The Time of Sands

I did my trip. A lot of moving parts, but almost all of it worked. The places where it slipped were mostly with the airlines, who have learned it isn't profitable to keep a proper fleet running so are constantly having to delay and reschedule flights -- and acting surprised at the results. And several of the museums had closed the exhibits I was interested in, without bothering to tell anyone they'd done so (in defense of the one that had a Goddard exhibit, they got flooded out and lost more than that).

Some of the things I wanted to find turned out to be not really there to find. Like a live music scene in Alamogordo. A strange town, that. I'm not sure one could get a grasp of it without living there for a while.

But I got so far down through my stretch goals I got on the plane with only regrets that I hadn't been able to find a New Mexican coffee anywhere (it's apparently made with chocolate and red chili.) I couldn't do the Trinity site, but I drove into the reservation all the way down to Stallion Gate before turning around. Hit three archaeological sites and a Pueblo cultural center, three museums, and took the risk of the surprisingly challenging (black diamond trail markers were a big hint) Alkali Flats hike through the gypsum dunes.

But Alamogordo? Look, I sort of pulled it out of a hat. I hadn't done nearly enough work on the geology and prehistory to place my fictional dig site, and I was guessing this was the best town both for my archaeologists to be staying at, and for story purposes. Turns out the former is basically plausible. The latter is...unsure. The people and situations I had in my head may not fit the town I saw. Hard to tell. It is a hard town to get a grip on.

I passed through other alternatives. There are a number of almost-not-there towns spread around the area, ones too tiny to even have a gas station. And from here, with a map and some basic reading, I could see Albuquerque or Truth or Consequences but I had no grasp of New Mexico space. People drive there. A lot. Distances are compressed when there is straight roads with little to stop for and posted speed limits of up to 75. I personally was hitting 85 for stretches so long I learned how to use cruise control. The kind of stretch of highway where Siri says, "Turn left, then continue straight for the next 186 miles."

So Tularosa is on -- more of a melting-pot feel than Alamogordo, with an "old town" to rival Albuquerque, more hispanic/nuevomexicano presence, really more of a Taos flavor. Or Cloudcroft, which is ski lodge meets western revival town with more than a bit of that Boulder vibe. Or even Albuquerque, the closest thing to big city New Mexico has, for all that it is far short of proper skyscrapers.

Still, Alamogordo will probably work. With some adjustment on my part.

I also really need to hit the geology, and the history of human presence from the footprints to Jornada Morgellon to Apache. (Pueblo peoples -- Dineh included -- are basically more north. Oops.) Because in this book, the plot totally hinges around the dig, what is there and why it is there.

Right now that feels like a lot of work, and not really that exciting. I'm happy to have the endurance back to be able to handle seven-plus miles of hiking on challenging trails plus driving all day (at fairly scary speeds -- but I only slid once.) The series is never going to take off even if I did pick up two sales by putting the last book up for free for a couple of days as a promotion.