Stephen B. Pearl's Blog, page 2
April 14, 2011
Ad Astra 2011
Ad Astra 2011 has been and gone and I was there.
It was the best of times, it was the sleepiest of times. It was an age of hope and an age of smoky hotel rooms. It is a tail of pleasant pools and greasy breakfast sausages. Oh heck, from the beginning.
The night before the con was punctuated by long bouts of wakefulness caused by minor medical mishaps. Thus I arrived at Ad Astra in an exhausted state at about 1:00 PM to find the reception volunteers already working on set up.
Being exhausted at the start of the con proved to be no real liability as I was part of a group that encompassed most of the attendees. I have to wonder if there is some kind of mild bug going around as everyone seemed to be dead on their feet. One would think it was a zombie plague running amuck. Arrr run run run away.
Back to the narrative. Checking in was somewhat annoying as I told the hotel staff what I had booked and they said the rooms with king-sized beds were all taken and I’d have to take a double. This persisted until I produced a copy of our booking contract after which a room with a king-sized bed magically appeared. I’ve learned when dealing with hotels to expect a fast one and be prepared to make it more trouble than it’s worth for them to do you over. Credit where credit is due, the staff were uniformly polite and seemed to actually care that the weekend went smoothly. I also asked for permission to put up posters and it only took two managers and me standing around wasting time for ten minutes for me to get the OK. One would think that since they have experience with this con the desk staff would have been briefed on some basic things like this but such is life.
So I was away to my room with the room stuff including my cooler and box of food. I’m cheep what can I say. Actually, more accurate to say, I’m a writer thus broke. Please sir buy a book so I don’t have to sit in the snow and burn them one by one to keep warm. The little match Girl makes sense if you make her a writer. A pot of coffee was brewed as I brought up a second load. Then it was to work. Elevators lobbies’ stairs basically any high traffic area I could think of found itself bedecked with a poster. Then I registered for the con, grabbed a shower, set up my dealer’s table, which I was once more sharing with Ira Nayman good friend and proprietor of the Alternate Reality News Service. Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Ir...
The table was narrower than I expected but I still managed to fit everything on. I tried giving away a free toy horse with each copy of Tinker’s Plague I sold with the thought that parents could get the book for themselves and get a little something for the kids at the same time. Can we say led balloon with bricks on? What I can say for it is it didn’t cost me any sales but nobody took a horse. Oh well, you don’t know if you don’t try. I also tried putting a notebook computer with sample readings on the table with equivalent results.
Truth to tell, before the dealer’s room even officially opened I had the first of my panels.
Fri 5 pm Salon 243 Flap you bugger, flap!
From Pegasus through the dragons of Pern mankind has dreamed of a flying steed. What are the potential up sides and drawbacks of this mode of transportation?
Stephen B. Pearl (m) website: www.stephenpearl.com
Jana Paniccia
Karen Wehrstein
This was fun, but not well attended. Much was said about Dragons in general. Sadly physics and aerodynamics don’t really bear out a flying steed on Earth though the possibility of one on another world with lower gravity and a higher atmospheric pressure still intrigues. Of course PSI dragons like in the Dragon Riders of Pern books might still make sense.
Then to the room to quickly drop off some things where I met the shining queen of all my delights. The glorious love of my life, she who is the font of all things good. She who must be obeyed, my wife Joy. I love you honey now can you put down the rolling pin, please.
Then came the,
DEALER’S ROOM Friday 6:00 to10:00 pm
And minor variations on my spiel. Sadly the dealers’ room had no windows thus I, by in large, missed one of the first nice weekends of the year. Waaaaa. It wasn’t so bad after they resolved some heat issues though. Interestingly enough there was a stand selling boffer weapons, foam rubber replicas made for sparing. I fought boffer for a time about 26 years ago when the swords consisted of plastic pipe covered in pipe insulators and wrapped in duct tape. The blades now look far more realistic but the moves remain the same. Nice to know.
Next came:
Fri 10 pm Salon 241 How Would You Survive an Apocalypse?
Stephen B. Pearl (m)Website: www.stephenpearl.com
Don Shears
Karina Sumner-Smith
This was fun and had a huge turnout. We discussed how we’d prepare for a disaster and the key elements. The funniest bit was when Don and I started pulling handy little items we kept close out of our clothing. I had my vest so I had my micro first aid kit. I’d remembered to put on pants ;-) so I had my utility knife there were other toys. One of Don’s was a great sparking tool for starting fires. I’ve got to get me one of them. The audience were a whoot as their eyes just kept getting bigger. I have to wonder if they were thinking, ‘what do these guys know that I don’t?’ It was fun. We also discussed basic skills like fire building and the advantages and disadvantages of isolationism and what a good balance was. In the end it more or less came down to the fighting chance scenario, ‘You can’t be prepared for everything but there are simple ways to improve your odds of survival.’
Then I just sat there as people came in for:
Fri 11 pm Salon 241 Sex Scenes
Cheap thrills, plot device, realistic portrayal, offensive smut, sex scenes can be all of these things and many more. Authors read (5 minute maximum) and analyse erotic passages from their own fiction discussing the purpose of the scene and the functions it serves in the work as a whole. Persons must be eighteen or older to attend this panel.
Stephen B. Pearl (m) Website: www.stephenpearl.com
Sephera Giron Website: http://sepheragiron.com
Michael Rowe Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Mi...
Sarah Zettel: Website http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Sa...
Claude Lalumiere Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Cl...
This started with a chuckle as Michael told me I had to move because the new panel was coming in and I answered, “I know, I’m moderating it.” The audience nearly filled the room and weren’t all weird guys wearing trench coats either. It was interesting to hear what other people thought about their sex scenes and the work they did. In the end the idea that a sex scene is an action scene and needs to be treated with the same reasoning and respect seems to have prevailed. Just when I start to think I’m a bit extreme somebody pulls out two zombies having sex in a mud pit.
Then I was off to collect Joy and we hit the panelists’ green room. The beer was cold the company good and all was right with the world, except for the fact that Joy and I were both dead on our feet. We hit the sack around 2:00 AM then I had trouble sleeping.
The next day I got up and had the hotel restaurant’s breakfast bufay. It was adequate, but the sausage was a bit greasy and the verity wasn’t much. On the up side it was only $5:00 for room guests and the coffee wasn’t bad. I then hit the pool, which is round and was a lot cleaner and not as hot as last year. It’s not a good workout pool but for playing in it’s fine. Trust me; I’ve been a lifeguard longer than most of my associates on pool deck have been alive. The safety equipment was surprisingly good for a hotel pool.
That done it was time for the Da du dummmm….
DEALER’S ROOM 10:00 AM TO 6:30 PM
Interrupted by:
Sat 12 pm Salon 343 Book Signings
How to present yourself. Preparation. Ways to succeed. Dealing with store managers and staff and the all important bathroom break. Horror Stories success stories and would anybody like an autograph?
Stephen B. Pearl (m) Who is the joker he seems to show up a lot. Website. www.stephenpearl.com
Timothy Carter Website: www.timothycarterworld.com
Tim and I kicked it back and forth telling war stories and giving hints about how to get book signings and how to make the most of them. The audience was small but appreciative and engaged. Over all, a pleasant panel.
As the day wore on I worked my booth grabbed a bite in the panelists’ green room until the dealers’ room closed.
After this I had a meeting with the owner of Dark Dragon Publishing where I was told that my Paranormal / occult adventure novel Nukekubi was accepted by Dark Dragon. It should be on the shelves in a few months time. Yaa, yippy, hurray. See the author almost lose it in front of a business associate and dance in the streets. This is good news. I am happy, can you tell? :-)
After this wonderful news it was time to grab a bite and drop in on the SFContario party: Web site: http://sfcontario.ca
before running off to catch part of a concert by Heather Dale. Heather has a lovely voice and a collection of songs that touches the soul. Lovely concert with a very appreciative audience. After this we raced to the Con suite to drop in on the book launch for Triptych by J.M. Frey. This was quite an affair with a cake that was magnificent in appearance. Sadly due to industrial hearing loss I don’t filter background noise well so in the room I was as good as deaf, thus we didn’t stay long before we trotted off to check out the Yuri’s Night celebration in honor of the first man in space. Sadly the party had moved some place with no forwarding address so we hit the green room then went to bed.
That night was really annoying. The hotel is non-smoking but someone decided that they could poison the air for the others around them. I was awakened about an hour after turning in by the rancid stench of tobacco. It was strong enough that the person could have been in the room with us. Opening the balcony door helped flush it out but by 3:00 AM I’d had enough and called the front desk to complain. Antihistamines followed and I was finally able to get to sleep. Hate me if you will, but my right to breathe trumps someone’s right to commit slow suicide! Nuf said!
