On a lighter note...

I had intended to post stuff every other week this semester. You can see how well that's going. I just don't keep in touch with people enough. I don't make time to. I hardly get my homework done on time, and I don't spend much time on the internet at all. The only reason I even use my computer most days is for the routine: check e-mail, check weather, check e-suds, write papers, keep notes for ENGR 145 and Black Book, listen to music, and sometimes to read Erica's stories. Oh, right, and www.freerice.com , too: my homepage. I'm up to 42, but I only play when I open a new browser. My days of living on the internet came to a close a long time ago. There's too much to do here to not be here in mind and spirit as well as body. It's part of living in the moment.

I don't suppose I've mentioned Black Book much. It's my new project, though it will likely last a decade. The first draft lasted five years, and that was for only five books. This one should be eight or nine. Who recalls the Reeses series about which I've written so much? Now take all the copyrighted material out and replace it with more scientifically feasible yet still analogous counterparts. Welcome to the world of Project Black Book. How to explain better?

In 1969, the United States Air Force began phasing out Project Blue Book, an official investigation of unidentified flying objects that sought a scientific and fully comprehensible explanation for every sighting, including the famous weather balloon explanation for the Roswell, New Mexico, crash and no explanation for the low-profile Kecksberg, Pennsylvania, hubbub. These are the documents eventually released under the Freedom of Information Act and cited in various UFO documentaries. Some of the sightings never received suitable explanation, however, and the documentation of others, procured under that Freedom of Information Act, are heavily edited with thick, black marker, to prevent the release of information pertaining to current projects, namely, Project Black Book, which replaced Blue Book in 1972 with a new mission: to catch the actual flying saucers and gain scientific and strategic information from these sources. As years passed and the project had no opportunity to prove its worth, the United States Air Force shifted its attention from the excitement of yesteryear to Earth-bound politics. Its attention and funds diverted from Project Black Book, leaving the small shell of a mostly empty base in the tiny town of Cohagen, Montana, two and a half hours north of Miles City.

Over the years, the Air Force found it convenient to have such a dead-end project to relegate officers too insubordinate for active duty and too intelligent to let go. By 1995, Project Black Book consisted of four officers and a token number of MPs and Airmen. Brigadier General Donn Marshall, Major Joliene Patrick, Lieutenant Kyle Fairfeld, and Tech Sergeant John Bailey were perfectly capable of fulfilling Black Book's mission and spent many years of boredom not only searching the empty skies for the silver flying saucers but also elaborating on the base's unique aspects. It was during this time that they gave the Project the nickname of "the Bed and Breakfast" or "B&B," even going to the extent of hanging a welcoming sign in front of the office/warehouse in which they worked.

In that year, Project Black Book fulfilled its original mission, revitalizing the entire project. They succeeded in capturing an alien spacecraft, but one of the occupants, a rebel Gertewet symbiote named Kitchell, took the general as its next host and left. Over the next few years, Kitchell and the original Black Book staff, now led by Marshall's neice, built a friendship between the United States and the Gertewet. At Donn Marshall's request, the Gertewet provided enough information to Project Black Book that the project could grow in its research and development mission by procuring more technology from the Gertewet's enemy, the Kemtewet, a similar species who ruled many human-occupied worlds in the galaxy and who had previously visited Earth, looking for new hosts.

Officially, Project Black Book was to reverse engineer any captured alien technology in order to either advance current technology, for the Air Force or possibly for the general public, or provide a defense against possible alien incursion, which concerned the Air Force enough in the 1960's to fund Black Book in the first place. Despite the procurement team's distaste for Kemtewet rule, they were not to engage the aliens but in defense. After all, Congress hadn't declared war, and the Air Force didn't have the interstellar resources (from Black Book) to fight one. For the time being, Black Book could only procure new technology, reverse engineer it, study applications of it, and maintain a casual friendship with the one Gertewet they knew.

That all changed in 1998.

Book 1: To Be (featuring Sarah/Vinnet, Lauren Krege, and a number of curiously familiar characters)
Book 2: Heart of Gold (featuring Sarah/Vinnet, Lauren Krege, Matt and Sally King, Katorin, Jenn Cors, and Chryson, among many other familiar characters)
Book 3: TBA (featuring S/V, Vandrof, David Rice, and many other familiar characters)
Book 4: Under the Radar (featuring Sarah, David Rice, Chryson, and characters that will be familiar by then)
Book 5: Best Left Dead (yes, I'm keeping it. I love it too much to let it go. But it'll be better this time, trust me.)
Book 6: Out of Enemies (featuring Setira, Chryson, Teresh, and Tacita, among others)
Book 7: Rebellion Reborn (featuring Chryson, Setira, Kitchell, Katorin, Tacita, etc.)
Book 8: Chain of Command (featuring Setira, Chryson, the Marshalls, etc.)

