Now that 'Little Blue Cat' is done, I am still eager to write. How nice!

I like that. I like feeling creative again. I must be feeling joy inside me, or it wouldn't be happening.

So, I am doing the next story in my personal list of the stories that should have been written before 'Fiddler's Green' finishes everything off and ties it in a bow.

The story?

Cross The Amazon.

Those who have read my stories and soaked up the background information about the world of that time will have probably already shuddered at the title. The Amazon Desert is a forbidding place, deadly, dry, barren, like the whole of South America. Dessicated tree stumps from what were once slashed-down-jungle turned into grazing lands so we can eat McDonalds in the here and now. Much of the Amazon is desert right now, thanks to this profit-madness... but you shouldn't necessarily blame McDonalds (and Burger King and Wendy's and such). The greed and blindness is the work of the people of South America combined with their governments.

The demand for meat is there, that takes land, and it's their forest - or so they would say. We are not at the level where, as a species, as a planet, we can recognize that the world's largest jungle belongs to the planet and all humanity - because it is part of what is keeping us all alive. Humans don't, and probably can't, think like that. Poor people in South America see impossibly wealthy people elsewhere, and naturally they want some of that technological bling for themselves. Since rich people don't get rich by sharing, this creates conflict.

The conflict is easily resolved by raping the world and destroying the lungs of the planet. Turn forest into smoke and stumps, and you get grazing land. Put cows on it, and you can sell beef. Lather, rinse and repeat until you reach the opposite ocean. Result? Profit! Televisions and Nikes and video games and fancy clothes, houses and food and jewelry and fast cars. Just like the rich people.

The problem is that the Amazon jungle, just like the Sahara Jungle before it, is built on sand, and is really only inches thick. It's like a carpet over a desert, and once it unravels, then it doesn't grow back. It just keeps unraveling. That is what happened to the Sahara - the ruins we have found with satellite mapping suggest a massive civilization amazingly far back - and the dessicated stumps under the sand - entire forests of stumps, tell us what occurred. So, the Amazon really is business as usual.

The problem is that earth is running out of jungles. The Amazon is the last of its kind left. We've used up all the others, and they don't ever come back. Pretty much, out of all of my future predictions, the Amazon Desert is about as locked in and inevitable as can be. They leave little isolated patches of forest, there are efforts to try to fix the damage, but... it's all pathetic and useless.

So: a very exciting environment for a story! 120 - 150 degree heat, no water anywhere, no food, totally dead, Mad Max landscape, only covered in incredibly difficult terrain that combines sand and treestumps, sandstorms and settlement ruins, and ravaging bands of...

Ah, yes, characters. Well, for an survival adventure, you need an Indiana Jones and a woman companion!

Sadly, I ran out of those.

The best I can do (rummaging through the Big Box Of Protagonists) Ah! I have a dedicated stratigraphic palynologist! That's sort of like an adventurous archeologist, only... not really. Okay, he studies tiny grains of pollen in rock strata in order to find oil for rich corporations. Not quite Indy, I'm afraid, he's totally a nerd. He's used to the easy life. Oh boy.

Well, maybe his companion can keep him alive... woman, powerful... exciting... um... how about a mare? A native Equestrian mare, only there to study Peruvian weaving techniques, doesn't know anything about earth or how to survive on it. She's a unicorn. Who only knows spells for spinning and weaving. She can barely lift her saddlebags with her hornfield. And she is not athletic at all. Um.

Might be a short story, at this rate.

But hopefully, it won't be boring.

Stay tuned. I am in the preparation phase, learning as much as I can about the things my mind will need to know to write this - like Peruvian textiles and stratigraphic palynology. And the Amazon as it is now, so I can imagine how it will be. And... survival. Gotta research before I can write.

But that is the plan.

Can't wait!

... actually, I can. Anything from you is worth waiting for...

... or would it be better to say most of the stories you make are worth waiting for? Hm... dang, I need to find my motivation to write something...

I'm looking forward to it! Reading your work has gotten my plot-bunnies breeding.

Dang, where do you get the energy? I'm only up to chapter 3 of Little Blue Cat and apparently that's already done.

This sounds pretty awesome; I'm looking forward to it.

Well, this is going to be fun. Not for the characters, mind you. They probably aren't going to enjoy this one bit. Probably going to want to renegotiate their contracts after this one.

Ooh, this one definitely sounds different, and mysterious. Looking forward to it.

This sounds fascinating! Consider me intrigued, as ever! If you need any research help, i'm at your disposal!

This sounds... interesting.

Of course, as always, looking forward to it!

Cross The Amazon is up!