Jennifer Willis

my new favorite place

Jennifer Willis — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:52:30 +0000

For a looong time, I’ve been looking for the perfect “office away from home.” Every so often, I think I’ve found it even though I’ll have to compromise on one factor or another. I’ll find a place that’s nice and quiet, but it’s not within walking distance. Or there will be that coffee shop I can walk to, but it’s a generic chain or doesn’t have power outlets immediately available. Sometimes it’s the WiFi that’s unreliable, or the tea and/or food isn’t the greatest. Other times, the place simply goes out of business in this tough economy. But now, I think I [...]

starry second acts

Jennifer Willis — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:21:52 +0000

This past weekend, three women of a certain age converged on a local workshop. Not just any hands-on studio group—we were there for telescope building. One of my biggest regrets in life is having allowed myself to be drummed out of math and science in college. The story is complicated, but in the last year or so I’ve become painfully aware of how very much I’ve missed the subjects—specifically physics, astronomy and higher mathematics—that I left behind more than 20 years ago. As a writer, I’ve begun to use my profession to dip [...]

the challenge of older tales

Jennifer Willis — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:11:56 +0000

One of the reasons I love writing is that I’m never finished learning my craft. There is always room for improvement. This should be somewhat reassuring to many writers of all stripes—at least, that was my reaction upon reading Dean Wesley Smith’s excellent blog post on the subject not too long ago—but it can also be a frustrating reality when I’m trying to slog my way through my own slush pile of first drafts. Right now, I am still in rewrites on Iduna’s Apples, the sequel to last year’s Valhalla. Yes, I wrote the [...]

adventures with an iPad: navigating the cloud

Jennifer Willis — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:10:26 +0000

A few days after my iPad arrived, I took a free iCloud class at the Apple Store. I wasn’t all that surprised that at 42, I was the youngest person in attendance. And, unfortunately, although our teacher had announced at the beginning of the demonstration that he wouldn’t use class time to troubleshoot specific questions and problems (but that people with those concerns could meet with him afterwards or head over to the Genius Bar), he spent the majority of his time doing exactly that: helping people get their iPads and iPhones set up properly for shared calendars, hunting for [...]

haiku: 13 May 2012

Jennifer Willis — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:53:29 +0000

Why does the cat want to cuddle in my lap when it’s freakishly hot?

haiku: 12 May 2012

Jennifer Willis — Sat, 12 May 2012 21:52:32 +0000

Telescopes are not very difficult to build— if you ask for help. Creative Commons photo by Ryan Wick

astronomy round-up: 11 May 2012

Jennifer Willis — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:25:41 +0000

Here are some of the astronomy stories I’ve been following—and one I wrote—this week: 1. Notre Dame Law Student Finds Rare Wolf-Rayet Star ABCNews “Colin Littlefield says he has never taken a college physics course. He likes astronomy but plans to make a career as a civil rights lawyer. “So he may be the only law student in America to publish a research paper in The Astronomical Journal. He’s discovered a rare star, a Wolf-Rayet, a hot, giant luminous body that is blasting such large quantities of gas into space that it probably doesn’t have long [...]