My mind works in a spiral, moving through different topics over time. As I struggle to finish a story about sheep and shepherds several problems have been evident. 

This particular story involves a LOT of animals, and I am not and never have been an animal person. That’s a steep, if fascinating, learning curve. I’ve had a lot of help from a shepherdess or I couldn’t have done it. 

Further, I have an aversion to endings, sort of like the aversion some people have to taking the last bit of food. But I can see clearly, that it is now, or another ten years for this story. Now is better. People who leave three, wretched, old maid, popcorn kernels in a bag, rolled up in the pantry, that looks full, are to be condemned. Or a drop of ketchup, or one pickle slice, or a teaspoon of milk. In fairness, leaving the teaspoon of milk is about not having to go down to the basement to bring up the next gallon. At any rate, if the story has wound down to the end it should be written or tossed out.

One way to overcome my general resistance to finishing, is to trick myself into thinking that I won’t actually be done because [insert reason]. I recently did this with a fairly large sewing project, teasing myself into finishing it by pretending that I was working on a much smaller project, and attaching the “not finishing” vibe to the small project. Because the secondary project was so small I actually did finish it — after the large one was done. 

I realized that I was trying this again, when I started thinking up a very short story involving the same terrain as my novel and using a lot of the same research. Minus the animals. 

How about a 5,000 word short story about some time travelers that show up at an antique steam engine power show somewhere in Iowa? They were using local meteorite showers from the 1800’s to stay undetected as they flew through the air. However, whatever they were trying to do involved a steam tractor and the time travelers got caught in a time warp with the tractor, and turned up at a 2023 power show, featuring the tractor, in full antique costume. I think this story needs a lot of boys running around, jumping over moving belts that steam engines are running, driving the old tractors, and generally creating mayhem. Sort of steampunk…??

Steampunk uses words like “retro futuristic technology” combined with Victorian clothes and aesthetics, to describe itself. I recently read a story that is considered super early steampunk. That is, it was written in the 1860s and involves a boy creating, essentially, a robot and then running around on the American prairie with it. (The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis). One of the things that was more sophisticated that it appeared initially, is that the hero of Steam Man enjoyed terrorizing people with his machine, including the plains Indians. However, the Indians though terrified, paid attention to the monster over several days, and figured out how to defeat it. At the end of the story the machine is blown up in order to save the protagonist from the Indians, because they have rendered it useless otherwise. 

NB: Jules Verne’s science fiction could be considered a bit steam punk but he is a FAR superior writer. 

A story with an 1800’s tractor and people dressed like Victorian ladies and gentlemen but taking place at some other time is definitely a bit steam punky. 

Rabbit hole: I spent a lot of time over the last few weeks studying chastity so I could teach a class to some 8th graders. Of all the vexing projects I can think of, this one was tops. However, I did find a fascinating website that discussed studiositas and curiositas with a general comment that these Latin word DO NOT translate correctly into their English cognates. Here you go. 

https://www.primematters.com/foundations/search-truth/studiositas-and-curiositas

It’s from the University of Mary, part of Arizona State University. Studiositas is a subordinate virtue to modesty and it is balanced between negligence (which does carry its English meaning) and curiositas.

And Happy Feast Day of Saint Bruno, founder of the Carthusians, who created the horrible green drink known as Chartreuse.