Sara King

a.k.a. Earthseeker…  Prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, for it has been sent.  The first 56k words should have hit your email inboxes tonight.  I am putting an average of about 4.5k a day on this one, so it should be finished here soon.  I had a lot of failed deliveries that I suspect are due to spam filtering, so if you did not receive the story, but wanted to, please let me know at kingnovel@gmail.com.  And, like I said in the email, if you read it, you are required by law to tell me what you think.  (I’m sure there’s something in the books that says something like that…)
Good reading! 

-Sara King

www.kingfiction.com

Proud Graduate of Odyssey ‘08

Hey you chemists out there…

I’ve got a question.  Like I mentioned earlier, I didn’t pay as much attention in chemistry class as I should have, so I’m playing catch up.  Here’s what I’d like to know:   If a group of people had access to pure potassium or pure sodium in its elemental metal form in great quantities in nature (never mind how it got there, just bear with me here), would there be a way for humans to harvest it and, say, throw it in a vat/boiler of water and produce energy?  I know it both would produce an exothermic reaction, but would it be of any consequence, or just a brief POOF and then nothing?  I also know they would produce free hydrogen, which could then burn.  But would the potassium and sodium itself generate enough heat to, say, warm a home?  If so, how would such a contraption work?  If they wanted to use the potassium or sodium to distill hydrogen from water, how would they do that?  I’m back to the How Do I Heat My Poor Colonists’ Homes Without Carbon problem.  There is carbon in the atmosphere, but the plant life hasn’t condensed it into convenient little bundles of combustible materials for my poor colonists, so I’ve gotta find a replacement.

Another thing:  If there is no dissolved sodium or potassium to be found in the rivers/oceans/lakes of a certain planet, how would one go about breaking down a solid chunk of potassium or sodium into something that humans could eat in their diets?  I know that regular table salt is NaCl, but are there other salts that can do the same job, or is NaCl the only salt that can perform that function in the human body?
Also, I put 9.5k words on my sci-fi yesterday.  I’d say I’m finally back on track after my year-long writing slump.  I know that a lot of you are waiting for the first segment of this new sci-fi, but I’m afraid to stop the flow for a day to prep the segment and possibly knock myself out of this much-worked-for groove.  The way things are going, you guys might just have to settle for a finished novel in your inboxes, rather than a piece here and there. 

Again, sorry for the wait, and I know I really should put some more comments/art up on the blog, but I’m neck-deep in chemistry right now and am a master procrastinator, so it’s still probably going to be awhile.  I really am terrified of falling off track with this sci-fi, as it’s turning out to be very good.  I have 45k on it as of this morning, and another 27k on my dragony fantasy romance.  The former is going to be my bread and butter, methinks, whereas the latter is me goofing off and writing a story for a friend.

Anyway, if any of you can supply answers to the questions posed above, email me at kingnovel@gmail.com and I will duly fawn over you. 
-Sara King

www.kingfiction.com

Proud Graduate of Odyssey ‘08

I have a particular fan (he happens to be sitting right beside me) that insists on drawing my characters, so I finally decided to get off my butt and post a couple of them.  Dometrius’s first pic is a portrait of a young Faceless, one of the monsters in my Anfyn Glen series.  They are sexless, reproducing in the same way as yeasts and bacteria, basically sloughing off a piece of themselves.  Their lifespan is exactly 25 years w/out artificial extension, and they remember everything that’s ever happened to any of their ancestors directly up their family tree.  As completely magical constructs, they have the ability to change shape at will, making them very dangerous to otherwise innocent passerby.  Ironically, despite eating meat and their habit of killing Aulds, they are a prey species because there are much bigger and badder nasties out there in the wastelands.  Young ones that have not been trained by their elders bolt instinctively when frightened, rather than stand and fight.  They can also be deceptively cute when they want to be 

Next, we have a Tsoradin, also of the Anfyn Glenn.  They are tall, lithe, and noseless (they breathe through the tiny holes under their horn-base like a porpoise or one of those huge land-based dinos).  Their power lies in their horns.  The older they are, the bigger their horns, the more blood-based magic they can absorb and store in them.  A Tsoradin can have up to six main horns, and another six jaw tines, all ivory at birth.  Evil blood magics–those taken unwillingly from the victim–stain a Tsoradin’s horns gray.  Friendship-based blood magics, when stored in a Tsoradin’s horns, will turn them silver.  This one, as you can see, hasn’t begun training in the blood magics yet.

Here’s a species of phoenix/firewoman/critter/thingie (flames come with the final color, which Dometrius is still working on).  They’re called drakes in the Anfyn Glen, and they loosely adhere to a lot of the legends of the phoenix.

And, because he’s also a writer and because I think his latest story is damn cool, here’s his cybernetic anthro smuggler cat, Cody Marik.

I have other art and fan comments to post, but knowing my penchant for procrastination, I probably won’t get around to it for the next couple weeks. I’ll give Dom one thing…it’s kind of hard to procrastinate when your fan is 6′8″ and as rabid about your work as your friendly neighborhood wolverine.    If you liked the art, give Dometrius a shout at  dometriusking@gmail.com.  He loves to talk art, and he does do commissions.

-Sara King

www.kingfiction.com

Proud Graduate of Odyssey ‘08

I’ve got some highly intelligent readers.  I know, because y’all make me feel like a fart in a goddamn windstorm. 

Sooo, because the extent of my chemistry classes consisted of watching the clock and writing stories whilst the teacher lectured us on how not to explode ourselves in our next lab project, I am sending out a call to those of you chemistry buffs who DID pay attention in class.

Basically, my problem is this.  I am writing a science fiction story in which I need a compound that can replace wood or oil (or any carbon-based substances) for cooking fires, etc.  This compound can self-ignite in oxygen (I have been toying with the idea of phosphorous or magnesium), though it needs to be something that won’t be toxic to people if they happen to breathe it in.  Respective rarity of substances and the limitations of certain elemental forms naturally found on Earth does not need to apply–I’ll be working with another planet and ecosystem entirely.  It can be a combination of elements and can be either a liquid or a solid.  If it’s hazardous to handle, that’s even better.  The only real constraint is that it can’t be toxic when burned.
If you’re have ideas, please please please email me at kingnovel@gmail.com.  I would love to discuss it with you more in-depth.

-Sara King

www.kingfiction.com

Proud Graduate of Odyssey ‘08