The Kepler mission has been amazing! Next week they’re holding a press conference to talk about their latest finds.
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NASA will host a news teleconference Tuesday, May 10 to announce the latest discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.
Source: NASA to Announce Latest Kepler Discoveries During Media Teleconference
It’s amazing how much they’re discovering in our solar system.
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They’re calling it a Manx comet, after the cats with no tails. It may have formed in the inner solar system and been ejected outward.
Source: Orbit like a comet, rocky like an asteroid | EarthSky.org
My poor iris took a beating during the drought the past few years while the cactus survived, then got entirely out of control with this year’s welcome rain. The iris perked up, too, and deserved a new home, which they now have next to my shed. I also have a garbage can full of cactus ears that probably weighs 300 lbs. 
I’m sure that most of you out there can relate to the picture to the right as far as my efforts to tame my little piece of Texas are concerned. That’s okay. There’s something satisfying about sharing my progress in cyberspace. Somehow it provides a certain level of accountability, too. Just in case ANYONE actually does care, my intent is documented and it will be harder for me to give up and quit, though it’s pretty likely that will happen as the mercury rises into the usual triple digits of a Texas Hill Country summer. Until then, I can at least get as much done as I can, whether or not anyone notices, much less gives a rat’s ass.
Digital Clock c. 1995
Analog Clock c. 1950s
Clearly the digital clock has had an electronic stroke while the analog clock still works just fine. There seems to be a message here.
Here are some award winning sci-fi works to consider. I was excited to learn about these awards since there aren’t that many for the SFF genre.
We had a number of ties this year, so to break them, I’m putting on my tin-pot dictator helmet and instituting arbitrary, last-minute, unannounced rule changes.
In the ‘best short story’ category, the new tiebreaking rule is: the shorter story wins. The winning short story for 2015 is “Something in the Water” by C.S. Boyack, found in The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack.
I’m combining the novel categories, so there is a single ‘best novel’. I’m also allowing a partially-completed vote to break a tie, so the winning novel for 2015 is Torchship, by Karl Gallagher.
I appreciate all the book bloggers who participated in the nomination and voting process. Over the course of 2016, I plan to re-blog your credentialing posts as a thank you.
New ideas and suggestions for changes to the 2016 Planetary Awards are welcome in the comments section.
New Amazon policies Indie Authors can access but definitely pricey. I’m pretty skeptical whether it would provide enough ROI to be worth it.
Image: dailyfinance.com
The Passive Guy alerted me to a big change in the way Amazon does book marketing. As Amy Collins of The Book Designer reports, starting today, Amazon is expanding its Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to include a wide range of book marketing tools previously unavailable to us, or only available to its bigger clients.
Here are the additional programs being made available:
Want video, sample page shots, extra photos and other “juicy” offerings on your book’s page? Now you can have it! $600 gets you a LOT more on your detail page. The “A+” detail page is a deluxe detail page featuring advanced formatting and rich media content (detailed descriptions for example) to enrich the shopping experience for customers.
Amazon is finally following Smashwords example and will now allow vendor-funded coupon links (available on the product detail page) to offer…
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If you hate parallel parking, then you’ll definitely relate to this! Spacecraft docking maneuvers are not simple!
Marcha's Two-Cents Worth 