Dumb Idea For My Weekend

It occurs to me that I have more than the usual amount of toys to play with in Book 12. Would it be fun (and also a lazy way of establishing character) if I made the captains of some of the other ships parodies of starship captains from other genres? Captaing Hepburn? Captain Juniper? Captain Bowman? Captain Fishhead? Captain Duo (or Duet)?

I have to think on this. And speaking of bad ideas for the weekend...

Got the Groove Back

I was beginning to think I had writer's block because I just couldn't get 12 moving. But the dam seems to have broken. Chapter 01 is basically written. It isn't that funny, but it is written. Chapter 02 is kind of a problem child, but 03 seems to be working itself out. And I got some ideas of how to bring teh funneh. I had already planned a Halo/C3PO parody. (Imagine if 343 Guilty Spark were as flaming as C-3PO. That's what I'm talking about.) And I am playing with the idea of a Dr. Who parody figure tentatively called Dr.Whatever. (Because there is some ... kind of sort of but not really... time travel in Book 12 as I have it planned out.

Also, I had been thinking David Alkema would get into a romantic relationship with Reena Decker from Book 11. But I have introduced in Book 12 a character of Honoria Keeler, who is the great-great-great-great grand niece of Bill Keeler and they seem to be hitting it off pretty well. So, we'll see what happens.

Spoiler Beyond the break.

Book 12, The Early, Writer's Block Part of Book 12

As I am struggling to get Book 12 going, I'm having second thoughts about Change's inability to work out whether she's in the past/present/or future... maybe that would be an interesting narrative to work with, since I jump around a lot in the course of writing anyway. Of course, back in Book 10, I thought writing a bunch of chapters based on the plays of William Shakespeare would be pretty cool, and we all know how that turned out.

Made the mistake of reading some of the stuff in Book 09: Gethsemane. You know, when the two Bill Keelers are talking to each other, that's some really funny sh-t. And Now I'm all intimidated, 'cos I feel like 12 should be funny, and I just can't make it funny.

In my spare time, I've been actually prolific in mapping out the history of the Commonwealth and the Crusades. I am going to have to retcon some of Book 4. Maybe General Ziang was a bit senile when he told Keeler about the Crusades, or maybe misinformed him. He was only around during the last one, after all.

Put some stuff up on the Wiki. I think all the major characters and characters who made appearances in more than two books are up there now.

OK, teh kitteh wants his chair back. Gotta go.

And So It Begins... Again

Just wrote the first five pages of Book 12. I mean actual pages not notes or such. Twelve begins with Eliza Jane Change's point of view as she tries to remain in the present while her mind goes forward and back and time.

I am not sure I am going to keep this opening. I don't intend to tell the story from Eliza's POV, and I am seriously thinking of putting her in a coma so I don't have to deal with her, because even though she does something important to the plot later in the book, I really don't have much for her to do until then.

Still unsure whether I'm going to blow up the Earth or not, but that comes later. I was originally going to do that, then I changed my mind. Now I'm having third thoughts. It's like when I decided (spoiler) not to kill off Matt Driver on Charlemagne. It seems like a cheat that he survived.

Artwork courtesy: Concept Ships Blog

Thinking About Book 12

A scene from Book 12 played itself out in my head as I was commuting to work today, so I dashed it off. I have been wondering how to draw Book 12 together thematically. I kinda have a rough outline of the story in my head, but wasn't sure how to tie it together... the way Book11 is tied together by the theme of making plans and having them shattered, or Book 2 is a disguised 'Wizard of Oz' story.

I was working out some back story. The character of Bernadette Keeler is mentioned briefly in Book 11, she'd become the Matriarch of the Keeler family. She's ambitiously expanded the Keelers' business interests, built a fleet of starships, tried to buy a moon. And I thought... what if she were some kind of Bond Villain. That seemed like a cute backstory to me. And it got me to think about people who want to build Utopias, and how they never quite work out. And very often, they result in very bad consequences. The backstory is, Bernadette Keeler has a vision of a utopia she wants to build. The Aurelians have a vision of Utopia, too. Theirs involves destroying the universe. I saw this as a theme I could work in. And it also would make the ending somewhat ironic.

In Between Days

I'm not quite ready to start Book 12 yet. Mainly because finishing Book 11 was such a marathon. Also because even though I think I know how I want it to end, I am not quite sure how to get there from where I left the characters at the End of Book 11.

In the meantime, this last week, I found time to add some new pages to the Wiki. Specifically, a page for each of the Pathfinder Ships. This was actually kind of a fund exercise. Each page is like a micronovel, an outline of something I might have written about these other ships. They even have themes, sort of. One ship had a very routine voyage, one's voyage was one encounter with unsolvable problems after another, and one started out slow and then became a very heroic adventure.

So, here they are, the pathfinder ships you didn't read about, and one you did.

• Odyssey
• Olympic
• Pegasus
• Republic
• Sapphire
• Lexington Keeler
• Ark Royal

Book 11: Charlemagne... Done and Uploaded

http://worlds-apart.net/books/wa_books_pdf/WA_Book_11.pdf