IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The 2024 OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Deep Space Here We come!

Hey Folks, As always, thanks for stopping by. This is a very exciting week. Two things are happening you should be aware of.
 
First, NASA is testing Orion, the spacecraft that will someday take mankind into Deep Space. First up is a planned trip to an asteroid around 2025, then it's off to Mars a decade or so after that.
 
You can watch live coverage beginning at 1:30 a.m. PST/4:30 a.m. EST on NASA TV.
 
The New Horizons Spacecraft: Get ready to learn some really cool stuff about Pluto!
 
Launched nine years ago, is about to encounter the Pluto. This will be the first man made craft to visit the planet. New Horizons has spent much of its life in a hibernation of sorts to conserve energy, and will power up December 6th in preparation for a 2015 summer rendezvous with the dwarf planet.
 
Despite the risks, the mission is poised to return a glut of discoveries, continuing the legacy of the first planetary spacecraft: the Mariner missions that visited Mercury, Venus, and Mars in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Voyager missions that explored the outer planets in the 1980s. Those missions were pioneers, as nearly every image and measurement revealed fantastic worlds never seen before.
Hubble image shows Pluto and three  moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra.
 
Pluto is one of the largest objects in the Kuiper belt, a collection of cold bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune and the last frontier of the solar system. The first Kuiper belt object wasn’t discovered until 1992. There are now more than 1,000 known Kuiper belt objects, and scientists estimate there are hundreds of thousands of them.
 
These objects have been around since the formation of the planets, so they serve as relics that help researchers understand the history and origin of the solar system. And Pluto contains clues about these ancient, icy bodies. For example, any craters on its surface will help scientists estimate how frequently Kuiper belt objects slammed into one another in the past.

 

Stephen Tremp is the author of the Breakthrough: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan. You can visit him at http://authorstephentremp.blogspot.com

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

The Insecure Writer's Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond

If you are a writer looking for resources, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group has something for you:

Available now – The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond!

Tapping into the expertise of over a hundred talented authors from around the globe, The IWSG Guide to Publishing and Beyond contains something for every writer. Whether you are starting out and need tips on the craft of writing, looking for encouragement as an already established author, taking the plunge into self-publishing, or seeking innovative ways to market and promote your work, this guide is a useful tool. Compiled into three key areas of writing, publishing, and marketing, this valuable resource offers inspirational articles, helpful anecdotes, and excellent advice on dos and don'ts that we all wish we knew when we first started out on this writing journey.

ISBN 9781939844088
235 pages, FREE
Find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Goodreads.



We invite you to check out the book and our sites:
Insecure Writer’s Support Group website
IWSG Facebook
IWSG Critique Circle.

Monday, December 1, 2014

#atozchallenge #roadtrip -- Stormy needs to stop for supplies!



 Hi!
It's ME!

Stormy the Weather Gnome!


We're changing things up a bit so you don't get bored.

Don't worry, we're still on the road to nowhere, still can't drive 55, AND still running against the wind.

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Just a quick side-trip note while Stormy picks up some much needed personal gnome travel items.


One of the co-hosts of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, Alex J. Cavanaugh, has some special news to share today.

As you may know, he founded the Insecure Writer's Support Group, which started out with just a few bloggers and now tips the scales at 268 members, has it's own website, Facebook page, Facebook critique circle and now...

...has its own published book!

From Alex:

Which is available NOW!!!

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond

Tapping into the expertise of over a hundred talented authors from around the globe, The IWSG Guide to Publishing and Beyond contains something for every writer. Whether you are starting out and need tips on the craft of writing, looking for encouragement as an already established author, taking the plunge into self-publishing, or seeking innovative ways to market and promote your work, this guide is a useful tool. Compiled into three key areas of writing, publishing, and marketing, this valuable resource offers inspirational articles, helpful anecdotes, and excellent advice on dos and don'ts that we all wish we knew when we first started out on this writing journey.

ISBN 9781939844088
235 pages, FREE
IWSG sites – website, Facebook, and Facebook Critique Circle
Find the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Goodreads.

Thanks to everyone who contributed and to my IWSG Admins who worked so hard to put it together. This was a huge project, but we wanted to celebrate three years of the IWSG right and highlight its blog and Facebook members in the process. We hope you’ll find some great information within the pages and spread the word about this awesome book.

You guys rock!

You need to go check this out!


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Hey, FYI, it's December.

Sign-ups for the 2015 Challenge start in January.

It's time to start thinking about your April theme!