Howlina - Day 30: Take a break

"Today's exercise is to NOT exercise. Give yourself a break from world-building to let the ideas sift themselves out in your mind..."

Okay...

But I have so much churning around in there.  I also don't have a lot of time and other things to do.  I definetely have several ideas I need to explore with you (character building, plot building-ish, Howler religion, etc.).

Don't worry about that stuff, I'm already starting posts in draft for some of that.  I'm also thinking of capturing some of this in a wiki designed for made up worlds (i.e. ConWorlds, btw, the link takes you to another country I built and have already stored there called Isosia on the island of Nordestia).

Now I have to dash though, I have to give a class tomorrow and I have to finish writing it.  So much for resting my brain.

Oh, and congratulations on making it all the way through 30 days of world building with my and my first time completing 30 Days of Worldbuilding.  It wasn't that hard (was it?).  You should try it.

Howlina - Day 29: Character

"Finalize your character notes today. Address any character background details you might have overlooked.
  Look in your social and cultural world for not just the places where your character doesn't fit in, but also the places where he or she does, and note them in your character notes. Make sure that, by the end of today, you can name your character's parents and siblings, the town where they grew up, their age and any training they've had, and the most influential three people in their lives.   Oh, and for those of you who already have characters fully fleshed out: Spend your fifteen minutes writing a scene in which your character is given a gift they have to refuse. You decide on the gift, the giver, and why they have to refuse it."  

My characters are not fleshed out at all.  Actually they are spirits in my mind, I know their emotions and mood, but not really their bodies, talents, skills.  I haven't even nailed down their names.

Before I can give Kata a real name I have to decide the naming conventions of Howlina.

When a couple get married they decide on a family name and they both change their family name from their previous to their new one.  Usually they pick a virtue.  They then take their birth family name and make that their third name.  At that point they have their familiar name (i.e. first, Christian or given name) their second name (something of a middle name, but it is the family name of one of the grandparents), their third name (their parents' family name) and their new family name.

If your status changes then your family name changes because your status is based on your family status.

Family names are applied for when a couple gets married.  They have to be somewhat unique, with no one else in their Kolada (Conference) unless there is no one alive with that name.

Kata's name is Fiole Thora Nomosunee Pithoforo.  Her parents' family name means, "Hopeful."  Her third name is her mother's parents' family name, it means intelligence.

Fiole's mother is named, Moria Kuria Pithoforo Likime.  Because she is widowed and now living within Fiole's eldest brother's family she changed her family name.  He kept her married family name and use it to replace her maternal grandparents' family name.

Fiole's father was named Gousto Galo Tuxiseno Pithoforo.  His third name is his paternal grandparents' family name.

Fiole has two older brothers who are not Supers.  They are Proto Miko Pudepo Likime, and Detero Greega Pudepo Surofo.  Her younger brother who is a Super is named, Teleto Kalutero Pudepo Pithoforo.  He is not yet married.

"Pete" is not Pete's name either.  It is Francis "Frank" William Hidalgo.  His father is Fredrico Alexander Hidalgo.  His mother is Ingrid nee Lindh.

Howlina - Day 28: What Did We Leave Out?

I did some major editing to make this make sense and to be an exercise rather than a discussion, as it is in 30 Days of Worldbuilding.  I also added the numbered bullets.  This got quite long and would be very difficult to read if I put the questions all in one place and the answers in another, so I will try to put the answers right after the questions.  I will give them each a different color.

Typical women's fashion

1. Clothing: What passes for fashion in your world?  Light and airy.  Women wear toga type things and men wear tunics, for casual wear.  They don't fuss too much about clothing and there is no real taboo against nudity, so clothing is mostly functional for the job.  It is always neat, clean and well tailored though.  Everyday clothing is often made of cloth made from kanabee (like hemp clothing).  Smooth wool is for more fancy dress.  Rough wool is used in combination with either kanabee cloth or smooth wool for winter clothing.  A common winter over-clothing is a long wool sweater similar to an Icelandic one or an Irish fisherman's sweater, but all one color (tan or gray) and with a hood.
2. Food and Kitchens:
1. Is food substantially different? Howlers generally enjoy spicy foods.  It is a cross between South East Asian food (Thai etc.), Mediterranean (like Greek) and Polish, with Veleeya oil instead of olive oil, and veleeya leaves for oragano, they use a lot of seafood and the native peppers.  They also have a wide variety of sausages with a seafood sausage being the most unique.  Veleeya tea is the most popular drink replacing both tea and coffee.
2. What about food prep and kitchen areas?  Kitchens are always designed with the idea that two people will be working together in them.  Electric stoves and ovens are almost universal.
3. Sanitation and hygiene:
1. How clean is your world? Howlers are a very clean people with the home tidiness of the old world and the easy body clecleanliness of the tropics.
2. What do large concentrations of people do with their waste? Howler made careful study of the most advanced sewer and waste systems and always strive to stay on the cutting edge of technology.  They were very early adopters of flush toilets and then never lost the sanitation skills that were the halmark of Rome at her height.
3. Hygiene and bathing? Howlers swim and bathe very often, but the generally use either no soap or mild soap because they wash so often.  Bidets are nearly universal.
4. Disease and Treatment, Medicines:
1. Similarly, how does medicine work in your world?  It is our world so medicine works the same.
2. What do people do for pain? Howlers are less reliant on medication than Americans, but they do use the same otc drugs.  Howlers often grow patatas and saveti for pain relief.  They dry and powder the patata leaves as an asprin powder and use the saveti leaves for an aloe type salve.  They also eat the products of these plants.
3. What do they do about disease? Modern medicine
4. How do people heal? Normally
5. Are there hospitals, healers, infirmaries, medics?  Hospitals and medical care is first world.  There is universal healthcare as a bare minimum, but there are also private doctors who can charge more.
5. Treatment of the Elderly:
1. A related issue: do your elderly drift away on icebergs?  As long as both spouses are alive then they operate as any other couple.  When one is widowed, they are not expected to remarry.  They are expected to support one or more of their children and those children are expected to welcome them back into their homes.  In the case of several married children they may travel back and forth.
2. Do they get put into an old folks' home? The elderly with no children do live in a communal home.  It is similar to the apartment buildings that people yet to marry may live in if they are living away from their parents.  There is no stigma to these homes and they are often tapped for resources like baby sitting and tutoring.
3. Do they shift to hyper-productive imaginative lives in a VR world? Not yet
4. Are they revered? Reviled?  The elderly are revered, but if they are no longer married they lose the status as a full citizen.  If widows have rejoined a family then they participate in politics etc as a member of that family.
6. Law Enforcement and Incarceration:
1. What happens to criminals in your world? Every effort is made to deal with criminals on a local level.  The different local governments are more uniform than in the US, and therefore local treatment is generally the same everywhere.  Criminals are usually trained at a skill and put to work.  They are never allowed idle time.  Criminals re expected to earn enough to pay for their incarceration and any reparations due the victims.
2. Fines? Feuds? Eye-for-an-eye mutilation? Microchipping?
3. Do you have prisons?  Prisons are always a combination of tech school and factory.
7. Pets:
1. Do the people of your world keep pets, and if so, what kinds?  Dogs and papagalos are the two most popular pets by far, followed by domesticated rats.
8. Where are the tectonically active zones?  Howlina was formed by the midocean ridge and it still experiences stretching and quaking.  The homes and buildings are build low and strong for this reason and hurricane protection.

