No, today is an extra special event because it’s also the day I got to attend my very first NASA Tweetup, right here at none other than NASA‘s Headquarters in Washington DC!

What’s a NASA Tweetup? The easiest way to explain it is an event NASA puts out onto Twitter, then selects a hundred or so participants from those who reply registering to attend, who then get to spend time around NASA spacey-type stuff and/or people – Previous Tweetups have included launches!

This one was not quite as pyrotechnically spectacular as a launch (it’s DC, they tend to object to such things), but rather we had the chance to meet and listen to Colonel Ron Garan (@astro_ron), a NASA Astronaut who’s been on-orbit both in a shuttle and on the International Space Station (ISS) itself.

No, it’s not quite the same as a launch, I’ll grant you, but it’s still a big deal for someone who’s been fascinated with space and space travel ever since she was a kid.

That would be someone like me, in case you didn’t follow the connection there

It was also an opportunity to meet some people I’ve only known as Twitter handles until now – Erika Vick (@egvick), a shuttle engineer at NASA who’s always been daft enough to listen to some of my hare-brained ideas about space things, and Sam (@samjeude1), who I was introduced to ages ago by the wonderful Jacqueline Lichtenberg (@jlichtenberg) (whose Sime-Gen books absolutely rock and have just been reprinted, so go buy them!).

So what happened? We all got some insights into unique aspects about manned spaceflight that rarely make it onto interviews, and almost certainly never into press releases.

Snippets such as Colonel Garan’s fellow Cosmonaut on his return from the ISS remarking, during re-entry, that swinging under the just-deployed canopies slowing the Soyuz capsule‘s descent was like being on an American theme-park ride.

Or the very interesting note the Colonel made in response to a question, that when he returned from space the first time, someone handed him a t-shirt to change into and it felt like a brick on his arm, whilst on returning from his second flight, it was as if a switch went off in his head making his transition back to earth gravity almost effortless.

These are little things that authors like myself drool to hear, giving us even more information and ideas about space travel that we can use to help us find more ways to draw readers into a story.

Not to mention the “ISS Blues” short videos the Colonel made whilst on-orbit on ISS:

(Fortunately, I don’t think @rfamovie, @elizabethkarr or @vampiremob are at any risk from the Colonel’s film making capabilities )

I guess it was expected that someone would ask the Colonel about the future of spaceflight, given NASA’s 2013 budget announcement was yesterday (also, incidentally, attended by NASA Tweetup people), but his response was pretty upbeat with regards to the idea of lunar exploration and the potential benefits it could provide.  It wasn’t surprising at all to hear the idea that it would be easier to build a manned spacecraft to go further out in-system off-earth, it’s long been a staple idea of science-fiction (and science fact) writers for years.  Now if only politicians would figure out this concept – it’s only been around for nearly a hundred years by now after all

There was the almost obligatory freeze-dried food packages on the stage, and what looked like a replica spacesuit, but all attention was on Colonel Garan, who eschewed the provided stool to pace at the front of the audience while he talked.  And boy did he talk!

The whole thing was being streamed live on NASA TV, but they had to bring that to an end at 2pm.  Stephanie @schierholz (who is one of those who tweeted as @NASA) brought the conversation to a halt and gave a glowing end-of-show speech, then paused waiting for the floor director to declare the stream was over … but the Colonel managed to interject the last word for the segment while she paused  Once the NASA TV part was done, it was back to questions for another hour, but I get the feeling the Colonel would have kept talking for as long as the hall remained open (and we would have remained listening too!) if Stephanie hadn’t brought things to a close (finally) at 3pm

Mentioning Stephanie @Schierholz, it was kind of odd in one way – this was my first ever @NASATweetup, but it turns out it was her last one, as she is moving on to a job in the private sector.  I guess her new employer has plans for her social media talents – she was sporting natty Twitter earrings and Facebook cufflinks her new employer had given her  She ended up getting a standing ovation from the crowd as she was presented a certificate of appreciation by her soon-to-be ex-boss, and in a subtle but important gesture, she was also presented with a mission patch from a previous shuttle mission that had gone into space – not a trinket to be taken lightly, and an indication of just how much she has accomplished at NASA.

