R is for Rainbow Rider

For the A to Z challenge this year, I’m sharing science fiction and fantasy story ideas…

I know that this concept was used offhand in the Xanth series (specifically ‘Centaur Aisle’,) but I love the idea of a fantasy character who can get from place to place by climbing onto a rainbow and riding it. How does he (or she) catch up to the rainbow and touch it? Where does it take the riders? Obviously this would have to be a very magical realm, where not much science is operative.

If you’re interested enough to pick this up and write your own version, feel free; ideas are cheap. And let me know! I’ll be keeping the notions vague enough that lots of different stories might be written from them.

Thanks for visiting!

Order and Chaos in the Exploratorium.

On Saturday of last week, I spent a few hours at the Exploratorium museum in the Palace of Fine Arts, near the Presidio in San Francisco. That really wasn’t enough, and I saw a bunch of cool stuff, but what really struck me was the chaos and the order.

First, the chaotic pendulum. This was a bunch of swinging arms and joints embedded into the interior of a big spinning wheel. When you spun the wheel, all the pendulums started off swinging in the same direction, but they don’t all spin with the same frequency or energy, so they start to throw each other off and get the larger wheel kicking and jerking back and forth. Fun to watch, but also a good lesson to learn about anything complex in the world.

Second, the balancing pendulum. This was one weight on a long rigid swinging arm, connected to a computer motor that could move back and forth. The computer could read the position of the arm and was programmed to get the arm balanced straight up as quickly as possible and keep it that way. It was fun to see the computer in action – choosing its moment to swing into action, going back and forth to build energy if the pendulum wasn’t swinging up all the way, and nudging carefully along if you tried to push the arm to the side by yourself.

Blogosphere Monday: Alison Pearce Stevens

Prior Blogosphere spotlights.

Well, it’s late and I need to go to bed soon, but I’m sending a shout-out and a spotlight tonight to Alison Pearce Stevens’ blog.

Alison writes science picture books, how cool is that? Her blog has lots of great stuff about marketing writing, and she’s in the A-Z challenge and a fellow crusader! She’s also putting together a great blogfest about snooping on your characters, so surf on over and take a good look!

See you on Wednesday for a new chapter of ‘Wizard of Mars’, I guess.