9. Architecture:
1. does it reflect pure utilitarianism or are there fossil features? The only fossil features are those that work well, but are done with modern materials.  Howlers eschewed the development of air conditioners and still disdain them now, because they are such a bit drain on precious power.  They have taken the native passive cooling methods and modernized them.
2. What is it made of, and does this vary by status?  The most sought after materials are brick and volcanic stone (because the porous nature provides insulation).  It is quite common (more common than brick houses in the US) mainly because they know that timber is a fairly precious commodity and they husband it.  The trees they use for building are dreeso trees which are very slow growing, but extremely sturdy.  Often they cut branches rather than felling a whole tree.  They don't build with wood just to put up more houses (so called balloon houses).
3. If it's multi-storey, how do you get between stories? Ladders or stairs or ramps? Almost all buildings are one story above ground.  When they have multistory buildings they build down.  Stairways are wide and open to try to ward off the claustrophobic feeling of being in a basement.
4. Does architecture channel fashion? Does this vary by status? No.
5. What fills the windows? Casements of bullseye glass? Sashes with oiled parchment in the frames? Shutters?  They are fond of stained glass and there the many types of natural volcanic glass on the island are the most popular.  Windows do tend to be smaller and are open a good deal of the time so they have developed some sophisticated screening systems.  They also universally use shutters because of the possibilities of hurricane damage.  Although there is little risk higher in the mountains they still add them.
10.  City planning:
1. walls or no city fortifications?  Howlina was empty of people when the Howlers arrived and only once was it ever invaded (by England in the 1700s) so there were no preparations or considerations for war in any of their city planning.
2. Did it just grow outward from a ruler's house or a ceremonial site?  Towns grow up as clusters of villages, which are clusters of homes.
3. Is it forced on a grid  No.  The clusters are all linked by main roads, but everything has a name and numbers are fairly rare in the addresses.  There is absolutely no grid system, but the clusters do tend to be circular because they try to make everything in the cluster the same distance and clusters tend to group around a park, green space, fountain and/or communal vegetable garden.
4. is there a messy zone somewhere, older primitive form or bad terrain?  Where towns meet water or mountains the circular clusters get stretched, flattened or deformed.  In some towns they are barely linked.
11.  Where's the water?
1. Do you have to go to the well/stream outside the village/town gates to get it? There are no walls and no considerations for that sort of thing so towns are built to take the best advantage of water sources, both supply and waste.
2. Is there a stream through town, getting progressively filthier as the gutters and sewage dump into it? They have always been careful to keep water supply clean and sewer separate.
3. Do the high folk live at the upstream end? Why not, if they've got the money and power? NA
4. Are there natural fountains spotted here and there? Yes, and clusters tend to group around them when possible.
5. Piped in fountains in every neighborhood? Where natural springs are not available then piped in fountains are universally applied.  They even use an aqueduct system  to provide water without use of power.
6. Running water from cisterns on the roof?  Roof cisterns are very common.  Green roofs are common too so between them there is almost no runoff from buildings.
12.  Heating the place: or cooling it.
1. [How heated, floors, chimneys, stoves?]  Heating was traditionally done with kanabee.  They press and sun-dry the woody stems of the grass into pellets used in all fuel applications where wood would normally be used.  They are south of the tropics so heating is needed in the winter months, however heavier clothing was always the preferred method of staying warm.  Currently electric heating systems are most common, and one of the most important things to be computerized in homes of the 21st century.
2. In hot weather, [fans, manual or mechanical (water, air, or electrical?]  Buildings are designed to take advantage of passive cooling.  Additionally there is a popular old method of using external windmills similar to those in the US prairies to drive interior ceiling fans.
3. or is it all passive cooling, like Hawai'ian houses? Note...Traditional hot-zone buildings have small windows, or ones up high under the shade of the eaves.  Yes
13.  FIRE!
1. How do people handle outbreaks of fire? Fire fighting is a government responsibility
2. How frequent or dangerous are they? Fairly rare.  Buildings tend to be stone/brick with muddy green roofs, also burning wood is not that common and kanabee fuel pellets are a bit easier to control.
3. Is it something simply ganged up on by the neighbors? No
4. Are there private fire companies? No
5. Without hook and ladder trucks or horse-drawn pumpers[?] NA
14.  Passage:
1. is it legal to wander around at will? Yes, but it is fairly rare for people to travel alone.  Traveling is usually done in pairs because they like pairs and because traditionally it was safer in case you ran into dangerous animals or weather.
2. Are borders between places guarded or permeable? Borders tend to be seen as opportunities to tout your community, so they are decorated and welcoming.
3. Do they really care if people come and go as long as they [pay] entry taxes? No entry or movement taxes, but there are many visitor centers and they do ask for donations.  It is customary to donate generously.
4. How is this policed? Great Wall? Hadrian's Wall? Guard patrols? Wait until the people have to buy food somewhere?  Decorative fences, hedges and other borders that are inviting but make it clear that you are entering a new place.
15.  [M]orals in general and sexual mores in particular.
1. what partnerships are permitted, which are slightly scandalous, and which are considered taboo? Premarital sex is not only encouraged, it is practically required before a couple can get married.  The Veebeelo describes the ways to test each other to best determine if you are sexually compatible (seen as one of the most crucial of the marriage links).  This is done at the end of a long and regimented courtship.  Homes often have a guest bedroom just for this activity.  After marriage extramarital sex is absolutely forbidden and divorce is not legal.  If it is determined by a court that a couple is incompatible then they can be legally unbound, but no one wants this at all.  It includes a lengthy and deeply probing investigation and therapy.
2. What happens to people who ignore the societal rules?  Adultery is a crime and is punishable by law.
3. Also, what are their views on killing? Killing is not justified and is frowned upon outside of war.  Euthanasia is legal if a spouse performs or is involved in the performance of it.  Because it involves not only the emotional separation, but loss of legal and political status it is rare.  The repercussions on the surviving spouse are great enough that it is always done responsibly.
4. Lying? Lying between couples are worse than swearing and only slightly better than physical attacks or cheating.  Lying by a family to outsiders is not as severe.  It is only this way that "little white lies" are tolerated.
5. What words or concepts are obscene?  Things that indicate cheating or that a couple is not well paired or doesn't work together.
6. And how do their views affect their language, whether slang or idiom or basic speech? Couples and families are singular and superior entities.  Speech and everything else in their culture reflects this.

