On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Know was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways
The rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered. When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?” I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?” We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!”
Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musings continues below.
It just turned into 2026 three days ago, so I went back to Chapter 3 and copied the following:
"Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first of 12 human beings to walk on the Moon. Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17)" -- four men left who walked. How many people flew to the Moon and back? In addition to the 24 Apollo astronauts, four others are slated to follow them for the first time in 50 years in November of 2024...”
Couple things, NASA just announced Artemis WON’T be going to the Moon until 2027…so that’s changed. “In all, 24 American astronauts made the trip from Earth to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. Three astronauts made the journey from Earth to the Moon twice: James Lovell (Apollo 8 and Apollo 13), John Young (Apollo 10 and Apollo 16), and Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and Apollo 17).”
Nextly, “Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17).” (https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-walkers/)
Charles Duke is 90. Harrison Schmitt is 90. Edwin “Buzz Aldrin” is 95. David Scott is 93. I’m thinking that in another 10 years, all of the “First Men On The Moon” will be gone.
All of that to say, I think I’m going to play around with writing pieces of SnapFix (aka as flash fiction to normal folks!) in this world I’ve managed to create! Pieces LESS than 1500 words. I’m also not going to NECESSIARILY finish them on the blog on the off chance they might be “good enough” to submit.. I AM going to follow my “rules” for writing SnapFix. You can see my Reels on the subject here: https://www.instagram.com/guy_stewart75/
Select Your Genre
Choose An Overarching Theme
Use One Or Two Key Characters
Make Every Sentence Count And Don’t Rush
Prompt Visualization
Start In The Middle
Use Descriptive, Concise Language
Deal With A Single Conflict
Create Surprise And Provide A Twist
Present A Memorable Last Line
Write A Powerful Title
DRAFT!
DRAFT!
DRAFT!
That’s it for this week! Later!
Resources: The Moon Trees, https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/ ; https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html
No comments:
Post a Comment