dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Or more accurately, I misplaced it or forgot about it.

So yesterday I posted at noon with the current progress report about The Lost Kingdom YA project. Did some more writing, but for the late night session after midnight I decided it was time to do something that I had been meaning to do for a long time -- pull all the chapter titles out into a file.

I did that with the last novel I wrote, which was handy for tracking things and setting up the Table of Contents. There's little point to doing it before things are quite far along, because of the organic way I write. I guess the in-crowd amongst writers talks about Plotters vs. Pantsers. Do you plot out everything ahead of time? Hardcore would be the outlines who merely have to insert the words into their outline and voilà they have a novel. I hate those people. Full contact Pansters write off the seat of their pants. I'm much further over on that side of the spectrum, but sometimes I make notes, and I do insert chapter titles with no text into the manuscript file or with just a phrase or minimal setting or a line.

But yesterday I began to get the nagging feeling that maybe I had a mistake or a problem or something with the chronology. It all came when I had to put a date to something and I chose March 2020. It worked, it had some significance and I did some research to make things come out right. But was it really 2020?

Turns out that after I finished my chapter titles across five books, I had 100 chapters, but a couple of them are just titles and two are Chapter NN - XX placeholders without even a title yet. Insert Finished Novel HERE. Just add water and stir. Done! Currently not resetting the numbers for each book, so they're just Chapters 1-100. Looks like I am running around thirty chapters to a book -- the last three books have far less writing completed that the first two. As it should be.

So I started marking up the printout and realized that current Chapter 45-47 can't happen in 2020. With the story starting in 2016, they have to be 2021.

Crisis. Horror. OMG. All the usual.

Then the brain takes over, despite the 2am hour. What happened is that the main character's sophomore year Fall semester in college was direct connected to their junior year Spring semester. (Okay, so I'm actually using academic quarters not semesters, but since most of you haven't worked under the superior 10-week quarter system, I just translated it for you. You want to know what goes on? Read the books when they come out.)

This is right smack in the middle of Book 2. And the split between Books 2 and 3 is Really Important. Geesh, do I have to break Book 2 up into Book 2A and 2B, making the whole project even longer? Well, that could still happen, and there is a critical juncture where that split could work and I might even do it. But let's not go crazy here, just yet. It's terrible, merely writing down this as a possibility and I had to pencil in the possible 2A/2B split and start thinking about it. When Will This All End?! NEVER! It's the Infinite Book Series! (If only I knew it was sold and I had an audience, I could live with this...)

ANYWAY... at the moment the big panic is down to a simmer. I can safely fly through some months in the middle of college. I mean, I'm not detailing every single damned day and hour, so clearly some time jumps are going to occur.

But... I have to redo some of yesterday's researches. Still Active: How long do shaved legs last? (Sorry, this has to be a research question as I've never shaved my legs -- and the last time I shaved my beard was Friday 1 May 1981.) Konzentrationslager Auschwitz liberated on Saturday 27 January 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Foreign language tours, i.e. not Polish, are 40 złoty -- 30 złoty for those under 26 with a student ID. There is a French tour starting at 12:30, the same time as an English tour. The złoty is currently at 0.27USD, so about $8. There is a left-luggage window for travelers. The Mourners Kaddish (קדיש אבלים). The Arbeit Mach Frei gate at Dachau was stolen in 2014. (What? WHO would do such a thing?) Szaraka Zimierz is a top Kosher restaurant in Krakow -- menus online. Marynowany śledź is pickled herring. Discards: 2020 is the 75th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz. The 2019-2020 NU calendar has Spring Break end the week before Palm Sunday. Central European Summer Time begins Sunday 29 March 2020 at 2:00 AM -- applicable for Rome and Frankfurt airports. Sunset in Frankfurt on Sunday 29 March 2020 is 19:53, which is after a 17:10 departure to Toronto.

Because of the changes, I closed out Version 1.07 and started in on 1.08. The final shiny counters for Version 1.07 are:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07 (01-24-15 Sa -- 638 pages)


Book 1 (starts page 92)


Book 2 (starts page 334)


Book 3 (starts page 573)


The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.07


*** Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn’t been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet.
**** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.
*** Note3: Decided to go ahead and insert a book between Books 3 and 4, so the extra file is technically now Books 4-5. We’ll see if I keep this configuration. The extra file version number was jumped from 1.03 to 1.07 to stay current with the main trilogy efforts.

Whew. But really, better to figure this stuff out now, when everything is fluid, than wait until we are into editing the second draft. (evil-grin)

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Despite being unnecessarily busy working on a grievance form with our insurance regarding a dozen PT sessions which should have been covered during May-September 2014, and my first visit of the year to my office to let OUEST get its update fever out of the way... I managed to get a lot of writing done. Maybe not the most in terms in number of words, but several major holes in three different books of the YA five-book trilogy now have significant progress. Yes, as I've mentioned, I have chapters which are nothing more than Microsoft Word's automatic number field and a title. We all do. Unless you're one of those people who ridiculously plot outlines for every detail before you even write.

Not knowing where the bulk of the story is going to go, but letting time and the characters do their thing, is so very much more fun. (big-happy-grin)

And the plastic toilet flush arm almost broke today, but you can manually flush the main toilet for now. A simple fix once parts are here. At least with plastic parts we shouldn't have to deal with rust seized nuts.

Researches this week have included: Old Norse name Dagmær, derived from the elements dagr "day" and mær "maid". History of Bitcoin hacks. In 2015, the Arctic Circle lies at latitude 66°33'46"N. While the equator and geographic North Pole are fixed, the Arctic and Antarctic Circles and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn drift ±2° over a 41,000 year cycle. Currently the Arctic Circle is moving north at 15 meter/year or about a second of arc every 2 or 3 years, by my calculation. The Somewhere in Time Weekend at the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island is 16-18 October 2015 -- presumably similar in 2018. No tipping in the Grand Hotel. Weekend stays vary considerably by about a factor of seven between off-season and big weekends. The Main Dining Room serves a five-course dinner. Menus online. "Evening wear is required in all areas of the hotel after 6:30 p.m.: Dress, skirt and blouse or pantsuit for ladies, and coat, necktie and dress pants for gentlemen. No denim please." The 31st biennial Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference will be held in September 2015 on Mackinac Island, Michigan -- also the 32nd in 2017. Andrew Zimmern of Bizzare Foods on Travel Channel goes home to native Minnesota. Lake Superior roe is salted and mainly sold in Scandinavia. Lake herring is more like whitefish than the usual pickled herring one sees in the states. And the Minnesota State Fair has serious caloric food. A Goober Burger – big patty with like half a cup of peanut butter on it, placed on the grill, then put in the bun with a big dollop of mayonnaise. As opposed to Redamack's in New Buffalo MI by the Indiana border, whose "Legendary" burger is available with Velveeta. Michigan's Vernors is the oldest surviving ginger ale sold in the United States, but not the first. Spring Break at Northwestern is 21-30 March 2020, alas, two weeks before Easter on 9 April 2020. European citizens can use an Interrail pass instead of a Eurail pass. Interrail includes more countries, including Poland -- useful if one is making a pilgrimage to Auschwitz near Krakow. Dachau is near Munich. Convertible bed seats on Chicago-Frankfurt Lufthansa 747-830 (center seats 3D/G are the only double seats in First Class) and the Frankfurt-Toronto leg of Rome-Chicago in Air Canada 777-300ER business class (alternating rows of 2-2-2 and 1-2-1, with seats 5A/C in the former). The FRO-FRA-YYZ-ORD Lufthansa/Air Canada flight is currently the only midday flight connections that would allow you to attend 9am Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Basilica and still make it to Monday morning classes at NU.

And a little humor:
Q: What does the Kingdom of Eisbergen look like?
A: As usual, we go to the Interwebs for the answer – in this case XKCD:

http://xkcd.com/1472/ This would be looking south, of course. (sn*cker)
Actually, this was hilarious when I first saw it, because it's just like my map, except for the volcano... and the desert... and the mesa... and the glacier... and the river delta...

Meanwhile the shiny counters are up to:
The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07 (01-23-15 Fr)


The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.07


The second file looks so anemic, but that's because I just decided to split it into two books, so the target word count got doubled in the last report. Not bothering to do the individual book counters this week.

Onward. Ever onward...

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (dr-phil-confusion-2015)
I had high hopes of getting some feedback on the progress of my YA triology, by reading the first chapter-and-a-half at Back to the Confusion this weekend. Alas, I knew it was going to be an exceedingly tough sell when I was scheduled to share a 10am Sunday reading slot. The readings were in the small meeting rooms, like Warren, a bit off the track from most of other sessions. I've been here before, where my WindyCon 39 reading in 2012 was to an empty room (DW). This time, there was me, eventually the other author who left to try to find some audience for his part of the reading, one person who actually had missed the reading he thought this session was. So I had to go first. By this time it was already 10:10 and since this was a shared reading, I had to cut some parts on the fly. Steve Buchheit stopped by after I started, so it was no doubt somewhat confusing. Al Bogdan came in after I finished, so his string of attending nearly all of my readings continues to get tarnished. (grin)

So, alas, I didn't get much in the way of feedback. Again. (grin)

But... Saturday night I did briefly talk to a YA editor from Tor. We got as far as agreeing that the genre for The Lost Kingdom is best described as a "secret history fantasy". And I got her card.

Slowly we make progress in a brave new world of novel writing -- and then trying to get it published.

New Researches include: The seaport of King's Lynn in England. Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. Ålborg, Denmark. Häagen-Dazs is not Danish -- there is no umlaut in the language -- but was made up to sound Danish in Brooklyn. The rescue of the Danish Jews in WW II. The myth of the Danes and the yellow stars. Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Muhammedkrisen and the Jyllands-Posten cartoons controversy. In humans, dwarfism is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches (58 in; 147 cm). The plural "dwarves" was conceived of by author J.R.R. Tolkien. Sønderborg, Denmark. The Eurovision Song Contest. Polarsirkelen (Norwegian) vs polarcirklen (Danish). Bodø to Tromsø is about 550 km or 8½ hours driving on the E8.

The Shiny counters now stand at:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07 (01-18-15 Su)


The Lost Kingdom Fourth-Fifth Novels Version 1.07


*** Note3: Decided to go ahead and insert/split a book between Books 3 and 4, so the extra file is technically now Books 4-5. We’ll see if I keep this configuration. The extra file version number was jumped from 1.03 to 1.07 to stay current with the main trilogy efforts. The percentage completion has been halved, due to adding in another 80,000 words goal to the total.

