This Week in Santa Rosa and Space

Tomorrow, Saturday 21st, is the Sonoma County Book Festival. I'm in charge of volunteers, so I'll be there all day, mostly at the info booth. In addition, I'll be reading a story that all the editors love, but none will publish. I've changed strategies and sent it to a literary journal this time, though it is speculative. Seriously, it makes people cry. They all love it. It just doesn't fit into their little boxes. You can hear seven minutes of it tomorrow at 12:30 at the Redwood Writers' Reading Circle in front of Bertolini Student Center near the Santa Rosa Junior College Quad. I'll be joined by fellow Broad Universe member Michelle Murrain and fellow Redwood Writer Robbi Bryant.

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JP Aerospace has a mission that you can watch live on Sunday. Pillownauts! Pillows exploring space. Wackiest thing since ping pong balls in space. Did you know that JP Aerospace does more experiments than NASA? Yeah, I know, these days that isn't saying much. But they are in a constant state of motion. Keep an eye on them. Never heard of them? They're building airships for space exploration. No joke. I wrote about them in my article "Airships: Not Just Flying Billboards" over at Strange Horizons.  They are the real deal. Anyhow, here's the link for more information and where to watch live.

I don't think John Powell will mind me posting another picture to entice your interest.

And you can read about the essay contest for selecting the pillow parents here.


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In other space news, the second, to-date, private space company supplied the International Space Station on Wednesday. Read more about Orbital Sciences Corp. and its Cygnus capsule here.