Weekend Writing Warriors December 30

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.





Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin, and has just been met by soldier from the Imperial Palace Guard. She’s revealed Brynwyn’s status to the staff at the inn she’d been staying, who didn’t realize they had such a high-ranking guest. I’ve skipped a paragraph where Corporal Kurt Weiler explains the travel arrangements ...

=====

She glanced down at the fawning concierge. "Have my baggage loaded into the car."

"At once, Magister Summis." He scuttled away.

While they waited, Shayla and Kurt stepped out into the crisp morning air.

"You know," said Shayla, "I think that odious little man thought you were here to arrest me or something."

"I was wondering. He seemed rather keen for me to find you."

=====

Reminder

Special offer for December and January

All ebooks are now on sale at $0.99 through into the new year

And until January 1 ebooks can be downloaded 

for free from the Smashwords site only

Weekend Writing Warriors December 23

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.





Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. She has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin and has just been met by an escort from the Imperial Palace Guard.

=====

The concierge's face fell as he took in the cut of Shayla's robes, the insignia, and the Imperial crest. "B-b-beg pardon for my inattention, Magister Summis." He hurried round from behind the desk and bowed, hands wringing.

With sudden insight, Shayla realized that this man and his staff must have been making Brynwyn's stay here miserable. Her profile reported an unassuming humility, in keeping with her strict attention to duty. And her religious observances would have allowed her no latitude to assert her status.

She ignored him and spoke to the soldier. "Corporal Weiler, I assume you've brought transport?"

=====

Special offer for December and January

All ebooks are now on sale at $0.99 through into the new year

And between Christmas and New Year ebooks can be downloaded 

for free from the Smashwords site only

Weekend Writing Warriors December 16

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.





Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. She has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin.

=====

As Shayla walked down the stairs and rounded the corner to the entrance hallway, she saw the same haughty concierge who had been on duty last night. In front of the desk, a soldier stood, at ease but alert. He wore the formal traveling uniform of a corporal of the Imperial Palace Guard.

"Here she comes now," said the concierge, glancing up from the desk. His face held a trace of barely suppressed glee, and Shayla had to fight back the knotting of her stomach as she reminded herself that she was supposed to be meeting an escort here.

The soldier turned and came to attention. "Magister Brynwyn bin Covin?"

Shayla nodded.

"Corporal Kurt Weiler, at your service, Magister Summis."

=====

Special offer for December and January 

all ebooks are now on sale at $0.99 through into the new year

The Long Dark - more about life on the surface

It’s been a while since I talked about the worldbuilding for The Long Dark.

Last time, I delved a bit into the single superorganism covering a large part of the planet’s surface, and I mentioned something about the internal structure. Given the extremes of temperature through the seasons, thanks to the planet’s 90 degree tilt, any life has an obvious major problem to contend with - temperature control.

Much of Sponge’s structure is related to solving this problem. Its enormous thickness provides natural insulation, but the surface layers are still in danger of baking during summer, and intense frostbite during the long spells of darkness. To solve this, Sponge moves water around to shunt heat from where it’s overabundant to where it’s needed. Short term local movements between the surface and reservoirs in the depths help to even out the day/night cycle, while vast subsurface rivers shunt heat back and forth across the equator.

These mechanisms protect the plant tissue from thermal damage, and also help moderate the climate extremes in the atmosphere. And, as well as photosynthesis like Earthly plants, Sponge makes good use of the temperature gradients to generate chemical energy from thermosynthesis.

Finally, as an aside, what does the sun look like from the surface?

I had no idea what a red giant star might look like from an orbit in the habitable zone, so I did a rough mental calculation. A star similar to the sun that evolves to the red giant stage will swell up to swallow the orbits of the inner planets. It may or may not reach as far as Earth’s orbit, but that’s a moot point. At best, Earth would be grazing the surface of the star, so you can bet things would be somewhat toasty.

Anyhooo ... that makes a “typical” red giant anything up to 200 times the diameter of our sun. And orbiting somewhere out near Saturn, say 10 times the distance away, that means the star would appear anything up to 20 times the size in the sky.

That’s one whopping big sun! No wonder the colonists call it “Big Red”!

Weekend Writing Warriors December 2

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image.




Continuing a chapter from Ghosts of Innocence, Shayla is on her tortuous path into the Palace under cover. She has stolen the identity of a new Palace appointee, Brynwyn bin Covin. The previous snippet ended: It looked like Brynwyn had intended to make a dramatic exit after the anonymity of her Meditation.

=====

She must have been proud of her new position.

The thought left Shayla with a bitter taste, but she would have to play the part to the full. She took a few minutes to clear her mind and review her notes. The facts had long ago been committed to memory and rehearsed endlessly. But the time had now come for more than mere recollection.

She had to become Brynwyn bin Covin.

She took another deep breath and finished packing Brynwyn's belongings. During the night, Shayla had unpacked everything in the small pile of trunks in the room, familiarizing herself with every item.

This was her life now. For a short while, at least.

=====