I re-wrote Keepers three times… from scratch. I won’t be doing that again. It breached all acceptable tolerance levels of inefficiency. So much so, I developed a permanent twitch, and I’m pretty sure I herniated the moment I realized I had to start again… for the third time.

Part of the problem was the world building. See, writing in most genres, you use the real world as the world your story is set in. But as a fantasy/sci-fi writer, your world could be populated by angry hooman eating marshmallows. The sky could be on the ground and the ground in the sky. Suffice to say we get to push our sleeves up and play book-god. But playing book-god is hard. There’s a lot of shit to create.

You can’t just pluck a sword made of magical fish fins, that’s about to reign down a plague and cause world ending genocide, out of thin air. There’s got to be a reason, context, and history. Why? Because it has to mean something to the reader. I mean psssht, magical fish fins indeed. How do they even work?

The problem is, unless your George R.R or Tolkien, you only have three hundred or so pages to convey your entire world and all its constructs. Not an easy task.

So how in the glistering fudgemuggins do you do it?

Well, dear reader, I’m glad you asked. Here are my 4 top tips for building a fantasy world.

ONE – More Is Always More – Unless… Less Is More. Then Do Less

You might think you need reams and reams of detail to give the reader a full and painted picture of your world. And if you’re writing epic fantasy then maybe you need more than the average fantasy book. But readers are clever. They fill in the blanks. You don’t need eight hundred pages detailing every farming and food production mechanism or governmental law. 

You need enough to give the flavor. Like wine tasting; you only need a sip to know what the rest of the bottle will taste like.

I can’t tell you exactly what you should and shouldn’t include because it’s story dependent and you might well need a lot of detail about one particular part of your society that another writer might not.

The point is to be aware, err away from flowery prose and minutia. Especially if your word count is busting over the edge of its spine. If your reader can detail a 1000 year genealogy of every character, you’re probably overdoing the detail.

TWO – You Only Need The Detail If It Means Something

That’s great, Sacha. But how in the shizzle do I know what detail to include and when? 

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the wonder of fantasy is that there are no rules. But you also don’t want your reader falling asleep between your pages and leaving drool in your book spine because you spent three pages intensively detailing the anatomical leg hair of your protagonist’s step-granny. 

What Not To Do:

Detail aunt Ethel’s minute by minute routine including reading the ‘space news’

Tell the reader in excruciating detail about the nuts and bolts and electrical wiring of your spacecraft TZ578.

What To Do:

However, if your spacecraft is going to have an accident and get stranded on a barren planet because a particular bolt that your protagonist thought looked suspicious as she boarded just happens to cause a crash a few minutes later – then include the detail.

Think about whether or not the detail is relevant. Like Checkovs gun. Don’t tell the reader about a random gun unless it’s relevant later in the story.

In Trutinor (the world Keepers is set in) the ocean surrounding the realm is called the Blood Ocean and every so often shimmers blood red… For a reason – red is the symbol of Imbalance (aka evil) and it’s a warning not to cross it unless you want to die… A detail that might not seem relevant now, but sure as shit will be in book 4! I included it because it means something.

THREE – Symbols, Meaning, and Foreshadowing

Whether it’s a flag or religion, even in our ‘real’ society we have symbols. Symbols give meaning to our lives and to your stories. That is a nifty tool that can help you foreshadow significant events later in your series or book. Look at Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets – the diary that was so relevant to book 2, later becomes a Horcrux.

The Hunger Games is another example. The Mockingjay was created because of a mistake the Capitol made, which is why it became a symbol of rebellion from the Capitol. 

But symbols don’t have to be logos, they could be anything from color, to a device or object or an event.

In Trutinor, there are five States – each one has a different ability and a different symbol representing that ability, and each one will be on the cover of one of the books in the series.

FOUR – The ‘What’ Of What To Include

Law or justice system – again, you don’t need stacks of detail – it’s enough to know there’s some kind of punishments – but that also means you need to be clear WHAT’S punishable.

Government system – As above – include what’s relevant to your story. But what or who are the leaders in your world and is there a hierarchy? How do you get power?

Magical system  – Both what it can do and more importantly, what it can’t do. You need to know the limitations of the powers in your society because it allows you to put your hero in sticky situations which helps to create tension and conflict.

Food – We don’t need to know every detail about where it comes from unless that’s relevant. But don’t forget (like I did in draft 2) that your characters need sustenance!

Transport & communications– How do your characters get from one place to another? Are there limits or restrictions to movement? And, how do they communicate over distances? Or perhaps the point is, they can’t?

Boundaries – By this I mean in order to put your character into difficult situations to make him grow and develop over the story arc, there needs to be some kind of restriction on them. Perhaps it’s a societal testing system, maybe they lack food, or transport, or maybe they only control a particular power. Whatever it is, you need a boundary or restriction on your protagonist.

Fashionista – Thanks to Esther my editor for this one – remember your reader needs to know what your characters look like and are wearing. Do they walk around in hotpants and bikinis? Or is it arctic and they have to wear animal furs?

Sense of Place – Give some level of detail about the weather, how time works and what the land and buildings look like

Of course, this is not a complete list, it’s just a flavor… see what I did there! :p

Want to check out my world building skills? You can read Keepers here.