And no, I am not planning to wait to try to sell the novel(s) until after writing some 400,000 words. My goal is to have the first two books completed in the next couple of months and then move onward.

At any rate, I am still having fun.

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (dr-phil-confusion-2012)
Final Updates!

This weekend.. Back to the ConFusion -- Friday 16 January to Sunday 18 January 2015. The Doubletree Hotel Detroit/Dearborn, 5801 Southfield Road, Detroit, MI 48228, is hosting for the third year.
Back to the ConFusion, the 41st ConFusion by name and 42nd annual January gathering (starting with the AA Realx-I-Con in 1974), is a go! 2015 looks to be an exciting year--it will be the year that Marty McFly really traveled to in Back to the Future II, whatever that Facebook meme says, so look out for those hoverboards, they must be right around the corner. (No, seriously, look out!) We're anticipating another excellent con, with the first-time appearance of author Karen Lord, researcher Dr. Cynthia Chestek, and gaming gurus Monte Cook & Shanna Germain. We'll also welcome back Heather Dale, now performing as our Music Guest of Honor. And then there's Aaron Thul, longtime fan and conrunner, returning after two years away as our Fan Guest of Honor. Please do join us, and we hope to see you there in January!
For some previews, ConFusion has a cool Tumblr.

Plus Detcon1 -- last summer's NASFiC in Detroit -- is holding a party Friday night. See below.

The full Program is now available as a PDF.

Six panels, moderating one -- and a reading! Now with panelists and rooms!

ConFusion Schedule for Dr. Phil Kaldon

Friday 6pm: Dearborn
Every Creature (Real and Fantastical) Poops
You may have read the book Everyone Poops, but it's 
so human-centric. What about mermaids, centaurs, 
and other fantastical creatures? Let's see if we can 
analogize from real species to arrive at a theory of 
fantastical pooping. (Caution: conversation may stray 
into food, sex and gestation.)
Rowena Cherry, Cindy Spencer Pape, Lucy Kennedy, 
Dr. Phil Kaldon

(Friday 7pm: Michigan - Big Top
Opening Ceremonies)

Friday 8pm: Warren
Ghosts of SyFy Past
Come reminisce about the actual science fiction SyFy
used to show, and talk about the network's plans to
get back to its science fiction roots.
Julie Winningham, Philip Kaldon, Aset, Steve Drew'

(Friday 9pm: Erie
Detcon1 Thank You Party)
Life seems so empty now that we're not running a NASFiC 
anymore. So we're going to throw one last party this weekend 
at MI Official ConFusion to say thank you to everyone who 
supported us. We'll have ribbons and shirts and some other 
surprises to give away, food and drink, plus a DJ Scalzi-inspired 
playlist and a slideshow of our favorite pictures from the con. 
Join us in the Erie Room Friday night!

Saturday 10am: Dearborn 
Building a Better Dragon
No two writers imagine the same dragon. How would
yours be different? Flying, fire, temperament,
teeth: what makes a good dragon?
Christian Klaver, Philip Kaldon, Cinda Williams Chima, 
Steve Buchheit

Saturday 11am: Southfield 
Time Travel Devices, Doors, and Deus Ex Machinas
How to travel through time (in literature and media)	
Philip Kaldon, Ferrett Steinmetz, Andrew Zimmerman Jones, 
Laura Resnick
 
Saturday 4pm: Dearborn 
Time Travel (im)Possibilities
Would 1.21 gigawatts get the job done, or would
the flux capacitor even work? Time for our panelists
and audience to debunk our favorite time travel
devices in literature and popular media.
Bill Higgins, Philip Kaldon, Ron Collins, 
Andrew Zimmerman Jones 

Sunday 10am: Warren 
Tomlinson/Kaldon reading
Patrick S. Tomlinson and Philip Kaldon read from their works.
This will be the first public reading from
the opening chapters of The Lost Kingdom YA project
I am working on.  I had planned to read this at
WindyCon, but alas the weather kept us away from
Chicago in mid-November.  Their loss is your gain.

Sunday 11am: Erie 
Science or Science Fiction?
Science fiction novels continue to impress with
amazing technological advances in so many areas.
What's more impressive, though? That some of them
are reality! Come talk about some of the things
you see on the news today that you first read
about years ago in a book.
Philip Kaldon, Jason Sanford, Andrew Zimmerman Jones, 
Patrick S. Tomlinson, Brent Seth 



Note: Room map is from 2013. (Click on map for larger.)

Anyway, these are all fun panels to be on and I am very excited about my reading.

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (Default)
As mentioned in the previous post on limits to spell and grammar checking (DW), I had to start a new version of the YA trilogy file. And since it's Friday, might as well talk about the progress I've made.

Tuesday I had been worried that taking time out from writing The Lost Kingdom -- to do the two Christmas/New Year's short stories, prep for the Reading at ConFusion next weekend, write the WOTF Q1 story for 12/31, and work on other new and old short stories for The Mass Assault on Markets 2015 -- would leave me with nothing to think about. But... not the case. During the night I had gotten up at 3:30am to go the bathroom and knew that by the time I came back I had a story fragment, with historical dates and names, that I had to write down lest I forget. Currently by the bed on my side we have a Christmas light laden glass block which I like to keep on all night during Christmas or early winter... And in the tiny dresser that I brought back from Wendy, I had put in a pad and a pen for just such an event. Alas, the pen was ultra cheap, which is why I put it in there, and didn't want to write much. Still, in the morning I had my notes for telling stories to children in Maine. And before I got a chance to sit down at ZEPPELIN and do more writing, I had yet another scene to go -- this one with the coins on the eyes of the old man who'd died in Maine, which was why we were there in the first place.

In times past, when I had a brainstorm, I'd just pad out to the living room and write notes out there. But, with the damned leg, much better to minimize the random walking around in the dark with two canes. (grin) So keep a flashlight, pen and paper by the bed, kids. Oh, and I now have TWO working pens by the mini dresser. (double-grin)

No problem with the story spigot from brain to hard drive right now...

When you are really cooking, writing can be such fun!

Researches, mostly about Norway, include: The 15 window VW Microbus. A Danish progressive metal band called Royal Hunt. The 1938 Leica IIIb 35mm camera and the first real 35mm rolls of Kodachrome slide film. Extra leg room seat locations in American Airlines 737-200 Domestic MCE 31”, US Airways Canadair RJ200, Embraer RJ-175 and 757-200 V3. The Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Airport Bangor ME. The 2015 GMC Acadia Denali SUV. Unionized McDonald's workers in Denmark making about $21/hour. Also Norway. Ludvig's Bruktbokhandel used book, records, videos and comics store in Bodø, Norway. Regular church attendance in Norway is less than 5%. Norwegian holidays are generally celebrated on the day before, e.g. Christmas Eve. Norway is a member of the Schengen Agreement. Minipris discount Norwegian Railway tickets online. Norway has no high speed rail system, except to the Oslo airport. Norwegian toll roads use AutoPay, you register your plate number. With heavy snows, some roads you must follow special plows -- kolonnekjøring. 91% of Norwegians speak fluent English. There are 7-Elevens in Norway. Norwegians eat a lot of frozen pizza. Most Norwegian aquavits are spiced with caraway and anise. 18 for beer, 20 for spirits. Norway has a unified police force ("politi"). A Norwegian mile, mil, is exactly 10 km. There are only about 70 European brown bears in Norway. Only 3 people killed by bears in Scandinavia in the last hundred years. Admiralty Island in Alaska has 1600 bears in 1646.4 sq. mi. Names related to Jove. 3200 miles from Bangor to Bodø. The regicide of Mary, Queen of Scots.

I am trying to find out if there’s a term for “princicide” -- Yahoo! Answers had this from 8 years ago: Regicide if it's a reigning royal. Queen Elizabeth's murder would be regicide, but Prince Phillip(sic) would just get plain old assassinated.

Yahoo! UK 6 years ago had: Regicide is the murder of the regnant or monarch. It would not technically apply to the murder of the reigning monarchs spouse as that person does not hold the title in their own right. For instance in the UK Queen Elizabeth II is the queen regnant meaning she holds the title in her own right and is not the spouse of a reigning monarch. The killing of other members of a royal family is simply murder.

So there's that.

At the time of the new file version, the shiny counters read:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.06 (01-07-15 We)


Book 1 (starts page 80 -- hence the need to cut Research notes)

Book 2 (starts page 315)

Book 3 (starts page 510)

The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03

*** Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn't been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet. **** Note2: Page numbers are subjective. I do not write in Standard Manuscript Format, so this is Book Antiqua 12, single spaced, extra space between paragraphs, 1¼” margins for readability.

And the current shiny counter:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.07


Since I started the new version, I have passed another milestone -- 150,000 words for the trilogy.

That's three NaNoWriMo "novels", and approaching the point where I can realistically see the end of the first drafts of Books 1 and 2. Books 3 and 4, of course, need lots more. But, there is plenty of story left to tell, I assure you.

It may even be worth reading. (huge-authorial-grin)

Dr. Phil

PS -- 01/09/15 16:49 Fri -- A heartbeat skip moment -- was just doing the Copy Paste Paste of the word count line when Word 2010 on ZEPPELIN suddenly announced that Word had stopped working and that Microsoft was looking to find a solution. This. Is. Never. A. Good. Sign. Then it said that Word was restarting and I got a (Recovered) .doc file. Usually when I get a Recovered file in Word 95/97 I have better luck using the last Saved Backup file – but this time it actually was the right stuff, as near as I can tell, because it included the last line I typed before the fail. Well, kudos for Windows 7/Word 2010 -- you actually worked like you were supposed to, other than the whole stopped working for no apparent reason thingie. Moral of the story, save early and often. And even though automatic backups are engaged, saving before doing anything major or completing one’s work is probably a good idea. And this is also why I have backups on flash drives and other machines. And sometimes in Gmail sent to myself...
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (dr-phil-confusion-2012)
Now with Updated Almost-The- Final-Schedules and Room Maps!

Not this coming weekend, but the next. Back to the ConFusion -- Friday 16 January to Sunday 18 January 2015. The Doubletree Hotel Detroit/Dearborn?, 5801 Southfield Road, Detroit, MI 48228, is hosting for the third year.
Back to the ConFusion, the 41st ConFusion by name and 42nd annual January gathering (starting with the AA Realx-I-Con in 1974), is a go! 2015 looks to be an exciting year--it will be the year that Marty McFly really traveled to in Back to the Future II, whatever that Facebook meme says, so look out for those hoverboards, they must be right around the corner. (No, seriously, look out!) We're anticipating another excellent con, with the first-time appearance of author Karen Lord, researcher Dr. Cynthia Chestek, and gaming gurus Monte Cook & Shanna Germain. We'll also welcome back Heather Dale, now performing as our Music Guest of Honor. And then there's Aaron Thul, longtime fan and conrunner, returning after two years away as our Fan Guest of Honor. Please do join us, and we hope to see you there in January!
For some previews, I just discovered ConFusion has a cool Tumblr.

