Fingers Crossed for the Launch of Atlantis

In a few days, Allysen and I are taking off for a long weekend in Florida, Cocoa Beach to be exact. The Nebula Awards gathering and ceremony are being held just a few miles from the Kennedy Space Center this year, and were cleverly timed to coincide with the scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on her final voyage before retirement. I'm so excited about finally (I hope!) seeing a launch in person, my hands are getting cramps from my crossed fingers! Makes it hard to type, too.

Launches are often delayed for one reason or another, but so far, this one has held firm and the weather outlook is good. Here's a lovely shot of the nighttime rollout to Launch Pad 39A from spaceflightnow.com.

In other news, life returned to normal after the big water-main break was fixed, in record time. I'm starting to get some traction on the new book again, while also working on an unrelated freelance project, and conducting our latest Advanced Writing Workshop (an offshoot of the Ultimate SF workshop I run with Craig Gardner). Busy, but mostly in a good way.


Everyone help me out, now, and wish, hope, pray, pull every string you've got for a successful launch of Atlantis this Friday!