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You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post 4 Top Tips To Build A Fantasy World #MondayBlogs #Amwriting appeared first on Sacha Black.

In both those franchises, there are more creatures and ugly aliens than puss filled spots at a 15th birthday bash.

But what of ‘real’ aliens? And what if you wanted to add a pinch of reality to your science fiction? 

Whether you believe little green men flying in aerodynamic dinner plates have visited us or not, isn’t the point of this post. This is about fantasy and science fiction writing and I guess dystopian too. If you want to set your story on an Earth like planet, using a society similar to what we have, or even want to inject a little realism into a far fantasy/sci-fi story, then this Alien Top of the Pops is for you.

“At least four different alien species have been visiting Earth for thousands of years.” Former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer

I think a pinch of reality makes something all the more scary. What will give your story realism, is the fact some of these species are widely reported in conspiracies. Whether or not people believe doesn’t matter. The point is they will have heard of these creatures. Even a whisper in society is enough to give weight to a story. So whether readers believe in these species or not, their subconscious probably has probably heard of them and all you need is the illusion of truth and that will make your stories all the more real and scary to them.

I’ve picked the four most frequently whispered about aliens. At the bottom, I have linked to a series of youtube videos that list 82 different species that have visited Earth. If you want to do your research on aliens in conspiracies to give a more realistic or perhaps a scary feel to your story then that’s the series for you.

Number One – Grey Aliens

Everyone knows what a grey alien is. It’s the iconic, starved of oxygen runt of the litter. With skinny arms, legs and body and a disproportionately oversized head. Their name comes from their skin colour, grey. They’re also real short, at just 4ft high.

They are said to come from the Zeta Reticulan star system.

Made famous by the Roswell crash, there’s even a festival over there celebrating them. (#Bucketlist).

They might be small, but don’t underestimate them, these little fuckers are nasty. They’re the species attributed to 99% of alien abductions and the supposed hybrid programme combining human and alien DNA. They are also famed for experimenting on animals and dropping disembodied cow (and any other animal for that matter) carcasses all over the place.

This ‘grey alien’ term is widely accepted, but it seems as though there are many a variation of grey alien. From the taller greys sometimes know as Sirians attributable by their home star Sirius, to the short ones I have already mentioned.

They don’t like light. Some suggest that’s the reason for their big black eyes, which might actually be some kind of Morpheus superhero sunglasses. They also don’t talk. At least not our language. Conspiracists suggest they are telepathic only, and there are many a video on youtube with secret footage like this one showing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SS8IwCCPA

Number Two – Pleiadian or Nordic

Imagine an baby making orgy between ABBA, Galadriel (Cate Blanchett in LOTRs) and a spiritually inclined giant viking, and that’s what a Nordic alien looks like.

They’re tall, like basketball player tall, at an average of 6-7 feet and get their name from their home star system Pleiadies 400 light years away. Skeptics refute that any lifeforms could come from their and be more advanced than us as those stars are still young.

They are said to be peaceful, spiritual and telepathic and only interested in interacting with humans rather than experimenting on us!

Their rise to fame was during the 50’s and 60’s after a number of reported sightings and interactions. However, skeptics refute the sightings claiming racial motivation due to their overtly ‘white’ appearances.

Supposedly Eisenhower met with them in ’54 to exchange technology and they tried influence him to disarm his nuclear efforts.

Number Three – Annunaki

The Annunaki are in fashion right now and my own personal obsession. I’ve written about them and their connection to the giants before. Also known as long heads, Nephilim, or gods. They are famed for being connected to Ancient Egyptian, Sumerian and Babylonian history and mythology.

But they are also connected to the bible. Said to have been the ‘watchers’ or angels who came down to Earth, copped off with our women and made the Nephilim (hybrid angel/alien babies). They taught us all kinds of cool stuff like how to make weapons, what ‘society’ and law is amongst a bunch of other stuff. Bit like the other bible story of the garden of Eden and the snake/apple.

They became widely popular after several elongated skulls were found in Paracas, Peru. Now, skull deformation isn’t a rarity in itself. The Mangbetu tribe in Africa would elongate all their heads, and the practice can still be found in Vanuatu today. However, what caused controversy was the formation of the skulls. Even when we elongate our brains the volume of space inside our skulls doesn’t change. These skulls had 30% more volume, as well as a different bone thickness and density, and only one parietal bone where we have two.

Cuneiform is supposedly the closest language to theirs something they taught to the Sumerians. See the photo on the right for an example. It comprises a set of almost triangular/star like markings arranged in rows.

The winged eagle with a circle in the top left is now widely accepted as the symbol for Annunaki. The wings representing flight and a ‘higher’ godlike status and the planet, Nibiru, their home.

What I find most interesting about the Annunaki is they are said to be from our solar system. From Planet X or the mystery planet often known as Nibiru said to come into our solar system orbits every 3600 years. There is actually a hole in the asteroid belt which suggests that something planet sized came/comes through it. It has also been blamed for smashing into Earth and splintering the moon off.

What’s interesting is that scientists do say there is some massive influence on our solar system that we haven’t identified yet, and I’m not talking dark matter here.