At the end, it was time for the social part, and I got a chance to talk to Erika Vick and Sam – with the added bonus of being able to take Sam and her other half (whose name I’ve totally forgotten for now) over to NMAI and the Mitsitam Restaurant inside where I introduced them both to the joys that are frybread

There’s a ton of stuff I’ve not mentiuoned here, but to be honest the whole event was really cool and I lost myself in enjoying listening to Colonel Garan’s experiences and anecdotes so much I hardly tweeted (even though I brought my capacitor to make sure I had enough charge for the amrtphone) and only managed to get 3 pictures (below).

I do need to note one minor thing though: I think Colonel Garan is slightly crazy.  Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s not that whilst on ISS he was perfectly happy to take that step out of the airlock to spacewalk miles up above the planet’s surface, travelling at speeds that meant he got to see 16 sunrises per “day”.  It’s that he was a test pilot in the USAF.  Sorry, but to do that job requires a little bit of crazy

Having said that, as I noted several years ago, the guys and girls @NASA have the best job in town. Dammit

My thanks to Colonel Garan for taking time out of the complicated part of his to spend time with us.

Related articles

• NASA TweetUp with Ron Garan (planetpookie.com)
• NASA Invites Twitter Fans to 2013 Space Budget Announcement (space.com)
• Jacqueline Lichtenberg’s Unto Zeor, Forever: More Than Just Tentacle Sex (tor.com)
• Meet Stephanie Schierholz (newmediarockstars.com)
• Today Was Good, Today Was Fun; Tomorrow Is Another One (planetpookie.com)
• NASA assessing viability of deep space outpost near the moon (slashgear.com)
• ISS time-lapse makes Earth look incredible (geek.com)

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For many years, I’ve been an advocate about disabled-accessible mass-transit here in the DC area.  It reached a stage where Pat and I kicked open a website dedicated to bringing to light issues with the system, DC Paratransit Info.

During that time, I’ve learned a great many things about mass-transit, and paratransit, that most people never get involved with – it’s kind of hard to suggest ways to help reduce issues if I couldn’t speak the same language.

In the process, I’ve met a lot of people, both within the disabled community and within WMATA itself, and have seen things change, usually for the better, because many of those I’ve met, on both sides of the equation, truly care passionately about giving people with disabilities parity in public transportation options to those enjoyed by everyone else.

Case in point: This past week, WMATA’s board met to discuss the General Manager’s proposed fare increases, which will affect the disabled community as well.  Both Pat and I attended, taking the time out of the day to make sure that our voices would be heard alongside those of the others who spoke up at the meeting.

It’s easy sometimes to forget whilst advocating on these things that we’re actually pretty fortunate in the US compared to how some countries handle disability related issues, but a different piece of news this week came up that reminds me both how far we’ve come, and how far behind us others are.

RT @METROmagTweet: London paratransit users launch bus blog: http://t.co/akhSMpYl: By: thetransitfan (TheTransitFan)... http://t.co/txtWI97o

January 25, 2012 9:05 pm via dlvr.itReplyRetweetFavorite

@ParatransAllies

paratransitallies

The link in the tweet eventually leads you to a story on the Romford Recorder‘s website.  It tells of how a group of people with disabilities in a suburb of London are kicking off a blog that aims to chronicle the experiences of both themselves, and others who experience similar issues, trying to do something as simple as ride mass-transit (in this instance, using Transport for London or TfL) so close to the nation’s Capitol.

As a little bit of background: The UK passed the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995, followed by the Equality Act in 2010.  In theory, these pieces of legislation were akin to the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) act here in the US, to promote the civil rights of people with disabilities to participate on an equal footing with everyone else in day to day living.

