There Is Geekery Afoot

So, once in a while when writing, you have a good idea.  Once in a rare while, you will have a great idea.  Once in a lifetime, if you are lucky, you have a holy-crap-on-a-cracker idea.  I have had one of those.  Right now I am rapidly writing an outline for one of the coolest things I'll ever write.  I'm a fountain of useless knowledge, and in a weird moment four or five facts came together and my brain turned like an engine.

I am taking 2012 to research.  Along the way, I will be learning some cool things about history and exploring different caves around the country.  I will be talking with people who are familiar with the wilderness before the United States was born.  I am a proud Cherokee, and I know some legends from our history are going to merge with my fiction story.  At this point I need to see the land at these locations and let reality shape a few things.  There is also the wow factor of going so far below ground and letting that influence scenes.  It was always my plan to write a book in 2013, but I didn't expect the idea to come so suddenly and so completely.

In March, I am going to two different locations in Oklahoma.  One is the Heavener Runestone, the other is a cave in the Poteau Mountains.  I'm going to be working local caves between now and then to get comfortable with them.  You can expect the occasional cool picture or factoid that I pick up that is too good not to share.  Now you won't be wondering what in the hell I am occasionally blogging from the bottom of Marvel Cave getting soil samples.  Someday, when this novel is on the New York Times best seller list (hey, dream big, right?) you guys will laugh and point to pictures of rock formations taken back when.

I will create a tag so you can skip 'em if you like, there may be one or two a month about where I go and what I learn about our how the Midwest was about 500 years ago.  Any spelunkers who want to share tips, feel free to contact me so I can listen to your war stories.  If you know of a cave with a neat story or Native American tie, I would love to hear about it.  While I'm still working out details, the more possibilities the merrier.

While it is too cold to take any trips, I am going to start with a local cave and hitting the gym.  I need to build some stamina and upper body strength.  Heavener is a challenging hike but I was a smoker back when I survived.  The friend who went with me took one look and said screw it, he took a nap while I went all the way down to the bottom.  Funny story, not knowing what I would see would blossom into a story I forgot the damn camera. But the one I plan to see in May has a sixty foot shaft that has to be crouchwalked or crawled.  I'm claustrophobic and scared to death of spiders, so crawling is not an option.  One's gotta do some time on the elliptical to face that beast.

There is geekery afoot.  You have been warned.