Welcome Guest Author, Irene Helenowski (CONTEST ALERT: ENTER TO WIN!!!)

Today we welcome guest Author, Irene Helenowski.  I had the pleasure to interview Irene regarding her latest release, Order of the Dimensions.  Following the interview are instructions on how to ENTER TO WIN a free copy of Order of the Dimensions!

Welcome, Irene.  Please tell us a little about yourself. 

Thank you!  Happy to be here.  I am a Chicago native and a biostatistician at an academic medical center here in Chicago.  My family emigrated here from Poland in the 1960s, where my sister and brothers were born but I was born here.

Wow, that’s very impressive!  What genres do you write? 

My first book and its sequel is science fiction, but I’d love to explore other genres.

Tell us about your newest release and what inspired you to write it. 

I was inspired to write Order of the Dimensions after watching a science special on the multiverse theory and thought it would be neat to write a story where the characters lead different lives in different dimensions.

If you could spend a day with one of your characters, which one would it be and why? 

Okay, I'll say it - probably Anton.  He's evil but he is also kind of hot, LOL :)

What is your favorite part of writing? 

Just coming up with stories.  Sometimes I take daily anecdotes and elaborate them into exaggerated adventures.

What is your least favorite part of writing?

Editing, but it’s a necessary evil :)

Which of your works would you most like to see as a movie? 

I think  Order of the Dimensions would make a pretty neat movie :)

Who would you cast as the lead? 

I do already have a fantasy cast in mind, LOL.  It's even on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/OrderOfTheDimensions

I know I will be sure to check out that cast!

So where do you get your inspiration for your main characters? 

Everywhere.  From other books and movies to different people I have meet in real life.

Does your hometown or other areas of your personal background figure into your work? 

There are parts of the story that take place in Chicago as well as places I've visited.

Have you done or currently plan to do any sequels?

 I am working on one now :)

Ahh!  You heard it here first!

Tell us about your experience with the road to publication?

I am self-publishing, but unfortunately, book sales have been dismal so I am trying to get into the traditional route.  That has also been harder than expected, however.

It’s not easy; in fact, it’s almost impossible (“almost” being the key word!).  That’s why it’s so exciting that you’ve actually done it twice and are working on your third!  But how do you balance your “real life” with writing?  

I just try to carve out time to write whenever I can.

Also easier said than done!

If you could go back in time, what historical period or event would you most love to visit? 

The Renaissance - I'd just love to talk to all the artists, scientists, and authors at that time.

How did you become a writer? 

I don't know if I still would consider myself a writer; I just still like writing for fun.

You most certainly are!  You are way too modest, but who are some of your other favorite authors? 

Joseph Conrad, Jack London, Michael Crichton.

What author would you love to trade places with for a day?

JK Rowling -- I'd love to know the secrets of all her success ;)

Yes, I agree – that would be fun! 

Does your family and/or significant other comment or critique your work? 

I have several good friends that offer me advice on my writing.

Is there anything else you would like to share about the book? 

Just hope people enjoy it and perhaps that young girls might be intrigued to look into the sciences.

Have you written other books, or have any other projects in the works that we should know about? 

I’m still working on a sequel now.  And I have some ideas for the future but haven’t gotten to them yet.

Where can we purchase Order of the Dimensions?

Buy Links:

Lulu.com

Amazon.com

BarnesandNoble.com

And now for the contest!  ENTER TO WIN a FREE copy of Order of the Dimensions!

OK, the "widget" is supposed to be here, but it looks like it's being difficult!  So just click on the Rafflecopter link below to be taken to the "temperamental" widget!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Thank you for joining us today, Irene!  Please come back anytime – we look forward to hearing more from you soon.  In the meantime, we will follow you on your facebook page:  www.facebook.com/OrderOfTheDimensions and check out the cast as well!

Contributing Astronomy Editor, Prof. Dan Matlaga's August Post: "QUESTION"

            

Question: How many hours in a day?

Answer: There are twenty-four hours in a day.

Question: Why the number 24?

Answer: There are twenty-four hours in the day because that is the time it takes the earth to rotate once on its axis.

There is a problem with that answer.

Although it was the answer we were given in grade school, it flies in the face of history. 

