The Space Opera Working Thread

reply to post by silo13


Can you still pull them? Sorry. Don't feel rushed....I know the feeling, too...sometimes I'm just too tired to compose. It's time when it's time, when the Muse is with you.

I thought they were fine! What happened to Gep?

reply to post by wildtimes

Naw, I'll not pull them - it's good to have them there to remind me how horrid this can be at time - and be able to compare to later - hopefully better posts that offer more.

What happened to Gep is coming up. Actually in a good way those posts are a real protagonist to getting deep next time. I hope tomorrow.

Love what you're doing here!

reply to post by silo13


Thanks, I'm really just winging it...I write it, and post it. No going back and dwelling on it like when I was working on my novel...
Not re-reading every freaking word until it drives me nuts...
just...spilling out what comes to mind.

I'm glad you like it! It's FUN!!
I'm really loving the whole new set of stuff here in Volume 2.
Seems we've tightened up as a team, but since I'm still the rookie, I don't know.

I've noticed everyone's writing morphing from when I first started looking at the older posts before I started actually posting...
never forget, writing is an art....the more you do it, the more you learn and grow.

reply to post by wildtimes


Here is an overhead view with the points labeled. North is "up":



Here is an oblique perspective with the pints labeled. The view is from the northwest towards the southeast:



Hope that helps. Keep in mind that the actual view of the land will have changed - a lot - in 300 odd years. I'm seeing the oblique in my head to look more like this - what it looked like 300 years AGO:

reply to post by nenothtu


Awesome, thank you!!

So, can you render us a map that includes the "Temple" entrance(s) and waterfall?? The town where BIAD et al were that looks like Victorian times?

Here's a picture of Rodney in real life...
isn't he beautiful??

I really miss him. Had to sell him last January, couldn't justify the expense of boarding him at my sister-in-law's house. He's with his buddy Ara Fair (my other baby) in a nearby county now, with a really nice family who have a teenager who wanted a horse. They adopted both, plus my trailer and tack, all for $400 and a cord of wood.

God, my heart aches...watching the embedded video, and remembering all my times with my horses.
I was there at their births; imprinted both, trained them, ....

oh, sorry, I'm starting to cry now....



and here are he and Ara Fair...

reply to post by silo13


I didn't see anything wrong in the posts. I re-read them a couple of times, looking for problems, still couldn't find any.

Interesting details about farm living, stuff that most folks never consider. Gives me the notion that you are or at some time were a farm girl.

Good advice in the video. Good advice like that is all over the place, but you have to hunt it down and piece it together, and the best place to get it is from authors that have already met with some success. I studied creative writing under Bob Gingrich several years ago, and he had all sorts of stuff to impart, mostly about the conflict and tension that makes a story a good yarn, and the search for "home". I wrote a short story for him called "WARPAINT" set during the Sandinista Civil War in Nicaragua in the late 70's. He liked it pretty well, but as is to be expected he offered a critique for it. I took that critique, re-worked the story over several years (probably close to 30 revisions) and put it out on the internet. I couldn't post it at ATS - too "ASLV" for the T+C's - so I posted it in another forum which was like the wild, wild west - anything goes, and most things do.

Gingrich contended that without any conflict, there could be no story, since the story is IN the conflict. It's conflict - and conflict resolution - that brings growth and depth to the characters. It's the conflict that develops[ the character, not the other way around. One of his favorite conflicts and themes was the search for "home" - how it changes over time based on experiences and that sort of thing, and the fact taht once you leave home, you can NEVER go back, generally because reality can't measure up to memory. "Home" is in the mind, not on the ground.

Gets pretty deep.

Originally posted by wildtimes

I'm glad you like it! It's FUN!!
I'm really loving the whole new set of stuff here in Volume 2.
Seems we've tightened up as a team, but since I'm still the rookie, I don't know.

I've noticed everyone's writing morphing from when I first started looking at the older posts before I started actually posting...
never forget, writing is an art....the more you do it, the more you learn and grow.

Yup, we've pulled together. In the beginning, the Space Opera was like the wild west - a bunch of authors, all pursuing different story lines and pulling in different directions. It was quite the exercise to take what the last one had written, and figure out how you could expand upon it and develop it.

