What if we’re late to the game cause someone else already thought of nuclear weapons 10,000 years ago?!

Well that’s todays wonder – the theory that nuclear weapons are not a 20th century invention at all, but a bronze age creation.

Of course, this is a conspiracy theory, with as many proponents as debunkers trying to argue it out. But let me entertain you with the believers story. Because, after all, I love a bit of weird and wonderful inspiration and this is how I get my book ideas.

The Mahabharata an ancient Indian scripture, is famed for detailing descriptions of weapons that sound oddly like modern nuclear weapons:

“A single projectile charged with all the power in the Universe…An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor…it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race. “The corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out, pottery broke without any apparent cause, and the birds turned white. “After a few hours, all foodstuffs were infected. To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves into the river.”  Disclose TV

But a single quote from a scripture isn’t really enough evidence to make a wild assumption like an ancient race having nuclear tech. So what of the physical evidence?

In India and Pakistan there are several geographical areas that have caused controversy. The first, Lonar Lake from the Buldhana region. Said to be created from a meteor impact, it’s age is said to be anywhere from 6000 years old to 570,000 years old. There is some disagreement about whether this crater was created by an asteroid. Although refuted (obviously *eyeroll*) there are claims that no meteorological material was found.

Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro

But more compelling than a big round bomb hole meteor crater, is the three square mile area west of Jodphur: a town called Harappa. All three square miles were found to be covered in a layer of radio active dust. The area was only found after a high rate of birth defects and cancer. The radioactive levels were so high in fact that the government cordoned off the area in order to do research. Research that unearthed remains of an ancient city and a bomb blast.

When they reached street level, they found petrified skeletons frozen in position almost as if they had no time to escape and there was no one left to bury them after. Why else would hundreds of skeletons all die simultaneously and be left in the street unburied? Oh, did I say they were irradiated too?

Glass – After the high intensity heat blast from a nuclear weapon, glass is formed. And guess what… That exact glass was found in great columns in the area, just like the remnants found in Nevada after nuclear testing.

Mysteriously, Oppenheimer the creator of the atomic bomb himself, responded when asked how he felt about firing the first atomic weapon, that it wasn’t the first, merely the first in modern times.  

Whether there were nuclear bombs in our ancient history or not remains a mystery to me. But what I do know, it that it’s cool to think about. I love the idea of hybridising an ancient race for a story. Ancient civilisation come science fiction. I guess that’s how the Steampunk genre came about – Science fiction meets the Victorian era.

But more than anything, it reminded me of my Flat Earth novel, that I am researching for and the concept that a race discovers the world they know is a total lie. What if ours really was? What if everything we thought we knew about our past was wrong.

If you liked this post, you can catch up with the others in the series on this page. While you’re at it, why not sign up for updates, all these weird wonders and writing tips straight to your mailbox. Sign up here.

The post The Ancient Nuclear War No One Told You About appeared first on Sacha Black.

Looking at historical buildings and constructions is something that even non historical writers should be doing. History is rife with anomalies and inconsistencies, which even with a hint of imagination can send you off in bizarre directions.

The Kailasa temple is shrouded in mystery.

Usually buildings are constructed from the ground up. The first brick is laid on top of foundations and then you continue placing them on top of each other until you reach the highest floor where you stop and attach a roof. This is how we build, in every country, in every continent across the world.

But the Kailasa wasn’t built like that.

The Kailasa was built top down. Yeah. Seriously. They carved from the top of a mountain down towards the Earth. I can barely get my head around that, I can’t comprehend the foresight needed to understand structurally how to build top to bottom. This means over 400,000 tonnes of rock had to be scooped out to leave the carvings. This would have taken years and years and years to do without advanced technology.

Yet the building was constructed in just 18 years.

In the video below, the man speaking does the simple math, and breaks it down to how much rock would need to be removed. Based on people working every day for 12 hours a day without breaks. That equates to: 22,000 tonnes a year, 60 tonnes a day, 5 tonnes an hour… umm……

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no architect, I am just presenting the information I have found, so if you are an architectural genius, feel free to disagree, these aren’t my arguments.

The video also brings up other interesting facts – a king tried to destroy the temple, 1000 of his people tried to destroy the temple, they worked for 3 years and barely scratched the sculptures. Interestingly architects seem to think 3 types of chisel were used to create it. If chisels were used to create it, then why couldn’t the same chisels be used to destroy it…? Just asking.

Even more interesting is the point that, to create a structure like this, is more difficult and would require a higher sophistication of structural engineering than building from the bottom up. Yeah, to create a building like this, requires more brain power, techniques and engineering feats than how we build today. So why, if we built like this before, do we not build like this today?

That, is an interesting question. It’s almost like we lost the technology. Vanished into thin air. *shrug*

Watch this video – it’s 9 minutes 20 so won’t take up much of your time.

Where do you get your inspiration? Let me know in the comments.

I bang on about these weekly wonders as a huge source of inspiration. For me, I have to look for the weird in the world, anything out of the ordinary immediately sparks of a flurry of ideas.

I wanted to think about the ‘why’ behind these posts.