The next morning I was up before eight and got everything I could out to the car then:
DELEAR’S ROOM 10:00 AM TO 4:00 PM
Interrupted by:
Sun 11 am Salon 343 Reading: Stephen B. Pearl
Nobody showed up. Sniff, ;-) it happens, better luck next time.
Sun 12 pm Salon 243 My God They're Slamming You Again
Minority religions worship many gods that most consider myths. How much sensitivity is appropriate to show in using these figures in fiction? Are the gods of another fair game for slander or is it fair to portray them as in the myths or better to avoid them entirely?
Stephen B. Pearl (m) Website: www.stephenpearl.com
Derwin Mak Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=De...
Moira Scott
This went well and reviewed some of the shows that were really insulting to various religious groups as well as acknowledging those that have tried to be fair and are deserving of praise. The most telling statement was that in a vacuum of information people believe what they see on television. That and that the producers of TV don’t care about a relatively small group of people if they can milk the majority for cash. Over all, a very good panel with a simple message. Be honest about people and if you don’t know crack a book.
Sun 1 pm Salon 443 I'm Very Flattered, But
The challenge of writing characters and scenes that reflect a sexuality other than your own. Showing proper respect, author comfort zone, understanding the other, fear of inadvertently offending and or giving real people the wrong impression. A discussion of these and other factors.
Stephen B. Pearl (m)
Sephera Giron
Michael Rowe
Gemma Files WikIpedia entry: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Ge...
This was another panel about tolerance and respect. Generally agreed that getting the emotion and personal dynamics right of a sexuality not one’s own was the difficult part. Also that there is a tendency for heterosexual writers (such as myself) to try to superimpose a heterosexual dynamic on homosexual characters and it comes off as false. (Who knew)? Oh and an added bit of stupidity apparently the proper English term homosexual in now only acceptable in scholarly works. If you know my view that proper English must be the safe fall back from political correctness you can guess how I feel about that one. If I offend someone using the proper English term it’s their problem! English is a beautiful expressive language and this PC BS is destroying it. Grumble, Rant, grumble. Wiping the rabid foam from my mouth now.
It was a good panel with some good points.
Then back to my table to coast out the day. I then collected the posters packed up and went home forgetting a folding chair in the process. And so went Ad Astra 2011 for this weary traveler on the road of life.
It was a far far better thing I did then I did last weekend. It was a far far more exhausting night than I have known since my last con.
It was the best of times, it was the sleepiest of times. It was an age of hope and an age of smoky hotel rooms. It is a tail of pleasant pools and greasy breakfast sausages. Oh heck, from the beginning.
The night before the con was punctuated by long bouts of wakefulness caused by minor medical mishaps. Thus I arrived at Ad Astra in an exhausted state at about 1:00 PM to find the reception volunteers already working on set up.
Being exhausted at the start of the con proved to be no real liability as I was part of a group that encompassed most of the attendees. I have to wonder if there is some kind of mild bug going around as everyone seemed to be dead on their feet. One would think it was a zombie plague running amuck. Arrr run run run away.
Back to the narrative. Checking in was somewhat annoying as I told the hotel staff what I had booked and they said the rooms with king-sized beds were all taken and I’d have to take a double. This persisted until I produced a copy of our booking contract after which a room with a king-sized bed magically appeared. I’ve learned when dealing with hotels to expect a fast one and be prepared to make it more trouble than it’s worth for them to do you over. Credit where credit is due, the staff were uniformly polite and seemed to actually care that the weekend went smoothly. I also asked for permission to put up posters and it only took two managers and me standing around wasting time for ten minutes for me to get the OK. One would think that since they have experience with this con the desk staff would have been briefed on some basic things like this but such is life.
So I was away to my room with the room stuff including my cooler and box of food. I’m cheep what can I say. Actually, more accurate to say, I’m a writer thus broke. Please sir buy a book so I don’t have to sit in the snow and burn them one by one to keep warm. The little match Girl makes sense if you make her a writer. A pot of coffee was brewed as I brought up a second load. Then it was to work. Elevators lobbies’ stairs basically any high traffic area I could think of found itself bedecked with a poster. Then I registered for the con, grabbed a shower, set up my dealer’s table, which I was once more sharing with Ira Nayman good friend and proprietor of the Alternate Reality News Service. Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Ir...
The table was narrower than I expected but I still managed to fit everything on. I tried giving away a free toy horse with each copy of Tinker’s Plague I sold with the thought that parents could get the book for themselves and get a little something for the kids at the same time. Can we say led balloon with bricks on? What I can say for it is it didn’t cost me any sales but nobody took a horse. Oh well, you don’t know if you don’t try. I also tried putting a notebook computer with sample readings on the table with equivalent results.
Truth to tell, before the dealer’s room even officially opened I had the first of my panels.
Fri 5 pm Salon 243 Flap you bugger, flap!
From Pegasus through the dragons of Pern mankind has dreamed of a flying steed. What are the potential up sides and drawbacks of this mode of transportation?
Stephen B. Pearl (m) website: www.stephenpearl.com
Jana Paniccia
Karen Wehrstein
This was fun, but not well attended. Much was said about Dragons in general. Sadly physics and aerodynamics don’t really bear out a flying steed on Earth though the possibility of one on another world with lower gravity and a higher atmospheric pressure still intrigues. Of course PSI dragons like in the Dragon Riders of Pern books might still make sense.
Then to the room to quickly drop off some things where I met the shining queen of all my delights. The glorious love of my life, she who is the font of all things good. She who must be obeyed, my wife Joy. I love you honey now can you put down the rolling pin, please.
Then came the,
DEALER’S ROOM Friday 6:00 to10:00 pm
And minor variations on my spiel. Sadly the dealers’ room had no windows thus I, by in large, missed one of the first nice weekends of the year. Waaaaa. It wasn’t so bad after they resolved some heat issues though. Interestingly enough there was a stand selling boffer weapons, foam rubber replicas made for sparing. I fought boffer for a time about 26 years ago when the swords consisted of plastic pipe covered in pipe insulators and wrapped in duct tape. The blades now look far more realistic but the moves remain the same. Nice to know.
Next came:
Fri 10 pm Salon 241 How Would You Survive an Apocalypse?
Stephen B. Pearl (m)Website: www.stephenpearl.com
Don Shears
Karina Sumner-Smith
This was fun and had a huge turnout. We discussed how we’d prepare for a disaster and the key elements. The funniest bit was when Don and I started pulling handy little items we kept close out of our clothing. I had my vest so I had my micro first aid kit. I’d remembered to put on pants ;-) so I had my utility knife there were other toys. One of Don’s was a great sparking tool for starting fires. I’ve got to get me one of them. The audience were a whoot as their eyes just kept getting bigger. I have to wonder if they were thinking, ‘what do these guys know that I don’t?’ It was fun. We also discussed basic skills like fire building and the advantages and disadvantages of isolationism and what a good balance was. In the end it more or less came down to the fighting chance scenario, ‘You can’t be prepared for everything but there are simple ways to improve your odds of survival.’
Then I just sat there as people came in for:
Fri 11 pm Salon 241 Sex Scenes
Cheap thrills, plot device, realistic portrayal, offensive smut, sex scenes can be all of these things and many more. Authors read (5 minute maximum) and analyse erotic passages from their own fiction discussing the purpose of the scene and the functions it serves in the work as a whole. Persons must be eighteen or older to attend this panel.
Stephen B. Pearl (m) Website: www.stephenpearl.com
Sephera Giron Website: http://sepheragiron.com
Michael Rowe Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Mi...
Sarah Zettel: Website http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Sa...
Claude Lalumiere Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Cl...
This started with a chuckle as Michael told me I had to move because the new panel was coming in and I answered, “I know, I’m moderating it.” The audience nearly filled the room and weren’t all weird guys wearing trench coats either. It was interesting to hear what other people thought about their sex scenes and the work they did. In the end the idea that a sex scene is an action scene and needs to be treated with the same reasoning and respect seems to have prevailed. Just when I start to think I’m a bit extreme somebody pulls out two zombies having sex in a mud pit.
Then I was off to collect Joy and we hit the panelists’ green room. The beer was cold the company good and all was right with the world, except for the fact that Joy and I were both dead on our feet. We hit the sack around 2:00 AM then I had trouble sleeping.
