The Great Unknown
On February 18th, 2021, after a journey of nearly 471 million kilometres (292.5 million miles) NASA landed another rover on Mars. Her name is Perseverance, and her primary mission is to look for evidence of past microbial life in the ancient lake bed and river delta of Jezero crater.
Perseverance landed at 20:55 UTC. The lander hit the Martian atmosphere at speeds of approximately 19,300 km per hour (12,000 mph) and after a harrowing, white knuckle, seven minute decent, the long journey came to a safe conclusion with Perseverance being gently lowered onto the ground via sky crane (pictured).
She joins the Curiosity rover, which has been exploring Gale crater since August 6th, 2012, some 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) from Jezero.
Perseverance is the largest rover to date, and she's the first to be equipped with a set of microphones. Previous attempts at sending microphones to Mars failed (one lander regrettably crashed, another carried a microphone that was never turned on), but with Percy's successful landing, we'll be able to hear the Martian wind, and maybe even saltating sand bouncing off the rover, for the first time!
The mission includes a lot of firsts. Perseverance will drill into the Martian surface, collect samples of rock and soil, and store them unspoiled in titanium tubes. Future missions are planned to retrieve these tubes and bring them back to Earth for analysis using the latest, state of the art technology to aid in the search for signs of life.
Strapped to its underbelly, Perseverance is also carrying Ingenuity. Ingenuity is a small helicopter, weighing in at 1.8 kg (4 lb). The helicopter is mainly a proof of concept, hoping to achieve a total of five flights during its operational window on Mars. If successful, it will mark the first time in history an aircraft has taken flight on another planet, and will serve as a foundation for future flight-enabled missions to Mars.
I find astronomy and space exploration to be fascinating. Space offers us infinite mysteries, countless worlds to explore, and endless opportunities to learn something new about our place amongst the stars and the nature of our universe! Space exploration constantly pushes the boundaries of technology, imagination, and collaboration amongst nations, and I think it is the epitome of human curiosity, ingenuity, and perseverance.
Congratulations to NASA and everyone involved in the project! This feat is nothing short of inspiring.
If you'd like to see a simulation of Percy's landing, take a look at NASA's Eyes.
If you'd like to read more about Perseverance or Ingenuity, check out the Mars 2020 Rover site and 6 Things to Know About NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
Through the Steppes
The comments system is live again. You can choose to register an account, which comes with some minor benefits listed out on the registration page, or you can simply post comments without an account. All you need to do then is add your name (a pseudonym, or pen name, or anything really will do), add a comment, and tick the I'm not a robot checkbox to prove you're not Skynet.
There are still a couple of things to do. Remember me is currently thouroughly forgetful, and the Reset Password functionality isn't available. These features will be following shortly. It's been a busy month, mainly due to work and a lot of overtime to launch our biggest project yet.
I've added another scrawl, finally. I think these creatures would give me pause too.
Edit: The remember me and reset password capabilities are now live.
Scribbles in the Margins
I'm working on getting the whole commenting system back up and running on the site. It’s nearly there, but needs a little more work.
I've written another scrawl in the meantime called Annotation 2.
The Scrawls, Once Excerpts
Once upon a time, I created a compendium for a world that only existed in my mind. It was my first website; a collection of myths, rumours, histories and other descriptions of that world. There was a map, a timeline, and a section called Excerpts.
The idea was a simple one. I would write just one or two sentences every day for two reasons: 1) To write every day. 2) To update the website every day. I was recently able to unearth that site from my archives, and through a little software archaeology get it running again locally. I wanted to see what I had done with those excerpts.
Long story short, the idea was good, but the execution was poor. The excerpts often didn't convey any imagery, didn't arouse any of the senses, and sometimes seemed like random words strung together to fill a space. I can't be too hard on myself, I was just beginning my writing journey.
The Scrawls are an evolution of those excerpts. They're a little longer and spaced a little further apart, but the basic idea is the same. Random little snippets, with minimal revision, to keep myself writing, and keep the site active. The first one of those is now written: Annotation 1.
As for the rest of the Broken Lands, well… that particular moniker was always temporary, and let's just say I'm still writing.
The Bones of Things
I decided to take the weblog offline for a time. That was nearly six years ago. Work had become very busy, and I had next to no time for writing. I didn’t blog, and I’d grown tired of the design and other aspects of the previous incarnation of this website, so I took it all down.
Since then, I’ve made several attempts to restart the weblog, but with each attempt circumstances got in the way. By day, I’m a web developer. In a way it’s a lot like writing, but instead of writing in English and building worlds and characters, I write in code and build websites and APIs. Both are rewarding in their own right. I like to build things, but I do find both efforts consume the same creative fuel, particularly when the web development side of things is challenging, and there’s been no shortage of that in the last few years. I won’t be going into technical details here, I plan on launching a dev blog sometime in the not too distant future (keep an eye on the .dev link in the menu), but suffice it to say I’ve not had as much time for creative writing as I would like. The need to change that has become undeniable.
