In Today’s Journal
* How NASA Plans to…
* The Stanbrough Writes Substack
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
How NASA Plans to…
In The 13-Month Turn, one of my SF novels, the characters lived and worked in a fully developed settlement on the surface of the moon.
The ‘world-building’ happened generically as the story unfolded. In fact, the protagonist and his wife were transported to Luna (with a lot of other people) so he could work as part of an established crew on further developing and expanding the settlement.
The setting alone makes the story one of my personal favorites.
So imagine my surprise this morning, as I read over the 1440 Daily Digest, a free, politically unbiased newsletter, to find a link to a short video:
How NASA plans to build a base on the moon.
I strongly encourage anyone who writes SF to view the video and maybe take notes. It’s only about 15 minutes long. Story (and novel) ideas abound.
Admittedly, I watched the video mostly to compare what NASA and others are doing in ‘real life’ with what my characters did in The 13-Month Turn.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of similarities.
Of course, my characters’ Lunar base was better (grin). My characters actually solved more of the problems inherent in building a settlement on the moon than NASA’s plan does, at least according to what the agency reveals in the video.
And yes, my characters’ story was forward-looking science fiction. But at this point, so is NASA’s.
Book Giveaway
In case you’d like to compare and contrast, I’m giving away The 13-Month Turn for a limited time. All you have to do is email me.
Or you can click The 13-Month Turn, add the book to your cart, then enter coupon code RRKV66BOWU when you’re prompted for a coupon.
I’ll also send along a copy of “The Stipple Suit,” a short story I wrote years earlier that describes a new kind of personal environmental ‘space suit.’
In related news….
The Stanbrough Writes Substack
Yesterday I realized I had only one short story still scheduled on the Stanbrough Writes Substack. “The Dunlap-Denman Hit,” another Blackwell Ops story, will post on Friday, October 10 at 10 a.m.
I’ve written about three hundred short stories, and as of October 10 I will have posted 152 of them (I counted) to Stanbrough Writes. I posted the first one back in late 2022. Other than a glitch or two, I’ve posted a different short story every week for almost three years.
But I haven’t posted all of them yet, so I started looking through my files, trying to figure out which ones I haven’t posted.
During that process, I came to realize I’d also posted quite a few back when I was publishing a free story on one of my websites every week. But those didn’t go out on the Substack, so I decided to include them too.
When the dust settled I found 96 stories that I hadn’t posted to Substack yet. The numbers don’t quite add up, but close enough.
Over the next several days, I’ll get more of those scheduled. So if you’re a Stanbrough Writes reader, you won’t lack for short stories.
After October 10, the stories will post on Saturday morning instead of Friday.
You should see one a week from now through at least the end of 2026 and maybe beyond. Or I might cut it off then.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: The Power of Example
What Was Behind Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal”?
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 590
Writing of Blackwell Ops 48: Razor Edge
Day 1…… 2213 words. To date…… 2213
Day 2…… 1210 words. To date…… 3423
Day 3…… 1318 words. To date…… 4741
Day 4…… 2481 words. To date…… 7222
Day 5…… 1588 words. To date…… 8810
Day 6…… 2215 words. To date…… 11025
Day 7…… 4168 words. To date…… 15193
Day 8…… 2645 words. To date…… 17838
Day 9…… 1682 words. To date…… 19520
Day 10…. 3234 words. To date…… 22754
Day 11…. 1982 words. To date…… 24736
Fiction for October………………… 9543
Fiction for 2025…………………… 588081
Nonfiction for October.…………… 2460
Nonfiction for 2025……………….. 212570
2025 consumable words………… 793082
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 14
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 32
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 118
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 302
Short story collections……………………. 29