Tag Archives: Cold notes

Writing life

By Mel | Published: Tuesday, 16 February 2010

A writer's progress report: reading up for the design of Consensus in Cold & Long Dark; work on "Trading Shirts"; revision of "Itch" from Finer.

Posted in About writing, Cold, Finer, Mistress of Woodland | Also tagged Bai (Cold), Boleyn Maheshwari, consensus, Consensus (Cold), Esti Gusev (Long Dark), Long Dark notes, Mistress of Woodland notes, research for writing, sociocracy, writing | Leave a comment

Building Consensus

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 10 February 2010

How editing Wikipedia & a fictional Martian constitutional convention influenced the Consensus government in my novel(s)-to-be. Yep, & consensus would be a better way to run our own world too, yep.

Posted in About writing, Cold, No Way Way | Also tagged Battle of Washita River, civility, collaborative decisionmaking, collective intelligence, consensus, Consensus (Cold), Dena'ina, good government bad government, Harming none do as you will, integrity, Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Turnbull, Mars, Mars Trilogy, NaNoWriMo 2007, Pavonis Mons, Peter Kalifornsky, science fiction, selfhood, sociocracy, storymind, terraforming, Turnbull (Cold), Ursula K. Leguin, Wikipedia, worldbuilding, writing | 3 Comments

Good for my worldbuilding, bad for my world

By Mel | Published: Saturday, 6 February 2010

One tool for inventing an imaginary story universe in science fiction is extrapolating from the present into the future. Granting corporations lots of extra power as the Supreme Court did recently is very good for my worldbuilding. But is very bad for the world I actually live in.

Posted in Cold, Long Dark, Polis | Also tagged Anchorage Baptist Temple, Anchorage Daily News, C.J. Cherryh, Chris, Citizens United v. FEC, collective intelligence, consensus, Consensus (Cold), corporations, corporations as persons, Cyteen, Dave, democracy, good government bad government, J.R.R. Tolkien, Juneau Empire, Kim Stanley Robinson, Long Dark notes, Lord of the Rings, Mars, Middle Earth, political corruption, science fiction, sociocracy, terraforming, Tom Anderson, VECO, worldbuilding, writing | 2 Comments

Buddha in the coffee shop

By Mel | Published: Saturday, 2 January 2010

My Side Street Saturday included an encounter with a handcarved Vietnamese Buddha of white-grey marble, which its owner hopes to sell as a fundraiser for Veterans for Peace. A little about Job, integrity, cold, & low atmospheric pressure, too.

Posted in Cold, Journal, No Way Way | Also tagged Bible, Book of Job, Buddha, integrity, Side Street Espresso, theodicy, Voice from the Whirlwind, winter, writing | 2 Comments

Taking life support for granted

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Pina Chomko: s a story character in my novel-in-progress Cold. She's not like us: she grew up in outer space. Her dream: to take for granted all the life support services that nature provides for free -- just like us.

Posted in Cold, Long Dark, NaNoWriMo | Also tagged biospherics, CELSS, Long Dark notes, NaNoWriMo 2009, Pina Chomko (Cold), research for writing, science fiction, writing | Leave a comment

Biospherics

By Mel | Published: Monday, 12 October 2009

More on my evolving knowledge about closed ecological life support systems (CELSS) for use in my novels-in-progress projects Long Dark & Cold: biospherics is a handy new term for what it's really all about.

Posted in Cold, Long Dark, NaNoWriMo | Also tagged biospherics, CELSS, Long Dark notes, NaNoWriMo 2009, research for writing, science fiction, writing | 2 Comments

My October reading list

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 7 October 2009

What I'm reading, or at least looking at, in the rundown to NaNoWriMo 2009: space exploration, growing food in space, consensus government, & more. I'll be writing Long Dark, about the people making the long journey between the stars to colonize another solar system.

Posted in Cold, Long Dark, NaNoWriMo | Also tagged Long Dark notes, NaNoWriMo 2009, research for writing, science fiction, writing | 1 Comment

October plans

By Mel | Published: Friday, 2 October 2009

October. Change of seasons, change of gears: I'll be resuming my title of occasional political blogger by becoming a far less occasional writer. Plans for October include gearing up for NaNoWriMo in November.

Posted in About writing, Journal, Long Dark, NaNoWriMo | Also tagged Crossed Genres, Long Dark notes, NaNoWriMo 2009, science fiction, writing | 1 Comment

Eating (& breathing & crapping) in outer space

By Mel | Published: Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Research notes on closed ecosystems in outer space, for "Long Dark," a story I'm trying to write in the same story universe as my 2007 NaNoWriMo "novel" Cold.