Breaking News & Random Musings on Space, Technology, Sci-Fi & the View From A Writer’s Window
Prometheus orbiting Saturn just inside the F ring—a color composite made from images acquired by #Cassini's narrow-angle ISS camera on April 13, 2007. Via Jason Major: https://twitter.com/JPMajor/status/1291452836631511040
Originally posted on Twitter.
The Mars rover touched down on the red planet 8 years ago on August 5th.
"Since touchdown, the rover journeyed more than 14 miles (23 kilometers), drilling 26 rock samples and scooping six soil samples along the way as it revealed that ancient Mars was indeed suitable for life. Studying the textures and compositions of ancient rock strata is helping scientists piece together how the Martian climate changed over time, losing its lakes and streams until it became the cold desert it is today."
It's also taken as many selfies as a teenage girl on Instagram.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/curiosity-celebrates-8-years-on-the-red-planet
Originally posted on Facebook.
You guys did it, and it wasn't even close. Thank you for making INVERSION the Best Sci-Fi Book of 2020 (So Far). Free virtual cupcakes and libations for everyone! 🧁🧁🍻🥂
You can read all about the Top 10 books here: https://discoverscifi.com/top-10-sci-fi-books-of-2020-so-far/, and I'll copy/paste Inversion's entry below. As the post says, nearly 1/3 of the 1,000 votes cast were cast for Inversion. That is...beyond any superlative I can find in the dictionary.
And, hey, consider signing up for Discover Sci-Fi's newsletter (https://discoverscifi.com/). They're pretty awesome.
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"1. Inversion: Riven Worlds Book Two (Amaranthe 15) G. S. Jennsen
“Voting for Inversion, GS Jennsen. It's part of an awesome series. Strong character development, creative technology, intriguing plot, and exciting space battles.” —DSF Facebook Group Member
We agree! Jennsen’s mastery of her craft has earned a loyal and passionate fanbase, and they turned out to support Inversion in record numbers, casting nearly a third of over 1000 votes for the entry. We reached out to Jennsen to ask what she thought it was about this story that resonated with readers and she had this to share:
"Inversion resonates with readers because it grounds the classic “triumph over impossible odds” story arc in the personal struggles of a cast of characters those readers have come to care deeply about. The book opens with our heroes facing some of the most dire circumstances they’ve ever encountered (which is saying something). Trapped underground beneath a city besieged by powerful aliens. Held captive in an enemy prison and thought dead by the world. Killed in action only to be resurrected in a new body using risky and unproven technology.
It’s dark, it’s ugly, it’s desperate. But no one is willing to give up and accept their fate. Instead they climb to their feet, brush the dirt off and, together and alone, fight and claw their way back to freedom, to safety, to victory. And because the readers were there alongside the characters as they fought those battles, they feel like they earned the triumph as much as the characters did."
If you haven’t started the series yet, these results should tell you: you are missing something really special!
"Nothing has prepared humanity for an enemy on the scale of the Rasu. Now, after a devastating defeat no one saw coming, the dream of victory has become a battle for survival.""
Originally posted on Facebook.
The awesome people at Discover Sci-Fi are running a poll for the best sci-fi book of 2020 (so far). I'm thrilled to announce that a certain little book named "Inversion" has made the final ballot! So if you enjoyed Inversion and are so inclined, go forth and vote: https://discoverscifi.com/time-to-decide-best-books-2020/
It's official! The Perseverance rover and it's little helicopter buddy, Ingenuity, are on their way to Mars!
They are scheduled to arrive in February, at a target landing zone found in what’s known as Jezero Crater. "This location on Mars was once a lake, long ago when the atmosphere on Mars was quite different than the dry, dusty and cold environment we know today. This has been chosen specifically because it’s a prime spot for finding any evidence of microbiological life that might exist, since it contains one of the best-preserved deposits of a river delta on Mars."
Image by Mike Seeley (https://twitter.com/Mike_Seeley/status/1288812959322591237).
Originally posted on Facebook.
INVERSION paperbacks are now in stock! Get a personalized, signed paperback of any of my books here: https://www.gsjennsen.com/store
Feast your eyes and hearts on 10 minutes of 4K, ultra high-definition video from Mars. The video was rendered entirely from images sent back by the Curiosity, Oppy and Spirit rovers.
The narration is hilariously dry, but the visuals are literally out of this world (*hides*).
Originally posted on Facebook.
I hope everyone is very much enjoying INVERSION! (Or has already very much enjoyed it ). Feel free to wax poetic about it anywhere, anytime. I don't mind.
Today I give you a totally useless image that tells you nothing interesting whatsoever. What is it? The current scene-by-scene outline of ECHO RIFT. 60 scenes for now; there will be more, as characters get loud and bossy. The first column is the individual scenes, then across the top each column is a character/location arc.
For this book I'm playing with Dabble, an intriguing new competitor for Scrivener (dabblewriter.com/). It lacks (for now) the color coding feature of Scrivener that might have given you a tiny bit more useful info here, but OTOH it has this wonderful plotting tool that links your outline directly with the scenes your writing. Perhaps the best thing going for it, though, is constant cloud syncing and web access: write anywhere with no version conflict disasters.
Anyway, here's your next book - in progress.
Originally posted on Facebook.
I'm excited to announce that I will be a guest at CosmoQuest-a-Con, an online space & scifi convention taking place THIS WEEKEND! It's produced by the fantastic Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the exploration of our solar system.