Many stars are actually double stars, or binary stars i.e. they live in ‘close’ proximity to another star, both influencing and impacting on each others gravitational pull. Nibiru is said to have lower light and radiation on their planet, which makes sense if they orbit stars at such extreme lengths. Supposedly, the Annunaki have drastically shortened lives living on Earth due to the increased light and radiation on our planet.

Here’s a confused bunch of reporters from KSRA filming the sky before dawn and a mysterious second sun? or maybe it is a planet…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HxsB4Lx5mU

Number Four – Reptilian or Alpha Draconian 

Imagine there was no catastrophic meteor 60 million years ago. What would dinosaurs have evolved into? Some kind of night-terror inducing, human / reptoid hybrid? Well, just maybe.

These are the Voldemort of the alien world. Nasty, human-eating mofos. There are a number of supposed subsets to this species. Including: preying mantis style insectoids, a delightful shape shifting world leader infiltrating bunch, a set that live underground here on Earth and well as some snakey looking bitches and a few others.

So named ‘Draconian’ because of their home star system, Draco. It’s a big ol’ system with stars ranging anything from  72 to 3000 light years away.

These reptoids are massive 7-9ft tall, scaley have vertical lizard pupils and three long fingers.

They have the most conspiracy surrounding them, including that they secretly run the world through rich families, hybridisation with humans and monarchies to actually being the world leaders and the pope shapeshifted in disguise! To inspiring TV series, like V.

Here’s the series of videos I mentioned with a mammoth list of 82 species that have reportedly visited earth, this is like a sci-fi candy box, grab the popcorn and binge out peeps.

The first video is here, the second here the final one here.

So what alien species have you heard of? Have you ever written any stories with them in? Have these sparked stories ideas for you? Let me know in the comments.

***

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The post A Writers' Guide to Science Fiction vs. Reality – Alien Species appeared first on Sacha Black.

They’re works of art, whether they’re made from the hand of a human or from the oddly artistic feet of an alien space craft, there’s no doubt they still look awesome.

But what is the significance of them? Why do they cause such controversy? and why the shit is it relevant to my writing?

Crop circles are flattened pieces of field usually pressed into artistic patterns which viewed from the air, look spectacular. They have been around for donkeys but didn’t hit the conspiracy market till the late 60’s after a series of hoax circles were created. These hoax circles were inspired by the ‘real’ crop circle formed in a field in Tully Australia after a guy witnessed a UFO and then found a crop circle.

The popularity of them boomed causing a gaggle of crop circle spotters dressed in finely tailored anoraks to shoot sightings through the roof. Sadly there’s no doubt that because of the JK Rowling like boom, many of the circles were hoaxes. Crop circles actually became so popular, they launched a crop circle competition with a £3000 prize for the best artist!

The top causes for conspiracy around crop circles are as follows:

1. The locations. Most crop circles in the UK appear near Stonehenge in Wiltshire an historical site known for its huge stones and inexplicable construction.

2. Some of them have electromagnetic readings that shoot through the roof. The suggestion is that the poles and magnetism are in part the cause of the shapes.

3. Supposedly some of them the crops aren’t flattened, but have accelerated growth which shapes the crops. (see photo)

If you want to visit a crop circle, I found this handy little UK website, and this little doll of a US site both of which list crop circles locations and accessibility rights.

If you fancy looking at some mind bogglingly impressive crop circles check out these 10 crop circle images that can be found on google

There’s no shortage of peculiar stories that surround crop circles too. Like this gem I found in the Telegraph or this woman who actually shot a photo of a UFO above a crop.

But why is any of this relevant, and what’s it got to do with writing?

Crop Circles & WorldBuilding

1. Distances and Feel

One of the things I can’t cope without when world building is having a tangible concept of what the city or location looks like. I’m visual. I need pictures and a layout, a map if you like.

Something my spatially inept brain can use to point at with fat digits, slap at a calculator to figure out travel times and distances. But also because I want to ‘feel’ what the city is like. Is it sprawling and wide like Los Angeles? or is it densely packed and suffocating like Kowloon Walled City?

I had to find inspiration and the bog standard city maps weren’t cutting the mustard. After all this was a fantasy location.

2. Fantasy vs. Reality

Although I needed something that was fantastical in nature, I also wanted it to be realistic. I write YA/NA and for me, grounding my plots in reality is important. So I studied crop circle shapes and discovered that there really are cities built in crazy ways, some of which reflect crop circle shapes. Take Palmanova in Italy as an example (photo on the left).

*insert my best moronic, jaw on the floor face.*

There are dozens more examples, like Palm island in Dubai. The point is this gave me something to go off. I used these cities and crop circle shapes as a springboard to creating my own maps.

3. Drawing and Mapping

So I had a go. I started with this cruddy biro drawing inspired by the patterns and layouts of the crop circles and oddly shaped cities. I know… it’s worse than a mouldy flea infested shit, but it was a first attempt!

Then I had another go, and moved it closer to reality. I inserted a compass, islands and boundary lines. This gave me the initial shape of the world. It’s a well loved bit of paper, hence all the creases. It’s not finished either. I still need to add each sectors’ cities, but for now, it’s enough. I know where the cities are in each section and I can visual the distances.

