Steam Reads: The 21 Day Countdown to Queen Victoria's Birthday

I recently joined the Vancouverites for Steampunk book club group entitled "Steam Librarium & Consortium". Last month we each chose one Jules Verne book for discussion. I decided to read the fine book "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne, published in 1865.

Members of the Baltimore Gun Club met regularly to discuss the design and building of weapons, but once the American Civil War had ended the membership is left to a humdrum existence. President Barbicane of the club puts forth the idea about building a projectile that could be shot from the earth, and aimed at landing upon the lunar surface. His companions rally forth to put the plan in motion. 

Shortly thereafter President Barbicane receives a telegram from a Frenchman by the name of Michel Ardan, who writes that rather than a globe-shaped projectile, it should be capsule sized, and he wished to travel within it.

This rattles the cages of most of the membership. Captain Nicholl seems to be the arch rival in this book, skeptical that they can't undertake such an astronomical enterprise, let alone have a man land on the moon.

Much of the book is concerned with calculations of the size and materials of the capsule, width and substance of the cannon, and how far it is from the earth to the moon. Since I'm not an astronomer nor artillerywoman, I have no idea how accurate these calculations may be, but from a search on Wikepedia, it is said that Jules Verne should have been on the NASA team.

The Fiction part of Science Fiction comes into play when the characters believe that the moon contains a breathable atmosphere in her canyons, and that there may be "Selenites" inhabiting the moon. 

What I found eery about the book is that they named the huge cannon or "space gun" with the name of Columbiad, and that the capsule was launched from Tampa Town, which is not too far from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. So either Verne had his calculations bang on with Florida being in perfect alignment with the moon, or NASA thought it a great idea to follow the book?!

The book is also humourous in parts with the rivalry between Barbicane, and Nicholl and the calculating competitions they have with Ardan.

Book one ends with them worried that the capsule has stopped, before reaching the moon. Interestingly Verne makes mention of Earth's "second" moon, a satellite that has been in orbit around the earth that cannot be seen by the human eye. 

There actually has been a second "moon" that has been in the news recently. Of course it isn't the same one that existed in 1865, as these satellites eventually escape the gravity of the earth and continue their journeys around the sun. Astronomers like to argue over whether these can actually be considered "moons" as they are in fact satellites. I like to think so. 

I haven't read book two of this series yet, but it is named "Around the Moon", which I gather is a glimpse of what is to come.

I would recommend this book but suggest you skip past the tedious pages of calculations. Do stop and read the astronomical descriptions of the earth and the moon as I learned many facts while doing so.

Thrilling Thursdays Presents: What the Cat Saw

A short flash fiction story of the thriller genre.

Please note the PG13 rating, some scenes of violence.

"You look a bit tired today, you came in late last night," Pete commented to his wife over the morning paper.

"I know, the girls wouldn't" stop chatting," Sue replied back. 

She tapped tuna off the spoon and into the cat food dish. After laying the dish at Mimsey's paws, she joined her husband at the breakfast nook.

Pete thrust the newspaper towards her face.

"I knew that crazy neighbour across the street was abusing his wife. She killed him in self-defense."

"What," his wife shrieked. She grabbed the paper to steady it. She rapidly read through the story. 

"How awful! I think they were called the Smiths. It says she's in a coma and may not make it."

"What a tragedy," Pete said. They both mused about the incident.

"I'm off to work now." Pete put his cup down, and grabbed his coat and briefcase from behind the chair.

"Have a good day dear. I'll try to continue to enjoy my vacation," Sue said, visibly shaken.

He paused by the door. "Where did you say the cat came from?"

"I found her outside, she was drenched and starving," his wife replied back.

Pete took a long look at Mimsey. 

"She looks like the neighbour's cat, I saw one just like her in their yard."

"Just as well she's here then. No one to look after her now, not that they did anyway, poor thing." Sue reached down to stroke the cat. 

Later that morning Mimsy lay on their bed. Her paws twitched and her tail swayed back and forth in her sleep.