Six panels, moderating one -- and a reading! Now with panelists and rooms!

ConFusion Schedule for Dr. Phil Kaldon

Friday 6pm: Dearborn
Every Creature (Real and Fantastical) Poops
You may have read the book Everyone Poops, but it's 
so human-centric. What about mermaids, centaurs, 
and other fantastical creatures? Let's see if we can 
analogize from real species to arrive at a theory of 
fantastical pooping. (Caution: conversation may stray 
into food, sex and gestation.)
Rowena Cherry, Cindy Spencer Pape, Lucy Kennedy, 
Dr. Phil Kaldon

(Friday 7pm: Michigan - Big Top
Opening Ceremonies)

Friday 8pm: Warren
Ghosts of SyFy Past
Come reminisce about the actual science fiction SyFy
used to show, and talk about the network's plans to
get back to its science fiction roots.
Julie Winningham, Philip Kaldon, Aset, Steve Drew'

Saturday 10am: Dearborn 
Building a Better Dragon
No two writers imagine the same dragon. How would
yours be different? Flying, fire, temperament,
teeth: what makes a good dragon?
Christian Klaver, Philip Kaldon, Cinda Williams Chima, 
Steve Buchheit

Saturday 11am: Southfield 
Time Travel Devices, Doors, and Deus Ex Machinas
How to travel through time (in literature and media)	
Philip Kaldon, Ferrett Steinmetz, Andrew Zimmerman Jones, 
Laura Resnick
 
Saturday 4pm: Dearborn 
Time Travel (im)Possibilities
Would 1.21 gigawatts get the job done, or would
the flux capacitor even work? Time for our panelists
and audience to debunk our favorite time travel
devices in literature and popular media.
Bill Higgins, Philip Kaldon, Ron Collins, 
Andrew Zimmerman Jones 

Sunday 10am: Warren 
Tomlinson/Kaldon reading
Patrick S. Tomlinson and Philip Kaldon read from their works.
This will be the first public reading from
the opening chapters of The Lost Kingdom YA project
I am working on.  I had planned to read this at
WindyCon, but alas the weather kept us away from
Chicago in mid-November.  Their loss is your gain.

Sunday 11am: Erie 
Science or Science Fiction?
Science fiction novels continue to impress with
amazing technological advances in so many areas.
What's more impressive, though? That some of them
are reality! Come talk about some of the things
you see on the news today that you first read
about years ago in a book.
Philip Kaldon, Jason Sanford, Andrew Zimmerman Jones, 
Patrick S. Tomlinson, Brent Seth 



Note: Room map is from 2013. (Click on map for larger.)

Anyway, these are all fun panels to be on and I am very excited about my reading.

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

A Quiet Write

Saturday, 3 January 2015 01:11
dr_phil_physics: (xmas-plot-bunny)
This last week has been pretty quiet on the great YA novel writing project. Except, not really.

As mentioned last week, I finally pushed my first little darling out into the world, providing a short story A Christmas in the Lost Kingdom (DW) -- also in a PDF.

This week I delved into the next week and delivered A New Year's in the Lost Kingdom (DW) -- also in a PDF.

Right now those are pieces of Chapters 9 and 10. I intend to read from Chapters 1 and 2 for my reading at ConFusion (DW) in mid-January. And that should be it for sneak peeks at The Lost Kingdom for a long time.

So, lots of writing, a bit of web publication -- and virtually no feedback from anyone so far. Sigh.

Also this week, I had to finish my WOTF 2015 Q1 submission and get it submitted before the new year steamrolled over us. And I just spent the last couple of days reviewing all my available Invenstory and printed out the whole list of short story markets from Ralans, as I gear up for another big assault on all the markets and work on any number of projects. Plus the YA novel -- not forgetting that. But I deliberately put almost zero time in anything else since September, since I didn't want to be distracted by space stories and other plot bunnies while I made a big effort on The Lost Kingdom. And finished my two classes. A good plan and well executed. The plot bunnies had much fodder with The Lost Kingdom and stayed in the 21st century and left the 22nd and 29th centuries alone...

Researches were scarce for this project: a lovely website with 1000 Danish surnames and the 1927 lyrics to "Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo" (check out the New Year's story and sing along) (and Wikipedia reports "Aakjær translated the song into the Danish dialect Jysk, a dialect from the Danish peninsula Jutland, often hard to understand for other Danes." Just to get it to have the right feel.)

The other researches had to do with other stories -- and given the blind submission to WOTF, I shan't let you in on what I needed for my new story.

Since I haven't yet integrated the two holiday short stories back into the trilogy, I won't break it down by volume, but instead just give the shiny counter for the total:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.06


This coming week will be all about the writing, well, mainly about the writing. The week after is when Western starts back to school, so I'll start including my textbook project during part of the day.

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (seasons-best-kate)
Update: You can now view this as a PDF file, formatted for e-readers, here.

Two New Year's Eves from now in a place you've never heard of...

            “New Year's in the Lost Kingdom”
               by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon

