166 ratings | 3 reviews | avg rating:4.66

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Melissa S. Green

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/yksin

born

February 25, 1959 in Montana, The United States

gender

female

website

http://www.henkimaa.com/

twitter username

yksin

genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Poetry, Nonfiction

member since

December 2011

About this author

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85 posts
Melissa S. Green's Blog

The Daily Tweets 2012-05-23

Going to @AKwriteclub tonight after all. I've had enough for now of that pretense of democracy known as the Anchorage Assembly. #
@regimcclain @akwriteclub Made it here this week after all. Hope to see you here too! in reply to regimcclain #

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Published on May 23, 2012 09:45

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Books by Melissa S. Green

Average rating: 4.37 · 27 ratings · 5 reviews · 5 distinct works

	Identity Reports: Sexual Orientation Bias in Alaska by Melissa S. Green (Goodreads Author), Jay K. Brause 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1989	My rating:
	Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy Tales of Challenging the Norm by Bart R. Leib (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jennifer Brozek (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Kelly Jennings 4.67 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Crossed Genres Year One by Bart R. Leib (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Kay T. Holt (Goodreads Author) (Editor), C.L. Rossman 4.00 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2009 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Alaska Passages: 20 Voices from Above the 54th Parallel by Susan Fox Rogers (Editor), Sherry Simpson, Jessica Maxwell 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1996	My rating:
	Crossed Genres Issue 12: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered & Queer by Bart R. Leib (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Kay T. Holt (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Kate Bachus 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	My rating:

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Melissa is Currently Reading

Melissa S. is currently reading:

Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy Tales of Challenging the Norm

by Bart R. Leib (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, stuff-i-wrote, science-fiction-fantasy

My rating:

Dec 05, 2011 11:02pm

Melissa S. gave

to:

The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist's Guide

by Neil F. Comins

bookshelves: currently-reading, space-exploration, research-for-writing

My rating:

Melissa S. said: "I started reading this book off my Kindle for iPhone -- had bought it some time before -- as relaxing lunchtime reading at the Bear Tooth (Anchorage) the day before Thanksgiving. Really, I chose it because I was in the midst of NaNoWriMo, working on...more I started reading this book off my Kindle for iPhone -- had bought it some time before -- as relaxing lunchtime reading at the Bear Tooth (Anchorage) the day before Thanksgiving. Really, I chose it because I was in the midst of NaNoWriMo, working on a story called "Cycler" & thinking about what my character Esti Gusev, born & bred on Mars, will experience when she takes a mag launcher into space for her trip to Earth. "Martian" is synonymous with "has lived her whole life at 1/3 of Earth's gravity" -- she's had to work her hiney off to get strong enough to withstand Earth gravity, much more so to take a launcher into space instead of riding the space elevator. So, what will it be for her to be pressed back into her seat at 2 or 3 times Earth g as she rises to orbit?

Much to my surprise, as I read the chapter in this book about gravity, I discovered that I'd had Esti work so hard that she was well-equipped to deal with the high g-force for that brief duration -- what really messes her up: microgravity. From low Mars orbit to rendezvous with the cycler in which she'll travel to Earth, she gets sick as a... well, not as a dog, but rather as sick as over one-half of all astronauts & cosmonauts who've ever been to space. What sickens them is a condition called Space Adaptation Syndrome, which is caused by physiological changes due to the lack of the force of gravity that the species of Earth evolved under.

This discovery added whole new dimensions to Esti's experience in space, & her first days on the cycler. As if to underscore it, my digestive system on the day after Thanksgiving (but not because of Thanksgiving dinner: nobody else got sick -- had to be something else I ate) decided to channel Esti's digestive system. I.e., I felt pretty damn bad all that day, though fortunately I was not wearing a spacesuit helmet -- vomiting inside one, as Neil Comins points out, can be quite dangerous to one's health.

I got better, Esti got better, & the book has already proven invaluable as a research tool for my ongoing writing in my Cold/Long Dark story universe. I'm reading it all out of order, though. Right now I'm reading the stuff about radiation hazards in space. The radiation dangers are so extreme for long-term travel in space, that if I were to retain complete fidelity to science, I'd have to give up this story universe altogether. Therefore I will follow that tried & true method of all science fiction writers: I'll fudge a bit.

I've dinged off one star because some of the "Mack's Log" stories used to illustrate the science verge on the cheesy -- Neil Comins is, after all, an astronomer & science writer, not a storyteller. ;) But all else is good. This book is immensely readable, interestingly written, & is comprehensible to the intelligent non-scientist reader. I particularly recommend it to writers like me who might want to know a few things before they have their astronauts do something really stupid.

This is my review from partway through the book -- perhaps I'll write more later, after I've finished it. (I can't tell you how many pages I've read so far because I'm reading it out of order and in the Kindle for iPhone app, where there are no page numbers, must locations.)(less) "

Dec 05, 2011 10:13pm · see review

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Melissa's Recent Updates

Melissa S. Green wrote a new blog post: The Daily Tweets 2012-05-23 The Daily Tweets 2012-05-23 Going to @AKwriteclub tonight after all. I've had enough for now of that pretense of democracy known as the Anchorage Assembly. # @regimcclain @akwr... read more »
May 23, 2012 08:48pm · like
Melissa S. is now following Nicola Griffith's reviews
May 03, 2012 05:22pm
Melissa S. gave to: Dirt Music by Tim Winton	My rating:
Dec 22, 2011 09:37pm
Melissa S. gave to: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton	My rating:
Dec 22, 2011 09:36pm
Melissa S. added a quote "A book unwritten is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody book that’s ever been written." — Robert Harris
Dec 22, 2011 04:48pm · add quote added! · more quotes by Robert Harris
Melissa S. added a quote "Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s too big, the desk’s too small, there’s too much noise, there’s too much quiet, it’s too hot, too cold, too early, too late. I had learned over the years to ignore them all, and simply to start." — Robert Harris
Dec 22, 2011 04:48pm · add quote added! · more quotes by Robert Harris
Melissa S. marked as to-read: Unknown Book 5907630 by Unknown Author 631	My rating:
Dec 22, 2011 02:55pm
Melissa S. marked as to-read: Spaceflight Life Support and Biospherics by Peter Eckart	My rating:
Dec 22, 2011 02:54pm
Melissa S. gave to: The Ghost by Robert Harris read in December, 2011	My rating:
A ghostwriter takes over the job of ghosting the memoirs of former British prime minister Adam Lang after Lang's former ghostwriter suddenly dies — and just as the Lang is charged with war crimes. Lang looks a lot like Tony Blair, & some of the i...more
Dec 22, 2011 02:19pm · see review
Melissa S. marked as to-read: Alternate Realities (Alliance-Union Universe) by C.J. Cherryh (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Dec 18, 2011 03:24am

More of Melissa's books…

Quotes Melissa Likes

“Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s too big, the desk’s too small, there’s too much noise, there’s too much quiet, it’s too hot, too cold, too early, too late. I had learned over the years to ignore them all, and simply to start.”
― Robert Harris, The Ghost

tags: writing

11 people liked it

“A book unwritten is a delightful universe of infinite possibilities. Set down one word, however, and it immediately becomes earthbound. Set down one sentence and it’s halfway to being just like every other bloody book that’s ever been written.”
― Robert Harris, The Ghost

tags: books , writing

5 people liked it