  Fantasy
This week: Summer Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.
-Aldo Leopold
I like summer. I like warmer weather and long days. I'm one of those silly people who still enjoy lying in the sun - my children are horrified!
-Danielle Steel
Summer nearly does me in every year. It's too hot and the light is unforgiving and the days go on way too long.
-Anne Lamott |
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Summer
Since the beginning of the year, some of you may have noticed that my Comedy and Fantasy newsletter editorials share a deadline. For the past few months, I've been terrified of mixing them up - what if I'm too funny in this newsletter, and start talking about other worlds in Comedy?
But this week, I'm lazy, as befits a summer evening (which it is in temperature if not in astronomical fact), and feeling the heat because my A/C is out, so they at least get to share a topic. Apologies to readers on the other side of the equator, who are moving into winter now, and to the lucky ones in the tropics who have only two seasons: touristy, and rainy.
Here on Earth, most of us who live in temperate zones (i.e., most of us) take the changing of seasons for granted. It's a given that every year, there will be some variation between extremes of heat or cold. But in works of fantasy and science fiction, we're often dealing with other worlds, and other worlds may or may not have similar cycles.
You probably already know that seasons are a function of our planet's axial tilt. When the north pole is in sunlight, the northern hemisphere basks in the more direct rays of its warm glow, and for a longer period each day, heating up the joint, and vice-versa.
Earth also has an eccentricity in its elliptical orbit, meaning the planet's distance from the sun cycles over the course of the year.
But what isn't so common knowledge is that perihelion, the point where we're closer to the sun, occurs just a couple of weeks after winter solstice in the northern hemisphere - meaning that when it's winter here, we're actually receiving somewhat more heat from the solar orb than when it's summer (in the southern hemisphere, of course, that's reversed - aphelion almost coincides with southern hemisphere winter solstice, so it's colder than it might otherwise be. Still, that variation is barely even noticeable compared to the one caused by axial tilt.
Point is, it's easy enough to imagine a planet with little to no axial tilt. If the orbit is also close to circular, that planet wouldn't exhibit much seasonal variation at all. The same planet in a more eccentric orbit might have seasons based almost entirely on its distance from the sun. In an extreme case, the entire planet would be in summer around perihelion, and freeze solid in the time near aphelion.
To complicate matters, it's not impossible for a planet to form in a system containing two or more stars, the mechanics of which would change the way seasons work.
Taking the axial tilt thing to the other extreme causes variations, too. Our tilt is (very roughly) 1/4 of the distance from pole to equator. Other planets in our solar system, such as the one I can't name because there's literally no way to say it without someone making an elementary school-level joke, are tilted such that once a year, each pole points almost directly at the sun.
A being on a planet like that wouldn't see much of the day/night cycle that we do. Every summer solstice, its star would appear to be fixed at the north pole; as the season progresses, their sun would trace a slow spiral through the sky, its path widening, until, at equinox, it would appear to circle the horizon - and then, later, disappear, only to replay that scenario in reverse during "spring."
It's not impossible for life to exist on such a world, but their seasons would, again, be completely different from ours, with one hemisphere being mostly in darkness for a good part of the year. What that might do to weather patterns, which are in part driven by solar energy, I leave to your capable imaginations.
And just to throw another variable into the mix: imagine, also, in any of those situations, a planet that spins much more slowly (longer day) or rapidly (shorter day), changing the time the star has to bake the planet or, in its absence from the sky, chill it. Oh, and then there are variable stars, which increase and decrease their output on a cyclical basis - which might or might not coincide with the planet's orbit.
So, point is, when it comes to picking a setting for a fantasy or science fiction story, keep seasons in mind. There are times to keep things close to what we're familiar with, but there can be good reasons to switch things up. |
Just a few items for your summer reading
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (May 8, 2013)" , I talked about various forms of marriage, real and imaginary.
Quick-Quill  : "You know, there aren't any toilets on the Starship Enterprise, either. Which makes you wonder where the Captain puts his Log."
-Have you tried writing comedy? you are funny!!!
I might have tried my hand at it once or twice.
Joey's Spring has Sprung  : Great job, you hit the subject squarely in the center of the cake, and your back swing sent the topper into orbit. I love playing with the marriage question in my stories. Some are the traditional but in others the local law requires the matrimonial bless may not exceed 24 hours. In one chapter, the Driesiry a race of people organized in a matriarchal society, they require the women to have a minimum of three husbands. They make love not war. And, No it is not an exotic tale.
Exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about.
Midnight Dawn  : "You know, there aren't any toilets on the Starship Enterprise, either. Which makes you wonder where the Captain puts his Log." It's the future! Obviously something so primitive as using the bathroom has been eliminated. 
Likely, it's a function of transporter technology.
StephBee - House Targaryen  : Congrats on 5 years! I know it's challenging to come up with new topics, but you've given marriage a new spin.  Steph
I've sworn off the stuff, myself 
And that's it for now. Until next time,
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: June 05, 2013 Issue [#5709]
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