Webb's Spectacular View of M51

How incredibly lucky we are to have the Webb telescope in our lives, bringing us incredible images like this one! Damn, I love space.

What is it, besides breathtaking? M51, a nearby spiral galaxy (close enough to spot with binoculars if conditions are right), taken by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument.

See the article by the always great Phil Plait for all sorts of details on how the image was captured and what it actually shows us: https://badastronomy.substack.com/p/jwsts-view-of-the-magnificently-dusty

New Interview

Anyone want to take a deep-dive into my weird brain? I'm thrilled to have been interviewed by awesome fantasy author C. Borden on her blog. We talk about the Amaranthe universe, Medusa Falling, Marlee as a character, sci-fi inspirations, what being a lawyer taught me about writing, doing conventions as an introvert, and much, much more.

https://authorcborden.com/2023/10/06/author-spotlight-g-s-jennsen/

Protostar

From Webb’s newest observation:

Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. This image of HH 211 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals an outflow from a Class 0 protostar, an infantile analog of our Sun when it was no more than a few tens of thousands of years old and with a mass only 8% of the present-day Sun (it will eventually grow into a star like the Sun).

The image showcases a series of bow shocks to the southeast (lower-left) and northwest (upper-right) as well as the narrow bipolar jet that powers them. Webb reveals this scene in unprecedented detail — roughly 5 to 10 times higher spatial resolution than any previous images of HH 211. The inner jet is seen to “wiggle” with mirror symmetry on either side of the central protostar. This is in agreement with observations on smaller scales and suggests that the protostar may in fact be an unresolved binary star.

Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-snaps-supersonic-outflow-of-young-star

Meet the Newest Member of the Jennsen Family

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.

Dragon Con Booth

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.

Podcast Interview

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

Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blasters-and-blades/episodes/Episode-278-GS-Jennsen--Starship-Captain-e2859h6

BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/video/5db7_8Di9Nw/

Rumble: https://rumble.com/v387i13-episode-278-gs-jennsen-starship-captain.html

Amaranthe Novels In Hardback

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!

In Loving Memoriam

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.