As The Yarn Turns

A Book Giveway and a Tiny Bit of Knitting

You're probably thinking I should be finished with my knit top by now. Well if you were, you're wrong. Even though it would be nice to wear, it's been too hot to get very enthusiastic about knitting lately. I have started on the collar at least.

So rather than show you incremental progress on my knitting, I'll talk about my friend Stephanie instead. Stephanie Osborn is a science fiction writer and is retired from the civilian and military space programs. She recently published her first novel, Burnout: the mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281

Burnout is the story of a Space Shuttle disaster than turns out to be no accident. It's classified as science fiction but she describes it as more of a mystery than a science fiction or a techno-thriller. I've just started reading my copy so I'll let you know what I think later. Stephanie was giving a talk about her book at the library today so Rick and I went down to see her. She read a couple of excerpts but her story about writing the book is kind of eerie and worth reading. I also loved her stories from her NASA days.

Stephanie was a payload flight controller and worked for more than 20 years in the civilian and military space programs. She trained many of the astronauts, including one close friend who died in the Columbia accident, and much of her work involved the Columbia. Even though the first draft of her book was written before the Columbia accident took place, the space shuttle accident part of the novel is eerily similar to the Columbia. One comment she made in the talk was that she read the Columbia accident report to make sure her facts were straight and found out she didn't have to make any changes, mostly due to her experience and extensive research.

The book has a glossary in the back to help with the acronyms and technical terms. The cover of the book was designed by her husband Darryl Osborn who is also a very good magician in addition to his graphic artist skills. There's an excerpt of the book on the Twilight Times web site. Stephanie is also a co-author on the e-book The Y-Factor.

I'll giveaway a copy of Burnout that's signed by Stephanie to some random commenter. (Update: It's open to everyone inside and outside the US.) Since we have a holiday coming up, I'll give you until midnight on Monday, July 6, 2009 to post.

"Since mom's not going to ever finish this sweater, I think she should give it us" - Dexter and Clyde

*(No knitting or ferrets were harmed while taking this picture.)

by Sydney  |