In her dreams she was fleeing.

"I don't want that cat around here no more," an angry man's voice cried. 

Mimsy felt herself being grabbed and pulled into the air. A door crashed against its frame and heavy feet stomped down a set of steps.

"No!" cried a woman's voice,"Bring my cat back." Tiny steps followed.

Mr. Smith threw Mimsy against the fence. The cat fell on the ground and lay stunned. Now was the time to run but she was concerned for her mistress. She watched as he pushed his wife against the fence. Mimsey watched the fence give way as her mistress fell in a tangle of wood right down the embankment.

The cat launched herself at her enemy's head. The man struck her aside. 

Mimsy landed hard on the grass. She watched horrified as her beloved human's body hit the concrete paving below. She didn't have time to see if the body moved. She braced herself for a kick from the man's boot.

Her eyes whipped to a movement from behind the man. There was a blur of red hair and the green flash of a bottle as it struck the side of the man's head.

Blood and small bits of bone mixed with the champagne as it spewed across the grass. 

A woman with red hair scooped up Mimsey and they ran.

Suddenly, Mimsy woke up to her tummy being rubbed.

She gazed up at Sue. 

"Wake up liitle kitty. You're having a bad dream." Sue kept on stroking her. "I promise I will always take care of you."

Mimsey started purring and gazed up in adoration at her new red-haired mistress.

A Writer’s Retreat – Or the act of withdrawing from society to stay at an asylum in order to produce productive literature

After participating in Debra Kristi’s flash fiction challenge, I've been thinking long and hard about organizing my own writer's retreat. Needing an avenue to start at I checked online for writing group retreats. I found that nothing fit my date or price range. This took me back to the Lower Mainland where I live. Since I'm considering three days minimum, the hotel route could be pricey. 

One promising option I've found is shared office space for $5 per hour, but the downside is there could be several office-related distractions ranging from cell phone calls to chatting with the other cohorts in the room. Still, outside distractions may not be as bad as at-home distractions of cat, laundry, crafts, renos, Internet, steampunk, TV, the list goes on..... I’ve made it a fine art of keeping myself occupied at home over the years and now there are many things to occupy my time.

With all these distractions it means very few hours per week spent doing any sort of writing, let alone the kind of fiction I want to write.

My patio: distraction or inspiration?

Dictionary.com has this definition of the word “retreat”:

1. the forced or strategic withdrawal of an army or an armed force before an enemy, or the withdrawing of a naval force from action. - This sounds like a great idea for a short story!

2. the act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion. - This is exactly what I need to do in order to get some writing work done.

3. an asylum, as for the insane. - This could be the spot for me.

Other retreat options include staying at a friend’s place, sitting out on the patio, visiting a café, sitting in a park, and locking myself in a closet.

Please stay tuned to find out when I will vote myself out of the house for my top secret writer’s retreat.

Flashing Debra Kristi

Earlier this week I was catching up on Debra Kristi's Blog and reading about her self-induced writing retreat, located in a secret location. I thought about how wonderful it must be to get away from it all.

Taking a break from her book, she was inspired to write a flash fiction story. She challenged her readers to choose one of her photos and write a flash fiction story on their own blog.

I chose a photo depicting snowy ski runs above a Bavarian-style building. Here is my story.

I awoke around 7 am after a sound night's sleep. I lay in bed and rubbed the palms of my hands together before doing cat stretches. Yoga was a great way to wake up in the morning. I sat up and moved my hand to pick up the glass of water on my nightstand. One glass of water in the morning replenished the body.

I thought about the long day yesterday, packing up and gathering supplies, then trying to secure transportation. 

I had nearly downed my glass of water when I spat out the last mouthful. There was bright sunshine seeping through the edges of the curtains.

I threw the glass down and leaped out of bed yanking the curtains open. The sunshine was blazing in the sky. Grabbing the binoculars from my window sill I looked through the lenses and scoped out the ski runs. There were seven visible to my eyes. 

After a long study I could not find humans or otherwise on the runs, but I did notice one thing. 

