In the previous post, I said I finished the outline for a new story.  Outline is a misleading word.  When I start a new story, I first ask what kind (genre) of story do I want to write.  It’s going to be a thriller just like the previous story.  Then, I ask what’s the story going to be about?  It’s going to be about the government taking hostile actions toward the Ceiba people because the Cebia destroyed a government drilling site.  Then, I start thinking about the following questions.

• How does the story start?
• What characters are in the story and why?
• Do I need background information to move the story?
• What tension (blocked goals and/or desires) do I build into the story?
• How does the protagonist(s) prevail?
• Should there be complete resolution or some tension at the end of the story?

In the next post I’ll tell you my thoughts on starting the story.

Thomas

I have just finished the outline of a new story called  Jungle Justice.  In a previous story, The Frogs Stopped Singing (book and ebook available on Amazon or at a  reduced price through this websight) , the Ceiba people attacked a drilling site where the government was looking for oil in the Amazon rainforest reserve where they lived.  The new story shows Maria, JJ, and Cougar fighting a government exerting revenge on the Ceiba people for the attack on the drilling rig.

Follow along as I write the story for  my thoughts and information on the rainforest.

Thomas

Seed dispersing is an important job for a creature in an ecosystem.  Spidy, the spider monkey, eats ripe fruit.  The tree that produces the fruit is called the parent tree.  There are many different fruit and seed eaters attracted to the parent tree.  Spidy is not a seed eater but a seed disperser.  He swallows the fruit without chewing.  The seed of the fruit is not destroyed in his stomach.  Spidy carries the seed far from the parent tree and when the seed is defecated in a different part of the rainforest it will have a better chance to grow.  There are too many seed eaters at a fruiting tree or shrub.  I’m at my Pennsylvania home.  This morning I was sitting outside and saw two important seed dispersers flying about.   What birds do you think I saw?  The fall fruits are ripe, these birds will eat the berries and deposit the seeds at different locations.  Did you guess the robin and mockingbird?

On my first visit to the tropical forests of Costa Rica I heard these roars on the first morning I was in the forest.  The only time I heard a roar that loud was on a visit to South Africa listening to the lions.  I was a little confused because these roars came from the canopy.  I shook my head a few times and then knew what creatures were so noisy. I read about these creatures in books.  They were male howler monkeys and you can hear them for up to three miles. They howl to mark their feeding territory so that other groups of howlers stay away.

Howler monkeys and Spidy, the spider monkey, live in the same habitat and they are both herbivores on the food chain but they do not compete with each other.  Spider monkeys mainly eat ripe fruit.  Howler monkeys mainly eat young leaves.  Howler monkeys walk slow through the canopy.  The first two fingers of their hands are opposable to the other three fingers.  It is like they have two thumbs.  This adaptation helps howler monkey hold on while they are walking on branches.  Spider monkeys  swing through the canopy with speed and has no thumbs.

Both Spidy, the spider monkey, and Grandmother Sloth have the same top predator, the awesome harpy eagle.  The harpy eagle is the largest bird in the Amazon rainforest, standing three feet tall with the most powerful talons of all the birds of prey.  The harpy sits in the emergent level looking for monkeys and sloths.  In full flight, it can snatch a monkey or a sloth with an iron grip on a limb and fly up to its nest.  Spidy hangs out with his troop so there are many eyes looking for the top gun predator of the canopy.  Grandmother Sloth relies on her camouflage to mask her appearance.