Imagination@Work

It's Almost Here

It won't be long before I'm winging my way to beautiful Glen Eyrie near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Angie Hunt and Nancy Rue (sometimes referred to collectively as Nangie) put on a great writers conference. It's purposefully kept small to allow greater interaction between students and faculty. If you're a writer, want to be a writer, considered being a writer, or want to know what a writer is, then sign up. Classes take place in a castle. No kidding. A castle.

The conference includes sessions on fiction, freelance writing, screenwriting, and public speaking for writers.

You can learn more by visiting the link above. I hope to see you there.

2001 meets 2008

While visiting some of my favorite blog site I came across something interesting. My friend Robin Nettlehorst is a writer and, like me, a space junkie (not space junk, that’s something entirely different).

In today’s blog he noted that 2001 A Space Odyssey debut on this day (April 2) forty years ago at the Uptown Theater in Washington D.C. The general release came on April 6^th.

Since I discuss commercial space travel in my book ZERO-G and include a significant scene on the space shuttle Atlantis I thought these video’s especially interesting. In the first video we see how Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick saw space travel in 2001. In the second we see how it is really done in 2008.

Enjoy

AG

Birthplaces of Ideas

Readers of this blog know that I’m fond of stories about imagination and creativity. After all, I make my living by coming up with ideas (I didn’t say it was a good living). WIRED Magazine has an affinity for such things too. In the April issue they have a pictorial of places were great ideas came to life. Usually we focus on the people with the great ideas. Nothing wrong with that but WIRED took a different approach and shows us the Rigby Idaho field where Philo Farnsworth came up with the idea that led to television; the Presbyterian church where Arthur Fry thought up the Post-It Note; and the train car in which JK Rowling created Harry Potter. All of it is a reminder that creativity never sleeps and the next great idea might just come to life in the Starbucks down the street.

Looking back over the places of origin for some of my books tells me that very few ideas came while I sat at my desk. Storylines have come to me in the car, movie theaters, restaurants, church, and scores of other places—all proof that I should get out more.

You can see the photos and read the captions here.

AG

Fiction and the political ad

‘Tis the political season in these here United States. This past Tuesday was the closest thing this country has had to a national primary. Depending where you live you may have had more phone calls, junk mail, and the like than you care for. Living in California as I do, I was subject to quite a few phone calls. In one day, I hung up on John McCain twice and Hillary once. I’m a registered Republican so I have no idea why Hillary called. Of course it was a machine that dialed my phone and sent their recorded voices along the line and into my ear.

The other thing we overdose on every election season is the political ad. They’re not new. Recently I was reminded about an ad that ran in 1964 for Lyndon Johnson. Considered to intense, it ran only once—on September 7^th.

I like to consider myself well versed on how humans communicate, motivate, and persuade one another. The “Daisy” ad took persuasion to the next level. Below is the ad as it ran 44 years ago. From a communication point of view, it was brilliant. Still, it’s hard to feel good about it.

Why talk about political ads? Because many of them are short stories told in 30 or 60 seconds. They often use the same principles used by storytellers. Watch the ad then think about the questions that follow.

 

1. What is being “sold” here?
2. If this were a work of fiction (and many thought it      was) what genre would it be?
3. Who is the hero?
4. Who is the antagonist?
5. What does the hero stand to lose?
6. How does the piece pull the viewer in?
7. What does the little girl do to make the audience      think the ad is going to be cute?
8. How do the viewer’s emotions change from beginning to      end?
9. For the writer’s out there, what one thing could you      do to make the ad even more effective?

 

Al “I see story everywhere” Gansky

Pull Up a Bar Stool

[It’s been awhile since I posted here. I came close to shutting the blog site down, but it still remains. I’ve been a little snowed under with work and life. Even now, a thousand needles of guilt are pricking my conscience. Ah guilt, the gift that keeps on giving. Anyway, here’s a new post. —AG}

The other day I walked the aisles of our local Barnes and Noble. A friend of mine had received a gift card to the store and wanted to pick up a novel or two. We had just finished a movie and the store was within walking distance so why not?

Of course, I couldn’t resist perusing the shelves myself. I did something I haven’t done in a long while: I strolled along the sci fi shelves and what should my wandering eyes see but a book by Spider Robinson. You may not recognize the name but I sure did. I used to read his short stories and novels and loved every one of them. My favorite remains a series of stories and novels he did about Callahan’s Bar. Sitting on the shelf was Callahan’s Con. The book came out in 2003 so it had already aged four or five years. I snapped it up.

