Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I’m doing NaNo this year. In process of planning new novel ready to start. I’m on there as ThrowingCopper if anyone wants to buddy up? 😊
(Think I’m already buddies with you, Ath and Daed.)
Well done, Sea 🙂 A very well deserved win. And thanks Daed for getting the ball rolling. Great monthly comp.
I removed that sidebar because a glitch in the WP software meant that it was displaying posts from private groups publically, Richard. Apparently this has been an ongoing issue since 2013 and no one has yet found a workable repair to the code. Will have a proper look at it or at an alternative when I’ve got time next week. But that’s why it’s gone missing. 🙂
(I don’t think your blog was drivel at all btw.)
Impact
The EVA suit’s read-out flashed Warning! Oxygen levels at 18% in eerie red. Jepson’s mind was foggy, irrational. All her training hadn’t prepared her for the reality of being stuffed into a damaged evacuation tube and launched into the airless void.
It had begun with impact. Many in fact, although Jepson only counted three as noteworthy. The meteor which had broken into seven chunks in Earth’s upper atmosphere, each landing with the force of a hundred atomic bombs. The event had propelled the Santa Maria’s fleet into orbit four years early. An exploratory mission became a desperate one way exodus. Jepson had grown up on the flagship. Kepler 186f proved inhabitable, but a second planet in the cooler zone of a new sun was discovered. The remnants of humanity cluttered some four dozen ships, creaking from decades of constant use and repair, with barely enough fuel for the trip.
Jepson tried to see the stars through the cracked hood of the evac-tube. Nothing. Endless, indifferent darkness. Her mind skipped and caught and skipped again. The cramping, tingling of her limbs had faded to numbness. Not good.
The second impact was the unkindest. Santa Maria was in visual range of the planet when the engines took a direct hit. Another mass evacuation. The resultant micro debris had totalled the tube’s thrusters – hardly an impact worth mentioning, except it would kill her.
Jepson remembered another impact. One that made her entire body throb like a rotten tooth. She must have greyed out. Woken for the final moments. The last lungful. She didn’t want to die, adrift in the void. A memory of other tubes flaring past in brilliant streaks. The last gamble, futile. A streak of hot colour grew in her peripheral vision. Brilliant. Beautiful. Deadly. Jepson felt no fear although surely she was about to burn up on collision with a flaming piece of ship. Except who would have thought death could be this beautiful? What are we, except one huge organism, living and dying as the universe seeks to understand itself?
Jepson blinked. The o2 warning light blinked a dirge but she was breathing. Cool, fresh air. Instinct stabbed her numb hands at the emergency release, the hood tore away. That third impact! Dawn! She crawled from the tube on to the surface of a new world as the sun rose, gleaming on other tubes and a new day.
Yes definitely fine for everyone to post lists of blogs and/or books they found useful. I guess we can see what we get and if it starts to get clunky we can amend it to create master lists.
I can look at a plugin to display certain blog rss feeds on the sidebar if you like?
Failing that there’s a lot of writing blogs I’ve found useful. I was going to post a list of them in the lifeboat 🙂
Haha Odo the lurcher will always have a special place in my heart but I was talking of bishop Odo – who behaved exactly as a bishop was not supposed to both in going to war bearing arms and in other matters 🙂
Thanks, Richard. I’m so glad you enjoyed the books. (Hopefully there will be future collaborations at some point 😉 ) I love Gallet, and I’m oddly partial to Odo too 🙂
Brilliant CJ. I’m so looking forward to reading it. And yes the legal wranglings always take a long time – especially with US, possibly the most letigious country in the wor;ld! Congratulations – really stoked for you 🙂
There are two things it does do, John.
1 – it forms one of the filters on what you want to see on the main wall (Activity tab on main menu). You can toggle through the sub menu and choose to only see what friends have said. Right now we’re a small forum of 70 but if we hit a couple of 1000 of active users, you might very well prefer to just see what friends have posted! 😉
2 – if you ever create a group, you can invite friends to join in. Not sure if you can invite non-friends although they can certainly request to join.
Otherwise no it doesn’t make much difference but we’re a clannish species and people like to pal up it seems 🙂
This is so well deserved. I can’t wait to see Ava meet a larger audience. I’ve loved the book since our SE days! Congratulations, Kaz. Really thrilled for you xxx 😊😁💞
I loved that story, Kaz. Well done. Please let us know when it’s out.
@daedalus is right – we should definitely jeep this going. And if forum members get sometjing published it would be great if they could return and post a link after publication.I also have a story in the forthcoming Hell’s Empire anthology. (Watch out for the demonic sheep hee hee) 🙂
It is sad. And I’m with you, Squidge. I never expected it to just disappear for good with no concrete warning. I saved everything I needed to keep I think but there was so much collective history there. I’m glad so many cloudies have managed to find the Den. At least we can all stay in touch.
I think a monthly comp is a great idea, Seagreen. Definitely a Cloud tradition that should continue.
Karen was in my SE course so I might possibly have an email address for her. I think Baz is on facebook.
It is an epic journey, Mandy. Thanks for sharing it with us. Sorry I won’t be there to see you give a jey note address but I’m rooting for you from the Den. Best of luck – not that you need it. Can’t think of another person more deserving of success 🙂
(Btw if you tag someone using @ then you need to @their profile name rather than the name that shows up when they post. So if you put @Jules it won’t (shouldn’t!) Tag. But @jillybean will tag me. Some people have the same profile and user names which is why some worked but others didn’t.)
Hope all FoW18 attendees have a wonderful time.
Brilliant news, Phillipa. Sorry I won’t be there to cheer you on – will have to cheer from the Den. Rooting for you though and can’t wait to hear how it goes 🙂