Nephew 1 Report

Got a phone call from Nephew 1. He finished Akiesha 2: Symbols In the Field
quickly. Overall, he thought it was a good story. But there was a problem on
page 156.



Oops. We don't know what happened there but we think we might have had
some toddler help.

The only disappointment Nephew 1 had was that Akiesha didn't get a sword.
This from the boy who at the age of 7 read Akiesha 1 and drew a picture
of her with a sword. David thought that was amazing because that was in
his plan.

David told Nephew 1 that the working title of the next book is
Akiesha 3: The Sword.

Nephew 1's response:

"Sweet."

Christmas Delight

We've been keeping a secret for some time. Though you can most likely guess from the last post. Book 2 is done.



Nephew 1 reread Book 1 this year and asked for Book 2 (again). Since it was on
his Christmas list, I thought it was time to surprise both him and David.

I hadn't been able to surprise David since StoryPlus graciously sent me a
banner from the Swiss display.



It was much fun to open that (and yes, it still hangs over his desk.)

But this Christmas was delightful when Nephew 1 opened his gift and yelled,
"I've been waiting for this forever!"

My sister later reported that Nephew 1 stayed up late reading under the covers
with a flashlight.

The best complement an author can receive.

Merry Holidays to all.

Inspiration

Not long after Akiesha 1 was published by Migros, the artist ZeMial put this piece on his website:




"What is that? What is she riding?" I asked. "It's not in the book."

"It looks like a jet monocycle." David said.

"Cool."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to use that."


So, for you ZeMial, a big thanks.

Chapter 9, Akiesha 2: Symbols in the Field:


Magee donned her E-suit. She and Akiesha exited the Beast. Magee signed for
Akiesha to switch her suit-comm to crypto and low power transmission to keep
their adversaries from detecting them. They walked around the back and
Magee opened an external compartment on the left side. She punched a button
inside the compartment and machinery extended a rack that held a strange
orange and black contraption. The thing had two wheels and looked like half
of a miniature open rover.

“What is that thing?” Akiesha asked.

“Things,” Magee said, “Two jet monocycles. The orange one is yours.”

Magee released the monocycles from the rack. The orange one seemed in
fairly new condition, the black model was older with a few dings and
scratches, and a fine coating of red dust.

“Where did you get these?”

“Black one I’ve had for a few years, orange one I bought a fortnight
ago in Marbach. I use them to scoot around a site while I’m prospecting.
It’s a lot cheaper on fuel and oxidizer than firing up the Beast every
time I want to go just a few kilometers.”

Akiesha studied her monocycle, which rested upright on its wheel and a
skid in the back. “How do I make it go?”

“Hop on the seat. Center column has the controls. Push POWER ON, then
GYRO ON.”

Akiesha followed Magee’s instructions. Lights on the control column
illuminated as she turned the monocycle on. When she activated the gyro,
the cycle stood up and remained perfectly balanced on its wheel. Magee
mounted her monocycle and switched it on.

“Controls are simple. Grab the two control sticks with each hand. Push
forward to go, pull back to stop. Let up on one stick to turn,”
said Magee.

Akiesha found the cycle easy to maneuver and was soon turning circles
spraying sheets of dust and gravel from the monocycle’s wheel.

“Whoa cool!” she exclaimed, “This is fun!”

Akiesha Literacy Project

Guest blogger here-

While David is off writing the next adventure, I wanted to share what the proceeds from Akiesha's 2004 test market accomplished and with your support could continue:

Akiesha Literacy Project

Books can do amazing things.

How to play soccer on Mars

One of the problems I faced while writing about Akiesha was, "what does she do for fun?" How do children play on Mars. I had decided early on that I would not provide Akiesha with artifically enhanced gravity, that is, she would grow up subjected to Mars' gravity which is .38 that of Earth.

So how far could an 11 year old kick a soccer ball in .38 g? Or throw a baseball? Add to this that on Mars, space for playing fields would be at a premium. I decided that regulation sporting equipment on Mars would have to be heavier to keep the field of play reasonable or else Akiesha would spend all of her time chasing after balls that had been launched out of bounds. That creates another problem. A ball twice as heavy packs twice as much momentum when it hits you. I didn't want Akiesha or any of her friends to lose any teeth so I came up with another idea. What if a Martian soccer ball was really a ball within a ball, the heavier inner ball mounted to the outer shell with rubber springs. Whenever the ball hits the ground, or anything else, the inner ball would bounce around on its inner springs absorbing some of the energy. I'm still not sure if this would work on Mars but it sounded reasonable.