The snow was not as tightly packed on the hills as last evening, and I could hear a dripping noise outside my window.

Just then the door to my suite slammed against the wall, causing me to drop my binoculars.

My cohort cried, "Get packed up now, the snow is melting! We have to get to higher ground."

I nodded at him and started packing up my gear. It was done in record time.

I took one last look around the room. This would have been the perfect location to get some writing done.

Is it possible to 3D scan and print a Topper Dawn Doll?

Humans have made their own goods going back to the dawn of the human race. Since the industrial revolution of the 18th century we have relied on machines and cheap foreign labour to make our household products and toys.

One of these toys is the Dawn doll, a small fashion doll made in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Her body is made from plastic and she was cast in a mold in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. These dolls were briefly remade during the early 2000s but for now her collectors have to be happy with buying from the vintage Dawn doll section on Ebay. 

Around 1999 I wrote a fictitious story for DDM (Dawn Digest Magazine) based on "A Day in the Life of a Topper Factory Worker" and in one of the stories I wrote about a "3Dupliscanner". Here's an extract of the text: "The new Topper 3Dupliscanner for duplicating Dawn outfits, accessories and play sets just the way you want! Just put your object inside the 8.5” x 11” scanner box and close the door. Perhaps you wish to duplicate the Rain Check Cape? Choose the settings on your Topper computer software. ie. Fabric: stretchy, metallic, knit; Colours: black, silver; Notions: white thread, plastic silver leaves, silver beads. The more settings you select the greater the chances of your object being accurately duplicated. Next press Preview for a full 3D rendering preview on your computer monitor. If you are not satisfied you may change the settings. Perhaps you would rather have gold metallic with blue checks on your Dawn’s cape? This is where you can change your options. You can adjust Lightness, Darkness, Size, Softness and Colour. If you are satisfied with the settings press the SCAN button. When scanning is complete you may open the door on the back of the scanning box. Inside you will find your shiny brand new duplicated item of Dawn doll clothing. In this example you would find a crispy mint Rain Check Cape. Your original item remains unaffected by the scanner. Supplies: Special CMYK, gold and silver ink cartridges that each fit into the special slots on top of the scanner, white colour-transfer thread, white plastic caplets in 3 hardnesses, white cloth sheets. Takes the most basic of sewing supplies and converts into gorgeous clothes for Dawn dolls, jewellery or any other useful object that would fit into the scanning box. Purple Floral Stand? Black Dawn doll case? Purple Dawn shoes? Red and black Beauty Salon? They’re all yours! MAC & PC Windows versions. Software included."

It's quite interesting how this idea was prescient. 

A few months ago I was at the Geekcraft Meetup at La Fontana Cafe in Burnaby, and a friend was passing around a magazine which contained a "3D printer"! This sounded like something right out of science fiction! For a mere $2000, which includes all the gadgets and plastic capsules that you'll ever need, you can assemble your own 3D printer to print out 3D objects! Yes, this could even be a way to print out new Dawn dolls! From their website many people have printed out their own action heroes. Here's a link to information about the 3D Thingomatic printer. 

There is likely to be some experimentation involved. Does someone already have 3D files created that could be converted to look like a Dawn doll? However, if authenticity is a concern, than we need to draft our own 3D file.

At that moment my investigation started. Should I take a 3D graphics course to learn how to draw a Dawn doll in 3D? It's a possibility and course options led me to BCIT. Did I have time to devote to a four month long course, once a week, plus intensive homework, and a big final exam at the end? Perhaps not at this moment in time, but I may be ready in six months. Is there an easier way of getting my 3D image?

I had a chat with a millwright friend of mine in Delta. He recently attended a trade show in China. He said that if I was willing to order about a million Dawn dolls, I could easily have a factory in China make them up for me, and he could supply me factory names. Any of them would be happy to talk to me. All I need to do is mail them a Dawn doll and they can faithfully reproduce her in their factories. However, I can't afford one million dolls, let alone an order of around 12,000 dolls. While the factory salespeople would be polite to me, they would have to respectfully decline. Such a small order of dolls would not be worth their time. 