For the city constructs themselves and the buildings I am using a couple of Pinterest boards to pull relevant images and a mood board together. If you’re interested you can follow me here. Or join my group board for writers’ blog posts here.

So, how do you build cities or locations? What do you need when constructing places? Do you draw maps? Let me know in the comments.

Finally, if you’re interested I found a longer video on YouTube that talks about crop circles and the desert Nasca lines, it’s 50 minutes.

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The post 3 Reasons To Use Crop Circles to Build Worlds – Weekly Wonder #11 appeared first on Sacha Black.

But, one thing I don’t mind admitting, is that I am 100% certain we are not alone.

You can’t tell me in that infinite void we call the universe, no one else climbed out of the primordial slime. No chance. I mean, does anyone actually believe that any more?!

But then, if there’s life out there… where the hell is it?

And that’s the question Fermi tries to answer with his paradox.

The Fermi paradox, according to Wiki, tries to solve the contradiction between the fact that space is infinite, and therefore the likelihood of there being life out there, is high. Yet, there is a lack of evidence for higher civilisations, (or at least a lack of accepted evidence).

Fermi asked just that.

If space is infinite, then the probability of other life is high, so why have we not encountered any other life forms?

To be fair, it’s a good question. He continues to add that our sun is average, in an average galaxy, that even at the slow pace of interstellar travel, our galaxy could be crossed in less than a million years. If it can be crossed in less than a million years, and the universe is over 13 BILLION years old, someone must have been able to cover the distance by now.
Fermi also reasoned that every star system ought to have been colonised and under the command of a species within 10 million years (SETI)…this is where he starts to lose me, didn’t it take at least 4 million years for us to crawl out of the primordial sludge, stop scratching our arses and start using our frontal cortexes?

Now, this is complicated, so I found a youtube video that explains it very simply, in just 6 minutes, watch it.

To summarise the video, it explains that there are three stages to life:

Type 1 – a civilisation that can use all resources on its planet

Type 2 – a civilisation that can use all the resources of its home star

Type 3 – a civilisation that can use all the resources of its entire galaxy (this would be god like to us)

It also highlights the concept of filters – a kind of barrier that life faces whilst trying to survive which is extremely hard to over come. The reasoning for it – the fact that we haven’t seen any other life, therefore, there must be something ‘a filter’ preventing us from surviving or travelling or…. etc etc.

It then gives three reasons why we may not have seen life so far:

1. Maybe these filters exist and we have passed them, if so maybe we are the first civilisation to exist, the rest are behind us and trying to pass the filters.

2. Maybe we are behind other civilisations and the filters are ahead of us and we    don’t know yet if we will survive them, or worse, we reach a filter that no life has yet been able to pass.

3. Maybe there is a type 3 civilisation out there that is watching us ready to extinguish us when we reach a certain level, or maybe they will welcome us. Or maybe, we are going to be that type 3 civilisation.

If you check out the Wiki page, there are a dozen or more reasons why we haven’t found life: we’re not listening correctly, we haven’t existed long enough, its too resource expensive to travel through space, extinction by natural disasters, everyone is listening instead of transmitting, Earth is purposely isolated – kept in a cage like a zoo, they are here, and we don’t know or worse, they are here and we do know but society doesn’t.

The problem with this paradox, is that either way, we’re fucked. If we DO discover life out there, then it means the filters we have passed are easier to pass than those we have coming. Meaning, whatever filter is next, or the one after that, will likely kill us.

*gulp*

Here’s another article with 11 weird answers to the fermi paradox.

What does this mean for writing? Well it’s a wicked cool hypothesis to base a sci-fi or fantasy story on. Right now, I have all kinds of ideas churning round my head. Here’s some questions that are giving me story ideas:

• What does (or could) a filter look like?  
• What happens when we get there? Could I set a story right at the point civilisation reaches a filter?
• How do we fight it or battle past it?
• Do we survive? What happens if we DO survive? What would life look like?
• What if we met other species battling the same filter? What if they were the filter?

Finally, there is a TEDx talk from Rob Hanson that discusses this:

Did this spark inspiration for you? What do you think of the Fermi Paradox? Do you think there’s life out there? Let me know in the comments below.

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The post F*** Fermi – I Never Liked A Paradox Anyway appeared first on Sacha Black.

Have you ever done a presentation in front of a projector screen? You know, the ones with a pull down plasticky screens that shoot up into its roll if you don’t secure it properly, then sending an endless ripple across your carefully crafted powerpoint presentation. Well hold on to that thought whilst you read and watch this:

It appears that during key times, any lay person with a camera and telescope can capture what looks like waves rippling across the moon, as if someone prodded a holographic screen and a ripple washed over the moons surface.

These events only seem to be happening at key times, like full moons. The suggestion is that what we see as the moon is actually just a projection of the moon. There are two parts to this.

The first, which would support the flat Earth theory that suggests there is a dome or firmament (as genesis says) sealing us into a flat Earth. The theory suggests projections are displayed on to the dome (ceiling) producing what we see as the moon and stars.

The second theory is what Crrow777 the original filmer of these mysterious waves thinks. He says the moon actually is up there. But what we are seeing is a projection of the moon, on to the moon in order to stop us seeing something else that’s going on.

