Rhobin Lee Courtright's Blog, page 5

Starting the First Novel

I have always read fiction, visiting the local library frequently when young, and then buying romance novels at my job at age 15 in a drugstore in my hometown. The store had a soda bar where employees could pretty much help themselves, and a book rack I loved to explore. I discovered the library didn't have some of the books sold on those racks. After about two weeks of ice cream, malts, and sodas,  I no longer liked ice cream, but the book rack always drew me.

Have you ever noticed how some genre stories are told and retold endlessly? I've read where there are only seven plot lines. This I think, is debatable because so much else comes into play in a story, but still, I think every reader has come across remarkably similar stories.

That started happening to me when I lived in Colorado Springs for a year. My husband got a job offer in St. Louis, but the kids were in the Colorado Springs school system, and we had a lease on a house. I remained in Colorado. I couldn’t find a book whose plot wasn’t a rehash of something I'd already read. Some publishers seem to specialize in this effort, even the titles being somewhat repetitious such as the Millionaire's Bride or whatever (now the billionaire's). To fill my time I started writing my own romance story. I worked on it every night after the kids were in bed. Finally the next summer we moved to the St. Louis area.

The novel I was working on stalled as I found a full-time job. I remember the characters, Gina and Wade, and the start of the plot line, but have long since lost the actual story. Looking back, I know this was a ‘hidden’ baby book plot, i.e. mom has baby father doesn’t know about for this or that reason. That was okay as I had started another story, this time in another genre I loved, scifi and fantasy. Actually, I’ve since decided all fiction is fantasy. I’ve said this before. It’s all about how dressed up in reality the story is.

At that time I mostly wrote for my own entertainment. Finally, I finished one and sent the manuscript to a publisher with great expectation. I never realized until I got my first rejection how awful it was. Not the plot, but the actual writing, until I reread what I had sent in. Certainly it was a reality check. The characters lacked dimension, and needless wordiness invaded the paragraphs. Suddenly I became aware of the importance of editing.

I refreshed my grammar skills (admittedly spelling is still a problem—probably a genetic thing) and read several books on writing. Then I rewrote that rejected book which soon became three stories. I'm not saying the original writing was horrible, awful, terrible as I had a very good high school that emphasized English, and I wrote many papers in college that earned good grades. Fiction, however, is different. In some ways it takes more thinking as the writer’s goal is to grab and hold the reader's imagination. Even in basically unbelievable scenarios (some real life situations share this characteristic), the writer needs to fulfill the reader's need to believe these scenarios are possible and real. Writers do that by allowing the reader to share the characters' emotions and reactions.

Writing a novel is a long and difficult project. Which is why everyone thinks they want to write a book, but few complete one. Even then, once the actual story is complete, the herculean task of finding a publisher looms.

Please visit the blogs listed below to see more opinions on writing that first novel and how it was accomplished.

Skye Taylor
Margaret Fieland
Heather Haven
Dr. Bob Rich
Connie Vines
Victoria Chatham
Helena Fairfax
Beverley Bateman
Marci Baun 
Judith Copek
Rachael Kosinski 
Diane Bator
A.J. Maguire 
 

Color of the Day Jan 1

For Christmas I received a calendar with each day covered in a different Pantone color. If you are unfamiliar with Pantone, they have broken every color, shade, intensity down into a code of the colors in making it, cyan, magenta, yellow, and key or black into originally printing colors, but now matching colors and fashion colors. So yesterday, January 1, the calendar color looked like this:


The color will change from machine to device showing it, but it is a intense red more on the orange side of the spectrum. However, at first I wondered about the calendar maker choosing this particular color. Then it came to me. If I had been out drinking New Year's Eve, I might well have woke up seeing this color or having others seeing it in my bloodshot eyes. 

Curious, I looked the color up at Pantone: C0 M87 Y62 K0. I wanted to change it to a RBG color model for this post. It didn't exist on the Pantone page, but I noticed Pantone has a color of the year. The color for 2017 it is 'greenery.'  Today, January 2, on my calendar is an olive green and it's code colors don't match anything on the Pantone chart either. However, the color does somehow seem appropriate for a Monday after the first day of the year.

Getting back to yesterday's red swatch. While I did have two glasses of champagne, one with our lobster dinner and one later, I found the day's color had a lined note area on the back and suddenly it was the exact color I was feeling but not in the hung-over state of the color.

