Beth Revis's Blog, page 22

March 4, 2013

NASA Month: Remembering the Challenger





All this month, I'm NASA! This means every weekday in March will feature a new post about NASA, and I'm hosting a giant giveaway in order to encourage people to spread the NASA love. For more information on the giveaway, check out this post.



Today we have a special guest post by author and fellow League member Mindy McGinnis! She's posting about the Challenger disaster, my earliest memory of a national tragedy.



______________________________________


Remembering the Challenger

by Mindy McGinnis




I was only in kindergarten when the Challenger exploded, but I remember it clearly because it was my first experience of chaos.



When you're five, you believe that adults know everything, control everything, and can fix anything. I got off the bus on January 28, 1986 to find my mother crying, which was shocking enough on its own. The worst thing my child-brain could conceive of was that one of our pets had died, but she explained what had happened over my snack.



I remember what kind of jelly was on my PB&J. I remember what my juice box looked like. I remember that my tiny tummy folded up on itself and refused to eat anything else.



I suddenly understood that adults could die. Even worse, a teacher - a type of adult I thought of as being super-human - was just as susceptible to a random accident as anyone else. I peeked at the TV while the Challenger exploded over and over, at a complete loss to wrap my thoughts around what had happened. There was nothing to recover, no one to save. Nobody could do anything to help.



For the longest time this is what space meant to me - danger, chaos and helplessness. I couldn't believe that anyone would ever try to go into space again, after seeing the shuttle explode.



But people did... and my perception of space began to change. As I grew older it represented amazing courage and human ingenuity. It meant that there were people brave enough to strap themselves onto a rocket in the name of science, secure in the knowledge that the people who had built it were confident that it was safe.



I'm still never going to get on a shuttle, I admit. Even if that option were open to me, my fear of heights has ruled space travel out. I think the experience of seeing our planet from space would be so surreal that my mind couldn't grasp it in any case, and so I'll settle for subscribing to National Geographic...



... until we use up all our freshwater and have to go find another blue planet.



______________________________________





Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut, NOT A DROP TO DRINK, is a post-apocalyptic survival tale set in a world where freshwater is almost non-existent, available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins September 10, 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire and contributes to the group blogs Book PregnantFriday the ThirteenersFrom the Write AngleThe Class of 2k13The Lucky 13s & The League of Extraordinary Writers. You can also find her on TwitterTumblr & Facebook.



NOT A DROP TO DRINK coming September 10, 2013 from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins.



______________________________________



This post is a part of the month-long celebration of NASA I'm hosting on my blog. In order to encourage people to celebrate NASA, I'm also hosting a giveaway!



One grand prize winner will receive all the books in the recent Breathless Reads tour, as well as ARCs of two anthologies and a signed Breathless Reads poster:







As well as swag from NASA, courtesy of Kate @ Ex Libris:






To celebrate NASA creatively: you could blog about why you like NASA, you could reach out to an astronaut for an interview, you could make space fan art, you could sing a song about NASA, you do a vlog, you make a list of all the ways NASA rocks...any of this counts! Just celebrate NASA in some awesome way, post it online, and include the link in the Rafflecopter. I even set that part of the entry open for multiple entries, so you could blog and vlog and Facebook and tumblr and Pinterest about NASA and they all count. The only requirements: post a link back to this contest, and put the full URL of the site in the Rafflecopter. Full details here.



To enter: be sure to read the full rules and terms of the contest here. Then fill out the Rafflecopter below:



a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Published on March 04, 2013 21:00

March 3, 2013

NASA Month: What is NASA?


All this month, I'm NASA! This means every weekday in March will feature a new post about NASA, and I'm hosting a giant giveaway in order to encourage people to spread the NASA love. For more information on the giveaway, check out this post.



______________________________________



What is NASA?



The obvious place to start this month with is an explanation of just what NASA is. First and foremost, NASA is a acronym for National Aeronautic and Space Administration, which is a fancy way of saying it's the United States's space program.



Growing up, I thought NASA was basically astronauts and space shuttles. And, in part, it is. All that famous stuff--"Houston, we have a problem," and "One small step for man," and that sort of thing--it all came from NASA.



But in researching this month's posts, I came across NASA's motto: For the benefit of all. And really, that's a much better way of looking at NASA.



Recently, there's been a lot of talk about NASA and its funding--namely, cutting that funding short. I think the problem is that people, like I used to be, think NASA is nothing more than astronauts. But the research NASA does really is for the benefit of all.