I say in theory because of a fundamental flaw in the entire concept when it came to public transportation – the transit operators (bus, rail cabs etc) lobbied sufficiently hard enough that they were able to carve out exceptions and exemptions from actually having to comply with the laws until some time after 2015 or so.  So essentially, the law simply said “wouldn’t it be nice if …?” but never made transit authorities have to do anything until they felt they were ready.

Therein lies a problem – if the transit authorities have the ability to ignore such an important civil rights issue, there’s no encouragement for the operators of transit vehicles themselves to abide by it either.

The people in the Romford Recorder’s article have reached the stage where they think going public is needed so that the public can see exactly how pernicious the situation is – and that night be the only way they can try to effect meaningful change.  It’s unfortunate, but a fact of life, that the people in power only react when they see the number of bodies protesting saying something is wrong.  We’ve seen that on occasion here in DC too.  That means the general population in the UK has to finally stop making like ostriches and realize that they do not live in an accessible utopia, that there are still problems, problems that’re been affecting a vulnerable section of society right under their noses.

The stories on the blog, “The Bus Diaries“, should make any decent civilized human being wince and maybe weep in shame and horror and, yes, anger, at how people with disabilities are treated even today in the 21st Century.  And don’t for a minute think the stories the blog will detail are unique – I’ve been hearing similar stories for years from all parts of the UK, it’s not isolated, it’s not uncommon.

So I have an idea, dear UK based readers.  Do you remember a woman on a tram last year who was caught on cellphone camera launching into one of the most bigoted and hate-filled racist tirades you’ve seen?  If you forget it, here’s the link (warning: foul language, absolutely not safe for work or small children):

After that video went viral, the cops paid her a visit, I understand – but it shows just how powerful a tool is available out there so everyone can try to push through changes that will help people with disabilities enjoy real accessibility of mass-transit.

Video.

Hatred and prejudice are both creatures of the shadows – they thrive on anonymity, and hate the light of day.  It’s very hard to counter the underhanded and perfectly plausible excuses people offer as to why they act as they do, but as they say – a picture speaks a thousand words.

So here’s my suggestion to my UK readers. To paraphrase the Metro Transit Police: If you see something, video something.

See a driver refuse to board someone with a disability with some lame excuse about the lift/ramp not working? Video it. Post it.

See someone taking up a wheelchair space with their armored personnel pushchair they couldn’t be bothered to fold up instead leaving it cockeyed in the bus aisle complete with  squalling brat? Video it. Post it.

See someone shove in front of the queue for the bus or train bypassing the blind person, grinning cos they think that because their victim can’t see them, no-one saw them? Video it. Post it.

Hell, send the videos to me and I’ll post them for you.

Now, some of you might be asking yourselves why you should bother, after all this is just something that affects cripples, right?

Maybe it’s because disability is one of the few truly equal opportunity events in the world.  Disability doesn’t discriminate, whoever you are you too might end up disabled without any warning and be facing just the same situation in the future as the Bus Diaries detail happening now.  Maybe it’s because you’re a decent human being and you’re offended at the idea of discrimination based on disability.

The founders of The Bus Diaries have said “enough is enough”.

Now it’s time for the rest of society to say the same.

Related articles

• Disabled block central London in protest (liberalconspiracy.org)
• VIDEO: Protest over disability cuts (bbc.co.uk)
• Stop calling disabled people scroungers (thehandiestone.typepad.com)

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It’s been two weeks now since I had the Solumedrol infusion (see the “Related Posts” at the bottom for links to previous posts about it), so I figure I’ve pretty much experienced all of the effects, intended and side, of the process and and should finish writing about the whole thing.

One of the important things to keep in mind about all of this is dosages, though.

Looking around the Interwebs before we started all of this, there are a lot of posts about people’s experiences with Solumedrol.  But looking back on it all, I think the majority of those are talking about longer term treatment, and/or a much higher dosage regime.

