…Lynn Abbey’s ‘Time’ books are up—new stuff, likely you’ve never seen before—Go see!
New Books have gone up on Closed Circle…
by CJ | Apr 20, 2012 | Journal | 22 comments
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That’s great news! I’ve got mine! Now I’m off to do the download…
This may be of interest.
A company for asteroid mining will be announced on Tuesday. This is a serious venture with some big names:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303513404577356190967904210.html
The future described in Heavy Time is coming!
Just be careful if you see Weyland-Yutani Ventures or a ship called Nostromo. 😉
I would so love to see us get back into manned space exploration. Asteroid mining is one step toward that.
I love it!
And I am very glad to see some heavyweights involved in this…people who know how to get things done.
I think that the pessimist cited skated over a few things. In particular, it’s only excessively expensive to boost things out of the gravity well. Assuming that the delta V and distance to & from the asteroid aren’t too extreme, Earth orbit to Earth orbit is relatively cheap, if not fast, and orbit to ground is only expensive if you are both extremely particular about the location and final condition of ground zero. Seriously, if you find metal, rock and water, with a heat source you can convert your payload into a re-entry vehicle and push it with steam. Solar mirrors, steam and rotation have all received a lot of play in SF asteroid mining.
Great to see the new Lynn Abbey books! Downloading now.
Thanks for the mention…and for all the silent support while Jane and I were wrangling the conversions!
In re: ebooks, is Jane at all familiar with the conversion program Calibre? I’m about to the “blue air” stage trying to do some things with it.
Just bought the books, and downloaded them immediately from the CC page with the links. I like that new feature a lot!
WOL – Jane has mentioned both Calibre and Sigil occasionally. This might not be a good time to ask her questions about them. :rolleyes: But they each have a forum devoted to them over at http://www.mobileread.com/forums/ Both are friendly places where people, both amateur and professional, bring their ebook creation problems. Calibre is definitely one of those garbage in, garbage out programs, and it has a bewildering array of sometimes interlocking converion options. And the author of Calibre is available for definitive answers. Personally, I have grown to dislike tools which do too much. HTML_tidy is my most useful tool, beyond an ordinary text editor. And Liz Castro’s two books on HTML/CSS and EPUB are constant companions, as is her blog http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/ .
I’ve bought the Orion’s Children books and they’re in my virtual stack to read. Exciting! Thank you to Lynn and Jane!
Happiness! Lynn’s four “Time” books in paperback edition, read to tatters, are piled on their shelf downstairs; I have brand new untattered Kindle editions in easy reach at any moment. Like tonight. The only thing as good as a great new book is a favorite old book or four.
And the download-from-the-page link is so quick and easy. Perfect for an impatient reader.
Now about Chernevog — not that I’m greedy or anything —
Soon, real soon. We were going to put it up on Friday, but the US Copyright Office was down for a software issue.
Yaaaaay! So very close!
Aside: The breadmaker arrived and I made my very first loaf Saturday. That stuff should be a controlled substance! Wonderful homemade bread, not wimpy. The loaf didn’t rise to quite the bulk I expected, but it’s possible my water wasn’t warm enough and my yeast older than I thought. The bread’s dense, has a nice crust, and good flavor, though it’s a bit yeasty, even for homemade, IMHO. My one negative: Too much salt. Next time, not only level measuring spoons for the salt, but only one teaspoon instead of the 1-1/4 called for. However, my next try will likely be the bread recipe CJ gave a few days ago.
@BlueCatShip, check the temperature on your water heater. Yeast uses hotter water than we consider comfortable. I killed the yeast on my second loaf of bread and then bought a candy thermometer. Now, I just run the water as hot as possible for a couple of minutes. (Or, I will once I get a new stove with a working overn.)
And add in the order given in the recipe. If you do it in order, your yeast and that steaming-hot water will not meet until the stirring begins and the temperature control of the breadmaker takes over. Everything is level measures. Hint: make bread with the wire handle of the pan lifted: this way you don’t have to go after it with a knife to get hold of the handle if it over-rises. ONce done, Grabbing the pan by the rim and shaking violently upside down with a snap will get the paddle to break through the bottom crust to free the loaf. Beware of bulgur wheat and other hard items in this machine —it prematurely wears the pan surface.
Sometimes, too, it just seems to be the way the day is running! I use Bread Machine yeast, and Good For Bread flour. You can also buy gluten and add a tbs more if your recipe is heavy on low-gluten flours.
Our old bread machine developed the habit of letting the paddle slide out of the pan stuck inside the bread, rather than the paddle staying attached to the pan. Cutting the bread became an interesting exercise, although cleaning the pan was easier. May it rest in peace; I’m trying to persuade our library to buy a bread machine. The old one belonged to my old library, and every Saturday morning, the staff room was permeated by the smell of fresh baked bread. Nothing insured the student helpers’ timely arrival on Saturday like that bread.
BCS: It may also be the salt which regulates the activity of the yeast – more salt = less rising. So reducing the salt may solve the problem.
I find most receipes too salty, and routinely reduce the amount.
Thanks, everyone. I didn’t intend to derail the thread; a disadvantage of blogs over forums. At the rate this loaf is disappearing, I’ll be baking a new one soon. I’ve got to test it out, right? Right? Heheh.
Very happy to see CJ, Jane, and Lynn get a chance to put out several ebooks. I think I should do a little guerrilla marketing at forums and other places I visit. Hmm…other fans have been known to spread the Scaper and Browncoat love via bookmarks and other small cards, strategically placed at bookstores and CD, DVD/Blu-Ray shelves in their SF&F sections. 😉 And oddly enough, they’ve reported both successes and…store managers who don’t seem to mind.
I love the Orion’s Children series and actually just re-read them a few days ago. Are there going to be any new ones? I’d buy them!