The Steel Dragon – Tributes

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There are a number homages hidden within the text of The Steel Dragon. I think most of them are so well hidden that a reader wouldn’t notice them. Here are some of them.

Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias: I love this poem, so in the third book of the series, I had the characters come across an ancient monument with a very similar inscription.

The Lord of the Rings: There are several little tributes in the story, the most obvious is the title of the third book– The Two Dragons. Besides being obvious, because there are two dragons in the story, it is a tip of the hat to the second volume of The Lord of the Rings– The Two Towers.

Stephen King: I wanted a little Stephen King in my book, so I added him. Most of the characters are not patterened, at least physically, after any particular person. I used Stephen King’s picture as a reference for one character– a wizard.

Honor Harrington: I love the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. I had already created two characters named Hero and Hertzal, so when they needed a sister, Honor seemed a perfect name.

The Princess Bride: I added one word as a tribute to this great movie– Inconceivable!

Hamish Macbeth: This great British show was a source of inspiration for my characters who were police constables. Because of this, I added a little dog, like Wee Jock, to the story. I of course named him Hamish.

Nellie Bly: The girl reporter Nellie Bly is a hero of mine and I used her last name as the last name for my main character. If I write a fourth book in the series, I plan to have a character who is a girl reporter.

Edgar Rice Burroughs: There are dinosoaurs in the story. If that’s not enough, I had a character read a book that was very much like an ERB story.

Sherlock Holmes: There are a string of murders in the book. I set one on a foggy waterfront as a deliberate tribute to A. Conan Doyle’s hero and I gave the inspector a double-billed hat and a pipe.

E. Gary Gygax: I plotted out all three books together as one continuous story. I only added one chapter and that was a dungeon crawl. This was a tribute to the creator of D&D.

William Shakespeare: I have loved the name Hero for a woman ever since I watched Much Ado About Nothing. I had decided I would name a character Hero. The fact that she is a twin is also due to my love of the Bard and his penchant for twins.

Tom Swift: I used the Shopton as the name of the town where some of my characters lived before the story begins. Shopton, NY was the home of Tom Swift.

The Steel Dragon – Characters Part 3

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Telling the story of an entire colony required the creation of a large number of supporting characters. Many were just spear carriers– people who showed up because I needed someone there. Some of them had their own stories that played into the main plot. It was fun working with them and I came to love all my characters. Here are some of the minor supporting characters that appear in the book.

Eamon Shrubb: I needed another police constable to play off Saba Colbshallow, so I created Eamon. He is a typically British (or what I think of as typically British) cop. Serious about his job but a great guy under his stuffy exterior.

Dot Shrubb: Eamon needed a wife and for no reason what so ever, I decided that she was deaf. This added an interesting trait that I was able to play with later.

Evo & Femke Kane: The Kanes are an unusual couple. They are more like siblings that a married couple. This is primarily because Mrs. Kane is a lesbian and they probably have no sexual relations with each other. They are both mining engineers and like to dress alike.

Honor Hertling: She is the older sister of Hero and Hertzal (both major supporting characters) and she is patterned after those people who do so much more for others than for themselves. She is a member of the Colonial Council and is the primary voice for the poor and the repressed.

Lon Fonstan: Lon is my Otis the drunk. He shows up in the jail every so often for “drunk and disorderly” but otherwise seems like a nice guy.

Isaak Wissinger: I needed a writer and Isaak is it. I built up such a great back story for him in my mind– one that didn’t see print in the books– that I’m thinking about him as a primary character in a new book.

There She Is!!

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One of the greatest flash animations ever done, and in my opinion one of the great animated stories of any medium, is SamBakZa’s “There She Is!!” It is a story about a bunny named Doki who is in love with a cat name Nabi. It takes place in a world where cross-species bunny-cat love is forbidden. The Korean animation team of SamBakZa has created a beautiful, funny, and touching story. There are three sequels, with one more on the way. Everyone should watch this short anime. Click here to see “There She Is!!” and it’s sequels.