A lot of things you probably use every day developed through NASA research. Seriously! This includes:




Memory foam mattresses
Dustbusters
LED lights
Scratch-resistant lens for glasses
Nutrients used in baby formula


These things (and many more!) developed because of NASA research. They needed scratch-resistant helmets for astronauts in space, and then applied that to the glasses lens I wear everyday. These things provide us comfort (omg, memory foam) and luxuries we don't really need. But NASA has also developed important things that sincerely make the world a better place.




For example? Much of the equipment firefighters use. It's not that much of a leap between an astronaut's suit and a firefighter's suit, and things such as flame retardant material got their source in NASA.




Also? Water purification treatments. NASA needed it in space, but that technology is now being used in third-world nations and disaster-relief operations to provide clean water to people who desperately need it. 




A lot of what we consider "clean energy" today has it roots in NASA. Solar power and pollution reduction technology started out in NASA. Ironically, the very thing that's getting more funding in today's government wouldn't have existed without NASA.




And that's saying nothing about the medical advancements. Prosthetic limbs, cochlear ear implants, breathing machines and heart monitors are all linked to NASA research. 




NASA has had a role in over 1650 (source) spin-offs that are now used widely throughout the world. I know when we think of NASA, we tend to think of this:





Aldrin in the Apollo Mission


...or even this:


Pillars of God, captured by the Hubble Telescope

But really, to see the effect NASA has had on the world today, all we need to do is look around our own homes.



______________________________________________________________________________



This post is a part of the month-long celebration of NASA I'm hosting on my blog. In order to encourage people to celebrate NASA, I'm also hosting a giveaway!



One grand prize winner will receive all the books in the recent Breathless Reads tour, as well as ARCs of two anthologies and a signed Breathless Reads poster:







As well as swag from NASA, courtesy of Kate @ Ex Libris:






To celebrate NASA creatively: you could blog about why you like NASA, you could reach out to an astronaut for an interview, you could make space fan art, you could sing a song about NASA, you do a vlog, you make a list of all the ways NASA rocks...any of this counts! Just celebrate NASA in some awesome way, post it online, and include the link in the Rafflecopter. I even set that part of the entry open for multiple entries, so you could blog and vlog and Facebook and tumblr and Pinterest about NASA and they all count. The only requirements: post a link back to this contest, and put the full URL of the site in the Rafflecopter. Full details here.



To enter: be sure to read the full rules and terms of the contest here. Then fill out the Rafflecopter below:



a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Published on March 03, 2013 21:00

March 2, 2013

Rescheduling Today's Event

Sad news everyone! The weather has conspired against me (again), and the event with Carrie and Megan in Sylva today is going to have to be rescheduled. Between snow and ice (which more is predicted by 4pm, right in the middle of the scheduled event), we think it's too dangerous for our readers to be out on the road for the event. We're working now to come up with an alternative date and I'll post here as soon as I know something!



Sorry for the inconvenience! Darn ice!!
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Published on March 02, 2013 07:27

February 28, 2013

Announcing: The Month of NASA! With a HUGE Breathless Giveaway!!


NASA is an obvious love for me--I'm a total space geek (says the sci fi writer). When I was in junior high, we took a field trip to NASA Space Camp in Alabama, and I still remember the joy of seeing how astronauts trained. It was seriously the best trip ever. Everyone else wanted to go to the beach, but all I cared about was seeing the shuttles.



In college, I'd taken enough AP classes (and was a non-science major) that I only had to take one science class to fulfill my requirements. Instead, I took three--a major accomplishment for this non-science loving girl--because I wanted to take every astronomy class I could. The lab work was the best--we got to use real, professional grade telescopes. I still have my astronomy text books...although I did give up most of my English ones.



So NASA has definitely always been on my radar.  When I starting writing ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, I fell in love with NASA all over again. NASA records were one of my top research spots, especially for SHADES OF EARTH. All of this made me even more nerdily excited when the book actually got to go into space.



This month, I have the very great pleasure and honor to go on tour at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. I am so insanely excited about this, I cannot even. Seriously. My ability to can has completely left. NASA YOU GUYS ZOMG!!!!!! And a huge, huge thank you to Kate at Ex Libris for hooking me up with the tour! Also: if you're not reading her awesome book review blog, you totally should. Like, now.



So, to celebrate, I'm declaring March NASA Month on my blog. Every day this month, I'm going to post something about how NASA is awesome, and I'd love for you to join me.



And, of course, there's going to be prizes. How could I not include prizes? And since we are talking about space here, I think it's only appropriate to make those prizes be a bit...breathless...