Here’s what you need to know about Callahan’s Bar: strange people drink there; strange things happen there; impossible situations arise in every book; yet it is all believable. People who frequent Callahan’s place include aliens from other planets, talking animals (including a German shepherd and a parrot), an aquatic man, and of course, time travelers.

Now you might think that’s enough strangeness for one literary concept but there is something else that makes the place unique. (By the way, the protagonist Jake runs the place which is aptly called The Place. Callahan left a few books back.) The truly unique thing about the bar is that the people love each other. Each is wounded in someway and they hang together because everyone there understands. They watch out for each other, they defend one another, and each is willing to die for the sake of his or her bar mates. In the course of things they save the universe and each other. Naturally.

Spider Robinson is a hippie. He admits it. I believe he turns sixty this year and I’ve seen no change in his world view or in his writing. Admittedly, his work is not everyone’s cup of tea. His books are as secular as they come. The language is course; drunkenness is a logical choice for some of the characters; and drug use is not unusual. The morality of his characters might make some blush. So why do I, a guy who rights suspense primarily read by Christians, be so praiseworthy of Robinson? Because he is brilliant. He is a master of the first-person point of view. Every time I read his work I get schooled in technique.

Robinson and I are very different people with oil and water views but I recognize his talent and appreciate the microcosm of caring he’s created in the Callahan’s Bar series. He might bristle at this description but in some ways Callahan’s Bar (now The Place) is like a church. People gather. People fellowship. And people look after each other. He has captured in a secular setting many of the attributes of a proper church.

Through the years I’ve wondered if I’d fit in a place like Callahan’s. I’m not much of a drinker but I do know my way around a pun (you have to read the books to understand that reference) and enjoy sometimes strange people. In the television show Cheers everyone knows your name. At Callahan’s/The Place everyone knows your past—and doesn’t care.

AG

 

Early Technology

Let's hope such help won't be needed in the future. Enjoy.

AG

A Small Article about a Short Article and More

A small article about my book ANGEL appeared in the October 2007 issue of Charisma Magazine. You can read it here. Be warned, there's a picture of me.

On another (musical) note...

The day following Thanksgiving, my wife and I, along with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, attended a TSO concert. Trans-Siberian Orchestra for the unenlightened,  is a musical group that tours the country during the weeks before Christmas. They have issued several Christmas CDs but don't let that fool you. This is not your parent's Christmas music. It's hot, driving, rock heavy with electric guitars, amplified strings section, and powerful rock-style vocals.

Perhaps you remember a viral video that swept across the Intern last year. That toe tapping music was arranged by TSO.

I had a great time. And why not. It's my kinda show: laser beams flashed over head, lights strobed in my face, and I could feel the music in the center of my bones. Good stuff. But something else amazed me--my imagination went into overdrive. I've long known that certain things kick-start the motor of my imagination. This concert did that in a monumental way. As the drummer pounded out a beat the made my flesh jiggle and four guitarist and a young woman with an electric violin cranked out a tune I'm still hearing, my brain began manufacturing scenes for my work-in-progress. Trust me, I didn't go to the concert to work.

Odd, but there will be no complaints from me. Anything that ramps up my imagination is appreciated. I remain amazed at what stimulates creativity. I've heard many stories from writers who have found inspiration in the middle of a restaurant, driving down the road, sitting in a movie, or standing in the shower. The keys that unlock ideas are as numerous as the ideas themselves. The trick is to let it come when it comes. I never think, "I'll deal with this later" for fear that the idea will evaporate and refuse to come back and good ideas are too precious to ignore.

So, to my delight, the concert was fun and useful. I got my money's worth.

AG

ZERO-G: RESEARCH

Writing a book like Zero-G requires some pretty deep research. Tracking down information for a novel is one of the more enjoyable tasks involved in story development and execution. Since I love space exploration this was candy. The most difficult aspect was deciding what to leave out.

Much of the information used in the book I found on the Internet. NASA is has several sites filled with more information than any author could use. I found diagrams, professional papers, news reports, transcripts of Shuttle to ground communications, and much more. (Technically, most of us misuse the term “space shuttle.” The craft that orbits the earth and carries the astronauts is properly called the orbiter.)

I also used a couple of books written by astronauts. Mike Mullane’s Riding Rockets proved very useful. I marked scores of pages. There’s nothing better for describing flight in the orbiter than a description from someone who’s done it. Sky Walking, an Astronaut’s Memoir is another useful source.

Jim Harris, a close friend who works for Dryden at Edwards Air Force Base, served as a sounding board and shared his impressions about the work done at NASA.

My greatest task was using just enough information to add reality to the plot without using so much the story bogged down. The space shuttle/orbiter is the most complicated mechanical device yet made. To put every detail in the story would require several volumes.

