Writing and Inspiration

I get a tremendous amount of inspiration for writing from my interests.  This week, I have written several thousand words of the sequel to The 13th Doorway, called Worlds of Wonder.  One of the worlds the main characters visit is a mountainous world, full of deep valleys and fantastically high, steep sided hills with narrow ridges linking summits.  This all comes from my own love of hillwalking and my own experiences of Scottish mountains.  One of my favourite ridge walks is the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe.  It's a dangerous walk with no safe passage off except at either end.  If the earth were to shake violently while on the ridge, for example (hint, hint) then someone could fall off and be in serious peril.

This is me on the Aonach Eagach last year.  You can see me at the end of "the Chancellor."

 
It's great fun writing about things you love.  I am also heavily into the science of Space and Time.  The main plot of Worlds of Wonder is about saving a world where time has gone badly wrong.  I am having to do a lot of research into theories about wormholes in space, distances between suns etc.  Then I have to try and simplify those theories so that the storyline is suitable for a young adult reader.  The great thing is - I am learning new things as I do some research.

I'm also a bit of a maths geek (well I am a maths teacher). There are two maths puzzles in The 13th Doorway and there will be more in Worlds of Wonder.  Last night I was writing a sequence set in a world where evolution has gone unchecked for a few billion years and, as you can imagine, the creatures on this planet are very advanced.  There are thirty of them lined up in a semi-circle, each working at a terminal.  The head of the team sits slightly forward of the thirty, inbetween the 15th and 16th member of the group.  I've named him Medius.  Can anyone tell me why that is a very suitable name? :)

Looking forward to doing some more writing later - and finding out some more secrets of the Universe!

D J Shaw 15/2/12