Event: Book Signing Saturday October 1st

 I'm excited to announce my first book signing for my book Space Oddities. If you are in the area, I hope you will join me. See you there!

The Grand Finale

 

We’ve finally reached the end, the last episode of the Space Oddities Podcast series. It's titled Odds 'n Ends. 

On this episode, we’ll take a look at a few more space related marketing ideas, a couple that you may remember from when you were a kid. I’ll also tell you my favorite out-of-this-world space marketing story culled from the pages of my new book, Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind’s Exploration of Space.  

By the way, the book is now available at your favorite online and your favorite hometown bookstore. The audio book read by Tim Dixon is available online on Google Play and Audible. 

Space Oddities Podcast Episode 9 Has Dropped!

 

We all know that the first American woman in space was Sally Ride who flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983, but in the hearts and imaginations of millions of young girls around the world in 1965, the title belonged to another woman, well, she was only a doll, but Astronaut Barbie made girls believe that one day, they could actually fly into space themselves. 

That same year, the Hasbro toy company introduced their own astronaut – Astronaut GI Joe. 

This episode will discuss the history of both Barbie and GI Joe in space and how Barbie is now a model for inspiring girls to literally reach to the stars through STEM programs which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

It will also discuss how Astronaut GI Joe helped convince Werhner von Braun and NASA to develop the lunar rover that would be used on the Apollo moon missions.

You can download the episode from Buzzsprout, Sticher, Audible, and wherever you download your favorite podcasts.

A Request

 

I'm moving ahead with my second non-fiction historical book on the space program and I'm looking to personalize some of the stories contained within. If you or someone you know have a compelling life story or memory of July 1969, or maybe you know someone who worked with NASA during the flight of Apollo 11 (crawler driver, engineer working the launch tower or Vertical Assembly Building, making spacesuits, etc.), I'd love to hear from you. Please drop me a note through Messenger or via my website's contact page. 

Thanks!!!

A Little Conspiracy

 

We are up to Episode 8 of 10 in the Space Oddities Podcast series. Today's episode is titled, "History is More the Product of Chaos Than Conspiracy" and begins with a story culled from my new book, “Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories Of Mankind’s Exploration Of Space”. It’s a story about how the Soviet Union actually thought that if they were the first to land humans on the moon, the world wouldn’t be able to see it and the announcement may be deemed a hoax.

Sound familiar, right? Their answer was to nuke the moon. We also shed light on the United State's plan to also nuke the moon.

You can download the episode from Buzzsprout at the link below or from many of your favorite podcast sites: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Audible, Pandora, TuneIn+Alexa, Podcast Addict, you get the idea.

https://spaceoddities.buzzsprout.com/1966798/11053575

Space Oddities Podcast Episode 7 Posts

 

In episode three of our Space Oddities Podcast series, we learned that the dream of sending civilians into space was nothing new. In the early 1960s, just a few years before we had actually landed men on the moon, the U.S. based Pan American Airlines began “taking names” and was compiling a list of passengers to be among the first civilians to go to the moon. It was called the First Moon Flight Club. Of course, it was an advertising gimmick but it worked and over 90,000 people signed up.

Before the Pan Am First Flight Club took off, and a few years before that first lunar landing, another business mogul, Baron Hilton, was taking that same concept and expanding on it, but unlike Pan Am, he was serious. The Hilton Hotel chain wanted to build a hotel on the moon.

Listen to "Episode 7: Stay Hilton, Go Everywhere...Literally" here or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. And be sure to take a look at the fascinating show notes included with the episode including clips from the TV series "Mad Men" about the Lunar Hilton.

The Space Oddities Countdown Begins

I would say that I am super excited about the upcoming release of my new book, Space Oddities:Forgotten Stories of Mankind’s Exploration of Space, but you all probably know that already since that’s all I’ve been talking about for weeks. 

The pre-release reviews have been great. It’s good to read that I hit the mark with my vision for the book. Some people did say that they already knew a few of the stories retold within the pages, that they weren’t “obscure” and “unknown”. 

I’ve mentioned this before but with only 40 days left until it hits bookstores, I felt it needed repeating. This book isn’t for diehard space geeks. It is for general readers who love a good tale and for those who love history and want to know the story behind the story. 

You will not find any technical discussions within its pages. It is simply a collection of fascinating stories from the early days of the space race that have either been long forgotten and pushed to the dustbin of history, have never been told before, or if they have been told, have a slightly different take on it. 

I was surprised to read but not really surprised since I get this ALL the time with all of my books, both the outdoor recreation and non-fiction history books, is: “why didn’t you include blah blah or blah blah? Shouldn’t that have been included?” 

Friends, there is only so much you can cover in a publisher limited word count. Trust me, there are many chapters sitting in a special folder on my laptop that needed to be told but didn’t make the cut, that’s why there is a companion podcast cleverly titled, “Space Oddities”, to bring those stories to life.

Even with the podcast, there are even more tales to tell, but I’ll leave those for another book.

But what I wanted to say is thank you to all who have pre-read the book. I take your reviews to heart and I am humbled by the glowing comments. It is so gratifying to read that my vision for Space Oddities has hit its mark. Thank you! 

The book is scheduled for release on August 15^th and will be available at your favorite local or online bookstore.