Freelancing

If it appears that I haven't been posting much, that is in fact the case. I've picked up yet another volunteer freelancing gig, blog writing for the Space & Missile Defense Conference here in Huntsville this coming August. What the heck, it's good for the resume, right? But one day, I'll learn to pick up a freelance writing job that pays. Oh my, yes. In the meantime, I stay busy with the day job, Science Cheerleader, and Heroic Technical Writing. Drop on by!

Free Time? Wazzat?

I have a standing agreement with my employer that I can write about "anything on Earth" for pay, so long as it isn't a conflict of interest with the company's other interests or activities. I can also write about space-related stuff...for free. So I've been doing that. Looks great on the resume, but working for free is an expensive hobby and should not be practiced, if at all possible. That leaves editing resumes and doing some side jobs for various clients...all of which is going to have to go away for the next year so I can concentrate on running ISDC 2011, which I am not getting paid for, by the way. You only run a space advocacy conference if you're a serious true-believer or a bit of a masochist, or both.

My apologies to any future customers, family and friends alike. I would like to help, and most earnestly I'd like to take your money. However, given my soon-to-be-very-tight schedule, you really won't be able to afford my rates. I can probably refer you to other professionals if you're serious, or if you think you can afford my rates, then we can negotiate, but I'll be quintupling my usual per-hour, per-task, or per-page rate to discourage you. I've got a conference to run, and that's priority #1 until May 22, 2011.

Caveat to the above:
Of course, if I find myself unemployed between now and May 2011 due to certain political decisions regarding the future of NASA, I'll be scrambling to take any gig I can get...at which point my rates will drop back to something that will allow me to eat and you to feel like you're getting good value for your dollars.

No doubt at some point I'll get a message to the effect that "You sure spend a lot of time blogging for a guy who's too busy to accept work for pay!" To which I will plead guilty. Writing here offers me a bit of a breather/escape from the other stuff I do out of obligation or a need to eat. If I'm not blogging, it's because I'm doing my day job, ISDC, eating, sleeping, or hitting golf balls. That's about all I have time for, barring the occasional wild day off, which I will take. All this is a long way of saying I might or might not be writing here as often as before, but I will not be accepting commissions for "outside work," paid or otherwise. Again, my apologies.

/b

Potpourri CXXIX

Off we go, into the wild inky yonder...

Time Magazine has a surprisingly good piece on Obama's new space policy. I say surprisingly because mainstream (i.e. non-aerospace-focused) publications usually get things very wrong when it comes to space matters. That doesn't make the policy any better, but it's nice to know some people outside the space geek community are finally getting it.

A site created by my buddy Veronica: Astronauts for Hire.

From my ESL student: a site offering advice on revising a novel.

People like to complain about "all that money we're wasting on space when we could be spending it on more important things here on Earth." Okay, try this site by Fox News: it's a calculator that shows how much you, personally, have paid for the Constellation Program based on your gross income. Might make you stop complaining, or marvel that you get so much cool stuff for so little money.

It is a bad sign when the legions start getting explicitly involved in the workings of domestic politics.

NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has a new web site to explain the new policy.

The Cassini spacecraft has detected lightning on the planet Saturn. Boy oh boy, I'm sure glad all those anti-nuclear protesters fought so hard against flying plutonium into space...gosh knows what sorts of stuff we might be ignorant about otherwise. It's not just religious conservatives who can be anti-science.

The threat from nuclear terrorism is increasing…


Oh, and if a nuclear attack did happen in your area, don't expect a fast response from Obama's federal government...not to be confused by Bush's government in response to Hurricane Katrina, of course.


Obama’s disregard for the press must be bad—they’re even reporting on it!

Speaking of nukes, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is reporting that Iran could have enough nuclear material for a bomb within a year


One sign your space policy is not being received well? When the First Man on the Frickin' Moon criticizes it...and he doesn't say boo about anything. It's also a bad sign when one of the potential beneficiaries is doubtful as is Burt Rutan, a known maverick and major critic of NASA. Nice job, guy.


The bill regarding trials for terrorists also includes NASA funding. Guess which one will get more attention.


A new method has been found for photographing Earth-like planets. Cool! Also, Earth-like planets might be more common than previously thought.


The Houston Chronicle has a poll on whether to demolish the Astrodome…another relic from the early Space Age at risk.


Obama is changing the U.S. nuclear weapons policy. Time will tell how bright this is.