I discussed the copyright and trademark issues of Dawn with my friend. He said in China if you have the money for the order than they are willing to produce. The copyright and trademarks are non-issues in China. After all, where do all the clone handbags, shoes, clothes, even iPads get made? Right. I did mention that I knew that legally each person can make one doll in their own name and image and legally sell her in the stores, without worrying about copyright or trademark infringement.

The new era of Dawn dolls were made at the McDonald's toy plant in China around the year 2000. Unfortunately Sharon John, the owner of Checkerboard toys had numerous fulfilment issues with the plant, as the plant found the low quantity Dawn doll orders cumbersome. They'd rather cater to the big McDonald's company as their orders ran in the millions. 

My friend said that to get started on making up my own "Melanie" dolls, I would need to find someone with a 3D scanner so that I could get the basic form of my Dawn doll scanned. He cut me some stainless steel sheet metal strips as he said the doll will need to be glued down securely, and I would need the doll arranged in a variety of positions for scanning. Thinking about it now, perhaps the best position would be of her standing in an upright position as the scanner would move around her. He said perhaps I could get a collector/engineer interested and they could scan my doll during one of their breaks, rather than charging me a scanning fee. Of course I don't have any friends in the field, but at least I had a great starting point. 

Most likely this search would take me to downtown Vancouver. Here's what one of my Internet searches brought up. A company by the name of 3D Reverse Engineering. 

I wonder how much they would charge for a doll scan? How many megabytes or gigabytes would the data file be? Would I have to buy a USB or can I use my 2 gigabyte one? Would they laugh me out the door?

Now once I have the 3D graphic file of my doll, I can take it to a company that produces 3D printed images, or in this case, an actual Dawn doll. Again, I have no idea how much this will cost me. One company by the name of Z-Corp 3D Colour Prints prints out 3D images into plastic forms. 

I've learned a lot the past couple of months on the possibilities of making new Dawn dolls. I'll leave it to you to add your own ideas and comments at the bottom of this page. Perhaps we can collaborate and in a year or so we can all print out our own dolls! I see wonderful things ahead.

Is there a Doctor in the Soap, errr TARDIS?

Last weekend I spent a few hours handcrafting my very own TARDIS, but made out of soap, not wood.

I bought a large block of $16 soap for 50% off, plus blue colouring, and a rectangular mold, which also happened to be blue.

I melted the soap in the microwave, then poured it into the mold.

I let it sit for about an hour then popped it out.

I did one more pouring to a shallow depth and let set.

When I was ready to assemble, I grabbed the toothpicks and sliced, diced and chopped until I had a reasonable assemblage of a time machine.

I melted a bit more soap, added red and cut out a light for the top.

Now that it’s complete, I’m not certain I would do the assembly method again. Perhaps I will make my own TARDIS mold and pour directly into it.

Here’s the photo of my wonderful TARDIS! Now what do I do with it? Do I use it? Do I save it? Put it outside to slowly melt away?

Being a Science Fiction Writer Means Writing, Not Waiting

Many readers don't realize that I have written over 150 published and paid non-fiction articles. A good 3/4 of those were about annihilating your credit card, before it annihilated your life. The remainder were a miscellany of topics surrounding jewels, green living, and the 2010 Olympics. 

Since Yahoo bought up Associated Content, I haven't had the chance to write paid non-fiction, but have instead decided to focus my efforts on fiction.

When I was about 15 I wrote this rivetting story about the end of the universe. I wish I hadn't trashed it but it was the first science fiction story I ever wrote.

I started up again around the early 1990s with Dr. Who fan fiction. Many of my stories appeared in James Bow's Mythmakers and DWIN's (Doctor Who Information Network) magazine. 

I've decided to dust off one of my creations and have posted it to Yahoo Voices, the new incarnation of Associated Content. Please click here to read Short Circuit.

Being a writer is more than merely dreaming, being a writer is actually doing. 

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