Sports might also require more protective gear on Mars than is traditionally donned for the same sport on Earth. But I imagine players could pull some pretty cool moves in Martian gravity. Martian style soccer is described in more detail in my second Akiesha novel : Circles in the Field coming soon hopefully to a bookstore or website near you.

Background

I envisioned humans settling Mars in two waves. The first begin arriving in the early 22nd century. Life for these people is very hard. Mars, with no breathable air, no easily accessible water and no food proves unforgiving. Meanwhile back on Earth, they are facing their own challenges. A Climate Crisis has erupted. Attempts to control Earth's weather have backfired and Earth's climate has gone completely out of kilter. The money and resources that were to have been used to begin terra-forming the Red Planet are no longer available. The few thousand Martians are on their own.

Salter Colony Carlsbad by ZeMial

The colonists also face other problems. Living on Mars seems to affect their minds. People begin having hallucinations and visions. In some cases these are fatal, wherein a person believes he is in a beautiful garden surrounding and removes the helmet from his environment suit. Powerful anti-psychotic drugs help, but there are side effects. Other colonists learn meditation as a means of coping with the hallucinations. Living under the hardships imposed by Mars, these people soon also realize that competition is no longer a viable means of achieving one's aims and warfare or struggle of any kind destroys or wastes more resources than could possibly be gotten through those methods. Over the next few centuries these first Martians become the salters. They are mystics, prophets, aboriginal people who live in small habitats, usually underground. They practice a peculiar quasi-religion and are complete pacifists. They instinctively share anything they have with anyone who needs. The concept of personal property no longer exists for them. A salter doesn't knock at you door. He comes in, takes what he needs, and leaves what he can.

Dome City Good Havest by ZeMial

The next wave of colonists come more than a century later as Earth begins to slowly recover from the Climate Crisis. These people are more like people you'd meet on Earth today. Good people, but mostly interested in their own welfare and that of their families. They come to Mars to build a new life. Unlike the earlier settlers they begin building huge domed cities usually within medium sized craters on the surface. Akiesha is the child of domers. Magee, her mentor is a salter. The salters and domers get along well even if they don't understand each other entirely.

The question of terra-forming is still open and everyone seems to have s different opinion. Some people look at the statistics: the large numbers of people who die on Mars every year through mishap while traveling the surface and the huge expense of building domes, with very limited carrying capacity and argue in favor of terra-forming. Others point to the huge expense, and unknowns involving with such a massive undertaking. The issue remains controversial and undecided. Laws prevent anything other than laboratory experiments in this field.
Gregori Pavelovitch doesn't care much for those laws or for debate. He's ready to get the project started NOW. And he's not too concerned about who might get hurt if they get in his way.

Pavelovitch by ZeMial

Concept

The idea of humans traveling to and colonizing Mars is hardly a new one. I freely admit to being greatly influenced by the works of Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), but also any other SF set in the future. Almost every non-apocalyptic future envisioned from Babylon 5 to Star Trek includes people living on Mars.

The Red Planet is the most like our own that we know of, so it makes sense that if humans were to live any where other than Earth, Mars would be pretty high on the list. As the backdrop for SF Mars seems somewhat underutilized then (except for the afore mentioned series by KSR).

As a kid I often wondered what it would be like to go to Mars. What would it look like? What could you see? Fossils of ancient Martian trilobites? With Akiesha I wanted to explore what it would be like to live on Mars more than three hundred years in the future. I decided to go with no artificially enhanced gravity (they live in .38 g) and no terra-forming---yet.

I chose as my main character Akiesha Danelle Walker, a fifth grader, not too unlike many of my readers (I hoped) except that she lived on a future Mars. Other than that she has all the same problems and issues: school, parents, siblings, growing up and trying to stay out of trouble. That last bit I decided to make the hard part. You see there is this crazy scientist named Gregori Pavelovitch. The story of the mad scientist is the oldest and most venerated SF plot theme. I bow before the ghost of Mary Shelly. Pavelovitch has big plans and big ideas. Big ideas, even good ones are often dangerous. My thoughts were to involve Akiesha in some way with Pavelovitch. But I wanted this to be more than just a protracted episode of Scooby Doo. I needed to add some element of mysticism to the plot. That's where Magee and the salters come in.

Magee by ZeMial