For instance; if an author wanted to say that that old man who walked by was Einstein, time traveling after faking his death and discovering the secret to it all, well that is just fine. He could even have developed a liking for a specific sports team to explain that shirt he is wearing.
It is fairly safe to say that no author creates characters entirely from scratch. Every character is usually based on some aspect of someone. People watching in a public place is one way that. There is an endless stream of story fodder marching by and the author is for the most part unhampered by the actual facts of their lifer.
For instance; if an author wanted to say that that old man who walked by was Einstein, time traveling after faking his death and discovering the secret to it all, well that is just fine. He could even have developed a liking for a specific sports team to explain that shirt he is wearing.
Comments
As a scientist the need for long and complex words is clear to this author. When one botanist is attempting to communicate what they are seeing under the microscope to another the best way is often a sentence such as:
"No, it appears that the ovary is inferior and the involucre is petaloid." Now to a botanist that is one of the simplest sentences you can expect to use in a day's work. the time you are saying: "The four pointy thing is white and it's supposed to be green!" it is usually time to pack it in and call it a day. But for the rest of life, and especially writing, you want to keep it simple. Like Hemingway short sentences and short words are key. #AskALibrarian The history of science fiction is positively littered with stories of the colonization of Mars. The concept of landing an expedition on the red planet has been around since before the concept of a genre called science fiction. "The Martian" is not unique in its presentation of accidental colonization either. But it is perhaps the best use of accepted science to bring the fictional endeavor to life. As a botanist myself this author was pleased to watch the main character struggle to survive using his skills. Only to be duly informed by his Alma Mater that his desperate attempts to live had resulted in colonization of Mars. The movie was a delightful taste of the %10 of science fiction and I look forward to reading the book. (Which will be better of course.)
#MayThe4thBeWithYou It is time. At the Convention last Sunday I went to give my card to a potential reader and pulled out this sad and battered thing that had no crisp professionalism left in it at all. So I emailed my favorite printer and ordered up another batch of business cards.
#Marketing #OldSchool One of the balancing acts that authors have to pull off is populating their world with both main and background characters. A main character, hero or villain, needs to be fleshed out in four dimensions. Background characters however are a bit more flexible. They can be as little as a twisted smile across a crowded Inn or a detailed chapter. For the most part they serve one of two functions. They are either a part of the background, a bit of the landscape to set the scene, or they are something for the main character to react to. How much detail is used depends entirely on the situation. An old man whose behavior defines whether the town the hero enters is suspicious or welcoming of strangers might need only a few words, while a bar-maid with no dialogue whose apparel defines the average wealth of the town might need several paragraphs. The author must balance how much information the character can provided without becoming a distraction, with how much information is already provided by other aspects of the scene.
One of the perks of conventions is meeting celebrities big and small. Cherry City Comic Con had a few from Lois Lane to Flash Gordon to "who's that over there?". For those of us from the Pacific Northwest a local folk celebrity, one of the guardsmen for the "Keep Portland Weird" movement, was there to meet and greet.
The Unipiper had a corner booth with a full set up of merchandise and his trademark unicycle and bagpipes. This author was lucky enough to snag a brief interview with him. How did he get started? Apparently he found the unicycle in the dumpster while he was taking bagpipe lessons and one thing led to another. #Unipiper #CherryCityComicCon |
AuthorBetty Adams is an up and coming author with a bent for science and Sci-fi. Archives
March 2024
|