The earliest peoples we know of who used a twenty-four hour day were the Egyptians of nearly five thousand years ago. The Egyptions of that time thought the earth was flat and stationary. They could not arrive at 24 because it is the time it takes a round earth to rotate once on its axis. Twenty-four must be related to something other than a rotating earth.

The diagram shows the position of the Sun and the bright star Regulus in the evening of August 22^nd. Don’t bother to look for the pair because the light from the near Sun will overwhelm the light of the much more distant Regulus. The diagram is a case of perspective. If we place the Sun next to Regulus, the star Regulus would outshine the Sun by 150 times.  It takes the light of the Sun just eight minutes to reach the Earth.  The light from Regulus, traveling at the same speed, will take 78 years to reach the earth.

If we wait one day, the sun would appear to move two of its diameters to the left of Regulus. On August 24th the Sun will appear four of its diameters to the left of Regulus, and so on until the Sun is back to the August 22nd position in 2014 three hundred and sixty five days later. That is one year. This apparent motion of the Sun is due to the Earth orbiting the Sun, a fact unknown to the ancient Egyptians.

During the year the moon orbiting the Earth traveled 12.4 times around the sky.  The nearest whole number is 12. The two brightest luminaries in the sky, the Sun and Moon shared the number twelve. Twelve then took on significance greater than simply a point on a number line.

The earliest time measuring devices found in Egypt appears they first divided the night into twelve parts, then later the day into twelve parts. Twelve plus twelve is twenty-four. This is how we get twenty-four hours in the day.  Note the number has nothing to do with the rate the Earth rotates but rather due to the ratio of twelve orbits of the moon around the Earth to the Sun’s apparent one.

If you have a timepiece in your home that divides the twenty-four hour day into twelve plus twelve hours, just keep in mind that idea is as old as the Egyptian pyramids and there it is, right inside your home.

Welcome Guest Author, Patty Campbell! (Contest Alert: ENTER TO WIN!!!)

Today I am happy to welcome Patty Campbell, whose new book, Once a Marine, was just released in June.  Patty's other fabulous novel, Jelly's Big Night Out (don't you just love that name?) is also available AND we are running a contest for a free, signed copy of "Jelly"!  

Welcome, Patty!  First, please tell us a little about Once a Marine.

Sure thing!  Here is a brief synopsis:

Caught between a rapidly deteriorating relationship with her demanding fiancé and her erratic and tyrannical boss, BD James is ready for a meltdown. What she isn’t ready for is Rafael Cruz; a big ex-Marine with one thing on his mind.

A chance encounter with BD, and Rafi’s single-minded agenda is to find a way to get her in his bed. Rafi Cruz is a man who makes things happen, but the timing couldn’t be worse, he’s leaving on a hostage rescue mission in two days. No time for a long seduction. He has to work fast, or this hot little package will slip right between his itching fingers.

Rafi is the private charter pilot her boss hires to fly them to Hawaii. Tall, dark, and handsome is next to his name in BD’s mental manual of men to avoid.

Fresh off a broken engagement, the last thing she needs is another manipulating man.

She’s worked too hard to get this far in her profession. She’s given up too much to complicate her life with another man just when her career is reaching a critical turning point. She’s tired, brokenhearted, disappointed and angry.

Early in the morning Rafi comes looking for BD. He finds her asleep by the swimming pool at her boss’s Honolulu villa, where he  chauffeured them late the night before, after flying them over from L.A.

As a Marine, Rafi’s nothing if not resourceful. He’ll talk her into going to Kaneohe Bay for a day of surfing. Or kidnap her if necessary, and then let nature take its course.

The last thing BD’s interested in is taking surfing lessons from this dangerous looking guy, so how she let Rafi talk her into it is a mystery. Surfing indeed.

That sounds intriguing, to say the least!  Wow...I've been fortunate enough to go to Hawaii twice, but nothing like that ever happened to me...hmmm... 

Anyway...now that you've "hooked" us, how can we get started reading Once a Marine right away?

You are just a click away!  Here are the buy links:

Amazon

Barnes and Nobel

Great!  Here is some info. on Patty's other novel, Jelly's Big Night Out.  Patty has generously offered to raffle off a signed copy to one lucky winner!  Scroll down for info. on how to enter the contest.

TAGLINE:

            She has an eye for fashion and hungers for romance, but family commitment comes before love.

