Time Travel Part One

My fascination with time travel came from a short story I read years ago where a guy shows up and hires a thief to steal a list of items which are literally all priceless and scattered around museums all over the world.  The guy hiring the thief gives him a watch that when you adjust the settings it allows the wearer of the watch to basically live and exist in a time in which hours to you would be the blink of an eye to the rest of the world.  So essentially the thief could waltz right in and collect the priceless pieces of art and history right under every body's noses.Years later I read an article in Discover Magazine where 10 different Physicists were asked two questions.Is Time Travel possible?Give a hypothetical situation which might be used to make a time machine or be used...

Read more »

Posted in: Time Travel Physicist experiments Michael Marcum

Star Struck

I am not the kind of person who gets star struck or goo goo for personalities.  A few days ago I signed up with a website entitled Goodreads, and my favorite author James Rollins is a member on the that website. Then I clicked on a link on twitter tonight that was tweeted by Mr. Rollins and it took me to an incredible trailer for his new book.  So I tweeted back to Mr. Rollins about how incredible I thought the trailer was and he tweeted back to me, and low and behold I noticed he is following me on twitter. I am embarrassed to say but I had to yell for my wife and tell her that James Rollins is following me on twitter and responded back to me in a tweet!  I am slightly star struck at the moment!  He on some small level is aware of my existence and knows who I am. ...

Read more »

Posted in: star struck James Rollins Devil Colony

Hover Tanks

As I state in my bio of this and other e-media places, I should have been an Engineer.  When I got out of high school I took a test at the community college to see based on my knowledge and interests what I would be best suited for as a profession.  It came back with 22 types of engineering.  I ended up majoring in Frisbee besides what I had signed up for and after the first year and a half with an almost zero grade point average I thought my life might be better off in the Army.  This goes to show there is no bottom level of how stupid you can sink down to.  But I did learn a lot of stuff in the military and when I got back to college years later I had a 4.0 average, straight A's.  I joined up with Armor because of the movie Kelly's Heroes, and the...

Read more »

Posted in: Tanks Hover Army Weapons

Never Underestimate the Power of the Force

As a New Science Fiction Writer, and a History Buff Nerd, I feel it is only right to pay homage to George Lucas as "Star Wars" Premiered on May 25, 1977.  It is hard to believe that was 34 years ago.  As I think back to the Iconic Movie and the characters which almost everyone on the planet is familiar with to some degree.  Most everybody knows at least what you mean if you warn against the Dark side, or to be a Jedi Knight.  My three year old son knows about light sabers and is usually a Pirate or a Jedi Knight depending upon the day.As I am, and have been working on re-writing and polishing my second book I can't help wonder if Mr. George Lucas had any inkling of what Star Wars was going to become when he was still in the writing stages of the project.  Star Wars...

Read more »

Peace and War

     The beginnings of my second book came years ago while I pondered all the inventions that our society has come up with since the dawn of time that grew out of the necessity of warfare.  Mankind has spent more time and money working at ways to kill our fellow man then we have on preventing disease, communication, feeding or educating people.  Most advances in ships and airplanes are direct results of military applications being opened up for civilian use.  Even our wonderful Internet was an outgrowth of military technology.     Now suppose that in the dawn of time, Cain didn't kill Able.  What if they had found a way to get along and work together?  What if man was always the dominate force and had no natural enemies and never...

Read more »

Posted in: Peace War rules engagement Novel Smashwords

Patience and Fortitude

Besides being two excellent traits to describe what a writer needs to have daily to survive as a writer, Patience and Fortitude are the names of two marble lions that sit outside of the New York Public Library! Where did that come from? 100 Years ago today the New York Public Library was dedicated in a ceremony presided over by President Taft.  It is the largest marble structure in the United States, occupying two city blocks.  The two Lions were modeled by sculptor Edward Clark Potter, and carved from pink Tennessee marble by the Piccirilli Brothers.  They had several nick names over the last hundred years but the ones that stuck were bestowed on them by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1930's.  Patience sits on the...

Read more »

Posted in: Patience Fortitude Lions library marble LaGuardia

Rockwell and Lindbergh

I Love History ! So for those who follow my posts for any thing length of time you will get sporadic history lessons.  I can't help it!! Today in History May 20, 1916  The Saturday Evening Post published its first cover with a painting by Norman Rockwell - Boy with Baby Carriage.  Art critics of the day dismissed Rockwell's paintings as not serious art and considered him more of an illustrator.  America growing up seeing his art on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post over the next forty seven years would fall in love with his work and remember his pictures as snapshots of the Good Ole Days of America in her prime.  He became their top cover artist until 1963.  His most famous cover, Rosie the Riveter, appeared in May of 1943.  I read that when...

Read more »

Posted in: Norman Rockwell Charles Lindbergh History passions

Tunnel Vision and Hi cups

I posted last Saturday May 14, that I was working on Chapter 18 of my second book 'No Rules Of Engagement" and how I could see the end in sight of re-writing the rough draft.  Well as of last night I was still working on Chapter 18.  I decided I was going to finish Chapter 18 or I wasn't going to bed.  No Rest and I still had to go to work on Friday. Work expands to the time allotted it.  I finished Chapter 18 at 1:30AM Today!  I am barely reading anything, still in the middle of four books, keeping up with work and domestic duties around Wilson Castle.  Everything else I have is being spent, with every spare moment, working on finishing the re-write of my next book.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but it is still dim.  I consider...

