“Nice weather so far.”
“The bad weather’s the other side of the ocean. Besides, it’s too hot.”
“Hot is nice,” Fisian said, scanning the area with an HD.
Honorr uprighted the bigger instrument, hit the top pad, and watched as it set itself up, extending three legs and lifting the big box smoothly while maintaining its balance, then extending a whole range of antennae.
“Red lines everywhere,” he reported.
“Let me see,” Val said, poking her head in front of him. “That’s even worse than it felt. We’re getting more.”
“What is that?” a smooth, deep voice said and all three looked up as one of the Haitians strode down from around a hill saddle. “I’ve seen plenty of seismic snesors but nothing like that.”
“It isn’t a seismic sensor,” Valorie explained with a grin at the young, stately man, slightly overdressed for the uncomfortable heat. “It finds universal interstitial anomolies and teporal displacements. How many aftershocks have there been?”
“Sixty thrree. It’s tapering off.”
“Tapering or shifting location,” Fisian asked, her electric blue eyes directing the question at Honorr instead of the local.
“Both,” Honorr said after studying the rig’s displays.
“The energy shifted to the Eurpean stormfront - some of it anyway,” Valorie said, correcting herself thoush she didn’t know why.
Fisian studied the Walker a moment and nodded. “A split would be reasonable. Honorr, aim that thing west.”
Honrr turned the dial in the center and quickly pulled his hand back as the bristling antannae swung, reaching for him, he was certain. He was sure the big rig didnt like operating for anyone but Fisian, but the TADPOLE’s pilot prefered to walk around with the HandHeld sensor.
“Energy radiates outward in all directions from a quake,” the Earther said, not quite laughing at the answers and behavior of the threesome “And it doesn’t change the weather. This is the tropics. The weather is a force of its own.”
Without looking up from her HD, Fisian explained, “Usually, but the weather no less than the rest of the world will feel the impact of these quakes.”
Val sidled toward their visitor, smiling broadly. “Don’t mind them, stranger. Tell me, what brought you here? This place doesn’t look seismiclly significant to me.”
Dr. Celnlebo introduced himself and Valorie offered introductions without titles to him in turn. He flashed a smile of white teeth at her and said. “I assumed for the same thing that brought you, One of the largest aftershocks was centered near here, very close to the surface.”
“No, just lucky I guess,” Val responded softly, sidling closer as if she needed comfort and running a finger down his arm. “Do we have anything to worry about?”
“No more than anyone on this island.”
Val brushed her leg against his. “It’s so hot here.”
“It’s cooler than it often is in February,” he said, his own tone deepening. “Maybe a little warmer with the sun up.”
“Stop that, Val,” Honorr said coolly. “This isn’t the Unreal.”
“Unreal?”
“A halfway region between here and N-Dimensional space where we can sometimes tap into energies that aren’t usually available for direct use. It often takes the form of illusion and touches dreams.”
“Magic. Witchcraft? Miracles?”
“If you wish to put it into religious terms, i suppose. Mostly it takes the form of living visions that, while not real, have a bearing on reality. A strong link can achieve more.”
“And you have that.”
“I have the right training and a certain natural proclivity.”
“You have a prolivity for other things, too,” Honorr murmurred, barely glancing toward them as Val curled one foot around the scientist’s ankle.
Ceinlebo cleared his throat, “And N-dimensional space?”
“You’ve heard of parallel universes?”
“I know of the concept.”
“N-Dimensional space is where they meet. Normally, it takes vast quantities of energy, like the center of a black hone to cross the interface, but the universes aren’t perfect. Cracks and fissures create weak points where it becomes easier. Still really hard, powerful thrusts are required, but only that of say, a geological event.”
“I was following along with the shamanism, but magically induced earthquakes?”
“You were the one called in magic, not me,” Val said with a pout.
“Fisian! Val!” Honorr shouted.
