Trudy Myers's Blog, page 49

Should I Try Something New?

Every author has their own methods of devising story plots. I do occasionally incorporate something of my dreams into my stories; a character, a scene, a situation. I do that rather sparingly, as I've learned that whatever I import from a dream doesn't hold up well through the many rewrites, and will either be pulled out because they no longer fit the story or will no longer bear any resemblance to the dream where they originally belonged.
I've been in recovery from surgery for about a week now. I do not consider this prime writing time, since my mind seems to be more confused than at other times. I have new activities that must be done - called physical therapy, meds that must be taken to keep the pain at bay, but otherwise make it hard to think, and sleep comes in naps ranging from 1-4 hours.
And yet ...
Most of those naps have ended with a simple typed paragraph, all variations on a theme. This is something new; I don't 'see' my stories as typed manuscripts, they come to me as movie scenes. I noticed, as they kept appearing, that they seemed to be summaries of various experiments where one ending is expected ... but they keep getting another ending.
I've let these paragraphs wander through my subconscious, wondering if I could possibly do justice to the story they seem to be pointing me to. It looks like it would be some sort of exo-psychological court drama.
Really! And it comes to ME to be written? I have enough trouble trying to figure out humans, let alone aliens. I don't have any real understanding of human psychology, and the fine niceties of human laws flow at least 10 feet over my head.
Still, it's an intriguing ideal. I didn't expect to take on a new and challenging project at this time. What doesn't kills us makes us better, right?

NASA News 2

NASA News 2
 
Now to get back to that informational talk NASA personnel gave at the Orlando Science Center. I believe the next subject was the Kepler telescope.
The purpose of the Kepler telescope is to examine one tiny section of this galaxy looking for planets. That's all. And it does a wonderful job of it, including some planets that are more or less earth-like AND in that star's Goldilocks Zone. Personally, I was surprised to learn that the Kepler telescope does not orbit Earth, but is actually located quite a distance from us. I was dismayed to hear that a short time ago, the second of its 4 stabilizers went out. It had been working 'okay' with only 3, but with 2, it is now rotating, unable to keep track of the section of the galaxy it's supposed to examine. Since it is so far away, chances are it will not be repaired. And that is a bummer.
Then we turned to Mars. I don't remember a specific number being mentioned, but there have been a lot of attempts to land a probe on Mars, by many different countries. The US is the only one who has managed to have any of their Martian probes still function after landing.
Apparently, Mars is very difficult to land on. It has enough gravity to pull things down really fast, but not enough air for wings or parachutes to do much good. If I remember correctly, the density of Martian air at the surface is only 17% of Earth's atmosphere density at sea level. It's why we've gotten so creative with our landing methods, from bouncey balls to floating cranes.
Discovery is our most recent probe sent to Mars, and it's about the size of a van. Can you imagine tooling around Mars in an intelligent van? It has to have some ability to make its own decisions, because calling for help, waiting for humans to figure out the answer and send it back takes too long.
Intelligent robots. The future is here. And we sent it to Mars.

Conquest 2013

On our way home from Florida, Hubby and I paused in Kansas City to attend Conquest. Hubby would participate in 3 panels. I also had 3 panels, plus I had a time set aside for a reading and autograph session!
I didn't do as well with those panels as I'd hoped I would. I thought I was ready, but my shyness asserted itself; I gave short answers, I didn't insert my 2 cents if it meant interrupting, and on one panel in particular, I found myself unable to invent wild tales at a second's notice. Yes, I'm a writer, and I do spin wild tales, but they don't come to me at the snap of a finger.
As a panelist, I need to 'grow', but at least I didn't completely freeze, so that's a point in my favor.
I didn't get to any of the parties on Friday night, so I made an effort to make the rounds on Saturday night. I didn't expect to be the life of any party, I just wanted to find a drink (soda) and join in a little conversation with - well, anybody. And then move on to another party/conversation. Dip my toe in, you might say, rather than hide in my room. My introverted self kept me from spending more than a few minutes in any one party, so it didn't take me long before I got to scurry back to my room. And I survived! So next con, I'll work on spending a few more minutes at the parties.
My reading was scheduled for 10 AM on Sunday. What few people were up that early chose to attend a different panel, so the only ones there were me, Hubby and the other author sharing that time slot. I did do my reading, for the practice, and Hubby gave me some pointers later. When Dennis did his reading, I realized I had read at least one of his books, probably two of them, possibly as many as three! So that was a nice discovery! And I knew better than to be upset by the poor turn-out. I was happy to be ON the schedule, happy for the opportunity to practice.
All in all, Conquest was a good experience for an author taking her first few steps to market herself and her work.