BLURB:

            After life takes a tragic turn, Jelly Swanson has no time for men. Providing a safe, nurturing home for her little sister, Emi, and running a successful boutique left her too busy for much else, and forced the idea of a love life to the back burner. But when she goes to school for a teacher conference, her sister’s science teacher takes her completely by surprise. The chemistry between Jelly and Dr. Henry, with the unpronounceable last name, is undeniable.

            When Emi goes missing, a tangle of secrets and past loves may destroy any chance they have at happiness.

AND NOW:  Here is the info. for the contest:

To win a signed copy of Jelly's Big Night Out, send an email to patricia@pattycampbell.com, with "Contest" in the subject line. One lucky winner will be chosen at random and notified by email.  Good luck everyone!

Here are the Buy Links for Jelly's Big Night Out:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Thank you so much for joining us today, Patty and for offering a free, signed copy of Jelly to one of our readers!

Thank you for having me, it's been fun.  Good luck everyone!

Welcome Guest Author, Ally Shields!

We are thrilled to have Ally joining us again today, this time to discuss her newest novel, Burning Both Ends.

Here is a short Author's Bio and then we'll get started:

Ally Shields was born and raised in the US Midwest, along the Mississippi River, the setting for her urban fantasy series. After  a career in law and juvenile justice, she turned to full-time writing in 2009, and Awakening the Fire, the debut novel in her Guardian Witch series, was released in September 2012.  Ally still lives within driving distance of the Mississippi with her Miniature Pinscher, Ranger. When not writing, reading, or spending time with family and friends, she loves to travel in the US and abroad. Way too often she can be found on Twitter.

Welcome Ally!  Please tell us about your newest release and what inspired you to write it.

Burning Both Ends is the third book in my urban fantasy Guardian Witch series. While each book has at least one crime/mystery that supernatural cop Arianna Calin resolves within the book, there are storylines that continue throughout the series. This novel was really a consequence of the first two, although I added a few new elements to keep the reader on their toes. :)

Burning Both Ends is all about divided loyalties. The vampire Andreas, who holds a piece of Ari's heart, is surrounded by enemies in Canada, and her friend Steffan, the local werewolf leader at home in Riverdale, has been kidnapped.  Ari can't be in two places at once, but she can't abandon either one. When the Magic Council orders her home, she's forced to face impossible choices with life and death consequences.

Did you do specific research for this project?

Not as much as I've done for others. Basically, it was small things like flight times between Riverdale and Toronto, and I Google-earthed (new verb :) ) some districts in Toronto. The biggest issue in this book was keeping the time line straight.

If you could spend a day with one of your characters, which one would it be and why?

Hmm, for a change of pace, I think I'd pick Claris, Ari's best friend. Claris is a human who runs an herb and healing shop in the Olde Town tourist district, selling live and dried plants and natural healing mixtures. It would be fun to learn all about her craft.

Which of your works would you most like to see as a movie?

Of the three published so far, I think this third one would be the most fun as a movie. It has a little bit of everything, including a semi-retired spy!

How do you balance your “real life” with writing?

I don't do a very good job of that. When I'm writing or editing, my real life gets put on hold. Especially with editing, I work long hours to get it done. Sometimes I have to force myself to take a break, get away from the computer, got out to eat or shopping, and enjoy time with friends or family. I hear a lot of complaints from the real life side!

If you could go back in time, what historical period or event would you most love to visit?

Regency England, but since I know it's been overly romanticized in fiction books, I'm not sure I'd want to stay very long. It would be fascinating for a while to see the fancy balls and the carriages in Hyde Park, until I verified the people bathed infrequently and London had open sewers!!

Who or what is the epitome of a hero to you?

 I think we find heroes in every walk of life and in unexpected situations. They are mentally strong, naturally protective, confident, but willing to be vulnerable to those they love. A hero stands up to challenges and runs towards the danger rather than away. Unfortunately, the US has needed a lot of real heroes in various tragedies this year.

Is there anything else you would like to share about Burning Both Ends?

Because of the continuing story arcs in this series, I strongly recommend that the books be read in order.

What other projects are you working on?

I'm currently writing book five in the series, and I'm marketing a spy thriller.  If I find time, I want to write a short story for a new anthology coming out, and I also have a plot for a #YA novel running around in my head.  My muse just never sleeps!

We'd love it if you'd share a quick blurb on Burning Both Ends.

