"Shuttle Rising" Coincides With Nasa's Return to Flight
Release of a novel nine years in preparation by a Nasa author retiree, happens to coincide with Nasa's return to flight.
(PRWEB) July 26, 2005 -- NASA astronauts will soon return to flight. Their
launch to the space station will coincide with the launch of “Shuttle Rising,” a
space adventure novel by one of NASA’s own, author Charles Boyle, a veteran of
32 years with the space agency.
“The mutual timing is uncanny,” said
Boyle, “given that I’ve been working on this story off and on for nine years.”
Asked why the novel took that long to complete, Boyle said, “Decades of writing
for the government were not good preparation for writing a novel. I had to
retool.”
Boyle described government writing vs novel writing with three
examples:
“First, and worst, is inexperience in writing dialogue. The closest
we might get is to use an occasional quote. Next, is the need to break the
practice of using the passive voice, which produces lines like, ‘Mistakes were
made.’ And then, because we couldn’t ‘hype’ anything, we got little practice in
using adjectives. I had to go to school on such problems. It was a long
apprenticeship in seminars, courses and critique groups.”
“Shuttle
Rising” shows the gratifying results. Subtitled “To Rendezvous With A Rumor,”
Boyle’s gripping science fiction/techno-thriller/romance rings with
authenticity, clarity, drama and excitement. Set in the near future, its plot is
driven by the behavior of a Russia that has returned to Communism and is
undermining a proposed UN treaty to inspect all nations for weapons of mass
destruction, saying the integrity of its word alone makes inspection
unnecessary.
In a stealthy space rendezvous, astronaut Adam MacGregor
captures a derelict rumored to be a tomb, a failed manned mission from the early
days of Soviet space flight.
The US President wants it opened in space
and its contents televised live to the world. He intends to refute Moscow’s
claim that no cosmonaut ever died in orbit, thus reminding the world that
Communists lie and cannot be trusted. At stake are wavering votes for the “Open
Lands” treaty. Russia, detecting Adam’s rendezvous, warns him to retreat. Adam
presses on and discovers what Moscow is really hiding: a sensational space
exploit that ended in tragedy. As the Russians attack, he fights for his life
and for a chance at undying love with an aroused enemy, a revenant whom gravity
will kill if she returns to Earth.
Charles Boyle served as Educational
Programs Manager for Earth Sciences at the Goddard Space Flight Center, near
Washington, DC. Prior to NASA, he worked at Bell Labs, Esso, Scott Paper,
Western Electric, and US Steel.
Boyle is the author of Tailey Whaley, an
illustrated children’s book, in which a whale, born “different,” faces
intolerance. His 1970’s book, Space Among Us, described many of the emerging
effects of space research on society. Boyle’s writing has appeared in Science
and Omni magazines. For the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology,
he served as space flight editor. He wrote a column called “Space Appreciation”
for the Journal of Aerospace Education and has been a contributing editor to
various space advocacy publications including Space World, Ad Astra, and
Aviation/Space Magazine. Time Magazine quoted from “Boyle’s Other Laws,” a
gathering of his aphorisms.
Boyle received a Mechanical Engineering
degree from Tulane, an M.B.A. in Business Administration from N. Y. U., and a
physics major Masters in Education from Harvard.
A scuba diver, sailboat
racer, and “ancient athlete,” Boyle won two gold medals in track at the 2001
National Senior Olympics. In 2004, he set a new American age-group record in the
USA Track&Field Masters 3000 meter racewalk.
He served with the U.S.
Maritime Service and the U.S. Navy, 1943-1947.
If a review copy is
desired, please request.
Trident Publishing
1837 Cove Point
Road
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-266-8523
410-266-3251 (fax)
e-mail
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Shuttle Rising by Charles Boyle
$15.95
paperback, 500 pages
CONTACT: Patrick Gallagher
ISBN 0-9657214-5-0
LCCN
2005902031 Pub.Date July 2005
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb265228.htm