NASA News

Yesterday, my husband and I visited the Orlando Science Center. We'd heard they had a NASA person coming in to give a talk on Curiosity, their latest probe on Mars. Since we both had expected there to be at least one space station, a moon base and a Martian colony by now, we are always eager to hear if we're getting any closer to that.The talk started with a few questions from the audience as the rest of the audience filed into the auditorium. One guy asked if it was true NASA had recently launched from some old base in Maryland, and young Samantha, the rocket scientist who had been with NASA for 2 years, said, yes that was true. Then the guy asked if Maryland was a better location for launches than Florida. No, she returned, Florida was the better location for an equatorial orbit like the ones they want. Then why launch from Maryland at all? Sam, flustered, turned to her older cohort, Rich, who promptly answered, "Because some Congressman told us to."He went on to explain that this unnamed Congressman thought it would be a good idea for NASA to make some launches from his district, and because he thought that, they had to rebuild launch pads, construct a clean room and several other buildings, and finally, make a launch. Billions of dollars used for that effort that some people feel could have been used in better ways. My first thought was that it was no wonder NASA was 'behind', if they had to stop and fulfill every Congressman's egotistical whim.They touched on the International Space station, roughly the size of a football field, counting all the solar panels, but the living space for the crew of 6 is about the size of the interior cabin of a 747. The ISS is expected to be decommissioned by 2020, did you know that? Well, the US expects to do that, but the Russians think it should be left there. The Russians tend to keep using what they have until it can't be kept in one piece any more.There was a lot of information in that one-hour talk. Next week, I'll try to remember enough to talk about the Kepler telescope and the Curiosity robot on Mars.

A Rose by Any Other Name...

We’re all aware that language evolves, right?Somewhere in school - probably in an English class - the teacher gave us a glimpse at that evolution. Language in Europe and Asia started from an unknown Indo-European language that split into other languages, including Germanic and Latin. Latin developed into French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. That was all we heard about the ‘Romance Languages’.That teacher spent much more time on the Germanic tongue. I remember she mentioned High German and Low German, though I don’t remember what the difference was. As I remember it, the Low German used in the British Isles became Old English, then Middle English, and eventually, something that resembled the English we speak today. To emphasize how much the English language had changed, she had us students read The Canterbury Tales- in the original (Old? Middle? I don’t remember).It seemed hopeless, but I tried. If I was lucky, I might have seen 1 word out of 10 that possibly bore some semblance to a modern word, although the meaning had probably changed. Our ‘reading’ of the Tales was more of her translating to us.This past week, I read an article that asserted that at least 23 words had traveled down through the various versions of language relatively unchanged for the past 15,000 years. I read the article twice to be sure I understood what they were saying: A core vocabulary has remained fairly unchanged from the original Indo-European, and sound remarkably similar in the various regional languages in that area today.This list includes thou (you), I, not, that, we, who, man, mother, and hand. These are words that would have been used all the time, no matter what time period a person lived in. But as cave-dwellers became farmers, they would have needed new words to describe the soil, the plants and what they were doing with them. And so on until man’s vocabulary became full of ebooks, cyberspace and so on.A few words that appeared on this basic vocabulary list did surprise the researchers, and one was bark (of a tree). It’s not a word we use incredibly often today, and those not constantly used are the ones that change. Anthropologists explained that 10-15,000 years ago, tree bark would have been extremely important; people would have talked about it all the time.So, words change over time. It makes me wonder what a rose would have been called way back when. Maybe some sound combination that roughly translates into “pretty thing that stings”?