It was exactly how I felt: angry, fearful, upset, and worried—with the state of the world, with last year's lengthy and ugly election buildup and the results, with the failure of the majority of the human population to grasp how we are destroying the Earth, our only home, and most of it due to over population and greed, which is seldom mentioned in any media we listen to or read, with the number of people living in abject poverty, and with the human propensity to be cruel to animals. And yes, while I enjoyed the lobster, I also felt guilty over it.

Journaling or Preserving Time

Here it is the last week of 2016. Certainly most everyone remembers the big events of this now passing year: the wonderful get-togethers, parties, and the personal achievements, the election campaign. Many have sent images and messages to Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, or other social sites about those. Then there are the terrible and horrible moments. They will haunt the mind at odd moments in the future but somehow with a different impact. Daily-do-it-again moments will get lost in the sheer repetitiousness of daily living and will often be forgotten, along with the things of importance that take place in small moments of revelation, of chance occurrences, of small talk, and of familiar moments with family or friends.

The fact is few people have perfect memory or recall. Plus, time seems to move faster the older you get meaning you remember even less. Something even the Washington Post reported on. While a second is a second, a minute a minute, and a year a certain number of days, they tend to bleed together and become a lost jumble of experiences. One way to preserve the memories of 2016 or any other future year is by keeping a record, or journaling, also known as keeping a diary but the former sounds more interesting. The practice even has advantages according to Psych Central. Social media has given everyone with access the ability to not only preserve a memory but also to share it with others. People seem driven to post and re-post everything, and it is interesting, sometimes overwhelmingly so.  These outlets give everyone the opportunity to practice freedom of speech along with presenting personal ideas, events, and opinions, just as is being done here. 
Yet we’re learning some of the drawbacks. Hate is easier to export. A sense of privacy can be lost. Sometimes, a person's accidental or idiotic moments are caught in embarrassing detail by someone else and then publicly distributed for eternal entertainment. Social media can also become an addiction, and time and experience in the real world can diminish.  PsychCentral has numerous articles on these problems, just search social media problems. Some unscrupulous individuals also use social media to post fake news, to dupe audiences for fun and to garner clicks for increased revenues from advertisements on their page. The world is learning some of those sites might create major world consequences such as this week's Pakistan nuclear threat with Israel. News sites inundate the world with what is happening, but since news on TV has become more opinion based rather than a presentation of investigation results, audiences are more open to being told what to think, making it easier to believe phony news.
So why do anything privately? Because when you take time to write about your personal world daily, or weekly, or even monthly in a private forum, you preserve memories of a more significant personal nature rather than provide information to entertain friends as with social media. Private reminiscences provide personal growth. Everyone’s day-to-day changes with time. Circumstances change, employment changes, and moves are made. Neighbors, friends, and even family change. These changes can be stressful with no-time for anything else, or so subtle events pass largely unnoticed and unobserved. Writing about them can spur the mind to recall those hectic details and help relieve that stress, or on the other hand, describe the pleasure of those mundane, peaceful times.  
Writing about your personal world and events does more than just preserve memories. It helps you sort through those events, both the enjoyable and the unpleasant, and reflect on what you learned, or they can help you solve a problem. Journaling helps you become more observant, and helps give you  insight into who you are. It also provides you a personal history you can go back and visit, events that otherwise will be lost by time with each passing year. Things like how you felt, how you or others reacted to certain events, the minute moments that fashion you. That is what makes journaling valuable.

Include a Prologue or Epilogue, Yes or No?

I think this is an interesting topic, but the answer depends on the story the author is telling . Recently I've read many epilogues in books, particularly romances both historical and contemporary, where the epilogue shows how happy the couple finally are together with all the misunderstandings presented in the story at an end. My personal feeling after reading these are that some work, some don't. The same goes for prologues. These are very popular in scifi and fantasy books, and in mysteries or thrillers. They help set up a background event for the story, and because they are labeled a prologue, don't create a jarring jump for the reader when the second chapter starts in another place and time from chapter one. Yet sometimes a time or location byline at the beginning of the chapter accomplishes the same transition. Again, I think some work and some don't, mostly based on whether they draw me into the story or don't. Everything depends on the author's purpose for including a prologue or epilogue.

Prologue, according to Merriam-Webster Online, is "the preface or introduction to a literary work." I've seen introductions called preludes and prefaces, too, which seems incorrect to me. A prefaceis "the introductory remarks of a speaker or author," which to me in most cases appears in nonfiction rather than fiction. For me a prelude is a more music related term, although the definition could meet the label for  a prologue. 

