The Cast, Part II

Doctor Carson

Doctor Carson is Konrad's mentor for a while. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Aether during the Great Rift. Like a hundred or so fellow brothers, Doctor Carson was caught between Paris and London during the aetherstorm which followed the rift. Unlike other people and animals caught in the aetherstorm the brothers knew how to sense and manipulate the force of aether, so naturally they tried to take advantage of the sudden surge, but for them it was like trying to wrestle a hurricane, the forces were beyond their control and warped them into hideous, malformed giants.

Doctor Carson is three metres (nine and a half feet) tall. The picture above is as close a representation to the picture I have in my head as I could find.

For nearly a hundred years he has lived as a hermit. His only pleasures in life are collecting books and hoping, one day, to have the chance to teach an eager young pupil again. The Doctor is kind, pedantic and very long winded once he starts into a scholarly lecture. He has amassed the largest library currently in existence, when humanity took to the skies they could only take a fraction of their books with them.

If he could have one wish, it would not be to fix his warped body, he has grown accustomed to the way he looks over the years, it would be to have a school full of bright young students.

Weekend Videos

Here are a few steampunk animated films I enjoy. I have been an animator for over ten years so naturally I have a soft spot.

First up, The Invention of Love, amazing visual style, steampunk silhouette animation.



Next, an ad for Terry Gilliam's, 1884's Yesterday's Future.



And finally, the first reminded me of Michel Ocelot, an amazing French animator. This is one of his first works, which just happens to have a steampunk vibe.

The Progress Bar 3

The end is in sight! It's almost scary, 44,203 words in and I am ready to begin the transition to act three. Just one more major conflict to get out of the way and I begin to ratchet things up, a step at a time to the climactic ending. With luck and a lot more hard work I can switch to my editing hat in three more weeks.

I had a surprise while writing this week. I'd planned out how a character would react in a situation which I knew was coming, but when I was actually writing in the moment, they exhibited a will of their own and refused to follow directions. If I hadn't heard from several sources that this kind of independent spirit was common, and in fact sought out by many authors in their characters I would be concerned. As it is I am happy, they have minds of their own and will behave in character, even when I try to push them in another direction.

The nice thing is, it doesn't even hurt the plot, if anything it makes things more interesting.

I had a major plot meltdown this week. Thinking back over what I'd written I began to feel that the manuscript had gone off the rails. It wasn't that it was bad per se, just the events were not relevant in the larger scheme of things. As always seems to happen with me I got frustrated, thought I would have to make cuts to bring things back on track, sat down and had a good long think over things and realized there was a simple and elegant answer which brought the larger plot back into focus during these sub-plots and introduced a new element to the larger plot which helped me setting up the transition to act 3.

I am burned out on writing though, I struggled to get 2,000 words today. I'm glad it's the weekend.

Oh, I almost forgot, one more bit of book news. I have decided to trim and edit an excerpt from the novel to make it an effective short-story for submission. We'll see how that goes, I have never tried to get a short published before.

And...the lady riding the ostrich? All will be revealed...or not.