Random: CNN had an online poll asking “Do you attend church regularly?” Results of this unscientific poll: 32% said yes, 68% said no.


Joss Whedon, creator of Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (among other things) has been tapped to direct the “Avengers” movie. Heck yeah!


More random: a culinary review of the KFC Double Down “sandwich.” And here's a review of the best hot dogs in the nation...allegedly.

Speaking of food reviews, I need to get cracking on combining my part of a review of a space cookbook with my foodie friend Michelle's parts I and II! My part is written, I just have to do editing. 'Twas an interesting experiment in leveraging my Facebook connections...in this case, a friend from WAY back in my Lincoln Elementary School days who has since become a serious at-home amateur chef. A publisher wanted me to review a space cookbook, but I knew jack about creative cooking; Michelle knows food, so--synergy! Thanks, Michelle!

Is depression contagious?

Had a brief discussion with someone about my Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality profile. For years I've tested out as an INTJ, but this person suggested that I might in fact be an INFJ. Here's an article that clarifies the difference between the two.

Here's one way to make music from random interplanetary phenomena. This actually sounded like some of the Buddhist chanting my pal D2 listens to, so I forwarded it to her. She seemed to like it; I guess it's an acquired taste.

I'll be in Chicago next month for ISDC, and plan to hang out with family and friends at some point. Am looking seriously at this place my sister recommended. What the heck, any pizza from Chicagoland is going to be better than what I get in the South...

How's this for a fun workplace?

Popular Mechanics has a very friendly interview with Lori Garver. I say friendly because not everyone in the space biz is so keen on said policy.  That said, I found most of the arguments reasonable, and wish we'd heard more of them when the policy was rolled out.

This was a good way to end last week: I’ve been nominated for a NASA Spaceflight Awareness Team Award for my part in the Ares I-X outreach team.

From Facebook buddy Sarah: a poem that caught my eye.

From Hu: the dorkiest complaints about the accuracy of the Apollo 13 movie.

From Dar: an article on engaging the public on nanotechnology.

From Doc:

• A Sherlock Holmes story by noted SF/fantasy writer Neil Gaiman.
• "Your career captured in still photography." Hard to argue with.

Speaking of Obama's space policy, which he discussed at Kennedy Space Center last week, here's my current take on it, as I explained it to Darlene the Science Cheerleader:

This is more or less in line with the OSTP statement I posted a couple days ago. There WILL be Americans going up to the International Space Station after Shuttle. First via Russian rockets, then by commercial transport, once they get those nailed down. The rest of the NASA budget will be dedicated to space science (robots, telescopes), environmental monitoring, aeronautics, and exploration TECHNOLOGIES. This last item means they'll be developing components that would be needed for future human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), like new rocket engines, in-orbit fuel depots, and high-efficiency life support systems. However, the program to build complete rockets and spacecraft to take human beings beyond LEO--the Constellation Program--would end.

Oh, one slight difference: there will be a down-scaled Orion spacecraft, which will be used as a crew return/rescue vehicle for the Station. The vehicle would be upgradable, eventually, to become what it was intended to be: an EXPLORATION vehicle. Space geeks get particular about that word because exploration is going where we've never gone before... See More. LEO is not new territory anymore.

There will probably also have to be some test flights of the various exploration and heavy-lift technologies...what they'll fly on is beyond me, but what do I know? I'm not a politician.

Increasing Blog Readership, Etc.

