Black and White

This last week, I’ve been reading about Black Holes. If you’ve seen the movie ‘Interstellar’, that involved a Black Hole that they were trying to avoid while skirting around the edges. Neil deGrasse Tyson applauded the science in that movie, so it’s educational as well as entertaining, right?

I’ve been reading science fiction for several decades, so I’m pretty well acquainted with what little is known about Black Holes. But theories grow and change, so I periodically read up on the subject, just to tweak my ‘knowledge’.

Most of what I read I already knew: Black Holes have so much gravity that nothing can escape once it’s entrapped, not even light, so they appear black. The gravity field of a Black Hole is so massive, that it even warps time, making it go slower. Black Holes are created when a star dies and collapses in on itself. And current theory is that there’s a super-Black Hole in the center of each galaxy.

But there were a couple things that made me pause and think. Such as the current theory that each Black Hole has a universe inside it. Therefore, this universe we live in must be inside a Black Hole. It makes me wonder what a Black Hole looks like from the other side. Where is the opening into our universe, and why haven’t we found it yet? How does that fit in with the theory of parallel universes? Are all the universes inside other Black Holes parallel universes to ours? Or am I trying to smash too much into one theory?

There was also the idea that since Black Holes exist, then there must be an opposite counterpart, a White Hole, where stuff would be spewing into our universe. Wow! And would a White Hole have negative gravity, the opposite of a Black Hole’s massive gravity? And would a White Hole spew lots of light and radiation, just like a Black Hole swallows up that stuff? Sounds like they’d be easy to spot. In fact, in my mind, a White Hole sounds like the other side of a Black Hole. So how come we haven’t found any? Well, just be patient. In 2006, an unusual burst of gamma radiation was detected, and currently being studied as a potential White Hole event.

And most of these facts and theories have been used in science fiction during the time I’ve been reading it. I can’t remember the name of the book(s), nor the author(s), but I can remember a scene or two that used each fact/theory. Except one. I don’t remember any books about Black Holes containing universes, but maybe I just didn’t get my hands on that one.

What about you? Read any good Black Hole books lately?

Trudy's Universes, Part 4

I’m going to try and wrap up this list this time. We’re getting into Universes that I don’t seem to visit very often.

O is for Orange Witch. Another fantasy universe. The protagonist is a newly-graduated witch who likes to wear orange. I dreamed up this universe more than 3 decades ago, and haven’t done much with it since.

S is for Spooks. This is where I keep any paranormal projects I might be working on. For me, paranormal includes ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, zombies and the like. I don’t write horror, so there isn’t much in this universe. And if I start a project here, and it really grabs hold of me, that project tends to emerge and form its own universe.

T is for Tunad. Tunad is a planet that is secretly colonized by females from a sister planet, Danut. The society of Danut is male-centered, and the females are slaves. Some female individuals are taken off-world by enlightened aliens, taught to think for themselves, and to make use of their skills, and eventually, a number of these are deposited on Tunad to form their own colony. I haven’t written in this universe much, but I love playing with the background; the colonists, the layout of the colony…

W&V is for Wolfie & Vamps. Okay, I’ve already listed one universe centered around a werewolf and vampire team, but actually, this werewolf & vampire universe has been around longer than that other one. This team is female, and their history goes a lot further back in history.

X is for X-Files. Loved the TV show, didn’t find the books to have the same impact. I have a couple projects started here, but I’m just not sure I can do justice to this particular genre.

There you go, my universes. I didn’t used to have this many. Some of these are probably on the path to fading out of existence. There’s always the possibility I will add new ones. But that’s my list right now, early in 2013.

Still More of Trudy's Universes

I think if I could sit here and work on my stories for 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week, I would not need any ‘new’ ideas for at least a decade. Think I’m kidding? Here’s some more of my folders:

G is for Gothic. 3 decades ago, ‘Gothic’ was a specific type of romance where the setting was some out-of-the-way household owned by a brooding but handsome bachelor who is obviously keeping some horrible secret from the heroine. I never read a lot of them, but I do have one story in this folder that I wrote and submitted to an anthology. I came )( this close to being accepted, but in the end, they chose other stories. So this story is currently sitting on a different editor’s desk, waiting for him to make a decision.

H is for Halves. A few years ago, I was told by another author, “Everybody’s writing vampires and werewolves.” She was right, but I went ahead and created my own anyway. A vampire is neither alive nor dead, so he could be thought of as half of both. A werewolf is partly human and partly wolf, so he’s halfway both, too. And these guys have a friend who helps them do things, who is of mixed ancestry, so … also a half. Thus I named this trio ‘The Halves’. None of them talk very much, which makes getting a complete story out of them a long deal.