The next day I got up and had the hotel restaurant’s breakfast bufay. It was adequate, but the sausage was a bit greasy and the verity wasn’t much. On the up side it was only $5:00 for room guests and the coffee wasn’t bad. I then hit the pool, which is round and was a lot cleaner and not as hot as last year. It’s not a good workout pool but for playing in it’s fine. Trust me; I’ve been a lifeguard longer than most of my associates on pool deck have been alive. The safety equipment was surprisingly good for a hotel pool.
That done it was time for the Da du dummmm….
DEALER’S ROOM 10:00 AM TO 6:30 PM
Interrupted by:
Sat 12 pm Salon 343 Book Signings
How to present yourself. Preparation. Ways to succeed. Dealing with store managers and staff and the all important bathroom break. Horror Stories success stories and would anybody like an autograph?
Stephen B. Pearl (m) Who is the joker he seems to show up a lot. Website. www.stephenpearl.com
Timothy Carter Website: www.timothycarterworld.com
Tim and I kicked it back and forth telling war stories and giving hints about how to get book signings and how to make the most of them. The audience was small but appreciative and engaged. Over all, a pleasant panel.
As the day wore on I worked my booth grabbed a bite in the panelists’ green room until the dealers’ room closed.
After this I had a meeting with the owner of Dark Dragon Publishing where I was told that my Paranormal / occult adventure novel Nukekubi was accepted by Dark Dragon. It should be on the shelves in a few months time. Yaa, yippy, hurray. See the author almost lose it in front of a business associate and dance in the streets. This is good news. I am happy, can you tell? :-)
After this wonderful news it was time to grab a bite and drop in on the SFContario party: Web site: http://sfcontario.ca
before running off to catch part of a concert by Heather Dale. Heather has a lovely voice and a collection of songs that touches the soul. Lovely concert with a very appreciative audience. After this we raced to the Con suite to drop in on the book launch for Triptych by J.M. Frey. This was quite an affair with a cake that was magnificent in appearance. Sadly due to industrial hearing loss I don’t filter background noise well so in the room I was as good as deaf, thus we didn’t stay long before we trotted off to check out the Yuri’s Night celebration in honor of the first man in space. Sadly the party had moved some place with no forwarding address so we hit the green room then went to bed.
That night was really annoying. The hotel is non-smoking but someone decided that they could poison the air for the others around them. I was awakened about an hour after turning in by the rancid stench of tobacco. It was strong enough that the person could have been in the room with us. Opening the balcony door helped flush it out but by 3:00 AM I’d had enough and called the front desk to complain. Antihistamines followed and I was finally able to get to sleep. Hate me if you will, but my right to breathe trumps someone’s right to commit slow suicide! Nuf said!
The next morning I was up before eight and got everything I could out to the car then:
DELEAR’S ROOM 10:00 AM TO 4:00 PM
Interrupted by:
Sun 11 am Salon 343 Reading: Stephen B. Pearl
Nobody showed up. Sniff, ;-) it happens, better luck next time.
Sun 12 pm Salon 243 My God They're Slamming You Again
Minority religions worship many gods that most consider myths. How much sensitivity is appropriate to show in using these figures in fiction? Are the gods of another fair game for slander or is it fair to portray them as in the myths or better to avoid them entirely?
Stephen B. Pearl (m) Website: www.stephenpearl.com
Derwin Mak Website: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=De...
Moira Scott
This went well and reviewed some of the shows that were really insulting to various religious groups as well as acknowledging those that have tried to be fair and are deserving of praise. The most telling statement was that in a vacuum of information people believe what they see on television. That and that the producers of TV don’t care about a relatively small group of people if they can milk the majority for cash. Over all, a very good panel with a simple message. Be honest about people and if you don’t know crack a book.
Sun 1 pm Salon 443 I'm Very Flattered, But
The challenge of writing characters and scenes that reflect a sexuality other than your own. Showing proper respect, author comfort zone, understanding the other, fear of inadvertently offending and or giving real people the wrong impression. A discussion of these and other factors.
Stephen B. Pearl (m)
Sephera Giron
Michael Rowe
Gemma Files WikIpedia entry: http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Ge...
This was another panel about tolerance and respect. Generally agreed that getting the emotion and personal dynamics right of a sexuality not one’s own was the difficult part. Also that there is a tendency for heterosexual writers (such as myself) to try to superimpose a heterosexual dynamic on homosexual characters and it comes off as false. (Who knew)? Oh and an added bit of stupidity apparently the proper English term homosexual in now only acceptable in scholarly works. If you know my view that proper English must be the safe fall back from political correctness you can guess how I feel about that one. If I offend someone using the proper English term it’s their problem! English is a beautiful expressive language and this PC BS is destroying it. Grumble, Rant, grumble. Wiping the rabid foam from my mouth now.
It was a good panel with some good points.
Then back to my table to coast out the day. I then collected the posters packed up and went home forgetting a folding chair in the process. And so went Ad Astra 2011 for this weary traveler on the road of life.
It was a far far better thing I did then I did last weekend. It was a far far more exhausting night than I have known since my last con.
November 23, 2010
Writing a synopsis
At SFContario this year,2010, I was a panellist on the following panel. I thought a summery of the points and suggestions that came up might be of use to people who, like me, struggle with this aspect of the business.
How to write a synopsis. A synopsis is an important part of the submission package you will use to sell your novel. But what is a synopsis and how is it developed and polished? Is there an ideal length? How much detail should it include? Panellists discuss common problems and errors. (Erik Buchanan, Michael Martineck(M), Stephen B Pearl, Karl Schroeder)
This went very well with the general consensus being the synopses are hard but necessary. A few suggestions were.
1Take a sentence from each chapter as a key and use these to build the flow.
2 There is a big difference between a synopses to sell a finished book and a synopses to sell a book on speck.
3 If you have trouble, work out the key link words you’d use for the book on Amazon and the like as your stat point.
4 Avoid “Ly” words. (Adjectives and adverbs) especially suddenly, very and finally.
5 In writing, in general, look for and avoid superfluous characters. If you can combine two or more minor characters in to one do it.
6 If you are selling on speck don’t feel overly bound by the synopsis.
7 For blurbs look to the film industry for good examples.
8 As always, write to the publishers stated preferences.
9 Don’t get cute. This is a professional document so be professional.
10 Synopses don’t have to be boring.
11 If you are stuck just write the thing then edit. Write a synopses and don’t worry about the length then write a synopses of your synopsis then repeat until you have the length and quality you need.
12 Find your main theme and stick with that.
13 Don’t go into why your characters do things, it is enough to say they do them.
Does anybody want to question why I think aspiring writers should go to cons? It was a really good panel.
By Stephen B. Pearl author of Tinker’s Plague, Slaves of Love and The Hollow Curse.
How to write a synopsis. A synopsis is an important part of the submission package you will use to sell your novel. But what is a synopsis and how is it developed and polished? Is there an ideal length? How much detail should it include? Panellists discuss common problems and errors. (Erik Buchanan, Michael Martineck(M), Stephen B Pearl, Karl Schroeder)
This went very well with the general consensus being the synopses are hard but necessary. A few suggestions were.
1Take a sentence from each chapter as a key and use these to build the flow.
2 There is a big difference between a synopses to sell a finished book and a synopses to sell a book on speck.
3 If you have trouble, work out the key link words you’d use for the book on Amazon and the like as your stat point.
4 Avoid “Ly” words. (Adjectives and adverbs) especially suddenly, very and finally.
5 In writing, in general, look for and avoid superfluous characters. If you can combine two or more minor characters in to one do it.
6 If you are selling on speck don’t feel overly bound by the synopsis.
7 For blurbs look to the film industry for good examples.
8 As always, write to the publishers stated preferences.
9 Don’t get cute. This is a professional document so be professional.
10 Synopses don’t have to be boring.
11 If you are stuck just write the thing then edit. Write a synopses and don’t worry about the length then write a synopses of your synopsis then repeat until you have the length and quality you need.
12 Find your main theme and stick with that.
13 Don’t go into why your characters do things, it is enough to say they do them.
Does anybody want to question why I think aspiring writers should go to cons? It was a really good panel.
By Stephen B. Pearl author of Tinker’s Plague, Slaves of Love and The Hollow Curse.
October 28, 2010
My Trip to England
Well, I’m back from England. What can be said of Joy’s and my arrival in the land of Author and his Knights? It poured. Rain came down in sheets and the wind whipped around the buss we took from the airport like a howling beast on the hunt. For most of the storm we were on busses going from the Airport in Manchester to Bakewell in Derbyshire, where Joy’s mom lives. We finally arrived exhausted from scant sleep for several nights and no sleep on the flight. Why do airlines delight in putting people with shoulders in the same row of seats?
