Intro

I  am a writer, a writer of Science Fiction- what is now called Speculative Fiction. I like to imagine possibilities, try things on, see how it works. Thinking of the future, not just on our planet, but of any planet. What does it take to survive? What does it take to survive to see another planet, another civilization?

What follows are some ideas, opinions, and stories about what could be, both right now and in the future. I hope you enjoy!

Weekly Short Story

Hospital Waiting Room is so mind numbing

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Written by Jan | 10 October 2011

I am sitting in the surgery waiting room. Hubby was very nervous. He got a nerve block in his shoulder. Scary idea but is basically what women get for child birth, so it's not like they don't know how to do it. Cafeteria had ridiculously low cost breakfast food but same old high cost for drinks. Wonder what the story is there. Now the wait starts for 2 hours. Have no interest in any writing. Uggh!

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Plodding Along, Submission by Monday?

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Written by Jan | 09 October 2011

Wow, Skipped two weeks of writing here! Goes to show you how the mind works. I have been very busy heading off disasters at home and just dealing. Hubba, hubba too much happening, but the good news is we will survive, may not be happy but will survive. I am writing on the story. I did the first "scene" as I am labeling it now. Then I wrote the points of that scene out to show how the story is moving along. This is helping. I now have plotted out ten scenes, some of which I think can be combined. This will take work (but what doesn't). I have to have at least a good chunk for the next review. I still am not sure how much I can get away with at one time, we break that rule routinely. I might be satisfied with about half and then show the whole thing to my colleague at the next library book reading group meeting . The bulk of this done in the waiting room of the hospital as hubby get his shoulder operated on. It's his fourth one and hopefully the news is better with updated methods, a more experienced surgeon and the fact there is no calcium attached to the tendon this time.

The other part of "survive" I might do is go to UA for one semester and brush up my writing skills-seems I do a lot of run-on sentences and I am confused about how to work on that. I would be dong this because son doesn't want to go and they are going to charge us anyway (he went to one class once). Short of a formal protest (I think they want the money too much, though) I am trying this. After all the finances were decided on my husband's income and I have a BS. Hopefully, I can just slide right in. Thought about auditing. but realized I needed to have the teachers review my work, oh well. Rumor is there is a writing lab that let's the locals in as well as registered students. That could be quiet useful afterwards.

On "The Fight", I am thinking of polishing that up in the next two days and send it off to Alien Q. I am not sure this magazine is still accepting submissions. The website has no listings and the address I got off another website is not dated. The physical address is given but discusses email. This will be interesting.  I am really not sure after reading over the website if anyone submits there but the owner of the website. Check in soon with the next steps.

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Working Out the Kinks That Were Pointed Out In My Story

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Written by Jan | 29 September 2011

I did too much and now am paying for it. Knees, hips and back all interconnected and I am proving it!! However, I did manage to brain storm some of the problems in Independent Trader and think I am coming up with some answers. I will have the main character go to the International Trade Center in Geneva to ask for help in starting a trading business (instead of the UN). The snag then comes that she is not from a developing country but rather claims to be a whole developing country all by herself and thus gets laughed at and thrown out (like a bouncer does in a bar). She goes to get a drink (back to the bar) and is followed by someone of like mind (the lawyer in international law). This was a great sticking point. I think I will keep the action going with the phone call to the dead partner's brother after the lawyer leaves then I introduce "the ship" that is both her country and her AI Scotty.

My meeting at the library also produced fruit. A fellow participant who has a great interest in the SciFi conventions suggested I not go for the smaller magazine but shoot directly for the top, Asimov, who has an editor she knows about. Unfortunately, I didn't read the whole submission guidelines of Alien Q and it is has word limit much below my story. So, I will continue on Independent Trader and also think of a shorter one for Alien Q.

Oh well, the journey continues.

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NASA Image of the Day

  • Cloud streets off of the Aleutian Islands
    Strong winds polished the snow of southwestern Alaska and stretched marine stratocumulus clouds into long, parallel streets in early January, 2012. After crossing Bristol Bay, the winds scraped the clouds across the tall volcanic peaks of the Aleutian Islands. As the wind impacted the immobile mountains, the airflow became turbulent, swirling in symmetric eddies and carving intricate patterns into the clouds on the leeward side of the islands. At the top of this image, the bright white color indicates a thick layer of snow overlying the land of southwestern Alaska. The pristine white is broken by the rugged Ahklun Mountain Range in the east, which is partially covered by a bank of clouds. Off the coast of Alaska, sea ice floats in Bristol Bay, cracked and chipped by the flow of the waters which lie underneath. A few cloud streets – parallel lines of clouds – can be seen in the far northwest over land. The clouds increase over the sea ice and become thick over open water, where row upon row of clouds lie close in perfectly parallel formation. The Aleutian Islands stretch from northeast to southwest across the image. Sea ice, which is bright white here, lies on the windward side of the islands. A few of the tallest volcanic peaks can be seen rising from the icy islands. The character of the cloud streets change as they impact the Aleutians, especially near the center of the image, where two rows of beautifully symmetric swirls of eddies in the clouds stretch across the sky. These swirling formations are known as von Karman vortex streets. This true-color image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite on January 11, 2012. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

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