I also have a couple of items I have grabbed from some alien building instructions:

1. What is their Driving Principle?  Two is one, one is none.  Everything and everyone needs a complimentary mate.
2. What is a unique / interesting / notable social feature?  Much is made of the requirement for premaritial sex, but the Veebeelo is more comprehensive than that in describing how a couple should be paired and once paired what is the correct way to maintain the bonds.  The culture of the Veebeelo is pervasive and obvious to outsiders.  It is even on their flag and has always been no matter what else the flag contains.
3. What is there technological level?  They are first world and leaders in some fields, notably alternative energies, breeding and genetic engineering.  They are also at the forefront of responsible use of the ocean.  Their shipping and aviation are top flight as well.
4. How is there military structured?  What little military they have is Navy and Air Force.  The Navy is essentially a Coast Guard with no ability to project power.  The Air Force is actually a modern and formidable one.  There is no Army at all.  The closest thing would be the Federal Police, but they are strictly and by all definitions a police force and not military at all.
5. What is their government?  Originally they had modeled their government as a theocracy based on the Roman Catholic Church.  About the time of the enlightment they removed the requirement for the leaders to be clergy, but maintained the same structure.  The leader is the Pope who is advised by the College of Cardinals.  The Cardinals are taken from Archbishops.  Archbishops are taken from Bishops and Bishops are taken from Pastors.  When they achieved independance they revamped the system so that general elections are held to determine who holds any position.  It is illegal for someone in office to run for office so there are term limits in effect.  Every home gets one vote (a home being defined as a married couple and any unmarried children and widowed parents).  It think I will have to explain and expand this later.
6. What do they as a society fear?  Losing their independance and culture.
7. Marriage?  There is a week long celebration with specific activities on each day, then there is a week long after-marriage that is similar to but distinct from a honeymoon.  There is no honeymoon like we think of it in the West.
8. The view on sports in general, and what sports in particular are popular?  Sports are not seen as important.  Games and exercise is seen as important, but organized competitive sports are very rare, and professional sports do not exist.  Mainly team, couple and cooperative games are played.  Tennis, raquet ball, ping pong, badmitton, volleyball, croquet, water polo and a few unique cooperative games (where there are challenging physical activities, but no winner or loser) are the most popular.
9. What are the most common (i.e. popular) hobbies?  Gardening, breeding, hiking, swimming, stargazing, sailing, wood carving, cooking, and animal training are most popular.  Activities like state fairs and/or market festivals are very common and popular.
10. What is art like and how is it valued?  Music is the most common and considered the highest form of art.  Visual art like stained glass is a distant second, with dance, sculpure and architechture not really seen as art at all.  Everyone always carries some form of musical instrument.  The most common ones are ocarinas and harmonicas.  Drums, ukuleles, penny whistles, pan pipes, and melodicas are common too.  Even the musically helpless carry a kazoo or mouth harp at least.
11. What do they use for vehicles?  Traditionally goat carts and goat sledges were most common overland.  The larger and longer cargo trips and even passenger trips were always done by boat (making controled borders even more useless).  Railroads were adopted early, but cars are still quite rare.  It wasn't really until electric cars became more viable that they were more widely adopted.  Trains were powered by many things including coal, wind, alchohol burning engines, goats, gravity (paired trains on steep roads were chained together in a counterweight system) and solar; but the first and most common fuel before widespread electricity was kanabee fuel pellets.  Still, they were always aware of the folly of turning the whole island over to kanabee production just so they could have enough fuel, and instead made do with less rail transport.

Psychological Profile
(The importance, emphasis or willingness in the following areas.)

1. Social - Very gregarious internally
2. Xenophobia - Mostly distrust outsiders
3. Aggression - They are not aggressive offensively, but very steadfast in the defense
4. Exploration - They highly regard exploration, but feel that every inch of their own island and ssurrounding seas is enough for them.  They support space eexploration by others.

Howlina - Day 27: Plot Hooks

"If you don't have an outline, look at your plot hooks and see if you can group them together.  If you can, cluster them together and talk about the most interesting cluster"

I think I'll just give you a basic summary of the plot as I see it so far.

You already know that the underlying story is boy meets girl and they fall in love.

 I have decided that the outside pressure is that the Anti-Transhumanists in Howlina, being very new and inexperienced in the ways of hate have hired outside agitators and organizers.


Not exactly like this



These outsiders are essentially terrorists (not sure yet if they are KKK, al-Qaeda, IRA or something else).  Things get quickly out of the Howler protesters hands and the violence escalates until there is practically a full blown war with the Transhumans fighting for their lives and the normal Howlers forced to decide on whose side they are.

Why I like outsiders coming in is because the Howlers have always struggled against outside influence, but they have always been insulated and protected.  Now it's coming to them.  They haven't had to deal with this sort of thing much before at all, but now they will, now that they have a solution.

I think there will be a question of Pete's loyalties because he too is an outsider and they all "look alike."  He is a loner (in that he is in Howlina on either no agenda or a benign one, mostly driven by his own desires and not on behest of anyone else) and any connection to the groups that the outsiders are from is only tangential at most.

I also think that this will make strange bedfellows.  The Cats may side with the terrorists in a grab for power.  And / or the Cats may be the hope (misguided or not, we shall see) for a fighting force against the terrorists.  Can you imagine a tiger-ninja going after would-be terrorists?

The Transhumans themselves are a threat to the normals, but they have also worked out cold fusion, which is also a threat.  Cold fusion would upset the balance of power in the world which is now balanced on oil.  I think the terrorists would have some tie in with that too.  They use it for legitimacy

Howlina - Day 26: Anti-What If?

