Dear readers, supporters, and people potentially tired of hearing about my funding updates,
I have great news: the book is funded! Before my deadline, even! This is wonderful because now I can shift my "can I please have some money for publication" mindset to one that is excited to write. The production process is in the works. In the meantime, I will continue to reach out to students, book speaking events, develop partnerships, and promote this book like crazy.
Thank you to my sponsors and to everyone who supported my book to help it get to publication. I am looking forward to this journey just as much as you are looking forward to reading my book! That's why you preordered it, right?
"If you want something badly enough, you'll do all you can to get there."
All the best,
Sydney
Cuban Space Program: Astronaut teaching…in Havana.
Two weeks ago, the day before I turned 50, I left Miami, FL, for Havana, Cuba. Being a native-born Floridian, going to Cuba was something I had wanted to do for as long as I can remember remembering. For me, Cuba has always been “the forbidden land”. Growing up on South Florida for almost half my life, Cuban culture is largely my culture too: the name Mongo is Cuban.
While I have taught astronautics before classrooms and audiences of students and professionals from California to Haiti, teaching in Cuba seemed unattainable, beyond my grasp, only…a dream?
As I am still working through details of what I can and cannot discuss following this treasured opportunity—as I understand, I was the 1st-ever US American guest of the Primary School—I will share more in the future. But I am happy to report: With any luck, somewhere in this photo above may well be pictured the 1st-ever Cuban astronaut from Havana.
And the reality is that because of its vicinity to the equator, Cuba is an excellent location for a spaceport. Cuban space program, indeed!
Needless to say, I am honored and grateful. Connecting with students all over the world and pointing a future with us all, this is why I am an astronaut teacher.
Keep up the good work, everyone,
Mike
PS Oh yes! We are working on edited book galleys now. Samples to come!
Hello you lovely people! Gary here. Just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your incredible support and patronage of ABOMINATION over the past 24 hours. As you may have heard, the book smashed through its crowdfunding goal in a SINGLE DAY, which is absolutely phenomenal. It's an old cliche to say that we couldn't have done it without you, but in this case we literally could not have done ANY of this without you. So THANK YOU SO MUCH for believing in this book and bringing it to life with your support. I can't wait to get a finished copy into your hands.
On that note, with the book fully funded we're moving straight on to making that happen! The manuscript of the novel will now go through a final, rigorous copy-editing phase to weed out any remaining typos and other anomalies, and at the same time we'll be working with the amazing Jason Gurley on the final cover art for the limited hardcover first edition. Jason has already blown us away with some of his rough concepts, and we'll be sharing those with you as we begin to narrow them down to what will be the final cover. Stay tuned!
That's it for now, but there will be much more soon. Thank you again, if I could kiss every one of you on the mouth I would. And I may still do that. So be on your guard over the coming days.
Gary
I'm loving #4