The Progress Bar 2

Total word count 31,744

Two weeks in and I am still holding. I have not had a single day below 2,000 words and I even hit 3,300 on Thursday. It seems counter-intuitive but I find that the days where I have the greatest output are also the days where the writing works the best. Perhaps the output is high because the writing is going so well.

I feel like I've hit my stride. I think my first 10,000 words will need a re-draft before I edit, I didn't have the proper feel for the voice and the characters, not like I do now at any rate.

This week:

Konrad acquired the beginnings of an education, thanks to the tutelage of Doctor Carson.

He realized that running away would not solve his problems, and has decided to be proactive, if only for purely selfish reasons (he is a bit of a reluctant hero).

Konrad's love interest, Zylphia, has been introduced. I love her name, I found it while searching through nineteenth century English names. She is super pissed off at Konrad at the moment (for no fault of his) but she'll come around in time.

He also has regular friends and a proper set of clothes for the first time in his life.

Konrad has learned to fly, and he's discovered he has a true talent for it. It seems that he has found his niche, a place in the world where he can be truly happy. If he can ever get Zylphia to stop hating him life would be perfect as far as he's concerned. Alas, I'm a cruel author and will soon have to crush his dreams.


I am contemplating titles. "Going Down", aside from being a sexual term that I do not especially want this book to be associated with, is not a terribly inspiring title. The others I have come up with are unsatisfactory so far. "Ather Earth" does not roll off the tongue and really says nothing. "City in the Sky" is equally vague. I need something catchy, I think I'd like to work 'aether' in there somewhere.... I'll be sure to mention it here if I come up with anything good.

Time, Space and Aether

When I started writing my current book I hadn't planned on mentioning aether. When I started to get into the physics of how things work, or, wouldn't work work, for my story without some bending of the rules of physics, I realized I needed a pseudo-scientific explanation. Naturally aether fit the bill.

Rather than explain it twice I will simply steal some of Doctor Carson's lecture on the subject of aether from my book. Please keep in mind this is first draft material.

"Aether is...it is the stuff between time. That is to say, the Universe travels through time. It is constantly moving through time, like a fish in the ocean. In front, and behind the fish is water, but in front and behind the Universe is aether. The ancient Greeks were the first to hypothesize the existence of aether but the first proof of its existence was only given in the mid fifteenth century. It took so long to find because, naturally we can only observe things in our own time, and aether is every time and everywhere but where we can observe. A group of alchemists in 1456 found that when a person died there was a creative force unleashed into our world. The hypothesis was that, as the soul left our sphere of existence it slipped through to the aether all around us, as it did there was a small rift which allowed a burst of aether into our time. At first all these alchemists could do with the energy was create a small burst of light and heat, which lasted for less than a second, but over time as understanding grew properly trained people began to channel that creative force more effectively.
"The most popular theory around the turn of the nineteenth century was that aether was the tool by which God created the universe. We had learned to use it to create grand machines, harder metals, doctors could use aether to heal the sick and some were even using it to create new breeds of animals and plants."

Steam Guns

I have invented steam guns in my head, which I translated to paper but due to safety and practical reasons I have no intention of building in the real world. In the world I have created they are effective weapons but the man-portable variety, with a backpack boiler are only good for short range pummelling attacks. They can break bone but rarely penetrate the skin.

Today I thought I would look to see if anyone else had built a steam powered gun, to nobody's surprise, Adam and Jamie of Mythbusters beat me to it.



They use a different method than I had planned out but the result is about the same, a quick-firing inaccurate semi-lethal weapon.

The video below shows a steam cannon with a barrel being fired, despite the fact that it's a simple garage-built gun it obviously has some power.



If the two could be combined then you might really have something, I think the confederate system they copied on Mythbusters was highly flawed in the way it flung the balls out. A system with a barrel is necessary for any kind of power or accuracy, but I do like the gravity feed system they used. Having watched these two videos I have to say I think my design would be feasible and it overcomes the shortcomings of each design (Mythbusters lack of reliability and massive size, the Archimedes style cannon's unpredictable timing and slow firing rate). I almost wish I had a workshop big enough to build one.

Just for fun, here are Adam and Jamie again, this is a short video of a household water heater with all the safeties disabled.



Steam rocket! That's one of my favourite bits of video from all the Mythbusters episodes I've seen.