Taking Flight

My name has already traveled to Mars, which I think is pretty amazing, and now I'm sending it to an asteroid. Thanks to NASA and The Planetary Society, my name will travel to asteroid Bennu, spend 500 days there and then return to Earth. However, my name will also stay in space with the spacecraft that went to the asteroid.

Something about having my name in space is very satisfying. It's not that my name can send me any photos or texts to tell me what it's seeing. It's not that I might get the best postcard ever. It's more a feeling of joining the push to get Out There, the quest to understand what's beyond our planet, our solar system, our galaxy. I've put my stamp of approval on the quest, telling anyone or anything that happens upon the spacecraft in some distant future that I want to see farther. My home planet has a lot going for it, but I want to know what else there is. Since NASA hasn't yet come knocking at my door with an invitation to travel out there myself, I send my name instead.

After the launch in 2016, I can close my eyes and imagine I'm out there with my name, soaring through the darkness toward a new perspective.

If you'd like your name to join mine, here is where you can sign up:
http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/bennu/   If you don't want emails from The Planetary Society, be sure to uncheck the box. When I signed up, I got a cool certificate that I can save and print.

Let's go exploring!

The Latest Title

I've been writing a little about the third novel lately and it occurred to me that I haven't revealed the title of it yet. Are you interested? Read on!

I was doing a reasonable job of keeping the title a secret until a couple of people asked me flat out what it is ... so I told them. Now it just doesn't seem fair to keep it to myself any longer.

Here goes: the title of the third novel is In The Shadows.

As you might guess, I play around a lot with darkness and light in this one. You might recall that Penumbra, the name of Lamont's ship, means an area of shadow that's between the darkest shadow and the light, so it made sense to me that I should explore that a little more.

I'm still rewriting, which is the fun part: I get to play around with scenes and words to see what I can come up with. Eventually, however, I'll have to decide that I've done what I can and it's time to format the final product.

Stay tuned!

How Many?

I got a reminder this past week of how important it is to proofread a novel several times. I can read over the same thing three, four or five times before I catch an error. As it turns out, I can fix the error and still have a problem ...

I was reading over an action scene in the third novel. It's one of those scenes with a bunch of characters all moving at the same time, so I knew I had to keep careful track of who was doing what. I'd already mapped out the scene once before, but I apparently made some changes after that because when I read it this time, I realized something was wrong: I had someone appear out of thin air!

That's right. The scene takes place in a closed room and when I walked through the actions of the characters, I got one person too many. It was frustrating because I couldn't make it work the way it was written.

Time to rewrite.

I finally got out some colored paperclips and arranged them on a chair to visualize which character was where as I worked through the action. I think it works now, but I might put it aside and reread it in a few days to see if that's true.

And that's one of the reasons why I don't release a novel every few months! I can only imagine the stupid mistakes I'd find if I rushed through the process.

Speaking of stupid mistakes: the next time you have a few minutes, check out "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "Word Crimes." Even if you don't recognize the song it's based on (I didn't), it's a lot of fun. Grammar counts!  Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

Morningside

This week I'd like to give some recognition to my alma mater, Morningside College. Since they were kind enough to mention me in their latest issue of the alumni magazine, I'm returning the favor.

 I spent four good years at this small college in Sioux City, Iowa. I wouldn't be half the person I am today without those four years of education, friendship and discovery.
I want to thank my former professors for their patience as they tried to give me some understanding of how much I still had (and have) to learn. They imparted much wisdom and insight to someone who had none at the time (and could still use more).

It's been a while since I was there and I want to go back. I've been told that I'll hardly recognize the campus, which is probably true. I dug out an old photo from back in the day (I'll just keep the year to myself).

Charles City and Lewis Hall



I met my future husband at Morningside. I got to be an assistant editor of the campus newspaper and a DJ on the campus radio station. I made a lot of good friends.
I learned a few things, too.

Thank you, Morningside!

Slow

These are certainly the lazy days of summer. Book sales seem to be at a standstill, and so is the third novel.

Slow sales are to be expected, at least until Oprah or some famous movie director discovers Outsider. In the meantime, I'd like to thank Amanda and Vintage Stock in Joplin for continuing to carry copies of both novels. I did sell one copy there last month and that's definitely better than none!

My vacation sort of threw a wrench into the progress I was making on the third novel. After you've been staring at mountains, it's harder to stare at paper (especially paper holding words you've seen several times before), so I'm a little slow on that. In order to keep from feeling stuck, I've been trying to work on what I might want for the cover image for this one. You would think it would be easier than the second novel, but it most certainly is not! I have a vague idea and I'll see if I can run it by the artist in the near future to see what she thinks. (I have a verbal agreement to work with the same artist who did the cover for Another Shot.) Let's hope she thinks my idea is feasible and not ridiculous.

In the meantime, I hope everyone in the U.S. had a fun and safe Independence Day. Everyone have a great summer!

Vacation

I've recently returned from a two-week vacation in Nebraska and Colorado. Fun times!

I was in Lincoln to see my parents and we visited the Sunken Gardens there.



Sunken Gardens, Lincoln, NE

Then I went to Colorado to see my sister's family and we spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

If you've never been to the Rocky Mountains, you MUST go at least once! The views are spectacular, the wildflowers are abundant and the wildlife will surprise you. We saw moose, elk, marmots, chipmunks, ground squirrels and more. The air was fresh and the temperature was mild. It was a wonderful getaway.

Imagine sinking into snow up to your thigh ... in mid-June!

No matter where you go, vacation is a chance to experience something new. Surprise yourself! Discover what's out there in that big world outside your hometown.

Summer

It's Summer! (I know it's felt like summer in some places for quite a while, but now the calendar agrees with the weather.)

Summer is good and bad, I know, but I prefer to think of it the same way I think of Spring Training for the Cubs: anything is possible and you might as well bask in it before ugly reality hits. Ha, ha. Okay, maybe not "ugly" reality, but reality anyway.

Among your other plans for the summer, you might want to look up occasionally and remind yourself that there are humans soaring over our heads daily, gazing down at this incredibly beautiful planet and realizing how amazingly lucky they are to be aboard the International Space Station. We might not be able to join them, but we can either see the view from the station (through the link in my May 17 blog) or we can actually see the station itself! I've done it twice so far and it's really worth it! I was surprised at how exciting it was to see a gold-colored dot of light soar over my head and to recognize that there were people up there. The station can be seen with the naked eye. No binoculars or scopes are necessary. For details on how to spot it, go here: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Otherwise, have a safe and wonderful summer. May it live up to all of its promise.