a human body and using my knowledge as an analytical chemist to work out what household chemicals could be used instead, converting chemistry to alchemy. That particular inspiration came from Sir Terry Pratchett in the Wintersmith, where the spirit of winter attempts to make itself into a human for love - 

Iron enough to make a nail,
Lime enough to paint a wall,
Water enough to drown a dog,
Sulphur enough to stop the fleas,
Potash enough to wash a shirt,
Gold enough to buy a bean,
Silver enough to coat a pin,
Lead enough to ballast a bird,
Phosphor enough to light the town,
Poison enough to kill a cow,

Strength enough to build a home,
Time enough to hold a child,
Love enough to break a heart. 

I wasn't able to find out if this was an older rhyme used in the book or an original piece by Pratchett - an interview with him suggested it was from somewhere else and he'd rewritten part of it, but I've found no other evidence. So, in terms of chemistry, these are the elements that make up a human body (this is a very basic list) - 

  

Elements in the Human Body (about.com)

Element	Percent by Mass
Oxygen	65
Carbon	18
Hydrogen	10
Nitrogen	3
Calcium	1.5
Phosphorus	1.2
Potassium	0.2
Sulfur	0.2
Chlorine	0.2
Sodium	0.1
Magnesium	0.05
Iron, Cobalt, Copper, Zinc, Iodine	<0.05 each
Selenium, Fluorine	<0.01 each

For greater detail, there's a comprehensive break down on Wikipedia here.

The great thing is I can now spend the next year planning how and when I'm going to release it, what I'm going to put in the back of book info, and getting it edited without the pressure of time. Next Halloween, I will have my first holiday-themed story available, and I'm really excited! I'm keeping the title under wraps for now (shh!), but here's a rough graphic of the cover I'm working on. What do you think?

Action!

Having got the Halloween story out of my system, I'm working through the notes from my wonderful beta readers on Darkfall, in the hope of submitting this story before the end of November. I also have my unfinished sfr novella Revived on the list for completion by the end of 2013. This is connected to Terms & Conditions Apply, though it only briefly mentions one character from that story. I also received the first piece of artwork for Keir's Fall from my publisher, a tantalizing snippet of what's to come. I wish I could share but...nope. :P

Discoveries

Thanks to Cara Bristol, I discovered this really cool website that tells you how to kill people! Er, from a purely research point of view, of course. *cough* Medical Scene Writer.

Happenings

This week several Brigade members are taking part in an If You Like event captained by Heather Massey over at The Galaxy Express here, recommending SFR titles to tie in with some of the bigger name books, films and TV shows. There's a huge range of suggestions, and if you hop over to Heather's, you can check out the master list to all the blogs taking part. I've already added more books to my teetering TBR pile as a result. :P

With thanks to Kyndra Hatch, the SFR Brigade blog is showing a sudden burst of activity, with Meet the Author Mondays, guest posts on Tuesdays, and recommended reads on alternate Thursdays. There is also the weekly SFR Brigade Presents blogging ring running, with snippets posted by various members of the Brigade. If you're interested in taking part in an interview for Meet the Author, please download the interview document from here and email it to me.If you're interested in providing a guest post, there's a list of suggested topics posted in the files in the Facebook group, and please speak to Kyndra Hatch about dates. We're also interested in book recommendations from other Brigade members for SF & SFR titles, and books on science, writing craft and marketing.

I'm taking part in the TRS Spookapalooza here from the 25th-31st October, and there'll be lots of fun posts and giveaways! I'll be showcasing a cocktail that happens to share a name with my male MC from Keir. Make sure you stop by to find out what. Gethyon will be part of a giveaway, along with a $10 gift card at Long and Short Reviews from the 28th October here. As part of Anti-Bullying Month in November, I will be donating my royalties from Gethyon to Childline for that month, as my male MC is himself bullied at the start of the story.

Ping Pong

Laurie, thought-provoking post on why another galaxy - it certainly sparked a lot of responses.

Donna, loved how you set out your If You Like SFR-arian post.

Laurie's Journal: Happy Halloween!

Laurie's Journal

Happy Halloween! It's the day to celebrate goblins, ghoulies, space aliens and things that go bump in the night.


To get you in the spirit, we posted a couple of fun videos and sidetrips over the weekend for our Spacefreighters Halloween Weekend Creepfest...

[Click here to check out the offerings.]

Ping Back
Donna - I loved reading your tribute to Stephen King. What better Halloween topic for a writer's blog than to showcase the King of Chills.


I was also inspired by some of his work, especially the more SF-related stories, but Cujo still scares the bejeezus out of me.


I have two thank yous to send Sharon's way.  First for redesigning our blog banner to fit the entire page.  Wow, looks awesome.  And second...

Discoveries
Sharon suggested joining Google+ and I'm so glad I did!  DL Jackson invited me awhile back and my first reaction was to dig in my heels and say, "OMG, not another social networking site!"  But this one really is different!


It loses all the down side of Facebook and lets me control who sees my posts by creating my own "circles" of contacts.  Have a picnic shot you only want to share with Family?  You can do that. A bit of writerly angst to share with your Brigader pals? Presto! Something you want to share with everyone?  You can do that, too, with just a click of your mouse.


There's no need to create a separate author page.  And it's so easy to find what you're looking for (which has been a big negative for me with the FB set-up).


Although G+ is still in its fledgling state, I found quite a few contacts already enjoying the benefits. (Over a dozen in the first three minutes.  Over 80 as of this writing.) And I've been listening to the buzz.  G+ is a boon to SF writers. G+ is the next big thing? Hmm, could be. Will G+ make Facebook obsolete? Ask me again in six months.


Meanwhile, enjoy this humorous commentary from YouTube. (And then jump on the bandwagon and join us!)





And here's another discovery.  This is an amazing research tool!

Newseum


Open the web site.  Click the circle for any town shown and instantly see the Front Page of the newspaper.  I could spend hours reading with this. (Must. Be. Disciplined.) There's also a link to archived articles on a variety of topics (Steve Jobs, 9/11, Libya, etc.)


This one gets added to our side bar.


Great Quotes


Science fiction is not and has never been about the buttons. 
It has always been about who pushes them.


--From a SF Signal Post Guest Post by Mark Tiedemann It's Not About the Buttons


I have to thank Sharon for pointing me to that quote, too.  For me, it's the perfect summary of what I love about SF/R. And who's pushing those buttons, and why, leaves open a whole universe of ideas and plot twists.  

Have a funtastic All Hallow's Eve