Tina Glasneck, USA Today Bestselling Author

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NASA, Space and Loki?

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How NASA inspired an 80s kid to dream big

I’m an 80s kid. We were raised with an overwhelming appreciation for NASA, Space and practically fine-tuned to the heavens’ celestial dance above.

I grew up between Star Trek and Star Wars, with Space Camp movies and the possibility of attending NASA’s space camp. Indeed, we even spent hours contemplating what we’d do if we were ever “Lost in Space” or found an alien, like “ET,” to return home.

Space was the magical equivalent of the metaphysical. While fantasy draws from the Earth, with its tales of fantastical reaches of herbs, crystals, and bohemian chic dressing (I’m looking at you  “Hocus Pocus”), the mysteries of Space were something pushed by those in charge.

I can still remember Presidential speeches about the importance of space travel.

Man has looked up to the sky for millennia in search of meaning and connection. Others have sought to tell the future and past according to the celestial dance. With Perseverance, the Mars Rover’s recent landing, we’ve entered a new era of space achievement.

NASA formed? How did we get here?

In response to Russia’s launch of Sputnik into Orbit, the United States officially formed NASA, starting the space race.

The strides we’ve taken to arrive in Space are extraordinary. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, in 1958, NASA officially launched Project Mercury. In the middle of the cold war with Russia, America searched for the best test pilots to lead the first-of-its-kind mission.

NASA’s project Mercury 7’s mission: ensure that humankind could survive in orbit.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people I’ve known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest…”

John Glenn, NASA Astronaut, Project Mercury

As one of the authors involved in the Writers on the Moon project, I am humbly aware of how this experience might be the pinnacle of my entire existence.

Space

I’ve looked to the Moon for decades. The Moon’s beauty has soothed me, worked its magic where I no longer felt lost in the Cosmos of time. Under her beauty and the shimmering glow of the shimmering stars, I take heart in knowing that a part of me will be there, in the lunar time capsule, for future generations.

The gravity of the situation also rests on my shoulders. To know what an honor this indeed is—for the history, my family,  for me. This spark of being part of the first mission is all extraordinary.

Life has changed. In what was previously a time of hopelessness, hope has returned. Shifting in a time of stillness, and magic in a time when faith was sometimes fleeting.

I am #54 on the Manifest for the Writers on the Moon payload, and the countdown is on! This week, the payload was shipped off to Astrobotics.

So, what does that mean?

As part of the Writers on the Moon project in the first commercial payload, my books will join the Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission 1 on the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, current Amazon CEO, supplies the flight’s rocket engines. With an updated, projected launch of late 2021, the payload will be delivered to Lacus Mortis, on the Moon for future anthropologists and generations.

Since I write fantasy, I am happy to take the Norse gods with me in my catalog, including the debonair Loki.

http://books2read.com/u/3GAzYQ

By all current projections for the next project on which I am working, I expect Loki to play a role in the upcoming novel, Four Times the Fight, releasing at the end of March.

Loki has a piece of my heart, and I can’t wait to share the next part of his adventure with you.

Want to know why I love Norse mythology? Check out the prior blog here.

Writers on the Moon is also onboard the Lunar Codex.

With Mars Rover Landing Comes Hope

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At the time of this email, a winter storm ravages the United States causing massive power outages and Arctic temperatures.

With the unusual weather causing heavy snow, ice storms, and a wintery mix, watching the Mars Rover landing served as a beacon of hope. It stirred something in many of us reminiscent of the NASA push of the 1980s.

Hope is essential for our survival.

As a kid of the 80s, there was so much information given to us about Space. Be it through movies, like Space Camp, to even watching the tragic Space Shuttle Challenger launch at school in 1986, to even the school trips to NASA. I would look up at the sky and always find a piece of hope.

Even later, entering high school, my eclectic sensibilities found greatness in worlds beyond our own, especially when viewing the celestial bodies. I proudly bore the nickname of Moonbeam and basked in the beauty of the Moon’s glow.

So, having an opportunity to have a piece of my soul on the Moon is confirming and life-changing. (Let’s face it, all of my books contain my sweat, blood, tears, and a part of my essence. I am so claiming a part of me is off to the Moon—LOL).

Just as the Moon shines at night, it signals hope and that light is just around the bend. We can find hope in our natural world, for sure.

Yesterday, like many of you, I watched NASA’s Mars Rover Landing and was completely stoked. The rover will drill and take samples from the planet’s soil. We have no idea what science will reveal to us about all that Mars was, but I can’t wait to learn more about what is in the great beyond.

NASA’s Artemis Program.

We have taken such great leaps in space travel and exploration, and I’m also waiting with bated breath for NASA’s Artemis Program.