The following day had lovely weather so I went to work organizing the geraush. What a job. This occupied me for the next two and a half days. Then I moved on into the attic. By the by, if anyone in the Derbyshire area is interested in old car magazines please contact me. It’s a free or cheep to good home with all proceeds going to the Weston Park Cancer Charity. I did make time to nip into town and donate a copy of Tinker’s Plague to the Bakewell Library.
We also spent some time visiting with some of Joy’s late brother’s friends. Nice folk.
On the Monday I went into town to look over the market. The fish and chip shop just up from the co-op gets my vote. Really very good. I also video taped a lot of the village. I have a book I am currently trying to market ‘Worlds Apart’ that is set in Bakewell and I wanted to video record some of the settings I use.
There is a very unique shop, Bakewell Auto Parts and Pet Food, (8 Water St, Bakewell, DERBYSHIRE, DE45 1EW 01629 814264) that anyone visiting should drop in on. It’s this little hole in the wall with all the pet food and toys you’d ever want to see. It also happens to be across the street from a courtyard that I use as a setting in Worlds Apart. My female lead and her best friend eat lunch there.
Of course no trip to Bakewell can be complete without sampling the town’s signature dish, the Bakewell Tart. No I am not talking about a woman wearing too much makeup a short skirt and a blouse with a plunging neckline. You have a dirty mind. ;-)
The Bakewell Tart is a pastry and the Bakewell Tart Shop brackets the a fore mentioned courtyard.
While I was in town I stopped by the Discount Book Store, located by the library entrance just down from the swimming pool. The place has incredible deals. I also dropped in on the used book store located by the river adjacent to the main bridge.
While walking along the river, which is lovely, I came across an organization displaying various birds of prey. They were lovely. This group tries to preserve these magnificent creatures.
Then came the day to leave. The skies opened up and rain poured down. Our flight left on time and we got back to Pearson international in time for the skies to open up and pour down. At least for the flight back Joy and I got to sit together and the movies were OK and good in that order. The latest Shrek and Iron Man 2. Iron Man 2 still impresses me. I also got through a complete popular science magazine, meaning I’m almost caught up on my periodicals.
So there you have it. It beats being tied up having red hot pokers applied to one’s skin after which the burnt flesh is cut away and the process is repeated. One of the lovely things done to suspected witches during the burning times. Nothing is ever forgotten! Talking about World’s Apart brought it to mind.
Keep smiling and have a good one. Cheers
The following day had lovely weather so I went to work organizing the geraush. What a job. This occupied me for the next two and a half days. Then I moved on into the attic. By the by, if anyone in the Derbyshire area is interested in old car magazines please contact me. It’s a free or cheep to good home with all proceeds going to the Weston Park Cancer Charity. I did make time to nip into town and donate a copy of Tinker’s Plague to the Bakewell Library.
We also spent some time visiting with some of Joy’s late brother’s friends. Nice folk.
On the Monday I went into town to look over the market. The fish and chip shop just up from the co-op gets my vote. Really very good. I also video taped a lot of the village. I have a book I am currently trying to market ‘Worlds Apart’ that is set in Bakewell and I wanted to video record some of the settings I use.
There is a very unique shop, Bakewell Auto Parts and Pet Food, (8 Water St, Bakewell, DERBYSHIRE, DE45 1EW 01629 814264) that anyone visiting should drop in on. It’s this little hole in the wall with all the pet food and toys you’d ever want to see. It also happens to be across the street from a courtyard that I use as a setting in Worlds Apart. My female lead and her best friend eat lunch there.
Of course no trip to Bakewell can be complete without sampling the town’s signature dish, the Bakewell Tart. No I am not talking about a woman wearing too much makeup a short skirt and a blouse with a plunging neckline. You have a dirty mind. ;-)
The Bakewell Tart is a pastry and the Bakewell Tart Shop brackets the a fore mentioned courtyard.
While I was in town I stopped by the Discount Book Store, located by the library entrance just down from the swimming pool. The place has incredible deals. I also dropped in on the used book store located by the river adjacent to the main bridge.
While walking along the river, which is lovely, I came across an organization displaying various birds of prey. They were lovely. This group tries to preserve these magnificent creatures.
Then came the day to leave. The skies opened up and rain poured down. Our flight left on time and we got back to Pearson international in time for the skies to open up and pour down. At least for the flight back Joy and I got to sit together and the movies were OK and good in that order. The latest Shrek and Iron Man 2. Iron Man 2 still impresses me. I also got through a complete popular science magazine, meaning I’m almost caught up on my periodicals.
So there you have it. It beats being tied up having red hot pokers applied to one’s skin after which the burnt flesh is cut away and the process is repeated. One of the lovely things done to suspected witches during the burning times. Nothing is ever forgotten! Talking about World’s Apart brought it to mind.
Keep smiling and have a good one. Cheers
August 26, 2010
OUR ENERGY FUTURE IS CRAP
Not as dire as the title sounds. What follows is still on the theme of water usage. I am going to sketch out a basic design for the sewage treatment plant of the mid twenty-first centaury. A place of wonder that makes money for the government meaning services can be supplied for less and lowering taxes. How do we accomplish this wonderful event? Feces, a great energy resource we now largely view as waste.
Let us begin with our toilet where we flush waste that at present, in most municipalities, is treated then dumped into the environment taking energy and money out of the system as a whole.
From the toilet, which should be flushed with rain water, see section one, the waste will flow to the treatment plant as it does today. Here the solids and liquids will undergo a separation process, basically straining the waste. Let’s follow the solids that at this point are a sticky semi liquid sludge. This sludge is directed into fermentation tanks where it is allowed to rot generating methane gas, as it would anyway. This gas is collected and used to fuel methane powered electric generators. This electricity is sold to the electricity grid supplying a source of revenue to the community. The waste heat from the generators is shunted into the fermentation tanks maintaining them at the optimal temperature for methane production. Additional waste heat can be used for supplying hot water and heat for the treatment plant in general. This is done through a simple radiator and pipe system not unlike the one in most of our cars.
The advantages to this are enormous. For one, methane is about six times more effective as a greenhouse gas then carbon dioxide. By converting the methane into carbon dioxide through burning you immediately reduce the climate impact of the city’s solid waste to one sixth of what it would otherwise be. The electricity and heat are also bonuses adding money to the city’s coffers and reducing heating costs.
The system so far, I am proud to say, has been adopted by my home town, Hamilton Ontario, Canada. I will give credit where credit is due and I must salute my city council for having the vision to do the right thing on this score. If any of you are reading this, don’t get use to it. I’m still an annoying git who thinks you could do better!
I am aware of another city in the states where they use a similar system to supply the fuel that they run their city vehicles on. The basic system dates back to the late eighteen hundreds when it was used to supply methane for gas lighting for several English cities.
The waste products from the solid processing are a sludge that can be dried using the sun and carbon dioxide. We will come back to both of these later.
For now let us address the separated liquid waste. This should be channelled into algae farms. These are basically shallow ponds with a low, greenhouse-like cover. The waste water is already full of nutrients that the algae will absorb to grow thereby cleaning the water.
The waste carbon dioxide from the electrical generators is channelled into the algae farms. This makes use of the heat being lost in the exhaust by warming the farms and the carbon dioxide is fixed by the algae, keeping most of it out of the environment. A heat dissipation system, a radiator, can be used to pre-process the exhaust during periods of high heat and bypassed to heat the algae ponds during periods of low heat. The exhaust gasses should be bubbled through the pond water, which will have the effect of catching most forms of pollutants that might creep in, though these would be minor at most.
The algae is allowed to grow. Now what happens next depends on future science. Currently, Exxon is funding research to bio-engineer algae that could produce more and better oils. These bio-engendered forms would presumably excrete the oil and it could be collected and separated from the water. The oils would then be processed at existing petroleum processing plants to make petroleum products.
At present what would be done is the algae would be harvested and processed to make bio-diesel. There is a pilot plant in the USA that is currently developing the techniques to do this on an industrial scale. The bio-diesel is an ideal home-heating fuel and can be used to run any diesel engine. It’s one draw back is a tendency to become a jell at temperatures around 10 degrees C / 50 degrees F or lower. There are regions where this isn’t a problem and regions where it’s not a problem during the summer. Also, nothing says you can’t cut diesel from other sources with bio-diesel to make a more temperature-tolerant, hybrid fuel. Another use would be to use the bio-diesel to run a diesel-powered, electric generator, taking the waste heat from that and using it to keep the fuel in the storage takes liquid while feeding the carbon emissions back into the algae farm and the electricity into the power grid.
