Chain reaction

I'm still high bidder on that one particular book over on Ebay. Which makes me exceedingly happy. I go back a couple of times a day and gaze longingly at that glorious, pulp SF cover. Not much longer now before I find out if I get to keep this one for my very own.

Of course, that book spawned an itch I wasn't prepared to scratch just now. I've always thought about doing SF or fantasy young adult novels, simply because not many people are writing YA SF, and also because it strikes be as a good way of developing a loyal readership--cradle to grave, so to speak. It certainly seems to be working for that Gaiman fellow.

But I always said I wouldn't write one just to write one. That I'd have to have an idea that drives me to do it. If you'll remember, I've had some ideas fermenting for a while regarding a story set on the planet Venus. Well, this book I'm bidding on stirred up all sorts of nostalgic thinking, and before you know it, those random Venusian set pieces and snippets of scenes and themes began to accrete into a full-blown story. Characters and everything. And since it's set on Venus, I've got to do research because that world is even more bizarre and alien than Mars or Europa (and my science is going to be correct, by golly. No "steamy jungles" for me!). There are two science-heavy books out now that cover the crunchy facts I need in great detail: Venus II: Geology, Geophysics, Atmosphere and Solar Wind Environment from the University of Arizona Press which is 1300-plus pages long and retails for $110, and The Planet Venus from Yale University Press, which retails for $75. Ouch. No light reading there. So I go over to the Half Price Books location in San Marcos just to see if they have anything remotely relevant I can grab for a few bucks, and guess what they happen to have on the shelves? Both books. For a combined price of $30. It must be cosmic inevitability. I simply must write this book now.

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