My dad (“Father Dan,” as he’s known, and no he’s not a priest) pointed me to Copyblogger.com, which has made a name for itself by providing advice to aspiring bloggers who want to increase their readership. Among the tips this blogger provides is to be “laser focused” on one particular topic.
Now I confess that I’ve got Google Analytics tracking the amount of traffic I get on this site, and I find it fascinating how many ways one can sort and sift the data. However, I’m doing this blog for my own pleasure. A writer who says they’re writing for others first is fibbing. I tried to stay focused on space-related topics. However, my interests are more varied than that. So I don’t look at this as a site for a particular type of writing, except mine. My interests include space, philosophy, politics, history, literature and the arts, management practices and behavior, and whatever catches my fancy on particular occasions (see my LibraryThing.com site for an idea of how my bookshelves are composed).
Some audiences don’t forgive “genre” writers for talking about other things outside the writer’s usual haunts. (“What’s Ellison doing writing mystery? I want to read more of his science fiction!”) That’s an unfortunate trait of the literary world—markets and bookshelves have become targeted. “General fiction” has given way to historical fiction, romance, science fiction, mystery, etc. Nonfiction has become very much the same way, with the internet accelerating this process. After all, if you’ve got specialized interests, you can add them to your “favorites” list, and surf around for only stuff that interests you or news or opinion that appeals to you. Woe to the writer who dares step outside his box. The dedicated reader of someone’s space columns or political analyses will breeze by the same blog or unsubscribe from it if the author starts blathering about human resources or his trip to Europe.
This, of course, is why Jeff Foust and Keith Cowing have a serious following in the aerospace community while I get sporadic hits depending on how useful or pertinent my work has been on a given day. They can stay focused. Good for them. I prefer to write, as well and as interestingly as possible (I hope), about whatever’s on my mind. I average 10 readers per day, and I’m cool with that, because odds are I know all 10 of them. In short, I’m an amateur, and comfortable with that.
However, as Gary Cooper said as Howard Roark in the movie version of The Fountainhead, “Before you can do things for people, you must love the doing.” My buddy Jason calls blogging an exercise in “sharpening the saw,” a reference to Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and I tend to agree. To be a writer, you must write. And if you take yourself seriously as a professional, the late Robert A. Heinlein would tell you that you must sell what you write. I once had aspirations of being a science fiction writer. Now I settle for the comfortable and more natural role of nonfiction and opinion writer. If I’m not particularly sharp about anticipating the future, I can at least take a good crack at analyzing the present. Since I’m not making any money from this adventure in internet blathering, again, I must consider myself an amateur. There will come a day when that is NOT the case, but it is not today.
So if you’re reading this and have an interest in blogging and NOT being an amateur, by all means, go visit Copyblogger.com and go forth and conquer. I will continue doing what I’m doing, happily and without pay because I enjoy the doing.

OmegaCon - Lessons Learned

I have to give OmegaCon two ratings, one for my personal experience and one for my professional experience. I did, after all, attend with ulterior motives: I was looking for ways to reach SF fans in such a way that they'd become more interested/involved in space advocacy, which is different from fandom. Personally, I had fun. But then I don't mind talking SF with like-minded fans or dressing up like a damn fool as a means of joining the fun. Professionally, I have a lot of thinking to do. A comment from Ben Bova, who is both an eminent SF writer and space advocate, gave me pause. I explained my mission, more or less, saying, "There are more SF fans than space advocates. How do we get all these folks to be advocates?" He smiled and said, "I have no idea. I've been trying for 50 years. If you figure it out, let me know." How scary is that?

I wasn't nearly as pushy at this conference as I could have been. I'm probably more comfortable dealing with people my age or older, and maybe half the con was under 30, and as a lady in the elevator said, they were more interested in costuming and playing video games. I did talk to a couple of Xers and listen to a lot of people in and out of my panel sessions, and here are the "magic words" I heard in passing:

• "It needs to be fun."
• "NASA is too stodgy."
• "A lot of people are more interested in the commercial aspect, even if it's from the self-interest angle. They're imagining themselves going up into space. You can't do that with NASA."
• There was a lot of concern in the Moon, Mars, and Beyond track about the progress the Chinese were making and what, if anything, NASA was doing about it. (Answer, given the current administration's budget and priorities: zip.)
• One gentleman was upset that there were no official Ares I or Ares V model rockets available. This same person felt the commercial space thing was "dangerous," as it could lead to a de-scoping of NASA if proven successful.
• A couple of SF editors and writers expressed the opinion that commercial industry was better equipped to handle space transportation issues. I noted that those expressing such opinions were Xers like me. There is a strong libertarian streak in a lot of hard SF (begun by Heinlein), which probably feeds the libertarian ethos in some aspects of the space advocacy community today.
• Nanotechnology was of much greater interest than the space program. What, if anything, is NASA doing with nanotechnology? Ah, the glories of Google. Ames Research Center is working on this stuff. Is there any way to incorporate nanotech into Constellation?
• There were a couple of rooms full of kids playing video games. NASA is taking steps in this direction, but one hopes that those steps will be taken in the company of people who have actually played video games.
• The discussions I had with the English professors was interesting, as one of them suggested that their students, despite getting a lot of PC miseducation, might still get behind space exploration if it was doing things that were relevant to them now, like global warming or energy production. Is Constellation set up to do that? No, not necessarily...

