June 2024 - making waves
and the danger of gravity
Hi Everyone,
Last Wednesday, I was a victim of gravity.
For no good reason (where good reasons in my mind would be escaped honey badgers or confused tiny aliens blocking my path), I tripped and face planted on a chip walking trail. I’m fine, it was my ego that took most of the beating, but I also scratched up my face. The scratches are shallow so it’ll heal up just fine, but it looks awful.
The next day I had to go into my day job’s office where my kind, scientist coworkers all wanted to know what happened. Everyone said something along the line of ‘yep, that gravity is trouble’. So I’ve decided that my clumsiness isn’t the issue, it’s gravity that’s to blame—although being able to blame honey badgers would have been better.
Overall, I’m a fan of gravity and it is one of the things that can be tricky in science fiction. Currently there are only three ways to get gravity:
1 - be on something massive (like Earth)
2 - accelerate—how it feels like you are being shoved back into your seat when you accelerate away from a green light. Since gravity is really a constant acceleration, a space ship could simulate an Earth-like feeling by constantly going faster (which would work to a point).
3 - spin, because this simulates a constant acceleration. This shows up in scifi all the time as wheel shaped ships and stations.
Then there are ships like the Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon—they aren’t spinning, yet their coffee stays in their coffee cups and face planting is a possibility (we’ll disregard that they are filmed on Earth-based sets thus fit in category 1). They get their gravity from some sort of futuristic technology, and often they don’t even mention how it might work.
I like using ‘gravity plating’ in my stories where spinning would be awkward. I suppose that I could make up some physics using Higgs fields, but generally I don’t because people who’ve grown up with that technology are probably not thinking too much about how it works (in the same way I don’t think much about how my cellphone works).
What I love the most, is when ‘gravity plating’ starts failing and gets weird—and I need to write more of these kind of stories.
Something Awesome
I’m an oceanographer by day and that might be why I’ve always loved the Japanese woodblock print by Hokusai called The Great Wave off Kanagawa (which is the image above). What didn’t dawn on me was that this print was in production for a long time. Here’s a fascinating video discussing how one art historian figured out how to create a timeline of great waves.
Writing Updates
I’m deep into final edits on The Lost Star Chart and I’m really happy about how the story is shaping up. I’ll have news about how you can get your copy soon.
Secondly, I just finished a second draft of the sequel to Hope is the Thing With Feathers (which I don’t have a title for yet). There’s still a lot of work for me to do on the book before it goes to an editor, but the bones are good. I’m putting it away for a month or so, then I’ll be back at it with fresh eyes. I expect to be releasing this one in early 2025.
Over at the Armchair Alien shop (which I share with Rene Astle, a fellow independent author), I’ve started setting up paperback books. Day 115 on an Alien World is ready to order, and the rest will soon follow. In the near future, we’ll expand our physical offerings to include hardcovers with dust jackets and special editions.
Cheers,
Jeannette
I want to highlight some awesome stuff from friends:
First is a kickstarter from C. Gockel for the stand-alone novel Beasts in the Garden. I’ve been on a time travel reading binge lately, and this one looks great (and I’ve supported it myself).
Next up is a new book by D.M. Pruden:
A Galaxy on the Brink. A Hero Forged in Battle.
Fifteen years after Earth's colonies declared independence, the shadow of Terra's ambition threatens to reclaim its lost dominion. As the Grand Terran Confederation launches a relentless campaign to dominate the galaxy, Hayden Kaine emerges as a beacon of hope for the embattled colonies. Facing overwhelming odds, Kaine must navigate political intrigue and brutal warfare to uncover a shocking betrayal and stop a deceptive peace that could enslave humanity.
Fans of The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica will be riveted by this epic space opera adventure.
Kaine's Regret is available on all major ebook platforms via this link.
My Books:
Hope is the Thing With Feathers - direct or from the shops
Encoded Orbits
Fractured Orbits - direct or from the shops
The Alien Algorithm - direct or from the shops
Subject 34 - direct or from the shops
Settler Chronicles
Day 115 on an Alien World - direct or from the shops
Far Side of the Moon - direct or from the shops
Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds - direct or from the shops
The Alien Artifact - direct or from the shops
And if you aren’t already a subscriber, what’s stopping you (especially if you have read this far)?