Saturday 31 December 2016
21:55 CET (GMT+1)
Sommerhus, Eisbergen

     According to the media, much of the world was spending New 
Year’s Eve drinking  - if sixteen-year-old Crown Princess Daniska 
Elsinor believed the media.  That might be true.  It might even 
be true for her Eisbergen.  But not for all.  Some people had to 
work, if not for a living, then for the good of a kingdom.
     In the barn’s dim light she scraped the shovel against the 
floor and deposited another load of cow dung in the wheelbarrow.
     The main door to the west barn screeched open and a rough 
voice called out in the old Ur-Danish, “Who’s there?”
     “Me,” Daniska replied.  This was her kingdom.  She really 
had no one to answer to except her father King Henrik VII and 
God  - in some order she never felt she wanted to debate.
     She kept shoveling until the intruder came around the pens.  
“I saw lights on...  What the hell are you doing shoveling the 
shit at this hour, princess?” Klaus Jønsson asked, irritated at 
her as usual.  The middle-aged farmer used the word princess as 
if it was a taunt, not an honorific.
     “Could you shut the doors?  You’re letting the heat out.”
     Klaus might not have liked the royalty of Eisbergen or how 
they ran things.  But he did know and care about animals  - and 
was famously frugal  - this was a request he responded to, even 
if he acted grumpy as usual.
     “You haven’t answered my question, princess,” he said when 
he came back.  He stood 6’5” and solidly sturdy  - she straightened 
up to her slender 6’4” height so they stood eye-to-eye in the 
barn.
     “There wasn’t time to answer you  - and I wasn’t going to 
shout after you like you were a servant or something.”  Daniska 
didn’t know why she felt she had to needle him as well.  “It’s 
New Year’s Eve.  There is going to be a lot of drinking in Eisbergen.  
And the livestock needs to be attended to, no matter what day 
it is.  Everyone is going to be moving slow in the morning.  
I’m just trying to lighten the load.”
     “You’re going to smell to high heaven if you keep up at 
this,” Klaus said, grabbing an old iron rake and starting to 
pull some of the sodden straw out of the stalls.  One of the 
cows moved out of his way.
     “Too late,” Daniska said, pausing to wipe the sweat on her 
brow with the back of a glove.  The jeans she had on were old, 
as was the tattered and faded University of Oslo sweatshirt.
     “Well, it’s good to see you working for a change,” he 
grudgingly acknowledged.
     “You have no idea what I do,” she replied calmly.  “You’re 
too busy running your farm or trying to rile up the citizenry.”
     “Hmph.  Well, you may be right about that.  It certainly 
looks like you’ve shoveled shit before.”
     Her iPhone rang before she could come up with a rejoinder.  
“Yes?” she answered on speaker, after waving a hand over the 
camera.  It was her sister.
     “Dani, where are you?  It’s almost ten o’clock.  You have 
to get ready.”
     “I’m almost done.”
     “Done what?”
     “Cleaning out the barn.”
     “You went out there two hours ago.”
     “You didn’t come to help.”
     “Not fair  - I had baking to do.”
     “I’ll be there,” Daniska said, waving her hand again - 
the handsfree app she’d written disconnecting.  “Still think 
that all royals are worthless leeches on the backs of the workers?”
     Klaus glared sourly.  “You should go, princess.  I can 
finish this.  I don’t want Marcellus or one of his Romans to 
come and get me.”
     “They wouldn’t be after you,” she said, finally putting 
one last, large shovelful in the wheelbarrow.  “They’d be after 
me.”
     Grabbing the old coat that lived in the mud room off the 
back of the kitchen at Royal House, Daniska bundled up and headed 
out.
     “Don’t you stay up so late here, either, Klaus.  It’s New 
Year’s Eve.”
     “Ah-hhh, bah,” he waved a hand at her in annoyance.  “And 
shut that damned door behind you.  Don’t let all the heat out.”
                                ***
     New Year’s Eve  - twenty minutes to midnight  - in the 
warmth and light of Royal House.
     “Anaulka  - are you dressed yet?” Daniska called up the 
stairs.
     “I’m coming,” the girl responded.  And indeed, within a 
minute she emerged from their bedroom and came clattering down 
the stairs.
     “Are those my shoes?”
     “Yes.”
     “They don’t quite fit you,” Daniska sighed.  Anaulka wasn’t 
one to give up.  “I heard you all the way down.”
     “Urrrrgh.”  Anaulka kicked off the chunky white heels.  
“I can’t wear your really high heels anyway.”
     “Not yet.”
     “And I don’t have any women’s shoes.  All I have are little 
girl’s shoes.”
     “We should correct that then.”
     “I’m thirteen,” Anaulka insisted.
     “There you are,” their mother Queen Joelle said, coming 
out of the kitchen in an elegant royal blue evening gown, her 
short dark hair contrasting with the girls’ long blond hair.  
She kissed the top of her younger daughter’s head, noting that 
without shoes, she was her height for once, almost 6’1”.  “I 
was beginning to be think you’d never make it, Ani.  Now, both 
of you  - turn around.”
     Daniska was three inches taller than her sister anyway, 
but since Anaulka was barefoot, she towered over her.  Both 
princesses wore loose, full-length white dresses with embroidered 
square necklines.  Their waist long blond hair was free tonight, 
partly pulled back  - Daniska’s by a 12th century silver Viking 
comb, Anaulka’s with a black velvet bow.  The comb kept slipping 
against Daniska’s unruly wavy hair, threatening to fall out every 
ten or fifteen minutes.  She’d rather braid it and forget about 
her hair.
     “You both look lovely.  But no shoes, Ani?”
     Anaulka pointed at the shoes lying in a heap near the bottom 
of the stairs.  “They didn’t fit.”
     “She can’t just wear my things,” Daniska told their mother.  
“Don’t let that tomboy attitude fool you  - you’re growing another 
woman in this house.  Another princess.”
     “Yeah,” Anaulka said.  “You’re neglecting me, Mother.”
     “You’re not helping.”
     Anaulka stuck her tongue out at her sister.
     The queen sighed.  The girls were right about one thing - 
she didn’t spend enough time with them.  Both were growing into 
lovely young women.  And from what she heard, the kingdom liked 
their princesses.  The sad thing was she wasn’t likely to change - 
Dr. Joelle Lund liked her academic world south in Oslo far too much.  
The kingdom and her girls was just some place she visited.  
Infrequently.
     “Someone bring the herring and the champagne glasses.”
     “Herring!” Anaulka called and went to get the two platters 
of pickled herring, plain and with cream sauce.
     “Henrik  - it’s time,” Joelle called to her husband.
     “Yes, yes,” he replied, emerging from his study.  Amazingly 
he carried no papers  - Daniska wasn’t even sure he had his iPhone.  
Indeed, the 6’7” king was, for once, elegant himself in full 
black tails and tie.  His dark blond hair was cut short and curled 
in the old Roman way  - his beard fierce and Viking.  The king 
and queen looked every bit the royal couple they were.
     The elaborate grandfather’s clock in the parlor began to 
chime.
     “Four... three... two...” Anaulka counted out loud, her 
eyes sparkling with anticipation. “TWELVE!  Midnight everyone - 
Happy New Year!”
     The two princesses kissed and hugged.
     “Happy New Year, my dear,” Henrik said to his wife and they 
embraced and kissed while the girls stood by smiling.  Anaulka 
elbowed her sister.
     They heard a series of cracks outside.
     “Someone has firecrackers,” Anaulka observed.  “Oh, and 
happy birthday, sister.”
     “Yes, my little Y2K bug  - Happy Birthday,” Joelle came 
over and kissed Daniska.  Then the princess was kissed by her 
father and her sister.  Blushing, Daniska went back into the 
kitchen.
     New Year’s Day 2017 A.D. in Eisbergen.  Seventeen years 
ago, 1 January 2000, at 2:32 in the morning, Daniska Elsinor 
Raphaella Rachel had presented herself to the world and the then 
Crown Prince Henrik.  She didn’t remember it, of course, but 
the world had survived the calendar rolling over from 1999 to 
2000 without catastrophic computer losses.  Anaulka joked that 
it was the source of her sister’s superior computer coding abilities 
- an omen.
     Daniska came out carefully hanging two bottles of champagne 
in elegant black bottles by their necks in one hand and a tray 
with four tall champagne flutes in the other.
     “Two bottles of champagne, Father?” Anaulka asked.  “You 
are about to sink one, are you?”
     Henrik frowned.  “I’m not sure what you mean.”
     “She’s teasing you,” Daniska said, setting down the tray, 
then the bottles.  “Sinking is ordering two bottles of champagne 
and pouring one down the sink to protest some silly Swedish law 
against spraying champagne in a public place.”
     “This is not Sweden, my dear, or have you forgotten?” Henrik 
said to Anaulka.  “There is no law against spraying champagne 
in Eisbergen  - only common sense enough to know not to waste 
any precious product.”
     “But it’s Swedish champagne.  HATT et SÖNER Prestige 2005 
Le Grand-Père,” Anaulka said, picking up one bottle and reading 
the label.  “So I thought, when in Rome, do as the Swedes do?”
     “That one doesn’t even work,” Daniska said, shaking her 
head.
     “We are Rome,” Anaulka said helpfully, and as Eisbergen 
was founded in part by a Roman Senator as one of their three 
crowns in 460 A.D., it was true.
     “The company may be owned by Swedes, not Frenchmen,” the 
king explained, “it is still French champagne.  Otherwise under 
all those arcane EU rules and regulations, they couldn’t call 
it...”
     “Henrik,” the queen said.
     “Quite so.  The new year is precious seconds old  - and 
we have not yet poured and toasted.  And,” the king said, pausing 
to remove the wire cage from the first black bottle, “I am not 
averse to popping the cork on these festive occasions.”
     Bwoop!
     “Ah...”  The ladies all applauded as the cork sailed up 
almost to the sixteen-foot ceiling of the great hall and bounced 
on the stairs.
     “There’s four of us  - and two bottles,” Anaulka said, as 
Henrik began pouring into the tall thin glasses.  “Is that half 
a bottle each?”
     “No,” Daniska said.  “You have two bottles in case one is 
a dud.”
     “Or unexpected company arrives,” the king said.
     “It’s midnight in the most secretive country in the world,” 
Anaulka frowned.  “Who could possibly come unannounced?”
     “You never know,” Henrik said.  “Everyone has a glass?  
Yes?  Then Happy New Year to all of us and our kingdom.”
     “To the New Year.”
     “God grace the king,” Daniska added.  The others immediately 
replied and Henrik nodded.
     “And a very happy birthday to my Princess Daniska,” he answered, 
which began yet a third round of toasts.
     They had barely started on the black bread and the pickled 
herring when the front door chimed.  The girls looked at their 
father, who had a mischievous smile.
     “Who could that possibly be at this late... er, early hour?” 
he asked.
     Taking his wife by the arm, they advanced to open first 
the inside double doors and then with a flourish, Henrik pulled 
both of the outer doors at once.
     “General Marcellus,” he greeted the Roman Centurion standing 
on the porch, the slowly falling snow glistening on the full 
ceremonial armor.
     Marcellus saluted, fist out.  “Your Majesty, Your Grace - 
Happy New Year.”  He held out a small stoneware crock, wrapped 
in a towel.  “I bring fish soup to give you good luck throughout 
the year.”
     “Come in, come in, old friend.”
     The sixty-year-old Roman carefully stepped over the threshold, 
planted both feet and handed the king the crock.  It occurred 
to Daniska that this was a ceremony of some sort.  The first 
visitor of the new year?  She would have to look it up.  It seemed 
that her father was also not averse to reviving old customs.
     “Daniska  - we shall need more glasses.”
     Behind Marcellus on the porch, were the part-time Steward 
of Royal House and his wife Greta, their part-time cook and housekeeper.
     “Now it’s a party,” Anaulka observed.
     “Happy birthday, Your Highness,” Marcellus said, removing 
his helmet with the red brush on top and presenting a small package 
wrapped in silvery paper to Daniska.
     Daniska set the additional glasses down and accepted the 
gift.  “Thank you very much, Marcellus.”  She kissed him on both 
cheeks.  Then she held up a silver spoon.  “I think we should 
pass your soup around and skip trying to dish it out.”
     “An excellent idea,” the Roman said, rubbing his hands.  
“It is damned cold out there.  And we need some good luck in 
the new year.”
     “I don’t know about luck,” Daniska said, picking up the 
crock in one hand after wrapping it in a towel, “but we have 
champagne, herring, bread and fish soup.  We are certainly trying 
to appease the gods as much as possible.  Oh, this is good.”
     “Most of the meals that I cook myself are based on basic 
Roman camp food recipes.  I’m afraid I’m stubborn that way.  
Be a Roman, be a Roman all the way.  But this?  This is my mother’s 
and she got it from her mother  - generations back.” 
     “Well, you can clearly cook, good sir.”
     The bell jangled at the door again  - this time for the 
realm’s two fishermen and their wives.
     “It’s time to sing,” one of the fishermen shouted.  “It’s 
New Year’s for God’s sake.”  The suggestion was greeted with 
applause and everyone looked to the princesses.
     Anaulka and Daniska realized they would not get out of this.  
So the birthday girl sat at the piano in the parlor, and Anaulka 
stood nearby.  Her singing voice was higher and sweeter than 
Daniska’s, but she could start strong and low enough to suit.
        “Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo
        og stryges fræ wor mind?
        Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo
        med dem daw så læng, læng sind?
        Di skjønne ungdomsdaw, å ja,
        de daw så svær å find!
        Vi'el løwt wor kop så glådle op
        for dem daw så læng, læng sind!”
     Daniska came in on the chorus and the duet soon became a 
trio as their Father’s baritone was added.  Soon everyone joined 
in the choruses as Anaulka sang the next stanzas  - the ones 
that most people didn’t know, Daniska smiled.
     “I think we did Robbie Burns proud,” Anaulka said to her 
sister, after they took their bow.
     “I think on New Year’s nobody cares  - they just want it 
sung.  But,” Daniska hastily added, “you did beautifully.”
     “Thank you,” Anaulka beamed.
     The champagne was long gone  - there were eleven in Royal 
House now  - and so the adults had switched to whisky and brandies.  
Daniska took a small glass of brandy.
     “We’re sharing,” she told her father as he frowned.
     Anaulka sat on the sofa, rubbing her bare feet.  “Here, 
let me do that for you,” Daniska offered, and as she sat down, 
Anaulka propped her legs on her sister’s knees.  “You’re cold.”
     “I have no shoes.”
     “You’re a very silly girl from time to time.”
     “Thank you, O worldly princess sister.”
     “You should have put on a pair of your own shoes.”
     “What would be the fun of that?”
     The bell jingled again and the princesses looked at each 
other.  Daniska went to the front door and was surprised to see 
Klaus Jønsson and his two sons.
     “Klaus!  Dean, Cyril  - Happy New Year to you all.  Thank 
you for coming.  Come in out of the cold, please.  All of you.  
You are always welcome.”
     The farmer harrumphed, and kicked his snowy boots on the 
side of the door frame before stepping inside.
     “Apologies for coming so late,” he said, taking off his 
hat.
     “Nonsense.  It’s New Year’s  - we’re going to be up all 
night.”
     “I wasn’t going to come,” he said gruffly.  “But I was reminded 
- this is your seventeenth birthday, princess.  By the Old Law, 
today is your age of ascension.  You can become queen on your 
own without needing a regent.
     “So I suppose I should be nice to you, princess, as someday 
you’ll rule,” he finished his speech, handing her a package.  
“I brought smoked blood sausage.”
     “Thank you, good sir.  And let us hope that I am not queen 
for a long time.”
     Anaulka had come to take their coats.  The sons were both 
older than the girls.  Dean was nineteen and disliked the royals 
as much as his father.  But the older brother, Cyril, was quiet 
and shy  - and if he hated anyone in the world, Daniska didn’t 
know who it was.
     “Cyril, I’m amazed you made in from the south farm in this 
weather.”  As expected, he didn’t answer her.  “I’m sorry, we 
had very little champagne at midnight.  But there’s whisky and 
brandy.  And still some herring and smoked fish, plus your wonderful 
sausage.”
     “Whisky sounds good,” Klaus said and headed over to get 
a stiff drink.  “Behave yourselves,” he told his boys.
     Someone had found the master control panel for the Bang 
& Olufsen BeoSystem 5000 stereo, which had apparently fallen 
off a truck near Copenhagen back in 1985 and found its way into 
Royal House via their Royalists motorcycle club.  Below were 
sliding wooden doors which revealed hundreds of old LP records.  
Soon the background was filled with Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte.
     It was during Harry Belafonte’s Calypso in Brass from 1966 
and “Jump in the Line”, that Daniska was asked to dance by her 
father.  When she glanced back, Anaulka had pulled her knees 
up to her chest, watching and grinning at everyone making minor 
fools of themselves.
     By two, Anaulka had been recruited to play the straight 
violin and soon raucous fiddling tunes spurred on the dancers 
- and those who weren’t dancing kept time clapping.  Half an 
hour later, the younger princess declared she was in no shape 
to keep playing at this hour, and the party went back to the 
stereo.  And Chubby Checkers.
     “It’s 3:13am,” Daniska told Anaulka, as her sister came 
back out to the great table with a small box. “And you’re eating 
chocolates?”
     “Nope,” Anaulka said, holding the box out.  It was fondant 
stuffed sugared dates.  “Have one.”
     “I’m already stuffed on herring and soup and bread.”
     “It’s not like you need to worry about getting fat.”
     “Alright.  I’ll have one.”
     “Good!”
                                ***
     In the morning it was of course still dark.  But those who’d 
gathered at Royal House and had stayed up for all hours, bundled 
up against the cold and went to New Year’s Mass at eight.
     “What did Marcellus give you for your birthday?” Anaulka 
whispered as they took their seats and waited for the kingdom 
to arrive and stand for the service.  “I never did see.”
     “It’s a Chinese black lacquered abacus  - very small and 
very old.  It’s quite lovely and it makes a nice clicking sound 
as you flick the beads back and forth.  I have no idea where 
he got it.”
     “I don’t recall reading about any piracy against Chinese 
shipping in the Book of Days,” Anaulka said.  “Maybe it was a 
personal possession on some ship we captured long ago?”
     Though much had been lost in 1944, they still had some 
stores of trophies collected from centuries of Viking and pirate 
raids in the name of the kingdom.
     “I don’t know.  And Marcellus never tells where he gets 
things.”
     “He does it to annoy you,” Anaulka said.
     “He does it to challenge me, I think.”
     By noon the sun made its first appearance for 2017, staying 
only for a while.  It was just eleven days after the winter 
solstice in the secret kingdom of Eisbergen just north of the 
Arctic Circle, hidden amongst the mountains and fjords of Norway.
     But not Norway.

