Breaking News & Random Musings on Space, Technology, Sci-Fi & the View From A Writer’s Window
Just look at these photos!
From SpaceX on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1702774532174733387:
“Starship represents a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”
Dragon Con wasn't actually the most exciting thing I did last week. Meet Cassini Leeloo Jennsen, named after the Best Spacecraft and the Best Supreme Being. We'll call her "Cassi."
She's a 10-week-old Havanese, doesn't weigh half an ounce (okay, 4 lbs), and is utterly joyous and pure of spirit. Everything is new and interesting and worthy of nomming, and she has already thrown our life into total chaos. Cooper is * very * confused about this new intruder, but he's being so amazing with her; I predict they will be BFFs in no time.
Me at Dragon Con last week, doing Dragon Con things. All the thanks to Carole for the tremendous help setting up the booth, James Hunter and the guys at Shadow Alley Press for absolutely pwning a metric f*ckton of book boxes with brutal efficiency, Claire for holding down the fort like a pro when I had to act like a writer on panels, and of course Katie Cross for being a rockstar of a boothmate. It was a fantastic (and exhausting) four days of talking on panels, hanging out with author friends, and meeting so many awesome readers.
The recent lunar curse is broken! India has successfully landed the Chandrayaan-3 probe on the moon's south pole, becoming the 1st country to land in that region and the 4th country to land on the moon.
More private enterprise landings are coming later this year.
Learn more about the mission here: https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-mission-what-next
This is the best annotation of the Milky Way map I've ever seen. You know, in case you get lost and need directions. All it’s missing are local restaurants and big box stores….
Found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAstronomers/status/1695062683236647198
I had a great time chatting with fellow sci-fi author JR Handley on the Blasters and Blades Podcast this week! We talked about taking SF worldbuilding to 11 (or 12...), cooking in space, spaceships, how weird alien species can get, what's next for Amaranthe, and so, so much more.
You can listen to the podcast at multiple places:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/5db7_8Di9Nw
BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/video/5db7_8Di9Nw/
Rumble: https://rumble.com/v387i13-episode-278-gs-jennsen-starship-captain.html
A year and a half after I started the project, I'm thrilled (and relieved) to announce that all 20 Amaranthe novels are now available in hardback!
You can get them from Amazon, Barnes & Noble's website, Waterstones and many more online retailers. To celebrate, I've also added the ability to special order signed hardbacks from my website. What does "special order" mean? Well, it's still not practical (or cost effective) for me to maintain hardback stock at my home. If you buy a signed hardback, I'll order one from the printer; when it arrives, I'll inscribe it and send it to you! This means it'll take several weeks for you to get your book - but chances are you've already read it, so.
https://www.gsjennsen.com/paperback-store?category=Signed+Hardbacks
Of course, you can still order signed paperbacks from me and get them in a couple of days!
Check out the hauntingly beautiful galaxy M66, a spiral galaxy in the southern, equatorial half of Leo, is a member of a small group of galaxies that includes M65 and NGC 3628, known as the Leo Triplet or the M66 Group.
Check out this stunning Midjourney AI art of Marlee, the star of Medusa Falling, and her dragon, Cupcake!
Polka-dot sprinkles were a little beyond Midjourney's capabilities, but otherwise it's a fantastic dragon. Feel free to download. And if you prefer Marlee sans Cupcake, that pic is also included.
Apologies for the lack of SMBH posts recently. I’m in the process of moving, and basically running my life from my phone. ;) Regular space and sci-fi content will resume shortly!
I had to let my beautiful Princess go this week. Kaylee had 16 absolutely wonderful years - a charmed life, truly.
She never knew a time when I wasn't at the house with her, never had to watch me go off to the office job for the day (this made her a bit co-dependent, but that was okay). She wasn't an overly affectionate dog and was no fan of lap sitting; instead, if she was near me, she was content. She slept on my desk on a pillow while I wrote, or on the ottoman beside me; later, as she got older and arthritic, she slept under my desk. She loved slices of deli turkey more than anything in the world; her favorite pasttime in her older age was barking at rabbits in Colorado and deer in Montana.
She was the sweetest dog I've ever had, and I will miss her more than I can express.
When your next author photo goes wrong….
5,438!
That's how many planets beyond our solar system we've confirmed. We've found planets with three stars, planets without stars, and planets orbiting the cores of stars. Each one is a wonder. Learn more at: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/
After watching an hour-long deep-dive showcase.... My god, this has got to be the biggest, most complex and multi-faceted game ever created. I'm going to be playing it for a decade.
Watch the Starfield Official Gameplay Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfYEiTdsyas
Happy 5th Book Birthday to EXIN EX MACHINA!
I took a lot of risks with this book, asking all of you to trust me with a whole new world and characters that weren't like anything which had come before. I'm so grateful for it. And look how important the Asterions' story turned out to be! I hope you love them as much as I do.
I had a wonderful time at MisCon this weekend! Highlights include:
(1) the "Predictive Power of Sci-Fi" panel with sci-fi luminaries Robert J. Sawyer, CJ Cherryh, David Gerrold and James Glass, where we mused over the role of science fiction as prediction engine, research lab for ideas, and early warning system.
(2) the fact that I sold out of all the Aurora Rising novels and the Short Stories Collection. MisCon attendees *love* their sci-fi!
(3) all the lovely writers and aspiring writers I got to know, and hopefully helped them out a little on the road to achieving their dreams.
(4) such incredible cosplay! The costumes rivaled anything you might see at a much larger con.
Midjourney has come a long way in a short time, hasn't it? Are these exact matches to how I see the characters in my head? Well, not *quite*, but it's so close, they make me happy.
The one issue I'm still having is that Midjourney really wants to make women look young; you have to brute force it to create an actual "adult." (*insert social commentary if you like*) And I did force it pretty hard for Maris, because she needs gravitas. ;)
OTOH, if you were immortal and could look however you wanted, wouldn't you want to look 23?
Second edit of Medusa Falling is complete. This book is HAPPENING, friends, and it is one wild ride!
A Babylon 5 animated movie is happening! Actually it's already happened - it's fully filmed and pretty much ready to go. It's titled "B5: The Road Home."
"Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe.”
Well that sounds like quite the adventure! Virtually everyone is back. Of the living cast members, Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan), Claudia Christian (Ivanova), Peter Jurasik (Londo), Bill Mumy (Lennier), Tracy Scoggins (Lochley), and Patricia Tallman (telepath Lyta Alexander) will appear. Many of the cast members who tragically died over the years will also see their characters return, with Delenn, G’Kar, security chief Garibaldi, Dr. Franklin, original Babylon 5 commander Jeffrey Sinclair, and the omnipresent Zathras all voiced by new actors.
It's a multiverse story, so it will be very interesting to see how all this plays out.
Though there is not an official release date announced, it appears that it will get an initial screening at San Diego Comic Con in late July, then presumably be available to stream (somewhere) shortly thereafter.
Thanks to Ryan McHargue for hosting me on his "Geezers of the Game" podcast this week! Check it out here: https://link.chtbl.com/GotGPodcast.
If you subscribe to my Buy Me A Coffee program (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gsjennsen), you get to listen to me ramble on about writing, space and sci-fi every month. But if not, here's a rare chance to do so.
We had such a fun and wide-ranging chat, from Medusa Falling to how Starshine changed my life, runaway characters and why sub-genre walls should be demolished, fan fiction, gaming, the bruises from practicing law, Pyper Down's awesomeness, my favorite scenes I've ever written, and my long-term plans for Amaranthe.
