I want to acknowledge and thank all of my readers and followers. I have been so excited to see so many from Russia, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. I found a cool article that deals with Vikings in Russia that I thought you all might enjoy, especially my readers from that region. Let me know what you think!
You can read it here: THE VIKING INFLUENCE IN RUSSIA
-Brad
Showing posts with label Science Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science Fiction. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Friday, November 15, 2013
Guest Blog - Jason Andrew Bond
For this week's guest blog, I am pleased to introduce author, Jason Andrew Bond. Make sure to check out the links to his social media pages, website, and literary works following this article.
What Getting Punched in the Face Taught Me about
Writing
I’ve been training in martial arts since I
was eighteen years old. That’s twenty
years of cracked shins, pulled tendons, and bruised forearms. I’ve trained under the former U.S. Taekwondo
Olympic Head Coach, a Muay Thai heavyweight champion, and a U.S. Martial Arts
Hall of Famer. Believe me when I tell
you, it all hurt.
During those years of training I had a
critical problem; I’m wasn't very good. I’ve got poor timing, weak balance, and slow reaction time. Rather, I had
those things. After twenty years, I can
block or dodge most punches and kicks, my balance is much improved, and I can land
a few good shots.
It’s important for me to qualify that I still
feel like an idiot compared to some of my more talented training partners. However, if you watched me spar or grapple,
you’d probably think I knew what I was doing.
You might just see me win against some pretty talented fighters…
might. There’s a lot you won’t see,
though. Buried in what I can do are
years of losses and injuries. In my younger
days, I went home many times with my ego so bruised I could barely look in the
mirror. Seeing only the skill a person
has and not what he or she went through to get it is a dangerous
misperception. To successfully walk a
path one must be aware of the entire journey, not simply the destination.
It is critical to understand that anything
done well, must first be done badly. This
truth is often where people struggle. I’ve
seen it for twenty years in martial arts. New students arrive with images of themselves stronger, fitter, and able
to defend themselves. That’s all great. However, the truth is that training hurts the
body and ego. People feel awkward when they
try to throw their first punches and weak because they can’t keep up with the
class. These physical and mental challenges cause
most people to quit within the first few months because they did not expect nor
appreciate those feelings. Yet, it is
exactly these feelings of apparent failure we must pass through to find
success.
The same reality of skill development applies
to writing, but there is an even deeper failure rate due to a key problem. Most people will look at a martial artist
throwing kicks and blocking punches and think, “Wow, that’s a different level
of skill.” It’s not always that way for
writing.
Many people—and I’ve heard this sentiment
several times—think that they can write a good story on the first or second go,
and that simply isn’t possible. If you
gave me two challenges, holding off a friend of mine named Jacob—who’s 265 lbs
and recently fought and won in a local MMA cage fight—and writing a story I can
guarantee people will like, I’ll take the fight. It’s so much easier to control. Let me reiterate that. A 265 lb. cage fighter is easier to control
than a reader’s perception of a fiction story. In a fight, I know when I’m winning. I know when I’m losing. Writing
is in no way that clear. It’s a shadowy
art in which you paint in the darkness of another person’s mind. You will never know the exact impact your
words have.
Most aspiring authors don’t realize how difficult fiction writing is until they get their first reader reactions. The author is excited and sure the reader will love the work, and the reader winces and says, “Well, it was okay, but…” This realization that the new author has not been able to create a masterwork can shock the ego so badly that he or she may give up. Don’t let that be you! I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it many more: The only time we truly fail, no matter how many rejections we receive or how many matches we lose, is the moment we stop trying.
So what should you do? Write. Write badly. You will at
first. Unless you’re that one lightning
bolt—odds are you aren’t—you’ll need practice. How much? Malcolm Gladwell has written a book on what
makes people successful called Outliers. I highly recommend it. I’ll leave the specific details to your
reading, but the core comes down to hard work. How much? 10,000 hours. That may sound like less than it is. Trust me, it’s a LOT. I’ve been tracking my writing time over the
last several years, and I’m still nowhere near that mark. However, if you want to compete with King,
Rowling, and Sparks, you better be willing to put in that level of time.
