Update Time

The last post wasn't the monthly update I've been trying to keep to. So let's see where I am, and what all is going on with my writing.

Different World - Chapter 7 to writer's group, and, as usual, a lot of little changes. Some of them are so minor as to fall below the radar screen, even in ground search mode. But they all add up to a total package. It was also my first time writing a scene where two detectives question someone. I had to go reread some 'questioning scenes' from Ed McBain's stories. I also took a dip into Mickey Spillane. Gina and her former partner aren't as tough as Mike Hammer, but I laid the groundwork for at least two red herrings and a clue. And I started Chapter 8.

Counterfeit Line - Yes, some rewrites. As I have a chance to consider that story I've gone back and put in some of the things I removed to get it to 85,000 words. They add color and texture to the story. I had to do that, or cut plot for the 'feel' of the story. I chose to add words and accept that it's going to be more than 85,000 words.

Other Updates - Three Valleys - Sammi was completed and posted on SOL. Interesting reactions from readers, including one long, thoughtful comment about how he never liked to read SF, but 'Sammi' was an exception; and that it would only work in an SF environment like I outlined. Devlin's Story is up to Chapter 66 or so. I'm hoping to finish by 70.

Families Arc - I took Lexeon and added in all of the things I took out. It comes in as a much longer story, but a more complete one. Jeff and Milt were right: Boabdil should be extracted from the story and done as a separate story. But.... I like the contrast of the stories merged. They are right, however, and I've got to do some--a lot--of work on them.

I also heard from Steve Mancino! I'm going to be sending him the first three chapters, synopsis and outline again, this time electronically. He had some hospital time, and when he got back to his office he couldn't find all sorts of things. He normally does not accept electronic submissions. I've taken the opportunity to do a quick pass through Firestar. As I've had a recent virus infestation requiring me to nuke my system to its factory state and start over, I don't want to take the chance of infecting his system with whatever residual code I may still have. I'll send it as a PDF. I just have to load CutePDF on my wife's system.

That does bring up a point: we were discussing older work at writer's group Tuesday night. Sarah joked that she's been at her story for twice as long as her daughter Lucy has been around (including pregnancy); Darlene is rewriting a story she wrote 5 years ago, and discovering a lot of changes to what she thought was a good story. And Laura is dealing with a story she first wrote in high school. My brother found a couple of short stories of mine, and I reworked one of them ("Dragon Flight"). I posted it on Gina Wylie's site for comment, and sparked an interesting discussion of POV. The story is in 1st Person, not one I would normally choose, but lately all of my short stories have used that POV. But it's a bar story, and those "sound" better in 1st Person.

I'd submitted Spiked! as an e-story to an e-magazine in Australia. Haven't heard boo from them. I'm now 2/3rds of the way through another story about the dryad Jennifer Oaks. It was sparked by reading about a drug lab found in the woods by a logging team. The druggies had guns and sought to defend the lab. The loggers called for help, and company rangers turned out (former US Army Rangers). The druggies decided surrendering to the lone deputy sheriff was preferable to a shoot-out with the ex-Rangers. That doesn't happen here, but it's hard dealing with someone who can hide inside trees. Her family are the original tree-huggers.

Other short stories - I've thought of one for SOL that might prove pretty popular; and it ends with a twist. We'll see when I find the time for it. And that brings up sequels to Kassandra's Song and an Indian Shaman who serves Trickster/Coyote. I have this image, see, of Trickster, the Jade Lady, at least one other, and Kassandra playing poker at Raffles in Singapore, and it won't go away.

That's the June/July update. PNWA is coming next month (30 days out). I may or may not be attending.

Another What-If

Most of the time you'll find what-ifs for an alternate history based on a battle. Why? In part, that's because there's documentation for the battle. In part, the consequences can be seen. This isn't necessarily the case for non-battle causes.

Let's look at ones I've used:

1. Jutland - it's decisive for the British;
2. Gallipoli - an enterprising officer doesn't stop on Suvla Beach, but moves inland to capture the critical heights, cutting the Gallipoli Peninsula in two;
3. Falling Waters - Meade attacks right away;
4. Minden - Sackville charges;
5. Rome, 370 AD - modern saboteurs blow up the Senate and Emperor. Okay, not a what-if, but it was how I could generate a new timeline.

The only one I've used in a story that didn't feature a battle was Oswald Mosley becoming British Prime Minister in 1936 (an outgrowth of Edward VIII not abdicating). But it could have happened, and there was a lot of documentation about it.

Picking a Cause Event (CE) that is not based on a battle is harder. The classic one was H. Beam Piper's Aryan Transpacific, where the local shaman took it in his head to go east with the Aryan migration, not west. An off-shoot ended up populating North America. See Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by Piper, and Tangent by Gina Marie Wylie (you'll find it on the web). People pick battles for their splits because it's easier, the most popular being Gettysburg and Waterloo (and only a few picking Antietam). Let's look at a few others.

1. Francis II does not die early from an abcess in his ear; this lead to an extended regency and religious civil wars in France.
2. Nero blames some other small group for problems in Rome, not the Christians. Not sure what this will do, have to dialogue it out sometime.
3. In 1914 the German Foreign Minister decides not to give Austria-Hungary a blank check on what to do about Serbia. WW1 would probably have still broken out, just not in July/August of 1914.
4. Julian Apostate (Emperor of Rome) puts on his armor before rushing to lead his troops in a counterattack (when he was subsequently assassinated by a Christian zealot). Christianity might have suffered from a major survival problem with somebody willing to massacre freely.

These are nowhere near exclusive, just ones I could think of off the top of my head. These splits don't have to be the primary cause of a time split in a story, they can just be something that leads to an important plot twist in a story. Most (but not all) revolve around whether somebody would survive. Most admit of some deep currents in the affairs of mankind, but more as a cultural baggage, not of major events. I realize that this suggests mankind has a hand in its own fate, but that's a discussion for some other time.