Filed under: Amazon, Arthur C. Clarke, Connections, Feedback, General Musings, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Travel, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, Arthur C. Clarke, blogging, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, literature, marketing, pets, reviews, sales, Science Fiction, writing
Mel, our new cat, has settled in nicely. Well, nicely as far as she’s concerned. Our older cat, Hil, has a different perception of the matter.
That’s because Hil has largely been supplanted by this young upstart, who is a bit bigger, a lot stronger, and somewhat more aggressive. Hil hasn’t taken to cowering, exactly, but she has kept a lower profile and tends to avoid Mel.
Mostly.
* * * * * * *
People keep saying things like this:
The storyline itself I would put on a par with some of the best SF I have ever read. I felt much the same at the end as I did 50 or so years ago when I finished “Childhood’s End”.
And this:
This book is an unapologetic homage to the “hard science fiction” style of writing and to Arthur C. Clarke himself.
* * * * * * *
It’s not surprising that people see this, since from the very beginning I have been pretty open about both my intent and source material. I mean, here’s what it says on the Communion of Dreams homepage:
Welcome to Communion of Dreams. You’ll probably find that it is closest in flavor to the works of Arthur C. Clarke and the late Carl Sagan, two authors from whom I draw inspiration.
And there’s this passage from Chapter 6:
“Here’s what our artifact makes me think of,” Ng laughed. Slowly the artifact image started to change in a more pronounced way, becoming taller, narrower, and losing the hexagonal shape. The mottling drifted away, replaced by a hard, black, shiny surface. It was the iconic monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
* * * * * * *
Things change. Last month I sold 550 copies of Communion of Dreams. As I noted a couple of days ago, this month it’s dropped off, and will likely end up somewhere around what the April total was (about 275).
Sure, I wish that the numbers had just kept climbing. They had been basically doubling each month. But these things have a natural ebb & flow to them sometimes. Right now other books are getting the attention, getting the reviews, getting talked about. I haven’t spent as much time & energy promoting the book this month, and next month will probably be even worse since I’ll be overseas for much of it.
Still, we’ll see. You can help, if you want, by contributing your own review, by spreading the word to friends and forums. We all need to watch out for one another in this world. Whether you take that as a warning or a comfort, I’ll leave that up to you.
* * * * * * *
Mel, our new cat, has settled in nicely. Well, nicely as far as she’s concerned. Our older cat, Hil, has a different perception of the matter.
That’s because Hil has largely been supplanted by this young upstart, who is a bit bigger, a lot stronger, and somewhat more aggressive. Hil hasn’t taken to cowering, exactly, but she has kept a lower profile and tends to avoid Mel.
Mostly.
See, Hil has long been comfortable going outside. For Mel, “outside” was a New And Scary experience (her previous owners told us she’d never been out). We started going out with her for short periods, letting her know that we were there and she was OK. And then progressed to leaving the back door propped open a bit, so that she could go out on her own, but come running back inside when she got overwhelmed. Finally, we started letting her out and then closing the door behind her.
But only when Hil was outside.
Because, for all that Mel seems to dominate inside, she wants to have Hil around outside. And Hil, with remarkable kindness, stays with Mel, watching over her. If Hil comes in, Mel does too. If Hil comes in without Mel noticing, as soon as Mel does notice she’s howling at the back door.
Context matters.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Humor, Science Fiction, SETI, Society, Space, Travel, UFO, Writing stuff | Tags: humor, jim downey, Science Fiction, space, travel, writing
Those who have finished reading Communion of Dreams will have a particular appreciation of this:
“Ancient Aliens,” the popular sci-fi meme, has yet to produce solid proof that extraterrestrials ever interacted with humans. Yet Unidentified Flying Objects have a surprisingly ancient history. The earliest UFO sightings were reported by Roman historians Livy, Orosius, Seneca, Plutarch, Pliny, and Josephus. The ancient sightings have been classified by a NASA scientist according to the standard UFO categories devised by astronomer J.A. Hynek (1972): Close Encounters of the First (no physical evidence), Second (physical traces), and Third Kinds (occupants observed).
The parallels to modern UFO sightings are eerie.