That's right. I'm not just rewriting the S/V series. I'm adding. And, as you can see, about the only things I'm keeping from Stargate are the concept of the Goa'uld and Tok'ra (Kemtewet and Gertewet). Okay, and the NID, who are now NFI-Com (National Freedom of Information for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights and of Citizen and National Security Commission). Okay, and the Ha'taks (Muuldepet)... kinda. These are cooler and more pretentious. That's right. As if a gigantic, gold-plated pyramid wasn't pretentious enough. No more System Lords, though; that's too simple. The Kemtewet now have a much more interesting structure: one emperor (like Ra, only not) ruling over six kings (kinda like system lords, I guess), who rule over five lords, who actually rule over planets. But since that's not enough enemies, there are also Kemtewet servants for the kings and emperor, who would rather not have to deal with humans at all. And they have culture! Folk songs, architecture, designers, maybe writers, scientists/reverse engineers. And competition, though I won't get into it until we meet Chryson in Heart of Gold.

OMGoodness! I love Chryson! If you've read anything about him (yes, Chryson is supposed to be male), you can't tell me he isn't completely lovable! I can't wait to write the books with Setira and him. Then again, I guess very few of you are familiar with how Setira turns out. Think Alliah from Dune, only basically good and less self-centered.

What else has me so excited about this series?

The crew from the Scifi Fridays I host hath decreed that the Black Book series (dunno why it's called Black Book since it's mostly about the Gertewet and Black Book falls into the background) is "engineering fiction," not science fiction. People complain so much about science fiction not being scientifically feasible, I'm trying my hardest to keep within that realm. Okay, so I have a few typical scifi magic concepts that I don't want to bother explaining: FTL, short-range transporters, evolution of the galaxy, etc. Typical write offs, explained by the ever-powerful Plot. (Refer to discussions last night throughout SG-1 viewing.) I ask my readers to forgive me a few if I adequately explain evolution and physiology of the 'Tewet, along with how their modifications to humans work. (Might keep the healing and extra strength as magic, too, but I'll explain the glowing eyes and weird voice.) Perhaps if I adequately explain the dimensions and development of the Kemtewet space craft (which I adore--someone build me a Kaxan, please!)? Remember the fun Tollan symbiote-indicating device and the Tok'ra memory device? I'm planning something that's a hybrid of the two, and Case has the perfect material to make it work. Thank you Martin, Blankenship, and Xie for your research. I hope you don't mind me publicizing it in fiction. I already know the origin of Black Book, NFI-Com, and the Kemtewet, as well as their internal politics, for the most part, and the politics and workings of the Gertewet. I know how Black Book and Cohagen develop throughout the series, why, and even the distribution of personnel throughout the departments.

So excited! I wish I could include sketches in my stories. After I go through all the trouble of creating them to write it, and the details don't quite make it into the story. Anyone recall Vinnet's dress in Best Left Dead? I have a color picture of it, and I really wish I could make it and have somewhere to wear it.

Oh, yeah. Mike has been told he should major or minor in poli sci. (I wouldn't put it past him.) Anyway, he pointed out a bunch of things that weren't politically accurate in the Announcement. They're being fixed. The changes work out well in the beginning of "Under the Radar," when Chryson comes back to Earth.

New characters!!! YEEEEE!!! You know how the others who were kidnapped with Sarah disappeared in the original version of To Be? They stick around now. We'll see them in the second half of To Be (which needs a new title), possibly in Heart of Gold, definitely in the Announcement, definitely in Under the Radar, and who knows after that? They all have their own back stories and personalities, some of which conflict enough to generate spin-off short stories, methinks. (Kalli and Pastor Ariel. Sorry I can't spell Kalli's name right on here. There should be a heart over the i.) Oh, and one of the abductees turns out to be so important that she's a catalyst for major plot events throughout the series.

Yeee! I love this series! It's always so dismal when I go back through my fifty-four pages of notes and see how little I have when I think I have so much, but I trust from my readers' reactions that it's all going to turn out pretty well. I'm trusting Mom, Molly (who hit me when she read BLD), Emily (who nearly or actually cried when she read BLD), and Mike (who picks on me for BLD) when they say it's publishable plot and characters. After reading Tobias Buckell's Ragamuffin, I'm inclined to agree. (Sorry, Toby, the story's great and the characters interesting, but your writing style is hard to get through in novels. You're very used to short stories.) Someday, I tell you. Someday, this is going to be published. I don't know when or by whom. Maybe I'll look up the editor I meet at Alpha and give him the first shot at it. Maybe I'll go to conventions and network. Maybe I'll intrigue someone by my supposedly contradictory major. Or maybe it'll turn them away. I have no way of knowing. Either the logic goes "She's majoring in engineering; she can't possibly write." or "She's a writer majoring in aerospace engineering. Practical. Probably really loves space. She's devoted and probably really awesome." I can dream, anyway.

So. Feel free to ask questions. I might answer.

And when it's published, read it. 'Twill be a blast.