Now I’m going to offer my most important
advice: Don’t listen to me. You don’t
want advice from a guy who doesn’t have his 10,000 hours in yet. Go to the experts. During my martial arts lifetime I’ve learned
from first degree black belts and ninth degree black belts. I’ve attended seminars with a local stick
fighter and seminars with world class fighters like Danny Inosanto. The first degree black belts can get you off
the ground, but they can only raise you up so high. If you want to be competitive with the big
names of writing, if you want to perfect your voice and art, then you need to
be mentored by those with 10,000 hours.
The good news: That mentorship is there for you. I begin each writing day by reading from a
how-to book by a bestselling author or professional editor. If you focus on the advice of these people,
you will find valuable wisdom and—much more importantly—an intensely positive
energy. As a starting point, I recommend
the book Stein on Writing by Sol
Stein. You want to be a skilled
writer? Become a skilled editor.
So the secret to great writing presents itself as 10,000 hours of work, and many, many failures. But when you fail, if you see it correctly, you will move toward success. How can you develop a skill through failure? Believe me, when that boxing glove comes through your guard and connects with your face, your motivation to block the next punch is fairly intense.
Now stop reading this and get back to
writing!
All the best,
Jason
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Jason.Andrew.Bond Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonAndrewBond
Website: https://www.JasonAndrewBond.com
Friday, May 24, 2013
Guest Blog- Jennifer Willis
I am excited to host another friend and author, Jennifer Willis. Jennifer Willis is an author and journalist in Portland, Oregon. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Oregonian, Salon.com, The Christian Science Monitor, The Writer, and other electronic and print publications at home and across the globe.
GET OUT!
Many writers are solitary creatures. It's an occupational hazard. We hole up in home offices or even at tiny desks in closets. Unless we’re living with a partner or roommates, we might go days without so much as making eye contact with another human being. Granted, other writers are more social and thrive on noise and chaos. I am not one of those people, and most of the novice and experienced writers I know find writing to be a somewhat lonely practice.
It's important to get out—not just to step away from the desk, but to actually leave the office (and the house) . . . and to leave my own comfort zone. Unless my immediate material focuses solely on secluded navel-gazing, one of the worst things I can do as a writer is to permanently hole up inside my own cocoon.
But getting out doesn't mean that I'm not still working. I have two paths to "off-campus" productivity:
• Adventures in co-working and write-ins.
Embracing the non-ordinary
To keep work—and life — from getting stale, I remind myself to keep a look-out for new experiences. It could be as simple as trying a new route to the library, or as extreme as going skydiving for the first time.
If an opportunity presents itself—an invitation to play paintball, a friend who needs a companion for a tour of Kenya, a class on underwater basket-weaving—I figure, why not? If my first, knee-jerk reaction is to reject it, I'll take a moment to consider: Is this opportunity really too time-consuming, out of my way, or otherwise inconvenient? Or does it simply require me to step outside my comfort zone?
Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
I do try to be smart about this; with my chronic dysautonomia, not every physical activity is appropriate or even possible. But when I take chances—solo travel to a country where I don’t speak the language, or trying street hockey when I can barely skate—I've found that wonderful things can happen. I meet new people, get plenty of new story ideas, and have a lot more fun than I’d have sitting in the home office day after day.
Adventures in co-working and write-ins
This part is not as sexy, but it's a necessary part of my productivity puzzle.
About a year ago, a wonderful little coffee shop opened up in my neighborhood. The staff is friendly, the tea and baked goods are delicious, the WiFi is strong, and the location can't be beat—I can walk there through the park! It's the perfect environment for productive research, writing, and editing away from my desk.
Still, it was a solitary exercise. So, when National Novel Writing Month rolled around last November, I hosted my first-ever write-ins. I planned a schedule—two mornings a week—and invited other NaNoWriMo participants to join me. I met a dozen other local writers this way—people I otherwise might never have connected with. One of these writers has been a regular co-working buddy ever since.
Hosting a Write-In
What to look for in a write-in location:
• Coffee/tea menu—do I have to explain this? Food also helps.
• Adequate seating. Not everyone has to sit together, but you should all be able to assemble within easy earshot of each other.
• Power outlets. Call ahead to ask about available outlets if you're not sure. I tend to carry an extension cord and a power strip with me, just in case.
