PENDOMUS INSIGHTS: The Helix

Welcome to PART 3 of my edification on all things Pendomus!

Well, so far, we've discussed the planet of Pendomus in the past two posts. 

This next installment is about the structure known as the Helix and the society that 's maintained within its walls.  

When I first started writing, I was flying by the seat of my pants (PANTSER!) and really didn't know what was about to come next. When it came to humanity, to the planet, I really had no rules, Pendomus held no identity to me.

As I began looking closer at Runa and her life, a society formed quickly - one rooted in ours today, but perhaps a bit more idealized. Everyone on Pendomus is put through a bunch of aptitude tests. They are monitored closely to be placed into a profession matching not only their genetic make-up, but also their personality. The notion is that humanity can then be optimized. It's the whole, "Do what you love" ideal put into play.

Once the society was formed... I knew I had to create a wickedly visual place for humanity to be residing in. Originally, I had a totally uncool name for the Helix, too - The Compound. Wow. Good lord. How freakin' original is THAT?! Yikes. *shakes head*

Oh well. It was a start... Besides, it looked better on page than xxxx or something! HA!

The Helix (for realz), a landmark bridge in Singapore.

I came up with the idea of a structure rising up out of the ground like the double helix on its side. So far, nothing I've found online comes close to the massive structure I see in my head, but this comes pretty close. ----------->

I envision a protective shield wrapping around the main tunnel of the Helix on Pendomus. Looking at the pic of the bridge, I happen to like the lighting. Huh... perhaps something to embellish going forward in Book 2. ;)

At any rate... society with the Helix is highly contolled. There's no sleep, so they can function longer for the Helix. They do have a machine that simulates the way sleep recharges the brain and revitalizes the body, though. They don't eat. They don't speak out loud. They don't even have sex. Hell, they don't even know what sex IS!

So next week, I plan to go into depth on some of the elements at play inside the Helix.

Stay tuned next week for information on: The Lotus Chair, RationCaps and my personal favorite... the exchange-Link (eLink). 

 

PENDOMUS INSIGHTS: Sundogs

Welcome to PART 2 of my edification on all things Pendomus!

Last week's blog on tidally-locked planets was well received and I'm hoping the trend will continue. As promised, this week is devoted to sundogs. 

When I first started writing Pendomus, I only knew small snippets of what the world looked like. I knew it was winter. I knew there was a girl who was running away... As time progressed, I started to think of ways that Pendomus could be unique. Sometimes it was because I saw something in a magazine. Or a friend said, "HEY! This so needs to be in the book!" 

When it came to sundogs... it was brought up by Beta-Reader Extraordinaire. Upon looking into them more, I grew attached to the idea and decided to make sundogs a permanent part of the way Runa view's the sun in her region. 

Okay, okay... Sundogs are cool. So spill it already. What are they? 

Sundog

Once again, according to the Great and Powerful Wikipedia, a sundog, scientific name parhelion (plural parhelia) from Greek παρήλιον (parēlion), meaning "beside the sun" also called a mock sun or a phantom sun, is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.

Holy garbly-gook, batman.  What the hell did I just read?

Okay, basically, sundogs are patches of light on either side of the sun. They are made generally of plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals called diamond dust drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°.

If the crystals are randomly oriented, a complete ring around the sun is seen — a halo. This effect is something that I use in Pendomus... Mostly because it looks wicked in my head. Heehee...

Sundogs can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. According to Wiki, they are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low. Which is another reason why I included them. Because of the tidal lock, the location humanity set up civilization is on the temperate band between light and dark. Their sun is always low. 

Very early on, when I was stuck in writing, I would switch over to my other brain-- Graphic Design. Here's a rendition of Runa on Pendomus. The bird is significant, as is the water. But more on that another time. Heehee...

Runa and Rowan.

If you'd like to see more images I've put together to connect to Pendomus, click here. 

Does the concept of a sundog make sense? What do you think? Cool? Weird? Lost?

Next Friday: Get ready to meet humanity. I plan to go into detail on the compound where humanity now resides. The Helix.

PENDOMUS INSIGHTS: Tidally-locked Planets

Welcome to PART 1 of my edification on all things Pendomus!

As I stated on Monday, now that I've started my query process, I am welcoming in 2013 with a series of posts regarding elements found in the Pendomus Chronicles.

There's a lot of cool, quirky things happening not only the world-building, but also the characters. Before I get to the group of misfits you'll meet when reading book one, I want to start off first with the planet itself.

While it's not overly examined in the first book, the fact that Pendomus is tidally-locked will play a larger role as the series goes on.

What the hell does tidally-locked mean, Carissa?