Now, it's more like a tag-team, and the story seems to flow a lot better, to my mind any how. Got all the horses in the same harness, and pulling the wagon in the same direction.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by nenothtu

 

Awesome, thank you!!

So, can you render us a map that includes the "Temple" entrance(s) and waterfall?? The town where BIAD et al were that looks like Victorian times?

edit on 4-12-2011 by wildtimes because: (no reason given)

I've got a waterfall in mind - it's a cascade of 3 separate waterfalls, actually, where I used to go and take showers - but it's above ground, and the impression I got was that the town, the temple, the waterfall, and all of that was BELOW ground. The whole area is shot full of caves, so it could be ANYWHERE underground.

Near the house where I grew up, on that same hill, I know about two holes in the ground that go down to caves. They're not big enough to get a human body through, but one of them, I used to sit at the top of it and drop gravel in. You could hear the gravel clacking against the sides of the hole for maybe 15 or 20 seconds on the way down, and end with a "splash" when it hit bottom. That hill is HOLLOW, and the caves run DEEP.

The other one went down for 11 or 12 feet. You could see the cave floor from the hole, but you couldn't get to it.

reply to post by wildtimes


Critters know.

We just placed a little terrier of some kind last night. The dog hated me, and I wasn't very fond of it, either. The people who adopted it drove 4 hours to pick it up. They wanted it as a therapy dog for a little girl with a mild case of Down's Syndrome. I was pretty dubious of placing the dog in that situation, given the history between he and I, and the fact that he pretty much hated my daughter, too. It looked to me like the dog didn't get along with much of anyone.

I figured the little rat would try to eat them up on sight, and didn't think it would go very well at all.

Imagine my surprise. The dog took to them like he'd been with them all his life. Never even offered a growl, just ran straight to 'em, his whole body wagging. He slept with the little girl last night, and hasn't offered the least big of rancor. She's got a friend for life now. Who knew?

Critters know.

reply to post by nenothtu


So, do my two horses I raised from prenatal know that I love them and miss them?
I hope so.

Thanks for your kind words. And for finding the terrier a good home.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by nenothtu

 

So, do my two horses I raised from prenatal know that I love them and miss them?
I hope so.

Thanks for your kind words. And for finding the terrier a good home.

Of course they know - horses are telepathic, just like dogs are, but smarter.

The rehoming of the terrier appears to have been a match made in heaven - everyone wins, not the least of all me. That dog STAYED trampling on my last nerve! I'm happier, he's happier, and the girl has a friend for life. It's a win-win-win!

reply to post by nenothtu

Yep, been 'farming' all my life - between raising Saddlebreds and Thoroughbreds for Sport Horses while running a full working Farm. Here where I am now? It's a modern day 'homesteading' (I don't but anything I eat) in an ancient town, lol. I'll try to add up some more info - but I have a feeling the whole Maggie episode is about to go very...well, I can't tell now can I?
I'd appreciate a link to that story of yours if you're up for it.
Between now and then, next time you make a map? When you stick that stuff on there for Wild would you be so kind as to throw a dart on the map and include the Olis cabin and between all of you and us and them - where a general settlement (No Name City) type town might be? No rush.

It's going to take some twists and turns to get what 'Maggie's' doing into what you all are up to - but I"m looking forward to it!

peace

reply to post by wildtimes

I always hoped we'd find a way to work more horses into the story line!
For now, there's something waiting HERE for you Wild. (And anyone else that wants to take a peak) You might have to scroll down some but I put a bold heading in the post that should be obvious.

Back to the story line and figuring out how to get Silo/Maggie around to where you all are.

peace

reply to post by wildtimes


Don't panic!!!! Adam, BIAD and their new Elfin pet -Gerald are on their
way!
Avalon is just up ahead and just to the left, I hope the Man/Girl can maker
the turn!

reply to post by A boy in a dress


Awesome!! Captain Jack to the rescue!
Love it!!!

Just be aware, when they arrive at Avalon, they will not find Dag...however, they will find Brittle after a while....
Dag can only give Brittle access to the personal chant for himself to be transported by the barge....not for herself as well.
She's going to help Brittle, but she herself won't be in Avalon just yet....
hee hee!! How fun is this???

Way to go, dude!!
(al lado, hablas espanol? podemos tener una lengua secreta!! -- de veras, ahorita recibi una llamada de mi amiga Vero....de un trabajo que nos compartimos unos anos pasados)...I can't find my stupid "spanish characters keyboard shortcuts" cheat sheet....

