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Research Project Number – 05
One benefit of having wireless in the home is that I can work on the Client’s material with greater ease, especially at odd hours where insomnia keeps me awake.
I’ve got a number of chapters on my hands right now from four different points of view. I made some headway on one of them today. Last night I worked on another chapter which will require a bit more in depth research on insertion methods into hostile territory.
I have read all of the chapters in the hopper at least once. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll steadily work them over.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Aboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy BSG-71
Location: Deployed in the Field.
Status: Fall Operational Prep, Condition Two.
Taskings for the First Two Weeks of the Semester
I’ve got a full plate on the teaching and writing fronts, kids.
1. Prep the first half of the semester for American History One. This includes study guides, lecture revisions and master templates for the exams.
2. Prep the first two weeks of lecture notes for Western Civ One. This includes study guide work and lecture revisions. I’ve also got a lot of reason to do in order to tie the lectures into the textbook we are using.
3. Assist Client on Research Project Number -04 Final Revisions before that project goes off for publication.
4. Begin spin up for Research Project Number – 05, which will tie in with 04 and complete the current trilogy.
5. Begin a creative writing project for the Fall Semester Creative Writing course I am taking. Assume this will be a short story of some type. Though I could revise and recycle older projects, I really want to write something new for a change.
I’ve got my hands full here onboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front: Submissions
Well, I was looking over some submission guidelines and realized that I had stupidly failed to see that my primary target market was accepting only one story at a time. So that frees up Maternal Soldier for deployment elsewhere. More on that in a bit.
I’ve got Healing Hands of the Killer out right now and she has been out for two months now. According to the guidelines the rejects will come one of two ways. Either really quick or they’ll be held for final disposition. The good news, aside from not hearing anything yet, is that holding a story means it climbed close to the top of the crop. That doesn’t mean she’ll make it as we saw with Maternal Soldier and Federations awhile back but it is still a good sign.
What it means is that I am still in the game. I’ve not been put out of action yet. The only problem is that sooner or later I’ve got to start turning out new projects.
In the meantime, I think I’m going to run Maternal Soldier through the last of the available markets. Online venues first, then print markets, excepting the Markets Which Shall Not Be Names Here.
On Healing Hands of the Killer, my only concern is that it doesn’t feel like my best effort. Something is wrong with that story, something which can be fixed but I just can’t put my finger on it. In fact, so many of my stories suffer from that problem. Still, maybe a rewrite request will come back from the editor.
Maybe.
The Teaching Front
I’ve got prep work to do for three possible classes it appears. I probably won’t get the requested Western Civ One class but it sounds like I need to have something for the first two to three weeks if it does come down the pike. My Egyptian History is very weak but fortunately for me, Trinity is an Egypt Fantic and her contribution to the Combined Library is considerable. I should be able to cobble something together.
I’d love to teach Western Civ One. Hell, it is what I’ve trained for. We could spend sessions discussing the Athenians the Spartans, and that freak, Alexander. Then we could migrate on to Rome for a stroll through one of the great empires of human history.
Ah, I’ll probably be covering Andrew Jackson instead.
Still, prep continues. No word on final class assignments yet.
Other Fronts
Not much to report. My stomach has been bothering me lately. I need to hit the gym more.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Tearing Down Tuesday Photography
I’ve got some more shots today. Perhaps I should start by saying that just about everything I used is a combination of two or more real world elements. With the exception of Ketchum Road, I almost never used something whole cloth from our own world in Tearing Down Tuesday. The town of Circeville, Missouri, to my knowledge, doesn’t exist. But the primary model for that town is Maysville, Missouri up in DeKalb County.
I suppose some folks will insist that this is a Mary Sue story. I don’t think it is but then you can’t control what others say. And frankly, so what if it is a Mary Sue story?
Ketchum Road
I had to edit this photograph to a degree due to under exposure. This is the road Kyle travels down at the start of the story. The sky would have been clear but roughly the same hue. Obviously the wind turbines, the razorbrush and the snagglethorn are missing, but otherwise, this shot pretty much shows the road I had in mind.
The Driveway
In the opening, Kyle makes his way down this driveway past the first two robots we encounter, Saturday and Sunday. They are working on a series of salvaged wind turbines. Obviously the turbines are absent, but the driveway is there.
