Monday, January 16, 2006

Stardust NOT Banned in Utah

Yesterday, Stardust returned to Earth. It had been launched February 7, 1999 as the first NASA mission to return cometary particle samples from beyond the Earth Moon orbit.

It was a nice feeling, despite not really knowing much about this project before my story was selected to appear in Julie E. Czerneda's anthology Stardust (which was, yes, named after this space capsule).

Gee, what a wonderful time to get out there a buy a copy of the book Stardust which is an awesome collection of science fiction stories in Julie's Wonder Zone series based on science being taught to grade-school children. My story "Looking Through Glass" explores the concept of the properties of light.

One of the greatest outcomes from having this story published was a book review that was shared to me via a teacher who used this book in her classroom. This young reluctant fourth grade reader had never finished a story before, but was so excited after finishing my tale that he eagerly started to write a book review for it. I have a copy of that review in my den and the fact that I helped inspire a young person to enjoy reading is something that's near and dear to my heart.

This post brought to you by the overly pushly self-promotion tactics of Mark Leslie.

4 comments:

Zephyr said...

Self promotion isn't all bad. And I know the joy of seeing a child learn to enjoy reading... I can only imagine the exhilaration of being the cause of it. I'd guess that you have read that review countless times and smiled every time. I know I would have.

And I still need to order that book. I just wish they sold autographed copies! ;)

Virginia said...

Hey, it's not pushy! It's sharing. I didn't know you had a story in it!! Congratulations! Julie is a wonderful, energetic lady.

I'll have to get me a copy.

Unknown said...

That's great Mark. Do you happen to know if they have copies at Bakka?

Rainypete said...

I think that would be the ultimate achievement. Knowing that something you wrote connected that strongly with someone is the goal behind it all isn't it?