When I was a kid I loved the wide Wide world of Sports, with the The ':human drama of athletic competition....The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," and the same film of that poor Austrian wiping out on the ski jump week after week. But what I also loved was the scope of the show; one week it was shot in the Alps, another in Maui. You never knew where the cameras were going to be panning over next. I used to imagine what it would be like when the cameras were sweeping over the landscapes of other planets. That's why the Wind Spindle opens before an athletic exhibition on Mars. When I read about dust devils on Mars going all the way to the top of the atmosphere, right to the edge of space, my imagination spun out. What if you could ride one all the way up there? What would that take? How tiny would you have to be? How aerodynamic? How skilled? How well-geared?
I did my best to get as close to the reality as possible for this story, although I did cut some corners, and as my idol, Ursula LaGuine, boldly states, storytellers are all LIARS, and I am a Big Fat Liar and that is the job by definition. I just hope to tell vivid, entertaining lies.
Thanks for reading.
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