Weekend Writing Warriors: Homecoming

It’s Sunday again, and time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click on the logo above) and Snippet Sunday (click on the logo below.) Today I’m posting 8 sentences from my first published book, Homecoming available in all formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

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This continues Roi’s controlled dream from last week.

Get away! Keep running! But Snowy was frozen in shock just long enough for the gasping giant to grab his arm and swing him against the wall, hard enough that Snowy felt bones splinter. The guard must have felt it, too, and known he was in trouble for damaging his owner’s property. His eyes flicked to the balcony railing, and he made a sudden dive for Snowy. Something in Snowy’s mind knew the guard’s intention and struck out is frantic self-preservation, and at the same instant Snowy was inside the guard’s mind, somersaulting over the balcony railing and falling, screaming, to the stone-paved floor below, while the slave he had intended to destroy before  it could communicate what he’d done huddled on the balcony above ….

If you’ve been wondering about that “I think I killed a man,” this is what Roi remembers.

Next week I’m going back to to the hang gliding in Tourist Trap.

Jarn’s Journal Year 9 Day 62

Year 9 Day 62

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The People don’t look like much as newborns, but Songbird and Giraffe seem proud enough of their daughter. They’ve named her Swallow, and she’s been formally accepted as a member of Rain Cloud’s band. I did not, I am glad to say, have to take any part in the ceremony, though I did provide the token to hang around her neck. It was a bit of flowstone from a fascinating part of the northern continent.

The area is not too far from where I encountered the pig and the northern hunters. It is a region of lakes, cascades, sinkholes and springs, and this particular bit of translucent rock, formed from the calcium in the water, looked almost like a bird in flight. The cascades certainly do not involve anything like the sheer mass of water in the falls I am tapping for counterbalancing, but they are beautiful. I am tempted to show them to Songbird, but I am already perhaps going too far in planning to let her try to understand the northerners’ method of fur tanning.

There is not a great deal of game near the lake this year, so the People will probably not stay much longer. I have assured the shamans that Rainbow has been more than satisfactory in meeting my needs, and she seems quite happy to stay.

Jarn’s Journal is the journal of a human-like alien stranded in Africa some 125,000 years ago. The Journal to date is on my Author website.

A Look Ahead at 2014

I’ve been blogging for several years now, and I’ve worked out a schedule of sorts. For 2014 I’m planning on the following.:

Mondays will remain the same, with comments on our Interior Alaskan weather, gardening, and personal observations.

Tuesdays will be optional. If I post reviews, it’ll be on Tuesdays.

Wednesdays I give the contexts of quotes I post on Twitter and on both my facebook pages. Generally these are from a fairly limited group of authors who I have found from experience produce Twitter-length quotes. This year I will again be using Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, J.R.R. Tolkien and Jane Austin as regulars, but if I find others I certainly reserve the right to use them!

Thursday is another optional day. I may use more YouTube videos on Thursdays.

Friday is the time for Jarn’s Journal. This is the remote back story of how the Jarnian Confederation (the background for most of my science fiction) came into being. Ten sentences are pulled out and repeated on my other blog, Jarnianconfederation.wordpress.com, on Saturdays as part of Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturday.

Saturday here is again an optional day. I may try a few more science fact pieces, or cover special events.

Sunday I participate in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. These are blog hops where authors post eight sentences of their writing.

The special events will vary, but I do plan to cover the World Ice Art Championships. The Ice Park is open from February 24 through March 30, and I’ll probably post a video or two leading up to it as well as my photographs. I hope I can make the Tanana Valley State Fair this year (I was too weak from chemotherapy last year) and possibly other events. Anything else you’d like to see from Alaska?

And finally, a video from YouTube, celebrating the New Year on the University campus. We used to have a potluck New Year’s Eve in the glass top story of the farther building to the right, and watch the fireworks display in comfort. Considering that outdoor temperatures were often well below zero, watching from indoors was a definite plus!

Quotes from Anne McCaffrey

Here are the contexts of the quotations tweeted from @sueannbowling between December 26 and January 1. All but the last are from Crystal Singer, by Anne McCaffrey.

“You want what you can’t or shouldn’t have or are denied. Human nature.” Killashandra, considering how she accepted the irrevocable contract with the Heptite Guild.

“One still had to know what question to ask.” No matter how good the data-retrieval system, you still have to ask the right question. Killashandra is thinking that computers haven’t changed all that much since their invention.

“The best computer is still the human brain.” Rimbol, after Shillawn admits that he found out an elusive piece of information by asking a person, not the computer.

“No one ever does a favor without expecting a return.” Killashandra’s rather cynical view of life, based on her experience in music school.

“Gratitude depends on memory.” Lanzecki’s advice to Killashandra, pointing out that it’s hard to be grateful for something you can’t remember.

“I am going in this direction, and nothing is stopping me.” Killashandra’s interpretation of the look of a military cruiser.

“You don’t have to be a young aristocrat if you don’t want to, but you can act like one.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Lai’s advice to Roi on his presentation at his sixteenth birthday.

North Pole New Year

Ran across this video on YouTube and thought people might enjoy it. We don’t have much in fireworks on the 4th of July; too much interference from the midnight sun. (Not to mention high fire danger.) So here’s last year’s New Year’s display. This is about 5 miles from where I live.

North Pole Weather 12/30/13

Ice fog in the Safeway parking lot.

