bonus 10/13

Bonus: Research OR World Building ▼



Research: For reality-based fiction, research aspects of your novel that will lend credibility to your writing.

World Building: For fantasy, science fiction, or other speculative fiction, develop the history, geology, ecology, and/or maps for your world. Update your character, setting, and/or definitions databases with any new information (if applicable.)



http://www.uni.edu/~andersow/geologyandwater.html



Water Witching



Before the development of modern geology, many people envisioned ground water as flowing in underground streams, somewhat like streams on the Earth’s surface. Furthermore, they often believed that locating a water well required considerable luck because of the need to intersect one of these mysterious subsurface streams. Given that well diggers and well drillers could not see beneath the land’s surface, the selection of a potential well site was seen as a chancy situation. For this reason, rural residents in need of a productive well often hired a “water witch” or “dowser.” Witches or dowsers were thought to be endowed with special powers that enabled them to discover the location of “underground streams” or “veins of water.” A dowser usually walked around in a dramatic fashion while tightly gripping a forked stick. The forked stick supposedly dipped markedly downward when the dowser crossed the “channel” of an underground stream or vein of water. Modern practitioners of the dowsing art often use bents wires in place of forked sticks.

Whether the dowser uses a forked stick or a pair of bent wires, the success of dowsing, if any, has no scientific basis. However, the probability of drilling a productive water well is high in many areas, given that water-bearing sediments and rocks are fairly widespread and that the water table (top of the zone of saturation) is reasonably close to the land surface in many areas of the country.

Underground streams do occur, of course. They are found in regions of soluble bedrock, such as limestone. In most cases, however, locating a suitable water well involves intersecting the zone of saturation, not finding some mysterious underground stream with limited dimensions.

         Dowser                    

A water witch or dowser, redrawn from a sixteenth-century woodcut. Adapted from Gilluly, Waters, and Woodford (1959).

Surface Water Rights and Ground Water

Depending on geologic conditions, ground water can be directly connected to surface water or not connected with surface water. The connection with surface water affects the ability of an aquifer to be recharged. Colorado water law makes an important distinction in this regard; it interprets ground water as tributary water when it is connected with surface water.



Tributary ground-water rights are administered in concert with the surface-water rights in an area. Consequently, during times of drought, those holding junior water rights may be required to stop pumping their wells when stream flow cannot meet the water demands of those owning more senior water rights. The stop-pumping requirement applies to all nonexempt wells and this usually includes most large-capacity commercial, municipal, and irrigation wells. Most household and domestic wells are exempt from shut down and can be pumped at permitted rates.



Wells operated by Round Mountain Water District, the water district that serves residents of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff, are classified as tributary wells. Hence, pumping of these wells may be restricted when drought conditions adversely affect water availability of those with more senior water rights in the Arkansas River valley.



In 1879,the town of Silver Cliff began digging a two-mile long pipeline to the Smith Well located near Grape Creek. By 1880, the project was completed, and Silver Cliff entered into a 99-year lease agreement with Gordon Smith for use of water to serve the town’s residents and merchants. The recorded date of the lease was June 23, 1880. Westcliffe began construction of its water works in 1887. At that time, none of the water rights in the Wet Mountain Valley had yet been adjudicated, Adjudication is the judicial process through which water rights are confirmed by court degree and given a priority number. Priority refers to the seniority date of a water right on a given stream. Priority is established on the basis of adjudication and the appropriation dates. Appropriation is the taking or diverting of surface water from its natural course and applying it to some beneficial use. Appropriation Doctrine holds that an individual can not own water but can acquire the right to use it. This is known as a “water right.” The so-called right-of-use can be bought, sold, or bartered.



To make a long story short, Round Mountain Water District had Silver Cliff and Westcliffe adjudicate their water rights in 1972. Silver Cliff’s Smith Well received a priority date of 1886, even though it had been providing water to Silver Cliff as early as 1880. Silver Cliff was awarded a priority date of 1957 on a second well. Westcliffe received two water rights, one with a priority date of 1920 and the other with a date of 1956. These priority dates don’t jibe with historic water usage, given that Westcliffe began construction of its first water works back in 1887.



