Category: science fiction

Catching up.

Sorry for the delay.  Wife and family in Houston for her 3-mo post cancer checkup.  Bloodwork:  clear!  CT scan:  clear!  PET scan:  er, let’s talk.  No, not bad, per se, just radioisotope uptake around her left eye.  Back in November, that tiny little mass that turned out to be lymphoma was taken off her nose.  The upper, left side of her nose.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in Machine Civilization, there’s no such thing as coincidences.

Well, they want her back in a another three months to repeat the test.  Worrying is pointless, so I hope they’ve a safe drive back, so we can all have a good summer filled with drinking, writing, and lots of sex.  In the meantime, speaking of getting backed up, Episode 17 is going to have be broken into at least two parts.  There are a slew of new people to be introduced and I think at least one flashback.

One good thing about the delay is that I was able to do some picture and video research of the Kongo/Arleigh Burke destroyer class.  I’m a bit more comfortable writing the meet-and-greet for the Portland civilians in the installment after this one.  It will be too late before I have the ship sail away, but I even ordered a model kit of DDG-173 off EBay.  Research!

Continue reading “Catching up.” →

By that much!

Looks like I’m getting rid of Kongo after the episode after this.  Even if they leave at night, there’s no way to hide the fact once they’re gone.  And I’m sure that trans-Columbia cannibal army has sympathizers in Portland; cannibalism – like vampirism – is socially akin to Progressivism:  they all end in mass death.

It’s rather fun to write about characters in a bar while I’m sitting here drinking.  ‘Brings it home,’ as it were.  Teresa was a surprise!  Looks like there’s a lot going on with that young woman!  A little ominous about her father, though.  Wonder where that world’s going?

Please pour yourselves a drink and read on!

Continue reading “By that much!” →

Turning it up…

…to 11.  I ran across the NSFW drawing below the fold.  For some reason, I knew there was a story there, but I couldn’t see any of.  A couple of nights ago, I texted a friend about it.  He suggest ‘android vampire.’

Hmmm.

I already have those, in story form, if our webcomic of “Poisoned Hearts” ever comes out.  So . . . what else?  Hmmm.  Of course!  Make it even more horrible!

This was an interesting exercise for me:  I really don’t do horror (well, I guess I do now) so even these 1400 words took a couple of days to get right.  In fact, I sat on it for an extra 12 hours, unsure about a few things.  Just a few minutes ago, I added two, short, lines.  Better.

I’ve the start of the next Ep of “Defiant,” and hope to have that out late tomorrow.  Cheerio!

Continue reading “Turning it up…” →

“Dear Diary… die in a fire”

By the grace of God, I noticed the trap that I was slipping into:  by having no fixed plot, only characters, I was very close into having this become little more than a daily diary of Nichole’s life.

A diary is not a story.

The diary elements wrap up today.  I’m not saying there won’t be more:  this is an ongoing, free webnovel, so there will be more diary-like elements.  But now, I think, after this installment, it’s time to play.  Yeah! Continue reading ““Dear Diary… die in a fire”” →

“Kah, kah!”

The title quotes my character Fausta quoting Shinobu Oshino.  It’s just an odd laugh.  It’s the odd laugh I just had as I was making myself older about quantum computing, a subject I understand as well as I do women.  The laugh came when I got to the end of the wiki and hit this line:

“It has been speculated that theories of quantum gravity, such as M-theory or loop quantum gravity, may allow even faster computers to be built. Currently, defining computation in such theories is an open problem due to the problem of time, i.e., there currently exists no obvious way to describe what it means for an observer to submit input to a computer and later receive output.[89]”

So, to my feeble mind, the “problem of time” is that between observer-computer-observer.  How to get all those Schrodinger’s cat scratches off of your face, essentially.  I laughed when I realized I’d solved the problem – from a story standpoint – prior to even knowing a problem was there.  And if that’s not quantum computing, I don’t know what is.

Oh, the solution?  Make the observer and the computer the same.

Episode 13 seen; will post tomorrow!  Cheerio!

 

 

Pause; and begin again.

At dinner last night, I looked over at the laptop my wife had gotten for me to ‘write anywhere!’  And no, I didn’t write at dinner with my family.  I do have some manners.

Back to the story:  as I looked at it, it occurred to me that I could take it to bed, and write there.  Wow!  Beloved wife playing Candycrush to my left, dogs at my feet, huge glass of wine at my right, computer in my lap… and off I went!

“Should I post this?  It’s awesome!”  My wife didn’t look up.  “You always say, ‘write drunk; edit sober.’  You really want to post that?”  Errr….guess not.

So now, I’ve edited about half of what I wrote, but there was a good break-point, so I wanted to push it out for everyone.  There are times I think that if I let the reins of this story go for just a minute, I’ll end up in places I literally cannot imagine.

Continue reading “Pause; and begin again.” →

Dramatis Personae

I’ve “seen” the next episode – and even a little beyond it.  But I was also encountering… friction.  This story is unfolding so fast that I’m starting to lose track of everyone in my head.  So, it was time to start a ‘cast of characters’ page where I keep notes about appearances, behaviors, relations . . . really, anything that I might forget about a character.

As there are semi-spoilers in my notes to myself, I’m not posting it.  Yet.  Maybe around Ep 15 or 20 I’ll create a cleaned-up version suitable for public consumption.  As it is, “Defiant” has twenty three people wandering about it!  Once I know what few outfits Nichole brought with her to wear, then I’ll post Ep 11.  This is supposed to be a university!  Everyone finally heads off to class (more characters!  Ack!) and we finally get a good dose of Portland ‘liquid sunshine.’

Thanks for all that are following along.  If you’ve any questions or comments, please let me know; I enjoy feedback!