Good News And Bad News

Trinity here!

Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news about the good/bad news is that the good news applies to just about everyone and the bad news applies mostly to me. So, no need to be concerned.

The good news is I finally managed to design an acceptable and spiffy cover for my NaNo novel! Ta-da!

This was a frustrating project because I wanted to have both an element of the modern (as in, a ravaged city), and an element of medieval. I tried looking for swords, girls on horses, girls with swords, etc. etc. and I just couldn't find what I wanted. But I eventually got this, and I think I like it.

And the bad news. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours researching nuclear power plants and radiation. 

Now, I realize that all this information coming up might not mean much to you, and if you want to you can go ahead and skim right over the next little bit, but I'm putting it in anyway because it helps me think things through and solidify them in my head. 

First though, note that I've done a lot of research and I've stated things as simply as I can, so you might learn something cool. Like, the fact that the code name for the first nuclear detonation test ever was called the Trinity Project. :D 

Anyway, it looks like nuclear-osity might not be able to play into the plot quite as much as I'd hoped for several reasons.

First of these is that the fallout just wouldn't stick around long enough. 

Radiation has this thing called a half-life, which is basically how long it takes to lose half of it's power. The two main types of radiation that would be released in the case of a nuclear reactor failing are Iodine-131 and Cesium-137. 

    Iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days, which means that 100 years later, it would give off such tiny amounts of radiation, it wouldn't make a difference to anything. 

    However, Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years. Which would mean that in one hundred years it would have halved it's power three times which would put the total decrease at something like... 87.5% 

In any case, the radiation wouldn't be as powerful as I had previously thought it would be. 

The second thing I learned is that the Chernobyl disaster was so devastating because the nuclear core was exposed, on fire, and sending up plumes of radiation for many days before it was contained.  Also, it was a very poorly designed plant with few of the now required safety features.

        So these days an accident as huge and horrible as the Chernobyl disaster is virtually impossible, not only because of new safety requirements and backup safety requirements, but also because the reaction time of containment would be much, much faster and handled more safely. 

I still might be able to make it work, because with a world-wide earthquake and tsunamis, etc, etc, the damage could be much worse than anyone has ever considered could happen, and containment reaction time would be almost none. If I chose that route, though, I'd probably want to bump the time of the earthquake ahead a couple decades because currently nuclear power plants just aren't widespread enough.

Another option would be to have them raid an abandoned hospital or nuclear facility and steal something radioactive that weakens and contaminates them, such as happened with the Goiânia accident in Brazil (Warning: The story is pretty tragic). 

Okay, boring part's over!

As far as characters go, I'm vaguely, faintly outlining them in my head. They've been inspired by pictures from (surprise..) Pinterest. Mostly this one: 

I've kinda worked out who she and the babies are and then as I browse through the rest of my board my brain is gradually beginning to pin together which characters go where and how they may enter the story. 

Eight days until NaNoWriMo, and I have a feeling I'll be scrambling until the last second preparing!

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass! 

~ Trinity 

Tribes Of The Earth

Trinity again!
Yesterday I finally sat down and wrote the synopsis for my NaNo novel, currently called Tribes Of The Earth, which is a working title, since I'm not 100% sure I like it or that is fits. If anyone has any ideas for a title after reading the synopsis, be sure to let me know!
Now, this synopsis can be seen under my "About Trinity" page, but I'm gonna post it here once more just to get the preliminaries over with. If you've already read it, just skip over it.

"In the year 2027 an enormous earthquake literally rocks the world. The consequences are mind-numbing. Tsunamis ravage the coasts, traveling farther in than ever before. Nuclear power plants are destroyed in minutes, houses crumble, and cities disappear into gaping chasms. The earth is forever rearranged. In the aftermath, only half of the world’s population has survived.

It takes over a hundred years to recover from what no one could ever have been prepared for. The age of technology is now only a faint memory in the oldest of survivors.