Originally posted by wildtimes

(al lado, hablas espanol? podemos tener una lengua secreta!! -- de veras, ahorita recibi una llamada de mi amiga Vero....de un trabajo que nos compartimos unos anos pasados)...I can't find my stupid "spanish characters keyboard shortcuts" cheat sheet....

No hablo español. No es un lenguaje secreto de los Estados Unidos nada más, aunque ...

reply to post by silo13


Here's the front cover art:



I'm trying to figure out just where the Olis spread might be. It has to have certain characteristics that aren't present in the are right now. Cactus grow wild, or more likely "feral" there. Prickly pear cactus all over the place, probably escapees from some one's landscaping many, many years ago. Most of the surface area is disturbed by rocks sticking out of the ground - my dad always said that if rocks were a cash crop, we'd all be rich - and those provide a poor surface for anything but moss. lichens, and cactus to grow on, so the prickly pears have found their niche. No scorpions that I ever ran across. Plenty of evil nasties like black widows, some really huge and ugly "jumping" spiders... I don't know what they're called, but the ugly spindly legged things with run right at you and try to jump up and get ya (I've had them take a running go and jump as high as my knees trying to nail me)... copperheads, rattle snakes, that sort of thing, but I never saw a scorpion or an armadillo there.

Now, all things considered, after a nuclear or NBC war, one could expect the wastelands to have been somewhat expanded, and probably new ones formed, and I'm guessing the Olis spread must be somewhere on the edge of one of those new or expanded deserts. I just have to figure out where it IS. There is a town of 2500 or 3500 people in the valley south and west of the ridge neno is on. There is a larger town (what passes for a "city" there) something like 30 miles south of there, and another a like distance north, both of which I would guess have about 15 or 20,000 inhabitants.

The waste lands are probably going to be to the west - what is now Kentucky. That would put the Olis spread 50 or 60 miles westward, on what is now called "the Cumberland Plateau", somewhere in the eastern half of what is now Kentucky. Would that work?

Speaking of rock sticking out of the ground, there is a giant maze-like complex of rocks on the next ridge south. Looking across the top of it, it looks like one big rock with bushes sticking up out of the cracks, but the cracks go around 20 feet down, and are narrow. It's right on the top of Brumley mountain, right next to an abandoned fire tower. A friend of mine who is no deceased and I used to go up to the maze (we called it "Hai-Toe-Pah" don't ask why, 'cause I can't answer) and practice ambushing one another in the maze.

You can see it here in Google Earth: 36°52'14.51" N 81°58'42.88" W

Panoramio has some photos of it inside and out linked through Google Earth. In the satellite picture, it's the complex of big squarish rocks there.

I tried to upload the panoramic picture from Big Rock to Panoramio, but so far they're not liking it for inclusion in Google Earth.

reply to post by nenothtu

The waste lands are probably going to be to the west - what is now Kentucky. That would put the Olis spread 50 or 60 miles westward, on what is now called "the Cumberland Plateau", somewhere in the eastern half of what is now Kentucky. Would that work?

The smaller town would work great - and the farm? Plunk it down wherever you think best as long as there's enough scrub and grass to keep that cow and horse going and grow a bit a corn.

The picture is painful in a brilliant way.

reply to post by silo13


We can actually plop a town in there just about anywhere - it's 300 years into the future, the face of North America has been changed by war. I'll find some place that would be on the edge of the wastelands, with a river or stream conjunction, and plop a "gateway" town on the spot, something that would have grown up from a trading-post sort of situation.

There are 3 ways (on the surface, not counting the "underground railroad") to get from where neno and the rest are to where Silo is. The Cumberland Gap is way to the south. probably 40 miles or so, the "Breaks", where Russell Fork breaks through Pine Mountain is somewhat closer (and pretty spectacular, as eastern US canyons go) is on the other end of Pine Mountain from the Cumberland Gap, and then just a little way north of that is Big Sandy Creek. I'll just figure on one of those locations and plop a town in. Those passes, especially the northern ones, have figured into every war fought in the American East, from the Indian Wars and the Revolution right on through the Civil War.

What do you plan to name the town?

RE: the picture - is that Gilligan Hat stylish or what?