Sarah Kelly

I was remembering thinking about flashbacks when...

2009-08-01T02:04:16Z

I think a lot about flashbacks, because I’m often tempted to use them. It seems so easy to explain about a character, their motivations and their emotional makeup using a flashback. The same goes for giving background on a story’s situation. My Clarion instructors all warned strongly against flashbacks, as do many books on the craft of writing. They give good reasons for avoiding them which I won’t go into here. Basically, it is very easy to use flashbacks poorly. My question is how to use them well?

I just finished Geoff Ryman's The King's Last Song. It is an excellent book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who would enjoy a very character-driven thriller set in Asia (Cambodia to be specific) with liberal doses of both ancient and recent history. It used at least two substantial flashbacks to give background on two of the book's characters and both of them totally worked for me. Why?

The story starts by introducing two Cambodian characters, one at a time, in the present day and in present tense. In the third chapter, the characters are shown together in the event that starts the story's action. A new character is introduced here, one very different from the first two introduced whom the reader has gotten to know fairly well. He's an interesting guy, French, not Cambodian like the first two characters. He's shown very sympathetically. He's competent. The reader is shown that he knows Cambodian culture intimately. He's fluent in the language. He cares deeply about the Cambodian characters whom we've met and treats them respectfully although we see he has a much higher social standing and is much richer than the Cambodian characters. We wonder who this guy is. Why does he know and care so much about Cambodia and the individual people in it?

And viola! Chapter four is a flashback to this man's teenage years. It begins at 8% of the pages into the story. (Read on Kindle, no page numbers to reference!) It recounts an event in which we get to know that he grew up in Cambodia, of a French family that had lived in Cambodia for many years. It describes an important formative incident in his life, all while describing the kind of person he is. The teenage years are perfect for this because the character is just figuring it out for himself.

In chapter five, the bomb that starts the action really running goes off (figuratively, not literally.) It's shown through the Frenchman's POV. He is the character directly involved. As a reader, I’m now very sympathetic to this character as a result of the flashback in chapter four. His physical pain, fear and confusion are heightened by what I learned in chapter four.

There's one way to use flashbacks well. Please leave a comment if you can think of others!

Starry Heaven

2009-06-27T18:39:29Z

Starry Heaven '09 is officially over! I think it's just me and brad_beaulieu left here in town. We're hanging out at Macy's waiting until it's time to catch his shuttle.

Overall, I think it went well. We definitely had a good time! I tried to ask each person if they felt they got good critiques. I think I got almost everyone, and most said they got a lot out of it. In a peer-to-peer workshop, the quality of the peers is what makes it worthwhile and I think we had a really strong group. I hope to do this again, if not next year, then certainly the year after. It will depend on how my writing goes.

So, my novel. I got excellent feedback from the whole group on my first fifty. It wasn't universally loved by everyone, but had enough strengths to draw most of the readers in our group in. shunn and Rob Ziegler (a new writer recommended to the group by Paolo Bacigalupi) gave me excellent feedback on the about half a novel I've got done so far. I don't know the ending of my novel yet, but got to run some ideas by them on where I'm going. Overall, I feel a little daunted and inadequate compared to the awesomeness of the other writers in the group, but also encouraged to go keep working, keep learning and keep trying to improve my writing.

My plan is to finish this second novel, then return to the first and try to fix it. I really want to start submitting to agents by the end of the year, but don't want to submit something I feel uneasy about. The tricks will be 1.) Finishing the books (or at least calling them done) and 2.) Stop feeling uneasy for long enough to start sending them out to the ultimate judges of whether or not a book has commercial value: agents and editors.

Beautiful Art in LA

2009-04-30T17:39:28Z

My friend Lyle Motley is opening an art show in LA this Friday at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. You can see more of his work at his website.

He's got some lovely reading and writing related paintings.

Got a Kindle 2

2009-03-31T00:16:30Z

I got a Kindle 2 for my birthday. (Thanks to charmingbillie for posting thoughts on hers. Pushed me right over the edge.) I opened it early and already have my fingerprints all over it.

I love it. The screen is great. I love the size, weight and shape (MUCH thinner than a paperback and the size of a moleskin notebook). I can take it backpacking!

Flagstaff is in the wireless' slow zone. Surfing the bookstore is a little slow, but the books, once bought, download in less than a minute. The selection isn't fabulous, as in 'Amazon has everything' fabulous, but good enough.