After being processed for it’s oils, the algae can be mixed with water that has done its time in the algae tanks and fermented to generate ethanol. That ethanol can be distilled using waste heat from the electrical generators and used as an additive to gasoline doing the job of several of the most polluting additives currently used. This cuts total fossil fuel consumption without wasting food crops and arable land that could better be used to feed people.
The water put in the algae farms will undergo a process of settling and bio-purification as the algae pulls the toxins, that are its food, out of the water. Much of the water will evaporate during several of the processing stages, off gassing to rejoin the hydration cycle. The water that remains at the end will be almost pure and quite suitable for uses such as irrigation. Another use, if the water isn’t completely pure, would be the creation of artificial wetlands that will provide wildlife habitat and natural water purification as well as drawing carbon out of the atmosphere.
What remains of the algae after fermentation can be dried and mixed with the post process sludge left over from the treated solids. This material is a rich soil that can be used for the growth of non-edible crops such as hemp, cotton, pulp trees and soy, if used for ink production. Sadly, due to the fact it may contain heavy metals, that would be dumped into the environment by most treatment plants anyways, it isn’t advisable to use this sludge for food crops. Though the areas the sludge are used on will drop heavy metal concentration over time due to natural processes.
Now you may say this sounds like perpetual motion, but if you think about it there are several energy inputs. First the waste material. Feces is loaded with potential energy. All this does is transform it into a form we can use. Second the sun on the algae inputs energy.
It is interesting to note that several aid organisations have been supplying small methane composting systems to homes and villages in the third world. This is done in an attempt to supply amenities such as electricity that will encourage people to stay in rural areas and not add to the over crowding of the cities. Another benefit of this form of grass roots methane composting is it can preserve trees by reducing people’s reliance on wood for heating and cooking fuel.
So there you have it. A rich energy source that most of us are currently flushing away.
Now for some reasonable comments people have made to me.
If it is cost effective why isn’t everyone doing it?
Because we haven’t placed any real costs on environmental degradation and up until now there were relatively plentiful sources of non-sustainable energy.
It can’t supply all the power the city needs.
No it can’t, but think of it like your kid earning money with a summer job for collage. If he or she earned let’s say twenty percent of what it costs that can make the difference between them getting an education and them not, even though you’re paying the other eighty percent. That eighty percent might be all you can afford. Even if you can afford more the child’s contribution will free up money for your retirement savings. We need to shift to an energy mosaic with many small sustainable inputs taking the place of large unsustainable ones. Also it makes a profit. The city in the USA I mentioned earlier found that if they factored in the fuel costs for running the city vehicles, in other words looked at how much they would have had to pay for fuel, the sewage treatment plant was running at a profit. I don’t have the numbers for the Hamilton facility, but I’m sure they’re similar.
Those algae pools will leak carbon dioxide.
Yup, some will escape. Would you rather be kicked in the head one time or ten? Same question.
Disease organisms will be in the methane.
Which is burnt to generate electricity. This is a legitimate objection if one is using the methane for cooking fuel, but not for this application.
Those algae farms will take up a lot of space.
Some I admit, but they can be put on roof tops where the water evaporation during the summer will help cool the buildings and on waste land left from demolitions. There is also land poisoned by industrial waste, old land fills. Heck they could even be incorporated into floating barges. Let’s face it, we’ve created quite a mess for ourselves.
In short, we’ve largely ignored a major resource for too long. This won’t solve all our problems but it can alleviate them reducing our reliance on non-local energy and drastically reducing a major source of greenhouse gasses.
Let us begin with our toilet where we flush waste that at present, in most municipalities, is treated then dumped into the environment taking energy and money out of the system as a whole.
From the toilet, which should be flushed with rain water, see section one, the waste will flow to the treatment plant as it does today. Here the solids and liquids will undergo a separation process, basically straining the waste. Let’s follow the solids that at this point are a sticky semi liquid sludge. This sludge is directed into fermentation tanks where it is allowed to rot generating methane gas, as it would anyway. This gas is collected and used to fuel methane powered electric generators. This electricity is sold to the electricity grid supplying a source of revenue to the community. The waste heat from the generators is shunted into the fermentation tanks maintaining them at the optimal temperature for methane production. Additional waste heat can be used for supplying hot water and heat for the treatment plant in general. This is done through a simple radiator and pipe system not unlike the one in most of our cars.
The advantages to this are enormous. For one, methane is about six times more effective as a greenhouse gas then carbon dioxide. By converting the methane into carbon dioxide through burning you immediately reduce the climate impact of the city’s solid waste to one sixth of what it would otherwise be. The electricity and heat are also bonuses adding money to the city’s coffers and reducing heating costs.
The system so far, I am proud to say, has been adopted by my home town, Hamilton Ontario, Canada. I will give credit where credit is due and I must salute my city council for having the vision to do the right thing on this score. If any of you are reading this, don’t get use to it. I’m still an annoying git who thinks you could do better!
I am aware of another city in the states where they use a similar system to supply the fuel that they run their city vehicles on. The basic system dates back to the late eighteen hundreds when it was used to supply methane for gas lighting for several English cities.
The waste products from the solid processing are a sludge that can be dried using the sun and carbon dioxide. We will come back to both of these later.
For now let us address the separated liquid waste. This should be channelled into algae farms. These are basically shallow ponds with a low, greenhouse-like cover. The waste water is already full of nutrients that the algae will absorb to grow thereby cleaning the water.
The waste carbon dioxide from the electrical generators is channelled into the algae farms. This makes use of the heat being lost in the exhaust by warming the farms and the carbon dioxide is fixed by the algae, keeping most of it out of the environment. A heat dissipation system, a radiator, can be used to pre-process the exhaust during periods of high heat and bypassed to heat the algae ponds during periods of low heat. The exhaust gasses should be bubbled through the pond water, which will have the effect of catching most forms of pollutants that might creep in, though these would be minor at most.
The algae is allowed to grow. Now what happens next depends on future science. Currently, Exxon is funding research to bio-engineer algae that could produce more and better oils. These bio-engendered forms would presumably excrete the oil and it could be collected and separated from the water. The oils would then be processed at existing petroleum processing plants to make petroleum products.
At present what would be done is the algae would be harvested and processed to make bio-diesel. There is a pilot plant in the USA that is currently developing the techniques to do this on an industrial scale. The bio-diesel is an ideal home-heating fuel and can be used to run any diesel engine. It’s one draw back is a tendency to become a jell at temperatures around 10 degrees C / 50 degrees F or lower. There are regions where this isn’t a problem and regions where it’s not a problem during the summer. Also, nothing says you can’t cut diesel from other sources with bio-diesel to make a more temperature-tolerant, hybrid fuel. Another use would be to use the bio-diesel to run a diesel-powered, electric generator, taking the waste heat from that and using it to keep the fuel in the storage takes liquid while feeding the carbon emissions back into the algae farm and the electricity into the power grid.
After being processed for it’s oils, the algae can be mixed with water that has done its time in the algae tanks and fermented to generate ethanol. That ethanol can be distilled using waste heat from the electrical generators and used as an additive to gasoline doing the job of several of the most polluting additives currently used. This cuts total fossil fuel consumption without wasting food crops and arable land that could better be used to feed people.
The water put in the algae farms will undergo a process of settling and bio-purification as the algae pulls the toxins, that are its food, out of the water. Much of the water will evaporate during several of the processing stages, off gassing to rejoin the hydration cycle. The water that remains at the end will be almost pure and quite suitable for uses such as irrigation. Another use, if the water isn’t completely pure, would be the creation of artificial wetlands that will provide wildlife habitat and natural water purification as well as drawing carbon out of the atmosphere.
What remains of the algae after fermentation can be dried and mixed with the post process sludge left over from the treated solids. This material is a rich soil that can be used for the growth of non-edible crops such as hemp, cotton, pulp trees and soy, if used for ink production. Sadly, due to the fact it may contain heavy metals, that would be dumped into the environment by most treatment plants anyways, it isn’t advisable to use this sludge for food crops. Though the areas the sludge are used on will drop heavy metal concentration over time due to natural processes.
Now you may say this sounds like perpetual motion, but if you think about it there are several energy inputs. First the waste material. Feces is loaded with potential energy. All this does is transform it into a form we can use. Second the sun on the algae inputs energy.
It is interesting to note that several aid organisations have been supplying small methane composting systems to homes and villages in the third world. This is done in an attempt to supply amenities such as electricity that will encourage people to stay in rural areas and not add to the over crowding of the cities. Another benefit of this form of grass roots methane composting is it can preserve trees by reducing people’s reliance on wood for heating and cooking fuel.
