New Book - A Vist to Dad's

Just thought I'd give you another sample from the third book. I hope you like it. I've got two more chapters or sections to write then I'll go back through it and flesh it up a bit. As I'm doing it I may rearrange it a little bit as some of the sections are a little too tame.

The bear reared up on its hind legs and growled at them. Curtis told Connie not to move. The bear would chase them if they ran. The bear continued to stand on his hind legs and growled. Connie and Curtis stood where they were and watched the bear. They didn’t know what to do.
“Connie, hand me the string of fish. Do it slowly,” Curtis whispered.
“Here,” Connie said as she placed the string in Curtis left hand he had stretched back to her. When he got the string of fish, he slowly pulled it up where he could hold the string just a little ways above the fish with his right hand.
“If this works we’re going to turn around and climb up on top of one of these big rocks. Be ready when I say go,” Curtis said.
Curtis, without making too quick of a motion, flung the fish at the bear. The bear caught them in his mouth. At the very same moment, that the bear caught the fish, Cosmic Cat leapt off a tall rock beside the bear and landed on the bear’s head. The bear let out a tremendous roar, lowered his front paws to the ground and ran forward over Curtis and Connie with Cosmic Cat still on his head.

A Visit to Dad's

I thought that I'd start giving some short blups from the new book, "A Visit to Dad's, The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat." As those of you that are following my work you know that this is the third book in the adventures. It may end up being called, "The Logging Camp." I'm not sure yet.

“Lunch will be in an hour or so,” Mom said. “Our clothes are together and washing. You all need to go outside and check the place over. Look around and make certain everything is in good shape—if you find something needs to be fixed or repaired do whatever needs to be done to correct it. Don’t leave anything to do later. While you’re at it make certain that all of the animals are in good condition, and ride Speckles. You’ve all been ignoring the horse for too long.”
They spent the rest of the day scurrying around and trying to decide what they could bring, staying out of Mom’s way when they could, and doing things Mom wanted done when they couldn’t. The kids each started to accumulate a pile of stuff that would prevent the other kids from taking anything. It took most of the day for them to decide what they absolutely had to have. This followed a lot of input from Mom, not always welcome, before they managed to reduce their piles to a reasonable size. When they had winnowed it down to what each of them thought was the bare minimum, Mom stepped in and pulled some things out to make room for their clothes. Only Connie and, with her help, Curtis had added more than the bare minimum of clothes to their pile.

Writing update

I'm 162 pages into the third book in The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat. It's really going to be difficult to hold it the the 150 page goal. This is especially true as I'll have to add about 15 to 20 pages for illustrations and forward pages. I still have at least two more sections to write. I guess this will end up being closer to 200 pages when I'm finished. I'll have to go with what the characters and the story tell me to do. I'm still correcting and re-writing the first three chapters of The Next Step. This is a full length Science Fiction novel for young adults and older readers. I've got reviews for the first book, "Astronaut Training," on various sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I'd appreciate anybody who has read the book putting up a review.

I'm going to pass on the science snippet this time but I'll attempt to do one next time. I need to write my blog more often, at least once a week.

Update on Writing

It seems like forever since I've last visited this page. It has been awhile. I've been revising the third book in, "The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat." I've also been working on getting reviews of the first book, "Astronaut Training." Anybody want to do a review? I expect to have some additional reviews start showing up in the very near future. Anybody that has read my book hopefully will do a review.

As long as I'm here I might as well insert one of my Science Snippets.

Why does a refrigerator get cold?

When a liquid is forced through a small hole (orifice) into an area of reduced pressure the liquid expands and usually turns into a gas or at least into a cloud of droplets. It takes work for this to happen. Work is a form of energy which is taken out of the closed system. The result is that the gas is at a significantly lower temperature than the initial liquid. The resulting cold gas is circulated through the refrigerator coils and cools the refrigerator. Excess heat is transferred to the air around the refrigerator by external coils. The transfer of heat to the air allows the circulating gas turns back into a liquid to continue to get colder and subsequently cooling the refrigerator.

Third Book in The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat

I'm about ninety pages into my eighty page third book in The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat. When reduced to its six by nine inch format and add the drawings this will be about fifteen pages over the hundred and fifty I was shooting for. I still have about ten more pages to write. I'll either have to make this book longer or cut some things out. It's better than having to add something in.

Science Snippet for today:

When an astronaut is launched into space it is during a window—what is meant by this?

A launch window is determined by the relative velocity and position of the object in space that the astronaut is attempting to reach. Most space launches are limited in their ability to reach a desired target. This is because of the limitation of thrust and fuel carrying ability. A rocket must be launched within a certain time or it won’t have enough fuel to reach the place in space it is trying to get to. This is sort of like when an athlete is running a relay race. The athlete must start out, at the correct time, and get to the other racer at the correct time with the correct velocity or the baton won’t be passed correctly.

Rewriting book and Science Snippets

I've pulled a science fiction book out that I completed a number of weeks ago after about six rewrites. I believe that a person's writing gets better with age--age of the book being written and not necessarily the age of the person writing it. I've had time to write a number of other things and have returned to the book with a fresh mind and hopefully it won't require too much work. I've completed the first three chapters and it's not too bad yet. The dialogue needed some help but the book seems flow along as it should. I've started on my drawings for the third book in the Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat also. I'm trying to hold the length of this book oriented towards young readers down to around a hundred and fifty pages, but may have a difficult time, unless I let some of it spill over as part of second book. We'll see how it goes.

The new Science Snippet follows:

When an astronaut is launched into space it is during a window—what is meant by this?

A launch window is determined by the relative velocity and position of the object in space that the astronaut is attempting to reach. Most space launches are limited in their ability to reach a desired target. This is because of the limitation of thrust and fuel carrying ability. A rocket must be launched within a certain time or it won’t have enough fuel to reach the place in space it is trying to get to. This is sort of like when an athlete is running a relay race. The athlete must start out, at the correct time, and get to the other racer at the correct time with the correct velocity or the baton won’t be passed correctly.

New Science Snippet from Texas Author

For everybody's edification here's a science snippet:

Why is a total solar eclipse possible?

This is a bit of a tricky one and has to do with the relative sizes of the moon and the sun as seen from the earth. The sun appears to be the same size as the moon and is therefore able to completely block out the sun. If the moon were to be larger or smaller we wouldn't have the spectacular eclipses that we have. It turns out that both the sun and moon are about a 110 times their diameter away from the earth. Any round object that is 110 times away from the observer will appear to be the same size as the moon or the sun.

I'm a neophyte in doing this but if anybody needs an independent review of a work--preferably science or science fiction, or at least related to science or science fiction, I'll be glad to look at it. I have an extensive physical science background and have worked in many different areas of science. I'm currently writing science based study guides and science fiction novels. I have also published two books for young readers with a modicum of science in each of them. You have my permission to review them both. If you do I'd appreciate your sending me your review. The books are "Astronaut Training" and "A Visit to the Farm." Have a good day.