So remember how I recently went on the Breathless Reads tour? Well, I made sure to grab an extra signed copy of every single book on the tour. And I'm going to give them all away to one lucky reader.





Here's the whole pile, spread out on my kitchen table.

Flowers from my husband not included :)

This is...a lot of books. Seriously. Here's what they look like all lined up.







And remember: every single copy is signed by the author! Want a break down of just how big this prize is?



First, you have signed hardback covers of all three of my novels: Across the Universe, A Million Suns, and Shades of Earth.





So pretty :)

Then, I'm throwing in an ARC of two of the anthologies I'm being published in this year, Shards & Ashes (edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong, with stories by Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margie Stohl, and more) as well as Defy the Dark (edited by Saundra Mitchell, with stories by Aprilynne Pike, Carrie Ryan, Rachel Hawkins, and more). I'll also sign both of my stories in this antho.





Such an honor to be included in these. Seriously.

Next, we have signed copies of the books by the girls I was just on tour with: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood, Black City by Elizabeth Richards, Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes, and Venom by Fiona Paul.



You will also get a Breathless Reads poster signed by each of these ladies!





These ladies rock. Tour was awesome because of them.

And, as you know, the Breathless Reads tour was broken into an east coast and west coast event. But I pulled some strings, and can offer up a signed copy of each of the west coast girls' books, too! Up for grabs is: Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu, Rise and Rift by Andrea Cremer, Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff, and Origin by Jessica Khoury. And they're all signed.





I missed them like whoa.

And! Because this is a NASA celebration, you get a pile of NASA swag, courtesy of Ex Libris Kate! This includes a bundle of (very pretty) bookmarks, stickers for NASA and the International Space Station, a postcard with words of wisdom from an astronaut, and, of course, astronaut ice cream!





Thank you Kate!

Additionally, since I'll be at the Johnson Space Center, I might just pick up an extra few prizes while I'm there....




 Need a recap? One grand-prize winner will get:




15 signed books by all the Breathless Reads girls
1 signed poster by the East Coast Breathless Reads girls
A whole pile of awesome NASA swag



So, I know you want to enter! I mean, awesome, amirite? And I've made entering this contest super easy. All you have to do is help me celebrate NASA! There's the usual easy entries of liking NASA online--including do different tweets you can use--but I also wanted to give you a chance to celebrate NASA in a more creative way.



To celebrate NASA creatively: you could blog about why you like NASA, you could reach out to an astronaut for an interview, you could make space fan art, you could sing a song about NASA, you do a vlog, you make a list of all the ways NASA rocks...any of this counts! Just celebrate NASA in some awesome way, post it online, and include the link in the Rafflecopter. I even set that part of the entry open for multiple entries, so you could blog and vlog and Facebook and tumblr and Pinterest about NASA and they all count. The only requirements: post a link back to this contest, and put the full URL of the site in the Rafflecopter.



To enter: be sure to read the full rules and terms of the contest (including a new international shipping policy) here. Then fill out the Rafflecopter below:



a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Published on February 28, 2013 21:00

Shards & Ashes Winner


The winner of a signed ARC of SHARDS &ASHES (available NOW!) is....




Denora!


I've just emailed her to let her know. Thanks everyone for playing...and don't worry, you're going to  have another chance to win one of these beauties REAL soon...



(Remember how I said I'd cut back on contests? Yeah, I shouldn't make promises. But tomorrow I'm announcing something SUPER COOL and awesome, and it involves a TON of signed books + NASA AND SPACE STUFF AND OMG GUYS. Yeah. You might want to check that out ;)
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Published on February 28, 2013 08:30

February 27, 2013

Upcoming Events!

I've got two events coming up in March that I wanted to make sure everyone knew about. The first is close to my home--Sylva, NC.



Who: Me, Carrie Ryan, and Megan Shepherd

What: A panel discussion followed by a book signing

When: This Saturday, March 2

Where: At City Lights in Sylva, NC

Why: Because between us all, we have zombies, death, historical, sci fi, and fantasy. And it's going to be awesome. Just sayin'.

More info: Click here



The second event will be in Texas! And I've got some amazing details coming up just for Texas, including a giveaway I'll be announcing next week, which involves things like NASA and space. And while I'm there, I'll be stopping in Houston for a signing!





Who: Me, Carrie Ryan, and Victoria Schwab

What: A panel discussion followed by a book signing

When: March 16, at 2pm

Where: At Blue Willow in Houston, TX

Why: As of right now, this is (sadly) my only Texan event this year. And I'm going to do my best to make it worthy of the awesomeness that is Texas.