Having said that, while the process and progress has been slow, it never stopped. You’ll find a short story called Eillie’s Part I wrote a few years ago linked here. I’m currently in the process of writing another short story which is nearly ready. The Lure, once The Greed of Swords, once Untitled Novel, of which I’ve been sharing chapters here, is also progressing, but it’s a beast. It’s not one novel, and the foundations require a lot of heavy lifting, and I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’ve never written a novel before, so this is all a learning process. The title has also changed again, but it is now final (caveat: as far as I know). The chapters for that are no longer available to read here, but I do plan on sharing updates about the novel again eventually, I’m just unsure of the structure of those updates yet.
The weblog also has a new name, and a new design. Welcome to The Old Saw. I find names to be important. I’ve written about that before. Without a name, you only have words, a certain essence is missing. Names, good names, give weight to the intangible. I’m embarrassed to say that in my many attempts to rebuild this website, I’ve gone through lists of names and domains. I even bought some of those domains, only to later discard them, because they weren’t quite right. I’m happy to say the search is over, and the weblog is back online. In itself it acts as a push, a nudge, a spur to write, and as long as it’s been offline it felt like an important aspect of my writing process was missing. No more.
It’s good to be back.
Some Revisions
The other day, I finally posted Chapter 2.
I'd been hoping to have it done before Christmas, but obviously that didn't happen. I have since made a few small changes and fixes to the chapter so that it might appear a little less raw. Surprisingly I found no typos. Typically I find at least one glaring typo with every read, no matter if it's read number ten, twenty or thirty, but I'm sure they're still there, lying in wait.
I've also made some minor revisions to the Prologue. Karenna's state during her trials is made a little more obvious, and the very last line has been improved, I think. Also, the position of Priestess of the Fourth Rank has been renamed to Priestess of the Fourth Order.
Chapter 1 has also had a few modifications done. Kaed's motivation to join the group has been cleared up, though not by a lot as I mean to explore this in later chapters, and other smaller changes have been made, and certain areas tightened. If you don't want to reread the whole chapter, this is the most notable change:
“You are welcome to stay, Kaed Malerienne, but I have purchased your freedom from Maeel. If you choose to remain behind, I will have him return my payment and I will find another who is more accommodating to our cause.” Oereteus did not move. “Is that your wish?”
These do still remain drafts. Drafts that I've spent a fair bit of time editing, but drafts nonetheless. There are larger changes needed for both the Prologue and Chapter 1, but that will come later. As for the rest, Chapters 3 and 4 are drafted (first drafts), and later chapters are in various stages of outlines, notes, and fragments. No matter the length between postings here, I'm still writing, and the story will come out, in parts, when they are done.
Chapter 2: Unsettled Places
This chapter is fresh off the press, so it might be a little raw. I wanted to give it one more pass, but I couldn't let more than a year go by without an update. I'm not really sure what happened. I don't really believe a year has gone by between chapters, it just doesn't seem plausible, but the dates don't lie. I might expound on this a little later.
On Titles
The title of Untitled Novel has thus far eluded me. I've decided I'm not going to worry about it anymore. I've been using something else as a working title outside of this web site. Having Untitled Novel here for so long has been bugging me, so even though that other title isn't really official either, I'll start using it here too.
I know the majority of the names of the chapters of this book. I often come up with titles first, and they serve sort of as a writing prompt, but there are exceptions to everything. Sometimes, something else prompts the story, and the title comes much later, but I still think a story needs a name early on, just as much as a person needs a name. It's something the story can identify with. It's an anchor. So, until further notice, this story, this novel, is called The Lure.
On a semi-related note, The Greed of Swords was an old title for this story that I discarded very early on. I kept it for the web site, but I've decided to retire that name too. http://www.thegreedofswords.com will now redirect tohttp://www.janmichallucki.com.
Sheffield
This is a short walk from where I'm currently staying. Sheffield city centre can be seen in the distance on the left. It isn't as far away as it looks.
Blurb Draft
I once wrote about trying to write a blurb in the past. I keep coming back to my blurb, and every time I get a little bit more of it done. It's finally done, but I still don't like it. It oversimplifies the story. It's cliché. It reveals too much. It reveals too little. I don't know how to strike a balance.
A blurb is supposed to hook the reader. I don't know if this does that. Thankfully, a lot of readers seem skip the blurb (I do, too), and just read the first few lines of the book to get an idea of the story. If this doesn't hook them, the blurb probably won't either.
My efforts were not for naught, I guess. I have a blurb, at last. Here it is, for better or worse. Let's call this a draft, too. I'll probably revisit this and keep changing it until it becomes something I at least have lukewarm feelings for.
BELIOS, DHAGON, KAED, AND THORN have been hired by the Church of the Sovereign to hunt down a relic lost for centuries. The mercenaries must travel NORTH from the city of REVEURN, beyond the borders of the Kingdom of LUREENE, and into long forsaken lands that monsters of legend now call home. In the mean time, OERETEUS, a Paladin of the Sovereign, must make preparations for the relic’s return to REVEURN, but a new short-stayed arrival to the city, a huntress by the name of MERELIANNE, changes everything. As the mercenaries travel NORTH, their journey takes them to the CITY OF COUNTLESS NAMES and beyond, where the monsters they must face do not always bear claws, scales, or fangs. They have one clue to follow, one man who has made the relic his life’s work: LUTEL OREDEMEN. Only he can answer where the relic might be, why it was lost, and why it needs to be found.