A-to-Z Challenge Day 7: The Letter G

Odin Gram

A Tremor of Bones

Space Corps Book 3

It was someone else who called out A Tremor of Bones as having the coolest title in the series (pretty sure it was Maurice Mitchell) and I guess I agree.  The other reason why Book 3 stands out for me in all my notes on the Space Corps saga is that it was the point where the storytelling structure really opened up and the characters started to grab me.  Though the Danab featured prominently in The Fateful Lightning notes and were subsequently edited to more prominence in The Dark Side of Space, they emerge as more fully dimensional in Bones, and really that's true of everything.  There are many parallels in my love for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Everything Star Trek got better in that one.  So I was pleased that I got a similar effect in what could sometimes seem to me as my version.  You'll meet the two lead characters on H Day and V Day (not "victory" or "visitor"), but for now you get Odin Gram.  That's not his name as it originally appears.  One of the benefits of working on notes before stories is that the names can if necessary be improved.  His was one of several that always bugged me.  Odin is a Danab.  The Danab and their relationship with humanity is the whole story of Seven Thunders, the book I spent fifteen years preparing to write and finally did and completed last month.  There's a huge thing about the Danab that I didn't figure out for years and could talk about here, but I'm always debating whether or not it's better to find out in the story.  It's a lot to do with the psychology of how I dealt with Vader finally unmasking in Return of the Jedi.  Even though we knew at that point exactly who he was, it was still a big deal to see his face.  New generations of Star Wars fans will have that moment more than the more famous one in The Empire Strikes Back spoiled for them.  Anyway, Odin is a Danab, and that's a big deal.  The Danab are more traditionally considered antagonists in the Space Corps saga, but in A Tremor of Bones, one of the big points about Odin is that he's very much a friendly character.  This was part of a whole process that eventually affected how I wrote the Danab in Seven Thunders.  Lesson learned: nuance comes to everything.

Gilberto Guzzo

Yoshimi and the Assassins Guild

Yoshimi Trilogy Volume 2

A lot of the characters warrior orphan Yoshimi meets in her travels appear only briefly, in one of the many settings she encounters.  Bill is an exception, obviously, but 'Berto is another.  Actually, this was one of the surprises that developed while I was writing the story.  By the way, I'm of the mind that as writers it's beneficial to write some kind of outline, but that we should always surprise ourselves when we write the story from that outline.  I don't trust a writer who doesn't do that.  The story should and ought to take on a life of its own at a certain point.  'Berto starts out as just another of the pupils at Jim Nguyen's dojo (you'll learn more about that on N Day and V Day).  Truthfully, Yoshimi had a far more immediate and friendly pair of associations at James Peers' compound in the first volume (you'll read about that on P Day, plus more about its significant effect on the greater narrative on S Day and X Day...on that day mostly because I really had to struggle to find a relevant "x").  'Berto isn't important when you first meet him.  But he turns out to be extremely useful as a guide on Yoshimi's whirlwind tour of the world in pursuit of the Assassins Guild.

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Farewell, Margaret Thatcher.  Here's another of those fairly recent historical figures that I had no idea was still alive.  In fact, I was going to research whether or not Mikhail Gorbachev was still alive, but he gave a tribute to her, so yeah, he's still alive.  The British probably care a lot more about Thatcher, have stronger opinions.  She was a little like their Reagan, from the same era and everything.  Meryl Streep played her in her latest Oscar win, The Iron Lady.  Whatever else she was, she was also England's latest answer to their own Elizabeth/Victoria heritage of strong female leaders.  Rest in peace.

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The Red Sox won on the power of three homers from Will Middlebrooks, another strong outing from Jon Lester, and general awesomeness.  Good start to the season!  Jose Iglesias, meanwhile, is scheduled to relinquish his Major Leagues spot to the returning Stephen Drew, but he's earned a spot in the hearts of the Fenway faithful.

The Angels lost yesterday, but I apparently neglected because I didn't have A-to-Z yesterday to note Albert Pujols hit two homers (his first of the season) on Saturday.  He sits at 4 and 19, a .211 batting average.  He's getting there!  Mike Trout, meanwhile, is 7 and 28, at .250.

The A's won.  They are, like the Sox, tenuously tops of their division.

Because I only just realized I'm covering two days of game play, I will note that the Cardinals won both, with a big one yesterday.