Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

What I’m (th)Inkingabout

Outside my usual reading habits

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I’ve read several books recently, three from entirely
different genres: Isaacson’s Steve Jobs , Hamilton’s
Pandora’s Star and Simon Haynes’s Hal Space Jock, a slapstick Sci-Fi.  Each of these works is outside my usual
reading habits. 
The Jobs’ biography caught my attention because I am
interested in how other people evolve and grow from clunky teenagers with odd
ideas to adults who build a place in the world for themselves and do it grandly.  They show the rest of us how it is done, mainly
reiterating the adage Do what you love
and give it all you have.  
Pandora’s Star received good reviews, but after reading about
90 percent of it (I refused to give up), I had to acknowledge that space opera
may not be the type of Science Fiction for me. 
If this is a good example of the sub-genre, then clearly I prefer novels
that have a small cast, more characterization and have a plot that is connected
far earlier in the progression of the work. 
The novel had good writing, just is not my brand of Sci-Fi.   
Now Hal Space Jock was a Sci-Fi style new to me as
well.  I have used the author’s software ,
yWriter and thought I would try to read one of his books.  It too fit a particular taste.  Whoever chooses to read it best be looking
for a purely fun read, no philosophical views on life or demanding intellect to
be found here, but fun, funny and relaxing. 
I am still reading Jobs’ bio, having only just started it, and
I’ll probably not attempt another space opera for some time yet (at least not
before summer when I can sit down for long runs at reading rather than the
short bursts I only have time for during the school year), but more than likely
I will read another Hal book.

Tuesday prompt: 2012 #7

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In Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Mr. Lorry holds an imaginary conversation with Dr. Manette, who is newly released from prison. The imaginary conversation is tied around the question, “How long have you been buried?” It takes numerous twists and turns as Lorry considers all the variety of ways that Manette could reply, keeping in mind that the man may be suffering from madness after his long confinement and unable to maintain a coherent conversation.

exerpt:

“Buried how long?”
The answer was always the same: “Almost eighteen years.”
“You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?”
“They tell me so.”
“I hope you care to live?”
“I can’t say.”
“Shall I show her to you?  Will you come and see her?”

The answers to this question were various and contradictory.  Sometimes the broken reply was, “Wait! It would kill me if I saw her too soon.” Sometimes, it was given in a tender rain of tears, and then it was, “Take me to her.”  Sometimes it was staring and bewildered, and then it was, “I don’t know her.  I don’t understand.”

So for this prompt, have one character ask a question that is open to metaphorical interpretation. The response to the question should be an imagined response, and like Lorry’s conversation in A Tale of Two Cities repeated with slight variations so that the conflict is slowly developed.

It’s not the words, but the interplay of them

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I have read A Tale of Two Cities numerous times and have made notations up and down the margins north, south, east and west.  The reading of it always mesmerizes me with the detail and development of character, setting and connection, of what has gone and what is to come.

“Do you particularly like the man?” he muttered, at his own image. “Why should you particularly like a man who resembles you?  There is nothing in you to like; you know that.  Ah, confound you! What a change you have made in yourself!  A good reason for taking a man, that he shows you what you have fallen away from, and what you might have been? Change places with him and would you have been looked at by those blue eyes as he was, and commiserated by that agitated face as he was?  Come on, and have it out in plain words!  You hate the fellow.”

Oh, poor Carton, who loves Lucie but not himself enough to push aside his determined fate.

Or Monsieur the Marquis as he travels home from Paris, just late from his most recent evil:

The Monsieur the Marquis in red

The sunset struck so brilliantly into the travelling (sic) carriage when it gained the hill-top, (sic) that its occupant was steeped in crimson.  “It will die out,” said Monsieur the Marquis, glancing at his hands, “directly.”

Blood not just on his hands but all over him, “steeped in crimson” and “will die out.”  And so his bloodline nearly does; he certainly does and almost “directly.”

I love to get lost in Dicken’s flow of words, so deeply knitted together as though the whole cloth of the story was life as he moves characters in and out of the spotlight until the reader is entirely uncertain who should be followed, main character and supporting shifting places constantly, just as life works, each of us moving in and out of the limelight with the people we most care about.

Tuesday Prompt: 2012 #6

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Highway heading of into the distance

Today write using a image or item as a symbol of something important going on is a character’s life.  Bright colors on the beach may be indicative of the variety of choice a person has, or the image of a long road of twists and turns moving off into the distance may relate to the confused route the person is taking to get to a goal.  Pick an item off your desk or something you tripped over today and see what it can bring for symbolic value to a character you are working on.

Something new on my blog

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Well, not really on the blog.  I added another page, Creative Ventings, to my blog site, a fiction corner of sorts.  I thought I would include some samples of my writing, but I didn’t want to include anything that I am working on now as such things are in flux until I finalize them.  So instead, I have some mini writings that are inspired by pictures I have taken.  They might become something more, though not right away as I have enough projects to keep me busy for some time.

On this new page, I will add more scribblings from time to time as I remove those that have been setting a bit.  It is an evolving process much like this endeavor to write and publish my own books.  I am flapping as fast as I can.  So wander around, let me know what you like, what you feel needs improvement or give me ideas for my next creative venting.

Tuesday Prompt: 2012 #5

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Something blue & a little magical

This week do a little world building.  Pick a quality you want to highlight, such as magic is a pale sky blue color, and everything that has that color has some degree of magic connected with it.  Now build from this one premise by surmising what would be effected by this one fact and what sort of laws of nature and humankind would need to exist to respond to this single unique feature of your created world.