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New Release: 3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan – Eric Alan Westfall

3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan - Eric Alan Westfall

QSFer Eric Alan Westfall has a new eclectic MM collection out: 3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan. A pair of competitive trickster gods strut into a Texas bar…and the Dragon King gives his seventh son an unknown Caravaggio for his hundredth hatchday. What could go wrong? Find out, in… 3 Gods, 2 Bets, 1 Texan: a 2139-word tale about Loki and Coyote competing for a Greek-named ranch hand in Jake’s Bar, located in Godsawful-Lonesome, Texas. A Caravaggio Hatchday: a 6238-word tale of a more-than-life-sized painting of Alexander and Hephaestion, ah, doing the deed (guess who’s on top) in glorious color … Read more

SPACE: NASA Just Snagged a Bit of Asteroid Rock to Bring Home (Hopefully)

OSIRIS-REx at Bennu - NASA

For the first time ever, a NASA probe has performed a sample-snagging operation on an asteroid in deep space. The agency’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spiraled down to the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 20) to grab material that mission team members hope harbors clues about the solar system’s early days and the rise of life on Earth. “We did it!” OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona, said during a webcast that provided updates about the maneuver. “We tagged the surface of the asteroid, and it’s up to Bennu now to see how the … Read more

SCIENCE: The Coronavirus & Mars

Mars - Pixabay

A new virus called SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that has caused an outbreak of a disease called COVID-19. Public health groups, such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are still learning about the virus, monitoring the disease it causes, and researching potential ways to stop it. You can read all about the coronavirus and COVID-19 at our sibling site, LiveScience. But me being me, my mind went straight to Mars. I have long been aware of science fiction’s vision of Earth receiving space souvenirs that carry organisms that might be dangerous to … Read more

FOR WRITERS: I’ll Show You Mine

Renewal

Some of you may have heard that we’re running a little flash fiction contest. The theme this year is “Renewal”, and some folks have had a hard time wrapping their minds around it and figuring out how to construct a flash fiction story from it. Angel had a great idea – to invite the folks who aren’t eligible to enter – Scott, the judges, and MCB – to write their own stories as samples. Here’s Scott’s – the other folks are encouraged to add their own to the FB thread, and we’ll post them on the site too. :) The … Read more