K is for Kandi. Kandi is a member of the same alien race that produced the Atlans, but the crew of this ship was her parents, who had left home for their honeymoon and never went back. When their ship was punctured by a freak meteorite, baby Kandi was thrown into a lifeboat. The lifeboat landed in the Dakota badlands, and Kandi was adopted by a Native American couple, and raised as one of their own. Kandi joins the Space Fleet (precursor to the Fleet that Mac belongs to) and Kandi is kidnapped by a derelict ship her crew is exploring. Kandi spends the rest of her long life exploring the universe, gathering together a rag-tag crew of aliens.

We’re over halfway through my universe folders now. Do you see any patterns in what I tend to write? I do. I’ve been aware of them for some time, and that knowledge has encouraged me to explore new universes. As we age, we have opportunities to grow, to adapt our outlook on life. I suspect my newer universes reflect that change in me and some of my universes may – eventually – be left to their own devices.

More of Trudy's Universes

Last week, I listed 3 of my ‘uiverses’, the ones where I seem to spend most of my time these days. I thought I would introduce more of my universes today, some I hope to explore more fully … ‘someday’. Here are a few more of the ‘universe names’ that occupy my main ‘writing’ file on my computer.

D&D is for – no, not our Saturday night adventures written up as a story. This folder is for stories of a fantasy nature, set in a place that might resemble a D&D land, or a Tolkein-like setting. Probably this will be a home for shorts, because if I write an entire novel using a set of characters, I tend to give those characters their own universe, as shown in the next universe:

FG is for Fantasy Gumshoe. I’m still in the planning stages with this one. I see a world rather similar to Glen Cook’s Garrett series, perhaps with a splash of Jim Butcher’s Dresden for a little different flavor. There are no stories in this folder, yet, just some maps, character thoughts, possible history.

D is for Dohio. The Dohio are similar to the Atlans; a matriarchal society that does not think much of men. The differences are that the Dohio live on Earth after some holocaustic social & technological breakdown, and they do not have the mental abilities or Powers of the Atlans. As the holocaust hovered on the horizon, a collection of men in the Ohio Valley sent their wives and children to live in the caves that riddle the valley, along with all the supplies they could gather, including some livestock. The husbands were supposed to join the families, but they didn’t, and by the time the Dohio dare to venture out of the underground, the world is far different than the legends described.

Well, that’s another 3 of my universes. We aren’t quite half done yet. See you next week!

Visiting Trudy’s Universes

I named this blog for my various universes where I place my stories, but I’ve seldom actually taken you – my readers – into any of those universes. So today, I thought I would at least introduce you to my universes.

A is for Atlans. My first 3 shorts published on smashwords.com are about the Atlans, and the 4^th is tangentially associated with them. The Atlans are a race of women who establish their own culture on a planet when their space-faring parents abandon them as infants. After centuries of thriving, their ‘home island erupted, sending small boats of Atlans out into the world. Separated, they land wherever they land, and shortly establish a village of their own. Each village wonders if any others survived, and eventually, when they feel their village is strong enough, individuals are sent out to see if they can find any hints of other Atlan villages.

M is for Mac. Mac is the main character of my serialized space opera (MacOnFireball.blogspot.com). The SS Fireball is a large exploration/military ship in Space Fleet. Mac is short, shapely and very desirable. She’s a heavy worlder, a heavy drinker, and quite a brawler, having the strength of an Earth elephant. I’ve tried something different in the way of point of view. Mac is the main character, but the story is told from the point of view of the crew members who surround her. Therefore, each scene is colored by the expectations and beliefs of the observer.

SE is for Space Exploration. In this universe, I try to imagine events that might happen as we Earthlings explore our own solar system in the next hundred years – or maybe two hundred, if our current rate of progress holds true. It is in this universe that my age thwarts me a bit, as all my science is old, having been learned over 40 years ago. I try to research my ideas, see if they will even hold up with modern science. Maybe, maybe not. I currently have a couple shorts done in this universe, 3 or 4 more that I’m trying to work up.

Okay, that’s 3 of my universes. There are still a lot more, but we can talk about them another time.

Seeing What's There

Okay, I’ve told you about BlackBirds, MetalWorkers and ClayWomen in the Atlan tribe, all of whom have black hair and black eyes, and all of whom are often seen as a huge group of BlackBirds. There are still more Atlans who are easily mistaken as BlackBirds, especially at a little bit of distance.

The next batch of these ‘apparent BlackBirds’ has black hair and blue eyes. Those with the moon birthmark are WaterWoman, the heart birthmark denotes a LeatherWorker, while those with a sword birthmark are called Makers.

