Scott Seldon's Blog, page 12
September 26, 2012
End of a Career
The delivery of Endeavor to California marks the end of a career. Not Endeavor's, but NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905. In just a few weeks, she will mark the 42nd anniversary of her first flight, by which time she may have made her final flight.
Boeing 747 (model 747-123) was constructed at Boeing's Everett, Washington plant. All their planes carry a construction number an line number (often written as 20107/86 for this plane). She was built for American Airlines and carried the registration number N9668. Her career with American Airlines was brief, less than four years, before she was sold to NASA. From 1974 to 1977 she was modified to carry the space shuttles. She was gutted down to her framework, except in the bow where she still has her original spiral staircase and the forward first class seating.
In 1977 she got to work. Her career with NASA started with Enterprise. The flights included five very important drop tests. To do this, 905 (as I'll call her from here out) dropped out from below the shuttle and then the shuttle flew (if you can call it that) to the landing strip at Edwards Air Force Base. The first drop test was with the engine covering, but the important tests were the ones with the [fake] engines exposed, just as her sisters would do when landing after their missions.
This was the beginning of a close associate between 905 and Enterprise. Before Columbia had ever rolled out, Enterprise had been hauled around and been processed just like it was a flight worthy orbiter. 905 delivered both Columbia and Challenger to Florida and retrieved the various orbiters from the landing strips they used besides at KSC.
With a fleet of 4 operational orbiters, NASA purchases a second 747 (a 747-200 SP) registered as N911NA, or just 911, to do half the word. 911 flew for the last time earlier in 2012. It has fallen to 905 to deliver Discovery, Enterprise, and now Endeavor to their new homes. That job is now done and it is time for her to retire. She first flew on October 15, 1970 and is about to make her last flight almost exactly 42 years later.
Goodbye 905. Thanks for your service. You will be missed as will your 6 most notable passengers.
Boeing 747 (model 747-123) was constructed at Boeing's Everett, Washington plant. All their planes carry a construction number an line number (often written as 20107/86 for this plane). She was built for American Airlines and carried the registration number N9668. Her career with American Airlines was brief, less than four years, before she was sold to NASA. From 1974 to 1977 she was modified to carry the space shuttles. She was gutted down to her framework, except in the bow where she still has her original spiral staircase and the forward first class seating.
In 1977 she got to work. Her career with NASA started with Enterprise. The flights included five very important drop tests. To do this, 905 (as I'll call her from here out) dropped out from below the shuttle and then the shuttle flew (if you can call it that) to the landing strip at Edwards Air Force Base. The first drop test was with the engine covering, but the important tests were the ones with the [fake] engines exposed, just as her sisters would do when landing after their missions.
This was the beginning of a close associate between 905 and Enterprise. Before Columbia had ever rolled out, Enterprise had been hauled around and been processed just like it was a flight worthy orbiter. 905 delivered both Columbia and Challenger to Florida and retrieved the various orbiters from the landing strips they used besides at KSC.
With a fleet of 4 operational orbiters, NASA purchases a second 747 (a 747-200 SP) registered as N911NA, or just 911, to do half the word. 911 flew for the last time earlier in 2012. It has fallen to 905 to deliver Discovery, Enterprise, and now Endeavor to their new homes. That job is now done and it is time for her to retire. She first flew on October 15, 1970 and is about to make her last flight almost exactly 42 years later.
Goodbye 905. Thanks for your service. You will be missed as will your 6 most notable passengers.
September 24, 2012
Election Season or Writing Season?
With the Presidential, Senatorial, and House elections ramping up for November Election Day, a question tugs on my mind. Outside of the results, do we writers even care?
My answer is no. I know who I am voting for and I'm slated to get a mail-in ballot. I'm far more concerned with what I am going to write in November (as in National Novel Writing Month). I've been hard at work (except for August) slaving away on Volume 4 of my Zaran Journals series. Volume 5 is my target for November and I have precious little prepared. To be fair, by the time you get to a fifth volume, there isn't much need for world building or character creation, that part is done and ready at the drop of a hat (or space suit helmet). No, it is the actual story that I will torture my characters with. As the days tick by, it is that stress that worries me, not who my choices are in any given race for office.