Abandoned Tool Shed
This was another inspiration for The Tinkerin’ Woman’s Shop in Tearing Down Tuesday. Though it has fallen into disuse, it was the original tool shed when I was a kid. Much of the clutter you saw in a previous entry was present in this shed.
And it did have a beer fridge.
The Weatherby, Missouri Post Office
This is the post office in nearby Weatherby, Missouri. Circeville probably would have looked more like this image here, very worn down, tired and battered.
The Dry Hole Bar and Grill, Circeville, Missouri
The Dry Hole Bar and Grill
Andrew Leroy, Owner
Dry before Five and Wet until Last Call
Whenever that is.
This is half of the Dry Hole Bar and Grill, the Maysville Town Diner, which has changed names over the years. Since it was Sunday morning we weren’t able to go in and even if we did, it would not represent what the interior of the story’s Dry Hole Bar and Grill looked like.
The interior is actually inspired by The Quaff down off 10th and Broadway in Kansas City, Missouri.
Not everything came from the Country as it were.
Other Shots
Additional Photography can be viewed at my flickr link, http://www.flickr.com/photos/30730762@N04/ . Someday when I grow up, I’ll be able to hotlink it.
I’ve also got more photographs to add as time permits.
Perhaps it is a bit self indulgent to go through this exercise, or maybe a bit too self promotional. Well, I am a bit shameless in that respect and I have to admit that I wish I saw more material like what I am putting up. I’d like to see photographs and images of what inspired my favorite writers. What are they drawing upon when they create my favorite places and characters?
So it goes.
The Writing Front
I wonder if I am not building up for a return to the Tearing Down Tuesday universe? At the same time, The Limb Knitter universe continues to speak to me. I should take pictures of things which inspired TLK at some point.
I did work up some plot info on a possible project but it turns out as I work on it that I’ve probably got yet another novel length project on my hands.
Perhaps what I need to do is pick up at copy of The Year’s Best Science Fiction and read some of my favorites for inspiration. The 26th Edition is out and Al Reynolds has a story within so that would be worth the price of admission alone in my book.
The Teaching Front
I’ve got to work up my American History One notes over the next few days. I’ve got a gap where Andrew Jackson is at on the timeline and I still need to figure out exactly what I am going to cover.
Teaching assignments will probably arrive in the hopper shortly before classes start. I’m pretty sure I’ll get two classes at the minimum, hopefully three to four. I’m hoping for four classes.
So it goes. I’m chomping at the bit.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front: Working on a Story Bible
I started work on a story bible for The Limb Knitter universe today. I suspect this is not the first time I’ve started on one but maybe this rearranging of the deck chairs will help on the writing front. Right now I am writing out the definitions and info for terms such as, what do you know, the Limb Knitter. As such, there are things in the story bible that have not hit the public and so I can’t share it.
Sort of like writing a story.
There is this one character who keeps coming back to me, a bitter sort of Christ figure (hmm, I sense a theme) and I suspect I probably need to tell his story first.
Maybe.
The Teaching Front
We’re still waiting to learn exactly what we’ll get for the Fall. That is fair since the cut session is floating around out there as well as late enrollments. I could get three to four courses if luck holds out, probably American History again. Preferably they’d all be American History II as, to be honest, I really do not enjoy American History I all that much. Oh, I can teach it and the lectures do need work, but I’d rather cover the second half.
If I could get the Civil War included in AH-II, I’d be a happy man but it wouldn’t work out. You have to lay the groundwork for the war which can take weeks.
I did mention to The Boss that I’d very much like to teach Western Civilization I. A senior adjunct peer has most of the availables sewn up (this is partly because I fucked up back in 2007 and passed an opportunity when it was available). Still, I’d like to spend a semester working my way from the dawn of Western Civilization through the Greeks and the Romans. I suspect I would not spend as much time on Egypt as some people would like (that would not make Trinity happy) but I’d enjoy myself.
Hell, it is what I trained for in the first place. And I’d like to get the experience.
Anyway, we should know in a few weeks.
Fitness Front
I’ve been to the gym three times in the last four days. My weight has dropped down to 195 pounds, which is a good thing if you ask me. I need to get back to the cardio (always with the cardio) but I never do it. How am I going to get a ripped body if I won’t do the cardio?
I’m getting older and the body is changing again so I suspect I need to do some research on workouts for forty year old men. Since I am signed up for body building this Fall, I should be able to try some of those new workout tips on for size and see what kind of luck I have.