It seems to me that the occupation ‘leatherworker’ is pretty self-explanatory; they take raw animal skins and tan them into leather. They also use the leather to create shoes and clothing, wineskins and waterskins, gauntlets and sword sheaths and anything else they decide to make. Like many other types of specialists among the Atlans, this is not a glamorous type of Power, but it is supremely useful.

Understanding a WaterWoman’s Power is a little more complicated. This is the woman who can locate water, whether it’s running (like streams and rivers), standing (ponds and lakes) or underground. She can even feel an approaching storm front, although a WeatherWoman would probably be aware of storms before the WaterWomen were. A WaterWoman can get the water to take a new path to create a spring, thus avoiding having to dig wells. This also helps when crops need to be irrigated. A really strong WaterWoman can walk through a heavy downpour and not get wet because she directed the raindrops to change their path to avoid her.

And that leaves the Makers. On Earth, within the last couple centuries, an Atlan Maker might have been called a machinist or an inventor. These are the ones who first figured out wheels and axles, sails and rudders, and a whole slew of other items. They don’t do this entirely alone. For instance, it took a Maker consulting with a WaterWoman to figure out water pipes in order to invent sinks, showers and eventually, toilets.

So, these are not Mighty Warriors like BlackBirds, but they are definitely useful Powers for a village to have. And if the tribe finds themselves at war, the more women they have who might be mistaken for BlackBirds gives the Atlans that much more of a psychological edge.

The Toss of a Coin

MoonPhaze Publishing has e-published 3 of my Atlan stories, and we’re looking to start Project 4. We were going to give one of the other authors a shot, but it turned out they didn’t feel they had anything ready. So Tommee turned back to me and asked, “Well? Have you got any more Atlans ready?”

And I do. Of course I do. I have 2 Atlan stories polished and ready. I also have other, not-Atlan stories polished and ready. So … did we really want to go with another Atlan story, or try something new?

We discussed that a lot. We wiffled, we waffled, we hemmed and hahhed. And finally, because of our longer-term publishing plans, we decided to make Project 4 another Atlan story.

As I said, I had 2 ready. Which one should go next? How should we choose? I liked both of them (otherwise they wouldn’t be ‘ready’). Tommee liked both of them. There wasn’t a lot of difference in their word count, not that that matters in e-publishing.

We’ve wrestled with this question for what seems like only slightly less than forever. We are about to toss a coin. The problem is that both stories naturally identify with ‘tails’. So, how do we decide which one gets stuck with ‘heads’?

PS - If you are planning to be at Constellation in Lincoln NE next weekend, I'm scheduled to do a reading on Saturday afternoon.

Dare Something New

I’m late this week because I was out of town, and then because I traveled even further out of town. Sorry about that.

I attended Conquest in Kansas City. I’ve been going there for many years, and enjoy it. The first day we were there, I had some down time, and turned to the rough draft I was working on. Unfortunately, I found myself bored with it. I decided I needed some time away from that story. After all, I’d been working on it pretty exclusively for 4 or 5 months. But none of the other stories I had half-written appealed to me, either.

Like at most conventions, I attended a number of panels and discussions, some only marginally of interest. (Why is it they put all the best panels opposite each other?) Sometimes I pushed the wallflower me into a corner and actually TALKED to friends, letting the conversation wander this way and that, loop back and take another path…

Then I went back to my room and started a new story. It doesn’t take place in any of the various universes I’ve already planned out and written stories for. It involved ideas from several panels, had found encouragement in the conversation with friends, who were willing to assist in exploring ideas. I can’t say that I pounded out a 5,000 word story in a couple hours, because I wasn’t that inspired. The idea was there, but changing that idea into a rough draft has been a little more difficult as I actually tried to make it believable. But it’s come along nicely, thank you, even though I’ve only had a few hours to spend on it since I started it last weekend.

So, dare something new. Just as some women find a new pair of shoes to be refreshing, and some people find a new hobby to give a fresh flavor to their life, your writing may need an infusion of something new from time to time. Don’t get stuck in a rut. See ya Sunday. Trudy

What Comes First?

There's an old paradox that one hears from time to time: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I'm sure you've all heard it. I kind of found myself in that type of situation this week.

I have this pair of characters who come around and tease me with hints of some of their exploits from time to time. With the new year, they told me they once found a body in the trunk of a burning car, right here in Omaha. I know the fire department did find a body in the trunk of a burning car, a couple decades ago, and I thought that might make an interesting mystery for them to solve.

I don't normally write mysteries. These characters are not normally sleuths. It was an interesting idea, but I needed a reason for the dead body to be in the trunk. Actually, I needed a reason for the body to be dead. And that's where I got stuck. I needed this person to be a person, and their life should give me some clue about the motive for their death. But none of that was coming to me. All I got from the characters was snickers and, "We had to figure it out, so now you can."