So there you have it. A rich energy source that most of us are currently flushing away.
Now for some reasonable comments people have made to me.
If it is cost effective why isn’t everyone doing it?
Because we haven’t placed any real costs on environmental degradation and up until now there were relatively plentiful sources of non-sustainable energy.
It can’t supply all the power the city needs.
No it can’t, but think of it like your kid earning money with a summer job for collage. If he or she earned let’s say twenty percent of what it costs that can make the difference between them getting an education and them not, even though you’re paying the other eighty percent. That eighty percent might be all you can afford. Even if you can afford more the child’s contribution will free up money for your retirement savings. We need to shift to an energy mosaic with many small sustainable inputs taking the place of large unsustainable ones. Also it makes a profit. The city in the USA I mentioned earlier found that if they factored in the fuel costs for running the city vehicles, in other words looked at how much they would have had to pay for fuel, the sewage treatment plant was running at a profit. I don’t have the numbers for the Hamilton facility, but I’m sure they’re similar.
Those algae pools will leak carbon dioxide.
Yup, some will escape. Would you rather be kicked in the head one time or ten? Same question.
Disease organisms will be in the methane.
Which is burnt to generate electricity. This is a legitimate objection if one is using the methane for cooking fuel, but not for this application.
Those algae farms will take up a lot of space.
Some I admit, but they can be put on roof tops where the water evaporation during the summer will help cool the buildings and on waste land left from demolitions. There is also land poisoned by industrial waste, old land fills. Heck they could even be incorporated into floating barges. Let’s face it, we’ve created quite a mess for ourselves.
In short, we’ve largely ignored a major resource for too long. This won’t solve all our problems but it can alleviate them reducing our reliance on non-local energy and drastically reducing a major source of greenhouse gasses.
August 16, 2010
Gray Water
I said I’d get to it. To follow this section we need to define some terms. Potable water is fit to drink. Black water is sewage, effectively used toilet water. Grey water is waste water without excrement or urine in it. Examples are used shower and bath water, dishwashing water, used laundry water, and the like.
We flush a huge amount of grey water down the drain every day. This places excess strain on sewage treatment plants and generally overloads the drainage systems of our cities and towns. It also puts added strain on our clean water treatment plants and pumping facilities because it all has to be supplied to our homes and we are squandering fully potable water for things like watering our lawns.
Grey water is no longer drinkable, although it would be considered clean by the standards in much of the world. This doesn’t mean it should go to waste. Grey water is ideal for watering the garden. Doing a soap wash on the car followed by a clean water rinse, hosing off the deck and a variety of other uses. By using it for these purposes we reduce our draw on the water treatment and pumping stations and lower the shear volume of water going through the sewers. This saves energy, money and means that existing facilities can supply a larger number of homes before they have to expand.
How it works.
In brief, a collection tank is put in the basement of the home and diversion pipes are placed on the drain lines between the appliances, sink, laundry, dishwasher, what have you, and the waste water collection stack. The diversion pipes may have a valve placed close to where they connect to the drain line. More on that later. The diversion pipes all lead into the collection tank. A pipe comes from the top of the storage tank and links into the vent stack system so the air that is displaced when the tank fills is vented outside the house. The collection tank has a valve and drain at its base that empties into the sewer system. This is so that the contents of the tank can be flushed occasionally to carry away any solid residue that may accumulate in the collection tank. The collection tank also has an over flow that can either drain into the sewer or, depending on height of the over flow, how damp the soil is and ease of access, outside the house into the garden. The overflow from the rain collection tank could also flow into the grey water tank.
All pipes, except the large line with the dump valve in it at the bottom of the tank, leaving the grey water tank have coarse filters on them to prevent large particulate matter leaving the tank. The main line from the grey water tank is the supply line with a pump on it that goes outside the house so that it can be attached to sprinklers and the like.
Now for the reason for the inline valves on some fixtures. There are appliances that at times you may wish to run directly into the sewer. Examples of these might be a washing machine doing diapers. A shower, after you’ve spent the day under your pickup truck putting in a new clutch and having a transmission fall on you cracking several ribs because some demented gorilla of a mechanic couldn’t be bothered to restart a cross threaded nut and you had to snap it off then re-drill the mount and.... Deep breath, wipe away the rabid drool. If you are covered in a variety of petrochemical products and metal shavings, you will probably want your wash water to go directly into the sewer. In short, some times you might feel the grey water is sufficiently polluted it should be disposed of. On those rare occasions, a turn of the valve and the water will go straight into the sewer. Most of the time though you get to water your lawn for free.
Objections
Objector. That soap and stuff will hurt my plants.
Answer. As long as some care is taken to use bio-degradable soaps and the like, they will form a low grade fertiliser enriching your soil. Also, spraying plants with soapy water is an excellent way to discourage pests.
Objector. Someone might drink it.
Answer. Believe it or not, this is the excuse my city gave me for grey water tanks being illegal in my area. This is despite the fact that they are actively encouraged in a nearby community. The answer is simple. The water will only flow out of the hose when the pump is on. Put the pumps on off switch in the house.
Objector. What good will it do? The water still needs to be pumped.
Answer. It takes a lot less energy to pump a litre or water thirty metres than three thousand metres.
Oh heck, because from past experience I know someone will call me up on it. Metre = base unit, about a man’s stride in length. Kilometre, Kilo = 1,000 so 1,000 metres. Centimetre centi = 100 so centimetre = 1/100 of a metre Milli = 1/1,000 so a millimetre is 1/1000 of a metre.
I’m not going to try to convert because that’s where it gets confusing and stupid. Metric is a great system just don’t try to mate it to imperial. I can work in both but the only place I use imperial is when I’m working on my house. It was built in the 1940s and it’s easer to stay consistent. Now back to my scheduled rant.
Objector. Suppose you want to water your lawn but the collection tank is empty.
Answer. Using tap water is still an option.
One interesting thing with grey water is that while retrofitting an apartment building would be harder than a house, the potential collection capacity is so much greater that you could move it to the next level and water city parks and the like with water gleaned from nearby high rises.
Another advantage with grey water reclamation is that you can add a heat pump to the collection tank and use waste heat in the waste water to supply your hot water needs at a fraction of the cost in energy and money that other methods would require.
So folks, let’s annoy some of those over paid fat cat politicians who do nothing but call each other names, vote themselves raises and suck up your tax dollars, to change some plumbing codes to at least let people do the right thing for themselves. Maybe even change the building codes so new structures and major retrofits will be obliged to include grey water tanks. What do you say?
We flush a huge amount of grey water down the drain every day. This places excess strain on sewage treatment plants and generally overloads the drainage systems of our cities and towns. It also puts added strain on our clean water treatment plants and pumping facilities because it all has to be supplied to our homes and we are squandering fully potable water for things like watering our lawns.
Grey water is no longer drinkable, although it would be considered clean by the standards in much of the world. This doesn’t mean it should go to waste. Grey water is ideal for watering the garden. Doing a soap wash on the car followed by a clean water rinse, hosing off the deck and a variety of other uses. By using it for these purposes we reduce our draw on the water treatment and pumping stations and lower the shear volume of water going through the sewers. This saves energy, money and means that existing facilities can supply a larger number of homes before they have to expand.
How it works.
In brief, a collection tank is put in the basement of the home and diversion pipes are placed on the drain lines between the appliances, sink, laundry, dishwasher, what have you, and the waste water collection stack. The diversion pipes may have a valve placed close to where they connect to the drain line. More on that later. The diversion pipes all lead into the collection tank. A pipe comes from the top of the storage tank and links into the vent stack system so the air that is displaced when the tank fills is vented outside the house. The collection tank has a valve and drain at its base that empties into the sewer system. This is so that the contents of the tank can be flushed occasionally to carry away any solid residue that may accumulate in the collection tank. The collection tank also has an over flow that can either drain into the sewer or, depending on height of the over flow, how damp the soil is and ease of access, outside the house into the garden. The overflow from the rain collection tank could also flow into the grey water tank.
All pipes, except the large line with the dump valve in it at the bottom of the tank, leaving the grey water tank have coarse filters on them to prevent large particulate matter leaving the tank. The main line from the grey water tank is the supply line with a pump on it that goes outside the house so that it can be attached to sprinklers and the like.