I guess it is one of the hazards of being a writer. I have a deadline. I have to know what my story is and where it starts by the end of All Hallows Eve so I can start my NNWM project on All Saints Day. I have to plan out when I can write, how much, and what days. I have less than the whole month to produce my goal, a complete novel written in a 30 day period (well, just the rough draft). If you have picked up either Well of Dreams or Pirates of I'ab, you have in your hand the length of work I intend to write in November. Just a hair over 110k words in 11 chapters. I have to have a story to fill that and be interesting, exciting, and that develops my characters in the direction I want them to go. The normal goal is about half that.
I've done it before, I can do it this year, or so I'm telling myself. Fortunately, if I don't finish by December 1st, I have a secondary deadline, December 23rd. I don't want to make use of that because I want to write a short story or two for more immediate publication in December.
So, while I am concerned with who will win in November on Election day, here in Colorado the polls are already indicating who this state will pick for President and neither of our Senators is up for re-election so the results of election night are out of my hands. I'll get my ballot filled out and sent in as soon as I get it and join the masses obsessing over the results that first Tuesday, but aside from that, I will be way too focused on Writing to give it much attention. November belongs to us writers, so for me, it is writing season, not election season.
My answer is no. I know who I am voting for and I'm slated to get a mail-in ballot. I'm far more concerned with what I am going to write in November (as in National Novel Writing Month). I've been hard at work (except for August) slaving away on Volume 4 of my Zaran Journals series. Volume 5 is my target for November and I have precious little prepared. To be fair, by the time you get to a fifth volume, there isn't much need for world building or character creation, that part is done and ready at the drop of a hat (or space suit helmet). No, it is the actual story that I will torture my characters with. As the days tick by, it is that stress that worries me, not who my choices are in any given race for office.
I guess it is one of the hazards of being a writer. I have a deadline. I have to know what my story is and where it starts by the end of All Hallows Eve so I can start my NNWM project on All Saints Day. I have to plan out when I can write, how much, and what days. I have less than the whole month to produce my goal, a complete novel written in a 30 day period (well, just the rough draft). If you have picked up either Well of Dreams or Pirates of I'ab, you have in your hand the length of work I intend to write in November. Just a hair over 110k words in 11 chapters. I have to have a story to fill that and be interesting, exciting, and that develops my characters in the direction I want them to go. The normal goal is about half that.
I've done it before, I can do it this year, or so I'm telling myself. Fortunately, if I don't finish by December 1st, I have a secondary deadline, December 23rd. I don't want to make use of that because I want to write a short story or two for more immediate publication in December.
So, while I am concerned with who will win in November on Election day, here in Colorado the polls are already indicating who this state will pick for President and neither of our Senators is up for re-election so the results of election night are out of my hands. I'll get my ballot filled out and sent in as soon as I get it and join the masses obsessing over the results that first Tuesday, but aside from that, I will be way too focused on Writing to give it much attention. November belongs to us writers, so for me, it is writing season, not election season.
Election Seaon or Writing Season?
With the Presidential, Senatorial, and House elections ramping up for November Election Day, a question tugs on my mind. Outside of the results, do we writers even care?
My answer is no. I know who I am voting for and I'm slated to get a mail-in ballot. I'm far more concerned with what I am going to write in November (as in National Novel Writing Month). I've been hard at work (except for August) slaving away on Volume 4 of my Zaran Journals series. Volume 5 is my target for November and I have precious little prepared. To be fair, by the time you get to a fifth volume, there isn't much need for world building or character creation, that part is done and ready at the drop of a hat (or space suit helmet). No, it is the actual story that I will torture my characters with. As the days tick by, it is that stress that worries me, not who my choices are in any given race for office.
I guess it is one of the hazards of being a writer. I have a deadline. I have to know what my story is and where it starts by the end of All Hallows Eve so I can start my NNWM project on All Saints Day. I have to plan out when I can write, how much, and what days. I have less than the whole month to produce my goal, a complete novel written in a 30 day period (well, just the rough draft). If you have picked up either Well of Dreams or Pirates of I'ab, you have in your hand the length of work I intend to write in November. Just a hair over 110k words in 11 chapters. I have to have a story to fill that and be interesting, exciting, and that develops my characters in the direction I want them to go. The normal goal is about half that.