“Another after shock?” Without waiting for an answer, the seismologist fled back over the hill to check on his own instruments. When he returned fifteen minutes later, there was no sign of the trio, no sign that they had ever been there, nor any tracks to suggest how they might have come and gone.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Shake, Rattle, and Roll
On my other blog, I posted a challenge: write a story to explain the recent spate of earthquakes. I answered my own challenge during my recent travels and will be posting it in a series of posts. Here is the first section:
"What is it, Fisian?" Honorr asked, holding on the console as the whole TADPOLE continued to shake.
"These readings are jibberish. Do you sense anything, Val?"
Valorie hadn't bothere to grab onto anything, merely lifted her feer from the floor in a partial trance. She had already been seeking, knowing what Fisian would ask. she had considered inviting the others to hold onto her, but didn't bother. Fisian was fully occupied at the controls and Honorr could never get past what his eyes told him, would never believe a floating figure more stable than one locked to the shaking deck and bulkheads.
"Earth, of course," Val said. "something in the space-time fault line has shifted," she said, though until she spoke, she had not known the answer. At times, Honorr accused her of making things true with her words, but Valorie left such things to God and the universe. she was merely a reported, using the Unreal to guide her. "Honorr, chek the broadcasts. I'm sure there'll be earthquakes, floods, some disaster and the TAD shock wave won't be much ahead of the EM braodcasts."
Fisian sighed in relief as the sensor displays settled back to normal but shook her head. "What are they playing at this time? Humans are a short-sighted careless lot at the best of times, but I didn't think they were-"
"Their technology is more like a candle to a torch, nowhere near that powerful and they haven't organized the information explosion well enough, yet, for the next leap. Someone else has been playing in their backyard. NDM probably"
"A few Monolith corpses from eons ago is hardly an indicator that they'll return," Honorr chimed in.
"I just said maybe."
"Anyone from this universe would have been noticed," Fisian acknowledged. "You can't just take a hand drill and shift a planet, even one on gaping faultline like the Sol Cascade. It may not be Monoliths, but it's sometthing from the N-Dimensional counter universe poking around."
"As if they needed any help messing up that poor planet," Val grumped.
"What is it, Fisian?" Honorr asked, holding on the console as the whole TADPOLE continued to shake.
"These readings are jibberish. Do you sense anything, Val?"
Valorie hadn't bothere to grab onto anything, merely lifted her feer from the floor in a partial trance. She had already been seeking, knowing what Fisian would ask. she had considered inviting the others to hold onto her, but didn't bother. Fisian was fully occupied at the controls and Honorr could never get past what his eyes told him, would never believe a floating figure more stable than one locked to the shaking deck and bulkheads.
"Earth, of course," Val said. "something in the space-time fault line has shifted," she said, though until she spoke, she had not known the answer. At times, Honorr accused her of making things true with her words, but Valorie left such things to God and the universe. she was merely a reported, using the Unreal to guide her. "Honorr, chek the broadcasts. I'm sure there'll be earthquakes, floods, some disaster and the TAD shock wave won't be much ahead of the EM braodcasts."
Fisian sighed in relief as the sensor displays settled back to normal but shook her head. "What are they playing at this time? Humans are a short-sighted careless lot at the best of times, but I didn't think they were-"
"Their technology is more like a candle to a torch, nowhere near that powerful and they haven't organized the information explosion well enough, yet, for the next leap. Someone else has been playing in their backyard. NDM probably"
"A few Monolith corpses from eons ago is hardly an indicator that they'll return," Honorr chimed in.
"I just said maybe."
"Anyone from this universe would have been noticed," Fisian acknowledged. "You can't just take a hand drill and shift a planet, even one on gaping faultline like the Sol Cascade. It may not be Monoliths, but it's sometthing from the N-Dimensional counter universe poking around."
"As if they needed any help messing up that poor planet," Val grumped.
Friday, March 5, 2010
love scenes and stuff
Whenever I come to the romantic or sexy (or violent) scenes, I always start wondering if the level is right. Today's is pretty tame and it could be a scene in a young adult book. Sometimes I wonder if they aren't too tame for an adult book. Certainly they would make it more racy on television or a movie, these days, but reading doesn't really equate to a visual portrayal and I trust the readers to fill in more blanks in a sex scene than modern movie makers seem to think their audiences are capable of achieving.