Unfortunately for residents of the Round Mountain Water District, all of these water rights, except the 1886 right of the Smith Well, are very junior in comparison with other water rights in the Wet Mountain Valley and the upper Arkansas River Valley. Nevertheless, these questionable adjudications and their junior priority dates had little immediate impact on water usage in Silver Cliff and Westcliffe. The wells of the Round Mountain District were allowed to pump 24 hours per day, every day of year, until 1973. At that time, things changed dramatically!



Irrigation ditch owners in Colorado complained that their surface water rights were being negatively affected by ground-water diversions. In response, the State Engineer of Colorado took action, limiting Round Mountain District’s low-priority wells (as well as similar wells throughout the upper Arkansas Basin) to three days of pumping per week.



An additional restriction was implemented in 1996, when Colorado lost a law suit brought by the state of Kansas. Kansas contended that water wells developed along the Arkansas River in Colorado had deprived Kansas of water that it was guaranteed by the Arkansas River Compact of 1949. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Kansas, and the state of Colorado was directed to increase the surface flow in the Arkansas River at the Colorado-Kansas state line. As a result of all of this legal action, Round Mountain Water District lost the privilege of pumping over 1,000 gallons of water per minute, 72 hours each week.



Because of these restrictions, RMD purchased 150 acre feet of storage in DeWeese Reservoir at a cost of more than $150,000. In addition, they bought the 320 acre Johnson Place ranch in 2001 and its senior water rights to Macey Creek water.



Several years ago, some of RMD’s pumping from April through October was determined to be out-of-priority with respect to “downstream” users with senior water rights. By law, all out-of-priority diversions must be replaced to keep the flow of the Arkansas “whole.” For 2002, RMD acquired water from Pueblo West and from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District for “exchange” into DeWeese Reservoir. In order to keep the flow of the Arkansas in balance, water was released from DeWeese Reservoir in an amount equal to RMD’s out-of-priority pumping of groundwater.



The drought of 2002 complicated matters for RMD. There was no surface water from the Johnson Place ranch to help with water needs, and only 125 acre feet of water was available for storage in DeWeese Reservoir. Restrictions had to be placed on water use within the Round Mountain District, and the public water tap at Westcliffe Town Park was closed. The Pueblo Chieftain reported that the water level in Lake Pueblo dropped more than 20 feet from April to early September during the drought of 2002. RMF may need to impose additional restrictions on water usage in the future, particularly when snowfall and surface runoff fall below normal levels.

         

         ClosedWell                    

         The public water source in Westcliffe Town Park was closed during the drought of 2002.

         

         

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_%26_Wizard



Witch & Wizard is the first novel of the Witch & Wizard series, written by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet. It chronicles a dystopian future in which Whit and Wisty Allgood are arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to execution during the uprising of a new totalitarian government, for unknowingly possessing outlawed magical abilities. The novel was published on December 14, 2009.



Contents



    1 Summary

    2 Characters

    3 Reception

    4 Sequels

    5 References



Summary



Two siblings named Whit and Wisty are being accused of being a witch and a wizard. The two kids are shocked and appalled when Byron Swain, a horribly stuck up kid from their school, appears and conducts their arrest. They protest against these claims, but to no profit. During the arrest, their parents are permitted to give Whit and Wisty one item each. They are given a seemingly worthless book and a drum stick respectively before being led away. A mysterious figure known as The One Who Is The One shows up and it is revealed that he somehow knows their parents and he is the leader of the new political party, called the New Order. The pair are then taken to a prison which appears to be occupied solely by children, and are interrogated by Byron. They are then put on trial by the One who Judges and are sentenced to execution, to be carried out when they turn eighteen.



Celia then emerges, informing the pair that she is a Half-light - a spirit which exists on an alternate dimension called the Shadowland. She tells them how to enter and exit into the Shadowland, which they eat, and in the attempt they are joined by a hoar which Wisty names Feffer. In the Shadowland, Celia introduces them to Sasha, a boy who takes them out of the Shadowland to Freeland - a store called Garfunkle's which has become a haven for persecuted children, currently run by a girl named Janine, although leadership changes hands weekly.



