life sometimes imitates 'our' art!

[robert walker]

My son sent me news that a ship buried below the World Trade Center has been discovered and is now being studied. Why is this so pertinent? I wrote that scene in the 80s in the third book of a trilogy for a horror series for Berkley -- Legion of the Dead which followed Curse of the Werewolf, which came after Curse of the Vampire all about an archeologist who always dug his way into the supernatural.  At any rate the similarities remind me of Morgan Robertston's book about the Titan....which predicted pretty much the fate of Titanic as it was written before the ship went down.  Here is the link to the story itself at WTC -

http://www.comcast.net/video/buried_ship_found_at_ground_zero/15443... - a youtube video accompanies it.

 

robert w. walker

www.robertwalkerbooks.com

work in progress is Titanic 2012

[John A. Karr]

The concept is interesting, and would have been more so if it were almost anywhere but the World Trade Center. I don't think the gash in the heart from 9/11 will ever heal, nor should it.

[JackBludis]

I think what is happening is that the world population and the knowledge of world history has expanded so much that nothing is new under the sun, moon, or stars, in fact or in fiction. I've seen titles of my unsold books used, and even incidents from novels in progress duplicated by others--even though said novels have never gone anyplace from my files.

Even in history today, the rise of the nomad terrorist is similar to the invasion of the Visigoth's, Vandals, and Huns at the edges of the Roman Empire--I'm not equating the US with Rome, but equating the Modern Civilized world with Rome.

Incidentally, Rob, your Titanic 2012 idea is a good one and worth following through. A quick glance at the discovery of a ship under the World Trade Center debris should not be surprising to anyone who knows, even in a cursory way, the history of New York / New Amsterdam.

This whole idea of art imitating life reminds me of a really terribly written book, "The Celestine Prophesies." It had nine prophesies, but only one rang a bell with me: Things happen in bunches whether we know it or not. A very usable old word hits print and it starts to appear everywhere and soon it's in conversation. You hear a new joke today, and three weeks later its and old joke. You hear one speech and four-years later the speaker is president of the US.

It may be that good ideas are rampant and facts are always there. it's just a matter of who develops them best. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The fact or the fiction?

Jack Bludis

[robert walker]

Jack - as always spot on. I cannot tell you how often I am working on an idea, say a new ice age coming down over my characters trapped in Chicago in a building where the snow and ice are taking over the building, and boom it comes out and same year three other "ice age" themed books are sitting on the shelf beside it....another good argument for the timeliness of getting one's book out on Kindle ebooks. I have also been accused of "copycatting" an idea say like Silence of the Lambs when in fact friends on seeing the book and the film had called me to tell me I oughta see it cause this guy Harris is doing what YOU, meaning I have been doing for some time.

Yea no new plugs in the wall, only so many basic plots, and it is all in the tweaking.

I put a Hurricane in Massachusettes once thinking no one would believe it....but soon thereafter a Hurricane raided MA -- hit between the coast and the islands there at a time my son was on Nantucket and me in Florida. That was a spooky time for me. He and others sat it out in a Quanset Hut at the last caddy camp in America where he'd gone several summers in a row.

Rob

[Jon Loomis]

Yep--what you guys said.

Rob--you already know this, but hurricanes have on occasion rolled up the coast as far as Cape Cod--the most recent being hurricane Charley in 1994, which had lost most of its oomph by then. But once in a while they arrive with winds of 120 mph or so, and when they do, watch out.