Winter doesn't slow down the fighting in 'The Fracking War'

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - A 10-day writing layoff (more or less) had me terrified this morning when I first sat down to write.

Homer Simpson is helping me write today

I was sure I would not be able to pick up the thread of The Fracking War where I left off and move it along to its denouement.

I should have had more confidence. I banged out a chapter in less than an hour and probably have it in me to do one more today.

One challenge though was writing about things happening in the snowy winter in NY and Pennsylvania. Not snowy here.

Last night I received good news from an amiga - a novelista also - that her book is going to be reviewed by a literary agent, the same agent I hope I will be able to get interested in my tome. But she said one of things she had to provide - besides the manuscript - was a synopsis of the book.

Santa Crappo! I have to write a summary of my book?

You might think that would be easy. Perhaps it will be. But that synopsis won't be written until I write another 25,000 words (more or less). It's taking me a little longer to get to the maybe-happy, but more likely not-very-happy ending.

It is a story about hydrofracking, a war, and despoiling the earth, after all.

Hmm...  "More likely not-very-happy ending" sounds, well, more likely.

On to Chapter 13 in the fourth section of the book which is titled Archaea Rising. At least in Chapter 12 people were happy, swilling champagne and celebrating. They won't be happy when Chapter 13 starts.

Damned hydrofracking.

The Fracking War - a Never-Ending Story for researchers

NUEVO VALLARTA, Nayarit, Mexico - Just about the time I get my research ducks all quacking in the same chorus, I run across more research about hydrofracking, more stories about political corruption, and more cases of illness and disease linked to this rather nasty, out-of-control technology.

For many thousands of words, I have consistently said - or more correctly my characters have said - that hydrofracking uses about a million gallons of water per well drilled. Out of that, about half to two-thirds comes back up as wastewater. The wastewater is a nasty cocktail with the toxic chemicals in it that the gas companies put down plus a healthy dose of radiation and other toxic crap from thousands of feet below the earth's surface.

Even more the Morlocks oppose hydrofracking

At least that's what I thought.

It turns out that in fact many of these wells are using a lot more than a million gallons.

In Michigan, a new fracking record was just set with a well using 21 million gallons. That's not a typo - 21 million gallons of water. Doing the math that says from that well alone about 10-15 million gallons of water came back up and needs to be disposed of in a toxic waste area. Or as gas companies have been doing in Ohio and other places, simply dumped back into the ground in deep disposal wells.

Better hope the Morlocks living underground don't mind.

In the meantime, I have to finish this book before it's discovered this technology causes earthquakes.

Oh crap, researchers already concluded that.

The dilemma starts: A happy fracking ending, tragic - or both

ROCKWELL VALLEY, Pennsylvania, USA - Today marks a significant milestone in The Fracking War. The third segment of the book (tentatively called Heroes and Villains) is done (in draft) and so the planning/drafting starts for what I think will be the final piece of this novel/puzzle.

I began feverishly writing the first chapter of the last section an hour ago, then decided I needed to let the just-finished chapters digest some before I move on.

But I can still plan. Oh, can I plan!

Part IV will have mostly the same characters - except for those already killed, taken in custody, disappeared, or kidnapped. And after 60,000-plus words of drama, intrigue, corruption episodes and toxic spills, the last segment will carry a denouement with a decidedly science fiction bent.

Like the rest of the book, the last part is snatched from daily headlines. It won't be a stretch at all to present my theory of what's ahead. Reading the conclusions of most scientists (those not in the pocket of natural gas companies) is probably as frightening as the scenario my characters are assembling in my head as I write this.

The Fracking War novel is winding down. The real war on fracking is ramping up.