Space Shuttle Set For Launch

Here’s a snippet from the NASA site:

Space shuttle Discovery’s STS-124 mission is officially scheduled for launch May 31.

Discovery’s 14-day flight will carry the largest payload so far to the station and includes three spacewalks. It is the second of three missions that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. The crew will install Kibo’s large Japanese Pressurized Module and Kibo’s robotic arm system. Discovery also will deliver new station crew member Greg Chamitoff and bring back Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will end a three-month stay aboard the outpost.

Launch Date: May 31, 2008
Launch Time: 5:02 p.m. EDT

I usually watch launches and landings both on my computer (so I can watch the entire thing) and my big screen TV (so I can see it REALLY well! LOL). Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and all systems go!

Signing Tonight in Paramus, NJ

CataUniversity Writing Challenge Wrap-Up

The CataUniversity Challenge is almost over. My progress was halting, but I’m glad to say that I did a lot of work on the story and am happy with my overall results. I’m going to try to squeak it in under the finish line, but I’m not too worried if I don’t. The story is well on its way and shouldn’t take much to finish.

I write in a very haphazard fashion right now that I’d really like to change. For one thing, I’d love to put myself on a schedule that I actually stick to, but life happens and I get derailed from all my best-laid plans. I try not to let it bother me too much. No sense getting upset by the small stuff, right?

So I write a lot in short bursts, when I can. It’s been that way ever since I got back from RT. Spring is a busy time, so I guess I can understand my time-management difficulties, but I’d really like to get on more of an even keel soon.

In the meantime, I’m happy for having accomplished as much as I have during this incredibly busy time. Thanks to CataUniversity for sponsoring the challenge!

WW: Silver Dragon & Spotted Cat

Art by Daio

Religion & Aliens

Like many, I was a little surprised by the Vatican’s chief astronomer saying that it’s possible that other intelligent life exists in the universe. Now, I’ve believed in that possibility ever since I first saw Carl Sagan on Cosmos when I was just a kid. Remember his talk about “billions and billions” of stars and planets, etc?

But as a columnist for the Financial Times put it:

…one has to admit that the first response to this notion was “Crikey! Does the Vatican have a chief astronomer?”

That was my response too, though being American, I never say “crikey.” I’ve been mulling this over in my mind, recalling a conversation I had with an Israeli Biblical scholar during grad school. He indicated that in early, non-Catholic/Christian versions of Genesis, other planets are mentioned. He said that the ancient texts talk about other planets God created before he created Earth. I was always intrigued by that quick conversation I had with this man so many years ago.

Now it seems, the Catholic church has similar ideas, though I guess they’re not going to revive earlier versions of the Bible anytime soon. ;-) Here’s what Reuters had to say about the initial news story, with quotes from the priest involved:

“In my opinion this possibility (of life on other planets) exists,” said Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, a 45-year-old Jesuit priest who is head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict.

“How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere,” he told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in an interview in its Tuesday-Wednesday edition, explaining that the large number of galaxies with their own planets made this possible.

Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: “Certainly, in a universe this big you can’t exclude this hypothesis”.

In the interview headlined “The extraterrestrial is my brother,” he said he saw no conflict between belief in such beings and faith in God.

“Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can’t put limits on God’s creative freedom,” he said.

“Why can’t we speak of a ‘brother extraterrestrial’? It would still be part of creation,” he said.

Funes, who runs the observatory which is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the “lost sheep” of the universe.

“There could be (other beings) who remained in full friendship with their creator,” he said.

To quote a famous TV alien, this is simply “fascinating!”

Now, I write about aliens quite a bit, but mine are the fantasy hunks of my limited human imagination. I freely admit I write about these cool alien dudes because I don’t think men like them exist on Earth. LOL! Well, okay, maybe there are a few… but not many! So to justify the existence of so many “perfect” (or at least really compelling) men, I had to turn to the unknown of outer space. I just hope the real aliens will forgive me for taking such liberties if/when they ever show up!

The Phoenix Has Landed

It was a beautiful by-the-book landing for the Phoenix last night on Mars. Just think of it, we landed on another planet. How cool is that?

I guess what I forgot in the hustle and bustle of life on Earth is that we already have a bunch of stuff going on on Mars. There are two American sattelites orbiting the planet already, in addition to at least one from Europe. (Not sure who else might have something orbiting around up there.) And there were those two rovers - Spirit and Opportunity - that were rolling around, taking samples and photos of rocks. So Mars is becoming something that we’re beginning to know a lot more about.

This latest mission is a stationary unit that will dig into the Martian soil and analyze what it finds. It’s up near the pole, so chances are good it might encounter Martian ice. This would be the first time a human craft encounters water on another planet. Again, I have to ask - how cool is THAT???

