Finding Pictures for Writing Inspiration

Guest Post by Patty Hammond

Black Holes Have Simple Feeding Habits from NASA's Image gallery

Many authors depend on pictures to help inspire their writing. In this modern age of search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo, authors can find pictures on a wide variety of topics using various keywords.  However, many of these same authors have a hard time finding pictures using these standard search engines because the keywords they are using in the search engines are not always associated correctly. Therefore, authors will need to find other ways to help find pictures to inspire their writing.  This blog article is going to explore a few of the resources that may help authors.

Libraries 

One of the best resources that authors can still use to find pictures for writing inspiration are within a library collection. Many local and national libraries have converted print photographs and drawings into massive digital collections that can be accessed via their websites.  These digital collections are organized, usually by topic, and can include pictures on a variety of subjects.  However, many of the pictures within these digital collections cannot be found using standard search engines.  Therefore, half the battle, is for authors to know where to find these digital collections.  Below are a few examples of libraries that offer digital picture collections on their websites:

Library of Congress

One the most extensive digital collection of pictures in the United States can be found on The Library of Congress website.  Below are two examples of the different types of digital collections that can be found on the Library of Congress website:

Master Drawings Collection

"The Master Drawings Collection (about 5,000 original drawings) offers works by artists of various nationalities. Although most of the images date from between 1830 and 1930, the oldest drawings were created before 1600 and the most recent in the 1950s. The collection represents diverse styles and media and includes finished artworks as well as sketches, preparatory drawings, and designs related to fine prints, paintings, and sculpture."

Lamb Studios Archive

"The online presentation of the Lamb Studios Archive offers images of nearly 2,500 design sketches for stained glass windows, murals, mosaics, furnishings, metalwork, and interior architecture. The drawings feature striking watercolors created from the 1860s to the 1990s, primarily for churches, synagogues, and other sacred spaces. The J. & R. Lamb Studios was founded in 1857 and is the oldest decorative arts firm in continuous operation in the United States. The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division acquired the drawings from Donald and Donna Samick, the current Lamb Studios president, in 2003. The firm’s historic business records and photographs were donated by Barea Lamb Seeley and Charles Anthony Lamb in 2004."

For authors who do not live in the United States there are several libraries that also have picture collections that can help inspire writing including:

• The British Library Illuminated Manuscripts
• The University of Sydney Library Digital Collection 
• The International University of Japan Journal Collection

Along with libraries, there are other sources of digital picture collections that authors can use to inspire their writing including: 

National Geographic 

The National Geographic contains many articles and pictures The National Geographic Photography website, for instance, contains two sections that have interesting photographs that can be used to inspire science-fiction romance authors. The first is the StarStruck Blog, which invites readers to "...discover the cosmos and go behind the scenes of space exploration."  The other is the Space Suit X-Ray collection, which includes, just what you think, x-rays of all kinds of Space Suits! 

NASA and Other Government Resources

It is fairly obvious that the NASA website contains pictures, which authors, writing any type of science-fiction story, can use for inspiration. However, authors may not know about the other government resources available.  For example, many of the NASA images are housed on the Defense Video and Image Distribution System (DVIDS), which is "...a state-of-the-art, 24/7 operation that provides a timely, accurate and reliable connection between the media around the world and the military serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain." 

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I appreciate being a guest of the SFRBrigade Blog and if you want to know more about me, then visit my blog at http://everydayfangirl.wordpress.com.

Curiosity is on its way to Mars

Let's not forget we are still reaching toward Mars. Curiosity, NASA's scientifically equipped rover lifted off on November 26 on its way to the Red Planet. I still hold my breath in awe each time a launch is underway. We'll have to wait until August to see how it goes when Curiosity lands at its destination.

This particular rover is a spacial one. Its goal is to find and determine how feasible it will be for humans to actually spend time on Mars.

I Have a a couple of posts up on my blog relating to this mission. I'd love to hear what you think. Stop by anytime.

Link: Kaye Manro's Blog

Visit an Asteroid!

Think you can't participate in space exploration? Think again.

New Horizons is a NASA craft en route to Pluto and points beyond. (New Horizons has a Facebook page and a Twitter handle: FB - http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/new.horizons1 Twitter - @newhorizons2015)

It's the 'points beyond' Pluto that bring me here today. Astronomers are asking for help in identifying potential asteroid bodies for New Horizons to visit. If you go to http://www.icehunters.org and log in, you can help mark asteroids in telescope images. From the marked images, NASA will pick a couple of asteroids for a New Horizons visit after its Pluto flyby. You will need IE 9 in order to view and mark the images. Go forth and ID asteroids. The one NASA picks may be yours.

Did You See It?

Super Perigee Moon

The largest full moon in more than 18 years – a so-called "supermoon" – did not disappoint eager skywatchers.


The full moon of March was 221,565 miles away (356,575 kilometers) on Saturday, March 19 just 50 minutes after it hit its full phase, making it the biggest and brightest full moon since 1993. The "supermoon" phenomenon occurred because the moon was in its full phase and just 50 minutes past perigee – the point of its orbit that brings it closer to Earth.


NASA scientists and others dismissed the fringe lunar disaster claims as nonsense, but did admit the moon should look spectacular. Saturday's full moon appeared 14 percent larger and 30 percent bigger than the smallest full moons Earth sees.

A Fateful Day

NASA recalls darkest moments

The space shuttle Challenger STS-51L spaceflight ended in tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts died that day, when the Challenger space shuttle was destroyed.

It was NASA's first in-flight calamity, and it dealt an especially severe blow to the millions of teachers and students watching on TV to see Christa McAuliffe, a civilian high school teacher from New Hampshire, become NASA's first Teacher in Space.

