National Novel Writing Month 2011: Day One Updates.

The Writing Front

At midnight, I punched in the first three hundred words for National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. It seemed like a good idea to get a symbolic word count onto the scoreboard before I went to bed last night. This morning, the Woman I Love has been supportive enough to shut off the television in order to let me get some more writing in before I head to campus today.

Thus the present word count for Day One as of 0640 hours is 1100 words. The goal for the day is to reach a modest 2000 words. Hopefully I can push to a larger 5000 words if I play my cards right.

These words are for Coming to Terms, a Tearing Down Tuesday sequel set twenty years later. I’ve already got 6000 words down prior to this morning for the project. So I’ll be keeping two word count tallies over the next thirty days.

The first will be an actual project word count signifying overall work. The second will be the NaNoWriMo word count. In my mind, it seems patently dishonest to count the first six thousand words written prior to this morning.

So it goes. Now it is time for a nap.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Steampunk Weapons Ponderings: The Ideal Sidearm.

A friend of mine on facebook expressed some desire for a raygun the other day. Granted, not a real raygun since the temptation to use such a weapon in the classroom might be overpowering. Still, she has an interest in steampunk culture and is presently in the midst of assembling appropriate garb.

It led me to ponder the matter about what I’d want in a 19th Century Steampunk style weapon. If you do some rooting about the internet you can pretty quickly find some of the products created by WETA Works. That said, I must admit that I find them to have a bit more of a 1930s vibe than a proper 19th Century feel.

So, what would I want?

First, I think the weapon should have a hand grip which fits my hand. As a Civil War reenactor I had the opportunity use a variety of reproduction Colt and Remington revolvers. None of the revolvers ever fit my hand.

The Starr Revolver fits the bill and my hand. In the attached YouTube video, you’ll see about ten minutes of footage describing how the original weapon worked, or didn’t as the case may be. The pistol grip foreshadows the curved style of the Enfield and Webley revolvers of British design.

Second, the weapon needs a believable power source. At roughly seven minutes in the video you see the demonstrator unscrew a nob and drop the upper receiver forward. Once the upper receiver is down it is possible to remove the cylinder for cleaning and reloading.

Instead of black powder, this steampunk version probably needs something exotic. I suppose in my mind there would be a brass or copper cylinder which contained a miniature Tesla coil. The cylinder might be twice as long as the cap and ball cylinder of the Starr Revolver. When you pull the trigger, the cylinder would discharge some particularly nasty bolt of electricity, or perhaps something even more exotic which unbound the forces which kept your atomic structure together.

Finally, what is a steampunk gun without a funky looking muzzle?

Well, actually . . . kinda silly from a practical standpoint. I actually like the muzzle on the Starr Revolver along with any other contemporary sidearm. It would fit pretty handily into a leather holster. Spare Tesla coils could be kept in on one’s belt at the ready once the first coil is expended.

So in many ways, I suppose my rift on a raygun would seem pretty tame compared to others. However, I think I’d want a practical weapon, one which wasn’t too much different in form from the original weapons of the era.

Oh, it’d have to be deadly accurate and leave my target in a pile of pixie dust on the ground.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Restoration: Getting myself back into shape, physically and as a writer.

The Writing Project: Trying on Steampunk

I threw the book out this morning, found a quiet spot on campus where I would not be bothered and actually managed to get three pages written for a Steampunk short story. I try to keep the ball rolling daily.

Right now I’m writing what I’d want to read which means I threw out all of the crap I had to put into my first two story sales to make them work. It is working a lot better that way.

We’ll see how it goes.

The Fitness Front

I’ve been eating too much crap. I can’t keep eating endless gobs of fried food, fatty crap and mountains of meat. Days pass without a decent salad and I sometimes wonder what it will take to get the venerable salad back into my diet. I’ve got from 195 to 200 and a waistline of 37 inches (probably closer to 38 inches).

I’ve got to get this under control.

The good news is that we started our workouts in Body Building today (yes, I signed up for a class). The first thing I learned is that one probably needs twelve exercises for their program. They need to work their legs first, then upper body, then arms. One is probably looking at three sets per exercise but I am thinking five for dropsets is what I am going to do. I didn’t get through the entire workout (I had to go pick Trinity up from UMKC as we still have only one car) but I got through enough of it to see that it will probably work for me.

The plan, starting tomorrow, is to get in an hour on the strength training and body building. Then I’ll follow it up with an hour of cardio. I have to work out an hour for each of my classes (the other is Physical Fitness) until I reach 30 hours (which is an A). If that doesn’t start to strip the fat off of my body, then I don’t know what I’ll do.

The Teaching Front

I’ve got the last of the Quakers for American History tomorrow. I think I may chat with them about primary and secondary sources first. They’ll hate that. In Western Civ I’m moving into the Egyptians. We’ll have the same chat about primary and secondary sources. Some might actually like that discussion.

On Wednesday I am going to have to hack out some time to work on Thursday notes. I’ve not written a single word for my notes since Thursday. And I’m behind on study guides. They should have gone out already.

Trinity’s Big Day

Trinity started pre-law today, working toward her BA in Sociology. She was nervous about it and I tried to reassure her that she’d do fine. She did as much for me back in August 2007 when, terrified out of my mind, I started my first day of teaching.

Problem is, Trinity doesn’t always listen to me. In fact, a lot of people do not listen to me even though I am bound to be right. This seems to be a recurring theme in my life, so much so that I think my nickname should be Cassandra.

In any event, she had a great first day. And she has homework.

Now I’ve got to try and get some work done.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Youtubage: A Steampunk Duel.

Yes, I can see that it is sexist and politically incorrect. If you are a fucking Killjoy then you can find your way to the exit.

That said, setting the issue of breasts aside, this is an example of Steampunk on Youtube.

I don’t think I’ll go with steampowered mecha.

Or maybe I will now that I think on it.

I’m in the middle of planning for the week, fighting with the sticky keys of my Toshiba, doing homework for Terri’s class and obsessing over my growing waistline. In the meantime I’ll tell you that you should go see Inglourious Basterds after you are done watching this video.

That is all.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Steampunk. Perhaps I should meander in this direction.

Steampunk is a subgenre in science fiction and perhaps fantasy. For those that do not know, the genre uses H.G. Wells and Jules Verne as the touchstones for stories set in a Victorian Era type setting. Probably the best film example I can think of off the top of my head would be Will Smith’s remake of The Wild Wild West.

I haven’t read many steampunk stories. Lou Antonelli’s Rocketship for the Republic is one that comes to mind where the Republic of Texas has a rocketship in the 1840s. Still, the subgenre interests me. If nothing else, I have the historical background to throw into the mix.

There are, of course, grousings about the genre. I’ve been reading those over the past few weeks as well. The usual, “It was an imperialistic, racist age of colonialism which . . .” etc, etc, etc.

This is one of those things that causes my synapses to blow out. There are those who are not concerned about historical accuracy per se. They are more concerned with creating an idealized variant of history wherein we throw out all of the bad things about that time period of history (this is why some instructors do not talk about the wars for instance) OR we focus on all of the bad things about a period of history, throwing out all of the good things. In the later example, we boil the period down to that little quote in the previous paragraph.

Sigh. No one ever heard of maybe going for an approximation of both good and bad qualities I guess.

So maybe this semester I’ll try to write a steampunk story. I’ve already got a market identified for that story.

Other Fronts

We’re getting the oil changed in the car. In fact it should be done which means I need to walk back over to Wal-Mart, pick up Trinity and move on with the rest of the day. I think a haircut for me and a pedicure for her are on the agenda (I think). Then I’ve got lecture prep and perhaps some writing to do.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri