Help I've fallen and I can't get out!

[rthstewart]

Thank to those who weighed in on AW 13 and 14 and Happy New Year.  I've now thrown myself into in the Big Bang (oh god, what have I done?  A War story.  WAR, I tell you.  From she who has never fired a gun and flinches from first person shooting games).  Work proceeds.  I'm currently writing about Peter not vomiting.

Not thirty minutes into the training flight and the deck of the Waco they were trapped in was awash in the vomit of hardened men.  He was, quietly, proud that he’d retched on only four of the twelve training flights.  That was eight better than his CO.  Major Howard had gotten sick every time they went aloft in the Waco.

For his fortitude, Peter won win twenty schillings and 9 cigarettes in the Company-wide betting pool.

But this lead me to the realization that it was all exposition and so I should write, you know, real time vomiting and why Peter was pretty much inured to the smell of it being accustomed as he was to the stench of giants, wet sheep, and stewing offal meats.  Which meant he had something to fix his gaze on which meant I needed to know what was inside a Waco CG-4 glider.  (Yes, I will explain why everyone is sick in the first place).  15 minutes of google-fu later and I hit the jackpot.
138 years of Popular Science available on line.  For free.  This is from the February 1944 issue.  On page 94 is the article about the gliders. Also on page 104, Daily Workouts Guard Your Health is the 1944 version of softcore porn in a science magazine.  What is cool is that these are the actual scanned magazines so you get the ads and diagrams and it's a wonderful slice of history.  And science!  [edit -- RAWRR it won't let me link to the pages directly so you'll have to go to the table of contents and link to pages 94 and 104 or scroll through it or search "glider" and "workout."]

An hour later, I've been skimming science articles about Darwin from 1894 and a long discussion about kangaroo like dinosaurs  from the 1920s and the history of how mental illness was assumed to be the result of demonic possession.  It's time to shut the browser. 

Comments

[autumnia]

Not helping at all here but...

... a long discussion about kangaroo like dinosaurs from the 1920s

What would Mary think of such things? Or would they not be as remarkable as her search for gryphons?

(By the way, all your links above go to the same page. Not sure if that was your intention.)

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

alskdgd YOUR RESEARCH SKILLS

I am so envious.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

Erm, did you mean schillings, or is that a typo for shillings?

The break in the hadrosaur's tail isn't at all obvious. Knowing it was there, I went to look for it, saw an obvious disjoint, then read the attached blurb and realised I was looking at something else completely, and the infamous break was further down. So much for extreme personal cleverness :-)

[raykel.livejournal.com]

A fanfic writer who takes the time to do RESEARCH. I think I'm in love. :)

[harmony-lover.livejournal.com]

*Lol* This is what happens with online research. You can spend hours and hours at it, find things you never thought existed, and read things you never thought you'd be interested in. It is a disease. :)

[min023.livejournal.com]

Oooh, snippets, references and google-fu. I like this game : )

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

lkdsjslakdjaslkdjasldkasjl SCIENCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, HISTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Also, Peter and battles and RIDIC EXCITED jsyk.

[harmony-lover.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating - but then, I'm always fascinated by British class differences and how they're acted out socially.
You're right, this seems to be the absolutely perfect situation for Peter, as odd as it might be for him at first, and I love that. I know I'm going to be fascinated by how he develops throughout AW. LOVED the first chapter! :)

[(Anonymous)]

I can't wait to read this chapter. Beside several other aspects, I think that's the time when we'll finally see Peter in more or less proper environment. When reading your FFs I had more and more feeling, that - in the light of what you've written - there is little explanation (or even excuse) for appointing Peter as High King. From England-parts we know that he's too stupid to even learn Latin, not to mention science, from Narnia-parts we know that he tends to leave all the work to his siblings and disappear somewhere in the countryside. Yes, I can see that you simply like Edmund and work hard not to have him dominated by his brother but by now there is little explanation why everybody treats Peter so seriously.
As to the last chapters - before Christmas I was extremely busy, during Christmas I had Christmas. In other words: I was reading, but I had no time to write comments. Therefore - beside what I've written above and what can be easily implied from that - I'll give you some now:
- I like Lucy's relationship with Aidan (despite the fact that - as you may remember from my comments long time ago - I'm not the greatest fan of Lucy being married); I agree with you that she could not have some unhealthy relationship and that putting her into one just for the sake of dramatic action would be absurd.
Not to mention that seeing Edmund and Morgan as stable and mature couple is a good joke itself.
- Peter and Mary managed to talk normally with each other; why am I not surprised that it happened at night, when they were alone? Clearly when they are alone Mary’s competitive paranoia is switched off. If they had more chances for spending time alone they could even become friends.
- thank you for showing us British war-time Christmas. It never crossed my mind to do the relevant research myself, so I’m grateful for yours. And for pointing out this charming book Instructions for American Servicemen... I bought it together with instructions for British soldiers in France and in Germany. Fascinating lecture, I’m quite sure that none of the soldiers for which it was written had read it with such an interest as I did.

All the best in new year,
Krystyna