Ian S. Bott's Blog, page 12
January 1, 2019
Hello 2019
One of the things about growing older is that those around us are also growing older, and this has brought some adjustments to our lives this past year. Our Christmas was even quieter than usual, with Megan out of town visiting her boyfriend’s family this year. We’ve grown used to taking the day easy, preparing food at a leisurely pace, eating and drinking when ready, calling home to our families back in Britain. None of that really changed, but it felt strange doing it with three of us instead of four.
At least we were able to keep up what has become a family tradition in recent years, of visiting a Chinese restaurant downtown last night, and having friends around for lunch today. The famous Toblerone cheesecake (recipe over on my other blog here) made an appearance. First time I’ve made it in a while.
Looking forward, I’m not one for New Year resolutions. I prefer to set goals whenever in the year it makes sense, not just because of the day on the calendar. Current goal is to finish the first draft of The Long Dark by March, and get it through initial revisions and then a thorough round of critiques before the end of the year. Progressing well on that first goal, having just passed 75k words yesterday.
Whatever your goals and aspirations are, I wish you well for 2019.
At least we were able to keep up what has become a family tradition in recent years, of visiting a Chinese restaurant downtown last night, and having friends around for lunch today. The famous Toblerone cheesecake (recipe over on my other blog here) made an appearance. First time I’ve made it in a while.
Looking forward, I’m not one for New Year resolutions. I prefer to set goals whenever in the year it makes sense, not just because of the day on the calendar. Current goal is to finish the first draft of The Long Dark by March, and get it through initial revisions and then a thorough round of critiques before the end of the year. Progressing well on that first goal, having just passed 75k words yesterday.
Whatever your goals and aspirations are, I wish you well for 2019.
December 29, 2018
Weekend Writing Warriors December 30
Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.
Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin, and has just been met by soldier from the Imperial Palace Guard. She’s revealed Brynwyn’s status to the staff at the inn she’d been staying, who didn’t realize they had such a high-ranking guest. I’ve skipped a paragraph where Corporal Kurt Weiler explains the travel arrangements ...
=====
She glanced down at the fawning concierge. "Have my baggage loaded into the car."
"At once, Magister Summis." He scuttled away.
While they waited, Shayla and Kurt stepped out into the crisp morning air.
"You know," said Shayla, "I think that odious little man thought you were here to arrest me or something."
"I was wondering. He seemed rather keen for me to find you."
=====
ReminderSpecial offer for December and JanuaryAll ebooks are now on sale at $0.99 through into the new year
And until January 1 ebooks can be downloaded for free from the Smashwords site only
December 22, 2018
Weekend Writing Warriors December 23
Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.
Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. She has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin and has just been met by an escort from the Imperial Palace Guard.
=====
The concierge's face fell as he took in the cut of Shayla's robes, the insignia, and the Imperial crest. "B-b-beg pardon for my inattention, Magister Summis." He hurried round from behind the desk and bowed, hands wringing.
With sudden insight, Shayla realized that this man and his staff must have been making Brynwyn's stay here miserable. Her profile reported an unassuming humility, in keeping with her strict attention to duty. And her religious observances would have allowed her no latitude to assert her status.
She ignored him and spoke to the soldier. "Corporal Weiler, I assume you've brought transport?"
=====
Special offer for December and JanuaryAll ebooks are now on sale at $0.99 through into the new year
And between Christmas and New Year ebooks can be downloaded for free from the Smashwords site only
December 15, 2018
Weekend Writing Warriors December 16
Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.
Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. She has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin.
=====
As Shayla walked down the stairs and rounded the corner to the entrance hallway, she saw the same haughty concierge who had been on duty last night. In front of the desk, a soldier stood, at ease but alert. He wore the formal traveling uniform of a corporal of the Imperial Palace Guard.
"Here she comes now," said the concierge, glancing up from the desk. His face held a trace of barely suppressed glee, and Shayla had to fight back the knotting of her stomach as she reminded herself that she was supposed to be meeting an escort here.