* * *
The astronomical meteorologist who analyzed these Roman reports in Classical Journal (2007) notes that the “UFO phenomenon, whatever it may be due to, has not changed much over two millennia”: disk, elongated, or sphere shapes; metallic, brilliant colors and materials; smooth, erratic, or hovering motions; the object often vanishes. Whether these are extraordinary atmospheric effects, astronomical phenomena, or extraterrestrial encounters, the persistence of consistent details over thousands of years seems to point to something real observed by many witnesses over time, something that we do not yet understand.
Since I’ll be in Rome in a couple of weeks, maybe I’ll have to talk to my Classics Prof friend about this…
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Humor, New Zealand, Society, Travel, Writing stuff | Tags: art, blogging, history, humor, Italy, jim downey, Latin, literature, Rome, travel, writing
Slightly cool and breezy this morning, the light rain we’d had having just moved out of our area. The dog trotted ahead, checking all the usual places for ‘messages’ left by other dogs.
“Oh, look!” My wife paused a moment, bent over and picked up a penny. It was shiny from having been rubbed on the road surface by passing cars.
* * * * * * *
So, somewhat surprisingly, and definitely suddenly, I’m going to Rome in a couple of weeks.
Yeah, Rome. As in Italy. And to environs thereabout.
You’re right – I haven’t mentioned this before. No long lead-up, as with our trip to New Zealand last fall. That’s because it just happened. Like three days ago.
So, here’s the story: A good friend is a professor of classics at a major university. He’s well known in the field, has written books and everything. Anyway, most summers he takes one or more groups over to Italy for various seminars and teaching sessions. Sometimes it’s a bunch of students from his school, gaining some extra credit/experience. Sometimes it’s high school instructors in Latin and history. It always sounds like he has a good time, and I’ve enjoyed his stories from some of these trips.
Well, as sometimes happens, at the last minute there’s an opening in the trip he’s taking next month. Since they’re committed to having a certain number of people along . . . you can see where this is headed.
Consequently, in exchange for being a warm body and helping out with some minor ‘roadie’ duties, I get to take the open seat on the bus, as it were. Minimal cost to me (which is a good thing, given how things have gone the last couple of years). Sometimes there are advantages to being self-employed: it was easy for me to convince my boss to give me some time off at such short notice.
So, yeah, Rome. With a truly expert guide to show me (and the rest of the group) the sights. Granted, I don’t really have the knowledge base to get the most out of this particular Workshop, but hey, I’m a quick study.
And while the teachers are spending time on the hardcore history stuff, I’ll have time to explore, learn, write. Such a trip will provide plenty of fodder for me to draw on for future novels.
* * * * * * *
Slightly cool and breezy this morning, the light rain we’d had having just moved out of our area. The dog trotted ahead, checking all the usual places for ‘messages’ left by other dogs.
“Oh, look!” My wife paused a moment, bent over and picked up a penny. It was shiny from having been rubbed on the road surface by passing cars. She stuck it in her pocket.
“I still do that,” I said, nodding to her pocket where the penny had disappeared.
“Pick up pennies?”
I chuckled. “Nah. Toss them out now and then. I figure others will pick them up, and for a moment feel lucky. We all need a bright spot now and again, and I figure it helps my karma.”
The dog, turning from his latest message-spot, looked back at us as if to say “C’mon guys, let’s get going.”
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, James Burke, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, publishing, science, Science Fiction, Seth Godin, technology, writing
Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions came out when I was only four years old, but the ideas it contained percolated through the culture I grew up with, having substantial impact on everything I read at a crucial point in my life. In many ways, the concept of paradigm shift was self-fulfilling, as it came to define and dominate a lot of the intellectual backdrop of my formative years. This in no small part will explain a *lot* of the ‘meaning’ of Communion of Dreams.
And, unsurprisingly, it still has a major influence on how I see the world. Which is why sometimes I am willing to try seemingly absurd things: not because I think that they will necessarily succeed, but because I am looking for an inflection point, a fulcrum, which will allow me to assess and perhaps change perspective.
One of those things has been playing with the idea of doing a Kickstarter in lieu of a conventional publishing deal, as I mentioned previously. Of course, I’m hardly the first writer to consider this, since it seems that Kickstarter-type crowdfunding of creative projects has started to take hold in our society.
