Tag Archives: An Orthogonal Universe

The Next Big Thing

  By Robert Watson | 16 January, 2013 - 01:34 |
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Last week I was tagged by K. Whipkey at Nightwolf’s Corner in The Next Big Thing. This one looks like fun, even though I’m not usually one to participate in memes. And, hey, since A Foundation in Wisdom is coming out soon, this is a great excuse opportunity to talk about how in the world I managed to write a novel.

This is presented as an interview of sorts. Since I’m rather new to the blog-o-world, I’ll have to figure out another way to tag five people to participate. This meme doesn’t promise death and destruction should I fail to pass it along, but doing so seems like the sort of kind thing I should do. While I’m working on that, here go some words!

What is the working title of your book?

The book has gone through as many titles as it has identities, which is not unusual for me. I’m very good at planning. While I may fall a bit short is in the sticking-to-the-plan department, I’m a superstar at doing what I feel like doing.

Hold on to your hats! This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, especially without giving out the history of the story.

The book was originally called History of the Wiener Dog. It was a story about a mathematician and a historian trying to outdo each other telling outlandish tales about common things. It was intended to be a collection of short stories, loosely tied together by the premise of a mathematician hitchhiking a ride from a historian. One of the tales, A Brief History of the Wiener Dog, I wrote for my then-girlfriend (who is now my wife) over ten years ago! Am I really that old??? Make a note, wiener dogs are the foundation of a long, happy relationship. I’ll love you as long as a dachshund.

Some time later I sat down to write new stories, since up until 2007 I was just collecting old ones. The first one was about a Renaissance girl named Mara, who wanted to join a circle of scholars. It happened to be written at a time when a certain mathematician, who should be sleeping right now, was studying for his first qualifier exam so he could join a research group. It turned out to be a handy outlet, and the story grew to novel-length very quickly. I realized I now had a novel series, and since it was no longer about long dogs, I changed the title to A Constellation in the Water.

The basic premise changed drastically over time. Now, only Sheridan, the mathematician, told stories. I realized I could connect them in a much more profound way. John Bartlebee and Sheridan were becoming much more integral to the plot itself. I realized I needed to set the stage for a few new plot twists, so I introduced A Foundation in Wisdom as a prequel to Mara’s story. About this time, I decided I didn’t like the series title, and swapped it with that of the very last chapter. The title, A Constellation in the Water, sounded poetic, but had absolutely nothing to do with the series.

An Orthogonal Universe was a much better title. It’s a reference to a line in an early chapter about story-telling. It sat around for a while. For a long time it was an “illuminated hypertext novel”, being published as a serial work online. It turned out that really wasn’t a good idea, at the current time, for various reasons. I decided to re-work the story into a more traditional novel format. I then split the series into four books, one for each of Sheridan’s tales. The first “stage” (a reference to stage of history) is A Foundation in Wisdom.

As for its original incarnation, I’ll likely revisit the idea in the future.

What genre does your book fall under?

“Fantasy” sounds like the best fit. I suppose I could call it “Mathematical Fiction,” a play off of “Science Fiction,” but I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

It turns out condensing a 45,000+ word novel into a single sentence is harder than condensing it into a two-paragraph blurb. It also turns out I hadn’t thought to work out a one-sentence synopsis. So, here goes a shot:

After a hitchhiker suggests the world is ending, John demands proof, and is given it in the form of a story about a mathematician who tried to prove the world didn’t exist.

Where did you get the idea for your book?

If anything, A Foundation in Wisdom is a satire of the world of academic research through the eyes of a young Ph.D. student. The all-too-familiar elements of university life are there: the vast hurdles a student must climb in order to get “obvious” advice, seemingly indeciphrable texts from the land of nonsense, that one proof that’s impossible to write, and the epitome of frustration: the seemingly infinitely long process of writing that thesis. They do say write from experience…

I wrote the first draft in 2008, during the short period between the completion of my qualifying exams and when I found a research group. This was a hard stage in the Ph.D. process, because it involved tracking down hard-to-find faculty members and figuring out how to ask them a million questions about their research without sounding like an idiot. Read the chapter about the wise-man, and you’ll get a pretty good sense of what this stage is like.