The days are getting longer again, and perceptibly. The sun will rise at 10:56 this morning, and set 3 hours and 55 minutes later at 2:51 this afternoon. Tomorrow will be a whole 3 minutes longer than today, and the noon elevation of the sun is now increasing by about a tenth of a degree per day. It’s still getting colder, simply because the northern hemisphere takes time to cool. Our coldest weather, on average, is in January.

Distance from the sun has nothing to do with this. In fact our closest approach to the sun will be this coming Friday, when the earth is only 91,413,000 miles from the sun. We won’t be at our most distant, 94,510,000 miles, until early July. Seasons are all in the tilt of the earth’s axis toward and away from the sun.

The road home. There is a traffic light just beyond the cars, but it’s not visible through the ice fog.

It’s finally turned cold even by Alaska standards. My electronic thermometer was stuck on LL (somewhere below 40 below) for several days around Christmas, and the dial thermometer reached close to 50 below. Officially, the temperature at the airport broke 40 below the day after Christmas, and ice fog was too dense to risk driving into town last Friday.

The road between North Pole and Fairbanks is a divided expressway, but it runs right by an Army base with a notorious power pant. The cooling pond is such a producer of ice fog that there are warning signs for low visibility, and servicemen recently rotated in from warmer climates sometimes take the 55 mph speed limit seriously, even when tail lights are invisible at ten feet. There have been several deaths due to collisions on this stretch of highway, and I went to the Safeway in North Pole for some desperately needed food. I didn’t miss the ice fog completely, but it was better in North Pole (which is where I took the photos) than on the Richardson Highway.

I’m glad to say it clouded over and gave us (relative) warmth over the weekend, though we haven’t gotten up to zero where I live. The forecast is for above zero even in the low areas New Year’s Day, though, so we can hope.

Weekend Writing Warriors: Homecoming

It’s Sunday* again, and time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click on the logo above) and Snippet Sunday (click on the logo below.) Today I’m posting 8 sentences from my first published book, Homecoming available in a variety of formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

This is a continuation from last week, with Roi as he is forced to relive a memory.

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Snowy had learned so early that he could not remember learning that crying, struggling, or any expression but happiness or eagerness to please would bring uncontrollable pain. He knew how to keep his owners happy, if anything he did could manage that.

Still, he hated being a catamite. He wanted to strike out, and kick, and struggle, but he knew better than to think he could get away with it. So he hated and ran, head down and arms pumping as he returned along the balcony to the slave quarters.

Corner ahead – better slow down; one of the guards might be – was! – coming the other way.  But neither his body nor the mind inhabiting it responded in the slightest to his concern. Horrified, he tried to rouse himself, knowing to the smallest detail what was to come, but helpless to do anything except to keep running until his lowered head slammed into the guard’s groin.

Not a good move for a slave.

*Oops, I scheduled this for Saturday instead of Sunday by accident, so you’re getting it a day early.

Jarn’s Journal Year 9 Day 46

Year 9 Day 46

Well, Songbird had her baby today.

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I’m just as glad I was at the salt lake. Salt is still an eagerly accepted gift, and to my surprise the salt pebbles are very popular – perhaps because they can be carried so easily in skin bags.

Giraffe went out with a group of the men early this morning, as a small herd of gazelles had been reported not far away, and is not back yet. Luckily there are at least two experienced midwives here, though from what they will tell me, this birth went a lot easier than the first.

Songbird and her new baby, a girl they tell me, are still confined to the birthing hut. At least this time the moon is a late crescent, so new moon is only a few days away.

I’d better see what is upsetting Patches.

Later

Thank goodness I responded to Patches’ vocalization and feeling of distress! Songbird’s birth pains had come quite quickly, and she had assumed that the women watching the children would continue to watch WildDog. They did not, and with the men away hunting, the little boy had wandered down to the shore of the lake. When I found Patches, she was trying to drag him away from a crocodile which he apparently wanted to approach! So Giraffe had quite a greeting when he returned with a gazelle quarter over his shoulder – news of a new daughter and a good deal of teasing that his son didn’t seem to know that a crocodile was dangerous. Most of the latter seemed to slide right off him; he was far to relieved to get the news of a new daughter. He may not know anything of biological paternity, but he is turning out to be a good father.

At least I should not be needed for the naming ceremony this time!

Jarn’s Journal is the fictional journal of an alien stranded in Africa some 125,000 years ago. The journal to date is available on my author site.

Brrrrr!

December 26 2013, shortly after noon.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from December 19 through December 25, 2013. All but the last are from The Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey.

“The list of good reasons was shorter than the list of bad ones.” Godmother Lily’s thoughts about sleeping potions.

“Hero work doesn’t exactly pay well.” Siegfried, talking to the bird who has just assured him that he is in a rich kingdom.

“At ten, Doom didn’t seem quite as horrid a fate to avert as a girl was.” Siegfried started his hero career very early.

“No bee will abide in the presence of evil.” Rosamund’s thoughts, on seeing the bees friendly to “Maggie.”

“I wish I didn’t agree with you so much.” Rosamund speaking to Lily, who has just commented that if any Kingdom needs two Godmothers, it’s this one.

“To their mind, strength was only found in the male.” Lily’s rather contemptuous thought of the old men of the Council.

“If you feel like hitting someone, run it off.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Snowy’s advice from his mother, who knows that he will be a slave who has to hide his abilities to survive.

P.S. The photo below was taken at 12:30 today, with the electronic thermometer reading LL: translation, colder than 40 below. Merry Christmas!