The siblings' magical powers are welcomed in Freeland, but Celia soon has to return to Shadowland, as she cannot stay in the real world for too long at one time otherwise she will cease to exist. The other children share horrific stories of the regime - particularly of The One Who Is The One, who seems to possess magical abilities of his own. They visit the City of Progress, an example of what the New Order wants the world to be like, where they quickly discover that magic is harshly persecuted. However, Whit and Wisty wish to search for their parents, and refuse to stay in Freeland, even when, upon revealing the extent of their magical abilities, they are told that they are the Liberators spoken of in a prophecy about the end of the New Order.



When Whit and Wisty begin to plan their new mission to take down the regime, Byron, in weasel form, says he wants to go with them. Wisty initially refuses, calling him a "hateful, traitorous, black-hearted naysayer". Byron-weasel insists that he has changed, and even apologizes for his terrible behaviour while Whit and Wisty were in jail. Whit finally allows Byron to come along with them.



While starting on their next mission, they feel an area they are passing looks familiar and set off to explore it. The pair come across the site of their old house, which has now been demolished. It is now only open countryside. Their parents use magic to communicate with them, and help them to transform the drumstick and book into a magic wand and spellbook. Wisty's mother then changes Byron back to human form and orders him to look after them. The novel ends with her urging the reader to go out and live and promising they'll hear from her again. "I promise. And I'm a scary witch who keeps her promises."

Characters



    Wisteria 'Wisty' Allgood - A rebellious fifteen-year-old who is shocked to discover her magical ability. Her main power is the ability to burst into flames at random moments, but she is also known to float in her sleep, shape-shift, and even glow radioactive green.

    Whitford 'Whit' Allgood - An eighteen-year-old 'All-American' athlete. He secretly struggles with depression after the unexplained disappearance of the girl he was in love with - Celia. Whit is a wizard, with the power to conjure food, objects, and animals. He can also move objects with his mind, move at super speed, and is revealed to be clairvoyant during the novel. He is also a powerful healer.

    Celia - Whit's girlfriend who disappeared mysteriously months before the beginning of the book. She was killed by the government but still exists as a Half-light.

    Byron Swain - A classmate of the All goods, who betrays them to the government. Wisty turns him into a weasel (prompting her to call him the "Tattling Weasel" for the rest of the book), . He realizes that he is also madly in love with Wisty and would do anything for her.

    Janine - A teenage girl who is usually the leader of the resistance group and is described as a 'cute girl' by Whit. She is best friends with Margo and devastated when she is killed. She and Whit have conversations and eventually realizes they have feelings for each other.

    Sasha - Sasha first appears when he rescues the All good siblings in the Shadowland. He later lies to them in order to enlist their help in a jail break. Sasha is lanky, with overgrown black hair.

    Mrs. Highsmith - A witch who is a friend to the All good's who lives in The City of Progress in an apartment filled with stuff banned by the N.O. She helps Wisty with how to make her powers stronger. She is also the witch in the first book at the Cafe who accused Whit and Wisty of being a witch and wizard.

    The One Who Is The One 'The One' - He is the face of the government. Despite being a figure of great power and authority, he conducts himself politely and with quiet dignity. It is strongly implied that he is an evil wizard, possibly on a mission to eradicate all his enemies (meaning the Allgoods). He is after Wisty's Gift, which is controlling fire and electricity. He can also control water, earth, and wind.

    Lost Ones - Warmth-consuming zombies, who were once humans who got lost in Shadowland.

    Feffer - the loyal 'Hellhound' who accompanied Whit and Wisty through their first journey through Shadowland.

    Ben and Eliza Allgood – Whit and Wisty's parents.Ben is a wizard like Whit. Eliza is a witch like Wisty.



Reception



Daniel said “It's got an enticing prologue”.[2] however “The meandering plot seems to make up the rules as it goes along.”.[2] publishers weekly also criticized the novel as being “The authors rely on coincidence and plot holes.”.[3] Lisa praised witch and wizard as “New readers will be able to easily grasp the situation and characters”.[4] Danny complimented the author's use of “And Patterson's trademark bite-size chapters at least keep things zippy.”[2]



“Plenty of introductory text sneaks into the dialogue and the premise itself is simple even simplistic.” Book review, Brief article, Young adult review.[4]



“Which suffers from some questionable storytelling choices.” Book review, Brief article, Young adult review.[4]



