children's author needs sci-fi advice

carlotta wrote:

If you are serious about trying your hand at writing, but just don't have the time right now, here is one of the best tips I can give you: keep a notebook.

Great idea Smile

Thank you.

Here's another suggestion to build on the psychic drive idea: Let's say that the psychic dimensional drive can only do it's magic (move between galaxies) once it's sufficiently beyond of Earth's gravitational field (something about the field inhibits the dimensional shift effect), so that all the alien has to do is get his ship up to space shuttle altitude, or something along those lines, and he's home free.

That solves the problem of galactic travel while still allowing you to give your alien an "earthly" challenge which kids may be able to relate to (because it's essentially shuttle technology, or perhaps X-Plane technology). Maybe you could look at some of the ways the X-Prize challengers tried to solve the problem, and use one of those designs. That should give your young readers all the realism they can stand while allowing you to slip around all the real-world phisics which prevent galactic travel.

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Re: children's author needs sci-fi advice

carlotta wrote:

Hello Everyone

I wonder if any serious or amateur scientist in this forum would be willing (just for fun) to give me some very basic scientific advice for a book I am writing for children in the science-fiction genre.

I have an alien child shipwrecked on earth and orphaned. Part of the premise of the book is his belief that he can repair his rocket ship and go home to his own planet if only he can launch himself out of our atmosphere. (He has, of course, a fusion powered engine on his ship to get him from Earth to wherever he's going.)

Can he do it? Without using magic, or weird sci-fi gimmicks, could my protagonist build a rocket launcher using accessible earth materials. I'm thinking along the lines of a super-charged, fuel-burning combustion engine?

I will be very appreciative of any suggestions offered.
I can, of course, in the end make up anything I want. But I like my fiction to have some basis in reality.

Thank you,
Carlotta

Don't forget - whatever science gadget or substance you come up with, the kid gets at least one of these from it:
allergic reaction, decides to snort it, gets low sperm count, gets obese, makes loads of money, gets diabetes.

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Thank you, John,

I think the low sperm count gets my vote.

carlotta

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perhaps the best tale of home made rocketeering coms from the chinese....the method described certainly dispatches the rocketeer to another 'world'....even beyond our universe.... Very Happy

Quote:

On the day of the flight, Wan-Hu sat himself on the chair and gave the command to light the rockets. Forty-seven rocket assistants, each armed with torches, rushed forward to light the fuses. In a moment, there was a tremendous roar accompanied by billowing clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Wan-Hu and his flying chair were gone. No one knows for sure what happened to Wan-Hu, but it is probable that if the event really did take place, Wan-Hu and his chair were blown to pieces. Fire-arrows were as apt to explode as to fly.

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Since the "orphan" is a true outsider, relative to us earthlings, perhaps Carlotta might use his time on earth to allow the orphan some objective observations about humans and their behavior, perhaps in the vein of Aesop's fables. Perhaps, one could exploit the human use of his Fusion technology for other uses-- peaceful or otherwise. This might make the story more relative to the target audience and soften the technical details. This would then work towards two things: for those with technical attributes to be introduced to social concepts and, also, allow those already with a social bent to be drawn towards scientific and technical details thereby displaying the value of both.

JM

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to JM

You have expressed my intentions very succintly, JM. My alien orphan is a fish out of water and so far I have derived the most pleasure in writing about his interaction with his human counterpart, a kid about his own age.
When I finish the book, I hope the science will be as real and credible as possible, because that is what I expect when I read a science fiction adventure. But the story is about two boys, both good and both bad, both weak and both strong, and both struggling through that stage of life between childhood and adulthood.

Thanks for your comments

carlotta

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carlotta,

I have always admired those, such as yourself, that can construct a work of book length while holding the reader's attention. I tried my hand in A2K's original writing forum which was merely a page or two and found it a lot of work. Trying to keep the story line consistent seemed the hardest. Spouting off in a forum with mere facts and my "thoughts" to support an argument is easier than crafting a story that is relative and loyal to a specific theme. The discipline involved is intense.
Good luck with your project.

JM

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children's author needs sci-fi advice

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