I don't remember what movie that was. 1950's horror movie about a cursed, well, mask. At certain points the audience was instructed to put on their 3D glasses and...
Sometimes a Fox is crawling along. I've been ridiculously sick basically since Christmas (tested positive AGAIN for COVID) and I'm lucky to get an hour or two of clear thinking before my brain goes out again...in a week.
Made progress on the next book, though. Watched several movies and read a new urban fantasy series cover to cover and messed around with a few games but being sick and feeling stupid isn't exactly the time you finally sit down with War and Peace.
Whatever I bumped off of, I finally accepted I wasn't actually against having my cast running around in oxygen masks. And there's some fun possibilities if you stick with the CO2 atmosphere.
The biggest reason not to tinker with Venus is that it becomes too easy. Once you've added "A wizard did it" to explain why the air is breathable now (or any number of other things), it becomes just a little bit too transparent how the world is being constructed to permit the story being told. It may not be a slippery slope but it looks like a slippery slope.
So, no magical lost Earth technology or remarkable feat of terraformation or anything. Instead I'm going to more-or-less use the real planet. Just bend it a little, like steampunk bends friction and tolerance and energy densities because I'm sorry, a charcoal fire and brass gears does not make you a good helicopter.
That decision bumped into discoveries I made doing a trial sketch of the opening scene. It is a sort of graduation exercise and...how many people are actually in this class? Um. I think this is going to be old-fashioned world-building, where I sit down and work out some general population numbers and basic economies so the places feel internally consistent.
Which means I probably won't finish that book this year, either.
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