FROM HYPERSPACE TO HALLOWEEN

Shifting gears, moving out of hyperspace and on to another space... Halloween!

It is a fun and even spooky time of year for many. So in light of that I have to ask-- can you write a Halloween SFR story? Of course you can! There are many authors who mix SF and paranormal, ghosts, ghouls, and so on. There are spooky things happening in stories in the fall. 

So how about you? Do you have a story that you'd like to share? If you would I invite you to leave a LINK (buy link or freebie) to Your Story in the comment section of my blog. Share the Halloween fun with others, be it SFR, Paranormal or otherwise!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

Love in the Afterglow of Hyperspace

Fellow SFR author Jessica Subject has a blog post titled, Science Fiction Romance: How do you "do" aliens? She talks about the different humanoids we authors create as our alien characters, among other things. She also shares several enticing passages from her books that highlight her ideas. Her post made me think about other aspects we as SF/R authors need to explore.

Everyone who knows me knows I write way out imaginative alien characters bar none. But really, writing Sci Fi and Sci Fi Romance is so much more than creating way out characters.

It is my belief the world building of an alien culture/character is the most important thing you can do. You really have to do your studying for this. For me it takes a tremendous amount of research. 

Sure, it's still fiction, but if I can't lace my stories with plausible scientific theories it just won't work for me. Now that's not to say I drone on and on about quantum physics. No way, that would bore even me.  But alien cultures can be very complex and difficult to execute. I do have to know what I'm trying to relate to a reader. Yet I also give myself lots of flexibility while creating imaginative possible worlds and realities. 

Take that awesome theory of traveling faster than light speed--one of my favorites by the way.

Think about this— from my understanding, in Star Trek, the characters travel at warp speed. (Warp 1,2 3 4, etc.) Technically the speed of light is approximately 186,282 miles per second. According to Star Trek, calculating warp speed goes by the warp-cubed method. (X^3) X to the third power. So warp-1 would be speed of light. Warp-2 would be 8 times the speed of light and so on. 

Fast yes, but did they ever even leave the Milky Way Galaxy? Remember when Voyager got lost in the Delta quadrant— still in our own galaxy. According to the Trek idea, our own galaxy is teaming with intelligent life. Thousands upon thousands of planets with advanced cultures. Science fiction, yes. But based on theories and technology we are verging on now. Still that's a lot of fodder for a writer's imagination!

Okay- moving on to FTL hyperspace and event horizons. Though traveling at FTL (faster than light) varies, speeds could actually reach billions of miles per second. Now we can travel to distant-- Galaxies. Find more life—as much as we know now about quantum physics—there are thousands of galaxies with billions of stars, millions of planets and possible advanced life and cultures. Kind of boggles the mind doesn’t it? 

Take the ancient starship in Stargate Universe (SGU) It is traveling at FTL. Faster than light speed – like millions of times faster or else they couldn’t be jumping past all those galaxies. Whoa!

So in reality, we mere earthlings will have to master and amass so much technology and knowledge before we can even explore our own galaxy, much less others. Well hey, that’s why I love Science Fiction. It lets me live outside the normal realm of present day knowledge and reality as we know it. And I can create imagined worlds, aliens and cultures that could possibly exist somewhere out there.

And those sexy encounters between alien characters from totally different evolutionary backgrounds? I love exploring how they would interact and relate to each other. Here's a line from my SFR story, An Alien Presence: 

'...In his star travels, he adored meeting humanoid females. Sensual, hot mammalian women heated his cooled blood to a fevered pitch...'

So what is your take? Do you like to watch read or write SF/R? If so, what level of technology do you like to see? Do you like aliens that are super sexy and very different from us?

Kaye

Virgin Galactic

Is Space Travel Closer Than We Think?

Las Cruces, N.M. officially joined the list of major space centers Monday when a newly completed terminal and hangar facility was turned over to British billionaire Richard Branson and his commercial space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic.

The company aims to launch paying customers beyond Earth’s confines from the new $209-million futuristic-looking facility, named Spaceport America.

“Today is another history-making day for Virgin Galactic,” Branson said at the event.

Virgin Galactic said it has taken about 455 reservations for the ride. The price per flight for a would-be space tourist is $200,000. 

Instead of launching people directly into space with a rocket, Virgin Galactic plans to do the following: A rocket plane with six passengers will be attached to the wings of a White Knight mother ship, flown to 50,000 feet and released. The rocket plane's engine then will ignite and propel the passengers into suborbit.

The spaceship is designed to climb to the edge of space, about 60 miles above the Earth's surface. At that suborbital altitude, people experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth. 

Virgin Galactic’s sleek carrier aircraft and spaceships are made by the Spaceship Co. in Mojave, where the planes are currently undergoing test flights. Branson hopes to make its first passenger flight as next year. 

Branson named one of the ground terminals the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space.

The gateway will house preparation facilities for company’s passengers, which it calls astronauts. There is also a mission control center and an area for friends and family.

What are your ideas on Virgin Galactic and space flight? Do you think we are actually on cusp of traveling to deep space? Exploring the Galaxy, even mastering the technology of faster than light speed? (More info and ideas on FTL in a later post) 

But for now, what do you think?

Kaye