Last
weekend, I attended Demicon, a science fiction convention held in Des Moines,
IA. While there, I gave 5 panels and 1 reading. So far, readings have not brought me loads of fans, but I don’t think I’ve ever given a reading where
nobody has shown up, so those who do come get a taste of my writing style.
The
panels were better attended. As I explained to the audiences as each panel
broke up, I generally like to introduce a subject, and let the ‘talk’ turn into
a discussion. In that case, the audience members might participate as much - or
more! - than I do, although I will attempt to guide the conversation from time
to time. I really like that formula, because being an introvert, I tend to sit at
my computer for long periods of time, and that can lead to thinking in a
circle... no new ideas. But when I get other people lending their thoughts and
knowledge to a conversation, I wind up with a whole batch of new (to me) ‘what
if’s to ponder.
One of
these discussions was on planet building. This subject is not just for science
fiction; I have one fantasy universe set on a world with 3 moons. But we tended
to compare our ideas to situations we’ve heard about within our own solar
system, and when the talk moved to dwarf planets, I mentioned that one of the
dwarves living out beyond Pluto is not spherical, as the definition states,
because it spins so fast, it has flattened itself. That brought up the
question, what if you had an actual planet, roughly the mass of Earth, but also
spinning so fast that it is flattened quite a bit. Would the gravity be
different at the equator than the poles? What an interesting idea! Of course,
nobody had an answer for that.
The side
subject of moons - If you don’t have a relatively large moon, you probably
won’t have tides in your oceans - brought the question, if your planet had
rings like Saturn, would they exert enough gravimetric pull to effect your
tides? Another stumper! If I had been giving out prizes...
These
particular questions both came from James C Hines, who poked his head in the
door half-way through this panel. I invited him to join us, without realizing
who he was. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t put a name to the face until the
talk was breaking up. Thank you, James. I now have specific questions to pose
to my brother-in-law, the astrophysicist.
Every sf
writer should have access to an astrophysicist.
