Posts filed under ‘Walt Trizna’
INFO ABOUT ELMO’S SOJOURN
Here is a link for an interview I did for Melange Books.
You might learn a little more about me (lucky you) and about Elmo’s Sojourn.
Enjoy.
MY MIND AT WORK
As my readers know by now, I’m a news junkie. But that is not the only type of junkie I’m guilty of being, no there are no track marks involved. I’m also a weather junkie.
Long before the weather channel morphed into broadcasting weather related series and documentaries, it was all weather 24/7. I would watch the weather channel for hours, back then. Now, I rarely tune in.
I’ve lived in and visited a great deal of this county. I enjoy knowing the weather in those locations so I can picture what the area looks like under the current weather conditions. Also, there are places I have yet to visit but I’m drawn to their weather. On a winter’s day, look up the weather in Fairbanks, Alaska. I see their weather and imagine how life is and endurance test compared to the weather conditions I experience. My imagination grows muscles in pursuits such as this and that can only help a writer.
So what brings me to this piece?
As I sit here the sky is blue and the sun is out. Tomorrow it will start to rain and then snow. By Monday night we may have twelve inches of the white stuff. This will be about our thirteenth storm of varying size this winter. (Read my poem, Snow https://walttriznastories.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/snow/, at this point and then please return.)
Currently California, after a prolonged drought, is being deluged causing mud slides, and also causing growth which will provide fuel for fires which will set up mud slides etc… As Kurt V. would muse: And so it goes.
I know a great deal of this moisture will eventually find its way back to the ocean from where it came, but there’s a hell of a lot of water that stays behind, water absorbed by the parched earth and coursing into rivers.
I should mention at this point that one of my novels I am currently editing and hope to publish, The Beast Awaits, has a significant weather component.
Now back to this piece.
Global warming, or the term becoming more popular, climate change, is responsible for melting vast amounts of ice, at both poles along with a host of other historically ice-bound areas. Due to this melting, we’re told that the level of the oceans will rise so many inches in so many years.
At the same time, storms seem to becoming larger and more numerous, think Hurricane Sandy and Katrina.
I wonder if anyone has done the math correlating the increasing storm activity and the vast amount of moisture involved against the rise in sea level due to melting ice. As a side note, I see all kinds of plots here perhaps worthy of a story.
That leads me to genetics. See how my mind works.
I read an article some time ago where a question was posed: Is the evolution of man still taking place? The answer was: Yes, and at an increasing rate. How is that possible? Advances in our knowledge make it possible.
Think of the advances in medicine and our genetics. To an increasing extent our abilities are cancelling out the natural law of Survival of the Fittest.
Consider the progress made by medicine and genetics where flaws in man can be cured or deleted. But who determines what a ‘flaw’ is? That is the rub and as we gain more and more knowledge in the control of these aspects will determine the course of our future.
For those who have read this far, I’m about to tie this all together.
Look in the mirror. That’s what ties it all together. We tie it all together. We have a profound influence on the weather. A growing body of knowledge examines human activity and how it relates to climate change along with an awareness of how to alter our activities to slow that influence. But here’s a reality check: How can billions of us exist of this beloved rock and not cause a change? Sure, we can perhaps slow it, first we have to believe it, but change is inevitable. This planet has undergone fantastic change in its history without our help, now those changes are increasing with our input.
Same thing with evolution. We evolved along the bumpy road of time, but now with our hand in the mix and with our increasing control, who knows what lies ahead.
IN THE HEART OF THE SEA THE VOYAGE OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX And THE LAST STAND by NATHANIEL PHILBRICK
The subjects of this piece are a recently read book and a book I read in the past by the same author.
The Last Stand deals with an historical event etched in the American psyche, Custer’s Last Stand. This is an extremely informative and well-written book tracing, with remarkable detail, the events leading up to the battle and the confrontation between the cavalry under Custer’s command and the Indians led by Sitting Bull.
The root causes of this disaster are many. Custer’s overconfidence in his abilities as a military tactician along with the incompetence of some of the officers in his command played a major part in the outcome, along with the underestimation of the number of Indians he faced on that fateful day, June 25, 1875. This was a tragedy that did not have to happen.
As the soldiers approached, Sitting Bull was expecting to discuss peace when his village was attacked by some of Custer’s forces who had no idea of the size of the Indian village.
Custer had 650 men under his command. The population of the village was 8000.
It is my lack of historical knowledge that makes this book so interesting to me. I thought Custer’s entire command was destroyed. Custer divided his command into three parts, one commanded by Major Marcus Reno, one commanded by Captain Fredrick Benteen and one commanded by him. Reno’s group made the initial attack on the village before Custer engaged in battle. When Custer was attacked, he sent a message to the rest of his command to come to his aid, but the made no effort to help and only learned of Custer’s demise when told by and Indian scout.
Philbrick handles this remarkable piece of history with skill and thoroughness that brings the characters and events to life.
I want to mention the other book by this author that I read some time ago dealing with an event in maritime history that gave birth to a classic novel.
In the Heart of the Sea, The Voyage of the Whaleship Essex is a fascinating read. The Essex set sail from Nantucket in 1819 in search of whales. I thought all whaling was done in the Atlantic, and initially it was, but by 1819 the whale population was greatly depleted and whaling was done in the Pacific. This made for a long and hazardous voyage around the tip of South America.
Fifteen months after the Essex set sail it was rammed by a sperm whale and eventually sunk. Twenty men sought survival in three boats. Of the 20, only six survived resorting to cannibalism by the end of their ordeal.
Guess which famous author worked this tale into a classic of fiction.
GROWING OLD WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
I’m getting older. Okay, we’re all getting older. But I’m already old getting older, and I’m a writer.
