Boy was it fast!
I am happy to announce that my pitch for a big sea monster story (see previous post) has been accepted¹, and the contract signed and delivered, so yes, I am going to write a book about a rampaging Livyatan melvillei… or half a dozen of them.

The general story, plot and structure are well defined, and I have a list of characters. So I’ll devote two hours each day, staring today, to outlining and to the preliminary documentation of the book – I’m writing science fiction, I want to get the science right.
Considering my background in paleontology and my passion for oceanography, I’m happily off to a good start:

• I already have a lot of the information I need
• for the information I do not have already I do have a lot of books on my shelves
• and for the information I won’t be able to find in my books, what the heck, I’m smart enough to invent the missing bits and make them look believable.

I will keep a few good solid reference books handy – it is true that the bulk of the quick-and-dirty fact checking will be done online, but I like to have a few books at hand.
I will certainly go back to Paul R. Pinet’s Invitation to Oceanography, a great introduction to the subject that I’d easily recommend also to non-specialists as a fine read on the subject of the oceans – the ideal book to get the right mood and mindset for my characters; and I’ll keep handy also Thurman & Burton’s Introductory Oceanography – the standard introductory book for biologists and geologists on the subject.

I will also prepare a list of questions that I will pass to my scuba-diving friends, to check hands-on observations.

Then I’ll set up the Scrivener files and all the rest and, in a bout a week, I’ll start writing. Two thousand words each night, and it will be over in one month. Barring disasters.

I’ll keep you posted as things develop – and my Patreon supporters will probably get a look behind the scenes once in a while².
It will be fun.