• Noise level. You don't want to have to whisper to each other so as not to disturb the other patrons, but you don't want to have to be shouting over the coffee machines and the house music, either.
• Groovy staff. Giving the staff a heads-up about your gathering—even if it's just three people—can go a long way to a great writerly experience.
• YOU! Show up and write already.
Traveling is also a great time to investigate co-working opportunities, wherever you happen to land.
When I was working in Dublin in the fall of 2011, I looked around my neighborhood for cafés with WiFi access. That was pretty much useless. I then realized that, of course, Dublin would have co-working facilities! After a quick Google search, I settled on AMWorks and it was just about perfect—good layout, clean, quiet, and convenient to public transportation. Plus, the people were friendly and respectful. The week I spent in those offices was pure gold.
When you need to "get out," don't be afraid of trying something new—whether it's a clown college seminar, hosting a write-in at your local hang-out, or even finding an office-away-from-home in a foreign city. I find the novelty and camaraderie to be priceless when it comes to real productivity.
-Jennifer Willis
She can be found online:
Website: jennifer-willis.com
Twitter: @jenwillis
Her novels—Rhythm (2001), Valhalla (2011), and Iduna's Apples (2012) —are currently available both as ebooks and in print.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Guest Blog by Pam Bainbridge-Cowan
This week, I am excited to host a fellow author and friend, Pam Bainbridge-Cowan. Pam is the author of The Butterfly--Book one in the Yetzirah: The Pocket Worlds series. Her short stories have appeared in Alien Skin, Argus, Space and Time, Visions, and various anthologies, and have been read on Golden Hours Radio. Former editor of the speculative fiction magazine, Nanobison, she is currently marketing director of the Northwest Independent Writers Association. She lives in Oregon's Willamette Valley, with her husband and various four-legged roommates. As P.J. Cowan she also writes mystery and suspense thrillers.
As a writer of mysteries and suspense thrillers I spend a lot of time researching various rather peculiar, some might say creepy, topics. When I decided to write a short story for an anthology whose theme was the number 13 I was pretty sure my search would result in some interesting information. I had no idea I’d be stumbling over the bizarre, and yes creepy, once again.
Of course I knew there was superstition around the number 13 and that many considered it unlucky. For instance, airlines have no 13th row of seats, some hotels won’t assign number 13 to a room, and high rises will number the 13th floor 14. (As if that fools anyone)
But there are many phobias, and the fear is not always based in reality. The fear of 13 has a name, triskaidekaphobia. A fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia from Frigge, the Norse goddess for whom Friday is named.
Many of us are aware that it’s considered bad luck to invite 13 people to dinner. This may be based on simple coincidence, such as the Christians belief that there were 13 guests at the Last Supper, Judas being the 13th. There is also a story that 12 Norse gods were sitting down to a banquet to which Loki, the 13th, was uninvited. This led Loki to kill one of the other gods, which led to events that eventually resulted in Ragnarok — the death of a number of gods, a slew of natural disasters, and the eradication of everything on earth save for two human survivors.
For an opposing view, there is also a contingent that believes the number 13 is lucky, especially for the United States. They will point out that the U.S. flag originally had 13 stars, and still has 13 stripes. That on the dollar bill there are 13 steps in the pyramid of the Great Seal. The motto above the pyramid, which reads “Annuit Coeptis,” has 13 letters; the eagle on the right side has a ribbon in its beak that bears the motto “E pluribus unum,” which also contains 13 letters. The eagle has 13 tail feathers, and on its breast there is a shield of 13 stripes. In one talon the eagle holds 13 arrows, and in the other an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 berries. Over the eagle’s head are 13 stars that form the six-pointed “Star of David.” The phrase “July the Fourth” contains 13 letters and the number 4 (1+3), the birth number of the U.S. (July 4, 1776).
In my research I came across another interesting fact. The number 13 has similar folkloric legends in many cultures all around the world.
One explanation is that cultures who use lunisolar calendars (such as the Hebrew and Chinese calendars) must have 13 months in some years in order to synchronize the solar and lunar cycles. The occasional year which contained 13 full moons instead of 12 posed problems for those, usually monks, who were in charge of the calendars. This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, as it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. Could this be the real reason thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number?
