Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Credibility by J. S. Marlo

 


Wounded Hearts
"Love & Sacrifice #2"
is now available  
click here 



 
 

  



Many years ago, I received a message from one of my readers. She was a scuba diver, and she loved stories that took place underwater, but she often found herself disappointed by how the divers were depicted. Still, she gave my novel Salvaged a chance.

Her "well-done" message was to tell me she knew I'd done my homework when I strapped weights to the belt of my female character before her dive.

The story was over seventy thousand words, but it only took five words to give credibility to my character: strapped weights to her belt.


Details are important to stories, and those details need to ring true to the readers who know what you're taking about--and there will always be one reader who knows better.

A beginner writer who's never seen snow asked me to review one of her scenes. It went pretty much like this:

The character left home and drove to the airport in the middle of a snowstorm. Lighting and thunder strike in the dark sky as the snow fell. The character landed an hour after leaving home.

Anyone reader who's ever driven in a snowstorm or flown anywhere is bound to notice the inconsistencies in that scene. Left uncorrected, the scene would have buried the story's, an author's, credibility deep in the snow.

I ended up exchanging lots of messages with that particular writer. Here's a few things any writer should take away from this scene.

Weather or Natural Disaster:

If there's a snowstorm, a tornado, a forest fire, a tsunami, etc... in your story, and you've never experienced such phenomenon, make sure you research it. No one is expected to know everything, that's why google exists.

In the middle of a snowstorm, the sky is kind of white, not dark. There isn't any lighting or thunder, but there can be lots of wind.

Severe weather often affect transportation, any kind of transportation. Plane, ferry, car, train...

If your character is flying somewhere during a snowstorm, his plane will likely be delayed, if not canceled. If if he's flying in the middle of a thunderstorm, the plane won't land or depart until there's no more lighting risk for the ground crew.

Before your character travels anywhere, you want to make sure it can be done under the weather conditions described in your story.


Elapsed Time or Time Zones:

Google Map and Airline Sites are great tools. They will tell you how long it takes to travel from Point A to Point B using different modes of transportation.

If you're traveling by car, and Google Map tells you it'll take ten hours, it's doubtful you'll be there ten hours later--unless you don't need to stop to fill up on gas, don't encounter traffic or construction, and don't need to pee or eat. So, remember to factor in the stops along the way.

If you're flying, and the flight is four hours, you won't arrive at destination four hours after leaving home. You need to drive to the airport, be there at least an hour ahead of time, and after landing, you may have to wait for your luggage or go through custom.

A character flying commercial cannot arrive at destination an hour after leaving home.

The greater the distance your character travels, the more time zones he/she will go through.

A non-stop flight from Calgary to Montreal is around 4 hours. If the plane departs at 2pm, it won't land around 6pm, it will land around 8pm, because there is a 2-hour time difference between Calgary and Montreal.

If a character living in Vancouver wants to chit-chat with his mother living in Finland, then the character may not want to call her after 1pm unless mom is a night owl, or it's an emergency. When it's 1pm in Vancouver, it's already 11pm in Finland.

Time zones affect not only travel but also communication.

The stories may be fictional, but they still need to be credible. The veracity of the details is important. It only takes a few words to hook -- or lose -- a reader.

Happy Reading & Stay Safe! J.S.

 



 

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Ancient Sumer or Sumeria by Katherine Pym

 

 Available at Smashwords

Amazon

 ~*~*~*~

This month my newest novel, Begotten, debuted. Considered historical-fantasy, it begins with the breakup of a planet, a gateway of sorts that transports our protagonists to a new, cleaner planet. The goddess who rules the city-state is gentler than the bull god from the old world. 

Sumer Art

But many who traveled to the new world do not want to give up their god. Elam establishes a territory where the bull reigns, which causes our protagonists grief.

Why did I choose Sumer? It has a lovely history, which is documented in thousands of unearthed clay tablets. It is considered the cradle of civilization that laid between the confluences of the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers. The Garden of Eden has its origins there, along the Gabon River which is now extinct. 

