a lesson in book inspirations

Okay, so I see an article like this on on AOL. It details an orbiting space plane the U.S. is flying that has been in space for months. Folks speculate it's being used to spy on a Chinese satellite that's the prototype for a manned Chinese Space station expected to be operational around 2020.

If a project like this is showing up in the mainstream media, then you can be sure it has been around a while longer than that. Which means, the Air Force has also had plenty of time to figure out cool things to do with it. And voila, we have a window for a fictional story. I can sit around my kitchen table and brainstorm a few ways to use a platform like this, and odds are good I won't be far from what's actually possible with the thing. People ask me frequently how it is I'm able to write books that seem to stay just ahead of the news, and this is it.

And that concludes my demonstration. :-)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/air-force-x-37b-space-plane-purpose-robot-unmanned_n_1224373.html?1327354562#s516461&title=X37B_Unmanned_Space

Navy dolphins hunt for mines

Here's a link to an article that matter of factly talks about using dolphins, whales, and sea lions to hunt for and locate underwater mines. And people think I make this stuff up. Hah!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/dolphins-iran_n_1211412.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D129191

Cargo helipcopter drones

Ender's Game, here we come...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/cargo-drone-tested-in-afg_n_1191357.html

Now's here's food for thought...

A friend recommnded a website to me that sends daily affirmations to subscirbers. Occasionally, one particularly resonates with me. This one really hit home, because goodness knows, the publishing journey is a long and difficult one If I lived only for my end goals in writing, I'd have walked away from this business long before now. But thankfully, the journey is the thing. The key is to remember to have fun along the way and not lose the love of the writing process itself. Am glad this reminder came along as I approach a string of tight deadlines!

The most valuable part of pursuing my goal is the journey itself. I am in action and growing stronger each day and that deeply satisfies me.

typical research moment

So here's the type of article I read and tuck away in my gray matter for future books. It's not anything earth-shattering...just a description of where biometric scanners are headed in a few years. If I casually write about this in a book, by the time the book's published, I'll be about on track to reflect the technology that's just coming into public consumption. It's all about looking a few years ahead of where we are right now to make suspense books work.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/biometric-identification-_n_1177277.html?ref=technology&ir=Technology&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl20%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D124936