The soldier turned and came to attention. "Magister Brynwyn bin Covin?"
Shayla nodded.
"Corporal Kurt Weiler, at your service, Magister Summis."
=====
Special offer for December and January all ebooks are now on sale at $0.99 through into the new year
December 8, 2018
The Long Dark - more about life on the surface
It’s been a while since I talked about the worldbuilding for The Long Dark.
Last time, I delved a bit into the single superorganism covering a large part of the planet’s surface, and I mentioned something about the internal structure. Given the extremes of temperature through the seasons, thanks to the planet’s 90 degree tilt, any life has an obvious major problem to contend with - temperature control.
Much of Sponge’s structure is related to solving this problem. Its enormous thickness provides natural insulation, but the surface layers are still in danger of baking during summer, and intense frostbite during the long spells of darkness. To solve this, Sponge moves water around to shunt heat from where it’s overabundant to where it’s needed. Short term local movements between the surface and reservoirs in the depths help to even out the day/night cycle, while vast subsurface rivers shunt heat back and forth across the equator.
These mechanisms protect the plant tissue from thermal damage, and also help moderate the climate extremes in the atmosphere. And, as well as photosynthesis like Earthly plants, Sponge makes good use of the temperature gradients to generate chemical energy from thermosynthesis.
Finally, as an aside, what does the sun look like from the surface?
I had no idea what a red giant star might look like from an orbit in the habitable zone, so I did a rough mental calculation. A star similar to the sun that evolves to the red giant stage will swell up to swallow the orbits of the inner planets. It may or may not reach as far as Earth’s orbit, but that’s a moot point. At best, Earth would be grazing the surface of the star, so you can bet things would be somewhat toasty.
Anyhooo ... that makes a “typical” red giant anything up to 200 times the diameter of our sun. And orbiting somewhere out near Saturn, say 10 times the distance away, that means the star would appear anything up to 20 times the size in the sky.
That’s one whopping big sun! No wonder the colonists call it “Big Red”!
Last time, I delved a bit into the single superorganism covering a large part of the planet’s surface, and I mentioned something about the internal structure. Given the extremes of temperature through the seasons, thanks to the planet’s 90 degree tilt, any life has an obvious major problem to contend with - temperature control.
Much of Sponge’s structure is related to solving this problem. Its enormous thickness provides natural insulation, but the surface layers are still in danger of baking during summer, and intense frostbite during the long spells of darkness. To solve this, Sponge moves water around to shunt heat from where it’s overabundant to where it’s needed. Short term local movements between the surface and reservoirs in the depths help to even out the day/night cycle, while vast subsurface rivers shunt heat back and forth across the equator.
These mechanisms protect the plant tissue from thermal damage, and also help moderate the climate extremes in the atmosphere. And, as well as photosynthesis like Earthly plants, Sponge makes good use of the temperature gradients to generate chemical energy from thermosynthesis.
Finally, as an aside, what does the sun look like from the surface?
I had no idea what a red giant star might look like from an orbit in the habitable zone, so I did a rough mental calculation. A star similar to the sun that evolves to the red giant stage will swell up to swallow the orbits of the inner planets. It may or may not reach as far as Earth’s orbit, but that’s a moot point. At best, Earth would be grazing the surface of the star, so you can bet things would be somewhat toasty.
Anyhooo ... that makes a “typical” red giant anything up to 200 times the diameter of our sun. And orbiting somewhere out near Saturn, say 10 times the distance away, that means the star would appear anything up to 20 times the size in the sky.
That’s one whopping big sun! No wonder the colonists call it “Big Red”!
December 1, 2018
Weekend Writing Warriors December 2
Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.
Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. She has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin. The previous snippet ended: It looked like Brynwyn had intended to make a dramatic exit after the anonymity of her Meditation.
=====
She must have been proud of her new position.
