Space Frontier News

Hopefully, as you read this, spring will have finally arrived. With this issue we bid farewell to the editing talents of John Sirabella, who has moved on to other venues – like keeping his business on track. From what I’ve seen, John did a great job of putting this newsletter together, and I’m glad to have a firm foundation to build upon. I’d like to take a moment and introduce myself as your new editor. Somehow, a résumé doesn’t seem appropriate at this juncture, and everyone seemed so relieved that someone would take on the task of putting Space Frontier News together, that nobody asked for one. Regardless, so that you will at least be under the illusion that its regular production is in good hands, I hasten to assure you that I have a modicum of experience and knowledge in the arena.

My involvement with the “space community” began many moons ago in the midwestern burg of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I conveniently grew up mere blocks from ERIM, Bendix (the kids in my neighborhood saw the lunar rover on test track long before anyone saw it on the moon…) and the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering Building. I flew model rockets with my friends, wrote to astronauts, heck, I’ve still got a pennant on my wall from the day White & McDivitt dropped into town to visit their old campus. I helped found RP Industries, a little company that provided computers for use in those little teeny Shuttle payload spaces that universities leased for experiments (the company continues to flourish to date, though I’m no longer involved).

I headed off to do things in the world of writing and editing, with numerous sidetracks along the way. Over time I’ve managed to be everything from reporter to editor at a high school paper, an underground paper, and society newsletters; I’ve freelanced newspaper and magazine assignments (mostly in the food & wine category, a passion of mine – did I mention being a trained chef and sommelier?); and even tried my hand at technical writing. Somewhere along the line I managed to have one short, reasonably humorous ghost story published.

When Linda mentioned that she was looking for a new editor for SFN, I thought, why not? So, here I am, here you are, and I’m looking forward to working with all of you. It may sound cliché, but I know that there’s some hidden and/or budding talent out there just dying to see the light of day. Together I think we can make this one of the best regional newsletters in the National Space Society!