Robert A. Black, Mathematical Storyteller

You may recall my entry from a couple of months ago, about the Japanese anime series Twin Spica . In case you don't recall, it was about a group of kids in the near future, who have been chosen for the first class in an official Japanese astronaut academy. Well, now the NHK network has announced that it's making a live-action version of the story, which will premiere June 11. 16-year-old newcomer Nanami Sakuraba will play the lead role of Asumi Kamogawa. I don't know about her acting, but visually she's a good match: The Japanese space agency JAXA is acting as an advisor for the production. They did the same thing on the anime series Rocket Girls , and did a great job of it. Meanwhile, a bit closer to home, the History Channel is working on Moonshot , a new movie about the Apollo 11 mission. It will premiere July 20, which is the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The only cast member I know of so far is James Marsters, best known as Spike on Buffy the Vampir

Happy 2009! Okay, I know I'm late with that, but better late than never, right? The new year brings a big change for my publisher. Windstorm Creative has reorganized and is now Orchard House Press . I even get my own author page at the new website - you can find that here . Meanwhile, I'm working on getting a new manuscript started, and that means I'm moving on to new research topics. I'm leaning toward a World War II story that's been going through my head, so today I'll offer you a link related to that. Words at War was a radio program that ran from 1943 to 1945. It was a series of half-hour book dramatizations, each related to some aspect of the war effort. The Internet Archive has all 87 episodes available for download - you can find them here . They're an interesting window into that era - and at half an hour, they're the perfect length for playing on my mp3 player during my lunchtime walk!