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A-Z Challenge post-mortem
So, I didn’t get through all of the A-Z posts by the end of the month. Being honest with you, I did spend quite a bit of the first couple of weeks worrying about money, something which is basically out of my control. Things are fine now but I’m late paying my bills and that’s…
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Jump gates
Following on from my post about hyperdrives in science fiction, I thought it was only fair to mention jump gates, which (in Babylon 5 for example) allow entry and exit from hyperspace even when the ship in question doesn’t have its own FTL drive. A series of jump gates along trade routes means that freighters…
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Irena, Princess and Avatar
Irena is a character introduced in Part 12 of Servant of the Siphen and also in the second part of The Maw of Despair. In my original notes she is named Princess Arianne, which is a not so clever play on the name Orion, which is what she names herself when she meets the crew…
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Hyperdrive
For a science fiction writer, hyperdrive is a great way to get the protagonists to some distant alien world in the nick of time. By which I mean that the journey isn’t ten chapters of a guy talking to his droid. That being said, faster-than-light drives such as hyperdrive are limited by the technology available. …
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Graphic design
I’m not an expert in graphic design, but there are a few tips that I can pass along. Lettering and background separation For example, when you’re designing a book cover that will be shrunk down to a thumbnail on a book site. At thumbnail size, the lettering really needs to still be distinct and not…
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Flying and Flight of Passion
Servant of the Siphen started out in 2009 as a story provisionally titled Flying, in which Isamura and Caroline take a shuttle out and go exploring. There was no mission, no away team, just two lovers on a romantic adventure. In this original draft and all subsequent versions, Isamura asks Caroline to teach her how…
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Earth (in the 25th century)
I’ve already posted a bit about how humanity might fare in the future. Aside from problems resulting from contact with alien microorganisms though, how might this future Earth look? Much of the heavy industry would benefit from being situated in places with access to raw materials. In other words, the rest of the solar system…
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Depression (da da daaaa!)
So, I’m in treatment for depression. I think my most prominent symptom is sleepiness. Not just excessive sleeping, but drowsiness during the time that I’m awake. I think an apt comparison is that when I first went to the doctor, I felt a bit like Lillian in Go Get a Roomie. I’m doing much better…
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Cryonic suspensed animation
In other words, freezing people to (safely) revive them later on. Cryogenics is something different! If you’ll excuse the pun, the idea is still really cool if you’re considering writing a science fiction story. For example, a very long space voyage can be undertaken, arresting the normal aging process of the crew and passengers and…