I’d like to look better at forty than I did at twenty, which shouldn’t take too much effort given what I looked like at that age.
Student Front
Speaking of Fall classes, I have signed up for three hours of PT classes, Body Building, Fencing and Karate. Why not get credit for time I spend in the gym anyway?
The Fencing might run over a possible teaching opportunity so I may have to replace it with something. We’ll see how that goes.
Finally, I’m signed up for Terri’s Online Creative Writing course. This will be a first and all of these courses should free me from being present in a classroom. Terri’s class, hopefully, will spur me to get some writing done.
Other Fronts
Not much else to report. Made blueberry pancakes for the Woman I Love this morning. She dragged me out of bed at Oh My God Thirty to do it (somedays, God help me, she is a morning person and I, my friends, am NEVER a morning person).
So it goes.
Political
Oh, by the way. What’s this shit about making it mandatory for everyone to buy health insurance? I thought that (numerous expletives considered and deleted out of fear of losing the teaching job) of ours said he wasn’t in favor of that during the primaries but now his party is going to cornhole me with another fucking bill I can’t afford to pay.
To the folks on the Blue Team, quit trying to help me out. You want to help? Throw $65K at my student loans. Get the VA fixed so it isn’t a festering cesspool full of morons. But chucking another god damned fucking bill onto my plate IS NOT HELP!
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Writing Front: Looking under the hood
Today I was chasing an idea briefly before I got tired and let it fly off. That happens a lot anymore, when I’m not distracted by other things. So I trotted off to the library with laptop in hand to check the internet. Before I knew it, I was doing research instead.
See, I’d like to write a novel based on The Limb Knitter. A lot of potential there, plenty of room to grow, explore, etc. The characters chat with me everyday so that isn’t a problem either. However, one thing did occur to me.
I know when I created The Limb Knitter that Velaysia is but one nation-state on a distant world. I know that one major geographic feature is the Canarus Range, a series of very high mountains (think Alps, Rockies, etc) where much of the population lives. I know there is an Unoccupied Velaysia as well as an Occupied Velalysia, though no one in the story ever refers to the two halves as such. I know there is a major series of trenches and defensive fortifications known as the Southern Front. I also know that there is a place called the Kalentine Orchards which is located, strangely enough, in the Kalentine Valley.
I know that the Velaysians are cut off from the ocean by their enemy, who are simply known as the Invaders. I know that the ruins of a significantly advanced civilization reside within Occupied Velaysia and that, my friends, is roughly all I am at liberty to say.
Velaysia is not the only nation-state on this still unnamed world, I’d say there are about forty other major nation-states of varying sizes, many of which are not even on the same continent as the Velaysians.
But what about Velaysia itself? How big is it? Where do they grow their food? Why isn’t under threat by the Invader?
I didn’t know the answers to those questions until a few hours ago. I did some research on the Earth based models I used to create Velaysia in order to get some sense of the size of the nation-state.
One problem with my previous model is that Velaysia didn’t have something called strategic depth, in other words a place to fall back to. Technically they do now but for those wondering, it would mean a retreat over the Canarus Range onto the Canarus Plateau, bordered by the Silgen Mountains a hundred or so klicks northeast. The plateau is the breadbasket of the remaining Velaysian population. Were it to fall to the Invader, or the fighting to spread into it, chances are pretty good that the Invaders would be able to mop up any final resistance and secure their hold over the bulk of Velaysian territory.
The ecology needs some work as well. The Velaysians, in my mind, used a great deal of original Earth flora and fauna to establish themselves even though their environment had sufficient native resources. You might say they have heavily terraformed their environment over the last 2000 years.
So, I suspect if I fix a few of these things, I might get a clearer picture of what I am dealing with.
Finally, I have to admit that I’d like to find out what happened to Thalia Vetraslev after she was inducted into the Brigades Invalid. She comes to me on a regular basis but I am not sure what her story is yet. Maybe I should focus on her for a bit.
Other Fronts
Trinity made me a cake and some cupcakes (source of a running joke) for my birthday. We also broke down and got a converter box for the tv set. Mixed results there.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
New Readers
Seems I have new readers. Ah, such is the danger of hotlinking to my blog.
Anyway, I’m Steve Murphy. Here is a list of labels that apply.