I feel conflicted because it will make Amazon my first stop for books. Flagstaff hasn't had an independent bookstore selling significant fiction for more than six years now, so I won't be putting any locals out of business. Our one Barnes and Noble is small and doesn't have that great a selection. If anything, I'll buy more new books now, because I'll want them on the Kindle so I won't go to our fabulous used bookstore so much. But I like bookstores. I like hanging out in bookstores, chatting with the staff and other customers. I've dreamed of opening an independent bookstore in Flagstaff just so there would be one again. I don't like the thought of bookstores disappearing like music stores did. If everyone gets one, I'll be bummed because I won't be able to see what other people are reading in airports, coffee shops, etc.

But I love being able to get a book as soon as I want it, without having to wait for it to be shipped. I love the thought of having many books, and all my favorites, on one, nicely portable device.

The first thing I did with the Kindle was import and read a story livia_llewellyn sent me as a word document. It was great to be able to read it on the nice screen, and you can insert comments and highlight passages. It wasn't so great to then export the comments (as a .txt file) to my computer and then type them into an email to send to her. The Kindle's keyboard is the kind you use your thumbs on. I have no practice with that so my comments were in shorthand that I had to reinterpret. Forget line editing. For critiquing, I think inserting comments and edits into a word document will still be my preferred MO. I was definitely less thorough using the Kindle.

I'm a little disappointed about it not being so useful for critiques. On the other hand, it's nice that it doesn't multi-task. I want to use it for reading.

To Rewrite or Write Anew?

2009-03-01T16:42:10Z

I've come to the conclusion (thanks to a couple critiques) that novel #1, Clouds in Code, needs a substantial rewrite. Again. Basically, I need to insert a much stronger plot and maybe to ditch the more fantastic elements and turn it into a straight(er) science thriller. It'll take a good deal of cutting and new writing to do that.

This means I have a decision to make. I have the opportunity to workshop a novel with a great group of people this summer. There's only so much writing time between now and then, especially now that I'm back to work part-time and we're reflooring the whole house this spring. How can I best use the time I've got?

Should I deconstruct/reconstruct Clouds and workshop that or continue work on Novel Two, on which I've written 18k, and workshop that? The new one is more fun because it's new, and it may be more pliable in terms of applying what I'm learning about novels. I'm still invested in Clouds, though. I want to salvage it, someday. It's in my nature to grind away at a thing until I get it right. What I really need to do right now is better learn how to write a novel. Does anyone have any experience or advice to share on learning through rewriting, versus setting the old aside and starting anew?

Writing, famous person, and Facebook

2009-02-12T01:12:46Z

Finished chapter four of the new, as yet unnamed novel today. I met my goal for weekly progress last week, but this week will be tougher. I'm heading up to Durango to visit with my parents and grandma for the long weekend, so I've got to meet my word quota by end of day tomorrow. I'm finding I hit a kind of mental exhaustion after 1,500 words a day, but I'll keep pushing it. I'd love to be able to write 2k a day, regularly.

Saw Bruce Babbitt, one of Flagstaff's local boys who did good, walking down Beaver Street on Sunday. He was AZ's governor and Clinton's Secretary of the Interior. I mean TOTAL rock star, people! I didn't recognize him until we were well past him walking the other way, and Mike said, "That was Bruce Babbitt."

I would've have liked to thank him for his service and tell him to get busy and run for governor again. When we lost governor Janet Napolitano to Obama's cabinet, our conservative, republican secretary of state got the position. She's in the process of gutting AZ's already low-rated educational system, from pre-school on up to the university level. I don't get that kind of thinking. Please let me pay more taxes for education at every level.

I finally got on Facebook, after two friends in a week told me they'd just joined up. I kind of like it! I've found people I used to work with in my days at ITEP and its nice to reconnect with them in that small way. The wall thing is strange, you see only one side of the conversation as far as I can tell. Now that I'm working at home, I'm trying to reach out more online. It's not the same as seeing colleagues every day, but it's nice to have some interaction.

Getting it under control

2009-02-07T17:55:19Z

For the new novel, I've set a weekly goal of 5,000 to 6,000 words a week. The 5k will allow me to meet the deadlines I've set for myself, 6k or more would let me get ahead. I hit 5,000 for the week yesterday, so now I can take the weekend off if I want to! It feels kind of like a real job this way. Except the lack of pay. :-(

I'll probably write this afternoon since we're supposed to get pounded by snow tonight, so I can ski tomorrow guilt-free. I do want to get ahead. When Clouds in Code comes back from the person critiquing it now, revising it will become my priority, though I will try to keep up progress on the new book.