 I'll do better than that - here is a blurb and an excerpt, but first, the video trailer:

Burning Both Ends (Guardian Witch #3) Blurb:

Friend or lover. Life or death…

Supernatural cop Ari Calin arrives at the hostile Toronto vampire court with an ultimatum from the Riverdale vampires: Sebastian, Toronto’s vampire prince, must stop his unprovoked attacks—or else. Ari wasn’t expecting a fight—the “or else” was typical vampire grandstanding. But even with vampire Andreas De Luca by her side for a show of strength, things get ugly fast. Toronto’s vampire world is in crisis, and surrounded by enemies, Ari and Andreas find themselves under attack.

Then Ari gets the call from the Magic Council ordering her home. Steffan, a good friend and leader of Riverdale's werewolves, has gone missing during top secret negotiations with the US government, and is believed to have been kidnapped—or killed.

Andreas can't abandon the Toronto vampires, and Ari can’t leave him to face impossible odds alone. Neither can she disobey her orders from the Council, or leave her friend Steffan to be tortured and killed. Ari's loyalties pull her in two directions—the closest thing to love she’s ever known on one side, and friendship and duty on the other. If she can stay alive long enough for the choice to matter…

Excerpt:

Fangs flashed where her cheek had been an instant before. Ari whirled, crouching to meet the vampire’s return charge, and her fingers sparked, witch blood clamoring for action. Refusing its urgent call, she threw the magic powder as he wheeled and sped toward her in a blur. Green particles sparkled. A loud thump. The vampire recoiled from the invisible barrier and took two staggering steps. A direct hit. Before a smile more than touched her lips, the dark figure recovered and leaped. Ari backpedaled, but his weight drove her to the hard ground.

He grinned down at her, a lock of dark hair falling across his forehead. Trapping her arms above her head, he leaned close, his dark eyes glittering. He brushed her lips with his and whispered, “Better—but not yet good enough.” Andreas shifted his six-foot, muscled body, sprang up, and offered her a hand.

Ignoring the courtesy, Ari scrambled to her feet. Getting pinned by your boyfriend wasn’t always a good thing. “Back off, bloodsucker,” she grumbled. She shook out the fallen leaves and pine needles that clung to her long, honey-colored hair.

Andreas chuckled. A rich, warm sound. “Touchy tonight. Did I put your nose out of joint, little witch? And here I was, trying to help with your training.” Andreas glided across the forest clearing with the smooth grace of a natural predator. He collected their cell phones from under a park bench where they’d stashed them earlier in the evening and handed her one.

“Thanks.” Ari avoided his eyes. Damn right she was annoyed. She was competitive, and second place wasn’t good enough—even against a master level vampire. Especially one who wasn’t really trying to kill her.

Andreas studied her face, his voice pragmatic. “I am glad you are taking this seriously. Other combatants will be less charitable than I, less mindful of breaking your pretty neck. I can almost guarantee Sebastian will continue his fight with Prince Daron, and next time he may lead the attack. You might have to face him again.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t really believe he’d come to Riverdale. He’s too comfortable lording it over everyone in Toronto.” Andreas shrugged. “It is unlikely, but a sobering thought. With Sebastian, anything is possible.” He frowned, obviously thinking about the brutal vampire leader. “He has grown more aggressive, erratic, perhaps less sane, as sometimes happens with the elder ones. Our defeat of his minions will only fuel his rage and make him more determined.”

“Minions? What kind of word is that?” Ari demanded. “You really should update your vocabulary. Being born in seventeen hundred and something is no excuse for using words no one understands.” She was just being bitchy. In truth, she wouldn’t change a thing about Andreas’s speech or sexy voice. The archaic words, the faint accent of Italian aristocracy, and the shivers of sensation it produced were all part of him. She never got used to the seductive effect…even when she wanted to be annoyed.

OK, now that you've "hooked" us...where can we buy Burning Both Ends and keep up with (or at least "follow") you?

Buy Links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

ARe

Author contact links:

Website: http://allyshields.com

Blog: http://allyshields.com/blog.html

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShieldsAlly

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AllyShieldsAuthor

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6527209.Ally_Shields

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/allyshields

Other books in the series:

• Awakening the Fire (Guardian Witch #1), published September 2012
• Fire Within (Guardian Witch #2), published Marsh 2013
• Blood and Fire (Guardian Witch #4), coming in the fall of 2013

Thank you so much for joining us today, Ally!  All the very best of luck to you with Burning Both Ends and please come back again anytime!

