"Mission to Blue Grannus" Novel Update

The most consistent thing readers of Green Tara have said is, "When can I read the next one?" And indeed the novel was always meant to be the first in a trilogy. Now, I have a follow-up novel that should be ready late this year. 

The setting for Mission to Blue Grannus is inspired by ice caves that form during high winds and deep freezes. These conditions occur here on Earth on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, where waves freeze solid and swells become ice caves. 

This new one, Mission to Blue Grannus, picks up two years after the end of Green Tara, when the pirate twins invite Gordy, now 15, to join them in a rescue mission. The pirate ship arrives at the edge of the Grannus system soon after his family. They're avoiding a Triumvirate engineering crew sent to reopen a toxic mine on the blue ice moon. 

The Grannus System was at a crossroads. The outer ring is volatile, with a crack in dimensions that offered a faster than light pathway to a network of destinations, including her mom's last known location, and they needed to find her. 

Also, the crossroads was about power and who controls the land and water. On Blue Grannus the original mine had closed decades ago, leaving the miners behind, abandoned refugees. One faction of the refugees lives deep in the blue ice caves, where the mushroom man cultivates strains of mycelia to myco-remediate the moon's toxic water. 

For more stunning landscapes that inspired my story world for this part of Gordy's journey, see these photos by Heather Higham.

The scientific inspiration of Blue Grannus comes from world mycology expert Paul Stamets. I saw his TED talk "How Mushrooms Can Save the World" and immediately understood the implications of his research for repairing damage to our Earth, and also for my sci-fi future vision of human terraforming and myco-remediation efforts. So, just as book 1 was inspired by invisible, essential phytoplankton in the ocean, book 2 is inspired by invisible and essential mycelium networks, the underground rootlike systems of the Fungi Kingdom, and the myco-remediation action of those networks. 

In my story world on the Blue Ice Moon orbiting the gas giant of the Grannus System, the Trivert mining engineers are starting up tests again. Orders from the board were to apply new techniques in the extraction process to yield gold and other precious metals, even though these new methods would put human  refugees at further risk by unleashing even more toxic chemicals into their water system. Gordy and his cousin Virginia, my teenage eco-warrior heroes, volunteer to help the pirates and the refugees make a trade that will protect their myco-remediation efforts. 

The power of mycelial networks to remediate poisoned water is a perfect fit for Mission to Blue Grannus. From Radical Mycology, here's a clear 1-page overview of myco-remediation: https://radicalmycology.com/educational-tools/human-uses-of-mushrooms/mycoremediation-101/

Two years ago, to understand more of the considerations, I put on my literary scientist hat and took a deep dive into all things mycological. I grew oyster mushrooms from a patch, bought the book, and took a weekend seminar Mycelium Running, by Paul Stamets. To the best of my ability I have marinated the entire story with what I learned with him and his team at Fungi Perfecti.

When I do classroom visits with Green Tara, the fifth and sixth graders are thrilled by the adventure, in which the main characters take action steps to regenerate bio-systems. I'm looking forward to taking Mission to Blue Grannus to the classroom, as well. 

We all need action steps, a game plan, for our land and water are under assault locally and globally. The question I try to answer in this series is How can we repair the damage humankind has wrought on our beautiful planet? 

Digging Deeper: Why Fungi Matters to Space Travelers

Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria variety formosa.
past its prime and shrouded in a lacy, miscellaneous mold

My literary research includes thinking out loud with experts about what types of fungi space travelers would need and why.

For Mission to Blue Grannus, my work-in-progress, I sketched out the major beats of the story for both the plot line and what I call the heart line of the story. However, as I'm drafting I still must answer many detailed questions.  So even when I'd like to whip through scenes, simply adding words and paragraphs and pages to my manuscript, often I need to pause and dig deeper into the character's inner life and the demands of the natural world Gordy and Virginia encounter.

This past week I've been toggling back and forth between the emotional arc, the lessons that come out of Gordy's experience, and the scientific motivations of his mission.

Spoiler Alert! Here's a passage from my current draft of chapter 14. The Council Circle, in which the community's need for fungi is outlined:

     Jimmy continued, “The Blue Moon Trading Post is a regular stop for us and typically we would pick up mushrooms and fungi supplies for terraforming trade. Unfortunately, our normal contacts are missing, so we need to trade directly with the mushroom man, the primary source of product, supplies, and propagation knowledge.” 

     The crowd murmured, and I had an aha moment about the renegades around me. They weren’t just pirates—though that’s how I’d first known them—they were active in the terra-forming trade. As fungi were the absolute foundation of a healthy soil of a thriving ecosystem, and it made sense they would be involved. 

     I leaned over to Virginia and shared a memory. "Remember our fungi forays on Green Tara?" I explained to Lora and Lee, "On our planetary trek we hunted mushrooms for dinner." 

     "Better than cicadas!" Virginia screwed up her face in mock horror.

     I chuckled, remembering some of our more gruesome dinners. I asked Lora and Lee, “Is terraforming the main business of the tribe?”   

     “Fungi,” Lora said. 

     “… is our biz,” Lee said. 

     “Mycelium networks,” Lora said. 

     “ … connect all of life,” Lee said.

     “Fungi are valuable for,” Lora said. 

     “Terraformation,” Lee said.

     “Myco-remediation,” Lora said.

     “Medicinal extracts,” Lee said.

     “Medicine for things like radiation poisoning?” Virginia asked. I knew that officially mushroom extracts were not considered effective beyond a general immune system boost, but renegades and colonial cruisers alike believed in them. So they'd be a valuable product to trade. The twins nodded. 

     “And you said myco-remediation. You mean using mushrooms to restore a compromised environment?" I'd seen signs of radiation poisoning in the Blue Moon Trading Post. "Near here? On the Grannus Moon?"

     "They poisoned ...," Lora nodded.

     "... the water," Lee nodded. 

     "All of it downstream ..., Lora said. 

     "... of the old dam," Lee said.

The decaying mushroom has one last
ecstatic reach to the sky.
Within hours of this snapshot
the delicate mold and most of
the mushroom body had disappeared.  

You may be wondering how my visuals of moldy mushrooms relate to this part of the story. They don't. But the magical, lacy fringe will most definitely make an appearance later in the story, once Gordy and Virginia make it farther upstream into the heart of the ice caves.

To learn more about why I write sci-fi eco-adventures, and to find out more about my work-in-progress and how writing Mission to Blue Grannus requires my research into fungi and myco-remediation, tap on KHBrower.com.

Getting Comfortable with Chaos

Author at Play
The sound of a distant flute player floats in the cool morning air and enters my story,
Mission to Blue Grannus.

I'm currently drafting Mission to Blue Grannus. This morning I noodled around with chapter 16, "Inside the Blue Ice Caves," in which Gordy & Virginia enter and begin to explore a new micro-climate on the blue moon. I'm thinking about how the thick mass of ice shields the people from gamma radiation, and that's why the former workers from the abandoned water mine thrive in a colony inside the caves. I'm thinking about how the hot springs deep in the caves keep the water warm and the ambient air temp chilly, but survivable. And I'm thinking about how the caverns are filled with the cheerful sounds of gecko chirps. Creating the story world is one of my favorite parts of the novel writing process. 

In my first full draft, I'm approaching the midpoint of the story. This is a passage of great chaos for the character. In structure theory terms, it's when everything the main character thought was true is not and the true nature of the mission is revealed. 

Sometimes the author's experience mirrors the character's experience, and that's what's happening to me. So, I'm doing my best to get comfortable with the chaos of not knowing exactly what happens next. This is partly because I'm tuning into the main character Gordy's voice every day and he's wondering what's happening next. It's also because I keep changing elements of my outline. 

Some changes are simple and will streamline and strengthen the story--like going back to ch. 15 and eliminating the old woman in rags on top of the old hydro-power dam and replacing her with the hermit guide I had planed to introduce in 16. Moving up his first appearance gives us more time to get to know the pivotal guide character before the big reveal at the midpoint. (more about that big pivot when I get there)

Anther change that I'm contemplating is not so simple. It's threaded throughout the story. I've been thinking all along that the primary reason Gordy needs to go on his mission to find the mushroom man deep in the ice caves is to retrieve fungi that will serve for radiation poisoning remediation. However, last Friday I spoke with mycologist Dr. Michael Tansey as part of my research efforts. The topic of our conversation was the possible role of fungi for space travelers:

• radiation poisoning remediation - to absorb gamma radiation ever present in outer space
• food - the most efficient way to transport would be in nutritionally dense powder form
• medicinal - anti-viral and immunological boosts- though not all scientists agree on the medicinal value of various mushrooms, there is a long history of traditional use 
• terraforming - Did you know that in the early epochs of life on planet Earth the fungi Kingdom spread on the land long before vascular plants? Or that 80-95% of vascular plants thrive in symbiotic relationships with mycelium networks in the soil? Basically, you have to have fungi to have soil. You have to have soil to have plants, and plant life is one of those things we expect on a terraformed planet. 

After conversation, it was clear that the most essential of the possible uses of fungi for humans in space is terraforming.  So I'm rethinking the motive behind the mission and how that might affect the story in other ways. I'm wondering if the mushroom man changes the nature of the mission with his expertise, as in Gordy's mission is to trade for myco-remediation and medicinals, and the mushroom man recommends various patches of mycorrhizal fungi for terraforming.

If that's confusing for you, imagine how much my writer's brain is exploding with possibilities. I'm thrilled by, afraid of, and in my best moments, comfortable with the chaos of my creative process.

To learn more about why I write sci-fi eco-adventures, and to find out more about my work-in-progress and how writing Mission to Blue Grannus requires my research into fungi and myco-remediation, tap on KHBrower.com.