"Look at your "mood words" list and then at your notes and outlines and ideas. Put anything that doesn’t match at least one mood word (or a synonym of a mood word) onto a separate page or in a separate file. You may end up putting your misfits into this novel when you're stuck or need some inspiration or when there's an opportunity for them to fit in. You may even, when you get tired of the main storyline, decide that you want a subplot of Misfits, something to give a little comic relief, perhaps, or just an alternative tone to your main storyline.

For contradictory ideas, pick the one that you like best or, if you have no favorite, the one that best matches the mood of your piece. Put the other one into the Misfits file-- you never know when you might be able to tweak it to fit your story after all. Throw nothing away at this point, but organize your world into "things that I know contribute to what I'm trying to do" and "things that don't match but I like them anyway."

I've been pretty careful to keep everything IN the mood, so I can't think of anything I have that doesn't fit.  I've even had challenges from the comments, and I think I've satisfied those (btw, the "Salute Your Solution" is from a song by the Raconteurs, and it doesn't apply to the Howlers being military, but to non-military folks throwing a Captain Stubing style salute at an attempt to solve a problems, coupled with the fact that I'm planning on starting a war in the story that the general Howler populace IS ill prepared for).

I did get an idea though.  I could get a list of writing challenges and see what I can do with them.

I'll present the lists today and then later tell you what I'm going to do with them (I'm a little pressed for time and I tend to go WAY over the 15 minutes suggested time limit).  I will mark them with an M for misfit though.

First I generated several actual writing challenges from Seventh Sanctum's Writing Challenge Generator:

1. The story must have a raven at the beginning.
2. During the story, a character makes a meal for themselves.
3. The story must involve a salve in it.
4. The story must have a jar of honey appear in the middle.
5. The story must have a giant at the beginning.
6. During the story, a character becomes pregnant.
7. A character is depressed throughout most of the story.
8. A character becomes turned on during the story.
9. M - The story takes place in mid-fall.
10. A character is resigned throughout most of the story. 

So far only one item I don't think I could bend into the mood and theme.  Now I will grab several items from Seventh Sanctum's What-If-A-Nator:

1. M ...Beethoven lived in a world where the rise of the Aztec Empire had never happened?
2. M ...Cleopatra lived at the same time as Roger Bacon?
3. M ...Goethe lived in a world where the crucifixion of Jesus had never happened?
4. M ...Lincoln was inspired by Kepler?
5. M ...Magellan was like Tutankhamen?
6. ...genetic engineering had been invented a thousand years earlier?
7. ...the Cuban Missile Crisis had never happened?
8. M ...the evolution of mankind happened after the rise of the Islamic Caliphate?
9. ...the most advanced technology of today was hypnotism?
10. M ...the rise of the Islamic Caliphate had never happened? 

Lot's more misfits there.  What do you think?  Can't figure out how I could fit any of it?

Here's a last one.  It's an image.  I was looking for a Riddler image and found this.  I like it.  It inspires my bad guy.

Howlina - Day 24: Mood II

Howlina's Flag after Independance

"Go through your notes and make a "m?" note next to anything that doesn't actively fit into
the mood you want to convey. It's all right to have mismatched moods, of course; in many
ways, it's crucial to have a variety. But you want to know, when you write your novel, if a particular
element is going to dilute the mood or not.
Bonus Exercise:
Find a drawing or piece of artwork that captures the mood of your piece and print it out,
preferably in color. Hang it on the outside of your notebook or near your desk. This might also
be a good day to put together your moody playlist."

I've been going back and editing my posts to make sure they stay in line all along.

I haven't been able to find one single image that captures the mood I want to invoke.  All the images I've used in these blog posts are all in line with the mood, because I was in that mood when I chose those images.  There just isn't one single one that fully captures the mood.

If I had to chose one single one today and make it the cover of the binder I use for my notes, I would choose a copy of the map of Howlina.

I have a playlist.  In fact I made a mix CD to try to keep me in the right mood as I'm brainstorming in my car.

• Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy
• Like Dreamers Do by The Radiatators
• William Tell Overture
• I Can't Take It by Cheap Trick
• Dominance and Submission by BOC
• Stone In Love by Journey
• She's So High by Tal Bachman
• Smash and Grab by Juliette and the Licks
• Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz
• I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick
• Try It Again by The Hives
• Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz
• The Distance by Cake
• I'm Not Your Stepping Stone by The Monkeys
• Too Hot To Handle by UFO
• Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz
• Tonight It's You by Cheap Trick
• Zydeco Gris-Gris by Beausoleil
• Green-Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf
• Here Comes Your Man by The Pixies
• Salute Your Solution by The Raconteurs
• Radar Love by Golden Earring

Howlina - Day 25: The Sky

"how many moons does your world have? How long is a month for each of them? What are they named? Do you have any scenes already plotted in which moonlight is absolutely necessary?"

Nope, same sky, moon, and calendar as the rest of the modern world.

Wow, that day was easy.

Howlina - Day 23: Revisiting Culture

I am going to paraphrase the instructions in 30 Days of Worldbuilding:

1. National:
1. Major political groups
2. Major social groups
3. Where are they?
4. How are they similar?
5. How are they different?
6. What are their values?
2. Regional
1. What groups live in the main characters' homeland?
2. What do they value?
3. What is their language?
4. What is their economic base (industry, farming etc.)?
5. What factions are there?
6. How does the hero fit?
7. MONEY
3. Metropolitaian
1. What is a typical town or city like?
2. What was your hero's home town like?
3. Does the hero's hometown change in the story?
4. Who does the hero know in her hometown?  What are their relationships to her?
5. Hero's education
6. Has the hero left home before?
4. Local
1. What is a typical family like?
2. Is it different in different areas?
3. What was the hero's family like?  Is that typical, different, how?
4. What familial role models does the hero have?

I guess it may be time to talk about the political structure of Howlina and drill down from there.