I've started reading a handbook for mystery writers, hoping it would at least list types of murder motives, stuff like that. It hasn't yet. If I'm still over my head after I read that, I'll have to see if I can't get some answers from fire investigators, homicide detectives, and crime lab technicians. I still know a few of those, though not necessarily the ones who investigated the burning car I heard about.

Mysteries are like that old question. Without a character history, you won't have a motive for the crime. Without a motive, this particular crime would not be committed. Think of me this week, out there chasing chickens and hunting eggs. Trudy

Escapism

As has been happening for so many people in these tough economic times, I sometimes feel my world has been crumbling around me. Will I manage to keep my job, will we be able to pay our bills, will we stop sniping at each other long enough to remember we love each other?

I mention this not because I want to veer into my personal life, but because I find myself wondering how all those other people manage to deal with these pressures, when they don't have imaginary universes to retreat to. I have lots of dreamt-up universes, and I visit them regularly. It's my form of 'escaping'.

If I've had a bad day at work, I spend the evening exploring the universe with Kandi, who spent decades trying to figure out why she didn't fit in anywhere before she discovered she was an alien – by finding her parents' abandoned spaceship. Feeling torn about something? Tay slept through centuries and now has to reconcile what she was taught with the universe as it has become. Had a fight with hubby? Visit with Hank and Bob, two young men I've placed in my imaginary version of Belgrade, Nebraska, as they try to figure out how to win the women they've chosen to love.

At times, my husband has turned to me and asked, "Is your main character angry in the scene you're working on?" Why, yes. Yes, she is. How astute he is. He knows that a little bit of me resides in each and every one of my characters, especially the protagonists. It helps me figure out their motives, their fears, their reactions. In some ways, that bond with my imaginary characters is stronger than the bond with my own family.

So many people say that writing is a lonely pursuit. How can it be lonely when I have so many close friends who can understand everything I go through? Maybe they aren't real, but they're mine. Their worlds are the worlds I've made for them. Why wouldn't I want to visit them frequently and often? They make the real world a little easier to take.

See ya next week. Trudy

Welcome to One of My Universes

Most every sf/f writer has their own universe, at least one. It might be a fantasy realm they've created, a galactic empire they've imagined or an alternative history line they're following. If they write a lot, they probably have more than one universe. I've been writing since I was a kid, so I've got quite a few. Some I've abandoned or 'outgrown', others keep growing as I write more stories in them, and I always seem to be creating more universes.

Today, I thought I'd give you a peek at one of my universes, the world of the Atlans.

The Atlans are a race of women known as witches. Similar to Anne McCaffrey's DragonRiders of Pern series, there is a scientific explanation; they are descended from aliens (which they remember as 'gods'). Their parentage means they have powers no one else on this planet has, and it only passes on to daughters. Sons are sent to live with their fathers by the time they turn five.

I have plans to explore this universe from the time the first Atlans arrived through all sorts of history. I've even started a novel set in 'modern times' on this planet. But most of my stories are set in a time roughly analogous to Earth's pre-history through the dark ages.

And yes, I couldn't resist. This race originally lived on an island, and thrived, but the island eventually erupted. Most of them were killed in the eruption, and the others were scattered in tiny groups. They had to find new places to live, and for many generations, each little pocket of Atlans didn't know if any other pockets of Atlans existed.

I have finished one novel in this universe, Cali, which I'm looking to place with an agent or publishing house (or both). Cali is unique among the Atlans. She has different coloring from their norm. Not only does she not look like an Atlan, she doesn't feel like an Atlan, and for the first 5 years of her life, they wondered if she should be sent to live with her father. But Cali has ALL the Atlan powers, not just one of them. As a young woman, Cali takes on a journey to track down the men who have killed two Atlan children. Ambushed, her injuries mean a number of her powers can't be used, and she must get imaginative with her remaining powers to complete her journey.

So, that's one story in this universe. And this is just the first trial for Cali, who hasn't even completed her training with any of her powers. Cali will go down in history for what she accomplishes. Eventually. Very little of what happens in this story is even worth a footnote in the history books. Still, legends tend to grow the more distant in time they are, right? What Cali does is only what needs to be done at the time.

This tends to be the universe I spend the most time in, at least for now. There's so much 'history' to be explored, so many wonderful characters to study. An entire encyclopedia of history to be written, as it were.

It's kind of daunting, in those terms. Like I said, I have several universes. Not all of them have that many characters to explore, or that much history to invent, but even so … that's a lot of writing. I'd better get back to it. See ya next week. Trudy