Mom was tough. She steeled herself and put her arm around me as we watched Dad ride off. Mostly Dad was gone for six months. Sometimes a little less. Recently, a little more. Dad wouldn’t tell us but the last time he came back, I watched him as he unpacked his arrows. He only had thirty left. I wondered what he did with the other twenty. Maybe he shot a rabbit or squirrel. Maybe something bigger. Mom always packed him enough jerky for the whole trip so I figured maybe he did it for variety. For fresh meat. But he never brought any back.
He usually left in late November, just as the heat was easing up a bit. He did it for Tige who was in his twenties. The trip would have been too much for the old horse in the summer, what with the temperature in the hundreds. Walter, my horse, could have done it. But he was just a colt. We still had some practicing to do.
Mom told me that there used to be four seasons, not two. She told me that summer only lasted until September then they had a season called the Fall. She said a long time ago, there used to be trees that grew their leaves and they’d fall off in September. That doesn’t happen any more. The only trees that live around here are evergreens and they don’t even have any leaves to fall off. In late November, there is a break in the weather and it gets tolerable for a few months. That’s when we plant our crops. We call it winter but Mom said that winter used to be cold. That there used to be white powder that fell from the sky called snow and it covered the ground. I can’t imagine. It doesn’t seem possible. What I wouldn’t give to be cold.
So we planted our crops. Walter helped. He pulled the plow but he wasn’t very happy about it. We had to water every seed by hand. Sometimes it rained. Sometimes it poured. But every few years, there’d be no rain at all. I guess we were lucky. Our well never ran dry so the soybeans always had enough.
To tell you the truth, I don't think the story was dramatic enough to sustain an entire trilogy so I think the version I have now is good enough to give you a sense of the era, the Cavaliers and the rebellion against the Ark Lords. Even though this whole episode is a mainstay of the future history of Rome's Revolution, this is about as much detail as you are even going to get.
Entry 1-243: August 25, 2013
My "brand" as a writer
I was reading a blogger's notes the other day about what it takes to successfully promote yourself. One thing that they seemed to think was important was creating a brand for yourself. What is a writer's brand? It is a short catch-phrase that describes your writing style or voice such that one person can communicate to another why they should buy your books, in a very succinct way. You're supposed to be able to tell your friend, hey, did you read the new book by so-and-so? Who is that? the friend asks. Oh, he writes syrupy zombie apocalypse novels from a vampire's point of view. That way the friend knows instantly what to expect. It will somehow distinguish you from the torrent of new writers appearing every day. Some have gone so far as to state that you cannot have success without a personal brand. Developing a personal brand will help your readers to somehow trust you more. It will somehow capture you a larget segment of a vapor-thin audience. It will allow you to connect to the ever-growing hordes of followers. It will somehow magically motivate potential customers into buying your books. It allows you to build your Author Platform!
Do you believe this? I don't but who am I to say. So what is my brand? I have to list the things I write about then tie them all together so that I cement my identity. I love to write. That's not a brand. I want my stories to entertain and educate. That's something. I like to write action and adventure as well as thoroughly research the science behind the science fiction. I don't write fantasy, you'll see no YA vampire novels from me. My style of science fiction is often called hard science fiction because the technology and physics must be (and pardon me for making up this word): "extrapolatable" from today's known universe. That doesn't mean I can't make up stuff from other universes but whatever can be fact-checked must check out. So my brand has to start out as hard science fiction. I want that in there so people know I don't write steam punk, alternative realities or speculative fiction. I like to entertain with plot-driven novels but so does everybody so I think I'll skip that part. I like action and adventure so I think I'll include that as well. What's left? I want people to know that everything is not bleak, that I include a little bit of humor. Alliteration works so make that a hint of humor. I also like to create realistic characters who grow and react to the world around them in a realistic way. The plots have to be believable or at least not forced.
So let's summarize: I like to write hard science fiction, featuring action and adventure with a hint of humor and three-dimensional characters that are believable. How to boil that down? What do you think of this?
Hard science fiction action and adventure with a hint of humor
Too wordy? Not enough? Your opinion is welcome.
Entry 1-244: August 26, 2013
No windshields
Bruce was busy designing the air cars for an upcoming trailer for Rome's Evolution and his designs had windshields. I told him there were no windshields on their vehicles. He said what about bugs? As I explained in a previous post, there are no insects on Deucado.
He countered with what about dirt and so forth. I told him the air cars didn't fly fast enough to whip up dirt. He insists there have to be windshields so I relented and said go ahead because, after all, he is doing all the work.
I did offer up an alternate possibility: that the air cars had a little tray of sunglasses or goggles that people put on upon stepping in but he shot that down too. In my mind, I always thought of the air cars as the just the modern version of the Flinstone's car (minus the feet):