I've done it before, I can do it this year, or so I'm telling myself. Fortunately, if I don't finish by December 1st, I have a secondary deadline, December 23rd. I don't want to make use of that because I want to write a short story or two for more immediate publication in December.
So, while I am concerned with who will win in November on Election day, here in Colorado the polls are already indicating who this state will pick for President and neither of our Senators is up for re-election so the results of election night are out of my hands. I'll get my ballot filled out and sent in as soon as I get it and join the masses obsessing over the results that first Tuesday, but aside from that, I will be way too focused on Writing to give it much attention. November belongs to us writers, so for me, it is writing season, not election season.
My answer is no. I know who I am voting for and I'm slated to get a mail-in ballot. I'm far more concerned with what I am going to write in November (as in National Novel Writing Month). I've been hard at work (except for August) slaving away on Volume 4 of my Zaran Journals series. Volume 5 is my target for November and I have precious little prepared. To be fair, by the time you get to a fifth volume, there isn't much need for world building or character creation, that part is done and ready at the drop of a hat (or space suit helmet). No, it is the actual story that I will torture my characters with. As the days tick by, it is that stress that worries me, not who my choices are in any given race for office.
I guess it is one of the hazards of being a writer. I have a deadline. I have to know what my story is and where it starts by the end of All Hallows Eve so I can start my NNWM project on All Saints Day. I have to plan out when I can write, how much, and what days. I have less than the whole month to produce my goal, a complete novel written in a 30 day period (well, just the rough draft). If you have picked up either Well of Dreams or Pirates of I'ab, you have in your hand the length of work I intend to write in November. Just a hair over 110k words in 11 chapters. I have to have a story to fill that and be interesting, exciting, and that develops my characters in the direction I want them to go. The normal goal is about half that.
I've done it before, I can do it this year, or so I'm telling myself. Fortunately, if I don't finish by December 1st, I have a secondary deadline, December 23rd. I don't want to make use of that because I want to write a short story or two for more immediate publication in December.
So, while I am concerned with who will win in November on Election day, here in Colorado the polls are already indicating who this state will pick for President and neither of our Senators is up for re-election so the results of election night are out of my hands. I'll get my ballot filled out and sent in as soon as I get it and join the masses obsessing over the results that first Tuesday, but aside from that, I will be way too focused on Writing to give it much attention. November belongs to us writers, so for me, it is writing season, not election season.
Sites Now Linked
While I wasn't able to get everything spaced perfectly, my site and my new blog are linked. If you have come here looking for the older posts, click on Archived Posts on the left. Moving forward, this is where you will find all new posts. Enjoy.
Scott
Scott
Sites now linked
While I wasn't able to get everything spaced perfectly, my sit and my new blog are linked. If you have come here looking for the older posts, click on Archived Posts on the left. Moving forward, this is where you will find all new posts. Enjoy.
Scott
Scott
Moving In
After my experience this summer participating in the Master Koda blog tour, I think it is time to migrate from the ad hoc blog I've had on my Google Sites page and make a real blog here on Blogger. My challenge was to get the same look. I think I may have that, but there is still some tweaking to do before I truly move in. But the move is in progress. If you find this page before I finish the process, please go to sites.google.com/site/scottrseldon/ for the latest updates. 
September 17, 2012
Pirates of I'ab Free Review Copy
For one month, through October 17, get your complimentary review copy of Pirates of I'ab, my latest novel. This offer is only good on Smashwords using coupon code VL48G.
September 12, 2012
Summer School for Writers
The summer has drawn to a close and with it the Master Koda Virtual Blog Tour. It has been quite a ride. The schedule has called on me to write some very interesting posts and has created a new circle of friends.
It has definitely been worth the time and effort.
