To Extrapolate a Copperplate
I was grinding the grist in my brain on how to finish up the GODS OF OMAN. Calnoon Atoye Itah, one of the Omans, was still alive and was in hiding someplace because of Rohab's vow to kill him (he was the second Oman of the three). I wanted Pitus to rescue him so that they could leave Earth together at the ending. I had Pitus upload everything aboard Calnoon's ship through an interactive tutelary program that the Omans called the “Game of Fame” into the main computer, mainly to make an instructor to help Pitus repair the Oman ship. He uploaded, among other items, a video showing a youthful Atoye with his Osage friend Kawa, and to his surprise (and a little of my own) the program became self-aware due to the enormous information piled into it. Since the computer became “alive” from using this “Game of Fame” program, I had discovered the next several moves in my story line. Pitus, upon seeing the hologram of Atoye, recognized him as a young version of someone else he met early on in the story. Where was the real Atoye? This was my next important question. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia first came to mind. After all, He promised Kinar (the third alien) he would wait for him in Boston when they separated in the Prologue. But that was 144 years before. He could now be anywhere on the globe. London, Jerusalem, Paris, Rio de Janeiro; none of these places were good because, I had no plans of any of these cities. None of my atlases had any and the internet wasn't all that good back in the early nineties. Then a couple of days later, perusing a bound copy of The Universal Magazine, I found, in the April 1750 issue, a big wide copperplate of “the South East Prospect of Colchester in the County of Essex”. The scene as you can see, is beautifully detailed. Staring at it like a crystal-gazer, I easily imagined myself down on those meadows, down by the docks, on that bridge over the Coln, under the trees and on the streets of that city. THAT is where Pitus will find Atoye, and, also, Rohab! I wandered, in my mind's eye, all over that city, and on the road to Witham from the Essex County map as a sort of scout, making scenes and scenarios to have my protagonist's showdown with Rohab and find Atoye. It showed me quite literally that a picture can truly be worth a thousand words. Read the full article