My dosage was 1 gram of Solumedrol in 100ml of fluid, given over one hour, once a day for three days.  My Neurologist called it “Housekeeping”, to try and reboot my immune system and flush my body of the older materials that might be hanging around from previous attacks.  This seems to be a much less drastic an approach than other people experience, so I’ve got the feeling they’re writing about situations where the corticosteroid is being used to hammer the immune system during a major attack.

If that’s the case, they’re on much stronger dosages of Solumedrol for longer because it’s being used to actively try to shut the immune system down and ameliorate an exacerbation.

This would go a long way to explain why the, being honest, downright scary experiences of others written about online never really reared their heads during my treatment, too.

Which isn’t to say it all went great, though.

During the days after the infusion from the “alien eggs”, there was an absolutely noticeable change in how much energy I had.  I woke up easier and more alert right from the start (mentally at least, my body wasn’t exactly in line with the program on that score and still demanded coffee, and plenty of it!).

Strangely, although this effect seemed to lessen over the two weeks since the infusion, it’s still there but only noticeable after breakfast.  I’m not sure how long this effect will continue, but it’s nice.

It certainly did seem to affect the “speed” of thinking.  My long-suffering hubby had to listen to rapid-fire conversations on pretty much every sort of topic under the sun for the first week (as did people in #scifichat and #steampunkchat on Twitter *grin*), but that calmed down after the first week.

There were aches and pains, for a week or so, but it’s hard to tell if those were from the Solumedrol or were normal run-of-the-mill symptoms everyone gets.

At the two week mark, the knocking out of the immune system is noticeable in one respect: infections that had been dealt with recently have returned, although not nearly as severe as they were the last time.  I’m going to have to monitor those until the next time I can see my doctor.  This was a risk, but we knew it was a possibility and decided that the potential benefits of the Solumedrol outweighed the risk on this one.

The blood sugar issue definitely came to the forefront – the spikes in numbers were positively scary at one point, but after some tweaks by our family doctor and the addition of Lantus to the Novolog he’d already prescribed to head off this side effect, they started stabilizing pretty fast.

At this stage the numbers are pretty much normalizing, and I’ve been able to stop using the Novolog and dial the Lantus dosage way down.  The way things are going, I should be able to discontinue the Lantus as well in another two weeks after our family doctor checks my log book and gives me the OK.

The blood sugar issue is one I think is important for people going to have this treatment to bear in mind, and to work with their doctor to head off at the pass before it becomes an issue during treatment.  Even with basic preparation, it still became a potential problem and needed to be tweaked to keep it in check, something my Neurologist hadn’t told me of, or done any preparation for.

I strongly suggest people talk to their family doctor and be prepared for this side-effect, even if they aren’t diabetics.  This is one of the few things, I think, that can be actively controlled and prevented from getting out of hand with a little application of 8 P’s¹.

There’s no way for me to tell if the treatment was an actual success.  This wasn’t intended to be a “cure” or expected to restore any of the lost functionality previous MS attacks have damaged, such as walking or memory loss, so nothing much has changed on that level.  I guess my Neurologist can figure something out at some point.

Other than the above issues, everything really seems to have gone smoothly as far as side-effects are concerned.  The effects are, to be honest, disappointing on some levels, because they seem to have been short lived, but as I mentioned there’s no way of telling what effects the evolution has had on the internals of my body, or how it will affect my MS in the near future, so it’d be wrong for me to write the whole thing off as a waste of time yet.

I do know I’ll be happy to be back on my Avonex injections once the Neurologist says I can resume them.

I can’t say that my experience, as mild as it might seem to you reading it, is typical or not.  Other accounts of experiences with Solumedrol seem to all relate to 1000ml infusions, for longer periods, so there’s no way of directly correlating what I experienced with what others have experienced, or what you might be facing in the future.

But for now, the idea of Solumedrol as a “Housecleaning” process seems to not be as dire an experience as I feared.  Hopefully it’ll have done some good, and hopefully my writing about it will give others more knowledge so they can make informed decisions if they face the same situation.