Now for the reason for the inline valves on some fixtures. There are appliances that at times you may wish to run directly into the sewer. Examples of these might be a washing machine doing diapers. A shower, after you’ve spent the day under your pickup truck putting in a new clutch and having a transmission fall on you cracking several ribs because some demented gorilla of a mechanic couldn’t be bothered to restart a cross threaded nut and you had to snap it off then re-drill the mount and.... Deep breath, wipe away the rabid drool. If you are covered in a variety of petrochemical products and metal shavings, you will probably want your wash water to go directly into the sewer. In short, some times you might feel the grey water is sufficiently polluted it should be disposed of. On those rare occasions, a turn of the valve and the water will go straight into the sewer. Most of the time though you get to water your lawn for free.
Objections
Objector. That soap and stuff will hurt my plants.
Answer. As long as some care is taken to use bio-degradable soaps and the like, they will form a low grade fertiliser enriching your soil. Also, spraying plants with soapy water is an excellent way to discourage pests.
Objector. Someone might drink it.
Answer. Believe it or not, this is the excuse my city gave me for grey water tanks being illegal in my area. This is despite the fact that they are actively encouraged in a nearby community. The answer is simple. The water will only flow out of the hose when the pump is on. Put the pumps on off switch in the house.
Objector. What good will it do? The water still needs to be pumped.
Answer. It takes a lot less energy to pump a litre or water thirty metres than three thousand metres.
Oh heck, because from past experience I know someone will call me up on it. Metre = base unit, about a man’s stride in length. Kilometre, Kilo = 1,000 so 1,000 metres. Centimetre centi = 100 so centimetre = 1/100 of a metre Milli = 1/1,000 so a millimetre is 1/1000 of a metre.
I’m not going to try to convert because that’s where it gets confusing and stupid. Metric is a great system just don’t try to mate it to imperial. I can work in both but the only place I use imperial is when I’m working on my house. It was built in the 1940s and it’s easer to stay consistent. Now back to my scheduled rant.
Objector. Suppose you want to water your lawn but the collection tank is empty.
Answer. Using tap water is still an option.
One interesting thing with grey water is that while retrofitting an apartment building would be harder than a house, the potential collection capacity is so much greater that you could move it to the next level and water city parks and the like with water gleaned from nearby high rises.
Another advantage with grey water reclamation is that you can add a heat pump to the collection tank and use waste heat in the waste water to supply your hot water needs at a fraction of the cost in energy and money that other methods would require.
So folks, let’s annoy some of those over paid fat cat politicians who do nothing but call each other names, vote themselves raises and suck up your tax dollars, to change some plumbing codes to at least let people do the right thing for themselves. Maybe even change the building codes so new structures and major retrofits will be obliged to include grey water tanks. What do you say?
July 30, 2010
SAVING THE WORLD, SAVING OURSELVES
SAVING THE WORLD, SAVING OURSELVES
This is the first in a series of blogs based on research I did for my novel, Tinker's Plague, and information I've gleaned over many years of interest in environmental technologies. Like most of the answers that present themselves to the problems of human excess on our world, singularly no one of the ideas presented in this series would make a huge difference. Collectively I feel they have the potential to save the human race. Please note what I am trying to save because the world will go on weather or not humanity destroys our current environment. Life is likely to continue on this world despite the best efforts of some to wipe it out through their adherence to superstition, greed, short sightedness, and stupidity. Multicellular life will probably survive our demise. So at most we clever apes have the potential to set evolution back a couple hundred million years, probably not that much, only a tick on the cosmic clock.
The real question is not weather or not we want to save the world? Save the whales? Save the great apes? The question my friends, is do we want to save ourselves? Keeping all this in mind I'm going to put forward suggestions, some of which are in the preview of the common citizen of Earth to enact, others of which will require the participation of larger social structures.
They way I will try to be different is that I will offer solutions. Many of them will be partial lessoning the problems we face not eliminating them. I personally feel there has been too much helpless hand wringing by the green community. I also am not an extremist. I know human needs and desires have to be taken into account. So I seek different ways of doing things that still serve those needs. In short, I don’t say stop driving. I do say tune your car’s engine check your catalytic converter and generally a subcompact is better than an SUV.
SECTION ONE
RAIN CATCHMENT
This is an idea applicable to most inhabited areas that can be simply enacted with a bit of government will.
Huge amounts of energy are used every day to purify and pump water in cities around the globe. As well, much of this water once pumped and used then ends up costing us more energy to clean before we put it back into the environment. This is essential, clean water is the lifeblood of human habitation. One simple way we could reduce the energy and environmental cost of this process in most human cities is to use nature=s gift, rain. What I propose is that the building codes be changed so that all new construction, and all major renovations, where adding the necessary components would not increase the total cost by more than 10 percent, be built with a rain catchment system. This takes the rain that lands on the roof and directs it into a storage tank situated just below the roofline. This tank can then gravity feed the toilets removing the single biggest user of water in most homes from the cities water supply system.
A quick sketch of how the system would work is as follows. Rain falls on the roof and is directed into the gutters, which have leaf screens on them. A pipe with a course screen cover to prevent large refuse falling down it takes this water and directs it into a storage tank. This tank is equipped with an overflow that will drain into the house=s gray-water tank. (More about that later.) Here the water is stored until a toilet is flushed.
When a toilet is flushed water gravity flows from the rain storage tank past a valve though a course filter and past another valve. The valves are there to facilitate cleaning the filter screen which is easily accessible vie a hatch in the pipe. Cleaning this filter would be no more complex than replacing the air filter in a central heating system. Close the valves open the hatch pull out the filter rinse it off put it back close the hatch and open the valves.
After the second valve the water reaches tank two through a float valve similar to the one you probably have in your toilet right now. This tank and valve assembly is very reminiscent of a household toilet=s back tank. The only real difference is that it contains two float assemblies. One float valve is hooked up to tank one allowing the rainwater to fill tank two. The second float valve is situated so that it will never open unless tank two is less than a third full. This second float valve is connected to the city water supply in case tank one runs dry. This insures there will always be water to flush the toilets. The water line serving tank two from the city main is protected by a one-way valve so there is no way the rain water could infiltrate the city system.
From tank two water lines run to the toilets in the house supplying water for flushing.
The advantages of a system like this are many.
One, less water is pumped and purified saving energy.
Two, it reduces the strain on existing water treatment facilities extending their life and allowing the existing facilities to supply a greater number of homes thus putting off the expense of building new facilities.
Three, in advent of emergency people have a store of water that a quick boiling and trip through a coffee filter will render drinkable.
For, it removes a huge amount of run off water when there is a rainstorm because the tanks must fill before any of that water passes through the overflow. I am the first to admit that the real solution to this problem is to have the storm and waist sewers separate, but as that will take time to accomplish very real benefits can be realised from this water diversion.
Now for the inevitable objections.
What about my dog, it drinks out of the toilet?
Answer: That=s disgusting at best. The water in your toilet is riddled with bacteria or riddled with chemicals, take your pick. Give your dog a water bowl and put a child guard on the toilet lid if you have to.
What about the old people having to wash that filter?
Answer: if they are fit enough to wash the dishes they are fit enough to do this. Honestly, most older folk I=ve talked to about this liked the idea of being a little less dependent on the government to supply something as essential as water.
That's yucky. I want every bit of water that comes into my house to reek of chemicals so I have to filter it before I drink it.
Answer: Sadly, I have to share the planet with you, so why should your obsession with a whiter than white marketing ploy mean that the people I care about should live in a poisoned toxic world? Get a life!
Why should we do this? Things have always been fine. It=s all bunk!
Answer: Wake up, the world is not the same as it was a hundred years ago. We have a much larger population, we have far more technology, the amount of carbon we as a species are releasing into the atmosphere is substantially higher and there are hosts of chemicals that exist today that didn=t twenty years ago. The world has changed as has our place in it. Things are not as they have always been. Did you hitch up a buggy and drive the team five miles into town to do the shopping? How about walking to work? Things have changed, we now have to accept it and work to keep our standard of living while mitigating it=s impact.
Please note: Intelligent objections to this system, or anything I mention here, and suggestions for refining it are most welcome. I don=t define anybody who disagrees with me is an enmiey. I simply have little use for those who object to new ways of doing things for no better reason than an unwillingness to accept anything new or a complete disregard for the well being of future generations.
Problems with the system.
These exist with everything and are why environmental technologies are best used in a targeted way. The main problem with a system like this is it is of limited value in multi-story apartment complexes. Unless one is in an extremely rainy environment it is unlikely that the limited roof space of an apartment building would collect enough water to make much difference to the overall water consumption. This may not be true of some low-rise building, but for many structures the cost may outweigh the benefit. In this application the local rainfall and size of building would have to be factored in on a case-by-case basses to determine system viability.