1. National
1. See Day 8
2. The Transhumanist, the Anti-Transhumanist, those in each of the political parties, normals and the Transhuman races
3. The areas of the strongest anti-transhumanists are in Napepoli and Cheekagopoli.  See Day 12 for the locations of the Transhuman development centers.
4. I think I've already discussed how the groups are similar and...
5. ...How they are different
6. Again, I think their values have been spelled out
2. Regional (actually the largest division is the Conference followed by Region and finally by Parish)
1. Kata is from Kaurorapoli and the people there are mainly Earth Party and pro-Transhumanist.  There is a small number of Supers mixed into the normal population.
2. They value the traditions developed on Howlina and the advancement of Howlina independent of the rest of the world.
3. Howlanyata is spoken most often here, with English a distant second language.  Polish is very rarely spoken.
4. Dikoma Kolada (Conference) is a rich agricultural land and Kaurorapoli is now for it's fine craftsmanship.  Wooden products from Dikoma are highly prized.
5. The farm owners are fiercely independant and are shy of the transhumanist movement, but they favor the environment and a Howlina-first policy.  They would rather be alone.
6. Kata is a native, but feels alienated because she is different.  It is a bit too parochial for her.
7. Money is based the smallesgt unit, the Hreeso.  The dollar sized unit is Katohreeso (100 hreesos) more commonly known as the Kato
3. Metropolitian
1. Towns and cities are really just clumps of neighborhoods.  The neighborhoods, or Parishes, are laid out in a spiral, hub and spoke arrangement.  These wheels are connected by the larger ring roads.
2. Kaurorapoli is a quaint, traditional sea-side town and yet a major port of Howlina.  Kaurorapoli is the only port on the south side of the island.  The weather there is similar to the weather in Charleston, SC, USA.  This is a major center of learning and the Turtle Beaches are nearby.
3. Kaurorapoli stays the same throughout the story
4. Kata is most familiar with the Transhumanist Academia in Kaurorapoli
5. I discussed Kata's education on Day 19.
6.  Kata had never left home before leaving for college.
4. Local
1. Typically Howler families are Father, Mother and two children.  
1. I think a discussion of the home/house structure is in order.  Howler houses tend to be single family, low, wide and single floor.  
2. They resemble a cross between a Prairie Style, a mud home and a tropical lanai type structure.  
3. They make good use of natural air flow with high ceilings, thick walls and windows both low and high.  They are very strongly build to withstand hurricanes.  They consist of a single, low pitch, very wide roof.  This means that expansion is vertical, with the homes growing longer and the single roof ridge being extended.  
4. When multiple floors are needed or desired they are dug below, so that large municipal buildings are one story up and have many sub-basements.  
5. When a home is multi-generational it is usually divided so that it will be more of a row house, but instead of side by side it is one behind the other.  
6. Each FAMILY gets a vote, rather than each adult, and no single adult can vote.  Families are defined as a married pair and any unmarried children.  That's why when a couple marries they always move out, getting back with parents is only done when the parents get too old to take care of themselves.
2. This is a universal Howler structure to families.  The houses may differ slightly by area (in forested areas they may use more wood) but this is almost always followed.  Apartments are not used for families, only single people.
3. Kata's family is different in two ways, in the fact that there are four children.  At most Howler families have three children, but this is of course a function of the other and more prominent difference, that there are Transhumans in the family.  Her parents worked hard to blend their children into one single family unit, but the Supers were conceived artificially and their gestation, birth and early development were closely supervised by the university.
4. Both sets of Kata's grandparents were prototypical and devout followers of the Veebeelo.

Howlina - Day 22 - Revisiting Geography

Howlina's Colonial Flag

 "Redraw the map if you need to...Write in place names and any additional map key icons...Draw in your roads and rivers...and your cities, towns, and settlements."

This is basically chewing on the map for a while.

A Conference is equivalent of a US State.  This map shows the largest cities and the divisions of the Conferences.

Happy Thanksgiving and Hatch Night

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

And to all my friends in Howlina I bid you Kala  Manoga Neeka.

Manoga Neeka (Hatch Night) is the night that the sea turtles hatch and make their way to the sea.  It all happens on one night about 45 days after the mothers come ashore and lay their eggs during Chelona Vedomada (Turtle Week).  

It happens in mid-Spring during a full moon.  It is celebrated around the country but especially in the communities on the shore where the nest are.  It is the culmination of the Turtle season and those families who have adopted nests stay up all night helping the little ones make their way safely to the sea.

If the nest empties entirely and all the hatch-lings make it safely to the ocean then the family is considered to have good luck all year.

Howlina - Day 21 - Flora and Fauna

But not Merryweather!

"Fill in the following lists:
For flora:

1. What plants are especially helpful to your society?
2. What are your peoples' main crops?
3. What are considered delicacies?
4. What fruits and vegetables can be turned into liquor or other drugs and medicines?
5. What do your people use to kill pain, put patients to sleep, become intoxicated, or get high?
6. What plants are dangerous?
1. Do you have predatory plants on your world?

For fauna

1. What animals are especially helpful to your world?
1. On a similar vein, what animals have your people domesticated?
2. Which of your fauna are used for food?
1. Domesticated animals might be used for food
2. wild animals may also be food sources in the form of game.
3. If you have meat eating domesticated animals, what do they eat, and do your people raise food animals for their domesticated meat-eaters?
4. Food animals also lead into the question of delicacies and exotics.
5. What kinds of animals are used in medical or drug development?
6. Finally, which animals are dangerous in your world?
1. Which ones are actively predatory, and would consider your people as "meat" if given the opportunity or enough desperation?
2. Which animals are not active predators, but have passive defenses that pose a threat to your world's inhabitants?"

Ah, this one is fun fun fun.  I often get carried away with this sort of thing.  This is really the kind of thing in world building where I can cut loose.  Bare with me if this gets long and strange.

Here are my answers:

FLORA:

1. Helpful plants?
1. They brought with them beans, oats, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, spinach, squash, melons, apples and peas.  They only had a few varieties of these in the beginning, but the Howlers have always enjoyed breeding and creating new varieties so they brought only a few and then bred them into many very different products, both for the sheer variety and because the climate is very different on Howlina.
2. Once on Howlina they found that more tropical fruits did well so they obtained lemons, grapes and pineapples.
3. They found on the island several very useful plants
1. Veleeya - an olive like tree whose fruit is edible, provides good oil for cooking and lamps.  The wood has a very fine grain and is good for carving intricate things.  The bark is edible and aromatic as a seasoning and as incense.  The roots can be used to make tea with a high caffeine content and the leaves can make tea with no caffeine.  It is the single most useful plant they found on the island.
2. Savesti - a bush with two kinds of berries that bloom in different parts of the year.  In the spring the berries are sour like lemons, and in the autumn they are sweet like oranges.  The leaves are waxy and thorny, but evergreen like holly.  They make salve from this plant similar to aloe.
3. Dreeso - a tree with wood that is very good for building.
4. Patata - a tuber food plant with more fiber and less starch than potatoes.
5. Kanabee - a tall grass with a woody stem and fibrous leaves.  It is something of a cross between bamboo and hemp, but without the "medicinal" qualities of hemp.  It is the main source of rope and clothing fibers, as well as a renewable fuel and building source.
2. Main Crops?
1. The main export crop is veleeya fruit and veleeya oil.  The wine, both from savesti berries and grapes is also exported at a high profit margin.  They export apples and kanabee to a lesser extent.
2. Domestically, the main cash crops are oats, veleeya, savesti, patata, kanabee, apples, grapes, spinach and peas.  Several varieties of peppers are farmed for seasoning.
3. Most vegetables are grown in kitchen gardens and are not produced on a mass market scale.
3. Plant Delicacies?
1. Sweet savesti is a special treat because it is only harvested in a short time.  Though not exactly rare, the veleeya bark is popular and probably the signature taste of Howler cuisine.  So too are the teas made from veleeya.  It is safe to say that veleeya is the national tree.
4. Liquor, Drugs, Medicine?
1. Liquor - savesti berry wine, grape wine, apple cider, patata vodka
2. Drugs -  Very strong veleeya coffee is often made to increse the caffeine content to levels that approximate speed.  Patata leaves can have a calming, pain relieving quality when smoked, not too dissimilar from marijuana, but about a quarter as potent.  There is a native mushroom that is poisonous, but only slightly and when taken in very small amounts is psychotropic.
3. Medicine - savesti salve, patata leaf poultice or powder as a pain reliever.
5. See 4
6. Dangerous plants
1. There are several poisonous berries, fruits and leaves on the island.  All the mushrooms found on the island are poisonous.  This was the most dangerous plant until they people learned to leave them all alone.  There are no predatory plants.

FAUNA

1. Helpful Animals?
1. They brought with them (in parenthesis is the new breeds they developed):
1. Dogs (a new small hunting breed, a new pack breed, and a new herding breed)
2. Goats (a working breed (large cart puller) and a wool/milk breed)
3. Chickens
4. Rabbits (a meatier breed with much larger front legs that is so heavily domesticated that it cannot go feral)
5. Rats inadvertently arrived with the settlers. Instead of trying to kill them all they made an attempt to breed them into domesticability.  They were largely successful and the domesticated rats are largely unable to go feral
2. They domesticated the follow native species:
1. 2 bird species
1. Galopula - a heavy, flightless bird similar to turkey for meat and feathers
2. Papagalo - a species of parrot bred as a pet, these are the second most popular pets after dogs.  They are social and bond closely with their owners
2. 2 freshwater fish species
1. Solomo - a species of salmon that they both fish in the wild and have developed farming for.
2. Leekopsaro - a species of catfish again fished and farmed
3. 2 saltwater species
1. Steedi - a species of oyster farmed both for pearls and meat
2. Kavouri - a shore hugging crab that has been bred to domestication
3. Howlina seals are trained to help with fishing nets and herding fish.  They are tamed but not domesticated, similar to elephants in India.  They are even more widely used since the development of Mers.
2. Food Animals
1. Domestic: Goats (milk and meat), chicken (eggs and meat), rabbits, galopula, solomo, leekopsaro, steedi and kavouri
2. Wild
1. There is a native crocodile that is hunted and eaten often.  The skin is also tanned for leather.
2. Fishing is a prominent food source.  Harvest include tuna, sea bass, salmon, crabs, shrimp and lobster.
3. Seal and penguin hunting is done on a fairly small scale during the seasons when those animals are migrating past Howlina.  Whaling was done in the past, but no longer.
3. Food for Food
1. None of the domesticated animals except for dogs are meat eaters.  Dogs are often fed similar meats as the people.  Seals are allowed to eat some of the fish catch.
4. Meat Delacacies
1. Turtle - There is one species of sea turtle that beaches once a year in the earliest part of summer.  After the females lay their eggs they are ceremonially hunted on a very limited basis (usually the oldest, least fit, and the one that produces the least amount of eggs) and eaten in a holiday feast for that part of the year.  Their nests are identified and after a few eggs are culled as a special holiday treat, the nests are protected and when the young hatch they are escorted to the sea in safety.  They whole season is steeped in tradition.
2. Seal - there is a breed of seal that beaches in the very end of summer and stays on shore for a month.  When they arrive is the beginning of another holiday season.  The sick and weak are culled for a feast.  When the young are born they are carefully watched.  The weak and underdeveloped are culled and provide the end of season feast.
5. Medicine and Drug Development
1. Rats and rabbits are used for medicine testing.
6. Dangerous Animals
1. Sharks offshore
2. Large aggressive lizards (similar to Komodo dragons and iguanas)
3. Crocodiles
4. Poisonous frogs and toads
7. Although not specifically asked there are a few more animal products:
1. Goat fleece has been developed to two grades of wool that are used for clothing and other cloth products.  All Howler clothing is a product of goat wool and/or kanabi.  The coarse grade is used for insulation and blankets, while the smooth grade is used for fine wool products.
2. Rabbit fur is used for coats, mittens and hats.
3. Crocodile skin, goat skin and seal skin are all treated to provide leather and outerwear.
4. Fish oil and seal oil are harvested.
5. Sea turtle shells are kept whole and each household is allowed one as a ceremonial ornament.  Once a family has a shell they are no longer allowed to cull anymore sea turtles.  They can only take eggs for their holidays.  This is one precaution to help avoid over hunting.

Howlina - Day 20 - Plot Hook Day

"So, what question are you asking in your novel?"

This seems too simple, do the boy and girl get together in the end.

Hmm, that doesn't seem to satisfy and it doesn't involve all the elements I've been wanting to put in.

I think there needs to be another plot, maybe a macro plot that sits around this simple plot and puts pressure on it.

That is the conundrum I've been having, what is that surrounding, external plot?

Is it oil companies and other conventional power sources that want to scuttle all Howlina's plans to skirt their control?

Is it a local anti-Transhumanist group enlisting an external hate group to help them put pressure on Transhumanist efforts and even Transhumans themselves?

Is "Pete" trying to get a rare copy of the Veebeelo and some other group is struggling against him, either as competition or to stop him altogether?

Is it a combination?

That's all I have thought of so far.  I have the feeling I'm thinking inside the box and there are other plots out there that are fresh and new, right off the tree and not in concentrate from the box.

I do like the terrorist idea though.  Maybe the Howlers invite neo-Nazis to help and the Nazis immediately ratchet it up several notches of violence beyond what the Howlers were expecting.  Everybody hates Nazis right? 

I guess this is sort of a thinking out loud day.