Contributing Astronomy Editor, Dan Matlaga: HOW DO YOU FEEL?

How Do You Feel Today?

The illustration highlights three constellations visible these mid – summer nights.  It is drawn to highlight these three in their positions at 9:00 PM.  In addition, I’ve indicated the positions of the moon for July 18, 19 and 20 as a location guide.

If you go outside Thursday July 18, and face south, you will see the moon in front of the stars of Scorpius.  In fact it appears the scorpion holds the moon in one of its pincers. Picture the moon in your mind’s eye as the center of a clock face.  Draw a line from that center outward toward the position of the seven on the clock face.  You will pass near a bright reddish star named Antares.  It is important that you can find that star.

The evening of July 19 finds the moon in the middle of the thigh of Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer.

Saturday evening we find the moon just above the head of Sagittarius, the archer.

The increasing moonlight these three nights makes it nearly impossible to trace the stellar outlines of these three constellations.  Full moon occurs Monday July 22.  It won’t be until Friday July 26 when the moon rises after 9:00 PM, the time frame of our illustration, that the sky will be free of moonlight.  Then the star Antares can be a reference point.

It should be noted for scale, the distance from the horizon to the top of the head of Ophiuchus is three-quarters the distance from the horizon to the overhead point.

A scorpion, a man with a snake wrapped around his waist, and a centaur with bow and arrow. They seem as though they are a discordant set of images.  The usual approach to make some sense of these three would involve cracking open a book or two about constellations. It would be a mistake because such books lead you down the wrong path.  

Of the eighty-eight officially recognized constellations only three, according to mainstream thinking, look like the objects they represent.  Number one is Orion the hunter, two is Cygnus the Swan and the third is Scorpius the scorpion. I believe there are more than three, but we will take that up in another post.

What places the scorpion on this list is the long curving tail of the constellation.  It resembles a large fish hook complete with an anatomically correct star to mark the singer of the scorpion.

So, you are stung by a scorpion, what should you do?

“Step on it,” is the usual response from someone who was never stung by a scorpion. The intense pain from the sting is instantaneous.  It does not build. It feels like the worst burn you have ever experienced and then some. The pain is such that your first instinct might be to seek medical help.

Looking for medical help? This is where Ophiuchus enters the picture. He was the first prominent physician. He was so good at his healing art it was claimed he was capable of bringing the dead back to life. Your friendly neighborhood physician knows of this constellation not by the Roman name Ophiuchus, but rather by his Greek name Asclepius. The first sentence of one version of the Hippocratic Oath begins: “I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius…” I was informed by several different physicians not many physicians take the Hippocratic Oath because they know they cannot live up to what it says. Something to think about next time you are under the knife.

The connection of this prominent physician and snakes is related to the snake’s ability to shed its skin. Before shedding, typically the snake looks dull and listless.  After shedding, the colors are the most vibrant the snake can display.  The Greeks and others interpreted this transformation as the snake’s ability to build a new body in the old.  A snake could be killed, its body left to dry out in the sun then ground up as a powder, then the powder used as an ingredient in medicine. The aim was to give to the sick and ailing that magical quality of building a new body in the old.

Note, too, how (if drawn completely) the extended right leg of Ophiuchus would rest at the stinger of Scorpius to crush the source of pain.

Unfortunately there is more to life than physical pain… there is mental pain and suffering. The Greek Sagittarius, the centaur, helps here.  I recall a fourth grade school bus trip to the Bronx Zoo.  My teacher was sitting across the aisle from me.

I asked the rhetorical question as to how many centaurs are kept at the Bronx Zoo.  She looked at me and remarked how centaurs are one of those crazy make believe creatures invented by the Greeks.  She added centaurs really don’t exist.

What the Greeks were trying to say, but our culture doesn’t get (after all, as a culture we don’t understand our own mythic images, let alone the Greeks), is there are two parts to being human.  Part of us is animal.  We have similar blood, musculature and bone architecture of other animals.  That physical is the horse part of the centaur. We in addition have a spiritual part as well. The spiritual is represented by the human half of the centaur. The Greeks simply put our dual nature out in the open.