Sumer Life

Sumer established writing, the wheel, a code of ethics. They believed in resurrection. They had a flood, a Moses. Their temple structure dealt with the sacred and the administrative, which is more like our corporate structure than any other current organization. Men had their specific jobs, for which they set down their daily duties which would be added to others’. Then they would be compiled into weekly, monthly, and at year’s end, annual compilation that the governor would address, then sign with his seal of office.

Their firsts for which mankind has benefited (from ancient.eu): 

Sumer Life

“The first schools, legal precedent, a ‘Farmer’s Almanac’, Cosmology, proverbs and sayings, documented domestication of animals, agricultural techniques, time, religion, mathematics, and among others, medical practices (including dentistry).”

The Sumerians were an amazing people, their culture on an equal note as our own. I had to write of the people and its society, an opportunity too good to pass up. 

Excerpt: 

Chapter One

Day of the Cataclysm

A battered reed basket under her arm, Luna stopped her headlong run to market when she reached the temple square. A bas-relief of the bull-god filled the edifice’s façade, the vivid colors dulled by the constant barrage of heat. Once surrounded by a beautiful garden, the remains of withered flowers slumped onto the parched earth. Blackened trees stretched their stark branches toward a metallic sky.

Couples with infants in their arms silently queued at the temple’s great bronze doors. At short intervals, priests admitted a pair as the rest shuffled forward. The smell of burned spices wafted from the vast building before the doors clanged shut.

A flock of birds burst from the garden’s skeletal tree canopy. In distorted chaos, they squawked and flew into each other. Feathers rained onto granite stones worn thin by worshippers.

The ground rolled beneath Luna’s feet. She spread her legs for balance as mews of fear rippled in the hot air. Gasping with terror the earth would break apart, sweat trickled in her heavy black hair, plaited in a mound of thin ropes. She searched for something to hold onto when the rumbles ceased.

Deadly earthquakes came with more frequency, several per day, each stronger than the last. This morning’s had rattled the kitchen with clay pots falling off shelves. Hot coals bounced from the stone oven and rolled across the floor, scorching a table leg.

An agitated couple in the queue caught her attention. The woman held an infant while the man paced in a small circle. They wore the same usekhs as Luna, beads of turquoise and amethyst that draped to the shoulders. The collars showed they were slaves in the same large household as Luna, yet she did not know them.

Sumer Art


~*~*~*~*~

Many thanks to:

Ancient History Encyclopedia: https://tinyurl.com/y5pnbu64

Depositphotos.com

Friday, November 23, 2018

Tempus Fugit by Victoria Chatham



My favorite clock is a pretty thing I’ve had for forty-six years. However, its stained casing and tendency to quickly run down indicates its age more than the time. I find it somewhat depressing that we have already arrived at November 22, 2018. Depressing because, where has all that time, and especially this year gone? Am I the only one who struggles with this phenomenon, or does anyone else find the passage of time a puzzlement?

The seasons blur one into the other with none of the clear delineations I remember as a child and I don’t know if this is a factor. Or is it, now that I am older, I move more slowly and can’t (or more honestly) don’t want to rush and enjoy what I do because I have few distractions? 

Or is it that the retail sector bombards us with seasonal celebrations before we have even got to them. Once January 1st rolls around Valentine products very soon hit the stores. No sooner is that done then everything moves on to Easter, and then Mother’s and Father’s Day with a dozen or more celebrations along the way of Best Friends Day, Secretary’s Day – you name it, somebody and their dog have a day. And then it’s Halloween and Thanksgiving and very soon it will be Christmas and New Year’s and the whole ball of wax starts rolling all over again.

And what do we have in between? Not always blue skies, barbeques, and baseball. But I like to think that along the way we can at least take a little time, at some point, to put down the pen, close the computer, and take a breath of fresh air while sipping on a good cup of coffee or glass of wine while we are doing it. I’ve never been a poet but do appreciate poetry and one of my favorite poems is Leisure by William Henry Davies. It begins ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.’ For the full verse check out www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/william-henry-davies.html.

So now that I have taken the time to complain about time, it's time to start writing again or I'll run out of time before the next chapter is finished!




For more information about Victoria find her and her books here 










Popular Posts

Books We Love Insider Blog

Blog Archive