Thrown back to the dark age, humanity must relearn how to feed, clothe and protect themselves. Some forge swords, build plows and begin to tame the wilds, while the truly desperate scavenge the ruins of huge cities, which are teeming with feral animals and dangerous chemicals.

Banded together for safety’s sake, the new tribes of the world are mistrustful, and hostile. Traveling is a dangerous proposition, and straying into another tribe’s territory almost always means death.

Desperate for power and a life of ease, a savage tribe risks it all by exploring the nearest abandoned city. There they find old, advanced weapons. Though it costs them several lives, after experimentation, they discover how to use them. Using their newfound power to travel to the next city, they gather more followers and destroy the tribes that stand in their way. The next expedition results in more lives lost and more power gained. Again and again they repeat the process, gaining followers while they travel and losing a few in the cities.

The leaders begin to notice that the tribe becomes sick after each visit into the cities, with symptoms that match radiation sickness, an affliction that is known and dreaded, but is called by another name. They deal with this by not going into the cities themselves and quietly ridding themselves of whoever shows the worst signs of sickness, all the while hiding the signs of the sickness in themselves.

Meanwhile, in the savage tribe’s path, two large tribes are simultaneously feuding and trying to survive. Adopting a medieval lifestyle has worked well for them, and they’ve crafted and are proficient with swords and bows. When word arrives that the savage tribe are heading their way and they’ve already assimilated and enslaved several other tribes, the two tribes must either work together or be destroyed."

This synopsis is not only up for revision, it's practically required. I need to work out my main characters and protagonists and sub-plots (which is an extensive project in and of itself), but it is going to require just a ton of research. I've given it it's own research notebook, which I am attempting to systematically fill so I can get most, if not all research done before it's actually time to write. 

And not only is it going to be a lot of research, a large portion of it is going to be rather grisly. 
For example, the earthquake will cause almost all the nuclear power plants across the world to suffer catastrophic failures. There's probably a bunch of other consequences of an earthquake of that magnitude, and those consequences will probably be factored in, but right this moment, I'm focusing on the nuclear effects. 

First, you have a massive amount of painful deaths, and for those who survive, you have mutations in their descendants. Radiation, as I currently understand it, weakens the bonds between molecules, and so basically, it tears you apart on a molecular level (I'll have to research that a little more closely). The less morbid symptoms of radiation sickness include loss of hair, anemia (which leads to weakness and fainting), bruising and inability to heal wounds, and diarrhea. I'll have to find out how long it would take low levels of radiation to kill you, exactly how much radiation you can be exposed to and still survive, and how long it would take a city flooded with radiation to become safe again. So researching that is gonna be very enjoyable.

Secondly, you have to worry about the radiation itself. What can absorb radiation? Can water?  Can stone? If the radiation seeps into the land, does all food grown on the land become dangerous? Will food grow on contaminated land?

Thirdly, I know that metal can absorb radiation. My two threatened tribes use bow and swords. I doubt they can mine or refine metals for themselves, so the only other option is to scavenge it from ruins. Which would likely be contaminated. They've probably figured this out, and everyone knows that metal carries the radiation sickness (which I also need to name), so they don't use it. Which begs the question, what do they use for their weapons? Wood, obviously, would be available, but wooden swords would really just be fancy clubs. So, stone then? Like, flint arrowheads? Or how about a stone sword or dagger? What exactly would it take to craft one of those? And they would be remarkably heavy. Or could you use a strong, lightweight type of stone? And does stone absorb radiation, which would make it dangerous as well?

Fourthly, what would be the effects on wildlife? What sorts of mutations would occur? Would any pose a danger to humans (size, temperament, etc)? If there were zoos nearby, has any exotic wildlife escaped and made itself at home? Is there any danger in consuming the mutated offspring of a contaminated animal?

Anyway, these are the things I will be researching and struggling with  for the next thirteen days. I really thought that two weeks until November was going to be too long to wait, but now I'm thinking it may not be enough... We'll see. 

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass! 

~ Trinity