"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 NASAs own, author Charles Boyle, a veteran of 32 years with the space agency.

The mutual timing is uncanny,” said Boyle, given that Ive 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 couldnt ‘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,” Boyles 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 Moscows 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 Adams 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 childrens book, in which a whale, born different,” faces intolerance. His 1970s book, Space Among Us, described many of the emerging effects of space research on society. Boyles 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 Boyles 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)
tripub@comcast.net

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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