From Book One of the Lost Kingdom Chronicles
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon -- All Rights Reserved


This is the second outing of my Lost Kingdom princesses story.
PLEASE send me feedback.

And All The Best for 2015!

Dr. Phil

500

Tuesday, 23 December 2014 17:01
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man
who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door

-- "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"
-- The Proclaimers

On 29 November 2014 I posted about reaching 400 pages (DW) in the Word 2010 file for my Lost Kingdom YA trilogy. Well, we've hit 501 pages today. Not that this is a milestone other than we see omens and portents in numbers everywhere.

As an author, you toil and toil and write and edit. And someday, if you think it's ready, you let some of free and let it out into the wild. This week I gave my first real sneak peek into The Lost Kingdom, even to Mrs. Dr. Phil, when on Monday I released part of the current Chapter 9 of Book 1 as my annual Christmas short story: "A Christmas in the Lost Kingdom" (DW). Published on Dreamwidth, crossposted to LiveJournal and Facebook, it's Christmas, Hanukkah, holidays, break, End of the Year -- you never know when or if people are going to read these things. Or whether you'll get any feedback. (cue-anxious-sigh) But right now I am getting tons of updates from people on Facebook, which means people are at least on Facebook. Whether they have room for a 2300-word Christmas short story, that's another tale.

But I can make things easier for people.

Today I released a PDF version of "A Christmas in the Lost Kingdom". It's in A5 page format and displays very nicely in the Adobe Reader on my Kindle Fire HD. Should work on other e-Readers as well. If you want to print it out, I'd recommend finding your printer option for printing 2-ups, two pages on a single sheet of paper.

Over the years I have created hundreds of PDFs for my classes and writings, all using the Adobe printer driver that comes with Adobe Acrobat Pro 5/7/9. But ZEPPELIN, Wendy's Windows 7 laptop, doesn't have the full version of Acrobat and I don't have any installs left of my versions. However, Microsoft Word 2010 does have a Save As... PDF option, so I tried that. It's acceptable. i worry that given how Word writes bloated HTML files that it's overwrought coding, but that can't be helped. Maybe I'll make a copy in Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 and see if there's a difference in size or appearance.

And if you forget about my story -- don't worry, I'll flog it a few more times during the holidays. Also let you know that a second story will come out on New Year's Eve. (cue-even-more-anxious-author-angst)

As for the writing, well, it's coming along amazingly well. I've been filling in and editing a great deal, while still forging ahead on three books of the trilogy. So far I am very happy with what I have, which to some extent is all that really matters. Everything else is going to be gravy on my own satisfaction. (grin)

Also with the start of Version 1.06 of the trilogy, I also started sections in the file for The Pitch and The Synopsis. Both of these are going to be tough, short and shorter, so I might as well start thinking about them now. Whenever I've had to write a synopsis after I've finished a story, it's been like pulling thorns through your body. (evil-grin)

New researches started with a problem: Trying to find Catholic high schools on the north side of Chicago. Several of the ones that I remember from my Northwestern days in Evanston/Wilmette have been closed. From there we investigated... NU Wildcat basketball player numbers for centers. The Three Crowns emblems and origins for Scandinavian countries, including Sweden, Denmark and the Trekroner Søfort (Three Crowns Sea Fortress) guarding the entrance to Copenhagen harbor. The Typ 17 and Typ 1G Volkswagen Golf. "Glade jul, dejlige jul" -- the old Danish lyrics to "Silent Night" -- versus the newer lyrics, "Stille nat, hellige nat". Also "ram tam", the same Christmas carol translated into Klingon. Prostitution in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Workers rights and satisfaction in Denmark -- and I mean the regular workforce, not the prostitutes -- the happiest workplaces in the world. And I probably need to research something about the CIA headquarters in Foggy Bottom, which of course leads one to remind everyone never try to understand an author's browser history. (oh-my-gosh-grin)

The shiny counters now stand at:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.06


Book 1


Book 2


Book 3


The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03


*** Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn’t been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet.

And we continue...

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (seasons-best-kate)
Update: You can now view this as a PDF file, formatted for e-readers, here.

Two Christmases from now in a place you've never heard of...

            “A Christmas in the Lost Kingdom”
               by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon

Saturday 24 December 2016
13:42 CET (GMT+1)
Sommerhus, Eisbergen

     The two princesses were tall and slender in the way of most 
Eisbergers and their Viking ancestors.  For this Christmas Eve, 
they both would wear their waist long blond hair up and have matching 
long red and green plaid skirts with white silk blouses.
     But sixteen-year-old Crown Princess Daniska Elsinor was worried 
about many things.  Dressing in candlelight had not been part of 
the plan -- and it would ruin her surprise to the children.  The 
power had been out nearly an hour already, which was never a good 
sign in the tiny kingdom of Eisbergen.  Ordinarily she might have 
been out helping troubleshoot the power failure, but the princess 
had obligations to the Crown.  At least she’d already checked her 
iPhone several times and still had bars, so she wouldn’t have to 
restart the cell service.  It was already on its backup power.
     And then there were her shoes.
     Actually there was nothing wrong with the shoes on her own 
feet.  Elegant and extravagant looking -- but bought on sale in 
Copenhagen -- it was only a little outrageous for the 6’4” Daniska 
to wear five-inch heels.  But as heir, it would bring her close 
to eye-to-eye with her father, King Henrik VII.
     She watched as her thirteen-year-old sister Princess Anaulka 
Katje tried to get into another pair of Daniska’s very high heels.  
After a struggle, she got them on and managed to stand, arms 
cautiously stretched out as she wavered.  She straightened up to 
her full height of 6’¾”, plus the four-inch heels.  Then beaming, 
Anaulka triumphantly took an awkward step... and promptly lost 
her balance and fell back against the bed.
     Daniska could only smile.
     Anaulka looked up, mortified.  “Do.  Not.  Laugh.  I’ll 
get this.”
     “Someday, I’m sure, Ani.  But not today.”
     “It’s Christmas!”
     “Yes and you know very well that on Christmas we never get 
all that we want.”
     “That’s true enough.”  Anaulka sighed and held her legs 
straight out off the bed.  “They look good.”
     “They’re darling.  Now take off my shoes before you ruin 
them and hurt yourself.  You really don’t want to be hobbling 
around the rest of the holidays on crutches.”
     “You really do have an annoying habit of spoiling everything 
by pointing out the reality of the situation, dear sister.  Not 
everything is equations and technical specifications.”
     “I love you, too.”
     Anaulka carelessly kicked off the shoes and headed back to 
the closet to find a pair of her own dress shoes.  “Your nose 
is bleeding,” she said quietly as she walked past in her stockinged 
feet.
     “Oh, thanks,” Daniska said, grabbing a handkerchief -- it 
wasn’t that bad this time.  Just a drop.  But she hated this one 
reminder of her royal ancestry.  At least her sister didn’t suffer 
from it as well.  “I think I’ll wear the dark red sweater, though, 
and not the gold.”
     “Just in case?”
     “Just in case.”
     Anaulka came back with the red sweater and her own gold sweater.  
They wouldn’t be identical, but they would look good together.
     Daniska heard a rumble outside as someone had finally broken 
down and put on the generator for Royal House.  It was the Christmas 
Eve party, after all, and if the village of Summer Home was coming 
to call, the royal family should really put on the lights for them.
     She took a deep breath and stood up.  “It’s show time.”
                                ***
     The Royal House smelled of evergreens, spices and all manner 
of baking and cooking.  Small dishes of nuts and sweets were 
strategically scattered around the public areas -- Princess Anaulka 
had secreted one large bowl for their own room, as if no one would 
notice the young teenaged princess’s sweet tooth.
     There was no real daylight this time of year, but that didn’t 
stop Eisbergen from preparing for Christmas.  And during the dark 
afternoon, families from Summer Home and Nunuuvit brought their 
children to the Royal House for games and stories and hot chocolate 
and many kinds of cookies and small spiced meat pies, while the 
adults feasted on pickled herring, salted cod, rye bread and lots 
of the local bitter thin beer.
     Large enough to entertain all forty residents of Summer Home 
and a good measure of the subjects who lived in Nunuuvit, Royal 
House stood two full stories tall, but the parlor and great hall 
in the front half had a vaulted ceiling with exposed timbers 
overhead.  Sixteen feet high at the peak, the ceiling was ten foot 
high where the nine foot Christmas tree stood just past the piano 
in the front of the parlor.  The tree glittered with hundreds of 
colored LED lights, glass ornaments, old toys, tinsel two generations 
old and topped with a glass gipfel spire which almost touched the 
ceiling.
     As far as the children of Eisbergen were concerned, their 
9th century Saint Nicholi was the real Santa Claus -- no matter 
what the mass media from the world would try to convince them of -- 
and his arrival meant blessings for the celebrations and feasts 
surrounding Christ’s Mass.  Besides, the world didn’t even know 
Saint Nicholi or even Eisbergen existed.
     But the little ones always wanted to hear stories of the great 
tree which was set up in the Citadel during Christmas back in the 
old days, from before their near destruction in World War II, when 
the Citadel, the island and Winter Home were sacked.  No one alive 
in Royal House today had been there in those days, but Princess 
Daniska had picked up the habit of reading the Christmas preparation 
notes in the Book of Days from various years.  This time she had 
selected 1911, having always held a fascination for the Edwardians.
     As the six-foot-four princess walked into the parlor, the 
kingdom’s eight smaller children were already dancing around her 
and clamoring for Her Highness to tell them a story.  Smiling, 
Daniska sat on a delicate wooden chair with her iPad on her lap 
and had them sit on the polished wood floor around her.
     “During the fourth year of the reign of Alvin III,” she began, 
speaking in the old Ur-Danish tongue, “the annual call was sent 
out throughout our little kingdom to find the right tree for the 
great entrance hall in the Citadel, the castle-in-the-Rock where 
the Royal Family of Eisbergen once lived.  While most homes had 
their own Christmas trees throughout Winter Home and Nunuuvit, 
the great tree was special, for it belonged to all of us.
     “Oh, the Old Man Pine next to the Allhall on the island still 
stood and was decorated every year, but the decorations were old 
and they’d not taken to even hanging electric lights on it.  The 
great tree in the Citadel, though, had been lit by candles for 
generations.  It wouldn’t be until 1914, three years later, that 
strings of electric lights would be used.”
     “Wasn’t it dangerous to use candles?”
     “Perhaps.  But the people were used to working with candles.  
And over the years, they had gone from melting the candles directly 
to the branches, to small candle holders just like you use today 
when the power fails, and then to tiny metal lanterns and glass 
balls with the candles inside.” Daniska paused in her tale to pull 
up some sketches on her iPad.  “See?  These are the types of lights 
they used back in 1911.”
     She touched the screen with her finger and the background 
dimmed and the candles glowed in the animation she’d made.
     “Ooo-ooh,” the children sang and the princess smiled.
     Her sister Anaulka had come out of the kitchen and was leaning 
on the staircase railing to the upstairs watching the performance.  
Daniska saw her and gave a nod of the head.  The younger princess 
carefully stepped around the children and, folding her skirts around, 
settled down on the floor next to the Crown Princess.
     “Master Tomas Blylevin was the Builder for the Crown in those 
days -- he was the greatfather of our own Builder -- and he constructed 
a special frame that sat within the lower boughs of the tree so 
that early clockwork Märklin toy trains could run around the tree.”
     “I wish we had a train running around our tree.”
     “It’s Christmas -- sometimes our wishes come true.”  Daniska 
tapped on her iPad and dimmed the lights in the parlor.  The Christmas 
tree behind the children glowed with the strings of little colored 
LED lights that crisscrossed over the branches.  When she tapped 
again, a different short string of lights appeared deep inside 
the tree -- and moved.  The children shrieked in delight, which 
caused the parents in the kitchen and those sitting at the great 
table drinking to see what was causing the commotion.  But they 
relaxed when they saw they were jumping up and down in excitement 
and pointing at something the princess had shown them.
     Even her sister looked dumbfounded as if to say, How did you 
do this?
     The tiny train, with passenger cars just two inches long and 
rails only 3 mm apart, rose on its thin tracks around and around 
the tree at a fairly steep angle, then came around a platform circling 
near the top that no one had noticed before amidst the lights and 
tinsel, and spiraled back down to repeat the process.  It took the 
train about a minute to make the full circuit.
     The older children, who’d been playing board games in the library 
and cracking nuts, came out to see what the fuss was -- and were 
amazed at Daniska’s latest technical wizardry.  They stayed and 
watched the train go up and down and up the tree again and again 
with their little brothers and sisters and cousins.  After all, 
they were all cousins by some degree to everyone else in the kingdom.
     Anaulka stared at her sister.  “Where on Earth did you find this?”
     “eBay Japan,” Daniska said quietly.  “T-scale is the smallest 
production model trains -- 1:450 ratio -- and they use magnets to 
keep a grip on the rails, so they’re perfect.  Eishindo makes various 
Japanese trains -- their commuter trains look cute snaking up and 
down the tree, don’t you think?”
     “It’s adorable, no matter the ratio gibberish,” Anaulka admitted, 
then whispered, “But how did you find out about them?”
     “Wikipedia.”
     “That’s not true,” Anaulka insisted.  “You can’t just open 
Wikipedia and it gives you answers -- you have to search for something.”
     “True.  I knew about our 1911 tree trains and wanted to do something 
similar.  Except I wanted something subtler.  A surprise, hidden in 
the branches.  Lionel and HO were far too big.  But even N-scale seemed 
large.”
     “N-scale being...?”
     “A very small train size.  But at a model shop in Copenhagen I’d 
seen some Märklin Z-scale -- even smaller.  And when I looked that up 
in Google, I found about ZZ and then T-scale.  It was the magnetic 
track that made up my mind.”
     “So... what did it cost?” Anaulka reluctantly asked.  The kingdom 
was poor and everything, eventually, came down to a matter of money.
     “It should have cost a lot,” Daniska admitted.  “But if you’re 
careful you can find eBay sellers who aren’t very clever -- they have 
the items listed wrong and they don’t set minimum prices.  Sad to say 
this person lost a great deal of money, but that’s the rules.  In the 
great Internet commerce world, it was all fair.”
     “So you’re saying you legally stole these.”
     “I suppose.  It wouldn’t have done much good to send a raiding 
party to acquire them by our usual ultralegal means -- I doubt that 
very many people have ever seen these anywhere in Europe.  There’s 
an online shop in the U.K., though.”
     “Yes, but you haven’t answered my question -- how cheap is 
cheap?”
     “35 000 yen, including shipping, which works out to about 1750 
Danish kroner.  That includes all the track, which wasn’t cheap.  
I worked up the digital controls myself.”
     “Three hundred American -- for all this?” Anaulka scrunched 
up her forehead in surprise.  “Is that all?  I take back all the 
mean things I said about equations and technical specifications.”
     “Like I said, buying them and shipping them to Copenhagen should 
have been much more dear.  In which case I wouldn’t have bought them.”
     “You brought these with you from school?”
     “Of course.  They hardly take up any space, after all.”
     “And you didn’t tell me?” Anaulka punched her sister in the arm.
     “It was worth every krone,” Daniska grinned, while she rubbed 
her sore arm.  “Merry Christmas.”
     “Merry Christmas to you, too.”
     “Now, let’s see what Saint Nicholi has brought the children.”
     “I hope there’re Snickers bars.”
     “I said for the children.”
     “You forget -- I’m still just thirteen.  I am still a child.”
     “Only when you want candy.  The rest of the time you insist 
you’re an adult.”
     “You, my dear sister, are a wretch.”
     Daniska got up, setting her iPad down on the chair.  But as 
she walked over to where there were wrapped presents and a small 
sack of candy from Saint Nicholi to give to the eager children, she 
reached into a pocket of her long skirt and palmed a Snickers bar 
into her sister’s hand -- her favorite.
     “Ooh, it’s the right size and color and everything!” Anaulka 
leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.  “Merry Christmas, Dani,” 
she said, happily smelling the chocolate and the faint odor of peanuts 
through the wrapper.  
     And then the generator stalled and the lights all went out.
     “Merry Christmas, Ani,” Daniska sighed and joined the teenagers 
in lighting the candles in the parlor, the library, the great room 
and the kitchen.  The king added two new logs to the fireplace in 
the parlor and someone found a bag of chestnuts for the children 
to roast.
     When she could relax, Daniska sat down next to her sister and 
they gazed out the front windows, watching the new snow coming down 
and burying their little village.
     It was Christmas in Eisbergen...

From Book One of the Lost Kingdom Chronicles
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon -- All Rights Reserved


This is the first outing of my Lost Kingdom princesses story.
PLEASE send me feedback.

And Merry Christmas!

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Well, with grades done, I sat down late tonight to do something I have been meaning to do for a while. Make a stab at locating the breaks between the three books in my YA trilogy project.

It actually went far better than I expected. The divisions may actually even stay there, though nothing is carved in stone. And there's still the one big trilogy file, so I can work across the stories all at once.

Anyway, I've set the goals for each volume at 80,000 words, so I also reset the big trilogy counter from 200,000 words to 240,000 words.

And I am STILL having fun.

The new, new shiny counters:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.06


Book 1


Book 2


Book 3


The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03


*** Note: the numbers for Books 1-3 don’t add up, because there is text which is in a section which hasn’t been assigned to a Book and Chapter yet.

I had been lamenting that I didn't really have many words for Book 3 -- and it turns out to be an almost identical count for Book 4. Also Books 1 and 2 are close in size so far. I am nothing, if not consistent.

