Category: Genesis Earth Trilogy

Back in school

So, school has started again!  As fun as the vacation was, it’s good to be back. I think I’ve more or less finalized my schedule by now.  I’m taking an Arabic grammar class, a poli sci class on Islamic politics (taught by an Arab guy who drove ambulances in Lebanon during the Israeli invasion/occupation in… Continue reading Back in school

Happy New Year!

There must be a law that states that the climax of your story takes three times as long to write as you thought it would take. Back on Monday, I finished the previous chapter and thought I could bang out the major climax of the story in a day. Look how time has flown since… Continue reading Happy New Year!

Finishing this novel is harder than I’d thought

So is trying to hit 3,000 words each day.  For the past week, I’ve been doing between 1,500 and 2,500 words every day, but lately it’s just been really hard.  I’m on break, and I know that I should have more time for this kind of stuff, but I don’t know. It has been a… Continue reading Finishing this novel is harder than I’d thought

The Mongol hordes…in SPACE!

A while ago, I wrote a post on this blog about what we were learning in History 240 about the Turks, the Seljuks, and the Mongols.  Fascinating stuff!  Really epic!  Genghis Khan, Tamarlane, Tugril Beg, and all the rest of those guys may have been bloody, totalitarian rulers, but they did some incredible stuff, especially… Continue reading The Mongol hordes…in SPACE!

2,850 words more than I thought I could write today

Yes, that’s true. I wrote 2,850 words today, and it’s more than I thought I could do. I’m trying to finish up Genesis Earth, but it’s difficult because I haven’t been with these characters in a long time and I’ve forgotten a lot of their motivations. I look at what I’ve written before and I… Continue reading 2,850 words more than I thought I could write today

Freedom!

YES!!!  Exams are over!  Finished them just a couple of days ago, and now I’m at home back in Massachusetts.  Ah, sweet freedom!  No school obligations, no stresses for papers or projects or grades or anything!  Lots and lots of free time! …and with that free time, I’m going to undertake something almost ridiculously impossible:… Continue reading Freedom!

Change of plans

So, it’s been two weeks since the end of Thanksgiving break, and things have changed quite a bit.  I’ve been struggling quite a bit with my story.  I could hardly get past the first chapter of the second section of the novel, and I’m at a critical point where I have to start introducing key… Continue reading Change of plans

Unstuck

Happy Thanksgiving!  Holy cow, I ate a lot.  Had dinner with the McQueens, my sister’s husband’s grandparents, and all the inlaws.  My sister-in-law can cook a mean chocolate pie.  Holy cow.  Delicious. So, when I wasn’t eating or groggily digesting over at my in-laws’ house, I was writing.  It was pretty tough, to be honest. … Continue reading Unstuck

Critical Mass

Stars form when billions of tons of gas, scattered across space in the midst of an impossibly huge nebula, gradually come together through the attractive pull of gravity.  Over the course of thousands of years, these gases slowly, almost imperceptibly come together, until they reach a critical mass.  When that critical mass is achieved, the… Continue reading Critical Mass