The Outer Goldilocks Planet

Last week I took a more detailed look at Kepler-62-e, one of two Goldilocks planets discovered recently. Today I'll give a few thoughts to its sibling, Kepler-62-f, which is a little further from their star.The article said 62-f might have a climate rather like Alaska. Again, I'm going to assume that means the temperate zone. And Alaska stretches from 51 to 71° North. The middle, then, is 61°, and if we move that down to 45° (the midpoint between the equator and north pole), we are moving 16°.If you remember from last week, Barrow AK sits at 71° North, so moving its climate 16° south would put it at 55°. This would mean the Alaskan panhandle, northern Ireland and the middle of Scotland/England would have 8 months of temperatures below freezing, and its warmest month would have an average temperature of 47. Brrr!The climate at the equator of this outer planet could be approximately what Earth has at 16° north or south. Brasilia, Brazil, is at 15 3/4° south, so I looked at its climate. The average temperature is about 69°F. The record low has been 32°F, and the record high has been 99°F.So that sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Nicely temperate around the middle. I'm thinking, though, that it could be pretty snow/ice bound around the poles, and extending about 1/3 of the way to the equator.The article did not offer any guesses about the ratio of water surface to land surface, and that ratio could definitely influence the climate. We could imagine whatever ratio we would like. If it's a pretty dry planet, there wouldn't be enough water to moderate the temperatures, so the cold temperatures might migrate even closer to the equator. On the other hand, with so little water available, the 'polar caps' might be only designated by temperature, or perhaps a dusting of snow, rather than the vast ice fields that Earth has.It's a nearly-blank slate, then. We have a little sense of what the climate might be like, the rest of the details are left for us to imagine. I can work with that.

The Inner Goldilocks Planet

I've been thinking about those twin Goldilocks planets I mentioned last week. That article had more details that I found intriguing but hadn't included in last week's post. So this week, I'm going to explore that inner planet a bit more.
The article claimed the inner planet might have a climate reminiscent of Hawaii or of Washington DC in May. I have to assume they meant that would be the 'average', and most likely found in the 'temperate zone', roughly 30 to 60 degrees North and South of the Equator.
On Earth, Hawaii stretches from 18 to 28 degrees North. To move that climate to the middle of the temperate zone would be a shift of 21 degrees. What does that do to the rest of the planet's climate, compared to Earth?
So I looked up Barrow, Alaska, which is located at 71 degrees North. That town has temperatures below freezing about 8 months of the year, and during its warmest month, the temperature averages 47 degrees F. Now, if we move that kind of climate another 21 degrees North-- well, we get 92 degrees North, and planets only go up to 90 degrees North or South. So it's possible the Inner Planet would not have any permanent ice caps.
What about the equator? The temperatures Earth experiences at our equator would now be normal at 21 degrees North and South. The area of our equator is mostly tropical rainforest or ocean, with little variety in temperature (high 80s) around the year. And it rains. A lot. I tried to look up some cities approximately 21 degrees N/S, to see what kind of temperature differences occur in that 21 degree difference. Antofagasta, Chile has an average temperature of 63. (It also sits in a desert where the only 'precipitation' comes as a thick morning fog, but we'll ignore that.) That's a difference of about 25 degrees, so I extrapolate that the average equatorial temperature of the Inner planet might be around 113 degrees F. Yes, definitely warmer than us.
It was also hypothesized that this might be an ocean planet and that some type of 'flying fish' might have evolved into 'birds'. Of course, if there isn't any land, those birds would not be able to rest unless they were some type of water fowl.
None of that would keep us from colonizing, if we were at that stage. Cities, towns, even farms could be placed on floating rafts and left to drift on the currents. Or given some motors so they could move out of the way of approaching storms. There have been people here on Earth designing such structures, to be set loose on our oceans.
There's got to be a few stories in amongst all those ideas, don't you think?

Goldilocks Twins

A few days ago, I ran across an article about Keplar-62-e and Keplar-62-f, two planets slightly larger than Earth that are circling the same star (Kepler-62) and are both in the 'Goldilocks Zone'. The Goldilocks Zone is a band of space orbiting stars where the temperature allows a planet to have liquid water, and thus, it is assumed the planet could possibly support life as we know it.
Can you imagine what it would be like, to have another habitable planet in your solar system? In the case of 62e and 62f, their orbits are so close (closer than Earth and Mars) that one would be a little warm, the other rather nippy. It is speculated that the warmer one might feel like Hawaii or possibly DC in May, while the cooler one would be more like Alaska. I think we could probably find people willing to colonize both of those possibilities.
I have a story universe that deals with this possibility. I'm pretty sure other authors have postulated the possibility of 2 habitable planets in one planetary system, although I cannot name any off the top of my head. In my version, the inner planet is warm and fairly dry, kind of like eastern Colorado, and has an intelligent dominant specie. The cooler planet is more humid, with lush flora, maybe like Montana, and has no dominant intelligent specie.
The people of Planet 1 have no interest in space travel, and visitors from other planets are greeted coolly. There is no general interest in most of the merchandize offered by other planets. Occasionally an individual tribal chief might be intrigued by some trinket or another, and can be cajoled into exchanging a slave or two for that trinket.
But most of the civilized planets do not condone slavery. Accepting slaves is seen as a rescue, the former slaves are retrained and assisted to readjust to a new kind of life. And eventually, those former slaves gather together and colonize the cooler planet.
If I understand the Keplar numbering system correctly, there are 4 other planets in the Goldilocks twin system, discovered before these 'habitable' planets. Sibling planets of the twins, but assumed barren. Of course, there's always the possibility of life as we don't know it.