Richard C Hoagland an ex science advisor to CBS News has discussed what’s on the moon on multiple occasions and maybe it’s this they are trying to hide. But one discussion I recall seeing recently was after the Chinese moon landing (Jade Rabbit). Hoagland analysed the footage which the Chinese released publicly and demonstrated that there was a dome (yeah I know… another mention of a dome) on the moon. It’s two hours long, so you would be in for the long haul, but it is fascinating to watch, check it out here.

Is the moon a hologram? I have no idea. What’s odd, is that this footage is no longer an isolated occurrence, there are plenty more videos spreading on YouTube showing the same thing. This makes it harder to swallow a ‘camera’ fault or whatever.

Of all the theories, I really hope this one isn’t true. I have been obsessed with the stars since childhood, I love nothing better than staring at a clear night sky in awe and wonderment.

I don’t often thank baby black for waking me up in the middle of the night. But a couple of months ago he woke up at precisely the moment of the super blood moon eclipse. It was breath taking, and the thought that what I saw might not be real, pains me.

I suppose the hologram theory would explain why we see an illusion of the moon not rotating. That is something no matter how many times I try and read explanations I don’t understand. Here, is another explanation.

“The moon orbits the Earth once every 27.322 days. It also takes approximately 27 days for the moon to rotate once on its axis. As a result, the moon does not seem to be spinning but appears to observers from Earth to be keeping almost perfectly still. Scientists call this sychronous rotation.” www.space.com

Effectively they are saying they spin at the same rate proportionately which is why it appears still. Seriously what? I don’t understand that at all. Not one bit. Maybe I’m just spatially inept.

There are examples of holograms littered in films and literature. I don’t however recall a story suggesting everything we see is a hologram – other than perhaps the loosely connected Matrix. So perhaps one of you could write the story. What’s going on behind the moon? Is it for our own good? Maybe an alien invasion?

Either way, it’s a cool theory that got my brain thinking of yet more stories, and an awesome way to start the New Year. Hope this year is the best one you have ever had.

What do you think? Did it inspire you? What do you make of the video and the theory?

The post Lunar Waves and the Mystery of the Holographic Moon appeared first on Sacha Black.

For a few thousand years, we thought the world was flat. All 5 big religions, had accepted and promoted theories of a flat Earth. They believed the Earth was flat and at the edge was protected by something called the firmament – whilst they might have differed in their beliefs, they were united on this.

It wasn’t until Copernicus in the 16th century realised the world spun at over 1000mph and 60,000 mph round the sun, that he proposed the globe model. From these calculations he surmised the world was round. That’s it. No more proof no more evidence, it was accepted into mainstream society and still is to this day.

It’s one of those fundamental ideas we are taught on the first day of primary school; the world, is 100% round.

But, humour me, what if it’s not round? What if we got it right the first time? The Earth is flat. As conspiracy theories go, this one takes the biscuit. 

I am not even going to attempt to explain this as well or as in depth as Mark Sargent does, but I will give the highlights from his research combined with my questions and plead with you to go watch the 11 short episodes in his youtube video series so you can make up your own mind. I have posted links at the bottom of this post should this spark even a hint of doubt or interest in your mind.

Like most things in life, this started one with a question. Actually it started with several. Lets begin with these:

1. If the world is spinning at 1040 mph, and spinning at 60,000mph round the sun, then why aren’t the stars too? Why don’t they look like this?

2. Why doesn’t the moon change its face?

3. Why, if the Earth is curved, when we stand on the edge of the beach on a clear day, do we not see a hint of the ocean curving around and down?

4. Why if the Earth is curved and we are 35,000 feet in the air on a plane do we not see the horizon below us, but at eye level?

5. Why is there only one photo taken of the Earth from space? All the others are composites. That means that they have been ‘interpreted, combined and CGI’d’

6. Why are all the images of Earth from space only partial – not full 180 degree or 360 degree?

7. Why are all the images of Earth from space so vivid? Aren’t those photos taken from hundreds of miles away through a ton of atmosphere? When we look up we can’t see through all the cloud, so how can the photos be so vivid?

8. Why do we have an accepted structure of the Earth depicting all the way through mantles, inner and outer cores when the deepest hole we have drilled is only 8 miles deep – we have never been to the core, so how do we know what it’s like?

9. Why do rockets when launching into space turn? Why don’t they just continue upwards?

Maps are an odd thing. Do you know we are taught completely incorrect maps at school? The Mercator map is the most widely accepted map to date. See left. It is taught in schools, accepted as fact, and yet, it is completely wrong.

The Gall-Peters, map shows the world laid out with the correct proportions between the countries. See the map right. Notice the drastic difference in size of Greenland and the Antarctic? Notice the enormity of Africa?

But this is the strangest thing of all. Wiki has a list of maps, scroll down  way down until you find the Azimuthal Equidistant (AE) map. Or in other words a map of the world if it were laid out flat. See below Left. All the maps in that list, reference only the people who came up with it. So why does the United States Geological Survey USGS use this map, a map of the world flat, lined by the Antarctic as its accepted map?? It’s not right? The world is round, Right? It isn’t lined by a 300 mile wide perimeter of ice.