This has not been a solo effort. We worked as a group, each of us contacting the person we were hosting and the person hosting us. This is really how writers are supposed to work together. Regardless of genre,
we are a team. Not just those of us who participated in this blog tour, but all writers all the time. We help ourselves when we offer to host another writer. I saw the results in visits to my books on Smashwords and downloads
of free titles and samples. The graph would shoot up when the blog’s readers took an interest in what I had to say.
That doesn’t begin to cover the excellent advice from the tour coordinators. Tasha Turner did an excellent job of herding us writers and instructing us on what to write about and ho to contact our guests
and hosts. The assignments that we wrote to post challenged me and broadened my concept of blogging. Not only did they show what to write when you guest blog, but taken overall, it dug deep into what makes each of us a writer
and that is what interests readers. From how we write to what inspires us, to an actual story we wrote just for the blog.
So, I have come away from this tour, enlightened, charged, and with a new circle of friends. I was pretty new to blogging when I started, but now I really feel that I know what I am doing and feel ready to
ask some of my fellow writers if I can be their guest and invite them to be mine. I actually feel that I know what I am doing.
One of the funniest things, is that I find prose so easy. When I have the story in my head, the words just flow. Writing blog posts is not nearly so easy. In fact, I would have to say this post, the last one
of the tour, has been the most difficult to compose.
Armed with my new blogging skills and a new circle of writers to interact with, I feel more ready than ever to blog on a regular basis. A big thanks to everyone involved in the tour, especially my guests and
hosts. Good job everyone and thank you for making it such a valuable experience.
The Master Koda Blog Tour was made possible by www.masterkoda.com and www.tasha-turner.com and everyone who helped with the schedules and answered questions
September 3, 2012
Spotlight on Dominique Goodall
This week, the last week of guests in the Master Koda Blog Tour, I have the pleasure of featuring Dominique Goodall in post the concentrates on her upcoming release, Echoes of Winter.
Blurb
A wolf. A destiny. And only one war to stand in his way.
When Convel leaves his birth pack, he didn’t expect to end up in a war against cougars. As he gathers his strength about him as well as new pack-mates, he is also confronted by Humans – once believed to be mostly dead.
He isn’t alone in his endeavours. He doesn’t know it, but Singer and her rag-tag ‘pack’ are racing towards him for the climax in his life so far. With Sage, the elderly lynx, helping to guide him, will he be successful or will the traitor in his life get what they want?
Breakdown
Echoes of Winter is a coming of age story. It is a tale of betrayal, friendship and mystical feelings with no discernible route. Set in the time after humanities instabilities have caused the spread of a disease/illness. The story is told from the point of view of the animals that now run rife over the places where humans previously ruled triumphantly and like a tyrant – namely the story of Convel – a black wolf who upon leaving his pack and travelling finds his own territory and start a pack with Teira, Amore and Morte. They are hindered by Siltin; a cougar with a sordid past and an even worse mental illness. When Siltin’s current mate, Tamats joins in on her vicious acts, things quickly turn darker for the wolves.
Meanwhile a secret ally in the valley where the battle will rage steps forth. By offering guidance to the inexperienced Convel and stepping forth to further distract Siltin and her mate, this ally may help swing the battle the wolves’ way. A further help is the wolf Singer, heading along with Vhenan – another unlikely ally in the form of an Arctic fox. They are joined by dogs and another two wolves as an invisible string tugs them towards the climax of the book; the overthrowing of a tyrannical cougar and her foul offspring, drawn to her by darker strings than any will admit to.
Humans have already intercepted the wolves in the attempts; and with a traitor in their midst the wolves have the added worry of the humans coming back in the middle of what could become a life or death struggle...and makes the stakes that much more important.
Excerpt
That was when he began to send up a jubilant howl – that broke when he caught sight of Shadow’s body, torn and tattered beyond most recognition and then his howl changed, became a mourning song that all the canines echoed – and in the distance a thin, reedy howl rang into the air, coupled with a cat’s yowl and a fox yipping. Upon hearing the latter, Singer eased her own body down and sighed before throwing her head back in another beautiful song. She’d helped, that indescribable, irrational and annoying thing that had pulled her here had now relaxed the leash, made her feel much calmer, happier than she had been since that strange tugging on her heart.