Well, I just came across another one, something of a template by author Seth Godin. Here’s an excerpt from his blog about it yesterday:
My idea: Kickstart + bookstore + ebooks.
The publisher (my key to the bookstore) is only willing to go ahead with the rest of the plan if my Kickstarter works. No Kickstarter, no distribution, the stakes are high. (As you saw at the Domino Project, the ebook part is easy now, but the bookstore is still critical to reach the many readers who find and buy books in stores).
If the Kickstarter works, then all the funders will get to read the book before anyone else, plus there are bonuses and previews and special editions. A few weeks after the early funders (that would be you) get to read it, the book will be available to book buyers for purchase the traditional way (wherever fine books are sold in the US, including digital readers). Of course, the Kickstarter funders get a better price, get it first and get unique bonuses, plus the pleasure of being in early–and knowing that they made it happen. The only way this book becomes real is if my readers get behind it now.
This was outlining his project, basically starting it. For the experiment he set a goal of $40,000 on his Kickstarter, and had it running for four weeks to see if it was viable.
He met his goal in three hours. And it is currently funded at $194,873 – almost 500% of his goal.
Now, Godin is a published author and successful self-promoter. He has a real following. Most authors, myself included, have no where near his level of support going into such an effort.
But he has found his fulcrum. He has proven that this is possible, at least under some conditions.
Are there other fulcrums out there? Is it possible for other authors to succeed under different conditions?
Specifically, is it possible for me to do?
Your thoughts welcome.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Art, Astronomy, Bad Astronomy, Feedback, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, NASA, Phil Plait, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Space, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, BBC, care-giving, direct publishing, free, health, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, memoir, Moon, NASA, predictions, reviews, science, Science Fiction, space, technology, travel, writing
First, a reminder: Sunday, Father’s Day, will be a Kindle promotional day for both Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year. Both books will be free to download in the Kindle edition, and I would invite everyone to please do so! We’ve had some new reviews up of both books, and the word continues to spread about them.
Second, Phil Plait has an excellent (though too short) item up on the BBC site about prospects for human colonization of the Moon. Correctly, I think, he explains the likely reason that this will eventually happen, and why it’ll be essential for our future in space:
A critical aspect of this is being able to mine asteroidal material and process it, which Nasa and its contractors are studying. One line of thinking is that mined metals can be used to build structures in space that would be very difficult and pricey to construct on Earth and launch. Examples abound, including big spacecraft to use for crewed exploration of the planets, giant telescopes in orbit, space stations, and more. While the cost of the International Space Station (ISS) is estimated to be $100bn, much of that was simply getting previously-built components into space in the first place. If you already have those pieces in space, the cost is far less.
Smelting material in the near-weightless environment of an asteroid is one thing, but creating complex components of spacecraft is another. Manufacturing is likely to be easier in gravity, and the Moon is a perfect compromise for this.
Getting the materials to the Moon is not hard from an asteroid mining operation. And once built, getting even massive components off the Moon’s surface is far, far easier than it would be from Earth due to lower gravity and lack of air (it took a tremendous Saturn V rocket full of fuel to get to the Moon, but only the tiny Apollo ascent module to get back off). Building vehicles and other space-based structures on the Moon is vastly easier and less expensive than it would be here on Earth. From there, the rest of the solar system is an easy trip.
In Communion of Dreams I have references to Lunar colonies, and in St. Cybi’s Well, the prequel I am currently working on, the first colony is in the process of being built (as I’ve mentioned recently).
What I haven’t mentioned here much is another book which would also be a prequel to Communion of Dreams, set sometime in the 2030s, which would take place largely in such a colony. I don’t have a title for that book, and my thoughts on it are still very sketchy, but I think that it would be a really interesting one to write for exactly the reasons that Plait outlines. I don’t want to give too much else away about that (or commit myself to something I may decide to completely change later), but I am really interested in some of the artistic possibilities which working in a 1/6th Earth-normal gravity field would present.
Anyway, TGIF and all that. Remember to share the news of CoD and HFY being free this coming Sunday.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Arthur C. Clarke, Feedback, Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Publishing, Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: Amazon, Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov, direct publishing, Dune, Eurythmics, free, Heinlein, Herbert, jim downey, Kindle, literature, promotion, rain, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, writing, www youtube
It rained this morning.