“The story is further undercut by frequent recapping and short chapters, alternately narrated by the siblings, which break up the narrative for no perceivable reason.” Book review, Brief article, Children's review.[3]



“There's some fun world-building, including a stream of thinly disguised pop culture references in Wisty and Whit's alternate world (from the books of Gary Blotter to the artist Margie O'Greeffe), but even these are inconsistent (their world also includes Red Bull and the adjective Dickensian) and come across as groaners.” Book review, Brief article, Children's review.[3]

Sequels



Book 2 of the Witch & Wizard series has a blue G on the cover and is entitled Witch & Wizard: The Gift, and concludes with "to be continued", as did the first novel. It was released December 15, 2010. The third book, Witch & Wizard: The Fire, was released on December 5, 2011. It has a big F on the front cover on fire the same way the first book's cover is shown to be on fire. The fourth book, Witch & Wizard: The Kiss, was released on February 4, 2013. Although there are other graphic novels that include the witch and wizard "W" in a multitude of colors, they are not to be mistaken as others of the series. The fifth and final book in the series, titled The Lost, will be released on December 15, 2014.



http://bookaholic-ness.blogspot.com/2012/12/book-review-witch-and-wizard-by-jame...



Witch and Wizard by James Patterson.

Book Summary: The world is changing: the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now, kids are disappearing. For 15-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside down when they are torn from their parents one night and slammed into a secret prison for no reason they can comprehend. The New Order, as it is known, is clearly trying to suppress Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Being a Normal Teenager. But while trapped in this totalitarian nightmare, Wisty and Whit discover they have incredible powers they'd never dreamed of. Can this newly minted witch and wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents--and maybe the world?



Liana's Summary: When Whit and Wisty are woken up in the middle of the night by some really loud noise, they don't know what to expect. Anything but a bunch of men coming in and accusing them of witchcraft and wizardry, anyways. But that's what happens. And they get captured, put in prison, and sentenced to death. Their parents are missing. What can they do? All they know is that they have to use every single ounce of their strength to fight against the New Order.



http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=witch



http://www.blue-moon-manor.com/Glossary/





Water Witching



Before the development of modern geology, many people envisioned ground water as flowing in underground streams, somewhat like streams on the Earth’s surface. Furthermore, they often believed that locating a water well required considerable luck because of the need to intersect one of these mysterious subsurface streams. Given that well diggers and well drillers could not see beneath the land’s surface, the selection of a potential well site was seen as a chancy situation. For this reason, rural residents in need of a productive well often hired a “water witch” or “dowser.” Witches or dowsers were thought to be endowed with special powers that enabled them to discover the location of “underground streams” or “veins of water.” A dowser usually walked around in a dramatic fashion while tightly gripping a forked stick. The forked stick supposedly dipped markedly downward when the dowser crossed the “channel” of an underground stream or vein of water. Modern practitioners of the dowsing art often use bents wires in place of forked sticks.



Whether the dowser uses a forked stick or a pair of bent wires, the success of dowsing, if any, has no scientific basis. However, the probability of drilling a productive water well is high in many areas, given that water-bearing sediments and rocks are fairly widespread and that the water table (top of the zone of saturation) is reasonably close to the land surface in many areas of the country.



Underground streams do occur, of course. They are found in regions of soluble bedrock, such as limestone. In most cases, however, locating a suitable water well involves intersecting the zone of saturation, not finding some mysterious underground stream with limited dimensions.          

                             

                             A water witch or dowser, redrawn from a sixteenth-century woodcut. Adapted from Gilluly, Waters, and Woodford (1959).          

                                                                     

Surface Water Rights and Ground Water

Depending on geologic conditions, ground water can be directly connected to surface water or not connected with surface water. The connection with surface water affects the ability of an aquifer to be recharged. Colorado water law makes an important distinction in this regard; it interprets ground water as tributary water when it is connected with surface water.

Tributary ground-water rights are administered in concert with the surface-water rights in an area. Consequently, during times of drought, those holding junior water rights may be required to stop pumping their wells when stream flow cannot meet the water demands of those owning more senior water rights. The stop-pumping requirement applies to all nonexempt wells and this usually includes most large-capacity commercial, municipal, and irrigation wells. Most household and domestic wells are exempt from shut down and can be pumped at permitted rates.