More difficult was creating a privately owned and built space capable craft that could carry tourist into sub orbit. For that I had to delve into the efforts of people like Burt Rutan who with his team from Scaled Composites won the Ansari X-Prize by sending a man into space twice within weeks. To see what that future looks like, watch Virgin Galactic’s impressive video.

The commercialization of space—private companies doing space work from tourism to orbiting hotels—is becoming a hot topic. That meant I also had scores of articles available to me. Space.com to Wired Magazine served as source material.

Writing about the near future was research intensive, but also some of the most fun I’ve had.

AG

Zero-G: The background

“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward for there you have been and there you will always long to return.”

—Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519

When I was a child I would rise early in the morning to watch the lift-off the early rockets. I still remember sitting cross-legged on the floor, my eyes fixed on the television as men were launched into space. Nothing was more exciting that seeing Mercury, then Gemini, then Apollo programs go step by step into space.

As an adult I felt the same thrill when NASA began launching the space shuttles into orbit. To this day, I still watch lift-offs and returns. In fact, as I write this, STS 120 just touched down in Florida.

I believe it is in human nature to explore and I believe humanity is at its best when we are searching new frontiers. But something has happened over the decades. It was first noticed during the early hours of Apollo 13 (prior to the oxygen tank explosion that crippled the craft and nearly led to the deaths of three astronauts). Prior missions held the public’s attention and people would watch broadcasts from the spacecraft with the greatest interests. Very few people watched the Apollo 13 space-borne broadcast. It had all become passé. (Of course, after the explosion, the world watched with renewed interest.)

It saddens me to think that we’ve lost our inner drive to explore. And I’m not the only one bemoaning this loss. This dissatisfaction has brought up a new set of entrepreneurs: wealthy individuals who have taken upon themselves to do what previously could only be done by a country the size of the US. Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic is setting up Virgin Galactic in the New Mexico desert. He and his team hope to have a 2009 launch with paying passengers ($200,000 a head). Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame is helping fund Blue Origin, a vertical lift-off system designed to take astronauts to space at lower cost. He’s building a spaceport in Texas. I’ve seen a list of privately owned spaceports that number nearly 20. Who knew?

I wanted to write a novel that included this new space race. In the old space race, the US and the USSR duked it out. The new race is between billionaire moguls. I also wanted to show the human side and human cost of venturing into space. The hero of the book is Benjamin “Tuck” Tucker, an astronaut who loses his crew in space. He alone survives. (To date, the US has never lost an astronaut in space. Three died on the ground and two space shuttles have been destroyed killing their crew.)

I wondered what it would be like for a man who is used to controlling everything in his life, then have that control taken away. How would he redeem himself? How strong is the love of flying in space? Would such a man leave behind his former career to adopt a new, uncertain one? How would the family respond?

Of course, as a novel writer it is incumbent upon me to make my character’s life miserable. If you’ve read my books, then you know there’s always something else afoot.

Next post: The research.

AG

www.altongansky.com

It's on the Shelves

I am thrilled to announce the release of ZERO-G, a novel about courage, facing fear, confronting failure, and riding rockets to space.

  Zero-G, stars Benjamin "Tuck" Tucker, a navy pilot turned space shuttle astronaut. Imagine waking up in the shuttle Atlantis, unsure of how you got there and with no idea why the craft is slowly spinning, Then imagine your crew sick, dead, or dying.

Tuck's nightmare happens 200 miles above the earth and that's just the beginning. He carries that nightmare with him.

Here's the back cover copy:

Veteran astronaut Benjamin “Tuck” Tucker is slated to pilot the first commercial space flight. But ruthless enemies are about to jeopardize the enterprise. With a recent tragedy still haunting his memory, Tuck must turn to a God he no longer trusts as he fights for his life and the lives of all aboard.

Poised to make history, SpaceVentures, Inc., hovers on the brink of launching the first commercial space flight. And Benjamin “Tuck” Tucker’s skill and reputation have thrust the new company into the forefront in this powerful new space race.

A veteran astronaut and national hero, Tuck accepts the coveted honor—and the risk—of piloting the Legacy on her maiden space voyage.

The danger is far greater than just the perceived risks.

The real threat, a plot far deadlier than anyone could have imagined, is exposed as Legacy reaches the suborbital regions of space. Suspended seventy miles above Earth, Tuck must use his skill and his faith—faith in a God he has found it hard to trust since a deadly tragedy in space over a year before—as he fights an unknown enemy who will not hesitate to kill again.

In the days ahead, I'll be posting about why and how I wrote this book and my thoughts on space exploration.

www.altongansky.com

AG