Residential homes with their more favourable ratio of roof space to toilets will in almost all environments prove viable for rainwater flushing.
The tanks weight will require additional reinforcement of the part of the building structure that carries it. The long-term gains from the system far outweigh the short-term costs of building a little more solidly for one section of wall and floor.
THE NEXT STEP
What is above is the most basic of systems it can be expanded drastically. The simplest expansion would be to add a fine grain filter into the system and use the rainwater for the washing of clothes. A further expansion would be to add a system for sterilising the water and use it for bathing and drinking.
Sterilising the water can be accomplished but running it through a UV light tank, or by chemical means. Boiling would also work though it is rather energy intensive.
One place to find good information on rainwater systems ranging from the simple to the advanced is Mother Earth News Magazine issue No. 199. The article in addition to being in itself highly informative lists source material that can guide one further on their rainwater odyssey.
The reason I shy away from more advanced rainwater systems for general application is complexity, cost, and the knowledge base needed to maintain it. The advanced systems would seem to lend themselves to rural areas, especially ones where human activity have poisoned the ground water making well water unavailable.
As to why use rainwater for flushing toilets. While rainwater is excellent for watering the garden this task can be accomplished more efficiently by the use of Grey Water (coming soon) and toilets are a major domestic load that non-potable water can easily fulfil.
This is the first in a series of blogs based on research I did for my novel, Tinker's Plague, and information I've gleaned over many years of interest in environmental technologies. Like most of the answers that present themselves to the problems of human excess on our world, singularly no one of the ideas presented in this series would make a huge difference. Collectively I feel they have the potential to save the human race. Please note what I am trying to save because the world will go on weather or not humanity destroys our current environment. Life is likely to continue on this world despite the best efforts of some to wipe it out through their adherence to superstition, greed, short sightedness, and stupidity. Multicellular life will probably survive our demise. So at most we clever apes have the potential to set evolution back a couple hundred million years, probably not that much, only a tick on the cosmic clock.
The real question is not weather or not we want to save the world? Save the whales? Save the great apes? The question my friends, is do we want to save ourselves? Keeping all this in mind I'm going to put forward suggestions, some of which are in the preview of the common citizen of Earth to enact, others of which will require the participation of larger social structures.
They way I will try to be different is that I will offer solutions. Many of them will be partial lessoning the problems we face not eliminating them. I personally feel there has been too much helpless hand wringing by the green community. I also am not an extremist. I know human needs and desires have to be taken into account. So I seek different ways of doing things that still serve those needs. In short, I don’t say stop driving. I do say tune your car’s engine check your catalytic converter and generally a subcompact is better than an SUV.
SECTION ONE
RAIN CATCHMENT
This is an idea applicable to most inhabited areas that can be simply enacted with a bit of government will.
Huge amounts of energy are used every day to purify and pump water in cities around the globe. As well, much of this water once pumped and used then ends up costing us more energy to clean before we put it back into the environment. This is essential, clean water is the lifeblood of human habitation. One simple way we could reduce the energy and environmental cost of this process in most human cities is to use nature=s gift, rain. What I propose is that the building codes be changed so that all new construction, and all major renovations, where adding the necessary components would not increase the total cost by more than 10 percent, be built with a rain catchment system. This takes the rain that lands on the roof and directs it into a storage tank situated just below the roofline. This tank can then gravity feed the toilets removing the single biggest user of water in most homes from the cities water supply system.
A quick sketch of how the system would work is as follows. Rain falls on the roof and is directed into the gutters, which have leaf screens on them. A pipe with a course screen cover to prevent large refuse falling down it takes this water and directs it into a storage tank. This tank is equipped with an overflow that will drain into the house=s gray-water tank. (More about that later.) Here the water is stored until a toilet is flushed.
When a toilet is flushed water gravity flows from the rain storage tank past a valve though a course filter and past another valve. The valves are there to facilitate cleaning the filter screen which is easily accessible vie a hatch in the pipe. Cleaning this filter would be no more complex than replacing the air filter in a central heating system. Close the valves open the hatch pull out the filter rinse it off put it back close the hatch and open the valves.
After the second valve the water reaches tank two through a float valve similar to the one you probably have in your toilet right now. This tank and valve assembly is very reminiscent of a household toilet=s back tank. The only real difference is that it contains two float assemblies. One float valve is hooked up to tank one allowing the rainwater to fill tank two. The second float valve is situated so that it will never open unless tank two is less than a third full. This second float valve is connected to the city water supply in case tank one runs dry. This insures there will always be water to flush the toilets. The water line serving tank two from the city main is protected by a one-way valve so there is no way the rain water could infiltrate the city system.
From tank two water lines run to the toilets in the house supplying water for flushing.
The advantages of a system like this are many.
One, less water is pumped and purified saving energy.
Two, it reduces the strain on existing water treatment facilities extending their life and allowing the existing facilities to supply a greater number of homes thus putting off the expense of building new facilities.
Three, in advent of emergency people have a store of water that a quick boiling and trip through a coffee filter will render drinkable.
For, it removes a huge amount of run off water when there is a rainstorm because the tanks must fill before any of that water passes through the overflow. I am the first to admit that the real solution to this problem is to have the storm and waist sewers separate, but as that will take time to accomplish very real benefits can be realised from this water diversion.
Now for the inevitable objections.
What about my dog, it drinks out of the toilet?
Answer: That=s disgusting at best. The water in your toilet is riddled with bacteria or riddled with chemicals, take your pick. Give your dog a water bowl and put a child guard on the toilet lid if you have to.
What about the old people having to wash that filter?
Answer: if they are fit enough to wash the dishes they are fit enough to do this. Honestly, most older folk I=ve talked to about this liked the idea of being a little less dependent on the government to supply something as essential as water.
That's yucky. I want every bit of water that comes into my house to reek of chemicals so I have to filter it before I drink it.
Answer: Sadly, I have to share the planet with you, so why should your obsession with a whiter than white marketing ploy mean that the people I care about should live in a poisoned toxic world? Get a life!
Why should we do this? Things have always been fine. It=s all bunk!
Answer: Wake up, the world is not the same as it was a hundred years ago. We have a much larger population, we have far more technology, the amount of carbon we as a species are releasing into the atmosphere is substantially higher and there are hosts of chemicals that exist today that didn=t twenty years ago. The world has changed as has our place in it. Things are not as they have always been. Did you hitch up a buggy and drive the team five miles into town to do the shopping? How about walking to work? Things have changed, we now have to accept it and work to keep our standard of living while mitigating it=s impact.
Please note: Intelligent objections to this system, or anything I mention here, and suggestions for refining it are most welcome. I don=t define anybody who disagrees with me is an enmiey. I simply have little use for those who object to new ways of doing things for no better reason than an unwillingness to accept anything new or a complete disregard for the well being of future generations.
Problems with the system.
These exist with everything and are why environmental technologies are best used in a targeted way. The main problem with a system like this is it is of limited value in multi-story apartment complexes. Unless one is in an extremely rainy environment it is unlikely that the limited roof space of an apartment building would collect enough water to make much difference to the overall water consumption. This may not be true of some low-rise building, but for many structures the cost may outweigh the benefit. In this application the local rainfall and size of building would have to be factored in on a case-by-case basses to determine system viability.
Residential homes with their more favourable ratio of roof space to toilets will in almost all environments prove viable for rainwater flushing.
The tanks weight will require additional reinforcement of the part of the building structure that carries it. The long-term gains from the system far outweigh the short-term costs of building a little more solidly for one section of wall and floor.
THE NEXT STEP
What is above is the most basic of systems it can be expanded drastically. The simplest expansion would be to add a fine grain filter into the system and use the rainwater for the washing of clothes. A further expansion would be to add a system for sterilising the water and use it for bathing and drinking.
Sterilising the water can be accomplished but running it through a UV light tank, or by chemical means. Boiling would also work though it is rather energy intensive.
One place to find good information on rainwater systems ranging from the simple to the advanced is Mother Earth News Magazine issue No. 199. The article in addition to being in itself highly informative lists source material that can guide one further on their rainwater odyssey.
The reason I shy away from more advanced rainwater systems for general application is complexity, cost, and the knowledge base needed to maintain it. The advanced systems would seem to lend themselves to rural areas, especially ones where human activity have poisoned the ground water making well water unavailable.
As to why use rainwater for flushing toilets. While rainwater is excellent for watering the garden this task can be accomplished more efficiently by the use of Grey Water (coming soon) and toilets are a major domestic load that non-potable water can easily fulfil.