Centaurs were not very nice.  They were drug addicts, alcoholics and fought with anything that came down the pike. Sagittarius was the exception.  He was a physician, philosopher, and playwright, composer of hymns, teacher and poet.

We cannot help but notice Sagittarius has his arrow aimed directly at the heart of the scorpion, the source of mental pain and suffering.  Greek, Egyptian and others thought of the heart as a center for emotion soul and thought.  They did not know the purpose of the brain. This ancient concept is with us today.  On Valentine’s Day we have stylized images of hearts and not of brains.

Far from being simply a mass of random stars where we draw lines and images of mythic creatures, myths of stories we all know are not true, we can now look up at the stars and relate.  If the physical and spiritual are in balance (Sagittarius) we have nothing to fear from mental pain and suffering. On the other hand, if we are suffering from physical pain and suffering, have no fear; the doctor (Ophiuchus) is near.

    

In A Memorial Tribute To Gwen, Reprinting Her February Interview - Along with some comments of my own.

In light of Gwen's untimely recent passing earlier this month, I wanted to reprint the interview I did with her back in February regarding the writing of The Kabrini Message.  Gwen had a lot of insight on the book, a lot of which we had not yet even gotten into.  

There were some awesome things she relayed to me, that we did not put in this interview, that I wanted to delve into more deeply in the future, but now that will never happen.  Things about the actual inspiration and origin of the book and answers to my questions regarding why the word "Kabrini"?

I had asked Gwen to try to put together as much information as she could with regard to what she did tell me and we agreed we would explore and release that later, "when the time seemed right".  I guess that was not meant to happen.  But here, again, is what we do have - the interview from February, right after the initial January release of The Kabrini Message.  Perhaps the rest of the story was not meant to be told, at least not quite yet.  

Check out the quotes Gwen hand selected for this piece at the end of the interview, which seem even more poignant now.

Interview With Gwen Jones, Wife of Author J.R. Egles

Joe and Gwen
Taken around the time of the writing of The Kabrini Message, c.1987
Surf City, NJ
Notice the ham radio equipment on the left and the telescope on the right!

Today we have a Special Guest with us, Gwen Jones, wife of Author J.R. Egles, who has a unique point of view of The Kabrini Message as she was there during the entire time it was written.

Thank you so much for being with us today, Gwen and for sharing some of your insights with us.  Tell us a little about your involvement during the writing of The Kabrini Message and the process itself.Joe always wanted me to read what he had written each day and to hear what I had to say about it.

What are some of your fondest memories from the time of the writing of The Kabrini Message?Joe always asked my opinion about his writing and after listening intently, he would ignore all of it...LOL

Did Joe always want to write a book?

Joe was always a creative person and I think he was looking for an outlet to show his creativity.

Did he do much other writing in addition to The Kabrini Message?He wrote some short stories and music lyrics. 

How did you feel about the character of the news reporter being named after you and do you remember how that came about or have any special memories regarding the writing of that character?Actually, I asked Joe to put me in the book and he loved the idea. I think he nailed it...LOL

Who would you want to play “Gwen Jones” in the movie version?Hmmm...Kate Hudson
What character, dialogue, or parts of the book in general seem the most like Joe?I think the book as a whole is Joe.  Reading it I can hear his voice saying the words. 

Can you think of anything in particular that may have inspired all or parts of The Kabrini Message?

Joe had many different theories on many different subjects and was open minded to unlimited possibilities.  There are messages all around us; some people are just more tuned in than others.  The main character in the book, Jeffrey Driscoll, has that in common with Joe.  Jeffrey always sensed when he was looking through his telescope that someone or something was looking back, which is why the Kabrini chose him to get their message out. 

Do you know where the word “Kabrini” came from or why that particular name? 

That’s just their name.  Just like it says in the book, that’s what they call themselves.

Did Joe ever speak about perhaps writing a sequel to The Kabrini Message or what he felt happened to the characters beyond where the book ends?I think there would have been a sequel to it.  Joe had a lot more to offer.

What “message” would Joe most want us to take away from The Kabrini Message?I think Joe made his message clear in the book.  It's all in there and he said it best.

What else would you like people to know about Joe? 

There was so much more to Joe than most people ever realized, I hardly know where to start, but I'll try.

