Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 20

Constructing The Hand, Part 2: Basic Design

Yesterday, I introduced The Hand of Deucado and showed you the final design. Today I am going to show you how Bruce and I arrived at this unique structure.

The first thing I had to do was find a shoreline. I took this image from a snapshot of Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania. I liked the interplay of shore, water and clouds. The only problem was shoreline needed to be rotated left by 90 degrees but that wasn't a big deal:



The next thing I needed was to find a general shape for the base of The Hand. I looked at many images of arches including The Gateway Arch in St. Louis until I came across the Rainbow Bridge National Monument in Utah. It was perfect. Here is an image of the arch and how I was able to extract the base structure using Paint Shop Pro:



Now I had the basic elements, now it was a time for a mock-up and supplying Bruce with the specific details.

Constructing The Hand, Part 1: Background

The Hand is a spectacular geological structure located on the southern shore of Lake Eprehem on the planet of Deucado. It is the center of much of the action in Rome's Evolution. I had a clear view of what it looked like in my mind but translating that dream into a physical image was a painstaking process with a lot of back and forth with my brother Bruce, illustrator extraordinaire.

In the book, The Hand was formed when a large, dense meteor hit Deucado and formed the crater which later became Lake Eprehem. A large chunk of the meteor, mostly made of iron, broke off and hit the land to the south of the main meteor. This cosmic bullet continued to burrow under the earth until it hit a pocket of magma. The magma followed its path back the surface and formed a thick tower which bent over as it cooled. Another, smaller hole, opened up and shot spurts of magma up into the air which landed at the top of the tower and formed the extensions that made it look like a hand.

You aren't supposed to show too much on a book cover. You are supposed to let the reader build images in their mind. However, with The Hand, I felt that there was no way that anybody could really visualize what it look liked, no matter how much description I supplied. So I decided to "build" The Hand and put it on the cover so a) people would find it intriguing and b) when they came across that section, they'd already know exactly what The Hand looked like. If they didn't remember, all they'd have to do is look at the cover.

The following few articles will show you how Bruce and I communicated graphically until we reached the shape, texture and look that is on the cover of Rome's Evolution. Here is the final, finished product, less titles, which is also the wallpaper for the Rome's Evolution web site. You can click on the image for the full-sized version.

A New Old Villain

As you are aware, I am in the middle of rewriting my first novel, Rome's Revolution. My motivation is simple: your first book should be your best work because that is the thing that people use to judge you. If your first book is good then your loyal reader base will be more forgiving of slight lapses in quality or logical coherency to some degree in subsequent novels.

I started in on the rewrite and got stuck immediately. It felt like all I was doing was polishing the prose, not correcting the fundamental flaw in the novel which was that it started too slow. After struggling for a couple of weeks, I had an aha moment and decided to bring the climax to the front to entice and excite the reader. It gives you adequate impetus to work your way through until the action really picks up.

The other thing I did was read a book entitled Scene & Structure by the late Jack M. Bickham. It is chock full of sound advice on how to write a novel that people can't put down. I have employed his advice heavily by rearranging chapters, ending them on a crisis or doomsday note rather than an obvious point of closure or fade to black.

Another thing that Mr. Bickham suggests is that if you are writing in third person omniscient, you should change the point of view occasionally, especially by giving insight into the villain's personality and motivations. The problem is, Rome's Revolution doesn't really have a villain in the traditional sense. The Stareaters, a hugely destructive force, turn out to be high-minded, thoughtful creatures. OMCOM evolves into Planet OMCOM and while his motivations become self-centered, he isn't evil in any traditional sense.

The closest thing I have to a true villain is MASAL but you aren't supposed to know about him until near the end of the book. MASAL's influence over Estar forced her to act oddly without any explanation. Mr. Bickham's advice gave me a perfect way to rectify this issue.

I have now started a draft of a brand new chapter from Estar's point of view. Using this device, I can introduce the computer within a computer, made up of the clear memrons and tell you explicitly why Estar is trying to kill Rei. Whereas before, I wanted the reader to be confused thinking that Rei's "accidents" really could have been accidents. I also was trying to hint that maybe OMCOM was behind them. Now that is all gone.

