Kraken: Blog

Chapter 15 has been submitted and should be available shortly.

The US Camel Corps, briefly mentioned in this chapter, as well as the involvement and support of the effort by Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee are all fact. While the test proved the usefulness of camels in the American Southwest, their continued use after the Civil War was doomed politically by the original support of both Davis and Lee. For a time, a few civilian versions of camel caravans continued through parts of the southwest, but they too were doomed by arrival of the Railroads. For those interested in this small part of US History checkout a short (6:22 minute) video on the subject at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pQS268E2C0

Proving, yet again, the fallacy of an author messing with their story after receiving a final edit, the last two chapters contained a stray homonym, a nonpossessive possessive apostrophe, and a couple of Spanish spelling typos. Muchas Gracias to CoullPert and all those Garcias out there who caught and reported them. A special thanks to fju33 for catching and reporting the typo of Muerta. It has been corrected to Muerto. All changes will be submitted for reposting in the near future.

For those who've asked about an audio version, production is approximately two-thirds complete on an audio version of Robledo Mountain. I expect that to be completed and available from the usual web sites in a couple of months. I'll provide more information as it gets near to completion.

Until next week, remember to practice social distancing and stay safe.

As always, I look forward to your emails and comments.

Chapter 12 has been submitted to the mods and should be available soon.

Many of the emails and comments over the last few chapters have concerned type of fuel and the gauge I decided to use.

The early railroads in the US used wood as fuel. Although wood would continue to be used by many of the railroads in the northeast and south, by 1840 coal became the predominant fuel for most of the major railroads moving west, thanks principally to the work of Hopkin Thomas, a Welsh émigré. Thomas received his early training at the renowned Neath Abbey Ironwork in South Wales before moving on to the US where he worked building engines for Baldwin Steam Works. In 1834, he was hired away from Baldwin by Garrett & Eastwick Locomotive Works in Philadelphia to develop an anthracite-fired steam locomotive for both the Beaver Meadow Railroad & Coal Company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.

Coal fired locomotives would become essential for US railroads especially those operating in the Midwest and West where trees were, and are, a scarce resource but coal was abundant. Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana had coal waiting for markets and economical transportation to be developed. Each would become major coal producers in the 1860-1900 with the arrival of the various railroads.

There were almost as many railroad track gauge standards in the 1850s as there were railroads. I selected the now standard gauge of four feet, eight and one half inches as the standard for the Thunderbird railroad as that was the gauge the Union Pacific would use. A few years later, the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad would also use the same standard when it started building its railway operation. Pablo's aim is to connect to both lines, creating an early version of the transcontinental railroad, so it seemed to me that the track gauge of his Railroad should be the same.

My thanks to CoullPert who continues to find the odd non-possessive possessive apostrophes, disappearing words, and homonyms that manage to make their way into my chapters despite the best efforts of my editors and proofreaders.

A special thanks to Thornefoote who, unexpectedly, managed to come up with a way to nominate me for a Clitoride Award despite the fact that my stories don't ordinarily qualify for the awards. I deeply appreciate Thornefoote's nomination as Author if the Year and the many seconds from other readers.

Chapter 4 has been submitted to the mods and should post soon.

Yes, I've also updated the Prologue and Chapters 1 through 3 with the corrections identified by all the eagle eyed readers who've reported spelling errors, possessive comma errors, and disappearing words. My thanks again to CoullPert, LonleyDad, and davidl150.

A special thanks to markva54 who pointed out an unknown feature to me. Seems there's a site associated with SOL and the others called Bookapy that sells stories. I've started adding my books so if you'd like to support SOL and the others you can buy my books here: https://bookapy.com/a/27/p.c.-allen. So far I've added Book 1, but will add the others over the next week, and I'll add the future books when I post the first chapters on SOL.

Chapter 3 is now with the moderators and should post soon.

I received many emails over the last week pointing out that there seemed to be a technology glitch in Chapter 2. The glitch? Baby bottles weren't invented until sometime in the 1860s. That's true ... kinda.

Vessels for nursing babies have been around since roughly 9000 BC (yeah, I'm an old fart, none of this Before Common Era politically correct stuff for me). In America, the first glass baby, or nursing, bottle was patented in 1841 (Patent #1985A) by Charles Winship. It used a sponge or cloth wick as a nipple. The rubber nipple was added in the 1860s. A great article on the history of baby bottles is at https://relicrecord.com/blog/baby-bottles-milky-history/

As always, special thanks to CoullPert for continuing to teach me proper word usage and ferreting out all those damn possessive apostrophes!

Until next week, happy reading.

This weeks installment has been submitted to the mods and should post soon. Chapter 2 brings in the 'Fresno Scraper', explains some of the plans, and provides some new information. Enjoy!

My thanks for all the emails - it's good to be back.