WritingPioneersJournal

June 5, 2011

I got the, "germ" of this idea, sometime around November 14, 2010. I was doing up a form to ask people I run into, what they might like to see in a novel. One of the suggestions that I listed was the following.

"On a planet far away a farmer and his family live a peaceful life.

A traveler from a far away galaxy comes to challenge their

way of thinking and living. Is this traveler a bearer of "good

news"? Will the traveler's message be a positive thing for the

farmer and his family?"

Probably on May 18, 2011, I was watching part of the middle of a movie called, "Moon". I remembered the, "germ" of this idea from months ago. I didn't finish the movie, yet I decided to start taking notes for a full fledged story. I started taking notes for a story about a young man living with his family on a moon colony far away.

I wrote up some initial notes and a sort of synopsis, starting on May 19, 2011. I bought a notebook to take notes in, May 23 and 24, 2011. "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars"...

I was originally thinking of this as a, "Twitter" novel. On June 2, 2011 I got a "bug" to look at the BBC World Service, "International Playwriting Competition 2011" website. I began to wonder if this story wouldn't be good as a radio drama. Could I write it up in time to enter the competition again? Could I do it quick enough to edit it better than the one I entered before?

About May 22, 2011 I bought a copy of the e-book, "How to Find Your Story," from, "Marcher Lord Press". I at least want to read this, fill it out and see what happens when I do. I want to continue to work on my, "Osbert Pickle," story too. Keep checking back to this journal, or the, "Osbert Pickle Journal" in order to find out what is happening with what.

Thanks!

January 24, 2015 from a note of, January 23, 2015

I was contacted by a high school classmate of mine on, January 16, 2012. He was originally from Lums Chapel. He wrote to me via the feedback form on the main website. He found me by looking up Lums Chapel in a search engine (if I remember correctly). At some point, we began writing about my, "Space Out West," story. He seemed very interested in that. We also corresponded about, Lums Chapel, rural life, sheep shearing, and combining agriculture and science fiction in one story. His last email was, January 19, 2012. My last was January 20, 2012.

I am thinking about writing another radio drama for the, "BBC World Service -- BBC World Drama -- International Radio Playwriting Competition". According to their website, "The competition will open again in October 2015." It is usually a few months after the opening that the competition closes. This means that I have enough time to write and revise something. There is a journal of my radio writing efforts. You can check that page in order to read about my progress. The reason I stuck the, "Radio Writing Journal," with the, "Lums Chapel," stories, is because I am thinking of writing something with those characters for the competition.

January 24, 2015 b (From a note written, December 27, 2014, in the hard backed notebook.)

Douglas' cousin explained to me the following (in regards the relationship between a moon and a planet in my story)...

For the moon to be big enough to have an atmosphere (and approx. 1g of gravity), the moon would have to be earth size. The planet that this would be a moon of, would have to be at least several times larger than Earth. Which means the gravity would be too strong for people to survive there. Planet to planet or two moons of some planet. (would have the situation I use in my story).