#WeWriWa #8Sunday ~ Mission to New Earth

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warrior and 8 Sentence Sunday time, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Writers share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other writers. You can find them here.

My snippet is from my new sci-fi romance novella MISSION TO NEW EARTH. Marsh is upset about something, and Sara doesn't have a clue what's wrong. She finally finds out.

“We screwed up again--in RT, it could kill us,” Marsh announced as soon as the five of us joined him, his voice echoing off the hard surfaces of the lav.

“You and your damn RT,” Tom spat out. “Why can’t you just say real time like a normal person?”

Marsh was right to pick the only place that wasn’t monitored. We absolutely didn’t want the directors to think we weren’t a well-functioning team. They could pull us and put in the Shadow Team--our replacements.

“Okay, guys, what did I miss?” With a forced grin, I raised my right hand. “I swear I wasn’t dreaming about a day at the beach during the sim.”

The Story:

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

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Be sure to check out the other snippets from the great list of authors here.

#8Sunday #WeWriWa ~ Mission to New Earth

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Writers share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other writers. You can find them here.

My snippet is from my new sci-fi romance novella MISSION TO NEW EARTH. Last time, many of you asked what happened between Sara and Marsh. 

“We need to talk,” Marsh said as he blasted past me toward our quarters.

What? I looked around. Where was the rest of my team? Marsh took an impatient whack at the mistletoe ball hung from a garland. Oh, boy. What had gotten into him?

Bill and Tom trailed behind Marsh with Gloria and Ana bringing up the rear. Like me, they wore forest green jumpsuits, and they did not look pleased. Glum was a better word.

        The last simulation wasn’t that bad. 

Here's the story

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

Amazon ~ Kobo ~ iTunes ~ ARe ~ Smashwords ~ Barnes & Noble

#8Sunday - Weekend Writing Warriors

I haven't posted an 8-sentence excerpt in a long time. Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today. It's a great way to sample new books and find new authors! 

This is from my sci-fi romance novella, MISSION TO NEW EARTH:

Marsh strode toward me with determination—so different from that easy-going swagger that caught my eye the first time I saw him four years ago at the White Sands Training Center. I never believed in love at first sight, but oh, mama. With dark-haired, dark-eyed Marsh, I fell hard. I must’ve done a great job hiding my feelings back then. He said he never knew—until a year later I pinned him on the exercise mat and kissed him. Yep, I took the initiative and planted a toe-curling smooch on his delectable lips. Not to be outdone, he kissed back. Holy smoke. 

The story:

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

MISSION TO NEW EARTH will be released on August 31st. It's available for pre-order at Amazon for 99 cents.  https://amzn.com/B01JXZR0AK

Check out other 8-sentence excerpts by visiting Weekend Writing Warriors central page  or the Facebook page. Come back next Sunday for more from MISSION TO NEW EARTH.

A Goldilocks Planet

Remember the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”—how a little girl wandered into a cabin in the forest and found porridge that wasn’t too hot or too cold but just right. Same with a chair that wasn’t too big or too little but just right. And a bed that wasn’t too hard or too soft but just right.

credit: NASA

Since March, 2009, the telescope aboard NASA's Kepler spacecraft has been searching for “Goldilocks” planets—those that, like Earth, are capable of sustaining human life. Last week, Kepler added eight more exoplanets (planets that revolved around a star other than ours) to the already more than a thousand already discovered. Can you imagine? A thousand planets that could be habitable.

So what criteria do scientists use to determine a “Goldilocks” planet? It needs to be far enough away from its sun that liquid water would exist. To do that, it must receive as much sunlight as Earth—too much and the water boils away as steam; too little and the water freezes. Two of the most recent exoplanets discovered are the most similar to Earth.

Kepler is confirming what science fiction writers have assumed all along. There are worlds where life exists. What that life looks like is up to our imagination. So far. Like many s/f writers, my stories feature human-like beings as the main characters so readers can identify with them. Minor characters are another story. (pun intended) They could have fur, be short and squat with very large feet, or have scales. Each is a product of their home world. However, I don’t have “creepy” characters. No slimy, dripping Aliens. (bad pun, I know) Despite how they look, they all have one thing in common. Intelligence.

In many science fiction stories (movies and books), the characters are able to travel large distances through space. In my Outer Rim series (The Pilot, The Chameleon), my characters are out on the frontier of space. To get there from what I call the Central Planets, they use spacecraft capable of faster-than-light speed.

For us here on Earth, traveling to even one of the exoplanets discovered by Kepler is impossible. We haven't managed to travel to our nearest neighbor, Mars. Yet. But think about the huge advances made in our lifetime. In less than sixty years, we’ve gone from launching a small satellite into space to a man walking on our moon, to landing a robot on Mars. What could happen in my grandchildren’s lifetime?

I see s/f as hope for the future. That’s why I don’t write stories about the end of Earth. Some day, probably not in my lifetime, science fiction will be reality. We’ll travel to those exoplanets and either meet those inhabitants or establish colonies there. The possibilities are amazing.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kepler and its discoveries, here are some links.

http://kepler.nasa.gov/

http://earthsky.org/space/astronomers-find-8-new-planets-in-goldilocks-zone?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=979f93e008-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-979f93e008-393789881

http://news.yahoo.com/1-000-alien-planets-nasas-kepler-space-telescope-164450730.html;_ylt=A0LEVrx34LNUsMIAWA8PxQt.

What do you think? Could these planets be inhabited by beings like us?