What is it about calendars? Didn’t we spend a lot of time in 2012 talking about the Mayan Calendar? The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic.
Another calendar-based theory is that in ancient cultures, the number 13 represented femininity, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). (When Chinese women make offerings of moon cakes, there are sure to be 13 on the platter. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility, and lunar potency.) As the patriarchy became stronger the number 13 was vilified.
Calendars and the moon aside, there do seem to be some rather eerie stories and coincidences around the number 13.
The troubled Apollo 13 mission was launched on March 11, 1970. It was written: 4-11-70. The numbers added up to 13. There were more 13s associated with the troubled mission. Like a Discovery Channel report read, "To reach its landing site on the moon, Apollo 13 would launch at 1:13 pm Houston time, or 13:13 on a 24-hour military clock. From there, the crew would enter the moon's gravitational pull on April 13." Yet, despite all those 13s, all crew members of Apollo 13 got back to Earth safely.
Winchester House, in Northern California, is one of the most famous “haunted” houses in the world. Whether or not one believes in Mrs. Winchester’s superstitions about spirits, it’s harder to dismiss occurrences of the number 13 throughout the house. Many windows have 13 panes and there are 13 bathrooms, with 13 windows in the 13th Bathroom. There are also 13 wall panels in the room prior to the 13th Bathroom, and 13 steps leading to that bathroom. The Carriage Entrance Hall floor is divided into 13 cement sections. There are even 13 hooks in the Séance Room, which supposedly held the different colored robes Mrs. Winchester wore while communing with the spirits.
A hangman's noose traditionally has 13 knots. Lesser knots could lead to inhumane suffocation. "Did you ever see a hangman tie a hangknot?/ I've seen it many a time and he winds, he winds / After thirteen times he's got a hangknot," sang Woody Guthrie.
The thirteenth trump card in a Tarot deck is the death card. Typically, it shows a skeleton riding a horse, carrying a black flag.
The names Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all contain 13 letters.
My search for information about 13 led to my most disturbing finding, a website maintained by a man who quotes from the bible to prove that the number 13 is satanic and is being used to promote the occult. He notes, “Mark 17:21-23 says that there are 13 evils in the human heart.”
He also writes that, “All children today go to school for 13 years (kindergarten plus 1-12 grades). It used to only be 12 years. But they kicked the Bible and prayer out in 1963 and then added kindergarten (making it 13 years). You have to go for 13 years to have your faith destroyed in God.
He is also very clear about the association between Heavy Metal and the number 13. “That’s what Heavy Metal Rock all about, that is, the total destruction of the United States of America.” He also notes other associations between evil and the number 13. “E pluribus unum (13 letters). New world order (13 letters). Annuit Coeptis (13 letters). Obviously he is viewing these same coincidences, which some see as favorable, in an entirely negative light. He also points to these inevitable dates as if they carried some special meaning. “After 12/21/2012 will comes 01/13/2013. What will the year 2013 hold for the world?”
Maybe it’s just this sort of eccentric view of a natural occurrence, stated with authority and not closely questioned, that leads to superstitions such as those surrounding the number 13. In any case I was happy to continue my online search for the unique properties of 13 at more science-based sites.
I learned that 13 is a natural number after 12 and before 14. It is the smallest number with eight letters in its name spelled out in English.
I also found that Friday turns out to be the most common weekday on which the 13th of a month can occur in the Gregorian calendar.
The number 13 is the sixth prime number and the smallest emirp (prime which is a different prime when reversed). It is also a Fibonacci number, a happy number and one of only 2 known Wilson primes. (I have no idea what a Fibonacci, a happy number or a Wilson prime is, but at least they’re not scary.)
In conclusion: Whether 13 is unlucky, lucky, or simply a number with no deeper meaning is something I will leave you to decide. I haven’t made up my mind and will have to think about it some more. In the meanwhile I’m going to go pour a cup of coffee and hunt up my favorite 13, a baker’s dozen — of donuts!