This morning, a very late breakfast at Martan's Burrito Palace, then off to the grocery store, back home to run, then write, write, write.

Finally rolling on a new novel

2009-02-01T16:24:05Z

It took a while, but I've finally settled on the characters and starting action for my new novel. It feels good to approach the computer each day with an idea of what I need to write. The first few chapters are slow writing for me, because I'm still doing research on world-building stuff and trying to turn my characters into real people.

For me, an important part of creating characters is naming them. Before I name them, they're nebulous. I have ideas about actions they'll need to take and the conflicts they'll be involved in, but until I name them I can't picture them clearly in my head or fill out their personalities. The trouble with this is that I can't start writing until I chose the name. It can take me up to an hour and sometimes more of mooning around about it. I tell myself to call them Jane1 or Joe2 and get on with writing, but I can't! So, am I procrastinating or responsibly not writing until I know what I'm about?

My friend Alex Wilson (alexotica) recently pointed out he, our fellow Clarion 06'er livia_llewellyn and I are in our final year of Campbell Best New Writer Award eligibility. I've got a profile up at Writertopia with my bibliography and a couple reviews of my work. If you're able and willing, consider nominating and voting for us!

Go Google Guilt-Free!

2009-01-15T18:43:45Z

A report came out earlier this week claiming that one Google search puts out about 7 grams of carbon dioxide, the same amount it was said, as boiling half a kettle of water. The news shook me up, because that's a lot of energy expended just to satisfy my need to over-research everything and look up trivia for curiosity's sake. Dang...the amount of energy conservation required to slow down global warming will have us reverting to impoverished lifestyles of walking miles to our local libraries to pick through their physically limited aisles of information.

Luckily, this claim is in deep doubt and the amount of carbon produced by your Google searches is more likely equivalent to 0.2 grams of CO2. Using that number, a thousand Google searches is equivalent to driving an average car 1 km. Both those numbers come from Google themselves, but studies done by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories also suggest a much lower number.

Information technology as a whole produces about 2% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. That's the same as all air travel combined, and although small, on the global scale it isn't trivial. However, Google has been very active in trying to reduce its total energy use and get its energy from renewable sources.

For more detailed reporting on this issue, check out:
Scientific American for the technical side, and Climate Progress for information the politics involved in over-hyping internet energy use.

IT'S ALIVE!!!

2008-12-06T17:48:55Z

The novel that is! YAY! But as I rewrote the last word of the last chapter, last night at 5:04 PM, I started picking on it and thinking about all the ways it's not really done. For instance: thinking that several scenes are too weak, the first two pages are still a little clunky, is this or that really believable enough, knowing that I'll revise it again after others read this draft, etc, etc, etc. There I was, Friday night, I had just finished a solid first draft of my first novel, and I'm thinking of reasons not to celebrate! So I started thinking of an analogy that would allow me to celebrate the milestone, while still recognizing the work that remains. Here's what I came up with:

Draft zero, finished May 08 - A hastily but earnestly constructed tin man. I made an effort to build all the parts out of the same kind of metal, but some of them were rusty, rickety, didn't work together very well and some were kind of ugly. I was pretty sure I put a heart in there somewhere, but couldn't quite remember where.

Draft one, finished yesterday - FRANKENSTEIN!!! All its parts are made of flesh, though I'm not sure how much of it is living. You can see some seams of authorial sewing together. It seems to have a brain, and while I, its creator, may think it's working pretty well, there's no guarantee it won't plod off and kill an innocent child or something.

What I'm shooting for - A Blade Runner style Nexus 6 replicant, preferably Roy Batty.

Which milestones in writing do you celebrate and why?

First Birthday!

2008-11-14T16:56:04Z

I knew the date was coming around, but didn't check my records until today. On November 12, 2007, I wrote the first words on Clouds In Code. I'm on schedule to finish what I'll consider a clean first draft before Thanksgiving. Further revisions and fixes will go on through spring, but I'm hoping to start sending it to agents by March 31, which is my birthday. It seems like a long time. I have this idea that working novelists crank out a novel a year and many of them seem to publish a couple short stories, too. So, I'm feeling kind of impatient with myself.

In other news, it's frickin' 70 degrees today in Flagtown, at 7,000 feet elevation in the middle of November. We got 3-4 inches of snow last weekend, but it melted quickly. It feels more like spring than fall.

Today, I'm taking an afternoon break to see Diana Gabaldon talk about converting her novels into graphic novels. I've only read the first of her series, and I enjoyed it. She's an NAU alumni and shows up in town pretty frequently for various events. I look forward to meeting her and hearing her voice, which I've been told is amazing in readings.

What I did instead of writing in October.

2008-10-28T03:23:42Z

So there was alot of this:

punctuated with some of this:

when we tried hard not to think about these:

The weather was great. The water was low and slow, so not much excitement in the rapids, but lots of peaceful paddling. I didn't miss writing, though I thought about it a little bit.

Now I've been back a couple weeks and am chipping away on the chapter 15 revision. These last chapters were written in the most haste, and the story has changed quite a bit since the first draft. There's a lot of big chunks of text being tossed, new plot problems to create and solve, and some old text that needs a lot of polishing. I figure with a project this big, the fact that I'm still motivated to work on it each day counts for something.

I can't wait to vote. I'm going down to the court house to vote early tomorrow. I'll volunteer on election day. Goooooo Obama!

Progress, but slow, and working at home

2008-09-23T03:25:16Z

The novel revision inches along. I'm hoping to start chapter 13 of 21 tomorrow, if all goes well finishing off 12 tonight. I think I'm cutting about 20% and adding about 10% new as I work. This project now officially has taken longer than my master's thesis, including fieldwork.

For the last year, both Mike and I have been working for ourselves from home. Overall, it's going well. I've noticed we both have a tendency to work days, nights and weekends, always in a rush to get things done before our next big trip. Big trips are great, but now, at the end of six weeks of constant working or feeling guilty about taking a day off, I'm thinking calling nights and weekends free time isn't such a bad idea now and then. At some point, if this goes on much longer, we need to think about a more structured time-off schedule. After the next big trip, I'll think about it.

The next trip starts this Sunday: Five days paddling the San Juan River north of Monument Valley. It's a small group, and we're bringing one raft, so we'll have all the comforts of car camping without the car! Yay for lawn chairs in camp, fresh veggies everyday and cold beer! I love the San Juan. It's a beautiful canyon with occasional easy rapids that just add fun, no stress or fear of thrashings. I'd hoped to have the novel finished before we left, maybe if I work REALLY hard all this week....

Home again, home again

2008-08-27T18:57:06Z

Finally making progress on the novel revisions! After a summer of travel and family stuff, I'm at the end of two solid weeks of being home and working on it. Yesterday, I finished revising Chapter 6 (of 21) and by tomorrow I should be through Chapter 7. My goal is to get the next draft finished by the end of September. I think I can do it.

I'm looking forward to reading it through from beginning to end, something I haven't been able to do yet because of the Blue Heaven deadline. (Finished it just in time, sent it out, then figured why bother until I got the comments back.) It was written chronologically, and I've been revising it in order, but it'll be interesting to read it through quickly and see how I'm doing on flow and pacing.

In other news, not much! The garden is putting out beans, squash and cucumbers at a fine rate. The next novel draft has to be done by the end of September because that's when we're taking off on a several day river trip on the beautiful San Juan River. It'll be a small group with plenty of time for side-canyon hikes. I can't wait to be on the water.

Heavenly

2008-06-16T03:48:01Z

I'm almost home from Blue Heaven. Getting to Phoenix has been uneventful, hopefully I'll be on the last plane home in two hours or so.

The workshop was excellent. Great people, crits and conversation. And on top of all that, ice cream, swimming in the lake, fossil hunting, walks and runs along the shore, AND an industrial-strength explosion. Almost as cool as the explosion itself was being with eleven people who were also immediately inspired, upon hearing the warning siren at the quarry, to jump up and run TOWARDS the blasting site.

Besides the fun, I'm feeling good about my novel. I left Kelley's Island knowing I've got a lot of work left to do, but encouraged and inspired to do it. As soon as I get some sleep.

To worry, or not to worry

2008-05-29T02:46:51Z

When I first finished the novel draft, twenty-three days ago, I told myself to immediately write a short story. I hadn't worked on one since last fall, when I started the novel. For two weeks I slugged it out over an idea, researched the heck out of the aurora, and got about 500 to 1000 words into something. It just wasn't happening. I researched some more. Often, when researching, I'll come across something that inspires me to continue writing. Wasn't happening. Thought about a couple other ideas and couldn't get enough substance out them to start writing.

So I decided to give up for a bit and decided to just read. I'm not even reading short stuff. I'm catching up on the pile of novels I've accumulated over the last year or so. I've got a big pile of critique reading to do, and I've been working on that, but otherwise, no writing or thinking about writing. (Except trying to learn from the novels, of course!)