Read more »

Posted in: Great Reads James Rollins rewriting

Trailer For Whisper

As I started this blog describing my journey through discoveries, up's and down's, and challenges of E-publishing my first book, Whisper! Over the last several weeks I have talked about my literary angel. Her name is Jo Murphey and she has been helping teach me, edit my work, giving encouragement, and much much more.  Have you ever met somebody who just gives and gives so unselfishly and helps so far and above the call of duty?  I have maybe once or twice in my forty-five years.  Jo Murphey is just such a person!! Saturday night when I got the boys to bed, I came and sat down in my chair and just wanted to rest for a minute.  I was so tired and spent on so many levels, I went to sleep and slept until my wife woke me to goto bed.  I probably needed...

Read more »

Posted in: Trailer Whisper Jo Murphey Angel

Editing Notes

As those who follow my blog know I have been working on re-writing and editing my second book. I have been also adding dates and times to each section as I go through the book.  My editor and I are up to Chapter 8.  While I am re-writing with what I've learned since writing the rough draft and am at Chapter 18 of 25 chapters total.  Last night my Editor sent me a message saying 'Your using military time?  They don't use colons in military time.  So, this is news to me, and I was in the Army for a number of years and have read lots of books that used colons when displaying military time.  In my first book, Whisper, I used military time and used colons. So I got on the Internet first thing this morning and researched proper formats for using military...

Read more »

Posted in: editing colon military time zulu

No Rules Of Engagement Deadline Set

Since mid February I have been working and re-working my second book.  It has been so much more work than my first book, but it will be a giant leap forward for me as a writer.  With the help of a incredible woman, Jo Murphy, my literary angel helping me by teaching, editing, and encouragement, my second book is going to be incredible.  It's so much smoother, faster and hard hitting than the original rough draft.  I get so excited working on it.  I have truly realized the value, importance and need to have help, and to polish and edit to get the most perfect book you can possibly write. One of the first critiques of the book suggested putting dates and time tags on the different sections as you go through the book to help keep track of when and where you are...

Read more »

Posted in: Second Book Rules Engagement Deadline

Container Freight

The initial idea of my vacuum ships came to me when I was thinking about how you could fly containers overseas in a 48 hour time period and then deliver them from the main landing and staging area within the U.S. during the remainder of that the week.  Right now if I ordered tires from China they call a container company to bring an empty container to their place of business to load with tires. (1) When it's full the container company comes and gets the container and takes it to a rail yard where it is railed to the coast. (2) It is picked up at the rail yard and taken to the ship yard where it will be loaded on a container ship to be sailed to the United States. (3) It arrives in the U.S. and is unloaded to be taken to a rail yard. (4)  It is railed to Kansas City where it is...

Read more »

Posted in: vacuum ship blimps disadvantages ideas

The Next Step

The Next Step for a Vacuum Ship Every tank I have ever seen was made to hold stuff in.  We need to design enormous tanks designed to hold stuff out with engineered supports running through the interior of the tank to help make it crush proof.  I would also design the joints of the pieces making this giant tank so that when you apply pressure from the outside of the tank that it works to hold it together and make it stronger.  Cover it with Mylar and rubber to make it air tight before you use vacuum pumps to pump as much air as you possibly can out of the tank. My research tells me we can easily attain 98% vacuum with today's technology.  At 92% vacuum it will surpass the buoyancy of Helium and around 94% you will surpass the buoyancy of Hydrogen.  If your tanks...

Read more »

Posted in: vacuum tank helium hydrogen

Buoyancy

buoyancy definition The force that causes objects to float.  According to the principle of Archimedes, when a solid is placed in a fluid (a liquid or a gas), it is subject to an upward force equal in magnitude to the weight of the fluid it has displaced.How party balloons and blimps achieve lift is by replacing an area of air with something lighter than air, which would be Helium or Hydrogen.  Back in history when the Zeppelin company was building it's large airships the only two countries which could produce Helium was the United States and Great Britain.  As Germany was using Zeppelins to Bomb England and the United States was Britain's ally neither would sell or provide Helium so the Germans were forced to use what they had available, which was hydrogen.  The Primary...

Read more »

Posted in: Zeppelins Helium Hydrogen Vacuum

Goodyear and Zeppelin

First off let me begin with, this post has nothing to do with Led Zeppelin the British band that was formed in 1968.This story is quite a bit older and I may have to break down and write a non-fiction book one of these days telling the entire story up to modern times, but as the story is still unfolding I will wait.In some future post I will examine an idea I have for what I call vacuum ships, which is essentially a blimp but instead of a gas that's lighter than air to cause the buoyancy it will use tanks with all the air sucked out of them.  Crazy I know, and impossible says the rest of the crowd, but alas this will be for another day because this story actually begins with a military man named Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who first outlined his ideas for his grand air ships in 1874.His...

Read more »

Posted in: Goodyear Zeppelin Blimps Airships

Vocabulary and Communication

As humans we communicate by speaking and listening, and by writing and reading.  It boggles my mind when I think that all a person can see, hear, taste, smell, touch, experience and remember of everything there is to know can really only be communicated in one of the two ways listed above.  It is extremely limiting, yet this is the way we communicate everything as humans. The English language alone by itself.  Well, it is virtually impossible to count the number of words because you have to decide what actually counts as a word.  Do you count forms of words separately?  Is the plural of a word counted also?  How about the same word but with a different meaning does it get counted once or once for each separate meaning?What constitutes English?  What about...

Read more »

Posted in: vocabulary English Communication