Scene 1 The Library of the Mind

Star enters here in response 2 an ad 4 a room with lib caretaker responsibilities. Scene told from librarian's point of view. Surprised. Library project 2 integrate learning of races outside Pantheran Empire oversight & a Pantheran @ the library. Star will investigate its heritage as a fucha-colored Pantheran.

pied-à-terre

If I knew French, I would substitute paw-on-the-ground for foot-on-the-ground, the literal meaning of pied-à-terre. Anyone know? Star Runner's ship has either been destroyed or needs massive reconstruction. I don't know which at the moment. Of course, the Fungusians can manage the memory management Star requires. The Plumies can manage the construction. The Fungusians and the Plumies work well together. The thing is: Star can't work and can't have access to Ship, its shipboard computer which is seamlessly integrated with Star's brain and which controls its biological functions. Star has a portable "ship", but it is only effective in the short-term. Star needs A pied-à-terre on Hypatia while things are sorted out, A pied-à-terre which can substitute for Star's shipboard integration. This makes Star both vulnerable to attack and puts a severe strain on Star's financial resources. It forces Star to be more integrated in Terran society.

Reading Junky

I just read on Twitter that someone was pondering what book to read next. I rarely ponder. I always have numerous titles on hand. Now that I live somewhere with an excellent audio library, I can get most things in a fairly timely manner if they have been recorded. With downloadable Talking Books, Overdrive, RFBD and Audible, there's a lot of readily available material at any hour of the day,. I realize I am more of a junky than a discerning reader. I consume a lot of mysteries and SF interspersed with some more serious titles which I read typically in small doses unless, of course, I get hooked. I'm not a rereader as a rule. It's just a curious insight.

Considerations Old and New

I found this old note about Star Runner stories. It's always interesting to me to look back on ideas I have had in the past. This one is particularly timely.

"I have often considered writing one of the Star Runner stories in the third person for 3 reasons:

"1. they are harder to write. this is, of course, stupid. many great novels are written in the 1st person. Robinson Caruso and Huckleberry Finn come to mind.

"2. I could be more descriptive.

"3. I could change narrative perspective.

"The downside of another narrative perspective is writing Star Runner more objectively. What exactly does Star Runner look like? Is it as graceful & magnificent as it thinks it is? Or is it pathetic or comical?

"Part of the "charm" of Star’s narrative voice is it's arrogance which is tempered by its obvious naivete."

I've just finished reading Josephine Tey's novel "The Man in the Cueue" in which there is a very reticent narrator. Basically, the story is told in the third person. The first person narrator is not identified and does not play a role in the narrative: no Watson or Hastings She. Isn't it curious how many of the detectives of yester year needed someone to ask questions and run errands. Melrose Plant is a more modern day sidekick for Richard Jury.

I've become very leary of third person narrative for telling Star's story since Star itself provides much of the comic relief as I strive to lighten up and play inside the story. After all, my writing is just play I enjoy the challenge of telling a story, coming up with characters and plot, but I don't take any of it too seriously so why write the tale seriously?

yet every once in a while I want to slip into third person, to explain something or describe something. It occurs to me that this very quiet other could slip in from time to time to do this. The ruse would be the editor of Star's memoirs, perhaps a journalist on Hypatia.

A character in the Fends

Richard I, Duke of the Gloucester Road, flies a standard from his shack on an islet. Emblazoned on the banner is a blue pig on a yellow background. Richard considers himself to be a royal personage & is suspicious of all who penetrate the Fends, especially those here for incarceration and those who visit the detained. He is particularly displeased when Star comes into the area seeking Emily Dickenson. Richard despises Pantherans and those friendly to them.

Passion, talent & discipline

Elizabeth George says these r what a writer needs 2 b successful by which she means a published. 2 in combination will work unless the duo is talent & passion. Discipline alone is possible. This leaves me out 4 sure.

Pay as u stay

Npr morning edition 2day: ny legislator: inmates should pay 4 prison stay. Rates adjusted 2 income. Poor can stay 4 free.

It occurs 2 me that star could ve venturing into the fends 2 visit emily dickinson who has been incarserated. On hypatia most crime is legal except when it interferes with the hi-end tourist trade. From jail ED directs star 2 finish the job 4 which ED was hired & 4 which ED WAS Jailed. Details r still very sketchy in my mind @ this point.

It's not 2 early

Typing on my phone. It's not as fast but it helps me think & get better typing. It's a lot like brailling on a slate which i used daily 4 many years.

The end of july on a cold & rainy evening is not 2 early 2 think about nanowrimo. What will star be doing this year?

2 complete the novel last year i had star leave hypatia but on further consideration i have decided star stays. The locale is just 2 good.

2 pictures have come into my mind.

1. Star in the shopping district of the tourist area of ptolamy city. It is snowing lightly enough 2 tickle star's nose. A showy effect in a domed environment. Star is looking forward 2 the night of singing.

2. The fends. Islets separated vy canels around the the mechanical works of ptolamy city. The workers live here & anyone who wants 2 drop out of site.

Star may have a confederate here, need 2 make contact with someone here or trail someone here or knowing star, just be curious 2 go there.

If this is the case, then star may simply learn something which sparks the action. This sounds like a plan.