1. Honorably Discharged Veteran, US Army
2. Unrepentant Veteran of the Persian Gulf War
3. Published Writer (two stories to date, both with honorable mentions)
4. Research Consultant
5. Historian
6. College History Instructor
7. Missourian (while I don’t like the state per se, I’m unrepentant about my Midwestern roots as well).
8. Decidedly NOT politically correct.
9. Definitely NOT a liberal.
Just a few things. If you are looking for examples of my writing, you can find both of them at Apex Online Magazine. Tearing Down Tuesday originally appeared in Interzone Magazine, Issue 210 back in June 2007. Apex picked her up for republication. The Limb Knitter appeared in Apex Online back in September 2008 and was recently converted into a podcast at Paul Cole’s Beam Me Up Podcast. You can buy a print edition of The Limb Knitter when she appears in Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One. Just click the link over to the right.
Finally, I usually do not discuss it much, I am the research consultant to John Birmingham. I have two novels to my credit on that front, Final Impact and Without Warning.
Umm, I know a thing or two about science fiction. Some detractors do not care much for that.
So, welcome to the Pondering Tree. Assholes really aren’t tolerated and if you’re all about political correctness then you are probably in the wrong place. But otherwise, folks are pretty well tolerated around here.
Research Project Number – 04
While Trinity was sleeping last night I completed one chapter and got half way through another. This leaves me with two and a half chapters in the hopper to polish up.
For the benefit of the new readers, just what am I doing? My primary job is to work on the military, historical and tactical issues in this project. However, over the course of time, my role has evolved. I will make editorial changes, add details (especially if I have been to a particular place but the client has not) as well as modify dialogue to a degree. The relationship I have with my client is one akin to the apprentice working under a master. I’m very fortunate to have this relationship and as such I generally tend not to toot my horn about it. These RPN updates are more for the client’s benefit and my own than the general reader who might drop by.
But my basic job is to make sure everything is dress right dress. And when in doubt (which happens) and I can’t find answer(that happens to) I blur things just enough so that most readers won’t be able to tell the difference.
Details can be a double edged sword, I find.
Other Fronts
Pretty lazy day yesterday. Trinity and I went to see the latest Transformers movie with her ex-husband (who seems nice enough). The film was okay I suppose. An enjoyable way to spend a cloudy Fourth of July.
We had dinner at the Pod and a quiet night after.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Research Project Number – 04
I got some work in today on one of three chapters currently sitting the hopper. Mainly detail work and some tweaks here and there. There wasn’t any factual or tactical issues in need of addressing.
I’d have gotten more work done but something came up.
No, not the previous blog entry (which is spiking, thanks 
) but something else completely.
The Teaching Front
I got a last minute call to provide assistance to an instructor on the issues surrounding the US involvement in the Middle East. I checked my politics at the door (always a good idea) and gave them what I know.
A fair way to spend two hours.
Two hours that would have been spent on RPN-04 but I suspect the client will understand. Especially if I get those chapters back to them soon.
Not much else doing.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Apex Online Magazine comes out of hiatus
Jason Sizemore is running Apex Online Magazine back into publication. He’ll be operating for July and August and there is a catch.
The mag needs $500 a month to operate. There are a number of ways to support the magazine. If you go to http://apexbookcompany.com, you can learn about these methods.
I suspect probably the best way is to subscribe to print on demand issues at Magcloud.com for three to four bucks a pop.
I strongly urge all of my readers to go support the magazine. The field needs more markets, not fewer. And obviously, I have a personal vested interest because two of my stories are there.
Training again
What can I say? We’re back at the training thing again. This training will certify me for teaching college courses online.
I’m having trouble with some of the philosophy. There is a great deal of talk about using discussion boards for course assessment. While I am comfortable with discussion boards (I used to live on them) I am not comfortable with using them for assessment. I have a feeling there will be a lot of parroting (verified by feedback I’ve received from people I know who have taken online classes). I also believe that the discussion would be dominated by one or two students, just as it is in a brick and mortar classroom.
I’m not a fan of discussion, Creative Writing courses being the only exception. At the 100 level students simply do not have a fundamental understanding of the course material. Hell, we’ve got students who can’t even read at the grade school level. My inclination is to run my online course as close to the same brick and mortar class as possible.