One thing that comes to mind was his ability to reinterpret something difficult to comprehend - anything from bible verses, Shakespeare, complicated scientific theories – anything at all really, and restate it a way that was easily understood and suddenly made perfect sense.  He was great at teaching.

Also, he was very interested in reverse speech and the messages within. He did a lot of research in that area with fascinating results.  That’s just another, separate example that messages are all around us and we are all capable of receiving them…ifwe listen. But to certain individuals, it just seems to come naturally.  Joe was one of those people. 

In closing, is there anything you would like to add? 

I think we lost an amazing man way to soon, as he had so much more to offer.  I miss him everyday.

And finally, here are two of my favorite quotes I'd like to share.

Joe in 2006

"In my  solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death."

                                               - Alfred Russel Wallace

"We love our dear ones deeply and miss them when they leave us.   But we know that the bond of love is greater then death."

                                               - Harold Klemp

Contributing Astronomy Editor, Dan Matlaga: OF DAYS GONE BY

Welcome back, Dan!  Today Dan will delve into the details and significance of June 21st, once considered mid-summer, now regarded as the start of summer.

Of Days Gone By...

It passed with little notice.  Another fact no longer holds for us from the varnished classroom of days gone by. 

 If you marked March 21 as the beginning of spring on your multiple choice science tests in 5th grade you were given credit for the correct answer.  Certainly the beginning of spring can, on occasion begin on March 20, but that was not available as a candidate of possible answers.  We have to keep it simple and direct.  After all, these are 5th graders.

What passed with little fanfare was March 21, 2007 Universal Time.  That was the last time for us that the beginning of spring fell on March 21.  The next time March 21 marks the beginning of spring will be in the year 2102 Universal Time.

How is this so?

The number of days in the year is 365.24218967 days.  Note the fraction.  The .24 is a quarter of a day, so to keep up the calendar in step with the seasons we have to add an extra day every four years.  The added day of the year is called a leap year.  Note however, that part of the fraction after .24 (the 218967 part of the number) also requires attention.  The rules to keep the wall calendar and seasons in agreement must change slightly.  The rule for the 218967 part of the fraction calls for a leap year whenever a whole number results by dividing the year by four (leap year) except for years which are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400.  This means the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years but the year 2000 was a leap year.

This change is minor compared to changes in "the good old days”.

What can the fifth grade student tell us about the upcoming June 21st? 

"It is the beginning of summer”, is the most common reply.

"It is the longest day of the year”, is next in line, with nothing to follow.

If you lived in the United States prior to 1900, the beginning of summer was not June 21st but May 1st.  This is why there are so many May Day celebrations to this day in Europe.  August 1st marked the end of summer, while June 21st was the middle of summer.

June 21 is the traditional longest day of the year.  What is almost never mentioned is that it is consequently the shortest night.  The magic of an entire night must be squeezed and compressed into just a few short hours.  In St. Petersburg, at latitude 60 degrees north, there are 19 hours of daylight but just a few hours of dusk.  In fact it is called the "white night" for the lack of truly dark hours.

William Shakespeare thought the magic of the June 21 night was so powerful he decided to write a play.  The play is titled: "A Midsummer Night's Dream”, which centers on the activities of several lovers caught in the forest on the night of June 21st. Surrounded by the magic of nature, away from the social graces of city life, the inner forces of their psyche takes hold. How many of us place our heads down on our pillows the night of June 21st and realize we are about to enter a midsummer night's dream?  Can you experience that level of romance for an entire night and be sane the next morning?  If your response is disbelief, you are the one who loses because you have lost the opportunity to dream.

Even Shakespeare's play is but a faint echo to the white night activities surrounding St. Petersburg.  On the night of June 21^st, from teenagers to senior citizens, it was off with all clothes and then they entered the forest for the entire night.  There was...well, you can use your own imagination.  Suffice to say nine months later around March 21st there was a considerable increase in the number of births.

With the advent of Christianity old observances were dropped.  With new ideas, dates were changed to June 24, the feast day of John the Baptist.  Gone were the old ways, in with the new.  Communism put an end to both the old and newer ways.  With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of communism, today there is noted a slight increase in births in St. Petersburg about March 21st.

Very enlightening and entertaining, as always!  Thank you very much Dan and Happy June 21st everyone!  As Dan pointed out, today is the longest day, but shortest night of the year - make the very most of it!!!