Space...the final frontier.
Today, while I was babysitting the house--we had our second open house today--I found Star Trek: First Contact on one of the movie stations. That's one of my favorites. It's the one where they go back in time to find Zephram Cochrane (spelling?) and stop the Borg. It's also the one with the beautiful and yet slightly slimy female leader of the Borg. It also has, as I recall, a great scene in which Counselor Troi is getting schnockered on real alcohol instead of synthehol in an effort to get some information from Zephram Cochrane (I think that's why, I actually missed that part today, so I'm pulling that from memory).

Anyway, as I watched the end of the movie, the Borg were defeated (of course) and the Vulcans landed to make first contact, I was sort of sad. I know it sounds strange, but ever since I was a little kid I always thought the Enterprise (or a ship like that) would be an awesome place to live. Always exciting, never knowing what would happen next, meeting aliens, getting to visit other planets, worlds. And no real danger, of course, unless you're one of the guys in the red shirts (old Star Trek) or yellow shirts (new Star Trek). But the fact is, even with President Bush's grand plans to build a lunar station and have a manned mission to Mars, getting even to take a ride to another planet, let alone wander around a newly discovered planet, won't happen in my lifetime for me or anyone like me. I know that sounds dumb, I mean, who would expect to be able to do something like that, right? But think about it...to know for certain that no matter how long you live, you will never live long enough to have something like that happen...it's just sort of sad.

On the other hand though, I have to admit that reality is probably nowhere near as good as imagination. In that, the Enterprise, let's face it, looks a little more like a luxury liner than a battle ship. I think it will take even more time to get to the point where you can have something like that in space. And I sort of like having regular bathrooms, with real showers. Not to mention the fact that anyone who gets to go out there to explore will most likely have to be military. I mean, that's what they are on Star Trek, though somehow that always seems to get lost. And I'm really not so good at taking orders. Plus, I'm also not good at change and going new places (ask my husband about the move to the new house and that's in the same state!). So, I'm probably not an ideal candidate for long term space travel even if it were possible.

So, really, the imaginary world of space travel is probably a far better fit for me. A book in most ways is a passport to a different kind of life, to be anyone you want, anywhere you want. And most of time in a book, if you catch a bad case of the rigellian flu, there's a Doc McCoy to fix you up. I have a feeling in the real world, it's going to be a lot more complicated. But I'm looking forward to seeing as much of it as I can!

Other news...
I saw the first round of cover art for The Silver Spoon. And I really like the direction it's taking! I'm also thrilled with how open the artist and my publisher are to my thoughts in the process. I'm very lucky to be able to be this involved.

I'll keep you guys posted and hopefully you'll be seeing a cover soon. It's unbelievable how amazing it feels to see my name on an actual book cover! I have big smile on my face every time I think of it.

Talk to you tomorrow!