This did force me to think about my teaching philosophy. I am not a fan of group work at all. I hated it as a student and I hate it even more as an instructor. The slugs coast on the backs of the hardworkers and there are personality conflicts which make the work more trouble than it is work. I tend to be a believer in an indepedenent study model. This doesn’t mean the student is passive in such a setting. You can’t just sit there and absorb the material in my classes and expect to do well. The students do have to give some thought to their reading, lectures and writing, especially if they want to perform well on exams.
In other words, it isn’t enough to regurge a fact. I am often interested in motivations and causes, which are not always hard or even fully agreed upon information. The students are required to provide this information on their exams if they want to do well. You don’t get that from just scribbling down the notes.
What I’d like to do is run my online courses in the same fashion. In fact, I think the online environment would provide an opportunity for a conversation between the Instructor and the Student. Time is often lacking in my brick and mortar courses for this.
But group work and discussion boards? I’ll have to sift through a lot of gibberish to find the nuggets of gold. Far more trouble than it is worth if you ask me.
Oh, it is hotter than hell in this classroom.
Research Project Number – 04
I sent the last of the chapters I have onboard back to the client last night. I’m on standby for more as I start preliminary work on RPN-05.
Other Fronts
Not much else to report. I’ve been reading and working on RPN-04.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Summer Theme Change
You know, sometimes black with white text is just too depressing. Good for winter and fall, not so good for summer and spring. So after a stroll through the templates I ended up with Tarski, which has a handy dandy tree no less.
Feel free to comment on the new template. Like it, love it, want more of it or hate it, want none of it.
The Limb Knitter receives an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Edition
Well, the anthology which taught me about the short story market is out with the latest release. Gardner picked Tearing Down Tuesday for an honorable mention in the Twenty-Fifth Edition so I was interested to see if The Limb Knitter would have the same luck.
Published by Apex Online Magazine, The Limb Knitter received an honorable mention and my name was mentioned as one of the prominent SF writers to appear in that venue.
So, that was a welcome spot of good news after yesterday’s bad news (so bad I couldn’t even blog about it).
That’s two for two. Now I just need to figure out how to crack into the anthology itself with a story of mine.
Oh, and I’d need to write a story and sell it in order for that to happen.
Research Projects Number – 04 and 05
I sent the bulk of Version One of the draft back to the Client last night. I feel like I could have done more work on it but the various disasters and meltdowns have impeded my progress. I suspect there will be opportunities to make additional mods. From now forward I’m to work on Chapters 31 to the Last Chapter. I have 31, 32 and 34 on hand. I’m currently on standby to receive follow on chapters.
As this is a three book series and my summer is (supposedly) clear, I suggested that I might do the ground work for RPN – 05. We’re cleared for that as of this writing. So I’ve started pondering those issues even though I do not know how RPN – 04 will end.
I didn’t know how RPN – 02 would end either (last few chapters were never sent, which is cool) nor did I fully know how RPN – 03 would end. Some bits were modified after I had worked on 03 which made it a better novel in some respects.
So it goes.
Kudos to Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds picked up a 1 million pound novel deal which will see one novel per year for the next ten years. I’m probably one of Al’s Biggest Fans (no, that is not a sledgehammer behind my back) so it gives me great pleasure to see him achieve a level of security most writers only dream of.
So, a blog shout to Al. Good on you, man.
The Teaching Front
Busy today. I was called in to cover two classes this morning. The upshot of that is this means August (when I will see this paycheck) will be pretty good. I had a choice between The Great Awakening and the French and Indian War.
That was an easy choice. I skipped the Awakening (which often puts even me to sleep, it is worse than Reconstruction) and started the French and Indian War.
After class I was incredibly hungry so Trinity and I hit the campus mess hall (Army habit, can’t break it) for taco salad that was a bit iffy.
So it has been a busy and far better day than yesterday.
SHINE: Optimistic Science Fiction
Jetse de Vries announced that he has extended the submission deadline to SHINE until August 1st. If you are an optimist, then this is probably the anthology you need to submit your work to.
Strangely enough, Jetse once said that Tearing Down Tuesday was optimistic and hopeful (which, while appreciated, confuses me to no end as it seems awfully bleak to me). I’ve got one submission to him right now. I’ll cull through my stockpile and see what else I have.
I am seriously thinking of deploying the following:
Entangled, the earlier version from 2007.
Fishin’ Fer Tuesday, a Tearing Down Tuesday prequel.
Healing Hands of the Killer.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff