word mining central
Day 488:
The sand mould worked! I have mostly-straight rails of the length I wanted, and they didn’t explode, and they seem to be pretty stable!
Now I just need to do that a few hundred more times.
Plus they take a loooooooong time to cool.
So I’m going to make more frames, to make more rails, and see where I get with that. It’ll give me something to do in the evenings that isn’t sewing ducken skins together to make leather.
Day 487:
Building my new frame didn’t take long because I’d started one the other night in case something happened, which we all know it did.
(I’m still picking shards of lava-smacked clay out of my hair. Not sure how I didn’t lose an eyeball.)
So now I’m packing sand into it instead of clay. The sand here seems to pack well – the grains look and feel pretty consistent – so i’m hoping I can pack the entire mould, carefully remove the wood templates, pour the metal once the sand has dried, and maybe have rails.
Day 486:
I poured the molten iron into the frame and there was a lot of exploding and I don’t have a frame anymore.
Apparently ceramics shouldn’t be made with high speed and wet clay.
Back to the drawing board.
Welp, that didn’t take long.
Drive Act Two is (obviously) the continuation of Drive, Act One, which I reviewed earlier today… because I inhaled both books today.
The second act of this story is as intoxicating as the first, filled with aliens and worlds beyond ours, introducing new characters and new twists and turns to the plot line at every convenience. The pacing continues to be spot-on. The art continues to be polished and delightful. The situation for our cast of characters continues to worsen, which, I mean sure, act 2, that’s it’s job.
I’ve reached the point in the story where even if I tried to explain the plot to the reader, it would take longer than actually reading the book. Plus I’d mess it up. Suffice it to say that I look forward to Act 3 with great admiration for Dave Kellett’s writing and a sincere desire to see how this all wraps up.
Or whether it does wrap up. There’s no law against a five-act space opera.
This isn’t one you’re going to find on Amazon. Buy directly from the Drive store in hardback, paperback, or PDF.
Day 485: While the clay settles in its mould, I’m going out and chopping down small trees to make sticks, since the whole reason I came back to home base in the first place was that I was out of axe handles.
But I’m also looking at the sticks and thinking I’m going to need a whole lot of these to make the cross rails for the rails. If I don’t anchor them evenly the rails won’t align at their junctions and then the cart or whatever I put on them will jump off the tracks.
I say this having built neither the cart nor its wheels. But I figure if I can’t make consistent rails it really doesn’t matter what else I haven’t made yet.
So, much tree chopping. Which ironically would go faster if I had a diamond axe. Which I’d have if I was down in the mine looking for ore like I said I would be. Which I need to make good tools to go capture sheep to make warm clothes to climb a mountain. Which I need to do to get the heck out of here.
I’m so tired, y’all.