In the future I plan to write a piece looking at science fiction writers and the gadgets they envisioned long before they came into existence. That led me to consider my present situation, an older science fiction writer trying to keep up with the current bounty of new devices.
Recently I attended a talk given by an author describing her work and during the presentation she mentioned how she made sure her characters used a cell phone. For that is what we all do now, except for me. I considered all my stories. None of my characters ever use a cell phone. Perhaps it’s because I do not own a cell phone, never have.
I’m kind of a private person, substitute introverted for private, so if I had a cell phone and it rang, I probably wouldn’t answer it. That’s normal, right?
I look at the world around me and am amazed at the devices in daily use that we take for granted, especially the younger ‘we’. Look at the increasing power of the personal computer, to say nothing of the various tablets and such. To give a feel for the changes I’ve witnessed, when I was in college I used a slide rule to calculate. I’ll give the younger of my readers a chance to reach for their dictionary.
Technology is changing at a tremendous rate, knowledge gained faster than ever before. For example, and this is ancient history, man stepped on the moon just 66 years after he first flew. You had people alive who knew a sky containing only birds. Those same people got to see and hear rockets setting off into space. That is truly remarkable.
The point is, it is difficult for an ‘older’ writer to keep up with the current technology and weave that technology into their stories. At least it is for this ‘older’ writer.
As a side note, Jim Butcher creator of the Dresden Files, a writer I admire and whose work I devour, uses an interesting device to overcome this problem in his urban fantasy series. His character, Harry Dresden, is a wizard, and any time he comes near a modern electrical device that device self-destructs. What a great backdoor!
As for my work, I guess I’ll just have to invent my own technology. After all, that’s what we science fiction writers do.
COMMAND AND CONTROL by ERIC SCHLOSSER
Having just completed reading the above book, I’m consumed by memories which I’ll discuss later in this piece.
This work deals with the birth of the nuclear weapon and its subsequent proliferation in both this country and others. I found the early proliferation of these weapons in the U.S. to be extremely interesting. One of the aspects at the beginning of deployment was which agency should control them, the military or the government. The safety of these weapons is also discussed in detail along with the measures necessary in handling these weapons is covered in depth. After reading this book, one wonders how some of the newly emerging nuclear powers, North Korea and Pakistan for instance, safeguards and controls their arsenal. Having these weapons, they may be prone to blowing themselves up rather than their enemies.
Past accidents with nuclear weapons are also discussed. To say we have been lucky thus far is to put it mildly.
The memories stirred by this work were the result of one accident the book follows in great detail. That accident was the explosive destruction of a Titan II missile complex located near Little Rock, Arkansas in 1980. My interest was due to the fact I served, from 1970 to 1973, as first a deputy commander and then commander of a Titan II missile complex outside of Wichita, Kansas.
For three years, every three or four days I would pull 24 hour alerts. I knew the layout of the complex and the hazards involved and that’s why reading this book induced a flood of memories.
I highly recommend this book. It is an outstanding history of the safety and development of nuclear weapons.
FEBRUARY RELEASE FOR ELMO’S SOJOURN
Just a little promo for my story being released this month by Melange Books.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
I SURVIVED THE PENNSYLVANIA ICESTORM
Some of you may know that I live in West Chester, PA located in ChesterCounty. And like almost half of the county’s residents, life has been provided a speed-bump due to the weather.
It was Wednesday morning, the 5th of February, when our dog, Millie, jumped on the bed, disturbed. I looked at the bedside clock to see the time and then I knew. The clock’s black face told me we had lost power.
I got up, fed Millie, and while reading the paper the power returned. But that event would prove to be short-lived. The power departed again and would not return for nearly two days.
We have a sunroom with a wood burning stove. About a week ago my daughter, Lynn, and her friend, Tyler, visited and spent some time splitting wood and storing it in the garage. That act of kindness turned out to be a lifesaver.
I started a fire and soon Millie and our two cats migrated to the room and share the warmth. We all kept relatively warm. But we would have been warmer if I had closed the door to the rest of the house. I kept the door open for access for the cats to the litter box and food, plus to provide some heat to my ball python living in my study. He survived.
The only difficult period was nighttime, needing to wake up every three hours or so to feed the fire. Sleep was also disturbed by constant crashing of ice, and the occasional branch, on the roof. But no trees struck the house or my care. I know I fared much better than some other residents of the area.
The power returned Thursday night about 8:30.
My internet is still a victim of the ice storm so I shall post this later.
Saturday, and there are still about 50,000 county residents without power.
Think warm thoughts for them.
Stay safe and warm.
THE TEARS OF NEWARK
At times, I don’t know if my thoughts are just of an old man out of rhythm with the times or valid observations. You, my friends, must be the judge.
Over the years I’ve noticed a trend, the intent of which is either for the betterment of mankind or yet another means of making money. I’m talking about the discovery of new diseases, not life threatening ailments, to be sure. But ailments for which products have been developed, afflictions such as dry eye and restless leg syndrome. The syndrome from which I draw a great deal of humor is ‘dry eye’.
For this malady, a host of artificial tear products are on the market, and if these products do not work there are heavy duty products such as Restasis, a heavily advertized remedy. Every time I see their ads I think of my late dad. I’ll tell you why.
When I was a kid my dad had a cure for dry eye. If he were alive I could see him opening up a ‘dry eye clinic’. His remedy was really cheap. All he would do was say, “You want something to cry about? I’ll give you something to cry about.”
It worked every time.
While I was a kid living in Newark during the 50’s and 60’s there was little need for artificial tears. There was always plenty of the real thing to go around. In fact, we had a surplus of tears. We could have exported tears. Compared to today’s problems, we were pretty well off.
Then there is ‘dry mouth’ cured by hydration, something we used to call drinking.
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