Aside from the goings on in space, I also just wanted to take a moment to remember our servicemen, veterans and POW’s on Memorial Day.

I went to a concert over the weekend with my parents (I bought the tickets as a gift) where a group of foreign-born musicians surprised the crowd by playing “America The Beautiful” in a coliseum packed with probably somewhere around 30,000 people. Many of the attendees at this concert were like my Mom - born in another country - so I didn’t expect them to really respond. I have to tell you, I was surprised and touched when every single person in that coliseum rose to their feet and sang along. And people say New Yorkers aren’t patriotic!

Mars Landing Today

I think many of you know how much I enjoy keeping up with the latest developments in space. Well, everybody keep your fingers crossed - they’re going to land another mission on Mars today. Here are some snippets from a press release from NASA:

May 25 arrival of Phoenix Mars Lander will be available on NASA Television and on the Web

Entry, descent and landing begins at 4:46 p.m. PDT on May 25, when the flight team listens for radio signals indicating that Phoenix has entered the top of the Martian atmosphere. The spacecraft must perform a series of challenging transformations and activities during the seven minutes after it enters the atmosphere to slow it from 12,000 mph to 5 mph and a soft touchdown. The Phoenix team will be watching for radio signals confirming the landing at 4:53 p.m. More than half of previous international attempts to land on Mars have been unsuccessful. For a detailed schedule and landing timeline, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

On landing day, May 25, live landing commentary will air on NASA TV. A telecast of mission control — without roll-in videos and interviews — will run on NASA TV’s Media Channel beginning at 3 p.m. Another telecast with commentary, interviews and videos will begin at 3:30 p.m. on NASA TV’s Public Channel. 

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

I’ll be watching! Will you?

Creature Feature: Cat Shifters

Cat shapeshifters offer a unique and interesting opportunity for fantasy writers. First, there are so many kinds of big cats to play with and many of them share common traits.      

In the genus Panthera, for example, are the lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar. These are the only big cats able to roar and are sometimes distinguished as the “great cats” to differentiate them from other big cats like the cheetah, snow leopard, clouded leopard, and cougar. Another little distinction is that the babies of the great cats are called cubs, while the babies of the other big cats are called kittens. (More on all of this minutiae can be found in the Wiki entry.)

The creature I find most interesting is the cougar. Bigger than the jaguar, but not considered a “great cat,” it goes by many names and roams most of the Americas. Also called Puma or Mountain Lion, these cats are huge and very efficient predators. They learn and adapt to their environment and the kinds of prey they find there. I saw a show on Animal Planet the other day on bighorn sheep in the Canadian wilderness. It turns out that scientists were able to discover that one particular cougar in the area had learned how to efficiently hunt the bighorn lambs and for the last two years of the cougar’s life, it ate almost nothing but mutton and put a big dent in the local bighorn population. But another cougar wasn’t as smart. It fell to its death off the rocky slopes while chasing a bighorn lamb and both were found dead at the bottom, killed by the fall. So it takes a sure-footed cougar to even attempt to hunt those kings of the mountain in their rocky, dangerous domain.

In my own writing, I’ve created a few different big cat shapeshifters. Many of you have already read about Matt Redstone, a character from my novel, Sweeter Than Wine. He’s a werecougar and has the cunning, speed and agility of the cat, even in human form. He’s also really sexy, just like the cat. In my little world, he’s the youngest of a group of cougar-shifter brothers and I plan to feature each of them in upcoming works. I’m also working on an urban fantasy world, inhabited by leopard and tiger shifters, as well as Others. More on that, when news becomes available.

For now, I continue my research into the ways these big cats are related and the fantasy of how to make them purrrrrrrrr.

Urban Fantasy Anyone?

It’s Stella’s Birthday Bash!

I’ll be at the party tonight - calling in a little after the show starts. I’ll probably be in the chat room from about 8:30 on. Here’s the official announcement:

Stella is throwing a fantastic party and you get the presents! Thats right! Tonite at 8pm on her radio show, Books Beyond the Boundaries, she will be hosting the birthday event of the century! Join her as well as Jacquelyn Frank, Bianca D’Arc, Alexandra Ivy, Kayleigh Jamison, Elizabeth Amber, Selena Illiryia, Cara North, Robin Slick, Cat Johnson, Tilly Greene, Skylar Sinclair, Eliza Gayle and many many more as they ring in Stella’s 29th birthday!

Both On Air radio lines and the show’s chat room will be open simultaneously, so everyone can play! Be sure to tune in before the end of the first hour or you wont be able to at all!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/BooksBeyondtheBoundaries