And yes, you'll be getting a tiny taste of my princesses for Christmas, when I publish my annual Christmas story on my LJ/DW blogs. (grin)

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Finals Monday and Tuesday. Three doctors appointments Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. A cold? Flu? Some other kind of infection dammit? Sure. A ton of grading papers -- absolutely.

Always some last minute excitements with late papers... and grading. Have (most of the) Topic 1 papers and Topic 2 worksheets and the Final Exam graded for PHYS-1070. After several days of being a no-show, my grader for the PHYS-1150 Final Exam finally showed up and hopefully there will be no surprise on Monday. Grades are due Tuesday at noon... Question from student: Is there a way to use the grade fix we do to one of the hour exams on the paper? Uh, no. The paper that was assigned in early September and then due in November? The one that's worth the same as an exam? The one you didn't turn in? The "Bad Test Day Rule" is designed to make up for, well, a "bad test day". It does not give you free points for a hard zero, in any event. Never mess around with a professor's pet project and my science literacy book report has been molded and worked on for nearly 23 years.

But while giving exams and makeup exams and grading, I managed to put some more words into the YA trilogy. New research topics include the history of candles and electric lights on Christmas trees. Märklin wind-up toy trains in early 1900s. Modern model train sizes: O-scale (1:48), HO-scale (1:87.1), N-scale (1:160), Z-scale (1:220), I knew about. Even smaller are ZZ-scale (1:300) and T-scale (1:450)! The latter has the Code 40 rails only 3mm apart and uses steel rails and magnets to keep the equipment on the track. Fjordling or Fjord horses. "I Am The Sword" Motörhead, 1993. Genghis Khan versus Conan The Barbarian and Khan! Lesbian and gay bars in Copenhagen -- Vela and Masken. Mikkeller Crunchy Frog and Grape Fruit Dead beers. And given my researches on Der Google, was it any surprise that Facebook pops up with an ad for $750 Gucci holiday pumps -- in three heel sizes. (grin) Thank goodness this series isn't about serial killers. (double-plus-grin)

The shiny counters are up to:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.05


The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03


Dr. Phil

The 400 Club

Saturday, 29 November 2014 00:50
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Just finished taking last weekend's writing in Version 1.05A -- I had forgotten my Swiss Army Memory at the office, so had to start a temporary writing file -- and stuffing them into Version 1.05 (and also The Fourth Novel 1.03). There's some temporary text in the beginning of Version 1.05 which has to be placed into the correct chapters as well, but those word counts are included in the total.

You can ask why I'm writing just under 5000 words for the fourth novel, when I still haven't defined the first three, nor sold them. Easy answer -- can't control where the ideas want to go. At least it's not like sometimes where I am trying to write one story and several more story ideas crop up. When writing for WOTF entries, I often change my mind three, four, five times as to which story gets finished.

Page numbers aren't as useful as word counts, but they are interesting. Different versions of Microsoft Word do microspacing in fonts differently, resulting in a different page count between Word 95/97/2003/2010 -- same with printer drivers. Annoying, but true. Even if you try to set up the same way, by turning Widows and Orphans off, for example. So if I write at home and then write at work -- remember I am not a full time professor, so spending most of the day at the office for teaching and Office Hours, means that some of those hours are mine if students don't come by -- the page count varies a few pages.

Also, page count and total word count, not story word count, can vary and are much higher because of notes and, for each version number, a certain amount of Research notes and photos which are not carried over from version to version. And remember, I am writing in Book Antiqua 12, single-spaced with a blank between paragraphs, 1¼" margins, left justified, ragged right margin. By no stretch of the imagination does this represent a real page count in Standard Manuscript Format -- Courier New 12, double-spaced, no padding between paragraphs, 1" margins all around.

However, I have exceeded 400 pages in the Version 1.05 file -- another milestone. Eventually, I'll carve the big file into the three YA novels -- Book I, Book II and Book III. But as Aragorn says, "This is not that day."

Researches in the last week include: The Wabanaki Confederacy. The Norns, three fates in Scandinavian lore. The hardingfele fiddle, with sympathetic strings underneath the main strings -- think the theme for Rohan. Rules for a bris. Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan. Forzieri and Gianna Meliani Italian shoes. The LOTR chess sets. Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The Oslo, Trondheim and Bodø sentralstasjon. Passover Seder. Bitcoins to Danish krone. Wedding banns in the Roman Catholic church.

The shiny counters -- there's two now -- stand at:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.05


That's a rough November total of a palindromic 53,035 words. But not a NaNoWriMo win, because I'm not writing it for NaNoWriMo.

The Lost Kingdom Fourth Novel Version 1.03


Dr. Phil

The Rubicon

Friday, 21 November 2014 11:31
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
As in the crossing of...

For long stories and novels, I don't necessarily write in a linear fashion. In fact, I write in bits and pieces of framework, key lines and setups. Skipping through space and time. Later writing sessions and editing will bring that into coherent, readable story -- we hope! With so many balls juggled in the air at once, I tend to work here and there, and flit around. Of course, that sometimes changes things -- one big chapter is now going to take place one year after originally written. Why? Because otherwise you end up with discrete chapters where Thing is introduced, complicated, and dealt with, all at once. A decent story needs room to breathe, time for things to stew, allow the reader to forget about X, so you can hit them over the head when X (and Y and Q) introduced earlier suddenly blows up and becomes relevant.

Later I'll take big passes through the story, working out continuity and refining the characters. Big problem now is resolving the conflict between making my little forgotten kingdom desperate and downtrodden, yet also steeped in an Old Law of fifteen centuries of sometimes violent tradition -- all without making my princesses either insipid or bullies. You want to feel for them, occasionally want to hit them over the head and yell at them (but of course you can't), but you don't want to be turned off by them.

My princesses can't be pathetic. Even though times are hard, I want the reader to buy into them, maybe even, despite the problems, wish that they had this sort of life outside of our modern busy world. (grin)

Anyway, that's the goal.

And I think I've crossed that Rubicon. There is a novel now -- or novels -- such that if you were to read the incomplete story right now you'd have a sense of what is going on. A beginning. A middle. An end. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Whether my approach and my story works, that's another thing. At this level, I continue in my attempt to write what I call photorealistic prose. This is how the real world works, these are real things and places, to the point where you cannot distinguish between real and made-up.

Research topics include the top restaurants in Copenhagen (Noma's), high end fashion houses in same (Birger Christensen is good enough for Queen Margrete and has a royal appointment logo in its window), best shoe shop (Kassandra) -- I knew watching all those years of Top Chef and Project Runway was going to pay off someday -- it's RESEARCH! -- Swedish champagne (HATT et SÖNER Prestige 2005 Le Grand-Père, about $95 a bottle in the US), the Bang & Olufson Beosystem 5000 sound system, bread and grain production in Norway, plus the effects of global warming on decreasing the wheat quality, Norwegian government elimination of marginal farms, Bodø north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, the Nordland Line to Bodø is the northern end of Norwegian State Railways (only non-electric line), Anna Ancher (Danish painter, 1859-1935), Danish DKK 1000 or 1000 kr. banknotes (2011), The Strand Hotel (NYC), Seat 12A (Southwest Airlines 737-700 in 143 seat configuration -- longest legroom -- my protag is 6'5", her sister is 6'2"), the history of the Little Black Dress, including Audrey Hepburn's iconic Givenchy LBD from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Agora Gallery in SoHo (NYC) and of course, the last elevator to the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building (1:15am).

So... I've crossed the mythical 50% boundary in my estimated 200,000 words for the YA trilogy, subject to change, your mileage may vary. This leaves the shiny counter as:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.05


For those of you doing NaNoWriMo, which I am not, on 1 November I had reached 58,054 words, so two-thirds of the way through the month, I have added 43,214 to the trilogy, mostly to what will become the first and second books -- the written material for the third is still pretty thin. This doesn't bother me. Also, note that I said "added", not "written", because several thousands of these words would have been written in Novels A, B and C in September and October, and re-purposed in Novel D. In other words, while holding down a day job, I have managed to keep pace or better with the writing goals for NaNoWriMo -- which is why the activity can be such a good trial for writers.

So why am I not calling this a NaNoWriMo? Because I was already in progress on it and usually November is a dead writing month for me, as the Fall Semester heats up. This year? Somehow, even with winter storms, have managed to keep plugging ahead. At any rate, my writing has nothing to do with some mythical writing challenge. I would be doing this even if NaNoWriMo didn't exist. So there.

Dr. Phil

Fun²

Thursday, 13 November 2014 15:54
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
There are some worrisome chapters that have only titles -- oh, yes, we all have those -- plus still mining the A, B and C novels for this Novel D. (grin) This is really getting somewhere. I just have to make sure that the story is coherent and that the characters are complex, yet compelling.

Research topics include activation time for flu vaccines, longevity of a pneumonia vaccination, lightweight plastic bodied variants of the Russian AKM-74 rifle, the Canon EOS 1D X professional DSLR and the 50mm f2.5 Macro -- after all, I know Nikons, not Canons -- transgender people, necklace length (in inches), as in how do lengths from 16" to 60" drape. (Imagine a set of nested diamond necklaces kind of 1920s flapper style...)

Ooh, the shiny counter today almost represents a palindromic word count!

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.04


Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Ah, the wonderful life of the writer, especially for the ones still working on their first maybe-someday-to-be-published novels... I got a lot accomplished on my as yet unclassified YA novel this weekend. Saturday I enriched several sections and was very pleased, enough to consider that my major project for the weekend.

And then Sunday morning came.

I have previously related how I had started variations on a theme to this story, finally getting a good start with a novel until I realized that this was too much fairy tale and not enough pain, pathos and Things Going Wrong For Our Characters To Have To Deal With. So I started writing Novel B. Still, things were too nice, so I had to toughen them and worked on Novel C. But the main characters came out as impoverished AND nasty, so I beat them down further and have been working on Novel D since then.

What makes a story a fairy tale? I've got princesses and kings and queens and knights and people Who Wish Them Harm. Good. Dragons? Er... well... kindof sortof... So maybe? I have WW I biplanes in the 21st century, does that get me points? Sure. Practically steampunk. I have a Big Tragedy that they are still working past, plus new plagues. Excellent. Some of the classic fairy tales, perhaps minus any Disneyfication, including things like Cinderella and Snow White and... these are tales of dreams and hopelessness. (EVIL-grin) Well, we're good with that. Indeed, there's a certain dystopian aspect which is what all the cool kids are reading anyway. Well, I like it.

But Sunday morning, before I even came out to breakfast, I knew what the novel really needed. Where it needed to begin. A lot of the time with a short story one has to cut out the prologue and "your story really starts on page 7". You have a bit more leeway and room in a novel, but the principle still applies.

For me, the new beginning is exactly what I need to make the first chapter, now the second, work.

And... I find myself violating The Rules.

If you've been writing for a while and if you've read writer tips and help pages and maybe taken a workshop, you've run into The Rules. And everyone violates them at one time or another. You know what I mean: Don't write in first person. Don't start with the character waking up -- or its corollary -- don't end the story with But It Was All A Dream. Show, don't tell. All manner of things.

And The Rules are there for a reason. Sure, there are great first person novels -- To Kill a Mockingbird, for example. But just because a great writer can pull it off, doesn't mean that you can or should. There are reasons why most novels are written in the third person. Don't piss off the editor who is reading your work, because they have to get past Page 1 and past Page 10 and past Page 100...

So help me, the new first chapter is the dream.

And for me, it works wonders, because the reader isn't going to be reading Novel A, Novel B and Novel C, with an interruption saying, But Wait, we're not being mean enough, so let's reset. The dream followed by the reality makes the point. It shows what our protagonist has lost or never even had. And why they keep fighting to keep at least what they've got.

And that's the reason for the story.

All told, by the end of Sunday night I had cracked 80,000 words, essentially unlocking the first goal level, as I am trying for 70-80,000 words or so per YA novel in the trilogy. Of course, this word count is for all three and it's not a complete story yet, but still. 80,000 words is an accomplishment.

Alas, this morning I got brutal and excised the remaining sections of text I'd marked in blue, because they were not appropriate fare for a YA novel. While I might take satisfaction at having written a banned book, trying to get one published which can't even be published isn't going to work. (evil-grin)

So I cut 1581 words and now the shiny counter stands at:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.03


But I am having a blast.

Dr. Phil

More Fun

Tuesday, 4 November 2014 16:25
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Recent research topics on the super secret YA novel Not A NANOWRIMO project:

2011 GMC Suburban or Yukon XL. Gallons in the fuel tank. Floor plans for a 31W Airstream trailer. Choosing an arm or a leg. The Scandinavian Cross. Copenhagen Central Station. $20 worth of junk food. Flasks of Courvosier VS. Bottles of Grolsch beer with that flip over cap. Fake drivers licenses. State of Maine liquor laws.

We've passed the 60,000 word marker. Also have a few thousand words in the fourth novel written, mostly so I won't forget, not included here...

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy Version 1.03


Dr. Phil

Too Much Fun

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 16:08
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
Two weeks ago I mentioned my super-secret novel project. Still roaring on during odd moments.

Research has included oddities such as Maserati luxury sedans, the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II, the Browning 1906 .25 ACP pistol, How To Kill A Bear With A 9mm Luger (Thanks, Jim Wright!), Scandinavian flags, five star hotels near the Vatican, the coast of Maine, the coast of Norway, Copenhagen, Catholic girls schools in Denmark, European seagulls and European lobsters, Nazis occupying Norway, real Danish pastry shops in Boston, Northwestern's academic calendars for 2017-18, and the WW I era Nieuport 17 biplane.

So the original shiny word counter becomes:

The Lost Kingdom Project D Novel


However...

It is clear to me that this is going to turn in the direction of a YA novel, and there's no point to writing a REALLY LONG YA novel, when you can write The Canonical Trilogy -- and the story is nicely dividing up. So... a SF novel is about 100,000 words plus, fantasy these days may be longer. YA novels start more like 60,000 words, so 3 × 60,000 words = 180,000 words, so let's reset the shiny counter to 200,000 words for the trilogy:

The Lost Kingdom Project YA Trilogy


Yeah, yeah, I know. Write the first novel, get the publisher interested and THEN have them pay you to write the rest. But in this case, I need to know where things are going, so I might as well write the whole bloody thing and divide it up.

I had someone read a first draft of part of a chapter, in order to answer a research question, and they thought it was enjoyable. So I'm not totally off track. Meanwhile the world winds up for the next installment on the big screen of The Hunger Games. Perhaps someday they'll be beating down the door for the movie rights of The Lost Kingdom Project (Not Its Real Name)... I dunno, I'll settle for a big chunk of The Next Big YA Novel Buy. (grin) Guess this may be fantasy after all. (bigger-grin)

More anon.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-1)
So back on 9 September, just over a month ago, I started in on a novel. It's a story I've worked on before, including the last year, but I changed things.

But after I'd written some 6000 words, I realized that this was the "nice" version of the story. I needed to be meaner to my characters if this was going to work. Because otherwise, it was just... schlock.

So I set the A novel aside and started the B novel on the 12th. After about 15,000 words, I decided that I was putting back in too many "nice" features. That things weren't hard enough. Also the characters needed to be edgier.

So I set the B novel aside and started the C novel on the 24th. After about... oh yeah, you can see this coming... after about 3000 words, I felt that while the characters were edgier -- and to some extent fun -- they were TOO cocky. These people needed to have suffered. And still living with it. No fairy tale endings. No Prince in shining armor or worsted wool.

So... since I hadn't gotten too far, I set the C novel aside and started the D novel on 27 September 2014. I think maybe I've got the mix right. Still haven't decided if this is YA or not. Technically it is neither SF or Fantasy -- call it alternative history -- and quite unlike anything I've ever written before, yet parallel to some of the stuff in my 29th century SF. Go figure.

I'm just about one-third of the way to my initial target length, so I might as well pull out the word meters and officially put this super-secret novel project on notice to the world.

The Lost Kingdom Project D Novel


Whether this thing will ever see the light of day, who knows? But I am having fun with it, from figuring out the business class seating of an Airbus A330-300 (and I loathe Airbus -- grin) to discovering that of all the Scandinavian countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland -- the only one on the euro is Finland. The rest use the kroner, only it's not the same kroner, and at least one of them is pegged to the euro and one of them has ditched the less-than-one krona coins, much like Finland ditched the 1- and 2-eurocent coins, except for collectors, so all prices are to the nearest €0.05. We knew that last fact, because we were in Helsinki and Tampere in 2003... Also had to research which countries in Europe had left-side-drive/right-side-steering at one time.

Anyway, I will probably make reference to this in the future. And I thought I'd get this out there before November dawns and all those 50,000 word NaNoWriMo novel counters start showing up.

For those who care about technical details, given the current mix of computers, I am NOT writing this novel in Word 95 like almost all my other writing, but in Word 97 / 2003 / 2010, because they allow one to use the mouse wheel for scrolling around. Word 97 has almost the same icon toolbars as Word 95. Word 2003... I have to beat it around some. And Word 2010? Gah... ribbons. What a waste of screen real estate and unnecessary having to farble around between tabs. On the other hand, Wendy's old laptop that I call ZEPPELIN has a big screen, which makes for easier editing, so Word 2010 it is.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: Dr Phil Confusion 2013 (dr-phil-confusion-2013)
WisCon 38, May 23-26, 2014 / SFRA Conference, May 22-24, 2014.
Madison Concourse Hotel, Madison WI.
Memorial Day weekend.

I'll be attending my third WisCon this year, after a nine year absence. WisCon is the world's first feminist science fiction con and features panels and discussions you just don't always see.

I am on three panels and a reading:
Saturday 24 May 2014
8:30-9:30
SPONTANEOUS WRITING CONTEST


4. The 1st 8 people on the list who are physically present at the WisCon (not the hotel's) registration desk (2nd floor of the Concourse Hotel) at 8:30 AM on Saturday morning (for example, #s 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, and 12) will be the contestants.

5. Each contestant will get a USB flash drive which contains a single RTF (rich-text format) document. That document will contain a few lines of dialog. Your task is to load the document onto your computer, construct a story that incorporates the supplied dialog, save it back to the flash drive, also as an RTF document, and turn it in within 60 minutes. We'll take care of printing them out.

Food, Glorious Food
1:00-2:15 pm Caucus

Catherine Krahe(M), Matt Austern, Penny Hill, Philip Edward Kaldon, Rich McAllister
In our lived lives food of our cultural background, or our ancestors, plays a significant part of our sense of home and cultural identity. Who are the writers who integrate details of food with an eye toward cultural specificity and diversity in their speculative fiction? What is the significance of food in stories? What is its function? How does this inclusion affect the world/setting of the story?

Sunday 25 May 2014
The Corporation as Character in Science Fiction
8:30-9:45 am Senate A

Marguerite Reed (M), Alex Gurevich, Chip Hitchcock, Philip Edward Kaldon, Catherine Lundoff
Science fiction, particularly in films, is full of corporations with evil or morally ambiguous intent: Yoyodyne, Terrell Corp, Umbrella Corp, the list is nearly endless. They may be represented by a single villainous character or by numerous faceless functionaries, but what the viewer remembers / is presented with is the corporation itself as the villain. Is that enough to make the corporation an entity, a "person," in their own right? Are corporations inherently evil? Or simply amoral? How has the depiction of the corporation changed in SF? Is it different in anime or manga, comics, written SF vs media SF? Where do we see that image of the corporation going in the near future?

Fashions of the Future
2:30–3:45 pm Conference 5

Jenny Sessions (M), Lucy Adlington, Philip Edward Kaldon, Rebecca Maines, Heather McDougal
Would there be humans in space without zippers and Velcro? Captain Picard wore a spandex corset under his Enterprise uniform because Gene Roddenberry decreed there should be no unseemly bulges in space. How do sci-fi clothes reflect contemporary fashions and social prejudices? Shiny jumpsuits, micro-mini dresses, tribal robes and spacesuits… let's explore how gender/race/status/exoticism are shown through the clothes and uniforms of sci-fi past and present, from 19th century images of "deep-sea diver" spacewear to NASA-inspired outfits, plus more fantastical sci-fantasy creations. Are we seeing inventive or derivative clothes in sci-fi films/TV shows? Is there still a routine overt sexualisation of female spacewear? How might emerging textile technologies affect future human space travel and off-Earth colonisation?

Monday 26 May 2014
Twists and Turns (Readings)
10:00-11:15 am Conference 2

Carrie L. Ferguson, Philip Edward Kaldon, Lucas James Pralle, Zora M. Quynh
Four authors of diverse genres. Life, death, after death, multiverse, getting a date on a starship and the stories we tell children. The only common theme? Some of the stories have protagonists named Lily. Come for the melange, stay for the stories.
The full schedule is here.

Dr. Phil

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