How can you attend? Watch all the "main stage" events for free at Twitch.tv/CosmoQuestX . Or, grab a $20 ticket here (https://planetaryscienceinstitute.kindful.com/e/cosmoquest-a-con) and get access to concerts, contests, readings, & talks on Discord, as well as the vendor and artist rooms. Proceeds benefit on-going science and science-education activities.
I'll be speaking on 3 panels on Saturday and Sunday:
"IMPROMPTU SPACE" (Sat 10:30 EDT): I'll be the host and 'interpreter' for an audience-driven impromptu space-themed song and dance performance by Gillian Rhodes (a celebrated dancer and choreographer) and David Joseph Wesley (a Grammy Award nominated composer). No, *I* won't be singing or dancing. Sorry, guys.
"CREATING THE FUTURE THROUGH FICTION" (Sat 4:30 EDT): "Science fiction often starts by imagining future technologies, but it doesn't end there. From creating new cultures to creating new ways to live, science fiction must build new worlds from the stars down. Let's talk with fiction writers about what they consider in world-building."
I'll be joined on this panel by sci-fi rock stars Dennis E. Taylor (author of the Bobiverse novels) and Alex White, Writer (author of The Salvagers trilogy).
"SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST SPACE" (Sun 11:30 EDT): "In this hectic world, it sometimes takes effort to make room for creative activities. Join us as we discuss how we make space for space fiction."
I'll be joined on this panel by Dr. Sean Raymond (an astrophysicist studying the formation and evolution of planetary systems) and Dr. Elizabeth Ferrara (a Research Scientist at the University of Maryland studying pulsars and gravitational waves).
See the full 3-day schedule here: https://cosmoquest.org/x/cosmoquest-a-con/. It's packed with space, astronomy, sci-fi, art, games, music and more.
All the thanks to the awesome Beth Johnson for getting me involved in this exciting event!
This morning, the European Space Agency and NASA have unveiled the closest images of the Sun ever taken by a spacecraft: high-resolution pictures taken by their newly launched Solar Orbiter spacecraft. Already, the pictures are revealing weird phenomena on the Sun that we’ve never seen in such detail.
“We didn’t really expect the first images to turn out really this great,” Daniel Müller, ESA’s project scientist for the Solar Orbiter mission, tells The Verge. “They’re not only really sharp and perfectly exposed from the technical perspective, but they really show things that we have not seen before.”
Thanks to these images, scientists have discovered what appear to be relatively “tiny” solar flares peppered across the Sun’s surface. The scientists behind the mission have dubbed these small flares “campfires,” as they are millions to billions of times smaller than the massive, energetic flares that periodically erupt from the Sun. Dozens of these campfires can be seen at any give time within the field of view of Solar Orbiter’s camera. “What is intriguing is that they seem to be happening everywhere on the Sun all the time,” says Müller.
"Caleb" is going to be with me for many years, so of course I had to outfit him appropriately.
Originally posted on Facebook.
AMARANTHE bumper stickers are now available in the Zazzle store! Why? Because I need one for "Caleb." (The car: https://www.gsjennsen.com/supermassive-black-holes/2020/6/5/luckiest-writer).
Store: https://www.zazzle.com/amaranthe_bumper_sticker-128262723484683736
Originally posted on Facebook.
Thermostat, shermostat. We aren't afraid of no thermostat!
...Actually, we clearly ARE afraid of a thermostat, since we grabbed the book posters and fled halfway across the house to get away from it.
Until this morning, this wall housed our gaming and movie posters. This wall has several advantages over the previous location:
(1) It's 30% wider, so MUCH more room to grow = more book posters = more books.
(2) The posters are much closer to where the magic happens = more inspiration.
(3) NO THERMOSTAT = ...NO THERMOSTAT
The gaming and movie posters are in the process of being relocated to the evil thermostat wall (and since it's smaller, other places around the house).
Originally posted on Facebook.
Look at this gorgeous galaxy! (courtesy of Hubble). And what a striking galactic core. I think I can almost spot the Siyane cruising in from the bottom right to investigate.
"NGC 2275 is classified as a flocculent spiral galaxy, located 67 million light-years away in the constellation of Cancer. Millions of bright, young, blue stars shine in the complex, feather-like spiral arms, interlaced with dark lanes of dust. Complexes of these hot, blue stars are thought to trigger star formation in nearby gas clouds. The overall feather-like spiral patterns of the arms are then formed by shearing of the gas clouds as the galaxy rotates."
Originally posted on Facebook.
Hmm..wonder what it will be called?
INVERSION arrives July 13th. Pre-order it here: https://books2read.com/inversion-rw
*spoilers for Aurora Resonant and Continuum below*
Feast your eyes on the incredible beauty of our sky in X-Ray : https://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-what-the-entire-sky-looks-like-through-x-ray-eyes
"A space telescope launched in July 2019 has just completed its first survey. For months, the eROSITA telescope aboard the Spektr-RG space observatory has been scanning the entire sky, collecting observations for the deepest all-sky survey in X-ray wavelengths.
"Now, all those data have been compiled into a map containing over 1 million bright X-ray objects - approximately doubling the number of such objects from the entire 60 years of X-ray astronomy prior.
"This all-sky image completely changes the way we look at the energetic universe," said astrophysicist Peter Predehl, eROSITA principal investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE).
"Most of the sources in the map - around 77 percent - are supermassive black holes actively accreting material in the cores of galaxies, or what we call active galactic nuclei. These objects are extremely energetic, and there are a lot of them out there."
Here's your first teaser quote. Pre-order INVERSION from your favorite retailer today: https://books2read.com/inversion-rw
Hmm. It seems INVERSION really does turn the world upside down....