-Pam Bainbridge-Cowan
Links:
Website: http://www.pambainbridgecowan.com/
Website: http://www.authorpjcowan.com/
Facebook: http://www.authorpjcowan.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Just_Pam
Email: pam@pambainbridgecowan.com
THE NUMBER 13: LEGENDS AND MYTHS
As a writer of mysteries and suspense thrillers I spend a lot of time researching various rather peculiar, some might say creepy, topics. When I decided to write a short story for an anthology whose theme was the number 13 I was pretty sure my search would result in some interesting information. I had no idea I’d be stumbling over the bizarre, and yes creepy, once again.
Of course I knew there was superstition around the number 13 and that many considered it unlucky. For instance, airlines have no 13th row of seats, some hotels won’t assign number 13 to a room, and high rises will number the 13th floor 14. (As if that fools anyone)
But there are many phobias, and the fear is not always based in reality. The fear of 13 has a name, triskaidekaphobia. A fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia from Frigge, the Norse goddess for whom Friday is named.
Many of us are aware that it’s considered bad luck to invite 13 people to dinner. This may be based on simple coincidence, such as the Christians belief that there were 13 guests at the Last Supper, Judas being the 13th. There is also a story that 12 Norse gods were sitting down to a banquet to which Loki, the 13th, was uninvited. This led Loki to kill one of the other gods, which led to events that eventually resulted in Ragnarok — the death of a number of gods, a slew of natural disasters, and the eradication of everything on earth save for two human survivors.
For an opposing view, there is also a contingent that believes the number 13 is lucky, especially for the United States. They will point out that the U.S. flag originally had 13 stars, and still has 13 stripes. That on the dollar bill there are 13 steps in the pyramid of the Great Seal. The motto above the pyramid, which reads “Annuit Coeptis,” has 13 letters; the eagle on the right side has a ribbon in its beak that bears the motto “E pluribus unum,” which also contains 13 letters. The eagle has 13 tail feathers, and on its breast there is a shield of 13 stripes. In one talon the eagle holds 13 arrows, and in the other an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 berries. Over the eagle’s head are 13 stars that form the six-pointed “Star of David.” The phrase “July the Fourth” contains 13 letters and the number 4 (1+3), the birth number of the U.S. (July 4, 1776).
In my research I came across another interesting fact. The number 13 has similar folkloric legends in many cultures all around the world.
One explanation is that cultures who use lunisolar calendars (such as the Hebrew and Chinese calendars) must have 13 months in some years in order to synchronize the solar and lunar cycles. The occasional year which contained 13 full moons instead of 12 posed problems for those, usually monks, who were in charge of the calendars. This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, as it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. Could this be the real reason thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number?
What is it about calendars? Didn’t we spend a lot of time in 2012 talking about the Mayan Calendar? The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic.
Another calendar-based theory is that in ancient cultures, the number 13 represented femininity, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). (When Chinese women make offerings of moon cakes, there are sure to be 13 on the platter. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility, and lunar potency.) As the patriarchy became stronger the number 13 was vilified.
Calendars and the moon aside, there do seem to be some rather eerie stories and coincidences around the number 13.
The troubled Apollo 13 mission was launched on March 11, 1970. It was written: 4-11-70. The numbers added up to 13. There were more 13s associated with the troubled mission. Like a Discovery Channel report read, "To reach its landing site on the moon, Apollo 13 would launch at 1:13 pm Houston time, or 13:13 on a 24-hour military clock. From there, the crew would enter the moon's gravitational pull on April 13." Yet, despite all those 13s, all crew members of Apollo 13 got back to Earth safely.
Winchester House, in Northern California, is one of the most famous “haunted” houses in the world. Whether or not one believes in Mrs. Winchester’s superstitions about spirits, it’s harder to dismiss occurrences of the number 13 throughout the house. Many windows have 13 panes and there are 13 bathrooms, with 13 windows in the 13th Bathroom. There are also 13 wall panels in the room prior to the 13th Bathroom, and 13 steps leading to that bathroom. The Carriage Entrance Hall floor is divided into 13 cement sections. There are even 13 hooks in the Séance Room, which supposedly held the different colored robes Mrs. Winchester wore while communing with the spirits.