I want a rescue.  I'm not sure how the book acquisition would lead to that.  I can see the other two lending themselves quite easily to it though.

This will probably be the closest to 15 minutes I spend on any of these posts.  I'm still chewing on the ideas.  If I nail it down then I'll add it to the blog.

Any ideas from the audience?  They would be most welcome.

Howlina - Day 19 - What if?: Character

" Today, we're going to apply our "What if?" wondering to the characters...exercises for your protagonist(s), additional primary characters, antagonist(s), and any
love interests in the story...For the purpose of these exercises, I'm going to refer to the character as "Joe."...Every time you answer a question, write down at least one follow-up what if?"

1. "What if Joe met his nemesis in a neutral public place?"
2. Describe Joe's physical appearance, age, educational background, and speech patterns:
1. What would a stranger notice 5 minutes after meeting Joe?
2. What would a companion notice after 5 days of travelling with, working with, or being around Joe?
3. Who are Joe's parents?
1. Are they still alive?
2. What if Joe met his parents? How would he behave?
4. Where did Joe grow up? 
5. Who is Joe's biggest hero? 
1. What if Joe met his hero?
6. What if Joe had a family, kids, etc.? 
1. What if Joe's kids were part of Joe's problem?
7. How does Joe fit into your speculative element? 
1. Does he not believe in it? 
2. Is he an expert in it? 
3. Is he an outsider?
4. What if Joe encountered something he didn't believe could happen? How would he react? 
5. What would that something be?
8. What secrets does Joe have? 
1. What if his nemesis knew his secret? 
2. What if a love interest knew?  
3. What will Joe do to protect his secrets?
9. What does Joe not know about himself? 
1. What if Joe wasn't who he thinks he is? 
2. What if he learned about himself? How would he take the information?
10. What if Joe left home? 
1. What if he returned? 
2. What if Joe became an outsider or outlaw?"

For the purposes of this I'm going to call my Protagonist, Pete (because I haven't named him yet); my Antagonist (or someone who could be my antagonist), Ann; the Catalyst (love interest) Kata; the Sleuth, Slu; and the Victim, Vic.

For the purposes of this post and because I only know for sure two characters that will be in the story, I'm only going to do the exercise for Pete and Kata.

PETE:
My primary vision of Pete is as a Cowboy.  He is much more than that, but the mood and snapshot of him is that.

1. It would depend on the action of Pete's nemesis, if provoked then Pete would fight.  He would respond to violence with the appropriate level of violence to win the day.  If argued with he will calmly and rationally argue.  He is very intelligent and can make very good arguments although his opponents are often frustrated because he does not rattle, and he is sure of himself and his point of view.  He will, if presented with sufficient facts and valid points, change his mind.  He is determined and steadfast, not stubborn.
2. Pete is 5'8" and thin, but very muscular.  He has sandy hair he keeps short and dark green eyes.  His skin is dark and his nose is wider that what would match his otherwise Nordic features.  He is 29.  He has a degree in Library Science and Geology from the University of Montana.  He speaks slowly and deliberately in a Midwestern US accent.
1. Strangers notice his height; purposeful, confident walk; his intelligent, searching gaze; his quiet, polite demeanor; and his warm but reluctant smile.
2. After five days you may learn that Pete is miles deeper than the stock cowboy, that he is more intelligent than even he knows, and that his family history is complicated, but happy.  You would learn that he is tone deaf.  You might learn that he went through a life changingly devastating divorce fairly recently.  He has a doctorate.  Though it is quite possible that you would learn nothing except that he is a very close person.
3. Pete's Mom is a Swedish immigrant to the US and his Dad is from Argentina.  He learned both Swedish and Spanish at home before attending school.
1. They are still alive and living in the US.  His Dad is an activist and academic; and his Mom a firefighter.
2. If Pete met his parents it would be a heart warming reunion.  He would feel like a prodigal son because he did not turn to them during his divorce, but he has always been his own man and wanted to deal with it on his own.  There is a great deal of love in their family.
4. Pete grew up in Minnesota and went to college in Montana.  It was in Montana that he got a job in the rodeo to pay for school.  He was a city boy before that, spending almost all his time in libraries.
5. Pete's biggest hero is Galileo.
6.  Pete and his ex-wife never had children.  That was part of their fight.  I think Pete can't have kids, but I'm not writing that in stone.
7. Pete is only vaguely aware of Transhumanism, but he is in favor of it in moderation.
1. He believes in it as soon as he sees it and is more aware of the consequences than most people would guess about him.  Actually he is more aware of the implications than even most in Howlina.
2. He is no expert in it, but he immediately grasps it.
3. He is an outsider, twice removed as an outsider of Howlina and an outsider to Tranhumanism.
4. Pete is shocked at first, but only for a moment.  He processes it very well, accepts it and embraces it.
5. His first encounter with a Transhuman is a Cattress he meets in a bar.  She picks him up and in a short time takes him out back to rape him.
8. Pete's secrets are twofold, his wit and intelligence are simply masked by his quiet demeanor and rugged appearance; the pain of his divorce is actively hidden though.
1. If his nemesis knew of his intelligence then the nemesis would be better prepared to act against Pete.  Since he doesn't, he can't.  Pete's nemesis would actively use his divorce and its result (loss of his job tenure he had built up and home; moving out of the country he was married in) against him to discredit him and to cause him to make bad decisions.
2. If his love knew of his intelligence she would appeal to it to solve any problems.  If she knew about his divorce she would understand him better and worry about him more.
3. Pete protects his secrets by clamming up.  He just doesn't talk about it.
9. Pete doesn't know that he is passionate, and optimistic.  He thinks he could never love again, yet he will.  He also doesn't know that he has an enemy.  He has a real blind spot for enemies, not because he is naive or to optimistic about human nature, but because he tends to deal with what is in front of him.  He doesn't worry about what goes on behind his back.
1. Pete would not be any different if he found out he was adopted.  On the other hand he thinks he has now scarred emotionally and is a person without love.  When he finds out he is still able to love it frightens him.
2. If he knew he was vulnerable to enemies he would just shrug it off and deal with it when it comes around to his face.  When he learns of his continued ability to love it brings out a fight or flight response.  In Pete's case he is all fight, no flight.
10. Pete did leave home for school, but he is always welcomed back.  He returns every chance he gets.  When he can't go back he is disappointed.
1. If he went home there would be a party
2. I think he will become an outlaw of some sort in the story.  The story will explore what then happens.

KATA

Kata is a Transhuman Super.  She is Pete's love interest.