* * * * * * *
There are two new reviews for Communion of Dreams up on Amazon. Here’s one in its entirety:
This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, full of intriguing ideas, appealing characters (including some quirky ones) and a well-crafted plot. That it is also a debut novel surprised me, and I hopefully look forward to more. James Downey can write!
* * * * * * *
Chatting over breakfast with houseguests yesterday, I was explaining how the logistics of publishing an electronic book work, that the best model currently seems to be to give away a buttload of free copies periodically, which in turn generates actual sales. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, as I have explained here previously, but it clearly works: after each promotional event giving away copies of the book, sales and overall ranking jump then tend to plateau with a slow drop-off. Two months ago Communion of Dreams was stuck at a ranking of about 30,000. More recently it was hovering around 3,000, and it wasn’t until about two weeks ago that the rate of sales started to fall off from about 20 a day to something more like 5 or 6. After Saturday’s promotion, Sunday almost 50 people bought the book, and sales overnight last night look decent — my guess is that it will again plateau around 20 sales a day for a while.
* * * * * * *
Here’s an excerpt from the other review:
I have been a reader of science fiction from an early age. I grew up with the great writers: Asimov, Henlien, Bradbury, Clark and F. Herbert … With that education of the genre I have found it difficult to find pure science fiction that comes even close to the standards I have for great books. With Mr. Downey’s Communion of Dreams, there is finally a writer I can look forward to reading his future works.
* * * * * * *
That’s the other thing which happens: more reviews following a promotional event. And reviews make a difference. I don’t mind a negative or critical review — they help other readers identify a book which may not be suitable for them, and I want people to be happy that they decided to invest the time (and sometimes money) to read my stuff. Yeah, sure, like anyone I like praise and people comparing me to true giants in the field of SF — it’s a real kick in the head. But even those writers had plenty of people who didn’t enjoy their work: just take a look at the reviews of their stuff on Amazon and you’ll see. Hell, Communion of Dreams has an aggregate rating which is higher than almost everything listed for either Heinlein or Herbert, according a my quick check just now.
Does that mean I’m a “better” writer? Don’t be ridiculous. It just means that so far a few more people have assigned a better arbitrary rating to this one book. No one gets universal acclaim. And I’d have to produce about a book a year until I am 75 to have the same level of output that these other writers accomplished (and to about 400 to be in Asimov’s league). *That* ain’t gonna happen.
* * * * * * *
It rained this morning.
That’s not extraordinary, of course. This isn’t a desert.
But it’s been about a month since we’d seen any significant rain. And it is welcome.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, YouTube | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Beatles, care-giving, direct publishing, free, health, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, memoir, Science Fiction, writing, www youtube
Kindle edition promotion today! Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year are both *FREE* to download!
Also be sure to enter a drawing to get a signed paperback copy of either book. To enter your name for each book, post a comment on the appropriate blog, Facebook Page, or send a Tweet to the correct account between now and Sunday morning when I check each. You can enter once per book per venue (a total of 6 entries if you entered for both books at all three locations.)
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Bipolar, Connections, Diane Rehm, Failure, Feedback, Health, Hospice, Humor, Kindle, Marketing, Music, NPR, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, blogging, care-giving, Diane Rehm, direct publishing, free, health, hospice, humor, jim downey, John Bourke, literature, memoir, music, NPR, science, Science Fiction, Scott O'Neill, Shawn Colvin, writing
“Now, you would normally expect to pay $16.95 for a book of this size and quality! Just look at it! 420 pages full of the touching story of caring for a loved one! And those aren’t little trade paperback pages, either, but memoir-sized pages, each one charged with honest emotion and providing insight into one of the most challenging — and rewarding — experiences in life!”
“That’s right – you would expect to pay $16.95 for such a book – and it would be a fair deal. A modest price in exchange for access to the innermost thoughts and feelings of four people, each on a personal journey of love and self-discovery.”
“But you don’t have to pay $16.95. No you don’t. Why you can get the whole book — containing every single word, every single lesson learned — in Kindle format for the low, low price of JUST $8.99. That’s right — a huge savings, including no shipping or handling fees!”
“But Wait! There’s More!”