Related articles

• If I Don’t Treat MS Relapse (everydayhealth.com)
• Does MS Drug Leave Me Prey to Germs? (everydayhealth.com)
• How Is Multiple Sclerosis Treated? (everydayhealth.com)
• Glossary for Multiple Sclerosis (everydayhealth.com)
• Treating MS With Low-Dose Naltrexone (everydayhealth.com)
• Letter Re: Diabetic Preparedness – Storing Insulin in a Grid Down World (survivalblog.com)
• Never, ever, ever,ever, ever, do this in a birthing room. Just trust me. (scottrimer.wordpress.com)

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1. Proper Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

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The news for the past few days has been full of articles, and a myriad of comments, regarding Sarah Palin attending Rolling Thunder and the start of her east-coast bus tour.

This has gotten beyond a feeding frenzy.  That conspiracy theories would raise their heads wasn’t exactly unexpected, given Palin’s involvement, but it’s beyond ridiculous now.

So here’s the take of one Veteran and regular participant at Rolling Thunder since 2003.

So What?

Let’s look at this rationally (if the people who are likely to read this from either side can ever be considered “rational” on such topics).

A disclaimer before I start however: Anything here is my own personal viewpoint, and does not reflect the opinions, policies, viewpoints, or anything else of Rolling Thunder, National or Chapters, or any of the participants of Rolling Thunder, or Veterans, or … well, anyone really.  These are solely my thoughts, and any errors or omissions are mine.

Rolling Thunder describes two distinct things.

• There is Rolling Thunder, the non-profit 501(c) corporation organized along the lines of a National Executive and local chapters by states and regions
• There is the Rolling Thunder annual rally in DC

This latter is an event, which even though its history ties it to Rolling Thunder the organization is not exclusive to members of the Rolling Thunder organization (or even to Veterans for that matter) to participate in.

Sarah Palin was invited to participate in Rolling Thunder by an old member of the National Executive Board.  She wasn’t invited to speak, she wasn’t being endorsed by the organization, she was simply invited to participate.

This doesn’t mean anything because everyone who cares about the issues surrounding Veteran’s affairs, and Missing In Action/Prisoner of War (MIA/POW) issues is also invited to participate, in order to help highlight those things right in the heart of our Nation’s Capitol.

Now I’ll agree that the conjunction of her participation in the Run and her kicking off her east-coast bus tour isn’t exactly what you’d call subtle timing.  But the insinuation of being somehow “endorsed” by Rolling Thunder is just that – an insinuation.

What do you expect, she’s a politician, she sees everything in the grey world of that professional parasite elite class.  She took advantage of timing to give one impression, but that’s what politicians do, they can’t help themselves.  The story of the scorpion and the frog springs to mind

That however is her problem, not Rolling Thunder’s.

Sarah Palin is as welcome as anyone else who cares about the issues the Run highlights to participate, and she essentially accepted that open invitation as well as the specific one made by an ex-Board member.

She’s also the mother of a serving soldier, which gives her an added reason to participate.  You might not like her, you might not like her politics, but she deserves as that if nothing else¹ (at least for this reason, it doesn’t mean you have to respect her in anything else).

The point is this: She’s not an official event.  She’s not scheduled to give any speeches, it’s not an “appearance”, and Rolling Thunder doesn’t “endorse” her any more than they endorse me – or you.

So what’s the big deal?  Yes, she’ll make it a political event on her sidelines, and she’ll likely spin it to say all sorts of things that it doesn’t actually say or mean in the future, but really – that’s her problem, not ours.  At the end of the day she’s there as a private citizen, and the mother of a serving soldier.

I’ll be honest here, what pisses me off about all of this is the report she showed up at 11:30, 30 minutes before the roll out, and went to the front of the line like it was somehow her due – to me that’s totally thumbing her nose in a display of arrogant entitlement at those who had patiently waited there since 7am (and longer) and would wait until 3, 4 pm before they would be in motion.

If she’s riding like everyone else, then she can behave like everyone else.  She needed to make her mind up just what she was riding as.

