Cleaning the house, packing books and paintings to sell, researching for my panels, making lists of things to do–When Words Collide is this weekend. I said I’d only be on 2 panels, but I am also attending 2 workshops, doing 2 readings, being MC twice and have 2 commitments to the short story contest–the weekend is going to go by in a blur. Oh, and a SFWA meeting to chair.
Launchpad is AWESOME!
Where to start? Last night I guided a 2.3m telescope to photograph the spectrum of a star. How’s that for amazing? Did labs looking at the spectra of hydrogen, mercury, neon and a couple of other gasses. Counted and categorised galaxies photographedby the Hubble Space Telescope. Manipulated the filters on b&w photographs of galaxies to highlight information visible in different frequencies of light. Amazing!
Excited!
I leave tomorrow for Launchpad. They sent the week’s schedule (which looks heavy!) and a pre-test on science concepts. It was pretty challenging. However, I was relieved at the end when the last question asked how many astronomy courses I had taken and was able to check of “none.” But I think I did okay–will be interesting to see if we get to go over the pretest results (I’m driven by grades, what can I say?).
Hmm. What to do?
I’ve been approached to edit another novel–this one, not until fall. I have the chapters to review to decide if I want to take it on. It’s very flattering, but I MUST spend more time on my own work. Decisions, decisions.
Another cool novel
This one isn’t published, but I am really enjoying it–critiquing it for friend, Randy McCharles. Very funny–easy read, lots of fun.