Dominique Goodall is the author of the soon to be released Echoes of Winter, book one in the Seasons of the Wolf series and a self-confessed wolf addict. She has currently been published in two anthologies by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing and is currently working on getting herself better known by sending in manuscripts for as many different anthologies as she possibly can.
As much as she loves to admit it, she never will be able to count her wolf stuff- there's nothing left for her to be truly able to collect without her own home.
She can be friended on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/WaterSinger
Her author page on Facebook is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dominique-Goodall-author/250907358312446
The page for Echoes of Winter is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Echoes-of-Winter/355235744499607
Her twitter name is: https://twitter.com/#!/DomGoodall
And her blog can be found here: http://dominiquegoodall.wordpress.com/
And the trailer for her book is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kix63EXBW50&feature=plcp
Blurb
A wolf. A destiny. And only one war to stand in his way.
When Convel leaves his birth pack, he didn’t expect to end up in a war against cougars. As he gathers his strength about him as well as new pack-mates, he is also confronted by Humans – once believed to be mostly dead.
He isn’t alone in his endeavours. He doesn’t know it, but Singer and her rag-tag ‘pack’ are racing towards him for the climax in his life so far. With Sage, the elderly lynx, helping to guide him, will he be successful or will the traitor in his life get what they want?
Breakdown
Echoes of Winter is a coming of age story. It is a tale of betrayal, friendship and mystical feelings with no discernible route. Set in the time after humanities instabilities have caused the spread of a disease/illness. The story is told from the point of view of the animals that now run rife over the places where humans previously ruled triumphantly and like a tyrant – namely the story of Convel – a black wolf who upon leaving his pack and travelling finds his own territory and start a pack with Teira, Amore and Morte. They are hindered by Siltin; a cougar with a sordid past and an even worse mental illness. When Siltin’s current mate, Tamats joins in on her vicious acts, things quickly turn darker for the wolves.
Meanwhile a secret ally in the valley where the battle will rage steps forth. By offering guidance to the inexperienced Convel and stepping forth to further distract Siltin and her mate, this ally may help swing the battle the wolves’ way. A further help is the wolf Singer, heading along with Vhenan – another unlikely ally in the form of an Arctic fox. They are joined by dogs and another two wolves as an invisible string tugs them towards the climax of the book; the overthrowing of a tyrannical cougar and her foul offspring, drawn to her by darker strings than any will admit to.
Humans have already intercepted the wolves in the attempts; and with a traitor in their midst the wolves have the added worry of the humans coming back in the middle of what could become a life or death struggle...and makes the stakes that much more important.
Excerpt
That was when he began to send up a jubilant howl – that broke when he caught sight of Shadow’s body, torn and tattered beyond most recognition and then his howl changed, became a mourning song that all the canines echoed – and in the distance a thin, reedy howl rang into the air, coupled with a cat’s yowl and a fox yipping. Upon hearing the latter, Singer eased her own body down and sighed before throwing her head back in another beautiful song. She’d helped, that indescribable, irrational and annoying thing that had pulled her here had now relaxed the leash, made her feel much calmer, happier than she had been since that strange tugging on her heart.
Dominique Goodall is the author of the soon to be released Echoes of Winter, book one in the Seasons of the Wolf series and a self-confessed wolf addict. She has currently been published in two anthologies by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing and is currently working on getting herself better known by sending in manuscripts for as many different anthologies as she possibly can.
As much as she loves to admit it, she never will be able to count her wolf stuff- there's nothing left for her to be truly able to collect without her own home.
She can be friended on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/WaterSinger
Her author page on Facebook is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dominique-Goodall-author/250907358312446
The page for Echoes of Winter is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Echoes-of-Winter/355235744499607
Her twitter name is: https://twitter.com/#!/DomGoodall
And her blog can be found here: http://dominiquegoodall.wordpress.com/
And the trailer for her book is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kix63EXBW50&feature=plcp
August 31, 2012
Get It Now
Forget imminent, Pirates of I'ab is out now, available on Smashwords and Amazon.