You know what? I'm glad you asked.

Due to tidal locking, the inhabitants of the central body will never be able to see the satellite's green area.

First you need to understand what the term tidal force means. "Tidal force is a secondary effect of the force of gravity and is responsible for the tides. It arises because the gravitational force per unit mass exerted on one body by a second body is not constant across its diameter, the side nearest to the second being more attracted by it than the side farther away."

According to the Great and Powerful Wikipedia, "Tidal locking (or captured rotation) occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one side of an astronomical body always face another, an effect known as synchronous rotation."

Okay... uhm... yeah... HUH? 

Basically this means that Pendomus is not rotating on an axis. One side of the planet is always facing the sun, the other always facing into darkness. In essence, it is a satellite, circling its sun.  Look at the picture to the right and pretend the central body is the sun. Make sense?

Believe it or not, you're already extremely aware of how tidal-locking works. We have our very own tidally-locked entity here on Earth.

Do you know what it is?

Yep. The moon.

Since the Moon is 1:1 tidally locked, only one side is visible from Earth.

 Now, whether or not the atmosphere of a tidally-locked planet could be viable is of much debate across the forums. However, I feel that being in the realm of sci-fi, anything is possible! Besides, this planet has a lot more going on than meets the eye. ;)

The stage for book one is set on the temperate band between the light and dark-- Not scorching hot and facing the sun, not frigid cold and facing the darkness. Instead, cold enough for snow and always perpetual twilight.

Still confused? Send me your questions. Think it's wicked cool? Let me know!

Next Friday: I'll discuss another cool phenomena happening on Pendomus: Sundogs.

Stay tuned!

Query Away!

So, it's done! FINALLY!

Seems like I've waited a long damn time to say this... but Pendomus is officially in the query stage! *breaks open champagne and does the snoopy dance*

Snoopy Dancing Xander

I've started stage one of my query process:

1. Hit up the people who wanted to see it after the Moonlight and Magnolias conference last year. 

That means the fantastically funny Jessica Faust from BookEnds and sooper sweet Leah Hultenschmidt from Sourcebooks have the manuscript. Whether or not anything will come of it, has yet to be seen, but I can't wait to hear back. Good or bad.

My additional list of agents to query to is growing and I plan to continue the process this week, as there may be agents more suited to my genre-bending style of writing. (I'm like a ninja, ya know!)

Now that this process has begun, I'd like to start having a weekly blog post about Pendomus. The series itself has a lot going on from world building to character development and even sciencey stuff no one has ever heard of. (Can you say tardigrades, anyone?)

So far, this will be a 10 part series, but perhaps more if my brain conjures up more to discuss... or if there seems to be interest.

With that in mind, I want to kick off this Friday, January 4th, with a blog about tidally-locked planets. What they are, what that damn phrase means, and why it relates to Pendomus.

Are you ready to learn some cool stuff?

One Year Ago... My Life Began.

When I look back on the past year... Even amidst all the trials and tribulations, there has been so many things to be blissfully happy about. For me, 2012 has gone both exceeding fast and excruciatingly slow. It's sorta odd that it can be both, but I'm here to tell you, it really can.

One year ago, my life diverged from its previously implied and intended course and meandered down a winding side road I never, not in a million years, expected. The side road widened into an alternate reality- one that I would eventually accept as my new destiny.
 
December 2nd, 2011was the day my (now) husband, Colin, stepped off a plane from England with the conscious decision to enter my life. It couldn't have been easy for him. We'd met on Twitter, of all places, and he was leaving behind everyone and everything he'd ever known to... what? Take a chance on someone? If that wasn't bad enough, being with me has had its share of costs, many of which continue to this day.

For me, it was also a crazy time. I was going through a divorce and my life was a mess. Though I didn't leave my country, I may as well have. I walked away from everything I'd known my entire adult life, in the hopes of forging a better future for myself and my children. Despite the fact that everything in my world was tipped upside down, Colin embraced the chaos and helped me make sense of it all.

The strange thing about going through a divorce and meeting someone in the midst of it: Everyone assumes you cheated and that was the "real" reason for the breakup. 

It's true, when I met Colin, I was still married. Ironically, neither Colin nor I were looking for what we found in each other and we actually tried to deny it was happening. However, long before I met him, I was struggling with the decision to get divorced from my kid's father, but I hadn't pulled the trigger yet.

Somewhere between meeting in June on Twitter, and just after my birthday (September 3rd) I realized I was falling for him. Many family and friends (who have never bothered to ask for the truth) would like to assume I willfully cheated on my ex, plotting my escape ONLY until I had someone else waiting in the wings. (You know, because I'm a horrible person with no conscience. Well, I guess that makes sense, since they all thought I was a narcissist, anyway.)