More often in this book I have found myself taking stuff out as being too over the top. If I wouldn't say the word aloud, I don't think I should put it in writing either, for starters. It's possible to say a lot without using those words. I've played with some interesting sex scenes using classic metaphors in tidal waves and sweeping storms and the rise and fall of empires, but really, it's usually enough to get the couple started and encounter them later. Adult readers can fill in the blanks happily so long as the scene is friendly.
The violent sex scenes definitely don't need any details and I find myself wondering if I should change them to nonsexual violence rather than even imply the sexual nature of the violence. I do in anything young adult. i don't write young adult dramas about people coping with horror; I like fun adventures. The propensity for sexual violence on the tv shows (never shown, sometimes implied even when it doesn't happen, especially in advertisements for the episode) is plenty and too much as it is. Still, I've included some in Cerel Gold. Candice's past is all about every kind of violence I could think of and it's only a matter of how much to imply, how much to describe, and the tone to take in the description.
In the case of violence and generating either sympathy or horror or other reactions, I think there is a kind of magic required, and what we think will work may have the opposite effect. I think a certain degree of coldness and unsympathy in the writer, being mean to our characters as I've heard it described, will actually get more sympathy from a reader, whereas some of the best horrors are very amusing or sympathetic in tone. I haven't found the magic, but I keep trying.
For now, I've finished a couple of quilt tops and now have much quilting to do but neither that nor blogging will get done for about a week and a half, so no posts meanwhile. Let your imagination play in other worlds but come back in a couple of weeks!
More often in this book I have found myself taking stuff out as being too over the top. If I wouldn't say the word aloud, I don't think I should put it in writing either, for starters. It's possible to say a lot without using those words. I've played with some interesting sex scenes using classic metaphors in tidal waves and sweeping storms and the rise and fall of empires, but really, it's usually enough to get the couple started and encounter them later. Adult readers can fill in the blanks happily so long as the scene is friendly.
The violent sex scenes definitely don't need any details and I find myself wondering if I should change them to nonsexual violence rather than even imply the sexual nature of the violence. I do in anything young adult. i don't write young adult dramas about people coping with horror; I like fun adventures. The propensity for sexual violence on the tv shows (never shown, sometimes implied even when it doesn't happen, especially in advertisements for the episode) is plenty and too much as it is. Still, I've included some in Cerel Gold. Candice's past is all about every kind of violence I could think of and it's only a matter of how much to imply, how much to describe, and the tone to take in the description.
In the case of violence and generating either sympathy or horror or other reactions, I think there is a kind of magic required, and what we think will work may have the opposite effect. I think a certain degree of coldness and unsympathy in the writer, being mean to our characters as I've heard it described, will actually get more sympathy from a reader, whereas some of the best horrors are very amusing or sympathetic in tone. I haven't found the magic, but I keep trying.
For now, I've finished a couple of quilt tops and now have much quilting to do but neither that nor blogging will get done for about a week and a half, so no posts meanwhile. Let your imagination play in other worlds but come back in a couple of weeks!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
tension and dialog
Cerel is obviously heavy in dialog, probably too much so, but for this draft it's a good way to practice dialog and making it interesting. The scene just posted went through a lot of revision, going from a tame dialog to an expression of tense emotions, weariness, arguments, changing perceptions. At least that was what I was aiming for, though it's hard to ever be sure that readers see what I tried to present. I suspect I still need to work on some of the word choices. What words make a sentence sarcastic or angry rather than merely factual? It's not something I've ever found guidance for. Mostly I've done it through side comments and physical actions, although I want to do more of that, too. Anger through shorter sentences is one of the few "rules" I know. Terse, less philosophical content in an argument, but what if the argument is philosophical in nature? And each character has their own speach patterns, though sometimes I'm not sure even I could define them well unless I've exaggerated them. How does the pattern change for accusation, anger, weariness... I've made some stabs at all of them here. Does it work?
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