Kind of sick of this meme but this is awesome. “What society thinks I do” :D
PULP ROMANCE
He saw her across a crowded shelf.
Her deckle-edge was seductively deep, her endpapers velvety. She was a first edition, probably autographed. Any man would want to write his name in a book like her.
She noticed him perusing her pages, and blushed. He had a hard spine, and a crisp dust jacket. His eyes were capitalized, and in an obscure font designed in Amsterdam in 1768. She caught herself glancing at his flyleaf, and looked away, mortified.
They were in the YA section, and she was acting like a common galley.
“Can I have your ISBN?” he whispered. He could nearly see her addendum.
“Yes,” she cooed, helpless. “Yes.”
——
A couple of years ago, for the 110th Anniversary of the terrific indie University Bookstore in Seattle, 110 writers wrote pieces of 110 words. This was mine, a miniature romance novel, the only thing in that genre I’ve written. (So far.) Books are sexy. I became a writer in order to get closer to them.
NASA to Discuss New Black-Hole Hunting Satellite Wednesday
NASA will discuss plans for its next major telescope mission, a new satellite equipped to search for black holes, in a briefing Wednesday (May 30) that will be broadcast live online.
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) instrument is set to launch June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The telescope will be packed aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket due to launch from a plane in midair.
NASA officials and scientists involved in the project will preview the mission during a 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) briefing set to air on NASA TV.
NuSTAR will image light in the high-energy, short-wavelength X-ray range with unprecedented sensitivity and clarity. The telescope will aim to study how black holes form and evolve along with galaxies. NuSTAR will also observe other cosmic mysteries, such as high-speed particle jets, ultra-dense neutron stars, supernova remnants and our own sun.
The observatory was originally scheduled to launch in March, but NASA determined that more time was needed to review the rocket’s software.
Speaking at the press conference will be:
- Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
- Daniel Stern, NuSTAR project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
- Yunjin Kim, NuSTAR project manager at JPL
The press conference, which will take place at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., will be carried live on NASA TV as well as Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2. Anyone can submit a question to be answered during the briefing via Twitter, using the hashtag #asknasa.
Who knows if this movie will suck, but I like ol’ Owl Eyes (who in the novel is a metaphor for God) saying, “Mr. Gatsby doesn’t exist,” because of course Gatsby doesn’t exist.
So excited for this!! (Hopefully it won’t suck. Baz Luhrmann is directing so it’ll probably be okay, but you never know).
Doctor Who Fan Orchestra: Dalek Suite
And I’m proud to say that I played in the…
DWFO #4: “Dalek Suite”
The Doctor Who Fan Orchestra invites musical fans of Doctor Who to take part in an online collaborative celebration of Murray Gold’s music. Participants submitted recordings for this work from February to May 2012.
This final mix includes a total of 196 submissions from 174 individual participants, ranging in age from 10 to 60, and who are located in at least 20 different countries across the world.
Arranged and co-ordinated by Stephen Willis
Assistant Co-ordinator: Robin LaPasha
Member Adviser: Heather Ackroyd
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This is so awesome.
“Most parents don’t know really their children.” - Otto Frank
This is the actual recording of Otto Frank that runs in a loop in the Anne Frank house, for those interested.
I am mostly reblogging it so I will have a quick link where I can send people who tell me that there is a typo in my book and that I meant, “Most parents don’t really know their children.”
Sullivan Ballou was a lawyer and statesman from Rhode Island. When war broke out he immediately abandoned his promising politics to join the Army, where he served as a major. He wrote this love letter while he was enlisted.
July the 14th, 1861
Washington D.C.
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days-perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.
Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure-and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine O God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing-perfectly willing-to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.
But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows-when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children-is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?
I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death-and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.
I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles have often advocated before the people and “the name of honor that I love more than I fear death” have called upon me, and I have obeyed.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me-perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar-that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.
Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night-amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours-always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.
As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father’s love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God’s blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.
Sullivan
He was killed on July 29, 1861 at the First Battle of Bull Run. Sarah never remarried, but died in 1917 and is buried next to her husband.
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