New Glenn

Blue Origin was successful on its first test launch of the New Glenn rocket! Official statement:

“New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today's NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well. We lost the booster during descent. We knew landing the first stage on the first try was ambitious. We'll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch in the spring. We're thrilled with today's outcome.”

Learn more here: https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenn-ng-1-mission

To The Moon

Two of my short stories, APOGEE and SOLATIUM, are trying for the moon again! Overnight, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket carrying (among numerous NASA and commercial payloads) the Lunar Codex, Samuel Peralta's passion project, a beautiful collection of stories, art, music and more. I am honored beyond words to have my these stories reach the stars and find a home on the moon!

It'll be a little while before Blue Ghost attempts a lunar landing, however. It will spend the next 25 days in Earth orbit, undergoing a variety of systems checks and gathering data. It will then conduct an engine burn and hopefully reach the moon 4 days later, where it will orbit for 16 days before attempting a touchdown in Mare Crisium.

If the landing is successful, Blue Ghost will deliver the Lunar Codex to its home on the lunar surface. Then it spend 2 weeks capturing imagery of the lunar sunset and provide critical data on how lunar regolith reacts to solar influences during lunar dusk conditions, before retiring with the lunar night.

The Horizon of Earth

This might be the most beautiful photograph ever taken from the ISS. Snapped by astronaut Don Petit this weekend, it features the Milky Way, Zodical light, Starlink satellites as streaks, stars as pin points, the atmosphere on edge showing OH emission as burned umber, the soon to rise sun, and cities at night as streaks - all in one image.

Source: https://x.com/astro_Pettit/status/1878900589238923290

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This conversation with Mr. Jennsen took place 7 years ago, while I was writing RUBICON, but it’s just as funny (to me) as it was back then. As I said then:

“If you can't laugh at yourself, what are you working for, right? I give you the essence of my characters, distilled to their purest features. *Warning: cursing follows. Because Alex.*

Also, if anyone wondered if my husband really reads my books, I believe he has now dispelled that notion in glorious style.”

Predictions Progress Report

Five years ago, at the dawn of 2020 (not forseeing the crisis that awaited us in a mere two months), I made the following predictions (and asked for your thoughts on Facebook):

We're in the 2020s now, and this had damn well better be the decade where some mind-blowing technological advances happen. With that in mind--

Which of the following do you think we are MOST LIKELY to have in 2030:

(1) A fully functioning lunar base, where astronauts live and work on the surface for 6+ months at a time and (rich) tourists visit.

(2) Boots on Mars, and not the robotic kind.

(3) Effective anti-aging/life-extension medication or treatments - not to make us immortal (yet), but to extend our *healthy* lifespan well into the 100s.

(4) Practical brain-computer interfaces - chips in our brains, or at least subcutaneous/on-skin hardware that communicates with our brains.

(5) Discovery of microbial alien life in our solar system and/or confirmation of a clear technological signature (advanced alien life) out there.

5 years later, #1, #2 and #5 (microbial) are looking reasonably likely to be achieved by 2030. #3 and #4 are moving a little more slowly, but I’m hopeful we’ll see the beginnings of them within a decade.

You know what wasn't on this list of mine? Artificial General Intelligence. Leaving it off * might * have been an error on my part....

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I am super excited for what 2025 is going to bring. Grand doings in Amaranthe for certain. A bucketload of Starship flights (Starship on the moon?). Webb revealing more wonders of the universe. Me learning how to take a proper aurora photo? Well, let's not get too carried away....

I hope this year holds much promise for you, too. Here's to the future!

Ice Clouds Over a Red Planet

From NASA / Astronomy Picture of the Day:

“If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? You might look out over a vast orange landscape covered with rocks under a dusty orange sky, with a blue-tinted Sun over the horizon, and odd-shaped water clouds hovering high overhead. This was just the view captured last March by NASA's rolling explorer, Perseverance. The orange coloring is caused by rusted iron in the Martian dirt, some of which is small enough to be swept up by winds into the atmosphere. The blue tint near the rising Sun is caused by blue light being preferentially scattered out from the Sun by the floating dust. The light-colored clouds on the right are likely composed of water-ice and appear high in the Martian atmosphere. The shapes of some of these clouds are unusual for Earth and remain a topic of research.”

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241203.html

Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 Nominations

Nominations for Discover Sci-Fi’s Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 award are now open, and THE THIEF is eligible!

DSF is leveling-up the award in a big way this year. There are now multiple categories, and the overall winner gets a REAL, LIVE TROPHY.

I would be honored if you considered nominating THE THIEF (note: it won 2nd place in the half-year poll). So here's how it works:

  • you can nominate a book in as many categories as you want - you don't have to choose just one.

  • THE THIEF is definitely a fit for "Best Science Fiction Novel" (the top category) and "Best Alien Sci-Fi Novel.” One can quibble about whether it qualifies as space opera for "Best Space Opera Novel" - I leave that to your discretion.

  • Nominations are open through 12/18. The finalists will be announced, and final voting takes place 12/19-12/31.

You can find the nominations form here: https://discoverscifi.com/nominate-the-best-sci-fi-books-2024/

Happy Thanksgiving!

How writers celebrate holidays, lol. Completely accurate, and appropos as I squeeze in The Universe Within editing before, around and after Thanksgiving festivities.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my American friends! May your weekend be filled with family, friends and fellowship. And turkey. And pumpkin pie. Or pecan. Possibly football or parades. Whatever brings you joy.

Thedas

I’ve taken a momentary detour from Amaranthe to Thedas - I’m playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I don’t spend nearly as much time playing video games as I used to; writing is a full-time job, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I’ll always play a Bioware game (admittedly, Baldur’s Gate 3 got me this year, too - it was incredible, in all the best Bioware-style ways).

Anyway, Veilguard is an absolutely gorgeous game!

Classic Rock Gods

So the neighborhood we moved into is brand new and very much still being built out. Last week, they finished the streets for the final block and put up the street signs - which was when we came to a glorious realization:

Our entire neighborhood is an homage to the gods of Classic Rock.

These are all the street names:

Page (Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin)

Plant (Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin)

Bonham (John Bonham, Led Zeppelin)

Daltrey (Roger Daltrey, The Who)

Entwhistle (John Entwhistle, The Who)

Lennon (John Lennon)

Clapton (Eric Clapton)

Zevon (Warren Zevon)

Frehley (Ace Frehley, Kiss)

Simmons (Gene Simmons, Kiss)

How awesome, right? It feels like a labor of love on the part of the developer. Perhaps a tribute to the music that shaped their youth.

There is one downside, though.... When we picked our lot, we didn't know the full breadth of our options, as most of the streets didn't yet have names. And now, #MrJennsen must forever live with the devastating knowledge that he missed his one chance to live on Zevon Lane....

Library 3.0

As promised, I give you a finished (for now) library! And the best part is...we found a home for the book cover posters (with lots of room to grow). As is so often the case, it was Mr. Jennsen’s idea, because he's awesome.

By the way, has anyone seen our hardbacks of 2001 and Rendezvous With Rama? Maybe on the side of the highway somewhere Those are literally the only 2 items that we lost in the move from Montana-with-a-layover-in-an-apartment-and-storage-unit. (We finally gave up searching and ordered replacements, so they're in the pics - but those aren't the *right* copies....)

NOW it's a home.

Since many of you have inquired, the last 3 photos are zoom-ins of (1) science fiction, (2) near future scifi/cyberpunk, (3) science, computers and other nerdy non-fiction. Caveat: I've leaned pretty heavily on my Kindle these last 10 years, so my physical scifi collection is no longer as representative as I'd like it to be; I'll be working on rectifying that.