Rolling Thunder is about one thing, and it’s not Sarah Palin.  It’s about people like SGT Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, PFC Bowe R. Bergdahl, and the host of names still yet to come home from previous conflicts, Vietnam being the one most people think of; about ensuring no-one is left behind or forgotten in the future.

That’s the mission.  If someone wants to add their voice to the hundreds of thousands of others raised while the rest of you are off enjoying your Memorial Day BBQ, then I don’t care who they are.  I very much doubt anyone else who’s in attendance will care that much either if it’s for a shared cause.

Neither should you.  You should instead care about why those voices have to be raised to begin with.

The real question is: Why aren’t you here?  Why does it take another Sarah Palin news article before you even pay attention to the existence of Rolling Thunder, the Run for The Wall, the reasons behind them?

I mean, really – even Sarah Palin managed to make it one year …

Think it over while you enjoy your holiday weekend.

Related articles

• Sarah Palin rolls into the spotlight (thehill.com)
• Veterans’ Group Spokesperson: We Did Invite Sarah Palin To Rolling Thunder Event (mediaite.com)
• Rolling Thunder Riders Praise Sarah Palin’s Participation in Rally (sarahpalinblog.typepad.com)
• Pro-Veteran Spokesman Is Unhappy Sarah Palin Is Stealing His (Rolling) Thunder (mediaite.com)
• Rolling Thunder to Keep Focus on Troops Despite Palin’s Appearance (foxnews.com)
• Yes, Palin was invited to Rolling Thunder (hotair.com)
• Rolling Thunder spokesman slams Palin bus tour as a ‘big distraction’ (crooksandliars.com)
• Palin Announces Attendance At Rolling Thunder Event; Group Says She Wasn’t Invited, “A Distraction” (alan.com)
• “Sarah Palin – Venom, Paranoia and Opportunism” and related posts (palingates.blogspot.com)

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1. I don’t know if Sarah Palin is actually a member of Blue Star Mothers of America

This is the usual view of the aisles at our local CVS pharmacy.

If asked, the store will always try to explain it away as a temporary situation because of deliveries. Their definition of temporary seems to extend to several days – you know, up to the *next* delivery?

Some of the aisles in this clip are blocked by static end-cap displays that were placed half-way across also.

It makes the only practical wheelchair accessibility to their store, including at times reaching their pharmacy section, be via the good old fashioned bulldozer method – if you’re going to leave your crap blocking my passage, I’m gonna move it for you.

Harsh?  Not really.  Why should I have to go bother a staff member and essentially beg for their “help” when it’s something I could do myself if they’d quit trying to rebuild an assault course in their store?

The real irony is that CVS/Pharmacy is supposed to be working on their accessibility problems, as announced in press releases from CVS and the Equal Rights Center at the end of 2010.  If CVS/Pharmacy can’t even find a way to fix all the crud blocking their aisles in 6 months at this one store, then the problems with accessibility aren’t likely to get fixed after 18 months no matter what they agree to.

I mean, come on – what does it take to have someone pick up crates and put them in a back store-room once they’re done with them??

Disclosure: I’ve worked as a web consultant to, and have hosted the Washington Lawyer’s Committee website for several years in the past.

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• Look! It's Gini Koch's Webpage
  Gini Koch's novels, "Alien in the family" et al, are funny and worth the read
  (tags: Authors)
• Semper Fi Fund » Home
  The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit set up to provide immediate financial support for injured and critically ill members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. We direct urgently needed resources to post 9-11 Marines and Sailors, as well as members of the Army, Air Force or Coast Guard who serve in support of Marine forces.
  (tags: Veterans USMC SemperFi)

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The first thing that came to mind when I looked at the IV packs for my recent medical treatment was “Alien eggs!”, and it became a running joke for a while, how each of them was “impregnating” me.

Oh come on now, if you’ve seen my art you already know some of my visions

As I wrote when I live-blogged the whole medication experience, I noted that the medication was spiking my blood sugar. It occurred to me, keeping with the alien egg and impregnation concept, that this would be considered a form of gestational diabetes.