Thankfully, once I did find an advisor, things went rather smoothly. My own research group worked well together, and my thesis advisor knew how to keep us pointed toward our goals. Of course, one of those goals was graduating, which pretty much put the book on hold. When I completed my degree in 2010, I came back to the manuscript.

First decide the team you are supporting and the player that draws your attention the female viagra for sale most. It is certainly a vitality booster resulting in a substantial prescription viagra prices energy increase. One time when the reason of male barrenness is figured out, the treatment could be received https://unica-web.com/archive/most-interesting-programs-1975-date.html tadalafil buy so as to avert the symptoms of aging. This herbal pill is recommended by renowned healthcare experts to cure the problem of erection, overdose of unica-web.com cheap viagra can interact sometimes under the following scenarios* If you are having viagra which has been ordered by you and not taken from the doctor and are really confused about the dosage pattern then do not panic and jump at the first magic pill on offer. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I draw inspiration from my surroundings and experiences. The second book got the ball rolling, so I suppose I’d say the second book inspired me to write this one.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The 2008 version took forever to write. The 2010 version was written, almost entirely, in the one week period I was visiting my in-laws in Spokane, WA. I consider them both “first drafts”, since the stories had significantly different plots.

What other books would you compare this story with in your genre?

The two comparisons I’m given most frequently (and I’d agree with them) are Alice in Wonderland and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Charles Dodgson was a mathematician, and many references to mathematical concepts can be found in his works.

I wrote A Foundation in Wisdom while I was studying for the qualifying exam in Linear and Lie Algebra at NCSU. Sometimes on purpose, and sometimes by accident, much of what I studied surfaced as references in the story: There is a character named after Sophus Lie, the “Father of Lie Algebra”; An embodiment (and anagram) of the Nullspace called “SanCullep Island”; and, well, the list goes on.

At one point I thought it would help me understand Linear Algebra if I thought of the various concepts as physical places. As it turns out, like Schrodinger’s Cat, abstract and/or theoretical ideas don’t necessarily translate well to practical ones.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I have never thought of my books this way, so I don’t have a good answer. I wouldn’t expect the author to get much of a say in anything beyond signing a contract. If I could give input, I’d probably just hand the casting director some of the artwork I’ve done over the ages.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am self-publishing this title. It took me a long time to reach this decision, but ultimately, I determined I’d much rather retain creative control over the project. There are a few reasons for this. First, it’s a series, and I’d like to make sure the earlier books are set exactly how I want them. Someday I might revisit the “illuminated hypertext” format. There’s also a more practical issue. I’m an educator first, and during the school year, my students and the college are my top priorities. I wouldn’t want to lock myself into a contract that requires I do anything according to a schedule.

What else about your book might pique your reader’s interest?

Here’s the blurb!

—
History repeats itself. This is what I taught, and always believed. Then I met Sheridan, a man hitchhiking down the highway without a care in the world – a lonely figure who told me history, and the world, was ending. His evidence was the story of a mathematician who tried to prove the world didn’t exist.

It was a silly proposition. Nobody can prove the world doesn’t exist. But as I became more convinced Sheridan was right, that the proof lay at the edge of reality, I could only wonder, where would we go?
—

I think anyone who has ever written a research paper, thesis, or presented at an academic conference could identify with some of Marcus’s difficulties.

A Brief History of the Wiener Dog

  By Robert Watson | 12 July, 2012 - 13:54 |
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Presenting the short that started the An Orthogonal Universe project.

A Brief History of the Wiener Dog
Original Compilation Date: Spring 2003

Cavern carving of a wiener dog

Carving found in an ancient city in the Mesopotamia region


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Even as far back as the last centuries B.C, the wiener dog astounded the populations of the world. Many carvings in stone walls and caves depict the mysterious “giant dachy”, a wiener dog not much smaller than a house. They were feared creatures, often worshipped as gods. Though their overall size has decreased by far, their shape is still similar to the wiener dogs of today.