The thought left Shayla with a bitter taste, but she would have to play the part to the full. She took a few minutes to clear her mind and review her notes. The facts had long ago been committed to memory and rehearsed endlessly. But the time had now come for more than mere recollection.
She had to become Brynwyn bin Covin.
She took another deep breath and finished packing Brynwyn's belongings. During the night, Shayla had unpacked everything in the small pile of trunks in the room, familiarizing herself with every item.
This was her life now. For a short while, at least.
=====
November 23, 2018
Doin’ that writerly thang!
Has anyone taken their laptop to a coffee shop to sit down and write? I’ve always viewed this as a bit of a cliche, something non-writers assume writers spend much of their time doing ... in between signing contracts and practicing their award acceptance speeches, of course.
Whether or not it’s an accurate portrayal of writing life, it certainly sounds like a pleasant way to spend an hour or two.
This week I took a couple of days off work. No particular reason, just have some vacation time that I need to take this year and a couple of days free in my calendar, so an opportunity for a bit of down time. This morning I had a handful of errands to run, and I decided to round it off with a visit to a nearby coffee shop, laptop in hand. Just out of curiosity.
Conclusions:
Yes, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour.The place was fairly busy, and I had wondered if that would be a distraction. As it turned out, that wasn’t an issue. I guess I pay more attention to noises around the house than when I’m elsewhere.It was a productive hour, but no more so than when I put on my headphones and am on a roll.By the end of an hour, I was more than ready to leave. I’m not the sort of person who’ll sit there for hours on end.It was good to get a change of scenery. I sometimes find that valuable in itself ... taking my laptop to the library, or to a picnic table in a park or by a beach.
OK, I can’t pretend that was a bucket list item, but at least I can say ... writer writing in coffee shop? Yep, done that :)
Whether or not it’s an accurate portrayal of writing life, it certainly sounds like a pleasant way to spend an hour or two.
This week I took a couple of days off work. No particular reason, just have some vacation time that I need to take this year and a couple of days free in my calendar, so an opportunity for a bit of down time. This morning I had a handful of errands to run, and I decided to round it off with a visit to a nearby coffee shop, laptop in hand. Just out of curiosity.
Conclusions:
Yes, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour.The place was fairly busy, and I had wondered if that would be a distraction. As it turned out, that wasn’t an issue. I guess I pay more attention to noises around the house than when I’m elsewhere.It was a productive hour, but no more so than when I put on my headphones and am on a roll.By the end of an hour, I was more than ready to leave. I’m not the sort of person who’ll sit there for hours on end.It was good to get a change of scenery. I sometimes find that valuable in itself ... taking my laptop to the library, or to a picnic table in a park or by a beach.
OK, I can’t pretend that was a bucket list item, but at least I can say ... writer writing in coffee shop? Yep, done that :)
November 17, 2018
Weekend Writing Warriors November 18
Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.
I’m back for another stretch. This time I’m picking up the start of an earlier chapter in Ghosts of Innocence, where Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. Here, she has to get into character for the next leg of her journey.
=====
Shayla Carver - Imperial lackey! She smiled at the incongruity of it as she checked her appearance in the wall mirror.
Her ruddy skin tone had grayed slightly overnight, and her plump cheeks sagged. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed her implants to correct the signs of fatigue. After a few minutes, Shayla opened her eyes and staggered back to sit on the edge of her bed. She took deep breaths and wiped a sheen of sweat from her face, but the face that gazed back now radiated calm and confidence befitting her station.
Brynwyn had left a clean set of traveling robes hanging, ready to wear. The Imperial crest and official insignia announced her status in the higher echelons of the Palace staff, someone of high standing indeed in this provincial backwater. It looked like Brynwyn had intended to make a dramatic exit after the anonymity of her Meditation.
=====
I hope everyone is keeping well. When I was last here, I had recently published The Ashes of Home. Since then I’ve been keeping busy on the first draft of a new novel, The Long Dark.