These answers shouldn't really come as a surprise. If SF fans are into exciting adventures that either offer hope for the future or expand their horizons, surely the space program can offer them both, right? Um...well, maybe. I mean, I think going to the Moon, Mars, and beyond is cool, but if you want to sell space to the more hard-headed pragmatists out there, even the SF fans are going to want to know that the space program is about more than just keeping the existing infrastructure employed.

The challenge, of course, is that NASA has such a limited range of control over its destiny. On the one hand, advocates are saying, "If you guys do something cool, we'll support you." Meanwhile, the reality is that NASA can only do something cool if the general public persuades the nation's elected officials that they want to see them done. Thus the chicken and the egg face off once again.

*

From a freelance writer point of view, I picked up some useful information in the event I ever find the time/inclination to write SF professionally. Some choice bits of intel include:

• "If you have a manuscript [novel], expect that someone will hold onto it for two years."
• "No simultaneous submissions."
• "Writers must know the business end of writing."
• "About half my money goes toward taxes." --David Drake
• "Set up a post office box to force yourself out of the house." --Drake (again)
• "I've written more books under pseudonyms than under my real name." --Mike Resnick
• Most of the best paying professional magazines are now online.
• SF is now taking over all forms of entertainment and is becoming part of the mainstream.
• "Knowing what to steal is a lot of this business."
• "The greatest threat to writers isn't piracy, it's obscurity." --Cory Doctorow (quoted, he wasn't at the con)
• "Don't write according to trends. By the time it's a trend, it's already dead."
• Gen Xers seem to have taken over the editorial chores in the SF world.
• Listening to the science professionals talk in the Hard Science track made me realize why I'm an English major. Some of that stuff just zoomed over my head.
• Cover art matters a great deal in the ability to sell a book. The writer often has little to no control over the cover art.
• There are more than 2,000 new books every year in the fantasy and science fiction genre.
• Books generally remain on the shelves 30-60 days.
• Borders distributes books based on national sales numbers. What this means in practical terms is that they will buy the same number of a particular author's works for every location despite local or regional increases or decreases in interest.
• "If you're going to get rejected, it'll happen immediately." --Eric Flint
• Publisher consider a hardcover book doing well if it sells 70% of its print run; 55% for paperbacks.
• Entry into the fiction world is determined by writing quality; entry to the non-fiction writing world is based more on credentials.
• When dealing with agents, don't pay reading fees. "Money should flow to the writer."
• Editors see agents as "bastions holding back the slush pile."
• "Most of the bestselling authors at Baen came from the slush pile.
• Editor Lou Anders on deadlines: "I have fake deadline one and fake deadline two."
• American authors earn more from American customers buying books from American publishers than from American customers buying editions of their books from overseas.
• There are mixed opinions about self-publishing. Aside from one writer, most of those who have sold through large or small presses believe that self-publishing works against you.
• Agents are valuable because they know the market and have the contacts necessary to get stories into the hands of the right editors.
• "Make sure you understand your temperament and get along with your agent."
• It's okay to check back with an editor after a six-month gap if your manucript hasn't been rejected right away. If a story hasn't been rejected right away, it goes into a "guilt pile." Those are the stories that are good enough to survive the first cut ("Editors are looking for ways to eliminate you up front"), but not urgent enough to be read right away.
• The top performers (Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, etc.) get the most attention because they bring in most of the money. First-time authors are an unknown quantity, so the system is not set up to support them until they become a known quantity.
• Conventions are a good opportunity to meet fans and sell a few books, but they are not a cost-effective way of selling a lot of books.
• "Opinions are like assholes: everybody's got one." Publishing industry corollary: "Editors are assholes, but everybody wants one."

Book/Story/Reference/Web Site Recommendations

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
Murray Leinster, A Logic Named Joe
David Louis Edelman, Infoquake
Dean Koontz, Lightning
David Walton, Terminal Mind
Joy Ward, Haint
Baen Free Library
Jodee Blanco, The Complete Guide to Book Publicity
Miss Snark
L. Sprague DeCamp, The Incomplete Enchanter
Travis Taylor, Warp Speed, One Day on Mars, Von Neumann's War, and Quantum Connection
A.E. van Vogt, World of Null-A
Fred Hoyle, October the First is Too Late
Hal Duncan, Vellum: The Book of All Hours, Ink: The Book of All Hours
SFWA.org
Steven Erickson, The Malazan Book of the Fallen