I write them because I used to get stuck just looking at things I know about and already understand.

Don’t get me wrong, I still find beauty in the curves of the waves on an angry ocean or the plush greens of forests. But they help me describe things in my stories and help me get depth to my imagery and visuals.

What they don’t do, is spark ideas, or twists. By that I mean, thinking about this building makes my mind race all over the place. I wondered about a race of beings that only eat buildings. Snaffling the roof first and then gobbling the building whole – a bit like scooby doo and his sarnies. Wait what? How did I get from an ancient temple, to scooby doo… do you see my point?

Or what about another race of beings that flies over the planet using a beam to drop buildings in place, carving buildings out of thin air, to help save species, the ultimate green utopia – a building made of everything and nothing. What if they had an ulterior motive…I’m not saying these two ideas are amazing and perfect for a story, but I am saying they aren’t what I’d normally think of.

Whilst I love forests and oceans for the quality of metaphors they help me get, they don’t (for me) give me that something extra, the twists the uniqueness to stories.

When was the last time you investigated something different? Did it give you ideas? Where do you get that little bit extra from that makes your story special?

Get even more exclusive content straight to your mailbox, by signing up for my brand spanking, glittery* newsletter right here. (*electronic glitter only)

The post Kailasa – The Temple That Shouldn't Be – Weekly Wonder #9 appeared first on Sacha Black.

As a Fantasy and Sci-Fi writer whilst my own imagination is useful, it sometimes needs a little help. Which is why I spend a lot of time researching the strange, unusual or controversial – I find it provokes lots more story ideas than the mundane.

It’s at this point I want to add a little disclaimer: any information put into these weekly wonder posts do not represent my opinion. They are merely a collation of facts, proposed theories and interesting concepts I have collated here because I found them interesting enough to be inspired by them.

Sound.

The properties of sound are usually thought of as musical, and entertaining. But sound propulsion and the ability to move objects using sound waves is fast becoming a tangible concept.

It is said that the mystery of Coral Castle can be explained through sound. Coral Castle a 1100 ton stone structure, built single handedly by Edward Leedskalnin, a 5ft, 100 pound Latvian gentleman between 1923 and 1951 in Florida USA.

Now, granted levitating a foam cup with sound waves is quite different to levitating a 28 tonne rock. But this is the mystery that surrounds the sculptures. Leedskalnin worked alone and at night shrouded in mystery so that no one knew how he had done it. Crystalinks website explains the wonder of the entrance to the castle:

“it’s made through a gate fashioned from a single coral block weighing nine tons. This miraculous monolith is approximately 80 inches wide, 92 inches tall, and 21 inches thick. It fits within a quarter of an inch of the walls on either side and pivots through an iron rod resting on an automobile gear. The enormous block balances so perfectly on its center of gravity that a visitor can easily push it open with one finger. People who are sensitive to electromagnetic energies fields will sometimes report headaches while standing inside the archway of the nine-ton swinging gate – door – thought to be over a vortex – and a major grid point of the planet.” 

So how DID he do it? There were rumours Leedskalnin used strange cone shaped objects which emanated sound to levitate the enormous stone objects.

Cone like objects similar to the one on the left. This particular one however, is rather more ancient. It’s thousands of years old and covered in cuneiform scripture. An extremely ancient language developed by the Sumerians 3000-3500 BC.

I visited my favourite museum recently the British Museum in London. I was aware of a theory of sound propulsion to build the Egyptian pyramids, but I hadn’t seen any evidence suggesting it.

It wasn’t until I was in the museum that I found some evidence of these cones from in and around that era. The cone highlighted in the red circle, wasn’t just on one or two of the carved statues, but on dozens of them across various different sculptures, and interestingly from different cultures, Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian…The other interesting thing in the photo, is the bracelets the creature is wearing. Two identical bracelets with a circular plate. Kind of like a watch… I wonder what they did, and why there are two of them.

There is a debate that rages, about how 3-5000 years ago this sound technology was invented. Could it have been invented then? Some outright refute the claims, supporters of the ancient astronaut theory suggest an alien race gave the technology to humans.

There are similar theories around many of the ancient stone structures like the Pyramids or the stone of the pregnant woman in Baalbek, Lebanon. Which is a 1650 tonne monolith block that was partly moved, and then abandoned. No one knows why it was abandoned but it was meant to be used in a Roman temple close by. There are alternative, and possibly more plausible theories that suggest, this, and various other buildings like the Pyramids were built using ropes and pulleys and round wooden-bobbin like structures to roll the stones. I always thought that a little odd though, stone being heavier and denser than wood, surely it would immediately crush the bobbins?

Which theory is true? And what does it all mean? I don’t know. Maybe we never will. But I certainly found it interesting and it made my mind race with ideas about technologies for future or past races other things sound could do and lots of other stories. What do you think? Did you find this interesting?

I’ll leave you with a quote Leedskalnin is famed for saying repeatedly:

“I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids, and have found out how the Egyptians and the ancient builders in Peru, Yucatan, and Asia, with only primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many tons.” 