So tell me this: why is the Antarctic the only continent on Earth without a native population? There is no place on Earth not populated by man. But more strange than that, because it has no population, it has no government. No one owns it.

Richard E. Byrd an Admiral in the navy took 4500 military officers to the Antarctic – in the 50’s he claimed that it was the most important scientific discovery there’d ever been. But more interestingly, that it was rich. Rich with coal and oil and uranium and a plethora of things that would keep the planet going for centuries. So why after his second mission was it closed off for good?

The Antarctic Treaty is a treaty that has been in place since 1961 and now has 53 nations signed up to it. Um… does anyone know of any other treaty that has been in place that long between that many nations and not been broken? Didn’t think so. What does the treaty say? It says, that nothing and no one can go there…EVER. Why? You would think oil companies would be hounding the UN for access. But no one does.

Why?

So then I started to look for an image of the Antarctic. Guess what I found. Composites. Nothing but composites. Made up make believe images.

Let’s entertain for one second the possibility that the Earth is flat. Lets then think about the structure of the Earth and how easy it would be to keep us on land in the centre safe from ever discovering it was anything other than a sphere.

Go up – the air gets so thin it kills us if we are unassisted by technology. Go North or South, the conditions become so cold that we would freeze to death if not protected. Try to sail your way around the world? Pretty damn hard unless you have a big boat full of supplies. Imagine how much easier it would be if it wasn’t filled with salt water and you could drink the sea. Go down and the heat is so fierce we can only drill 8 miles  before our tools are melted. Pretty neat way of containing us if you ask me.

And what of the dome in the sky? Well, in 50’s just after the first space mission the American’s and Russians started firing Nuclear bombs straight up and not little ones. Megaton ones. They continued to do so for 4 years. Why? Were they trying to break the dome?

The Earth’s curvature means that when a boat reaches a certain distance it should sink below the surface of the horizon, particularly on water. There is a stretch of canal over 6 miles long in Norfolk UK. The experimenters fixed a pole above the water and then rowed 6 miles away. Using a telescope they looked for the pole. They could still see it, but it should have been several feel below the surface. Suggesting the Earth is in fact flat – google it.

The really bizarre thing for me are the flight paths for planes travelling in the southern hemisphere. For a proper explanation of this, watch episode 7 below. In effect, why, if you want to go from any southern hemisphere city to another southern hemisphere city which you would think would be a, simple direct flight across the ocean, does it become extraordinarily complex? There are NO direct flights. None. Try it – I dare you. Try and book a direct flight from Perth to Brazil.

I have talked a lot, and not as coherently as Sargent does. So please, if you can spare an hour, watch the videos and see the arguments laid out in a much simpler and more comprehensive way.

So what of the writing world? Well, if you’re a science fiction writer then I’m guessing you have spent this whole post eating your heart out. This has to be the coolest bit of inspiration I’ve found… ever. But the strange thing is, it’s already been used. Anyone recall Terry Pratchett (RIP), flat planet on a turtle on some elephants? What about Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the world building warehouses? Funny how so many conspiracies find their way into literature and fiction stories. I know not everyone approves of these posts, but I don’t give a shit. It’s inspiring, and gives me (and other writers) SO many ideas, so I hope that this has been for some of you at least, inspirational.

Mark Sargent’s video series on the Flat Earth Clues:

Video – Introduction

Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5, Video 6, Video 7, Video 8, Video 9, Video 10, Video 11.

Stay tuned, because I contacted Mark and have since interviewed him over Skype. I will do a follow up post shortly.

I wrote a piece of flash fiction inspired by this theory, which has now sparked an entire idea for a novel. So I thought I would share it, I entered it into Charli Mills flash fiction challenge here.

The Firmament by Sacha Black

I placed my hand on the dome; it was hard as diamonds and colder than I expected. I couldn’t see out just the image of our own world, our own failings reflecting back on us.

I pumped my fist onto it. “No.”

“Now what?” Luke said, touching my shoulder.

I turned, stared at the thousand men I’d led to the edge of the Earth with the promise of freedom.

His eyes were wide. His fear, infectious, rippled through the crowd.

The dome rose in all directions and further than the eye could see. We were trapped.

“I don’t know.”

Have you ever written about a strange Earth? What do you make of the conspiracy? If this has given you some writerly inspiration let me know in the comments below.

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The post Flat Earth & The Great United Nations Cover Up appeared first on Sacha Black.

I am well overdue a weekly wonder. So I thought I would bring you a truly bizarre theory.

I stumbled across the Hollow Earth theory trying to research the Hollow Moon theory some time ago (more on that another time).  There have been many theories proposing different ideas around the Hollow Earth, William Reed and Edmond Halley being some of the first to note it. The Hollow Earth theory is a conspiracy claiming that the Earth is in fact, Hollow. The way I see it, this hollowness is in two parts:

The first: that the inside of the Earth is partly or entirely hollow, with a sun at the centre of the Earth which shines permanently and gives life to the most beautiful luscious greenery and a plethora of creatures and animals including those that have been extinct on the surface of the Earth, like mammoths and some even suggest dinosaurs. The giant land which is said to be at the centre of the Earth is called Agartha and its capital city is called Shamballah.