According to NASA’s website, “Artemis is the first step in the next era of human exploration. Together with commercial and international partners, NASA will establish a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars.”

So, what will it mean when we colonize the Moon for future space exploration? Will we finally head toward the Pleiades star system and answer many of our most complex mysteries?

Watching the Mars landing, the compiled 4D video of Mars, as well as knowing that a helicopter is flying around Mars is just mindblowing. To think we’ve accomplished all of that in less than sixty years is impressive in itself. Who knows where and how far things will have developed by the 100 anniversary of the Moon landing?

Yesterday’s Mars landing is just the beginning of a great adventure, and I’m happy we get to see it all develop in real-time.

As we look forward to the upcoming missions, we celebrate this great feat! I’m ecstatic to be a part of the Writers on the Moon project (Even more, there’s not just one mission we’re on, but two. Writers on the Moon is also onboard the Lunar Codex.)

Tina Glasneck is a USA Today bestselling author of fantasy (Urban, PNR, mythic). She enjoys creating fantastical tales starring Norse gods, dragons, vampires, and magic. She is one of the one hundred twenty-five authors set to send their work to the Moon in a lunar time capsule in July 2021. One day she hopes to travel to Asgard and see what all the fuss is about.

 

Three Little Words: A Series filled with Mythology and Lore

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What a storm! An ice storm ripped through my area, and we were without power for a bit. But it gave me time to re-read Three Little Words.

The Order of the Dragon Series

The great thing about writing books is that I always have something to read. This weekend, I decided to dive back into my Order of the Dragon series. This fun urban fantasy series stars a novice vampire, who always seems to find herself in one pickle or another.

Each book in the series, of course, helps to take her along, and the reader discovers more about her and her new world, just as she does. As a woman in her mid to late thirties, well, she has a lot to say. Yes, the snark ensues, and her ghostly Gran and sister are their for the ride into the supernatural.

Yesterday, I decided to reread my book, Three Little Words.

Slow burn romance, Urban Fantasy action adventure, character and world growth!

Three Little Words!

OMG! Can I just say how much I loved this book (and not because I wrote it)? I totally loved how everything was tied up, but there is still so much happening in the world, and the slow burn romance between Leslie and Alistair!

I also can’t wait for the author (ahem, me), to reveal more about what is going on with Claudine!

So, I pulled out this excerpt for your reading pleasure.

Excerpt from Three Little Words

Let me set the scene. We are at Leslie’s birthday party, when sh*t is about to get real:

A deafening gust of wind whipped into the room like someone had opened a portal, genie’s bottle, heck, for all I knew it was a storm in a bottle unleashed.

       The laughter turned to screams as a piercing, maniacal cry moved into the space. “Summoned by thee, summoned three, destruction bringeth we.” Three apparitions whipped into the apartment. Their ragged black capes fluttered behind them, and with gnarled claws bearing silver blades on their fingertips, they moved outward and attacked. Some they held in a beam of light, as if sucking the life from them, while their victims remained standing, paralyzed. I watched one Rudy Rupert change—his face turned from healthy, blushing red, to white, to now gray. His cheeks slowly sank in.

       The room moved in slow motion. With all the power present, our will to survive should have sent us into overload. Instead, I turned and saw Alistair push forward ultra-slowly, knocking the old table over that took forever to crash onto the antique carpet.

       But they must have only been the appetizer to destruction. Then entered what must have been a man dressed up like a white rabbit. His costume was stained with dirt as if he’d crawled out of a grave. The stench of decomposition mixed with old blood. His neck hung at an odd angle. His abdomen exploded, and a blood-soaked goblin stepped out. The rabbit crashed to the floor, unmoving.

Covered in glopping goop, this goblin’s body was as slick as a dolphin’s. Every muscle and connecting tissue was visible, like a human body had been turned inside out. Hairless, his face was pulled tightly, his eyes wide apart, his teeth pointy and sharp. Just like the wraiths, his long fingers resembled talons with blades as nails.

       “I’ve come to grant you a new life, just as you wished,” he croaked.

       “I didn’t summon you.”

       “Are you afraid?” he reached out a talon. “I can show you the life you were always meant to have. Come join me, Leslie.”

       I willed magic to appear, a ball of something to throw to protect those I loved. I turned to see Claudine cowering in the corner, Gran slowly shifting to her pirate form, Alistair still trying to move, and Killian even in the middle of a wolf transformation.

       “Does your magic not work?” He clicked two of his fingernails together, and the blades sparked until his hand glowed orange.

       “Let me fix that!” He impaled me with his burning hand. I threw my head back, pain consuming me as though the fire peeled off one layer of skin at a time. He lifted me high, and I looked him in the unflinching eye.

       “And you are the one to save us? How, when you can’t save yourself?”