I admit to having used a prologue in Devil's Due, but I had a purpose. The previous two books in the Black Angelseries had mentioned an event out of some of the characters' pasts to explain their present behavior, but many questions remained about exactly what happened. In the prologue of Devil's Due, I gave the perspective of what occurred from the person most involved in the disaster's results. That way the reader knew the character, who also had an active part in this book's story line. It gave a historical background for his decision, his mental state, and his family's influence.

I will also admit I have yet to find the need for an epilogue, or "a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work." My last chapter usually completes that function, and I haven't found the need to have an epilogue to finish the story line. (And yes, I know, it can be either storyline or story line--I love English and its many peculiarities of spelling.) I have read some that worked, particularly in an ongoing series where the last chapter concluded the story's action, but the epilogue showed the continuation of some aspect or action within the story ancillary to ending.

Personally, I think the author needs to seriously consider what the prologue or epilogue add to the story and if it is better explained in the story itself before using either one.

So my answer is...it depends.

Visit the these blogs for more opinions on this topic:
Margaret Fieland
Skye Taylor
Dr. Bob Rich
Marci Baun 
A.J. Maguire 
Victoria Chatham
Anne Stenhouse 
Helena Fairfax
Beverley Bateman
Connie Vines
Rachael Kosinski
Kay Sisk

Wording--Intent and Purpose

Any word creates communication. Most words hold multiple meanings and connotations, especially in the context of the words mixed with it. This makes word choice essential in presenting purpose. The understanding of every communication depends on this, and it works. Visual communication includes more than words. Appearance, body language, topic, tone of voice, facial expressions, and specific words used all play a part. Tone, delivery speed, and loudness assist with audio communication. Real time conversations are often off the cuff. Due to this, even with expressions and tones, spur of the moment wording frequently creates misunderstanding. When only words are used, the choice of words must make up for all that is missing in other forms of communication. Depending on genre and intent, editing of recorded communications of any type can correct or distort words. All writers use this inherent quality of words to load them with intent. Factual writers most often work to avoid such ambiguity, but storytellers develop it to exploit character and meaning. In turn, the readers interpret meaning according to their understanding of the words. In fiction, this can change the reader’s perception of characters and their actions. For instance, Dr. Bob (one of the writers listed below) gave this example for this blog topic: She had to be the sexiest-looking 42-year-old on the planet, the best that money could buy.Is this loaded language? Yes. Is it good or bad? Actually, neither and both; it depends on the writer’s purpose, which depends on who makes this observation within the story, and the writer’s intent for the character so described. The ultimate interpretation depends on the reader, their empathy and perception of the words’ purpose. Every story is just a compilation of words used to expose character and situation, yet every reader’s personal experiences and imagination respond to the framework of the words used. Based on both the author’s word choices and the reader’s interaction those words, their acumen, biases, perceptions, and sympathies give either understanding or confusion. Furthermore, a writer might use a word’s meaning to clarify, or even to lead the reader astray, with the intent for an emotional effect that increases the readers' interest. Luckily, whether the author uses commonplace or unusual wording, or desires to clarify or introduce uncertainty, the language lets the author play within the reader’s mind. The words build a sense of place and reality, allowing each reader to understand a character or situation, which grows the story’s purpose.

Wording is important. Yet I have to admit, in my fiction writing, I sometimes use ambiguous wording to encourage the reader involvement. As a reader, I have found this a very useful technique either to cement a character's qualities or to mislead the reader temporarily for a better understanding later; however, authors need awareness of their wording choices without overdoing it.

Check out these blogs for more insight on word choices:

Skye Taylor
Marci Baun 
Margaret Fieland
Victoria Chatham
Beverley Bateman
Dr. Bob Rich 
Connie Vines
Rachael Kosinski
Judith Copek
Helena Fairfax
A.J. Maguire 

How Important Are Titles?

Because titles and cover images are what readers see first, they are the agents that attract readers. I think the two work together instantaneously on a reader’s perception, so I imagine most authors spend time considering a title. This can be a futile effort, for a publisher might change it to fit a particular line or sub-genre in which they want to publish the story. This shows titles are tied to sales. Still, it gives the author some control for attracting an audience.