One of the greatest things Clarion taught me was that yes, you can bust out a draft short story in one week that may not be great, but can be revised into something salable. I worry that I'm letting myself off the hook by not forcing myself to bust out a short. Any advice on whether to force it or let it rest?

Free Fiction!

2008-05-10T21:11:21Z

"Kukulkan" is now posted over at www.skcastle.com

I've joined the ranks of the pixel-stained peasantry. Hooray!

There it is!

2008-05-05T20:30:15Z

Just now finished the -0.5 draft of Clouds in Code, my first novel, evah. It is after noon and I'd have a beer right now, but I want to go for a run first!

I'm calling it a -0.5 draft because I've noticed over the last couple days of frantic typing that I was dropping articles and other more critical words, like pronouns, and occasionally even other nouns. The verbs seemed immune. Go figure! ;-) I'll start putting it in Word this afternoon, that'll help clean it up.

It's at 102K. I think it'll get cut down through the editing stages.

Sigh, part of me says take the afternoon off, the other part is actually kind of psyched to get editing. Will let parts fight it out during run...

So, no tiara or anything, but

2008-05-02T14:59:32Z

my novelette "Kukulkan" ranked 5th in the AnLab Analog readers survey!

I guess Analog isn't a tiara kind of outfit, anyway. Maybe they give out those headbands with the eyes on springy stalks. Gold, silver and bronze lab coats would be neat.

Still in the mine...

2008-04-28T17:09:32Z

Still grinding away on Clouds In Code, but I think I'm safely over 90K! I've got 4K left to revise and enrich with the new thread, and 5 chapters to go. I really want to keep it under 95K. It may be tough. Advice from Clarion and others who I think are in the know suggests that over 95K is stretching it for a first time novelist, Patrick Rothfuss aside. (For some reason, I think fantasy readers are more likely to go for epic lengths than sci-fi readers. True or uninformed opinion?)

In other news, the week before last was spent in the Grand Canyon, on my longest back-packing trip yet - 5 days. The weather was great except for a day of wind that made walking a struggle. Several times, my 185-pound self (with pack!) had to struggle to keep on my feet. The claret cup and prickly pear cactus were starting to bloom, and there were a ton of other wildflowers out. Backpacking is such a great escape. You have nothing to do all day but get yourself from point A to point B. The route is often rough, so you feel kinda tough for having made it, and you're carrying everything you need to sustain yourself, yourself. So simple and gratifying.

As I get closer to the end of the novel, I'm still enjoying using Liquid Story Board. I'll format the manuscript using Word, because then I'll want all those auto-editing features. LSB creates each chapter as an .rtf file, so it'll be easy to move. With all the bells and whistles LSB has, I had to resort to taping printed chapter summaries to my closet door to keep track of everything. Just didn't want to keep opening windows to make sure so-and-so actually did do such-and-such in Chapter 7 or was it 9, etc, etc.

Now, onward to finishing draft 0.5!

Fightin' 80K

2008-04-11T05:41:14Z

As of tonight, I'm at 82K on Clouds in Code, if I round up. I haven't posted any updates on the novel in a while because I went back to the beginning and started revising. The closer I got to the end, I realized it was past mundane and was, in fact, boring. SO, I started at the beginning and added a thread that I'm having a lot of fun with and I think spices it up. WHEW! I haven't had to trash too much of what's written before, but I won't rule out dropping below 80K again before it's done and over with. I'm aiming for a fine first draft of about 95K by...May... something.

Thanks to my friend, gentleman and scholar, Dr. Darrell Kaufman, I went to the Arctic 2008 meeting in Boulder, CO in early March. It was my first ever 'just for researching fiction' (though family visiting also happened) trip. Three days of scientists who research the climate history of the Arctic giving presentations was tied up by presentations from a couple of journalists giving advice on how to get noticed and talk to the media. I could write a whole post on the meeting, but I'm too lazy for that. If you're that interested, buy me a beer next time you see me, and then see if you can get me to shut up. One of the interesting sentiments that I heard from a scientist was this: I don't want to get on the fear bandwagon that the media is making about climate change, so I just don't talk to the media.