Wells operated by Round Mountain Water District, the water district that serves residents of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff, are classified as tributary wells. Hence, pumping of these wells may be restricted when drought conditions adversely affect water availability of those with more senior water rights in the Arkansas River valley.

In 1879,the town of Silver Cliff began digging a two-mile long pipeline to the Smith Well located near Grape Creek. By 1880, the project was completed, and Silver Cliff entered into a 99-year lease agreement with Gordon Smith for use of water to serve the town’s residents and merchants. The recorded date of the lease was June 23, 1880. Westcliffe began construction of its water works in 1887. At that time, none of the water rights in the Wet Mountain Valley had yet been adjudicated, Adjudication is the judicial process through which water rights are confirmed by court degree and given a priority number. Priority refers to the seniority date of a water right on a given stream. Priority is established on the basis of adjudication and the appropriation dates. Appropriation is the taking or diverting of surface water from its natural course and applying it to some beneficial use. Appropriation Doctrine holds that an individual can not own water but can acquire the right to use it. This is known as a “water right.” The so-called right-of-use can be bought, sold, or bartered.

To make a long story short, Round Mountain Water District had Silver Cliff and Westcliffe adjudicate their water rights in 1972. Silver Cliff’s Smith Well received a priority date of 1886, even though it had been providing water to Silver Cliff as early as 1880. Silver Cliff was awarded a priority date of 1957 on a second well. Westcliffe received two water rights, one with a priority date of 1920 and the other with a date of 1956. These priority dates don’t jibe with historic water usage, given that Westcliffe began construction of its first water works back in 1887.

Unfortunately for residents of the Round Mountain Water District, all of these water rights, except the 1886 right of the Smith Well, are very junior in comparison with other water rights in the Wet Mountain Valley and the upper Arkansas River Valley. Nevertheless, these questionable adjudications and their junior priority dates had little immediate impact on water usage in Silver Cliff and Westcliffe. The wells of the Round Mountain District were allowed to pump 24 hours per day, every day of year, until 1973. At that time, things changed dramatically!

Irrigation ditch owners in Colorado complained that their surface water rights were being negatively affected by ground-water diversions. In response, the State Engineer of Colorado took action, limiting Round Mountain District’s low-priority wells (as well as similar wells throughout the upper Arkansas Basin) to three days of pumping per week.

An additional restriction was implemented in 1996, when Colorado lost a law suit brought by the state of Kansas. Kansas contended that water wells developed along the Arkansas River in Colorado had deprived Kansas of water that it was guaranteed by the Arkansas River Compact of 1949. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Kansas, and the state of Colorado was directed to increase the surface flow in the Arkansas River at the Colorado-Kansas state line. As a result of all of this legal action, Round Mountain Water District lost the privilege of pumping over 1,000 gallons of water per minute, 72 hours each week.

Because of these restrictions, RMD purchased 150 acre feet of storage in DeWeese Reservoir at a cost of more than $150,000. In addition, they bought the 320 acre Johnson Place ranch in 2001 and its senior water rights to Macey Creek water.

Several years ago, some of RMD’s pumping from April through October was determined to be out-of-priority with respect to “downstream” users with senior water rights. By law, all out-of-priority diversions must be replaced to keep the flow of the Arkansas “whole.” For 2002, RMD acquired water from Pueblo West and from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District for “exchange” into DeWeese Reservoir. In order to keep the flow of the Arkansas in balance, water was released from DeWeese Reservoir in an amount equal to RMD’s out-of-priority pumping of groundwater.

The drought of 2002 complicated matters for RMD. There was no surface water from the Johnson Place ranch to help with water needs, and only 125 acre feet of water was available for storage in DeWeese Reservoir. Restrictions had to be placed on water use within the Round Mountain District, and the public water tap at Westcliffe Town Park was closed. The Pueblo Chieftain reported that the water level in Lake Pueblo dropped more than 20 feet from April to early September during the drought of 2002. RMF may need to impose additional restrictions on water usage in the future, particularly when snowfall and surface runoff fall below normal levels.          

         

                             

                             The public water source in Westcliffe Town Park was closed during the drought of 2002.