Doctors, Lawyers, and Teachers

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If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job. ~Donald D. Quinn

Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung

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I’ve mentioned before my nostalgic love of Tom Swift Jr. Books by Victor Appleton (pseudonym). Most of the original Tom Swift books by Victor Appleton are available for free download on a number of sites, but one can find relatively few of these more recent books. Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung is available for free download from Manybooks.net and other free book sites. I still remember fondly reading it for the first time. It must have been about 1972, though the book was published in 1961.

The Steel Dragon – Characters Part 2

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With the huge number of characters in The Steel Dragon and the other two books of the series, it was always a challenge to find character names. A few of the names just popped into my head and one or two I made up. I wanted unusual names, because the story takes place in a fantasy world and not on Earth. On the other hand, I wanted them to seem real and organic. I made great use of Baby Name websites for most first names. In some cases I would look up historical people and use their last names. If I had a character who was a naturalist, I would find the last name of a nineteenth century naturalist.

I listed the main characters in the previous post. Here are some of the major supporting characters.

The Steel Dragon: He is a tiny little creature in the first book, but by the second has grown to the size of a pony and is speaking. By the third book, he is on his way to becoming a fearsome beast of legend.

Augustus Dechantagne: The younger brother of Iolanthe and Terrence is a happy-go-lucky rogue, and a suspect in a string of murders.

Pantagria: A mysterious angelic figure from a strange alternate world who visits Terrence when he is in drug-induced dreams.

Professor Merced Calliere: A scientist and inventor, Calliere has created the Result Mechanism, a steam powered computer.

Egeria Lusk: Professor Calliere’s assistant and programmer, Miss Lusk is probably the smartest person in the new colony.

Graham Dokkins: A boy the same age as Senta, Graham becomes her closest friend.

Hero & Hertzal Hertling: Twins from Freedonia and members of the ethnic minority, Hero and Hertzal are the same age as Graham and Senta.

Out Sick

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I’m out sick this week. I’ve got a sinus infection and I feel like crap. Like most teachers, I have a bazillion sick days saved up, so I could quite literally take off sick the rest of the school year, but like most teachers I won’t… cause I’m all “responsible” and “caring”. Fat lot of good it does me. But, pending sudden death, I will be back teaching about the thirteen American colonies on Monday.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

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In a previous post I complained about the new 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t like it at all. I think it changes the rules to the point that it should not be called D&D anymore but something else. Even more importantly, it makes it difficult to create any world but one which looks just like those that Hasbro dishes up for you. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game however is based on the d20 3.5 system. The rules have been cleaned up and corrected and the whole thing is presented in a single volume. Right now you can download the beta edition for free.

Princess of Amathar – Culture

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One of the great things about writing a science-fiction story, is creating new and interesting cultures and societies. In Princess of Amathar, I created the Amatharians. They are an advanced human culture. I wanted them to seem human enough to identify with, but to be alien enough to make them interesting. First I took all the things that I thought, when I was a kid, we would have on Earth by the time I was an adult, and gave them to the Amatharians. Moving sidewalks. Flying battleships. Laser guns. Monorails. I also gave them swords, because I knew I was writing a sword-swinging homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Finally I gave them all the quirks that I myself have. I hate talking on the phone, so the Amatharians have no phones. I like to write, so every Amatharian writes letters every day, and most have written books. I’m not a cat or dog person, so the Amatharians don’t have pets. I have no money, so the Amatharians don’t use money. In the end, creating the culture of this alien people was one of the most enjoyable parts about writing the book.

Princess of Amathar – Aliens

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Princess of Amathar is a science fiction novel. What would a science fiction novel be without aliens. The story takes place in a hollow world which was long ago stocked with life from other planets. The primary races in the story are:

Amatharians: Humans with blue skin.

Zoasians: Reptilians with snake-like faces and massive bodies, nearly as wide as they are tall.

Malagor: Furry aliens with some ape-like and some dog-like traits.

Pell: Large, intelligent spiders.

Kartags: Semi-intelligent subterranian rat creatures.

Bloobnoob: Slimy amphibians.