In the current version under way, everything has been spelled out before it happens. It is much more satisfying to see how Estar tries to assassinate Rei and how he uses his 21st century brain to outwit her. It is very exciting and fun being able to craft a piece like this from scratch. I hope it makes the novel much more accessible and enjoyable. Thank you, Mr. Bickham, wherever you are.

A break in the case

Yesterday, after Wally Stanislaw showed Rome and Rei evidence that there were intelligent, highly evolved versions of the falling blankets roaming Decado in the past, they got down to the reason they were there. They informed Wally they were looking for Dan Steele and David Troutman, the would-be assassins. What are the odds that Wally knows anything?

     Darwin, huh,” Wally said, looking right at Bonnie.
     Rome pulled the two pictures out of her pocket. “Here are their images,” Rome said. “Do you recognize either of them?”
     The scientist studied the pictures for a minute. He pointed to the picture of Steele. “I’m assuming that’s Steele. I have no clue about him. I’ve never met him.”
     “What about David Troutman?” Rome asked.
     Wally Stanislaw tugged at his chin. “Yeah, him, I’ve met. He came to see me, oh, maybe three years ago.”
     “Why?” Rei asked.
     “He wanted me to come work for his mining group. At least that’s what they called it. Of course, that’s before we even knew Darwin existed.”
     “What happened?”
     “He had some cockamamie excuse about having to mine certain metals and they needed help finding the right kind of ore.”
     “Well, that’s right up your alley, right?” Rei asked.
     “Yeah, but his whole story didn’t make any sense. I mean, hindsight is 20/20 and all but even then they couldn’t come up with a rational explanation. The Vuduri have been more than generous in giving us whatever we needed. He couldn’t explain why that wasn’t good enough so I told him to get lost.”
     Rei pointed over his shoulder. “Well, he wasn’t one of the ones deported so he’s still running around. Have you seen him since?”
     “It’s possible but I can’t say for sure,” Wally replied, handing the pictures back to Rome. “The last time I was in Ur, I bumped into a really tall guy, way too tall to be Vuduri. Same color hair. Ginger. But this guy had a beard and was wearing a hood. He didn’t act like he recognized me. From the way he was dressed, I figured it was one of the Deucadons but it might’ve been him. I’m not certain.”
     “That makes perfect sense!” Rei exclaimed. “There’s no reason why he would stay clean-shaven. If you don’t want to be recognized, growing a beard would be the first thing you do. Then dress like the natives.”
     Rei turned to Rome and Bonnie. “Let’s get going.”

So now we know who we are looking for: a tall, ginger haired man with a ginger-colored beard. The Vuduri themselves were always a short people. So maybe it wouldn't be so hard picking him out of a crowd. If he's still in the town of Ur, of course.

Who built the caves?

Yesterday, we found out that nine million years in the past, there were intelligent life-forms roaming about the surface of Deucado. From the outline of the fossil, it appeared that they were a more highly evolved version of the blankets. And they were really good cave carvers. I suspect it is because they wanted to get away from the more or less continuous rain of death from the sky. So that is how the Deucadons were able to make such a quick escape underground after the meteor fell that created Lake Eprehem:

     “I thought Bukky told me you built them,” Rome asked.
     “Naw, we fashioned them to our likin’ but they were already there.”
     “So what’s this got to do with anything?” Rei asked.
     Steben walked away. He opened a small chest and retrieved some objects. He returned with two metal rods in his hand. He held them out for Rei, Rome and Bonnie to see. They were chisels.
     “When our forefathers got down there, during the buildin’ phase, they found many of these. And the hammerheads, like there in the fossil,” Steben said, pointing up. “We have always held the belief that the caves were somehow built. The ceilings were always too smooth to be natural.”
     “Yes!” Rome exclaimed. “This is the very thing that I noticed in the Cathedral,” Rome said. “Do you remember me mentioning it to you?” she directed to Rei.
     “Yeah, I do,” Rei said. He looked at the chisels in Steben’s hands and back up to the fossil. “What does it all mean, Wally?” he asked.
     “I don’t know yet,” Wally said. “But it is an amazing coincidence, don’t you think?”
     Rei took a deep breath. He rubbed the back of his head where MINIMCOM had fused his skull not two weeks earlier. “This hurts my head,” he said. “It’s, it’s beyond sleek. It’s mind-blowing.”
     “We think so, too,” Wally said proudly. “We’re going to keep going but there is a lot more to this little planet than we thought.”
     Rei stood there, lost in thought. Bonnie nudged Rome who, in turn, nudged Rei.
     “Oh, yeah,” he said. “This is amazing stuff but it isn’t really why we came.”
     “Sure,” Wally said. He pointed and Steben left them to return the chisels to their packing case. “So why are you here?” Wally asked.
     “You know that somebody tried to kill me,” Rei offered.
     “Yeah, I heard,” Wally replied showing the proper amount of concern. “But you seem OK to me. Do you know who did it?”
     “Yes,” Rome interjected. “It was the two remaining members of the Darwin group named Dan Steele and David Troutman. Do you know them?”

Finally, we get to the questioning. Wally is a stand-up guy according to Rei so there really isn't any need for Rome to invoke her powers as a telepath. Let's see what Wally has to say.

Paleontology, Deucado-style

Yesterday, Wally Stanislaw, a geologist by trade, told Rome, Rei and Bonnie that he was taking a little detour into Paleontology. However, as Rei astutely pointed out, to study fossils, you need something to fossilize and the only animals they had ever found, the falling blankets, had no bones to speak of or really any solid tissue that could become fossils. Wally clears that up:

     A big smile crossed Wally’s face. “You’re wrong,” he said. “We’ve all been wrong.” He pointed to the image of the ground pinned upon the board. “Come with me,” he said. “Let me show you what we found at that dig.”
     He and Steben walked to back of the tent. Propped up in the corner sat a large flattened piece of stone.
     Rei saw lines criss-crossing the stone. There was a straight vertical line and four lines radiating from the sides plus another, fifth line, off angle near the top. It reminded Rei of the figurine drawn when children play hangman.
     “What are we looking at?” Rei asked.
     Wally bent over and lovingly stroked the stone. “This, my friends, is a genuine Deucadon fossil. Of a vertebrate. It is nine million years old but it absolutely had a spine.”
     “Wow,” Rome said spontaneously. “We have never seen any evidence of vertebrate life here. Not the falling blankets, the swishies, nothing.”
     “More than a vertebrate,” Wally said. “Sentient.”
     “Sentient?” Rei sputtered, “here, on Deucado? How can you tell it was sentient and not just another dumb animal?”
     Wally tapped the left upper line which ended in a four-fingered gripper, very similar to those found on the falling blankets. There was a round, cylindrical gap and a squarish object beyond that. “Look in his hand, Rei,” Wally said. “That’s a hammer!”
     Rei’s jaw dropped open. Before he could say anything, Wally reached over and tapped the right paw in which another long cylindrical carving appeared. “And that was a chisel. This thing carved rocks!”
     “Holy Mackerel,” Rei said. “What happened to them?”
     “We can only guess,” Wally said. “Tell them, Steben.”
     “Yes,” replied the young Deucadon. “Dr. Wally asked for permission to go down to our underground city. Bukky said ‘twas all right. I was his tour guide.”
     “I’ve been there, too!” Rome interjected proudly.
     “Yes. The caves we inhabited. And the magma tube we tapped into, to use its power. They were already there when our people first arrived.”

This is almost too much to handle. All the caves of Deucado were already present when the Deucadons arrived? And they find evidence of intelligent life with hammers and chisels. What are the chance that the two facts are related? As Rei has said many times, there ain't no such thing as a coincidence.

Geology, Deucado-style

Yesterday, Rome, Rei and Bonnie met up with Wally Stanislaw, a geologist doing research in one of the few deserts found on Deucado. To Rei's surprise, one of his Deucadon buddies, Steben, was also working there. It was a nice reunion and it seemed like it was time to get to the reason for their visit. But then Wally blindsides them:

     Rei looked around the tent. “What are you doing here, anyway?” Rei asked. “OMCOM said you may have found evidence of other kinds of life? On this planet?”
     “Oh, it’s more than that,” Wally said. He led the group across the tent to the far side where there was a cane-tree pinup board. There were some diagrams and a photograph of a large outcropping.
     “Look at this,” he said, pointing to a gray vertical bar with a series of white lines cutting through it. “This is a cross-section of the iridium density of a series of core samples. We’ve been working on a huge fault, chasm really, that goes back almost 50 million years as far as we can tell.”
     “What are those lines?” Rome asked, pointing to the strips.
     “Those are the iridium densities that are significantly above normal. Depth is fairly tightly proportional to time.”
     “Iridium comes from meteors and the like, right?” Bonnie asked.
     “Exactly,” Wally said, his eyes gleaming. “Asteroid class. This poor little planet has been absolutely pummeled by things falling out of the sky for as far back as we can tell.”
     “What about that gap?” Rome asked, pointing to one section of the graph that had no lines cutting through it.
     “That,” Wally said, tapping the region that Rome was referring to, “is the most amazing period of time in this little world’s history that we’ve discovered so far.”
     “Why?” Rei asked.
     “Because they had about a three million-year window where there were no extinction-level events. Plenty of time for life to branch out and create some variety. I’m supposed to be a geologist but I’m taking a little spin as a paleontogist.”
     Rei pulled his head back. “Paleontology? As in fossils? There’s never been any fossils reported so far. There’s nothing to fossilize.”

We always knew that Deucado was under more or less constant bombardment by meteors, asteroids and the like. And yet live still rose up and while it didn't quite thrive, it certainly persisted. So what would the life-forms do with a period of three million years of uninterrupted peace interrupting death from the sky?

Wally Stanislaw, part 2

Yesterday, OMCOM gave MINIMCOM the coordinates of Wally Stanislaw's research site. Wally was one of the potential candidates for the Darwin group but neither Rei nor Rome thought it was something he would get involved in. However, since they were there, they decided to chat with him anyway:

     Rome led the way followed by Bonnie with Rei bringing up the rear. They came to a campsite, or at least the Vuduri version of a campsite with several tents that resembled teepees and a much larger “building” covered by a white material. They approached the white building, entering by the door flap and standing there were two men conversing over a large flat table. To the far left were three others, a mix of Vuduri and Essessoni, working with hammers and chisels and brushes and something that looked like a pen-light.
     The two nearer men looked up. One of them was Deucadon.
     “Rei!” the young man exclaimed.
     “Steben!” Rei called out. He trotted over and the two of them hugged although Rei pulled back before Steben could apply substantial pressure. “I haven’t seen you in like forever,” he said.
     “Yes, it has been a long time,” replied the young man, just a bit shorter than Rei. His peach-fuzz beard was just coming in.
     “Bierak,” said the other, taller man.
     “Hey, Wally,” Rei said.
     “What brings you and your lovely wife here?” the scientist asked.
     Rei waved to Bonnie and Rome who came over to join them.
     “Steben,” Rei said. “This is my wife, Rome and this is Bonnie Mullen.”
     “Hello,” Steben said cheerfully. “I’ve heard a lot about ya,” he directed at Rome.
     “Likewise,” Rome said. “And as I said, I’ve already met Wally.”
     Wally nodded. “Hello, Rome,” he said. “How have you been?”
     “I’ve been better,” Rome answered. “We’ve had some things happen that were not so good.”
     Bonnie interjected. “Wally, I think you and I met once before. Rome told us you’ve been working through her library?”
     “Oh, yes,” the scientist replied. “Rome’s library computer has been amazingly helpful in our work here.”
     He held up a pencil-sized tube, reminiscent of a laser pointer from an age long gone. “Rome, next time you speak to OMCOM, tell him thanks for these miniature PPT throwers. They’ve been incredibly handy in carving things out of the rocks without disturbing them. Way better than anything we have.”
     “I will do that,” Rome said.

Now that they have his attention, it is time to ask Wally a few pointed questions. But the conversation takes a serious left turn.

Wally Stanislaw, part 1

Yesterday, Rome and Rei came across Wally Stanislaw's name on the list of candidates that the Darwin people thought they may be able to convert. Rome knew Wally because he was one of the very few Essessoni that ever showed an interest in learning the Vuduri language. Rei knew him as well and did not think he was the kind of person that would ever aid the Darwins. Maybe they could track him down and ask:

     “And that’s it?”
     “No,” Rome replied. “OMCOM, isn’t he one of the scientists you are supporting in the geology wing?”
     “Yes,” replied OMCOM. “He has his own subscription channel. His research regarding the geophysical history of the planet has been extremely illuminating. He has found a wide variety of interesting objects buried deep under the ground. He believes there may have once been other kinds of life forms on this planet.”
     “Really?” Rei asked. “How come nobody ever mentioned this before?”
     Rome turned to her husband. “Several scientists have approached me about having their own research resources within OMCOM. I have said yes on each occasion but I have not been monitoring the information flow very closely.”
     “Well, it’s probably a dead-end anyway,” Rei said. “He doesn’t sound like he had much interaction with them in any event.”
     “If you would prefer, you can ask him yourself,” OMCOM offered. “I see from MINIMCOM’s coordinates that you are within a few kilometers of his current research site.”
     Rei looked at Rome who shrugged. He turned to Bonnie. “What do you think?”
     “I think no stone unturned,” Bonnie replied. “How could it hurt?”
     “OK,” Rei said. “MINIMCOM, can you take us to where Wally is working?”
     “Already there,” MINIMCOM replied. “Just buckle in for the landing as this is somewhat rocky terrain.”
     Rei and Rome buckled into the pilot and co-pilot’s seat respectively. Bonnie strapped herself into the “navigator’s” chair that MINIMCOM had constructed for her. MINIMCOM’s nose dived down and he leveled off just above the surface. He gently lowered himself to the ground and the whole space-plane shook as it crushed some boulders beneath the landing gear. MINIMCOM flashed the coordinates of the research site which Rome committed to memory. After settling down, the group of three left via the rear cargo ramp.
     To the south, as far as the eye could see, the ground was a barren, clay-colored landscape with boulders and rocks strewn everywhere. There were a few deserts on Deucado and this was the edge of one of them though it was due to the rocky nature of the ground, not due to lack of moisture.

So now we have geologist Wally Stanislaw, camped out in the arid region to the south of Lake Eprehem. He seemed like an earnest guy. He was looking for other life-forms on Deucado besides the cane-trees, falling blankets, swishies and sticky bushes. Let's see what he found.

The Candidates

Two days ago, Paul Chung told Rome, Rei and Bonnie that he overheard Steele and Troutman, the would-be assassins, mention that they were going down to the resort city of Ur, home of the incredible geological formation called The Hand. Hopping aboard MINIMCOM, our crew of detectives head south around the eastern edge of Lake Eprehem:

     “We have to comb the entire city of Ur,” Rei said. “They couldn’t operate without somebody seeing them. Maybe they had help down there.”
     “Do you think it might have one of the other people on that list we found?” Rome asked. “After all, it was entitled candidates.”
     “I don’t know,” Rei answered, “My name was on there and I wasn’t of much use to them.”
     “What about the others?” Rome asked.
     “We can check.” Rei addressed the grille mounted on the front of the console. “OMCOM, do you read?”
     “Yes,” came a deeper voice.
     “On that list we found called Darwin Candidates, besides me and Paul Chung, what were the last two names?”
     An image of the Darwin list appeared in the central display.
     “Wally Stanislaw and Andrea Grenmuller,” replied the computer.
     Rei rubbed his chin. “I didn’t really know Andrea, what does it say about her?”
     Even though the contents of the entry were displayed on the screen, OMCOM read it out loud. “Grenmuller, Andrea,” intoned the library computer. “Brilliant mathematician. Would be really useful in helping solve engineering equations for new Vook materials. DT assigned to swing her but was rejected. May try again later.”
     “DT?” Rome observed. “That sounds like they are referring to a person. Could that stand for David Troutman? What else does it say about her?”
     “That is the only entry on her,” replied OMCOM.
     “Any hint where, or when?” Rei asked. “Some way we can locate her?”
     “I said that is the only entry on her,” OMCOM insisted in a slightly imperious manner.
     Rei let out a burst of air. “OK, the other one, Wally Stanislaw. I know him. He always seemed like a stand-up guy to me. What does it say about him?”
     “Stanislaw, Wally,” read the library computer. “Excellent geologist. Skill set vastly superior to anyone on staff. Has been approached obliquely about joining the plan but seemed fairly resistant. Would be a great aid to the mining program. Re-approach in a year.”
     Rome tapped the display. “I know him as well. I recognized his name immediately.”
     “How do you know him?” Rei asked.
     “He was one of the very few Essessoni who came to me for language lessons. I taught him Vuduri.”

So, the next candidate on the list had intimate knowledge of Rome and Rei's whereabouts. Do you think he was involved? There is only one way to find out.