Interestingly Shamballah is also a name coined by Bhuddists (Shambalah). Which refers to a magical mythical land somewhere inside Asia and is thought of as the pure land with beings more beautiful and wise than we. It makes me question whether given the descriptions of the perfect serenity of this land, if there aren’t connections to the garden of Eden?

Tibetan scholars, have taught about an inner world, and claim to be in contact with the “King of the Inner World” or supreme ruler of the entire planet. Which supposedly the Dalai Lama is a representative for the outside world.

What’s interesting is what else the Tibetan scholars say. Supposedly the tunnels connect Tibet with the inner world (which they protect). There are claims of dozens of others connecting tunnels which are scattered across the Earth. For example, those found under the great pyramids of Giza – Egypt, Derinkuyu in Cappadocia -Turkey, South America, the Amazon Basin connecting the lost city of “El Dorado“ and many more. Which brings me to…

The second: this part of the theory connects Hollow Earth to Area 51. Suggesting that Area 51 is actually entirely underground comprising 27 levels, the first of which begins at 2.5miles below the surface. The first 16 levels are controlled by us, the second 11 by other creatures. Theories claim that what’s above ground is called S4 or dreamland. But this goes one step further, claiming that the Earth’s mantle is littered with an underground cave system and tunnels. The only way I can envisage this is much like the London underground! These tunnels are both connecting the surface to Agartha and also used for military purposes.

Reed was looking for the North and South poles and as a result of the crazy magnetic readings and difference between true north and magnetic north claimed that they don’t actually exist on land. They are in fact, in the middle of a giant hole – the opening to Agatha, he said. Why?

Because at 70 to 75 degrees North and South latitude the Earth starts to curve INWARDS and flattens. The Earth is not a perfect sphere. Reed says that the magnetic pole is just the outer rim of a magnetic circle around the polar opening of the tunnel to Agartha. Perhaps this is why there is a difference between True North

and Magnetic North. Lots of Arctic explorers after reaching high latitudes have been flabbergasted by the inexplicable behaviour of their compasses. When approaching 90 degrees (inside the polar opening) their compasses had a tendency to point upward vertically.

Another strange fact – Icebergs are freshwater – NOT salt water. Weird huh. Well the claim is that it is the fresh water from inside the Earth that freezes on contact with our atmosphere.

CONTRARY EVIDENCE 

I like to be balanced, just to prove a point that this is about ideas for writers, not that I believe everything I read, so here is some contrary evidence:

Gravity. Giant objects like planets swirl and turn, until they spin so fast they clump together creating non-hollow spherical objects – stars and planets.  Ordinary matter is not strong enough to support an entirely hollowed planet against the force of gravity. Or so the science tells us – it doesn’t mention dark matter or the other stuff we don’t have names for yet though…

Current gravity theories suggest anyone on the inside of the hollow Earth wouldn’t experience an outward pull and therefore wouldn’t be able to stand on the inner surface; they would be nearly weightless.

“This was first shown by Newton, whose shell theorem mathematically predicts a gravitational force (from the shell) of zero everywhere inside a spherically symmetric hollow shell of matter, regardless of the shell’s thickness.”  Crystalinks

Ok fine, but didn’t we just learn that the Earth isn’t perfectly spherical? And what about those fairground rides that are spherical, and spin really fast – you stick to the inside of the walls well enough… so how does that work?

Well, a tiny gravitational force would indeed arise from the fact that the Earth does not have a perfectly symmetrical spherical shape, as well as from forces arising from other massive bodies like the Moon. This would provide some gravity in essence to stick someone to the surface, but likely, they would need to be moving at the same speed as the inner surface of the Earth. However, if the Earth were hollow, it is likely that the gravitational pull on the surface we stand on, would be much lower.

Does the theory seem plausible? I’m not so sure. What I do find interesting with a lot of these conspiracy theories, is that you often see traces of them in mainstream media. Take the Matrix Revolutions as a case in point, or The Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. In the Matrix, what’s left of Earths population live in the centre of the Earth in a city called Zion where it’s still warmed by the Earth’s core.

This theory is every science fiction and fantasy writers dream. I love the idea of underground tunnels – in fact, as a result of learning about this theory some time ago, I use something inspired by this in my first book, Keepers, which I am now editing,

If you are interested in reading more, there are a number of anecdotes from military personnel who claim to have been there, you can read more here.

What do you think? Have you ever written a story with underground tunnels or a world of people that live underground? Let me know in the comments below.

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Giants are all over fiction stories like fairytales such as Jack and the Beanstalk and the BFG, but what about actual giants? You know, the ones that lived and breathed on planet Earth? Some argue it’s just another conspiracy. But I wonder if they saw a giant skeleton, knew about the ones hidden in the Smithsonian, heard about the theory connecting the Annunaki and Nephilim and the references littered in the Bible, whether they might change their mind…

This is the second instalment in my weekly wonder series, designed to provide inspiration for stories. This time I wanted to think about different creatures or beings you could create and so, giants sprang to mind…

There are a plethora of newspaper articles from the 18 and 1900’s that describe discoveries of giant skeletons. There was an explosion of discoveries in America during this time. This is fact. We know they exist, skeletons were found. A definitive explanation for how they came to be or why they died out still alludes us.

