R&D

Now Playing: MONEY by Pink Floyd
Just Read: EXODUS by Leon Uris--Really cool account of a monumental event that I really didn't know much about until I read this book. I didn't like some parts of it, but others were awesome, and it brimmed with future story ideas.
Just Read: HEART-SHAPED BOX  by Joe Hill--Loved it. Well-plotted, believable, and intricate, not to mention full of perfect detail and spot-on writing. Looking forward to more of his stuff.
Reading Now: TOYS by James Patterson and Neil McMahon


I had a talk with my brother last week on the lake about research as a writer. He's a mechanical engineer, and I don't know the first thing about realistic mechanics. That said, mechanics turns out to be a big part of what I write when I pen science fiction.

I'm planning out these two stories--one novel, and one trilogy of novels, both science fiction, both involving a great deal of space travel. I'm going to write the stand-alone book first. It's about a girl aboard a multi-generational space ship, one of three traveling to populate a far off world. Think Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, except whole generations have lived and died aboard the ships.

Well, I'm not a rocket scientist, and I don't know much about the physics of space travel. So I'm reading a book now about it by a guy named Dr. Yoji Kondo (and others), who I know, actually--in addition to being a Writers of the Future judge, fiction writer, and real rocket scientist, Dr. Kondo is also one of the highest ranking aikido black belts in the world, and I've studied under him since about my sophomore year in college or so.

Anyway, this book should help to design my setting, and to make the problems I invariable put it through appear realistic. I'll do the research by studying and interviewing people who know more than I do, and I'll develop by plotting outlines as my research sparks ideas. Before too long, I'll be a jack of all trades.

One more perk to this amazing career.