Great Hites

This week I entered Jeff Hites' story contest for the first time. Lawrence of the 100 word story podcast mentioned the prompt that Jeff had chosen, it was about space elevators. I first read about space elevators about two years ago in an astronomy magazine. The whole idea intrigued me and I have spent a lot of time since then imagining the process at work. I figured that now was the time to branch out and try a complete story longer than 100 words. I will post the story below.

I have enjoyed the 100 word story contests. I like the challenge of honing the text around a single idea until you have just the barest structure to present the idea. Recording the story has also been a learning experience, and though it may not sound like I have improved much when listening to the podcast, I have seen a remarkable decrease in time it takes to go from sitting down at the mic and uploading it to podcasting.isfullofetc.etc.

Writing the story of the space elevator felt almost like taking a relaxing run down a forest trail after spending a week doing nothing but speed workouts around a track. (I started running at the same time I started Nanowrimo, so my thoughts are also on physical activity.) It felt good to describe Jeremy's past, share some of his feelings, etc.

I heard the prompt on Monday, and the story was due by tuesday eve. While listening to the story after it was posted, I realized some inconsistencies. I caught one before I recorded. Origianlly I had Jeremy sprawling across the floor when the lift door opened.....Doh! That would be tough in low earth orbit. One that I didn't catch was his age. I had him as a child when Elison Onizuka died in the shuttle disaster. He sounds like a young adult, and has a little sister. That would put the narrator of the story, at his age, right about now. For a little more credebility, I should have written him in, at least, his thirties. My daughter, who is now 22, was born in Hawaii, but was not old enough to remember the space shuttle disaster, though it happened while we were there.

Oh, well. We'll see if my next effort makes more sense.