The newspaper articles I’ve seen claim skeleton heights from 7ft tall all the way up to 19ft tall. There is an interesting quirk to how a lot of these skeletons were found. The ones in America particularly, were often found in groups under burial mounds.

Something I found fascinating was that they were buried in circles, sat upright, with all their feet pointing into the circle. I haven’t done enough research yet to know what the suggested reasons for this are ye. But it certainly generates a lot of sparks for ideas around ceremonies and unusual traditions around death and burials which is particularly helpful for me as I have a death and funeral of sorts in my novel.

There are other interesting things about these skeletons, for example, one report I read stated one skull had teeth which grew the other way around. Instead of being flat facing like ours (lets call our teeth horizontal) some of theirs grew vertically – as in a 90 degree rotation.

Many of the giants skeletons have red hair. What’s interesting about this is that some of the Paracas skulls (the long head – or conehead- skulls, and if you don’t know what they are that will be another post) also have red hair, and some of those too were famed for being Giants albeit slightly shorter at 6″7 – 7″6. In addition, their children (Nephilim) were often said to be either blonde or red headed.

Something else that I have always wondered about is the size and scale of some ancient structures. Take for example the Sumerian doors in the British museum. I can feel myself about to talk myself round in a circle but bear with me. We have been told that thousands of years ago technology was primitive…

So why therefore would these primitive societies go to such lengths to build enormous doors? Particularly when most things were made for functionality and efficiency. Generally speaking the most efficient thing to do is construct buildings and structures appropriate to the need. Its Pareto’s law – 20% effort for 80%.

It doesn’t make any sense to me that these things were built so massive just for the sake of grandeur and displays of wealth. Sure the rich and royal adorned themselves with diamonds and jewels – but epic sized doorways and buildings…? hmm, I’m less convinced.

Lets think about sculptures in general, and replicate that thought across. Why are some sculptures huge and others tiny?

When you look at a lot of sculptures (ok, I know this doesn’t apply to all sculptures) – they are life size or almost life size… I figure it’s easier these days to make extravagant oversized sculptures because we have the technology to do it – but this is G.R.A.N.I.T.E we are talking about. Not some soft soapstone or alabaster, pure rock hard, needs a diamond tipped saw to carve it, granite.

Why would they choose to create oversized sculptures using the hardest most impossibly difficult stone to carve? Personally I don’t think they would. Which leads me to think that these Giants, (given that skeletons have been found all over the world) were in fact.

Take this tablet I photographed in the museum. A tablet found in an Iraqi temple. You could argue that this tablet is symbolic, that the seated person is in power and therefore depicted larger. But why? Why would you leave symbolic tablets for future generations to ‘interpret’? Would you not be more literal, factual, to the point to save for translational errors? The seated figure is sat and yet still twice as large as the humans below him, can you imagine if he stood? Sounds like a giant to me, possibly one of the 18ft ones.

Look at his hat. The humans have normal shaped heads. The giant has a large hat on his normal shaped head… or maybe he just has a long hat for his long Paracas shaped head. Just stating the obvious…

More interesting than this though, is the connection between giants, long heads, the Bible and the Nephilim.

The bible is littered with references to giants. More often than not this has been interpreted symbolically – Giantism a symbol for wealth and power. (Hold on to that thought)

Numbers 13 (NKJ Version) is an infamous quote about giants:

“…all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants[d] (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

But what if like the buildings these scriptures were meant literally. What if the 12 spies that Moses sent to Canaan really did see giants? The Israelites wrote that all their knowledge came from the giants. What if the first humans were giants? But what if they came from somewhere other than here? The Sumerians one of the first recorded civilisations wrote that their knowledge came from celestial beings. Beings that ‘came from the heavens’ creatures they called the Annunaki.

This knowledge included (but not limited to) concepts of law, policing, writing and complex buildings. The Sumerians’ were the first race to ‘do’ many of these things. That’s a lot of change and innovative thought for one society to miraculously discover. Perhaps it is more likely that these Annunaki/watchers gave them this knowledge.

The Annunaki have an identical story as the Watchers. Watchers religiously known as the angels came to watch over Earth. They saw women and decided they were beautiful and took them for their wives – creating the Nephilim – a race of giants. This particular race were destructive. It is said, one of the reasons for the great flood was to wipe out the giants…The Apocryphal book of Baruch specifically says the great flood wiped out 409,000 giants.

Sadly, many of these skeletons recorded in the news, photographed and written about have disappeared. Particularly the more controversial ones. Some do remain, particularly the Paracas skulls I will discuss in a different post, but very few giant skeletons remain on display, many being rumoured to have been sucked into the secret underground archives of the Smithsonian.

That’s enough wondering from me. My brain is full to the brim with ideas about worlds of giants, both good and evil, humungous temples and buildings and stories about angels. I have ideas for the history and creation of the world I have created in my novel too. But more than anything I’m left with questions about where we came from, and who the giants really were…

This is an interesting film about giants, but if you want to watch it – be warned it is about 40 minutes long.

What did you think of this post? Did it inspire any stories? Let me know in the comments below.

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