Titles (along with the cover image) give the reader an indication of the genre, mood and theme, era, and possible story line of the novel. They certainly attract my attention when I am selecting books. I have fairly specific genres I read, and while they vary greatly, the titles are what make me stop and read the blurbs.

My book titles tend to be very short, three words or less. I’m satisfied with them. For me, longer titles tend to indicate quirky story lines aimed at children, chic lit, or humor.

Titles for my stories often come during the writing process as an indication of the main character or the plot’s purpose, popping into my mind. The longer they stay there, the stronger they become—I think that might be good but not necessarily well thought out. I expect other authors do the same.

The Balance website says in an article, “Can a Book Title be Copyrighted?” that titles cannot be copyrighted. According to the August 2016 article’s author, Jean Murray, “The U. S. Copyright Office does not typically allow someone to copyright a book title because titles are not considered intellectual property, but are only 'short slogans,' which are not eligible to be copyrighted.” The writing itself is copyrighted from the moment you write the words. Greater protection comes with filing it with the copyright office. However, I wouldn’t think anyone could get away with using any Harry Potter title other than J. K. Rowling. Some titles are too well known to be used again, and some like Harry Potter, can be copyrighted or even trademarked due to the fact they are tied to other products such as movies and toys.

Then there are the generic type tiles my books hold. Nope, can’t be protected, and I cannot be held liable for infringing on another writer’s identical title. The interesting thing I discovered was I could trademark my name. Do I really want that © after my name? Right now it kind of makes me uncomfortable.

Writing this post has given me some pause because perhaps I should pay more attention to the title and spend more time thinking about the proposed title after the initial concept. I’m not sure I would, for once my mind is tied to a title, I tend to be obstinate.

Check these sites to see what other authors have to say on this topic:
MarciBaun A.J.Maguire  VictoriaChatham SkyeTaylor JudithCopek HelenaFairfax HeatherHaven Dr. BobRich  ConnieVines MargaretFieland RachaelKosinski

The Discord of My Writing

Getting into a story is sometimes difficult for me because I always have an idea, but sometimes I only have a vague idea of where I’m taking it…and the whole cast of characters and setting is another issue. I also like to have messages other than the obvious one in the action of the plot line. Each story seems to have its own path, but I feel some of my obsessions slow and even stop my writing.

My story lines come at odd moments, but often when I am walking my mile of country road. I’ve heard other authors say their stories come in dreams, but mine tend to be reflections on situations and issues that circulate in my mind and that I contemplate while walking. They often transform into a character’s situation and then into a world which might be somewhere in the present, past, or future. This has led to a list of stories with a title, some lines of information, and the names of one or two characters…a long list. They sit in a file until I can come to terms with what the characters want to say and do. Some ideas I research and work them into the facets of whatever topic that interests me, and put them in the file.

I currently have three in progress. Unfortunately, life obligations and pleasures slow my headway in writing these stories. While I wrote one book from inspirational idea to story’s conclusion in six weeks, that was an oddity. That story just happened, but was based in an already created world and established characters. So my current story's headway varies between animated and complete stasis because of my mind's demand for minute detail.

Some of this minutia borders on obsessive, at least by my definition. I have to know my characters. The names come easily, but after reading an epic fantasy with five characters whose names started with A and threw me into mental fit, I profile my characters in alphabetical order: one female first name per alphabet letter, one male name by same order, and preferably only one first name per letter. I know I have some series stories with far more characters than a single alphabet listing allows, so there are multiple names starting with the same letter; still, each of those names is chosen for its different and distinctive sound. The process sounds strange even to me, but it also works for me.

It doesn’t end there, I profile the main characters’ personalities, both primary and secondary, and their motivations and purpose in the story, so I know how they will act and react.

My other obsession is the world my characters live in. I am constantly starting and stopping my writing over historical details, or in the case of future worlds what might be scientifically feasible. 

For instance, one of my current works in progress is Call to Duty, starting in December 1941. The main character is Trudy. Her husband, after hearing about Pearl Harbor, enlists in the army. Before he enlisted, he was the sheriff of a backwoods Northern Michigan county. Trudy works as dispatcher in the sheriff's office. She, due mostly to lack of eligible males in the area, will, eventually, become sheriff in all but name. Do you know how little information there is on the home front during WWII? I also need information on the sheriff's position. I’ve found information but search for more. Just for starters: What appliances and phone service were available? What roads were paved, which weren’t? Which roads existed at the time, which roads didn’t exist yet? How would the state police act toward a female head deputy? What were the prevailing crimes? How did the war change the resident’s behaviors and attitudes? The list goes on. I’ve even requested the community college librarian where I work to help me find a copy of W. R. Kidd’s Police Interrogation written in 1940, which seems to have changed police procedures.