More info: Click here



I really hope I see you at either of these events!
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Published on February 27, 2013 14:14

Announcing the Winners of YA2U!

As many of you know, I recently took part in a program, Bringing YA to You, that had the grand prize of a visit with five authors, including me! The YA2U program was a huge success--more that eight thousand people entered!--and it was amazing to see where everyone was from!



The winners have finally been announced, so you can GO HERE to check out which cities we'll be visiting. We were originally only going to do one city, but the response was so huge we're visiting two cities and doing a video chat with a third. To find out which cities, just go to the YA2U website!
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Published on February 27, 2013 14:00

February 24, 2013

Best Writing Tips from 15 YA Sci Fi Authors!

As many of you know, I'm one of the founders of the League of Extraordinary Writers blog--and we're starting a newsletter!



If you want to find out what the members of League think is the single best writing tip they ever got, as well as learn about their upcoming events, news, and more, all you have to do is...




Sign Up for Our Newsletter


We're going to be doing a monthly newsletter, with exclusive content (i.e., you won't see it anywhere else, including on the blog) giving tips, answering questions, and more. Try it out! The first issue is coming on the last day of the month.
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Published on February 24, 2013 21:00

February 22, 2013

On Inspiration

Thanks to everyone who participated in last night's Twitter chat! It was so much fun to talk to everyone and answer questions--it was really great to connect with you all!



Probably the most-asked question I got was "where does your inspiration come from?" And while I did give a few answers to it, that really is a question that cannot be answered in 140 characters or less.



The thing about inspiration is, it comes from everywhere...and nowhere. There are some things that inspire me because they are: art, music, good books. And there are some things that inspire me because they are not: I could not find a book like mine, so I had to write it. I felt a void in my universe, and I filled the space with my book.



On the one hand, every little thing I've ever done or seen has lead up to my books. There was no lightbulb moment, no single spark. It was a slow burn of a lifetime of living. A lifetime of reading brilliant books I wished to emulate (such as the unreliable narrator in Megan Whalen Turner's THE THIEF) and of not reading the kind of books I wish existed (a YA version of the television/movie space operas I loved).



The same goes with themes. Ignore what your high school teacher told you: most writers didn't intentionally add themes to their stories. The only thing I know I added on purpose was that stars symbolize hope. At the time, I'd been teaching Dante's INFERNO, and I emulated that a bit by making stars equivalent to hope. When the characters can't see stars, there is no hope. When they see stars, they have hope. But even that, while intentional, was influenced by other things that were not. I cannot tap into my own subconscious mind, but I know that it certainly influenced every word of the novels.



So while much of inspiration is an intangible, indiscernable mass that cannot be explained or even fathomed, there are some things that I can touch back on as influential.



One thing is this:







I took this video the summer after I got my book deal. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was done edits, but still had more than half a year before it was released. A MILLION SUNS hadn't been started yet; SHADES OF EARTH was just a glimmer in the future. I was fulfilling my last official duty as a teacher: chaperoning a European field trip that had been in the works for two years. We stopped by Venice, which is where I took this video.



I'd seen glass blowing before, but there was something about watching this man make the glass sculpture of a horse that just blew me away. I was fascinated. It seemed almost like magic, the way sand and heat can turn into a glass horse. I remember feeling tingles on my arms as I watched, and something inside of me whispered, This is important.



I held on to that image for years--all the way to writing SHADES OF EARTH. And while the third book of my trilogy had a lot of revision and work and rewriting, one of the things that didn't change was the presence of solar glass. I took that Venetian glass blowing experience and I put it half a millennia into the future. The image you see above is the exact moment when an integral part of SHADES OF EARTH was born. I carried it in my heart until I could put it on paper and give it to you.



That is what a book is: a million little things, a thousand feelings, hundreds of experiences, all melted together and sculpted into a book-shaped vessel.
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Published on February 22, 2013 09:09

February 21, 2013

Twitter Chat! Tonight: 7pm!

Tonight at 7pm is the #ShadesofEarth twitter chat! To participate, just use the #ShadesofEarth hashtag during the hour of 7-8pm, and I'll be responding to as many questions as I can. WARNING: I'll try not to post any spoilers, but I can't promise that of all users using the hashtag.



To help make the chat easier to find, I've made a widget below that you can use directly from this website:



Tweets about "#ShadesofEarth"



If that doesn't work, just use the hashtag and jump in on Twitter!
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Published on February 21, 2013 10:34