Unless you're watching a movie with limited or NO commercial breaks, late night TV viewing has become a double-dog pain in the crotch. I mean, really. Can we not worry about ye ole flag pole for five minutes? Can we? Believe it or not, sometimes just having great conversation with a guy is really nice.  Or just sharing the same space.  You don' ( Read more... )

I've been quiet because I've been deep in the throes of one of my infamous Writing Jags, friends. When it descends, I can do little else but write, occasionally eat, occasionally sleep, write, occasionally pee, occasionally bathe, write, you get the drift. Even when I'm not writing, only with great concentration can I pay attention to things ( Read more... )

I totally snarfed this from Liane Spicer, who found it over at The Largest Writing Group on Facebook. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, with a new way to think about creativity. "Having" a genius works so much better for me.

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And for your space-and-sundry fix, two Galactic Pics for this week.

Now, that just ain't right.
Phoenix ( Read more... )

It's been a while, and they're good. Check them out.

Ever seen the sun do a Figure-8?
A conveyor belt runs through it.
Looks like an oil slick to me.
The sky in motion. Four minutes well spent.
Earth is in this picture. See it?
Loofah, anyone?
There be mountains upside down!
Bubble gum in spaaaaaaace.
It burns, burns, burns. The ring of fire ( Read more... )

It's been a while, so let's get started. My Galactic Pics for This Week.

A spectre in the Eastern Veil. Or some fiber-optic owl in mid-flight?
Jets on the sun. The closer you get, the more pissed-off it looks...
A sharper view of a hazy giant. Kind of... sugary.
Two black holes dancing. Eh, that can't be good.
Rays over Colorado. No words ( Read more... )

A gaggle of Galactic Pics for This Week. Because they were so good, I just couldn't choose.

Over-easy, or sunny side up?
A very angry dragon.
Just put me down where all the lights are, thanks.
Tiramisu, my favorite dessert!
I wouldn't suggest you climb these...
It ain't The Blue Lagoon.Surely you can get a story out of one of these babies ( Read more... )

Why, the surface of Jupiter's moon, Io. And a brand new intergalactic superhighway.

A day job for your character, and a way for him or her to get there. My Galactic Pics of the Week.

Pardon me if I'm just a tad nervous, but I submitted a 3000-word short story to my critique group a few months ago, and in that story, a new Earth was taffy-pulled out of existence because of an organization called NewCERN and their Large Hadron Collider 2. Which basically means humans screwed up with the first one, managed to get to another ( Read more... )

Yes, it is a total solar eclipse. (That is a LOT of heat coming off the hidden Sun, like the stuff that shimmers above distant asphalt in the summer--only a gajillion times hotter.) But it looks like a marble button being pulled tightly against fabric by a seamstress on the other side (my sofa is tufted like that). See the light from her task ( Read more... )

What if you had that kind of size or power? To really bring Earth's moon into your yard, study its secrets, then keep it for your very own? And what would it be good for (besides Helium 3)? Story time, folks. My Galactic Pic of the Week.