Today is the 25 year anniversary of that fateful day.

The loss of Challenger was later attributed to a failed seal on one of the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters. An investigation board concluded that cold weather prevented a rubber O-ring from maintaining its seal, allowing hot gas to leak and damage the shuttle's external fuel tank and the hardware attaching the booster to the vehicle. The right solid rocket booster separated from the shuttle, and the fuel tank broke apart, causing the orbiter to be torn apart by aerodynamic stresses.

"The problem was a design flaw, complicated by the weather situation which was unrecognized at the time by the appropriate managers," Hale said. "We wished that we had the foresight to stand up collectively and say, 'Look, it's too cold a day to launch, we just ought to wait for a warmer day.' In retrospect it seems so simple; at the time, it just didn't happen."

Veteran shuttle astronaut Ron Garan, who is slated to fly to the International Space Station in March aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, said the anniversaries of Challenger and the other accidents highlight the lessons learned from those events. "It's a time to reflect and it's a time to remember those people who have sacrificed to get us where we are," Garan told SPACE.com. "A lot of the lessons learned in this business are written in blood, and if we don't learn from them, those people died in vain."

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So where were you on that day? Were you watching from a classroom like many students?

Kaye Manro
(crossed posted from my blog)

Aliens Among Us?

Recently scientist Stephen Hawking shook the scientific community with his views: That the human race could be devastated if aliens were to learn of our existence and venture to Earth, he warned.

But how could extraterrestrials really invade Earth?

Aliens have already viciously attacked our spacecraft, savagely kidnapped us, heartlessly conducted experiments on us, and mercilessly aimed their death-rays at us, but of course, all of these crimes have been committed only in our Science Fiction novels and movies.

Other experts who, like Hawking, have devoted their careers to thoughtful exploration of the possibilities of alien contact say that we don't have anything to fear.

These scenarios play on our most primal human fears of losing the resources we need to survive or not being able to reproduce, says Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

“In reality, it isn't logical to think that aliens would want to do either of those things,” he said. “Anything that we have here, they could find where they live.” I agree, if there was a resource found on Earth that did not exist on the aliens' home planet, there would certainly be easier ways to get or make the resource than coming here.

David Morrison, Director of Space at NASA-Ames Research Center says, "Any communication that may occur would likely be in the form of radio waves sent from one civilization to another. We're listening for radio signals," Morrison said, "and we can assume that any civilization that we receive a signal from is more advanced than we are." Morrison doubts that an advanced alien civilization would come here to harm us. "Someone once suggested that if a civilization can last for hundreds of thousands of years, it almost surely has solved the problems we have."

“Even if aliens existed, knew about us, and could travel here, they wouldn't be likely to send an army or the equipment needed to launch an attack on the Earth,” says fellow Science Fiction author, Jack McDevitt. Although contact between humans and aliens has been a key part of many of McDevitt's books, he doesn't think that it's likely to actually happen. "Any civilization capable of this feat would not want to delegate its fighting force to the task. We have bigger problems to worry about,” McDevitt added.

Are we still too primitive for an advanced alien culture exploration? In other words, aliens advanced enough to travel across the galaxies stand beyond our comprehension. They don’t need us, probably wouldn’t even be interested in us, and most likely would never bother to come here in the first place. Unless...

Personally I love a good alien tale. In my latest Science Fiction Romance Forbidden Love T’Kon’s culture has advanced enough to travel across the galaxies. Yet he isn’t out to steal a planet’s resources, or overtake any worlds. He’s on a mission of exploration, finding new species that are ready for deep space travel, and mentoring them into their own space age.

When he ventures upon an Earth-like planet, his scanners tell him he’s found a primitive warring world that will not accept an alien encounter. T’Kon can’t hit the orbital controls quick enough to leave. But his spacecraft malfunctions and he crashes into the surface. Good fodder for a SFR story, but that is just what this is, a Science Fiction Romance. So it goes…

To find out more about T’Kon and what happens to him, be sure to check out Forbidden Love when it releases at Red Rose Publishing on May 20. To learn more about this SFR story you can visit my Website.

Forbidden Love is featured on The Galaxy Express as a new release! Check it out and read my latest blurb. Thanks Heather.

See you around the galaxy!

Kaye
(From a post on Kaye Manro's blog April 29)

Counting Stars

Every once in awhile during a story, my characters stop and count the stars. It's a way to keep from taking the backdrop of space for granted. Think of your last road trip. Did it really pass in a blur? Or was there something, no matter how tiny, that made you catch in your breath for a second? When I need something for a space-faring hero to show a heroine or other way around, I go to Hubble Telescope site, and to the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day. The Astronomy Picture of the Day isn't strictly photos of celestial phenomena as evidenced by a spectacular shot of lightning generated from volcanic ash clouds. In that photo, you're seeing something that science cannot fully explain, yet. Theory has it that static builds up in the dust, gas and heat, thereby generating the lightning, but research to verify the hypothesis is ongoing. Where am I headed with this? What's out there between the stars? Dust and gas. Suppose your spaceship passes near a dense, dark nebula that's thick with dust. A nearby star has been exhibiting an upswing in radiation emissions, exciting that dust and gas. If lightning doesn't require oxygen in order to fire, a hero and/or heroine could catch a deep space lightning storm. Or perhaps a spaceship cuts through a patch of dust and the static generated by the dust passing over the hull leads to new adventure? Do they glow and give away their position? Does the static blow their electrical grid? Or short their onboard computers? How many ways do you want your characters to survive by the skin of their teeth just after they've paused to count the stars?