The ancients described the creature as “of generous proportions of length relative to width and height.” Though no one knows for sure what happened to the giant dachy, it is hypothesized that natural selection took its toll, leaving a much smaller breed adequately sustained by a decreasing food supply. A few maintain that they were all abducted by aliens, perhaps in exchange for pyramids. Nevertheless, their disappearance came as good news to the first cities, which no longer needed dachy lookouts. These massive towers were adorned with elaborate images of the dachy, and their decline is a disappointment to many enthusiasts of ancient sculpture and craftsmanship.

Smaller wiener dogs became popular as pets amongst the nobility of the middle ages. Lords and barons were known to keep hundreds of them in private forests. Kings may have thousands. Their possession became a show of wealth and power. By the 12th century, many kingdoms outlawed a person of lower status having a wiener dog. This act led to much uproar in the American colonies during the 17th century. A little known fact about the Declaration of Independence is that it originally read, “Life, liberty, and equal possession of wiener dogs.” Jefferson, an obvious dachshund enthusiast, was asked to change the line to its current form by his peers. He argued, “When you find a wiener dog, you find a very good thing.” But others agreed that “pursuit of happiness” would make for better history. Many historians joke they were victims of giant dachy attacks in their former lives.

In the states, the wiener dog became popular as a household pet during the latter half of the 19th century. Their international appeal, however, did not take off until the early 20th century, when a U.S. over-population of wiener dogs lead to their export and re-introduction into Europe, East Asia, Africa, and Australia. Despite their popularity, wiener dogs did not spread into the Middle East until the mid 1990’s. Low on oil reserves, the U.S. started its “Oil for Wiener Dogs” program. Though they made excellent pets, the people needed food. The program was changed to “Oil for Food” shortly after the introduction of the previous program. Nevertheless, wiener dogs had returned to the Mesopotamia region once again, the first time since the extinction of the giant dachy.

What is An Orthogonal Universe?

  By Robert Watson | 7 July, 2012 - 14:08 |
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“Mathematically” speaking, an orthogonal universe is a universe which is orthogonal to ours. Orthgonality can be thought of as synonymous with perpendicular, but a bit more general. Think of a pencil standing straight up, on its eraser. It is orthogonal to the table.

The whole reason this comes up is because two parallel universes can never meet. Time and time again I hear the expression “when two parallel universes collide” and I, being a mathematician, know that can never be. However, an orthogonal universe will collide with ours. It’s just a matter of when, and if you happen to be standing in the way when it hits.

It is also the title of a project I started way back in 2003, when I was an undergraduate mathematics major at the University of Tulsa. It didn’t always have that title, but the project has more or less always followed the spirit of an orthogonal universe. It was a frame story about a driver and a hitchhiker who tells a story. The “orthogonal universe” was the hitchhiker’s story-world which collided with the driver’s.

Originally, the project was a series of short stories, trades between the driver and the hitchhiker, each trying to outdo each other in terms of outlandishness and ridiculousness. The original title was the title of the first story, History of the Wiener Dog.

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A second short, A Brief History of Number Theory, really paved the way for the current form of An Orthogonal Universe. The number theory short was a take on the history of mathematics. Like with the wiener dog story, I had no intention to even come close to historical accuracy. Sadly, almost the entirety of History of the Wiener Dog has been eliminated by the battle axe of literature. Much of the plot of A Brief History of Number Theory, though, became absorbed into the larger project.

And that brings me to just that. In Fall 2006 I began my Ph.D. in mathematics at NC State University. The first year of doctorate studies is dominated by a series of exams called qualifying exams. The aim is to ensure the student knows enough to carry out independent research. The exams are just about as fun as the name implies. The following Summer (2007) I began preparations for the Fall tests. Needing some sort of creative escape to maintain my sanity, I dusted off the old History of the Wiener Dog and began banging out the first novel of a series of four.

And that is what An Orthogonal Universe is today – a series of four novels, each a story in a different historical era, told by the hitchhiker (referred to as stages for stages of history). Technically, the one I wrote in Summer 2007 was the second stage, not the first. But the seeds were planted, and for the next five years I tinkered with the story.