***

Get even more exclusive content straight to your mailbox, by signing up for my brand spanking, glittery* newsletter right here. (*electronic glitter only)

The post The Mystery of Sound Propulsion, Coral Castle & the Pyramids appeared first on Sacha Black.

Don’t judge me…I’m about to admit a really dirty secret… I’ve never read a classic.

There, I said it. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth. I know it’s awful, believe me. But I did say no judging. It frustrates me that I’ve never read a classic, but I just can’t. Oh, I’ve tried, more times than I can count. I have picked up Pride and Prejudice about 16 times! The last time, I even got a third of the way through. In fact, I have tried to read dozens. I mean damn, reading a classic is practically on my bucket list I am so determined to finish one.

But I just can’t keep them up. I dislike everything about them. I am not a fan of historical fiction, so that doesn’t help that they are all set in the past, but I also struggle with the language. I know lots of people say the language is beautiful, captivating even, but I just find it annoying. I am cringing at myself writing that, because I know what I am supposed to think and feel about classics. I am not trying to undermine classics with this post. Far from it. I just felt the need to rant, and hopefully incite some discussion… (please do contribute). I would like to point out, I have read a lot of classic plays and shakespeare, so I’m not a total heathen!

What annoys me most about classics is this air of pretentious superiority that comes with having actually read them. If you haven’t read them, well then… you are clearly, just not educated. That’s how society makes me feel for having not read the classics. I have a First Class degree and not one but two Masters degrees… so ‘clearly’ I am educated. So why is there such angst over whether or not you have read a classic?? It’s worse for writers too. I mean god forbid a writer who is trying to create a novel that could become a classic hasn’t read an actual classic, I mean they have no hope, right? RIGHT? Because only those who read classics are clever, and worthy of the title writer… *eyebrow raise*

Don’t get me wrong, I have read ‘some’ *waggles fingers* modern classics, one of my favourites, my favourite modern classic author is Albert Camus, an absurdist. I have read most of his stuff, my particular favourite is ‘La Peste’ or The Plague. The blurb reads:

The Plague is Albert Camus’s world-renowned fable of fear and courage The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr Rieux, resist the terror. An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France’s suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence. 

I read it at school in protest of having to read a ‘classic,’ classic. We were given the opportunity to choose our final book for study, the teacher gave us a list of classics and most of the kids in the class chose typical novels. I chose The Plague because it was the weirdest darkest story on the list. *Yes, I was an angsty teen!* But I loved it, despite it being set in the past and despite it being a classic. It was an unusual classic, unique and translatable. Which led me to read all his other work.

But here’s the thing. It is pretty much the only type of classic I have ever been able to see through to the end. I have a shelf *literally full* of classics I have always wanted to read, and can’t…

So I want to challenge the classics, to provoke some discussion…Italo Calvino gives 14 reasons you should read classics, and Jamie Leigh gives another 10 reasons you should be reading the classics, including:

“You’ll increase your vocabulary,  Improve your social skills, You’ll be reading something of value, Literary references won’t go straight over your head, You can “reward” yourself with the film version when you’re finished reading, The classics provide an opportunity to understand, They will enrich you in ways you didn’t expect, The classics challenge the brain… in a good way, Knowledge is power, Literature, along with (arguably) all forms of art, is a distinctly human legacy.

On the surface they seem like convincing arguments. But I’m still not convinced.

Here’s the thing. Classics profess to make you more intelligent, ‘make you think’, provoke you etc etc blah blah blah. But don’t other books do that too? Read a philosophical novel, it does the same thing – Paulo Coehlo The Alchemist is the perfect example of how a modern story can affect you in exactly the same way as a classic. The blurb says:

‘Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.’

The irony is, it is now being called a modern classic – fine, whatever. My point remains. It’s recent, and importantly told in modern language.  I think has all the trappings and effects of a traditional classic, but as a modern story. Take non-fiction, I wrote about the importance of reading Non-fiction as a writer in a previous post, now I would argue that non-fiction does most of the points above: it increases your vocab, intelligence and challenges your brain, you learn new shit, and general knowledge references don’t go over your head. Ok you can’t watch the film, but can you see my point?

What about the characters? Are they still relatable, relevant, appealing? Maybe I can’t comment because I haven’t got far enough through any one of them. But for me the flowery overly posh language prevents me from really getting under the skin of any of their characters. *more cringing, I feel like this makes me sound uneducated* But it’s true, I can’t relate to their characters, I don’t feel anything for them except annoyance. And don’t get me started on the plot lines are sluggish at best and positively snaillike at worse. I am asleep before the third chapter begins, and in a coma by the fifth.

What I am not trying to do, is suggest the classics are not worthy of their status. I do get it. They were and still are literary masterpieces, art work even. But my question is can you get away with not reading them? Can you still be a good writer, author, reader, person, without having them in your life? I think yes. I think you can learn just as much from modern literature, after all we are writing for a modern audience.

What I want to know is what is it I am missing? Tell me… because I can’t see the benefit of torturing myself to read them.

So I am going to put it out there and tentatively ask the question… Do we really need the classics any more?

The post The Reading Like a Writer Series #4 Do You Really Need the Classics? appeared first on Sacha Black.