May was a particularly busy month, with trips to Pittsburgh for the Nebulas and Richmond, Va., for vacation — and, of course, work and writing and all that jazz. June is starting off on a very different note — I’m heading to the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop!
Getting accepted to the workshop was incredibly cool. It’s designed for established science fiction writers to get a crash-course in astronomy and space sciences, and our schedule looks amazing. We’ll be talking about planetary formation, various types of stars, galaxies, dark matter…you name it. And we’ll also be talking about how we might apply our newfound knowledge in stories.
Oh, and we get to go check out the Wyoming Infrared Observatory (WIRO), a 2.3 meter telescope, seen above. This is real-deal science, y’all. Not bad for an English and government major.
I’ve talked to past Launch Pad attendees, and they had nothing but excellent things to say about it. I’m honored to have been chosen to go, and I’ll be among quite a diverse and accomplished group of scribes. There will likely be beer at some point.
It remains an open question as to whether I’m going to blog much during the week, but you can bet I’ll be doing my thing on Twitter, so if you want to follow my antics, I’d try there first.
And while I’m here on the blog, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that MJ-12: Inception comes out in mass-market paperback on Tuesday. So I’ll probably do a little post about that, at the very least. Did I mention that the paperback has an excerpt of MJ-12:Shadows inside? Well, I just did. And here are your handy ordering links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound| Books-A-Million | Mysterious Galaxy
Finally, I’d like to say thanks. First, to the organizers of Launch Pad and the sponsors and the good people at the University of Wyoming. This is an incredible opportunity, and I’m very grateful for it.
And since Launch Pad is only open to established writers, I’d also like to thank you. Yes, you. Right there, you with the eyes on the screen. You and the other folks who have bought and read my books and followed along over the past four years of fun and excitement. I’m an established writer — as opposed to just a guy smashing fingers on a laptop — because you’ve all supported my work, and I appreciate that more than you’ll ever know. So I promise to come back from Launch Pad with even more crazy ideas for great stories that I hope you’ll enjoy.
#SFWApro
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Michael J. Martinez 