All this doesn’t even cover the starts and stops caused by thoughts of what happens next, what would be more intriguing, and how the characters will dig themselves out of whatever chasm I dig for them. 

So there are some of my eccentricities in writing. All I can say is writing is hard work.

For more insight into how authors work, and how their stories develope visit these blogs:


Skye Taylor
A.J. Maguire 
Beverley Bateman
Dr. Bob Rich
Rachael Kosinski
Anne Stenhouse 
Connie Vines
Helena Fairfax
Victoria Chatham
Margaret Fieland

The Phoenix, a Past, Present and Future Theory

Who doesn’t love a Phoenix, the mythical Greek bird that ends it life in flames only to be reborn in an immortal cycle? It is still a powerful symbol of rebirth and even had a small but important part in the Harry Potter series.

Where did the Phoenix come from? The Greeks and Romans certainly can claim the version of the bird as we know it. Supposedly the Phoenix didn’t lay eggs; there was only one, which lived as much as a thousand years. It burst into flames dying as a pile of ashes only to regenerate into a new young Phoenix. The ancients only knew two sources of heat and light, the sun and fire, so the Phoenix was thought to represent the sun. Why is a bird used to represent the sun? At the time, what could get closer to the sun than a bird, which occasionally with distance even seems to disappear in the sky?
In ancient Egyptian mythology there was a solar bird, the Bennu. The Russians had a firebird, and still more Eastern cultures had other mythic sun birds. No one knows how they are related. Perhaps with trade and the disbursement of knowledge, these myths influenced each other. It doesn’t matter. More than rebirth the phoenix came to represent to sun, and time as it is related to the sun and to the death-birth cycle; virginity; perpetual hope for continuation, including rulers. Parts of this legend were transmuted into the Christian faith, paradise, and everlasting life. As with the sun, the phoenix became a symbol for powerful rulers.
What I find interesting is the ancients had a being representing the transmutation of mater (living bird) to energy (fire) and back to matter. In quantum physics, matter and energy are considered particles that can be either. In fact, the person observing an experiment determines whether the particles are measured as being matter, or as energy, since the particles can be either.
This might account for why the phoenix is still so popular: An old mythic legend that somehow also abstractly represents now and future theory.

Wounded Characters

Victoria Chatham came up with this month's topic: To make our stories interesting our characters often have some kind of psychological, spiritual or physical wounds. The process of healing them because the character’s arc, the meat in our stories. What mental, physical or spiritual wounds or scars have you used in your stories?

All fiction is about the human experience in some way, even when animals are the characters. So who wants to read about a perfect person? Someone who has it all together, always says the right thing, does the correct thing, never reacts in an inappropriate way, never lies, cheats, steals, or schemes? There is no such person. When a reader encounters one, the character's utter perfection becomes a flaw hiding a deep-rooted problem. History shows some great examples. Of course, some of the stories of these historical beings have changed with the telling. There is no one left alive who really knows what Henry VIII or Anne Boleyn were really like. The authors studied events and journals to interpret their personalities.  Which is exactly what fiction authors do.

Readers want characters they can empathize with: someone who has faced tough times filled with painful experiences and survived: difficult emotional and/or physical  journeys of self discovery and courageous achievement.

My Black Angel series which starts with Rogue's Rules was about a character whose mind was destroyed, but rebuilt itself as six different personalities. Crewkin also deals with loss when one member of a starship's crew survives the loss of the ship and all her crewmembers after being raised to see them as her total world. While my stories have many other character aspects and faults, most of my stories deal with abandonment or estrangement of some type, and working to be accepted as they are.

Other authors have stories about commitment, loss of all types, overcoming disabilities, learning to accept themselves, the list is near endless. So are the endings. Some survive and thrive, some don't.

Everyone learns something from reading, and I'm sure authors learn about character from the writing process.

What type of character flaws or dilemmas do you like to read about?

