Writing for Torre

Posted on August 31, 2009 by David G Shrock

Nulan

She tells me her name is Draco Torre. I ask her about the masculinity, and she says it’s backward, given name last. Draco, taken later in life, she likes to think of it as more of a title. Names are titles we earn, often early in life, but sometimes later. Torre is her name, Draco her position.

Imprisoned in darkness, chased by a nightmare, lost to time, her story is cold and dark. She is the last of her kind. Nulan, the moon, is her eternal companion. The stars, her enemy, slip across the sky leaving holes in her memory. She tells me her tale is old, some of it recorded in a lost language within the pages of a withering journal she gave away. Much of the rest might be lost with her memory struggling to find the light. She does not want her story told, she tells me. It needs to be told. Somewhere buried within her struggle, among the ghosts, resides the meaning of time itself.

I ask her about time.

“I had to die,” Torre says, “more than once, it seems. To realize. Time is a myth, an ever changing beast.”

Within Torre’s tale resides the history of her lost people, the sacrifices, the struggles, the knowledge. Pulling me in, she shows me her world, memories imprinted on the fabric of the universe. And I recognize it, familiarity growing with each visit. She never found me. In my search for time, I found her within the twisting of her world and mine. Apparently I was there all along, caught in the myth of time.

I write for Torre.

Short Fiction Needs a Platform

Posted on August 19, 2009 by David G Shrock

In an earlier post, “Short Fiction Decline“, I point out Neil Clarke’s post on the decline of short fiction publication readership. He remains optimistic due to some new online publications showing promise. A recent post, “More Crappy News for Short Story Writers” by Seth Fischer starts a discussion on short story collections including a response by one story blog, and a post by Larry Dark. Please take a look at these posts including the informative comments on Fischer’s post.

Some points brought up in the discussion:

Novels get more promotion.
Book publishers avoid short fiction.
Some short fiction sells.
Competition with instant access media.
Consumers today have shorter attention spans (??)
Some readers want immersion with long stories.
Traditional books may not be the best place for short fiction.

I noted #5 as a question because of the debate in the comments under Fischer’s post: Does short fiction benefit? One comment points out that short stories may require more dedication by the reader. Do readers have short attention spans? Not avid readers.

For the average consumer, finding short fiction is a challenge. Large book chains no longer carry literary magazines leaving a consumer searching through small independent book stores gazing at a limited supply. Publishers and retail stores promote novels. Dark points out that some story collections sell very well. Short fiction sells when promoted.

Perhaps consumers have grown a taste for novels finding short stories more difficult to enjoy. They want immersion. Reading short fiction is not the same as reading a novel. And when curious consumers try a few short stories, they find boring literary prose, some incomplete stories without a beginning or ending. Or the reader finds a genre magazine full of poorly written stories. Searching for online publications may results in ugly websites with bizarre text colors making reading a chore. So, many readers stick to short stories written by familiar authors like Stephen King. And big book publishers cringe at the idea of a short story collection.

Short fiction needs a platform. If publications want to survive in this world full of noise they need to be part of the community with their readers. Help readers find the stories they want to read. Share knowledge by taking part in other communities. Design beautiful websites with easy navigation. And promote good writers.

Writers need to join the community, work with publications, improve their skills. Write fantastic short stories.

My First Writing Contest

Posted on August 17, 2009 by David G Shrock

I entered my first writing contest at the age of ten winning the coveted Giant Cookie award. My story was about a pumpkin sprouting green legs and running around the world. A ten year-old knows few details about world travel. How does a pumpkin obtain a passport? Of course, my pumpkin avoided the authorities by stowing away with the luggage and running from everyone. I did my research inspecting my globe and asking my mother, an experienced world traveler, many questions. The story turned out long (for a ten year-old) of more than twenty handwritten pages. Circling the globe is a long journey, afterall.

The decision was so close that the judges chose two stories for first place, awarding a giant cookie to each author, and I shared first place with a good friend. The top four winning authors took turns reading their stories to the class. Afterward, I enjoyed my giant chocolate chip cookie, nearly the size of a cookie sheet. Awards for second and third were smaller, equally delicious, cookies. Between bites, my friend and I congratulated each other on winning first place without any argument over which story was the best. We were content with not having to share a cookie, although we did compare cookies making sure they were of roughly equivalent size.

Neil Gaiman might enjoy his Hugo for The Graveyard Book, but is it as tasty as the Giant Cookie? On Twitter, @neilhimself (Gaiman) says he will win a pie if The Graveyard Book remains a top ten bestseller for the 52nd consecutive week [NY Times, Childrens chapter books.] That pie will be a special award indeed.

The original pumpkin story is no longer in my possession, but much of the story still resides within my memory. Instead of re-writing the story, I plan on writing a new adventure for my pumpkin, Jack. Check back later for an announcement.

[Update: "Runaway Jack" is my new story based on this original contest story.]

How-To: Make a 3D Photo

Posted on August 10, 2009 by David G Shrock

Magenta/Green 3D Chess Photo

Red/Cyan 3D Bike Photo

Use Magenta/Green 3D glasses to view the chess photograph or Red/Cyan 3D glasses to view the bike photograph. Click on an image for a larger view. 3D quality depends on your monitor’s color settings. The chess photo ghosts a little on my Macbook screen, but appears perfect on an external LCD.