Convincing Myself

There is a lot of chatter in the blind community about the new iPhone which is supposed to be accessible. People have already decided if it is a good thing, if they can use it, if they want one. Folks have rushed out to preorder one. I have just purchased a new smart phone and re-upped my cell phone contract. iPhones only work on AT&T and I have VZ for a lot of reasons I won't go into here. The price of the iPHone is more than half the retail price with an AT&T contract. Much of the chatter is around using a smooth screen. Some will be able to do this. Some will not. It's probably true of sighted people, too. I, of course, always want the latest technological gadget so I felt really angry that this announcement came so quickly after purchasing my Samsung Saga. Then I thought about why I was on the VZ network, that the phones aren't even out yet, that even the preorder queue is full and I thought, "wait." The first phones may be buggy anyway. I remember getting my iPod Shuffle when they were all the rage--I'm talking first gen here. Mine had to be sent back because it wouldn't work. People talked a lot about them just going dead after little use. Release 1.0 is always exciting and difficult. I also suspect, if i follow the conversation, I will learn about the pros and cons. Entering text will be the big thing. What interests me most in the iPhone, anyway, are the apps for it, like stitcher. Being able to stream podcasts is very, very handy. I basically do this with Klango on my netbook. For the house, this is fine. Audio content can also be put on my Saga so I can carry audio easily. It's just thinking ahead. Maybe that's what all the hype is about--synching your iPhone, streaming content, txt msgs, email, etc.: it can just happen magically without any forethought. It's instint; it's on-demand. I don't think this is a bad thing. I don't think there is any morral imperative to not have content readily available. What I'm just saying here is that I can live with what I've got until circumstances change.

Txtng from my new vz saga's qwerty keyboard is vry slow!

The Double Bind

SPOILER WARNING: I have just finished reading The Double Bind by Chris Bohjailian. I did not anticipate the ending. In fact, I felt betrayed by the ending. It really focuses me on the question: Can the point of view character's report of the action and interpretation of events be trusted?

To some extent, I play with this in my own writing, but I'm writing SF and from an alien's perspective. Its self-reporting and evaluation of human thought and action is suspect and the alien narrator even admits it may not truly understand what is going on. However, totally fictitious characters, conversations and events are chronicled and then explained away by retroactively defining the POV character as mentally ill. Although this happens in real life, I don't care for this treatment of the reader nor as a narrative device.

Another question the novel raises is victimization and how we treat other people. Characters who are important to the POV character and who care about her treat her as a child. She resists this categorization. Later, we learn that she is having a psychotic episode. Does this make her friends' and family's responses acceptable or could they have handled things differently--more like the adult she is?

On the whole, I can recommend the read because it prompts these questions.

Radio Scripting

The "film" was out of control. I am still thinking like a novelist. There was too much dialog and too much description. I investigated a radio style scripting method which seems a better fit. If anything, this story will show up as a podcast either as a drama or as a novel. In working through the formatting, which is tiresome, I discovered my long, boring and lots of back story opening scene is pretty useless. I deleted it just now. I spent a lot of time with it, but it had to go. I'm thinking I need to write the story to fit into 2 1-hour (without commercials) sections. That's a bit more writing than the challenge but makes a certain amount of sense. Whether the story fits this way or not I can't tell at this point. What I hope this exercise is leading to in the final analysis is sorting out the plot of the novel which is vague at best. The beginning is fairly clear. The reason for Gwen Chen's murder is somewhat clear, but the scam is not clear at all in my mind. There just is one. So I'm hoping that gets sorted out and Star's conflict about friendship gets sorted out, too. I think that is the best I can hope for at this point.

Script Frenzy: First Impressions

I looked at it last year, but I didn't participate in Script Frenzy This year I decided to take my nanowrimo novel and turn it into a film script. Films are less detailed than a novel in some ways. People who have read books and then see the movie are often disappointed. Whole subplots are deleted. Characters are merged. I wanted to get going on the script to sort out some of my plot failures and to strengthen the antagonists. Curiously, I'm finding the process actually is strengthening my descriptions of the environment. What does this character look like? What exactly is this character doing while it is speaking? How can I show rather than tell? I'm still having some difficulties with my Word template for script format. I think an hour or so at the keyboard should sort this out and then I'll have a pretty good idea where I'm at. I'm taking the high school worksheet available through the site to write a formulaic script but I think it will keep the pace fairly consistent. If I don't like the results, I can change it later. I'm not expecting to come out with a block buster. I'm really thinking of changing it back into a novella when I'm finished. Many changes involve tense. Novels tend to be written in past tense while scripts are present tense. I find reading fiction in the present tense fairly disconcerting.

Behind the Scenes

I've not been posting here--shame on me. I've not been writing either--shame on me. However, I was listening to the Slate Daily Podcast today and there was a discussion on a book about an explosion, a terrorist attack, on Wall Street in 1923. It occurred to me the Over the Moon novel could have a series of explosions in it, that Phani could be misdirecting Star's investigation. This would be very likely since one of Star's many character flaws is its inability to identify misdirection. I've also concluded I need to do a lot of work with Emily Dickinson. I have him as a comic. I had originally thought of him as an assassin and forgot it when I started writing. I'm wondering if he could be a private detective or former private detective and talk with Star about Star's difficulties in investigating Gwen Chen's death. Star has to be able toevaluate people's answers to questions and interpret evidence. This requires figuring out who is telling the truth, who is lying and who is keeping truths from Star. Star is so straight forward that figuring this out will take a lot of work on Star's part and may be even beyond its ccapabilities.

.txt

Cory Doctorow wrote a great article called Writing in the Age of Distraction In it he says he writes using a text editor. 2 years ago I used a txt editor called Edsharp to write my nanowrimo novel. This year I used Jarte and wote in rtf format. I am shying away from Edsharp because it uses the Microsoft Word spellchecker and I want to be independent of Office. CD's oint is that the application itself is distracting. I quite agree. In a straight forward text editor I can just write. I figure rtf is about as universal as txt and I can always convert rtf to txt or even set Jarte to format in txt. In fact, I have Jarte as my default word processor for txt, rtf and doc files. Very quick. Very easy to use and its free and screen reader friendly.