A hangman's noose traditionally has 13 knots. Lesser knots could lead to inhumane suffocation. "Did you ever see a hangman tie a hangknot?/ I've seen it many a time and he winds, he winds / After thirteen times he's got a hangknot," sang Woody Guthrie.
The thirteenth trump card in a Tarot deck is the death card. Typically, it shows a skeleton riding a horse, carrying a black flag.
The names Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all contain 13 letters.
My search for information about 13 led to my most disturbing finding, a website maintained by a man who quotes from the bible to prove that the number 13 is satanic and is being used to promote the occult. He notes, “Mark 17:21-23 says that there are 13 evils in the human heart.”
He also writes that, “All children today go to school for 13 years (kindergarten plus 1-12 grades). It used to only be 12 years. But they kicked the Bible and prayer out in 1963 and then added kindergarten (making it 13 years). You have to go for 13 years to have your faith destroyed in God.
He is also very clear about the association between Heavy Metal and the number 13. “That’s what Heavy Metal Rock all about, that is, the total destruction of the United States of America.” He also notes other associations between evil and the number 13. “E pluribus unum (13 letters). New world order (13 letters). Annuit Coeptis (13 letters). Obviously he is viewing these same coincidences, which some see as favorable, in an entirely negative light. He also points to these inevitable dates as if they carried some special meaning. “After 12/21/2012 will comes 01/13/2013. What will the year 2013 hold for the world?”
Maybe it’s just this sort of eccentric view of a natural occurrence, stated with authority and not closely questioned, that leads to superstitions such as those surrounding the number 13. In any case I was happy to continue my online search for the unique properties of 13 at more science-based sites.
I learned that 13 is a natural number after 12 and before 14. It is the smallest number with eight letters in its name spelled out in English.
I also found that Friday turns out to be the most common weekday on which the 13th of a month can occur in the Gregorian calendar.
The number 13 is the sixth prime number and the smallest emirp (prime which is a different prime when reversed). It is also a Fibonacci number, a happy number and one of only 2 known Wilson primes. (I have no idea what a Fibonacci, a happy number or a Wilson prime is, but at least they’re not scary.)
In conclusion: Whether 13 is unlucky, lucky, or simply a number with no deeper meaning is something I will leave you to decide. I haven’t made up my mind and will have to think about it some more. In the meanwhile I’m going to go pour a cup of coffee and hunt up my favorite 13, a baker’s dozen — of donuts!
-Pam Bainbridge-Cowan
Links:
Website: http://www.pambainbridgecowan.com/
Website: http://www.authorpjcowan.com/
Facebook: http://www.authorpjcowan.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Just_Pam
Email: pam@pambainbridgecowan.com
Friday, April 19, 2013
Guest Blog- Brad Wheeler
My featured guest blogger this week is my friend and author, Brad Wheeler. He is the author of Fugitives from Earth, a hard science fiction space opera set in a spacefaring future inspired by Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Larry Niven. Make sure to check out his links at the bottom of this post for more information. Here is Brad Wheeler:
I want to talk about a different type of mythology. I'm getting away from dictionary definitions here, because what I want to talk about has nothing to do with sacred narratives or ancient heroes striding into conflict with gods and titans. Rather, I want to talk about a far more recent past and heroes both more and less down to Earth.
This is a hilarious pun, as you'll see in a moment.
When Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, he was mourned by the entire world. He represented everything that was good about the USA: he was capable, but humble. Strong, but circumspect. He was a celebrity because of his scientific accomplishments, something that very few men (and perhaps no women) have ever achieved.
People in the spaceflight and planetary science communities mourned him for all these reasons, of course. They're still people. But they also mourned him because of what he represented: a space-faring future that never was.
In retrospect, once we had beaten the Soviet Union to the moon, political will to power evaporated. We got the Space Shuttle, which was still impressive but felt like a step backward. Skylab was short-lived. Mir was only headline news when it broke. And yet, there was always hope, dimmed though it was, of the glory days of Apollo returning, where the future would once again stretch out before us to an impossibly distant horizon.
Armstrong's death changed nothing concrete, of course. He'd been largely out of the public eye for years and had a minimal effect on policy. And yet, in the minds of people still yearning for Mars bases and space hotels and day trips to the moon, his death seemed in an instant to turn from all that from possibility to mythology.