Items list

1. Digital camera
2. Tripod for digital camera
3. Photo software supporting layers such as Photoshop or Gimp
4. An interesting subject for 3D
5. Red/Cyan or Green/Magenta 3D glasses.

You can find 3D glasses with home movies such as Coraline, with activity books for children, or make your own by purchasing supplies at an art store. Gimp is available for free, which the instructions here will follow. Software that tries to do the modifications for you exist, but doing it yourself allows greater control over the results.

The Science: How do 3D glasses work?

Each lens has different complimentary colors acting as a filter for each eye. Colors are complimentary when the combined color is neutral such as red and cyan. Two photos taken from slightly different vantage points (like your eyes) aimed at the same point are colorized opposite of the respective colored lens. For example, my green/magenta glasses has green over the left eye so the photo taken on the right side needs to be colorized green. The green lens filters out the green portions of the image so the left eye does not see the right vantage point. You could also put the two photos side-by-side, left image on the right, and cross your eyes. The 3D glasses make it easier looking at a single combined image. Other 3D glasses technology includes shutter glasses viewing flashing images and scanning glasses for viewing images stacked in narrow lines. All work on the same principle, one lens blocks what the other eye should see. The rest is depth perception.

Step 1: Take two photographs

Mount the camera on the tripod and take a picture of your immobile subject. If outside, make sure the wind is not blowing the leaves around. Keep track of the position and the aim using the lens guides. If your lens has a center marker, note its exact position. When planning the shot, you might choose to aim at some distinguishing mark on your subject. In the chess image, I aimed my center mark at the groove in the dark knight at the center. Note this photograph as the right image (or left if you find it easier to move right.)

The distance you move the camera depends on how far away your subject is and the size of your lens. Move too much and the subject may pop out, the subject appears nearly 2D floating above a 2D background, or the image may become disorienting. For my chess picture, I used an 18-55mm lens positioned about four feet away, and I moved the camera about a half of an inch. For the bicycle, positioned thirty feet away, I moved two inches. The bicycle appears to pop out a little, so a smaller distance might have been better. Move the camera, perpendicular to the subject, and aim for the same position on your subject. Take the photograph and note it is the opposite eye to the first.

Step 2: Load the two pictures into photo editing software

Load both photographs. Select the entire image of one photograph, copy, and paste into a new layer in the other image. Label the layers according to the eye (left or right.)

Step 3: Modify the images

The goal is to colorize each image the opposite of your lenses. For Green/Magenta 3D glasses with green over the left eye, colorize the right image green by editing the color balance for all ranges (shadows, mid-tones, highlights.) There are two methods to colorize, one by adjusting the color balance and the other by editing the color channels. Try both and see which works best.

Colorize by adjusting color blance: In Gimp, find the color balance window under Colors on the menubar. Uncheck Preserve Luminosity checkbox. Move the Magenta-Green slider all the way to the Green for each of the three ranges. Do the same process to the image labeled, right, but move the slider all the way to the magenta. You should have two images appearing similar to the green and magenta images in the layers image below.

Colorize by editing color channels: Some software forces global color channels for all layers requiring a screenshot and paste into a new project file. Software that allows independent layer channel editing allows edits within a single file.

Layers Panel in Gimp

For Red/Cyan glasses, turn off the blue and green channels for the red image and turn off only the red channel for the cyan image. Take screenshots of each and paste into layers of a new image.

Now adjust the opacity of the top layer to 50%. This allows you to see through to the lower image. In Gimp, find the opacity slider control in the Layers window as seen in the screenshot at right. For brighter results, you may adjust both layers to 50% with a white background. Notice the colors of the individual layers. Try looking at the layers panel with your 3D glasses, closing one eye at a time. The green image should be nearly invisible peering through the green lens and closer to normal color peering through the magenta lens.

If you see ghosting, you may need to adjust the colors. Try both colorizing methods to see which works best for you.

Step 4: Save output

You may want to save the project in the default format for editing. Try your 3D glasses to find any problems. To share with others on the web, export the picture to JPG keeping the quality as high as possible. Too low quality (too much compression) will degrade the 3D appearance. For an uncompressed image, save in TGA format.

Put on your 3D glasses and enjoy. Share your 3D images on Flickr, Twitpic, or on your own page. And tell us where to find your creations in the comments.

Volcano: Then and Now

Posted on August 3, 2009 by David G Shrock

In “Remember the Volcano,” I share the story of my first Mt. St. Helens blast area visit. Here are two of the photos compared to recent photos of the same locations. Notice the growth after 26 years.

1983 Photo by Jerry Shrock

2009 Photo by Jerry Shrock

The above photos look eastward at Mt. Adams where the 2009 photo is from a lower vantage point. In 1983, there was a stand serving hot-dogs and cool drinks for those hiking up the unfinished road to view the volcano. Now there is a paved parking area. Bring your own hot-dogs.

Photo by Jerry Shrock

2009 Photo by Jerry Shrock

These photos were taken along Road 99 seen as a black ribbon in the above photos. The road continues to the left passing this viewpoint on the way to Windy Ridge.

I recall my mother stating it would take twenty years for the land to recover. That seems like a very long time to a ten year-old. Looking back, the passing years seem like a brief moment. The forest agrees. Nearly thirty years after the blast, new growth follows the creeks, while the ridges appear much the same. Loggers cleared many areas, but left some sections untouched for nature to take care of all on her own.

When visiting Mt. St. Helens bring hiking gear, camera, and curiosity. And hot-dogs. Please visit Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument website for more information.