I'm not finished with The Early Fox but already have shiny new idea syndrome. Except it isn't that; it is more that I'm thinking about where I'd go with this series assuming I continue with it. Really, I am hoping to switch gears and do the Tiki book next. And I have two other SF ideas.
Well, SF-adjacent. Been thinking about that too. The old idea, the Galaxy back cover idea, is that SF is about ideas. And none of my three SF books in progress are really about ideas of science, technology, how they change human culture, any of that. They are more about mood. Crossing pulp SF with the strange world of Tiki. Doing a steampunk vibe in an unusual environment. Bringing the Universal monsters into a transhumanist post-singularity setting.
More or less.
Anyhow, I looked at a map of the US and if Penny goes full Bill Bixby (or Jack Reacher with different musical tastes) and boards a random bus, there's a cluster of interesting cities she could end up at. Colorado was the most attractive of the adjoining states, though. So I looked to see what kind of interesting archaeology they had going on besides pueblo and paleoindian.
There was a relatively recent project at the camp in Ludlow. That is to say; the Ludlow Massacre, a turning point of the Colorado Coalfield War.
But I have to admit by being as intrigued by Penny waking up drugged and missing her recent memories somewhere in New Orleans. Doesn't have to involve zombies, but I would definitely want to talk about the diaspora. And the jazz.
Anyhow.
The "Asshole Apache" scene went simply enough. Then I started an interesting nonfiction book and that threw me back a little on something I'd chosen for that scene. Fortunately, it was a quick edit. I'm struggling my way through the following scene because while I've had Mary Cartwright, the NAGPRA liaison for Holloman AFB in a bunch of scenes already, I hadn't gotten into the relationship between her and Penny. So that's taken a few tries.
And I'm not...quite...stalled after that. Penny is going to keep looking for the reason why a radioactive body showed up on her archaeological dig. Mary is looking into contamination incidents that have been a problem for the native population for generations. At some point enough comes together for Penny to be able to make a horse trade with the new safety officer at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the southeast corner of the state.
But it requires her finding where "Evil Kitty" (as I call them in my notes) was doing illegal dumping of hot waste. And I don't really have the connection to Juan Baca. (Plus, Evil Kitty is not the reason Penny tunes into the news to learn a man has been murdered by a giant pistachio.)
Where I am at the moment is she picks up a tail at the clinic, which turns out to be a company car for one of the subcontractors (they were only trying to frighten her off, and they thought she knew more than she did anyhow).
What clinic? Well, I want to do the Silkwood routine. In this case, it is someone in DOD who is trying to underline that she shouldn't be prying into mysterious decaying structures somewhere out on White Sands, so they suggest very strongly a nice little round of blood draws and whatever other samples to make sure she's not carrying around any new friends with a bad tendency to emit alpha particles.
Which all I know damn all about. The closest I've been there personally was the other way around, when the introduced me to the Molly Cow so I could get injected with some nice fresh technetium.
With any luck, though, by the time I've written those scenes, I'll have figured out a good excuse for Penny to discover the "Sheep Ranch," as I've been calling the illegal dump (again, for no particular reason.)
And I still haven't figured out why there is a clue at the bottom of that Atlas F silo somewhere outside of Roswell.
Watching Wicked now. The sets and costumes are gorgeous.
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