The spate of good news seems unending. I’ve been keeping part of this under my hat because I was afraid of jinxing it, but just got word that it’s official.
Many of you are familiar with Launch Pad, the workshop funded by NASA to introduce writers to the wonders of actual astronomy. While reading about Launch Pad, I wandered over to NASA and discovered their art program. Considering that the artist-in-residence program includes such luminaries as Laurie Anderson, I figured my chances were slim, but what the heck. It was just paperwork.
Remember back in July when I mentioned good news that I couldn’t talk about? That was when I got word that I had moved to the finalist round.
Now I can let you know, officially, NASA has selected me! It seems that my combination careers of puppetry and writing tipped the balance in my favor. When you combine that with my college days on the sky-diving team, I guess I came up with the right set of skills to be the next artist-in-residence on the International Space Station!
I’ll be heading to Florida this summer to begin training. It will mean a three month separation from Rob, but good heavens — literally, heavens — I’ll be in SPACE! With astronauts! I can hardly believe it. The details are all here, if you are interested in the training regime.
Edited to add: Since it is no longer April Fool’s Day, it only seems fair to tell you that this was a prank.
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Wow — that’s amazing! We’ll hold down the planet for you while you’re away
Congratulations!
Did you check out the training regime?
I wonder how puppets will work … in SPACE. Will they throw up? Will YOU?
Well, the Pigs in Space never had any visible nausea problems so maybe it’ll all work out.
I actually like the idea of a puppeteer-in-residence on the International Space Station.
I imagine zero-g would offer some interesting puppeteering challenges, actually… hmm, there must be story ideas lurking in that…
Anyway, congrats on livening up what had been a comparatively dull AFD so far.
Thank you! Zero-g puppetry is intriguing, since we rely so much on gravity to help control the puppet. On the other hand, it wouldn’t require anything to hold it up.
yay! Will you have one of those cool webcam hookups so we can see you do puppetry in space? That would be AWESOME!
I’m sure!
Damn you, Kowal. I forgot what day it was.
Mwah. How far did you get before you figured it out?
All the way to the end. I was incredulous through the whole thing, and thinking, “this can’t be true, can it? holy crap, Mary’s going to space!”
Ya got me good.
Is it bad that this pleases me? I think of you as being a fairly hard person to fool.
Congratulations! I look forward to visiting.
Oh wow. That is very, very cool. Congratulations.
Ack…yeah…forgot it was April 1. Good one.
HA!
But that would have been so cool!
Awwww, too bad! We could have done lunch at some point if this were real. Hehehe. Woulda been way cool, though!
For a moment I thought you meant on the Space Station and then realized you meant Florida.
I am actually posting this from orbit, Mary, I thought you knew that!
Gosh! I miss everything. Wave when you pass overhead, okay?
Hehehehehehehe… People of Earth, we have a winner! Happy April!
And a Happy April to you, too!
We’re so proud of you! The first representative of the SF world in space! Just remember that if prolonged exposure to zero g causes salmonella to turn into super bugs, there’s no telling what prolonged exposure would do to puppets. I’m thinking you might have a problem if they decided to take over the space station….
Well, you’ve seen Pigs in Space, so you know how well that would go over.
Now I have stuck in my head….
PIGS…..IN…..SPAAAAACE….
It’s all your fault!
Why is that a bad thing?
::headdesk::
There, there…
Nicely done Mary. I caught it as soon as you mentioned the skydiving team, though, I admit, I’m not absolutely positive there’s no truth to that. It was totally clinched when you mentioned heading to Florida for 3 months.
Thank you! There is absolutely no truth to the sky-diving team. In fact, I have a thing about heights and can only work marionette bridges by serious application of forebrain over lizardbrain. The lizardbrain is absolutely convinced that I’m going to fall and die at any second.
congrats, Mary. Wow, at this pace you’ll be setting new records on NYT Bestseller list – for a book yet to roll of the printing press.
*dies laughing*
You win first prize with this one.
Thanks!
or, you’ll break Cats record on Broadway for the most critically acclaimed puppetshow of all time. remember us wee folk, yeah?
I’ll always remember the wee folks.
and they certainly will be wee from space. Happy April.
Wee, wee, wee all the way home. Happy April to you, too.
Wee, wee, wee all the way home
I’ve had too much coffee to handle that remark..
I hope you appreciate my restraint.
THAT”S AWESOME!!!
BRIGHT WITH JOY!!!
GREEN WITH ENVY!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
You have to check out the training regime.
I hate you.
Yes! My work here is done.
Thank heaven for the comments section! If I had been here first, I would have posted something about how I couldn’t imagine what would have topped making a Coraline doll for Gaiman and being nominated for the Campbell. Good job!
I’ve been surprised by how many people bit.
I wish I saw this before my first comment. This was a good one indeed.
Thank you. It’s been fun.
You’re wicked, Mary Robinette Kowal! Despite my policy of not believing any announcements on April 1st, this was the one I almost fell for (the “remember the good news I couldn’t talk about?” was an excellent hook). I’ve never pursued a career that might allow going into space, but it’s been a wistful daydream for much of my life. Even knowing today’s date, reading this made my brain short-circuit a bit.
Well done!
Thank you! Almost fooling you is a high compliment.
Well played, Ms. Mary. You’ve got quite the touch there and I hope I don’t ever come up against you in a serious Flay-style joke throw down.
In a similar and related vein and for anyone nerd-inclined, Wired Magazine has some classic pranks for geekdom here: http://www.freakingnews.com/April-Fools-WIRED-Magazine-Pictures-46749.asp. I will confess to performing two of the ones in their list: removing the mouse ball, and swapping the mouse buttons. Both earned me some serious retaliation in return.
Thanks, Todd. The rest of the year I’m generally trustworthy.
And thanks for the link to Wired. I’ll take notes for future reference.
This is excellent! I agree that the “remember earlier” remark was a very professional hook.
I was partially inoculated by the fact I spent the first 20 seconds looking for some sort of Gully Foyle reference or tie-in. By the time I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I was at the sky-diving comment.
Later,
Rick
Rick! Good to see you here.
Yeah, the sky-diving reference was a dead give-away to anyone who knew me in high school and college.
My emotions ranged from the purest green jealousy that I could muster to wistful congratulations until I clicked the link.
I echo Chang’s sentiments whole heartedly and good naturedly.
You totally got me.
Heh heh heh… However, I will go put a disclaimer at the top for people who stumble upon it after April Fool’s Day. Sorry about that.