* * * * * * *
Shawn Colvin has a new book out, and has been doing the promotional circuit. I had the pleasure of hearing most of an hour-long interview with her this morning on the Diane Rehm show.
Colvin is just a couple of years older than I am. I can’t say that I have been a huge fan of hers, but I have been aware of her for a long time, and have always appreciated her talents. And Diane Rehm is one of the best in the business. As noted, I’d love to have a chance to have her interview me. The interview was engaging, and touching.
Because Colvin’s book is a memoir. No, not of care-giving. Not care-giving for someone else, anyway. Rather, it was about her own path to deal with her own demons. Depression. Substance abuse. Bad relationships. Anorexia. Toss in the usual professional stresses and failures, and it makes for a compelling story.
* * * * * * *
“That’s right, friend, there’s more: a *LOT* more.”
“Because not only can you get Her Final Year for the low, low price of just $8.99, but you can ALSO get this incredible companion volume: Communion of Dreams! That’s right — James Downey, one of the co-authors of Her Final Year, has also written a novel. And not just any novel — a work of speculative fiction which has fired the imagination of thousands, and prompted dozens of 5-star reviews on Amazon!”
“For such a work you would expect to pay at least $11.95 for the 350 page paperback! But it is available in the Kindle edition for just $4.95. That’s fight, LESS THAN one thin five-dollar bill. Such A Deal!!”
“But Wait! There’s More!”
* * * * * * *
Fascinating story this morning about efforts to stop the spread of Dengue Fever on NPR. The basic idea was to use a known effect where mosquitoes infected with a naturally-occurring bacteria are unable to transmit the virus which causes Dengue Fever. The science in the story was good, but what really caught my attention was how the effort to get this idea to work had been a *very* long and frustrating quest for the scientist behind it.
See, Scott O’Neill had been working on this project for some 20 years. The biggest problem was technical — it is phenomenally difficult to infect living mosquitoes with the bacteria. It takes thousands and thousands of attempts, working at a microscopic level, to inject the necessary bacteria into a mosquito egg, and then having said egg develop to adulthood and actually *have* the disease. Failure is a constant companion.
And so this is what caught my ear when I heard it:
Take the day in 2006, when one of Scott’s graduate students told him he thought he’d finally succeed in infecting a dengue mosquito with Wolbachia.
I figured this must have been a red-letter day for Scott, a day of sheer elation. Scott told me looking back on it, it was. But at the time it didn’t seem that way.
“Because you’re so used to failure that you don’t believe anything when you see it,” he says. “And so you can think back to when there was a Eureka moment, but at the time, you’re probably, ‘this looks good but I’ve been burnt thousands of times before. Let’s go and do it again, and the do it another time, and check and check and make sure it’s actually real.’ “
* * * * * * *
“That’s right, friend, there’s more: a *LOT* more.”
“Because while you would think that just $8.99 for Her Final Year or only $4.95 for Communion of Dreams would be a STEAL — and you would be correct to think that! — you can get *BOTH* of these books for FREE this Saturday!”
“That’s right, I said FREE, friend. As in beer! The Kindle edition of each book will be completely and totally FREE all day Saturday! All you have to do is just go and download it. Why, you do not even need to own a Kindle in order to take advantage of this phenomenal offer! That’s right, you can get a FREE Kindle app for almost every computer, tablet, or mobile device known to man!”
“But Wait! There’s More!”
* * * * * * *
I sometimes wonder whether I shouldn’t play up my own “demons” more.
Now, I haven’t been shy about talking about them. Anyone who has read my stuff for any length of time knows this. I’m honest about my background (orphaned at 13), my failures (both recent and older ones), and my own struggles with mild bipolar disorder and health problems. Talking about these aspects of my life helps to provide some context for the things I think and do — it is all part of who I am and why I see the world as I do.
But I try not to dwell on such things. I have never considered myself a tragic figure or particularly burdened. Whether or not it was Plato who actually said “be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” that aphorism is still very true, and my own battle hasn’t been especially more difficult than the one many people fight. In very many ways I have been extremely fortunate, and I know that. And I’m thankful for it.
But still, there is no denying that tragedy sells.
* * * * * * *
“More? How can there be More? The Kindle edition of both books are already FREE — what more could any reasonable person ask for???”
“Well, I’ll tell you what. How about a *signed* copy of the paperback edition of each book? For FREE!”
