All One River GIS

There is a reason I haven’t written a funny blog in a while. I’ve become obsessed with writing, “The Igneous Rocks of Tameapa – an exploration adventure story”, which is being published by InfoMine as an ongoing series of PDF chapters. I have submitted 4 chapters in cliff hanger type of short stories, all of which will eventually lead full-circle to a resolution (and a sequel.)

I first became possessed by this story while logging core in Tameapa. The tuba player is real, the mad professor is real, the dog with a bow tie is real, in a creative literary-license sort of way. I’m not saying who or what or when inspired the characters or plot, but it practically came to me in a vision – the plot line, the characters, the events, the twists, even the ending. I can’t write it fast enough. The story is in my head and I know how it ends and can’t even explain it orally fast enough. Some of the elements of the story happen out of sequence and I capture them that way, trying to keep them organized by chapter number. The plot travels through time and all over the world. One underlying element in common is – MINING.

Since it is an exploration adventure, the story is chock full of technical jargon, which automatically limits it from ever flying in the public market but I think the InfoMine reader can handle it (possibly with a geologic dictionary at hand). The terminology is geologic. The characters are the wealth of the story and the situation is core logging in Sinaloa, Mexico. Each chapter is left open-ended with a ripe bit of colorful flavor. The language is colorful too (a few bad words here and there) and the events are slightly crazy (just like a real core logging job).

I have five main characters developed leading to the misadventures of Doc and Rene. Doc is an old professor who runs the Mobile Rock Identification Lab (M.R.I.L.), which is a converted ice cream truck. Rene is a bawdy 46-year old lady geo who works all over the world and makes trouble wherever she goes. Antonio is a handsome, crazy tuba player who was disfigured in an electrical accident a the mine in Cananea and who lives in a remote village where Rene logs core to hide from his past. Guillianna “Guilly” Arcalia de la Pera de Esperanza is a sexy female bandit with a vengeance against mines. Gerberto “Herbie” is a blind Mexican geologist. These characters meet up in Tameapa before the real action begins – a plot with bombs, kidnapping, a clever wonder dog, and even BATS.

This adventure story could be submitted as often as a weekly article of about 1000 words. I did this once before for a paper in Summit County, making an ongoing story with illustrations for Belinda Smegler — Trailer Trash Queen of Cripple Creek and her cooking show, none of which was true but the readers thought she was a real person. I used to get letters addressed to Belinda through the paper. The thing is, I keep having to actually work and therein lies the longevity to the story. I keep collecting more material as I go to new sites and continue my personal rock identification adventures.

And THAT is where I have been. Check it out!!!