I can kind of sympathize, but damn. The more research I do for this book, the more I discover to be scared about. Big changes in our climate are happening, but now that the Al Gore shiny is worn off, nothing's hitting the news. And the US, the biggest CO2 emitter in the history of the world, is still doing VERY little to slow down our emissions rate. So it is scary. However scary you think it is, multiply that by at least five. You can find a lot of information about this stuff on the web, so I won't belabor it any more, except to say if you're political, talk to your representatives about enacting a carbon tax. It's the only near-term action I can see that could make a significant difference. The world will change, but I still believe we can make it a change for the better. I mean, why not?

Also thanks to contacts through Darrell, I was able to talk to a couple people who are working on one of the US global climate change models at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where my novel takes place. They were a little guarded at first, but very gracious with their time and knowledge. The NCAR building, designed by I.M. Pei, is very open to the public, so I did a lot of wandering around picking up details. I've been fascinated by this building since I was a kid, always seeing it from afar when we drove into Boulder. It was as cool inside as I thought it would be.

70.5K and scared

2008-02-26T02:53:51Z

Yiiee, 70.5K today. I'm approaching the climax, and scared because it doesn't seem so exciting all the sudden. Hopefully that's because I pretty much know what's going to happen (though I don't quite know how, yet). The reader, not knowing, will feel tension at this point, even though I don't feel it right now. Right?

It doesn't matter because this is the zeroth draft. If the characters are a little thin, the plot a little plodding, the tension not so...tense, it's OK because I will go back and fix it, fill it out and tighten it up. *keeps telling self that*

Thinking forward to the first revision, I ask myself: how didactic do I want the story to be?

Starting out, I wanted the reader to come away with a basic understanding of how global climate models work and some understanding of the complexities involved in predicting climate. In the story, the researchers compete with each other for resources to complete their projects. I tried to convey tension as each person tried to convince themselves and others that their project is most important.

I'm looking for examples of how this kind of thing has been done well. So far, I'm using Benford's Timescape and Greg Bear's Forge of God as examples, just because they're close to the front of my bookshelves. Is there a book you liked a lot and learned something from? Or does it just bug the hell out of you to have any info in a story that doesn't directly advance the plot?

Still-Hunting is in print!

2008-02-22T16:09:03Z

Just got my May 2008 Analog in the mail and "Still-Hunting" is in it! **happy-dancing and maniacal giggling** It's fronted by a nice two-page illustration by Broeck Steadman. To add to the thrill of this issue, it includes a long letter to the editor about "Kukulkan" in which the reader said the story riveted his attention and described the several ways he found it thought-provoking. "Thought-provoking" is about the highest compliment I could've hoped for. I mean, I definitely want my writing to entertain, first. But it's an extra pleasure to read something that makes me examine my assumptions about life, the universe and/or everything. It is what I shoot for when writing, too.

OK, time to stop mooning and get back to writing. Seeing the short story in print makes me want to get busy and write short again, but I'm close enough to finishing the zeroth draft of the novel that I really feel like I should soldier on with it. Just about 1/3 to go...that's close isn't it?

Where He Lives

2008-02-20T23:02:48Z

My friend Dan Pinney has his first published story "Where We Live" up at Strange Horizons this week. It's a touching, evocative story of a common life in an uncommon future Middle East. The rich detail he included on the setting and its history are part of what makes this story amazing. Go! Read it now!

Dan was part of a local critique group we had going for a short time last summer here in Flagstaff. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

60K and not going back

2008-02-13T05:28:43Z

At 60K on the novel! I don't plan to go past 95K. The closer I get to the end of tunnel, the more motivated I become to get through it. I'm a little scared about how much will need to be rewritten, cut, added, or changed. I've been tempted to stop now and read it through from the beginning to make sure I'm on track, but I'm sticking with relby's "first, finish the zeroth draft" plan. The track is kind of being built as I write anyway, so I think I'll just go with it and worry about fixing it up later.

What's it all about?

The story begins in 2018, a near-future in which surprisingly little has changed. Drastically increased oil prices have changed people's travel habits, but coal-fired power plants continue to provide cheap power for America's information economy. The effects of climate change have only gradually become more obvious each year. But drastic change is on the horizon. The catalyst won't be a natural disaster, but a well-planned human one.

Clouds in Code addresses conflicts between ego and ethics in science through the lead character's work at a budget-strapped National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). His found-late-in-life love forces him to recognize the role of intuition in both science and life. Eco-terrorist acts and 2018's economic realities allow an exploration of inexpensive power as the basis for the myth of individual Americans' independence.

I know, it's kind of patchy. I've got a longer version that I'm polishing up. Drop me a note if you're interested in seeing it.