Skye Taylor
Victoria Chatham
Dr. Bob Rich
Rachael Kosinski
Anne Stenhouse 
Connie Vines
Helena Fairfax
A.J. Maguire
Fiona McGier 

Under the Sun

Here we are in the middle of astrological time of the sign of Leo, which represents the sun. In Michigan it is nearing the close of summer, but people are tanning on our many beaches. The day’s length is beginning to shorten from the solstice, and reaches its equinox next month, but its light and solar energy are still causing beautiful, bright days, high temperatures and skin burn.

According to Alice G. Walton, who has studied biopsychology and behavioral neuroscience, the sun might be addictive. In an article in Forbes Magazine she states it is not proven fact, but that "since there’s an evolutionary drive to get at least some sun exposure – sunlight triggers vitamin D synthesis – it’s not so farfetched that the process might be addicting." Addicting? That has such a negative connotation, but I can see overly tanned individuals might well be addicted. Over all though, the sun’s makes the day brighter encouraging me, and I suspect you, to get outdoors and enjoy the day. It makes ordinary days enjoyable.

First off, the sun goes by many names like sol (Latin, Swedish, Portugese), sole (Italian), soleil (French), solntsa, son (Afrikaans), sonce (Slovenian), sunce (Serbian), sonne (German), soorajh (Hindu), zon (Dutch), zundi (Yiddish), and araw (Filipino), aurinko (Finnish), giiziss (Ojibwa), helios (Greek) helo (Breton) haul (Welsh), kala (Hawaiian), khorshid (Persian), te rā (Maori), tai-yang (Mandarin), taiyo (Japanese), nikko (Japanese sunshine). I’ve read Sanskrit has many different names for the sun, maybe as many as a thousand, but include Mitra, soorya, ravi, and arka.

Did ancients know the world could not survive without the sun? Did they know that plants use photosynthesis to turn its energy into food, which feed animals? I doubt it. Certainly, they knew the sun brought daylight and felt its warmth. They had to notice day length affected plant growth and the weather. Since they were outdoors for greater periods than most people today, and if the new discovery is true, the rays probably addicted them to its light and warmth. Glimpsing the the sun for seconds brings brief blindness, staring for longer periods brings permanent blindness, something the ancients would have known. They would have watched it with careful respect. Fire brought from the gods was a gift of the sun's power. Closely linked to the sun in ancient minds, fire also gave light, warmth, but could also burn just like the sun.

Very early in his history, man tied the sun to time. Ultimately, hours and calendars evolved from what we now know is the Earth’s rotation around the sun. At that time man thought the sun traveled in an arc above the land. Early man noticed the sun’s cycle each day, and its cycle throughout the year that affected the length of day and night, but they must have puzzled over where the sun came from and where it went at night. The rare eclipse with its dark center and surrounding corona became the eye of god, and a symbol of power.

That corona bestowed authority and divinity. Crowns, aureoles, and halos given to deities and royalty, mimic the corona's rays as seen through squinting eyes.  

Another common symbol is the circle with rays expanding from it, often with a face. Because of the night day relationship, the sun and moon are often tied together in images. Birds who share the sky were also seen as symbols of the sun.

As the largest thing flying through the sky, the sun was a mystery demanding explanation. This mysteryled to fables and myths about male and female deities forming or controlling the fiery orb, so since ancient times the sun has played an important character in folklore and myth. The Stanford Solar Center (fun site) has a list of all the sun gods and their myths here, it also has a page of solar symbols, and information about the sun itself. 

Three known mythic creatures were associated with the sun. Kua Fu was a Chinese giant who chased the sun. The East also had a three-legged crow-like that represented the sun. Actually, there were 10 of these three legged sun birds feasting on the fruit of a mulberry tree of learning in the valley of the sun. They took turns flying around the world, one leaving each day, another leaving when the other returned; but when all appeared on the same day, the world burned up. The third mythic symbol of the sun is the phoenix of Greek Mythology which self immolates periodically to be born anew.


Eventually, five billion years from now, the sun will become a red giant and engulf the Earth. Life will have ended long before then. As the gravitational forces with the sun allow it to expand, the heat from the star will bake the Earth. It is estimated humans can live on the planet for about a billion more years, that is if we don't destroy it or ourselves before then. Perhaps there is a chance man can take to the stars looking for a new home to settle. As authors’ predict man’s future in space and scientists word toward that goal, the power of the sun will continue to fulfill its primeval function in narratives. So if you want to play with ancient, present, or future stories, you might well want to know about the sun. It affects everything.

Quote from King James Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11:  I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.