1. I'm not really sure I know who or WHAT Kara's nemesis is.  Assuming it is a whom, she would be cagey, try to evaluate before anything else.  She would be defensive and use her intellect and beauty as far as it would get her.  She tries to persuade her opponents to do things in such a way so they think that they wanted to do those things.  She is not exactly manipulative, since she doesn't necessarily do this for her own benefit, but for the benefit of the opponent.  She is quite aware that she has superior strength, agility, stamina, and skill, on a level with the greatest athletes today.  She would avoid using it, but not forbid herself if it called for it.   If you think of Florance Nightingale as a Femme Fatale with the highest level of blackbelt in several major fighting styles, you might get an idea of what kind of opponent Kata is.  She will still surprise you though. 
2. Kata is 30, but you would never guess it.  She will look about 20 for many decades to come.  She is a full 2 meters tall (about 6'7") with curly dark hair (dark hair is unusual in Howlers).  Everything about her is perfectly proportioned, from every possible angle and point of her face to the dimensions of her body.  She has a perfect hourglass figure and is absolutely stunning to behold.  She carries herself like gravity isn't enough to keep her down.  Her eyes are a color of violet not found naturally mixed green and blue.  She speaks with a slight tinkle in her soprano voice.  All of her features are standard for female Supers.  What is truly striking and unique about Kata is her nose.  She broke it as a youth and refused to have it set.  Unlike every other Super's nose hers is aquiline as a result.  She has three PhDs in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering.
1. One would spend the first five minutes simply in awe of Kata's beauty and grace.  It would be very difficult to see beyond the perfection.  In fact most people spend the first five minutes after meeting a Super trying to find a flaw.  People familiar with Supers try to find the thing about the Super they are talking about that is unique and mundane enough for them to relate to.  In Kata's case if you happen upon her nose early then you can get on with a normal conversation.
2. After working with her for 5 days you would find that she makes every attempt to accommodate whomever she is working with.  She never seems like she is dumbing something down, even if that is what she is doing.  She  is approachable, friendly, helpful, and considerate while being so capable and accomplished that she never has to compromise.  Instead her manner encourages others to their own personal bests.
3. Like all Supers, Kata has biological parents and adoptive parents.  Her biological parents are really an amalgam of genes that have been so altered and improved that the people they originated from are indistinguishable.  Her birth mother is her adoptive mother, and she is a multiple PhD as well.  She is married to another scientist.  They both worked on the Transhumanism project at The University of Kaurorapolee.  They were loving, but fairly cold parents.
1. Her mother is still alive and her father passed away a year ago.  I don't know how the Howlers deal with that, but I suspect that the widowed try to find a new mate, since a single person is considered half a person.  Kata has two brothers who are not Super and one who is.
2. When she sees her mother, which is several times a year, they are cordial, but cool.  Neither fully approves of the other.  Kata's mother thinks that the role of Transhumans is perfectly clear and does not understand why Kata is constantly questioning herself.  Kata doesn't understand why her mother assumes The Solution is so easy.  She is also jealous of the clear favoritism her mother gives her super brother, and is frustrated by the lack of attention she gives Kata's two oldest, and normal brothers.
4. Kata grew up in Kaurorapolee, went to college in Rokafopolee, got her first job in Protopolee and recently left that position for another, less prestigious position in Cheekagopolee.
5. Kata's biggest hero is Cleopatra, followed by Catherine the Great, Marie Currie, Florence Nightingale, and Amelia Earhart.  She admires women who can make an impact while being extremely feminine.  She also admires the concept of the goddess Aphrodite.
1. If Kata met Cleopatra she would speak to her in Ancient Greek and have a friendly conversation.
6. Kata has not met her soul-mate as per the Veebeelo.  She is a devout follower of the great book and is struggling to fit her life into the guidelines presented there.  She actually doesn't hold much hope of finding that soul-mate.  This frustrates her and gives her whole demeanor a melancholy air.
7. Kata is up to her extremely tall eyebrows in the speculative element.
1. She believes it IS The Solution, but is really unsure how those who provide the Solution should live their lives as they are doing it.
2. She is not an "expert" in Transhumanism.  Her field is network intelligence and nuclear science, not biological engineering, but she is aware of it and understands it probably more than any normal person who is not a Transhumanist scientist (like her parents).
3. She is an insider as a Transhuman, but an outsider in her attitude.
4. There is very little that any Super does not know.  Kata understand that there is a possibility that there could be something she doesn't know, and is prepared for it, but she has never experienced it as an adult.  She would approach it skeptically and investigate it thoroughly before coming to any sort of conclusion.  She would operate from a null hypothesis.
5. The thing in the story that will knock her for a loop is falling in love with Pete.
8. Kata feels that her biggest secret is her broken nose.  There are many theories as to how it got broken, and why she refused to have it set.  The most widely accepted idea is that she did it herself as an affectation, a distinguishing feature.  The reality is that she was trying to push the boundaries of her own abilities, knowing full well that failure would result in a scar.  The point was to push the boundaries, but she considered the scar as an added bonus.  She did keep it as a distinguishing mark, but also as another test.  She wanted to see if her being a Super would heal it alone, and what would be the result of hundreds of years of a broken nose.  It is also a test of her bravery.
1. If Kata's nemesis understood her broken nose they would probably understand her better, but still not know her better than she does herself.
2. If her love knew, and he were truly her soul-mate then he would appreciate her all the more, but he would never speak of it.  He would observe, learn and marvel.
3. Kata never speaks of her nose.  If asked directly and she cannot be silent about it she will lie, but it is almost impossible to corner her verbally so that she would have to lie.  This is probably the only thing she would ever lie about.
9. Kata doesn't know if she can live the Veebeelo.  She knows that she doesn't know this and it bothers her.
1. Kata is exactly who she thinks she is.  Sometimes she wishes she weren't but she is.
2. If she ever learned that she cannot, in fact follow the Veebeelo then she would be heartbroken, but dedicate her life to those who can.
10. Kata did leave home for school and work.  She deliberate goes further and further away each move she makes.  She is now as far away from Kaurorapolee as she can be without leaving Howlina.  If she left Howlina she would cause an international sensation and she would if that would further the cause of Howlina and help fulfil the Solution.
1. If she returned her reception would depend on her success.  If successful she would be considered a hero and treated like the prodigal son.  If unsuccessful then she could never return.
2. If she were an outcast she would still follow the Veebeelo as best she could, make very profitable investments and live out her extended lifetime in seclusion, helping charities as best she can.