Spaceborne

Not a horribly significant update as far as anything to show, but I wanted to say that just the other day I finally started writing the prologue to Hayling. I'm still getting all my ducks in a row for the actual story, and the characters within, but the prologue has been pretty clearcut for a while now and I decided it'd be a good idea to get it written out. It's nice to make progress that isn't a bunch of loose sketches and ideas in a notebook. Even so, things are really coming together quite nicely and I'm more excited than ever for the project.

As of right now, each chapter is going to have its own title, and it's likely the book will be broken into parts as well. The title of the prologue as it stands right now is SPACEBORNE.

Considering the title and the FX tests I've already posted, you can pretty much guess what that entails. When I get further along with the writing and editing, it's likely I'll post a snippet of the prologue here, so keep an eye out.

In addition to writing, I've started to sketch out and compile ideas in Photoshop and InDesign for the book's format and look. I think I'll wait until a later post to elaborate on that, though. Suffice it to say, I'm excited with the possibilities.

Harvard Science

I e-mailed a Harvard physicist today regarding a detail of the Hayling plot. The answer I got was sort of what I was expecting, but not quite what I'd hoped for. However, it still raises some really interesting ideas and doesn't really discount what I had planned because A) It's science-fiction and B) I can still make it work with some fancy footwork. It's a relatively insignificant detail anyway, actually. Just thought I'd cover my bases to see if I could include a potentially cool idea into the story.

I don't want to give away the entire concept, because it may or may not end up being important to the plot, but I guess it's about time I let a detail slip that wasn't covered in the synopsis. As you may have guessed, the e-mail was regarding the science behind solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). I'll let you make of that what you will, but trust me when I say I won't do anything so stupid as what 2012 did with it.

The solar flares themselves aren't a huge aspect of the plot, but they do serve an important purpose. I think I might try to find a way to shed some light on it when I can finally get the teaser trailer together. Should be cool, plus it lets me do more research and as we all know, science is fun!

And speaking of science, I really do aim to make my story a compelling science-fiction tale, while being as true to the science aspect as I possibly can. The liberties I take will be for the sake of good, interesting story telling, not spectacle.

Well, maybe a little spectacle.
 

Hayling VFX Tests

I should hopefully have some new things to post soon, I've gotten some good ideas and plan to do some sketching, but I thought I should post the visual effects tests I did for the project.

These are for a planned teaser trailer I want to do and may or may not have to do with the story... *wink*