Which leads on to the rest of this topic. If you’re going to write about such interspecies encounters, what other effects might be a factor?

Even if you never write about the effects of such things in specific in your story, those factors may still be an influence on the behaviors of your characters, and lead the story down paths that are logical and flesh out the entire story without you even realizing it.

Bear in mind that these ideas are all based around the idea of a human female and an alien … well, maybe not male, since there’s no guarantee the alien involved is male as we understand it, but for arguments’ sakes, let’s assume the alien has the male role in this little tryst.

We’re also going to assume that such an impregnation itself is possible to begin with, either through some quirk of fate, or technology, or just because it sounds workable

I’ve already got one effect, gestational diabetes.  In any interspecies mating, given the differences between them there’s almost certainly going to be health issues – after all, even human mating isn’t always a perfect scenario.  There’s going to be biochemical, hormonal, and other physical effects like gestational diabetes in all probability.  A human embryo is, in effect, a parasitic organism, an alien embryo is quite likely to be the same (the aliens of Alien fame being the ultimate example of parasitic alien babies).

Other health issues might arise.  Is there room in a human to carry an alien embryo?  How is the offspring going to be delivered?  There’s always an alien version of a C-Section, but there’s also the Alien chestburster.  How will the characters discuss and face these sorts of physical challenges as they progress towards that fateful day?  If the birth of the alien is really going to place the life of the host mother in jeopardy, that’s a drama point right there and a way to explore the depths of the relationship between alien and human.

Then you have the behavior – Do aliens have cravings when they’re pregnant?  Will the human mommy?  Maybe she’ll want the alien equivalent of pistaccio ice cream on peanut butter crackers – which might also be toxic to her!

Again, the technical details of these changes in the mother might never be explained in detail in the writing, but they’re still going to affect how she acts and thinks.

Mentally there’s other factors that might crop up – does the alien embryo get the ability to communicate with the mother, one way or two ways, empathically or telepathically.  Will the mother start to develop traits more akin to the species she’s carrying, or vice versa?

There’s more to an alien romance than just the kissing and cuddling (assuming they actually do that and not something like tear each others livers out as part of foreplay – anything’s possible with aliens).  If there’s any chance of offspring in there, there’s going to be effects on the participants during the whole period, and those things can tweak the story in all sorts of ways, both practical as I’ve thought of with the gestational diabetes, but also emotional with things like cravings.

For the writer, it’s a great way to inject drama or levity into a situation, and have fun at the same time by giving the reader a chance for analogues they can relate to from a human perspective to bring them closer to (or further from) the characters concerned.

I wonder what other travails or triumphs of impregnation all the way up to birth, physical or mental, practical or impractical, could apply to your next interspecies bedroom romp?

If you’re interested in more thoughts on the idea of alien entanglements, I strongly recommend also going and digesting the writings on Alien Romances too.  There’s some really neat thought provoking stuff there (that probably makes more sense than what I wrote above – but in my own defense, I plead suffering from alien gestational diabetes right now )

Related articles

• More Alien Prequels / Sequels on the Way? (dreadcentral.com)
• Alien (simontrail.wordpress.com)

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• ButYouDontLookSick.com: A community for support, education, and inspiration.
  DIsability, illness, humor to cope with it, and some damned fine ways of addressing the awkward questions surrounding ailments. Home of the famous "Spoon Theory"
  (tags: Disability Illness Support Community)
• Mindspeak
  Creator of Crooked Fang Carrie Clevenger's (@texistential on Twitter) blog
  (tags: Authors Horror)
• Alien Romances
  A by-invitation group blog for busy authors of SFR, Ffuturistic, or paranormal romances in which at least one protagonist is an alien, or of alien ancestry.

  Contributors include Susan Kearney, Cindy Holby, Kimber An, Margaret Carter, RowenaBCherry, Linnea Sinclair, Susan Sizemore, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Susan Kearney, Susan Grant, Rowena Cherry, and jean

  (tags: Authors Writing Aliens)

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