However, in reality, the moment I realized my feelings for Colin were flipping from friendship to... something more, I pulled that trigger. Only, at first, it was the wrong trigger. I tried telling Colin we needed to stop talking. It wasn't fair to my ex, nor to Colin... and the conflicting feelings inside were too much to take. The interesting thing was, it broke my heart to tell Colin to stop. It was in that moment, that decision, and more importantly, his reaction, that I realized what REALLY needed to happen. Everything became crystal clear and the very same day, I pulled the trigger on my previous relationship.

For me, it needed to be done regardless of whether or not Colin and I would ever be together. Remember, he was from England and has 3 children he loves deeply-- so at the time, the chances of us ever being together seemed highly improbable to me. I had no idea a few short months later, he'd be landing on my doorstep.

The next few months were a whirlwind. I went to Georgia for the Moonlight and Magnolia's Conference, as I had intended months before. I worked hard at getting the house I was moving into ready for me and my children. But then, something surprising happened. Colin decided he wanted to be with me. Not just talk to me on Skype or through messages, but the in-person-standing-beside-you, kinda be with me. I've learned throughout the past year that once this man makes up his mind, come hell and high water, he will make it happen. Of course, I didn't believe him at first and laughed it off as a "perhaps sometime in the future sorta thing." But he was serious. Now, here we are, one year later... still together. Married, even. Who woulda thought?

Sure as hell wouldn't have been the year-ago me.

Of course, his arrival only implicated us more. Made us look like we'd been planning it all along, but I no longer care. That's the liberating thing about time.

In this past year, I've learned so much. Grown more than I thought possible. But beyond that, I've never been so blissfully in love. So wonderfully loved back. Despite external turmoils, my home life has never been so amazing. And I have one person to thank for that...

I love you, Colin.

More than I ever thought possible. You've shown me proof that miracles do happen.

Soul mates do exist.

And things happen for a reason.

NaNoWriMo Fail

I had high hopes for NaNoWriMo this year...

I wanted to get up at my previously unbearably groggy time-frame of 5am to put pen to paper (or fingertips to keys, as it were...) However, with our trip to England ending on November 4th, I knew in those first few days no amount of wishing would make it happen... I would have to wait until I was peacefully settled into my normal life at home. (Which, in my crazy mind, meant 5am, November 5th.)

Alas, I was misguided.

Amidst jet lag and recouping from being constantly on the go... My brain has yet to catch up with me. I joked on Monday that my body is in Minnesota, but my head is still in England. Here we are on Friday and I think that's still the case! HA!

The good news however, is this: Pendomus, Book 1 is going out the door this weekend. I am cleaning up the formatting and sending it out to the world. So, wish me luck!

With that being my major goal for this week, you can expect a report on the release by the weekend. Once it's been kicked out the door... I mean, gracefully handed off to agents/editors/publishers... my goal is to start writing DAILY for at least an hour. I'm going to concentrate less on word counts and more on the routine of it.

If there's one thing I've learned when it comes to writing and workouts...  

Something is better than nothing. ;)

England; My Initiation into the Andrews Family

In flight to England.

The past week has been an absolute whirlwind... and took me to a whole new level of "first times".

For those of you unaware, my husband is originally from England and immigrated to the United States... to be with me. I know... I know... *swoon*

Stonehenge.

We've been married since February, but since our marriage was more of an elopement, I had yet to meet his friends and family in person. Which includes meeting my step-children for the first time. Colin has three children of his own and although I was unable to meet my step-daughter, we spent the week with Colin's boys traveling around England and Wales.

This was my first international flight, first stamp in my passport, first time in England, first time meeting everyone...

My amazing in-laws.

It was absolutely amazing and something I will never, ever forget.

One thing that really struck me is how absolutely phenomenal Colin's family and friends are. They are all loving, supportive and they immediately passed that love on to me. Not once did I ever feel unwelcome or displaced and to each of them I am so grateful.

Colin hasn't been so lucky with my family - they've been distant, abrasive and often times outright rude to the both of us. They don't understand our choices and make no effort at all to. They alienate us and then wonder why we don't like being around them. In fact, I feel like my ex-husband and his girlfriend have pretty much taken our place in my family's lives. But that's another story.

Silliness abounds.

I realize now that I have a larger family - a group of people who actually care about my new life with Colin. Even if my side doesn't. And those are the people I intend to put my focus into. Those are the people I am most grateful for.

So, as we go into this Thanksgiving season, I am going to be thinking of my new family and the gratitude I have for them.

I am officially and completely, an Andrews.