I’ve also posted a lot more background material from Shayla’s world to my author website.
www.iansbott.com/behind-the-scenes
Ships, buildings, maps etc. Some drawn up in full detail, and a whole collection of original hand-drawn sketches that guided me through the writing process.
November 10, 2018
Is it safe to come out yet?
Now the mid-terms are over - finally! - I guess it was too much to hope that any kind of normality would take hold. On reflection, that was only ever a naive hope. No matter who won or lost, Trump was always going to:
(a) proclaim victory anyway,
and/or (b) claim conspiracies and witch hunts,
always with a dose of (c) blame someone else,
and (d) mock and insult anyone he doesn’t like.
The only difference would be the relative proportions of the above. So it’s basically business as usual in the kindergarten playground of American politics, and two more years of campaigning to look forward to before the next election.
*Sigh*
What I’ve learned over the past two weeks of unplugging from the online world is how toxic the world has become, and how badly that toxicity affects me. I should probably make a more permanent effort to ignore all news from south of the border, because it’s way too depressing and there’s nothing I can do about it.
So, turning to more positive thoughts ...
Writing is going well - steadily ahead of the target I set myself at the end of July. I’m just at the 50% mark for the first draft. I have a rough outline of the rest of the story, but still murky on some of the plot details. However that is normal for my writing process so it’s not a problem. Yet :)
I took part in a writers’ panel last week on the publishing process, which was a lively 90 minutes of questions and answers.
Several people at work bought The Ashes of Home (the workplace remains my main source of paperback sales) and I’m getting positive comments back.
I plan to reduce the e-book price of both Ghosts and Ashes next month for a Christmas promotion, so if anyone was thinking of picking up a copy it’s worth waiting a little while.
(a) proclaim victory anyway,
and/or (b) claim conspiracies and witch hunts,
always with a dose of (c) blame someone else,
and (d) mock and insult anyone he doesn’t like.
The only difference would be the relative proportions of the above. So it’s basically business as usual in the kindergarten playground of American politics, and two more years of campaigning to look forward to before the next election.
*Sigh*
What I’ve learned over the past two weeks of unplugging from the online world is how toxic the world has become, and how badly that toxicity affects me. I should probably make a more permanent effort to ignore all news from south of the border, because it’s way too depressing and there’s nothing I can do about it.
So, turning to more positive thoughts ...
Writing is going well - steadily ahead of the target I set myself at the end of July. I’m just at the 50% mark for the first draft. I have a rough outline of the rest of the story, but still murky on some of the plot details. However that is normal for my writing process so it’s not a problem. Yet :)
I took part in a writers’ panel last week on the publishing process, which was a lively 90 minutes of questions and answers.
Several people at work bought The Ashes of Home (the workplace remains my main source of paperback sales) and I’m getting positive comments back.
I plan to reduce the e-book price of both Ghosts and Ashes next month for a Christmas promotion, so if anyone was thinking of picking up a copy it’s worth waiting a little while.
October 28, 2018
What happened to humanity?
I was planning on lining up more posts on worldbuilding, but the last week has left me feeling like normal rational life has taken its leave of this continent.
We have a spate of bombs through the mail, and then Pittsburgh - to add to all the other mass shootings this year. But what is most sickening is that, rather than genuine calls for strength and unity and compassion, the loudest voices on both sides of the divide are racing each other to the bottom of the sewer dredging the depths for any political capital they can gain.
I think I’m going to unplug from the Internet until after November 6, because right now a large slice of humanity has lost its humanity.
BTW - comments are off, 'nuff said
We have a spate of bombs through the mail, and then Pittsburgh - to add to all the other mass shootings this year. But what is most sickening is that, rather than genuine calls for strength and unity and compassion, the loudest voices on both sides of the divide are racing each other to the bottom of the sewer dredging the depths for any political capital they can gain.
I think I’m going to unplug from the Internet until after November 6, because right now a large slice of humanity has lost its humanity.
BTW - comments are off, 'nuff said