The Proper Tool for the Job

My old computer was so ancient, I joked that every time I turned it on, I could hear the squirrel climb into the wheel to supply the power. I'm not sure how I got any work done, with all the squeaking that thing made. And every time I asked it to save or download or even refresh produced a chance to nap, the computer worked at such a snail's pace.
At long last, I got a new computer this weekend. Of course, being new, it came with Windows 8. I now have to learn how to navigate my way around, something I need to do every time I get a new computer, seems like.
It's important to have the proper tool for whatever job you are doing. A painter needs paint and brushes, a writer needs words and the proper receptacle for them. You don't wash dishes by throwing them in the oven.
One can 'make do' when one has to. In one of my stories, I have a man trying to identify something he finds in an exhaust tube of his spaceship. His first inclination is to simply reach in to scoop some up with his finger. Fortunately, he can't quite reach it, because his next thought is that he doesn't know how it might react to the fabric of his glove. That same thought makes him unwilling to subject any of his wrenches or other tools to contact with the unknown substance. When his (several times) Great-Grandmother shakes a bent knitting needle in his face, complaining about 'defective equipment', he uses that knitting needle to scoop up a tiny bit of the gunk so that he can analyze it.
Before I had a computer to work with, I wrote my stories in longhand. I didn't much care what type of paper I wrote on; notebook paper, typing paper, paper sacks, paper towels, napkins, kleenex and yes, even toilet paper. It can be done.
But it works so much better when you have the proper tools. And hopefully, as soon as I can find my way around these confusing tiles and suddenly appearing menus, I can pick up my pace with my writing.

Who's Your Distant Ancestor?

Back when I was in grade school, I remember one of my sisters preparing a display for her high school science fair project. In that project, she compared Neanderthals to Cro-Magnons. I don’t remember what kind of grade she received, but I found her project fascinating. Two types of humans, living at the same time! I wondered what their interactions would have been like.Since then, the same question has been explored in various medias. Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear made a big splash with readers as it followed the life of a young Cro-Magnon, also known as a modern human, who was raised by Neanderthals, if I remember correctly. Various educational shows on TV have been made about the Neanderthals, the Homo Sapiens, how they were different, how they were alike, and how they might have interacted before the Neanderthals died out.The impression I’ve gotten over all these years was that scientists didn’t feel these two species of humans had interbred, and I wondered why they thought that way. Neanderthals are depicted as kind of squat, hairy, with a heavy brow, broad noses and receding chins. I could look around and see people who had those attributes, although it’s usually one per person, not all of them. But no, it seemed we were determined to blame our own ancestors for killing the last of the Neanderthals.At last, a skeleton has been discovered in northern Italy that appears to be that of a mixed breed. Although mostly that of a modern human, the jaw displays a receding chin. The DNA reveals this person had Neanderthal mitochondrial (maternal) DNA. So it would seem the two species did interbreed, at least once.Which opens up a whole new mess of ancient ancestors we didn’t realize were in the gene pool.Sometimes when I’m working out the background for a story, I pick 2 or 3 genetic things to track throughout the population and then work out how those attributes manifest in the population over the generations. The gene for dark hair, for instance, will dominate a gene for lighter hair, and blond will dominate red hair. But after a few generations of almost all the people having dark hair, you will start getting a generation or two of lots of blonds, and a few redheads will crop up. The number of blonds will ebb and flow; the number of redheads tends to remain fairly steady.I never thought to track the occurrence of receding chins.