Jul 1, 2016

First, I apologize if you are getting this update twice.

I’ve been out of touch with Inkshares for a few days and thought I’d give my followers an update. A week ago I ran a Spartan Sprint. The heat index was over 100 and the event was held on a ski resort. It was…challenging (?). Character building. An experience I can draw on for future stories and obstacles. Ok, it was just hard. Although on the plus side most of the places on my legs I tore skin off are healing.

The next day I left for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference. There are always things there that inspire me and remind me why I do my full time job. The main plenary speaker was Lisa Jackson, Apple VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, and former Administrator of the EPA. The takeaway from that was helping students find ways to be engineers without having to sacrifice who they are.

And I suppose I should mention the conference was in New Orleans, a very cool place to get inspired for new story ideas. The French Quarter, St. Louis Cemetery #1, Lafayette Cemetery, the Garden District (yes, walked past the Anne Rice house). Also spent some time with my wife looking at local artists’ work and stopping through some galleries. Some very interesting work by both street and gallery artists.

And while none of this seems to directly relate to the science fiction worlds of Fortunes of the Space Sloth or Stage Clear I believe all experiences are valuable. We’ll just have to see where these end up taking me. Now…back to the stars.