“That’s right. FREE!”
“All you gotta do is post a comment here. Or on our Facebook page. Or send a Tweet. Do any of these things between now and Sunday morning, and your name will be entered into a drawing for a FREE signed copy of the paperback! You can enter once for each book at each venue — a possibility of 6 chances in total! What more could you possible ask for?”
“So, don’t delay — enter your name, today! And remember to download your FREE copy of the Kindle edition of Her Final Year and Communion of Dreams this coming Saturday!”
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to the Her Final Year blog.)
Filed under: Mars, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, Space | Tags: literature, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, space, writing
One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.
And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer’s ancient green lawns.
Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer. The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.
Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.
The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land….
Farewell, Mr. Bradbury.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Ad Astra, Astronomy, Brave New World, Connections, Government, Man Conquers Space, NASA, Paleo-Future, Predictions, Science, Science Fiction, Society, Space, tech, UFO, Writing stuff | Tags: astronomy, HST, Hubble, Israel, jim downey, Moon, NASA, Newton, predictions, science, Science Fiction, space, technology, Transit, travel, Venus, Wfirst, writing
* * * * * * *
From Chapter 1:
Jon spoke. “That’s typical. Sidwell is a bit of an old coot. He’s about 80, close as anyone can get him to admit. He has been at the forefront of exploration all along, having started with the Israeli colonies on the Moon, and was one of the first prospectors to establish himself on Titan.”
* * * * * * *
NASA gets two military spy telescopes for astronomy
The secretive government agency that flies spy satellites has made a stunning gift to NASA: two exquisite telescopes as big and powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope. They’ve never left the ground and are in storage in Rochester, N.Y.
* * *
The telescopes were built by private contractors for the National Reconnaissance Office, one of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. The telescopes have 2.4-meter (7.9-foot) mirrors, just like the Hubble, but they have 100 times the field of view. Their structure is shorter and squatter.
* * *
The announcement Monday raised the obvious question of why the intelligence agency would no longer want, or need, two Hubble-class telescopes. A spokeswoman, Loretta DeSio, provided information sparingly.
“They no longer possessed intelligence-collection uses,” she said of the telescopes.
* * * * * * *
“The Israeli colonies on the Moon?” When did that happen?
Now.
One of the plot points for St. Cybi’s Well all along has been that Darnell Sidwell had been a shuttle pilot for a secret operation by Israel (with the tacit support of most of the governments of the major world powers) to establish permanent colonies on the far side of the Moon. That effort was well along by 2012, which is when the novel is set.
Remember, the timeline for Communion of Dreams isn’t exactly our timeline. It is very, very similar to ours, but there are some divergences.
The biggest worry I have had for some time was how to say that such a space program could exist without people knowing about it. In fact, earlier work on St. Cybi’s Well revolved around this very point as an espionage/counter-espionage sub-plot. I was concerned that it might be *too* outlandish an idea for readers to be able to suspend their disbelief.
So much for that concern; we’ve just found out that what we thought was at the limits of our technology is so obsolete that it can be handed off as so much surplus junk. And the implication is that while NASA is currently without the means to launch and service something like Hubble, that there are plenty other agencies within our government which are not so inconvenienced.
* * * * * * *
Ex-Spy Telescope May Get New Identity as a Space Investigator
The phone call came like a bolt out of the blue, so to speak, in January 2011. On the other end of the line was someone from the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the nation’s fleet of spy satellites. They had some spare, unused “hardware” to get rid of. Was NASA interested?
* * *
The telescope’s short length means its camera could have the wide field of view necessary to inspect large areas of the sky for supernovae.
Even bigger advantages come, astronomers say, from the fact that the telescope’s diameter, 94 inches, is twice as big as that contemplated for Wfirst, giving it four times the light-gathering power, from which a whole host of savings cascade.
* * * * * * *
From Sir Isaac Newton’s translation of the Emerald Tablet:
Tis true without lying, certain most true.
That which is below is like that which is above that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.
And as all things have been arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.
The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
– Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.It ascends from the earth to the heaven again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior.
And yes, that is a hint about another part of what’s to come in St. Cybi’s Well.
* * * * * * *
Enjoy today’s Transit. As above, so below.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 