Let us take a moment to admire an example of what we might have had.
My personal favorite is this design for a US Air Force space warship (link: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Project_Orion_Battleship). She would have carried hundred of bombs, not as weapons, but as its propulsion system. Every five seconds, a bomb would explode behind the ship, propelling it forward like gunpowder propels a bullet. And she was armed to fight the ships that other nations like the USSR would invariably launch. I'm glad we don't have warfare in space, but we're not much closer to having the engineering expertise to build one of these than we were in 1970.
A more peaceful and realistic plan was to use leftover resources from the Apollo program to send astronauts on a yearlong mission to Venus (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby) and, at somewhat greater distance, to Mercury. This would have been by far the longest time men had spent in space, and would've taken them tens of thousands of times farther away than their lunar-lander comrades. Unlike the Air Force warship, we had the technology to do this, but we don't any longer--much the knowledge required has been lost through the decades. We're better at putting people in space for a long time, but not necessarily much better at getting them up there.
Here's the real kick, though, and the reason why I find all of this so interesting: the future that it describes could still be ours. All we need is the will to make it. Neil Armstrong won't live to see it, but if groups like SpaceX and the Planetary Society have their way, there's no reason why you and I won't. That's why this is my very favorite bit of mythology: it didn't happen...but it still could.
Brad Wheeler is the author of Fugitives from Earth
Find him on:
His blog: http://thetenthword.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ordersponge
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mr_bradwheeler
Amazon Author Central: http://amazon.com/author/bradwheeler
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4959290-brad-wheeler
I want to talk about a different type of mythology. I'm getting away from dictionary definitions here, because what I want to talk about has nothing to do with sacred narratives or ancient heroes striding into conflict with gods and titans. Rather, I want to talk about a far more recent past and heroes both more and less down to Earth.
This is a hilarious pun, as you'll see in a moment.
When Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, he was mourned by the entire world. He represented everything that was good about the USA: he was capable, but humble. Strong, but circumspect. He was a celebrity because of his scientific accomplishments, something that very few men (and perhaps no women) have ever achieved.
People in the spaceflight and planetary science communities mourned him for all these reasons, of course. They're still people. But they also mourned him because of what he represented: a space-faring future that never was.
In retrospect, once we had beaten the Soviet Union to the moon, political will to power evaporated. We got the Space Shuttle, which was still impressive but felt like a step backward. Skylab was short-lived. Mir was only headline news when it broke. And yet, there was always hope, dimmed though it was, of the glory days of Apollo returning, where the future would once again stretch out before us to an impossibly distant horizon.
Armstrong's death changed nothing concrete, of course. He'd been largely out of the public eye for years and had a minimal effect on policy. And yet, in the minds of people still yearning for Mars bases and space hotels and day trips to the moon, his death seemed in an instant to turn from all that from possibility to mythology.
Let us take a moment to admire an example of what we might have had.
My personal favorite is this design for a US Air Force space warship (link: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Project_Orion_Battleship). She would have carried hundred of bombs, not as weapons, but as its propulsion system. Every five seconds, a bomb would explode behind the ship, propelling it forward like gunpowder propels a bullet. And she was armed to fight the ships that other nations like the USSR would invariably launch. I'm glad we don't have warfare in space, but we're not much closer to having the engineering expertise to build one of these than we were in 1970.
A more peaceful and realistic plan was to use leftover resources from the Apollo program to send astronauts on a yearlong mission to Venus (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby) and, at somewhat greater distance, to Mercury. This would have been by far the longest time men had spent in space, and would've taken them tens of thousands of times farther away than their lunar-lander comrades. Unlike the Air Force warship, we had the technology to do this, but we don't any longer--much the knowledge required has been lost through the decades. We're better at putting people in space for a long time, but not necessarily much better at getting them up there.
Here's the real kick, though, and the reason why I find all of this so interesting: the future that it describes could still be ours. All we need is the will to make it. Neil Armstrong won't live to see it, but if groups like SpaceX and the Planetary Society have their way, there's no reason why you and I won't. That's why this is my very favorite bit of mythology: it didn't happen...but it still could.
Brad Wheeler is the author of Fugitives from Earth
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