       I raised my hands, and they glowed white.

       “Yes, we shall break you, Leslie.”

       He then slammed me down.

       I opened my mouth, and a roar erupted. My body convulsed in pain. Stretching out, I wrapped my hands around his wrist and watched it burn. Absorbing the power around me, every fiber of my being lit up until all that could erupt was the pain, the hurt, and a light I couldn’t control.

       The building shook, the windows cracked.

       “Leslie,” I heard Alistair yell my name, “No.”

       But it was too late. I’d said those three little words and f*cked us all.

***

Inspiration

One reason I love this series is that it combines different mythologies (this book in the series includes a tokoloshe from Zuli/Xhosa mythology, dryads from Greek mythology, Wendigo from the First Nation Algonquin tribes), our legends (for this one it includes the famous Vlad the Impaler), and stays faithful to the idea of the supernatural world being diverse, hidden, and multifaceted.

I can let my imagination run free.

With the ice storm leaving the area, I hope this week to again be able to dive into the next book in the series, Four Times the Fight, and keep the magic coming!

Woot!

Of course, if you haven’t read Three Little Words, then grab it and discover the rest of the series thus far!

It’s Official!

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It’s official! We're off to the Moon!

I'm number 54 on the manifest and am sending my catalog of books off to the Moon. My books will join the Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission 1 as part of the Writers on the Moon project led by Dr. Susan Kaye Quinn. 

Set to launch July 2021, the payload will be delivered to Lacus Mortis, on the Moon, for future anthropologists and generations.

With more than twenty titles, my portion of the payload will include my Norse mythology-inspired fantasy novels, which I hope will serve as a beacon of hope. Think about it! Future space travelers will discover the lunar time capsule and learn about our culture and world through the items we’ve left behind just like we’ve learned about the Norse, Egyptian and Greek cultures before us.

With the rise of Norse mythology in pop culture, I also see this trip to the Moon as a step in the right direction, which I’m ecstatic to be a part of.

But Tina, you write fantasy. Why are you sending stuff to the moon?

The connection between the Moon and my work is made through Norse mythology and cosmology. In Norse mythology, the Moon is vaguely personified, with children named after the heavenly bodies of the Moon and Sun, whom two great wolves chase across the sky. But even more, with the creation of the worlds, and Norse cosmology, there is still that connection to space.

I’m even considering using this experience as a plot point in the next Leslie book, Four Times the Fight. There is something to be said about writing about your life and coming up with

Did you know that the Norse believed the Milky Way was the World Tree?

I see this as an excellent chance for those who love fantasy to again connect with the magic of old, as inspired by the majestic Moon.

In mythology and many pagan practices, the Moon is magical and a perfect inspiration for fantasy stories, like what I write, as well.

The one-hundred twenty-five participating authors are including art, music, single-titled novels, whole collections of series, and anthologies in the lunar time capsule. Some are even including reader stowaways.

This week, I will be contacting the stowaways in my payload. 

You, my readers have helped me to achieve so much. I’m happy some of you along with me with my work to the Moon. They will be listed as a part of my manifest on my website and in the uploaded files.

Why did you want to participate in the Writers on the Moon project?

To be Frank, it’s not just about me. It’s also something for my children. I want to show them that you can shoot for the Moon, and indeed land on it.

I'll be sharing about the process the more we move ahead!

New to Tina Glasneck?
Check out these slow burn Urban Fantasy Romance Books

To the Moon

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We can all use some hope, right?

I make no secret of my love for Norse mythology and the Norse gods —I’m looking at you Loki, Lady Hel, and Freyja!

A journey started…

And my journey to the gods started long ago.

I’m an 80’s kid. I grew up with an interest in the space program. It was a time when things like Space Camp, Space Balls, and all things Star Wars and Star Trek propelled people to look to the stars.

Luckily, when I was in 6th grade, my school took a field trip to Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where I got to see and learn so much.

So, this is a natural progression where my love of mythology has clear implications – straight to the moon!

Drum roll please…

I’m happy to announce that I have been accepted for the Writer on the Moon Project. Created by Dr. Susan Kaye Quinn, this project (and dare I say beacon of much-needed hope) will send a time capsule to the moon for future anthropologists and generations to come.

Cosmology and Mythology go hand and hand. Mythology helps us to understand our world, not only on this planet but the universe. For example, for Norse mythology, the Norse regarded the Milky Way as Yggdrasill, the tree to the nine worlds.

I am ecstatic to be a part of this program. It feels like I’ve been given a booster shot of hope!

You can learn more about the Writers on the Moon project here.

Writers on the Moon is also onboard the Lunar Codex.

The Peregrine launch is scheduled for Fall 2021.

Update: Space travel takes time and currently, the launch has been pushed back until 2023.