Jacob Alterations

I have made some changes to the Jacob character. I have always pictured him as young, ambitious and passionate about science, but I never really saw him as super wealthy. But when I decided to have the main characters crash at his place after Dekkur's shop was burgled, I kept seeing him livin in a massive house, straddling a great waterfall.

So now my vision of him is an extremely rich, yet young - high class citizen, but real quiet about it - so that Naeva never ponders his wealth until they arrive at his house.

Book Length Rollercoaster

Man, this issue goes up and down, disappears and reappears. This whole time I thought it was just me freaking out about book length - apparently it is not just me. I found some bulletin board posts about length, and it seems that not only do editors/publishers care about book length, but the length they are looking for is nearly twice the length I had read in articles earlier. Appearently novel length is about 70,000 - 75,000 words. This is interesting as I am on page 73 and am over halfway through all of my bullet points.

I think it is a good idea to expand on areas of the story I hadn't before. So now we have the voodoo'ish smuggler hunting the book's heroes, and The Board of Directors gutting Dekkur's used computer shop, which causes the heroes to decide to stay at Jacob's place. This would allow them to learn of other geological events. Possibly pave the way to a betrayal by Jacob, or more likely - the Directors finding them due to bugs etc in Jacob's home. Perhaps it is here that they are arrested and Naeva is taken to the Board's island.

I have changed the interaction with old Earth and learning of the snooping scientist (Naeva). So I have to think about when the conversation with old Earth and The Board will occur, and how to introduce the reader to the state of Earth.

Cool Novel Writing Article

This is a pretty cool article, unfortunately the sample outline is a dead link.

http://www.fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision20/themefootsteps.htm

Progress Report

Yes, I am still working on this book. I have been extremely busy, so haven't posted anything here. I have been getting some excellent feedback on the posts I have made so far:

Writing forums
Chapter 1 part 1 post
Chapter 1 part 2 post

Better Fiction
Chapter 1 part 1 post

Bullet Points

I think that I need to expand on my current story outline. I am currently on the third bullet point, and I am only on page 13. I seem to be flying through the story much faster than I should be. Of course these first points are short items compared to points later on in the story. They are just to introduce the main characters, set the scenes etc.

As a note to self (so I can add this when I have access to my documents):

- On the morning of the trip to the plateau, take that from Gaven's point of view, so we can see his flat etc. (gear shaped, cylinder apt. building. he has a loft above his bedroom, a kitchen and bathroom, front door opens into his living room)

- Enroute to the plateau, discuss Naeva's past etc. Father who never noticed her, cept when she got PERFECT marks etc.

- At the plateau, they find the water bubbling etc. Under the plateau is a HUGE cavern of water, like bubbling up (may need to research this). They need to send this data back to the lab, poss speak with someone there (may need some additional character profiles)


Other points will be expanded upon later.

Research: Deep Sea Fish

Deep Sea Fish Photos
NOVA Info Page

Research: Ocean Depth

http://www.madsci.org


Most parts of the ocean are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) deep. However, deep ocean trenches can be as much as 11 km (7 miles) deep. The deepest point in the world's oceans is the Challenger Deep, in the Marianas Trench; its depth is 11.03 km (36,200 feet). In 1953, the bathyscaphe ("bathy" = deep, "scaphe" = ship) Trieste descended to 35,800 ft (10.91 km) in the Challenger Deep. The Trieste was manned by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh; it was built by Jacques and his father, Auguste.

So the answer to your second question is that man has been almost to the deepest point in the sea.

What's the pressure there? You can find the pressure by using the hydrostatic relation:

  p = rho g z

where p is the pressure, rho is the density of seawater (about 1030 kg/m³), g is the acceleration of gravity (9.81 m/s²) and z is the depth. I get 1114 bars -- that's over 1000 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.

Research: Water Canopy pt. 2

“Fountains of the Deep”
These fountains were evidently created in the beginning to water the earth. We are told in Genesis 2:5,6 that there was no rain at first, but instead a mist went up from the earth to water the whole face of the ground. The Hebrew word for mist not only suggests a mist or fog and its associated dew as we would understand this process today, but literal fountains, as geysers or springs.
Four rivers flowed from the Garden of Eden, and if there was no rain, then such a spring would be the source of the water that then went in four directions as rivers through the garden. The importance of these fountains in the original created order is again emphasized in Revelation 14:7, where it says that an angel will preach the everlasting Gospel with the words... "worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

A Water Vapor Canopy
Dr.Joseph Dillow has calculated how much water vapor it would be physically possible to suspend above the atmosphere as a blanket around the earth. His calculations give the equivalent of 12 meters (40 feet) thickness of liquid water. Such a quantity of water would be sufficient, he thought, to generate 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rainfall; whereas if these waters above had been clouds, then the moisture, if precipitated to earth as rainfall, would be the equivalent of less than five centimeters (two inches) of liquid water - hardly enough to sustain 40 days and 40 nights of heavy rainfall.