Here we are, day 136 of 2013 (that’s 37% of the year gone). And how is everyone getting along?

So far, it’s been a good year for me, creatively…

• TWO Liebster awards
• runner-up in a LinkedIn microfiction contest (on a writers’ vote)
• my short story, “Conservation”, accepted for publication
• spent a few, happy weeks on a movie set (despite the cold)
• good progress on “Succession”, part one of my far-future trilogy
• 3000+ Twitter Followers and a growing group of wonderful people following this Blog (thank you!)

I’ll be in the UK next week, following which there’s more movie work lined up. Looks like a good run continues…

Meanwhile, the world continued with “business as usual”…

• Middle East conflict
• terrorism
• strange goings-on at the White House
• many in the UK unhappy about its EU membership
• many in Scotland unhappy about its UK membership
• inexplicable Korean games

And all this offset was by a new Pope, 800 new saints and a singing astronaut (see YouTube for video). I seem to have randomly selected a series of “heavenly” news items!

Historical May 16ths had their fair share of notable events, but nothing too disastrous…

• Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille (1717)
• Joan of Arc was canonised (1920)
• first Academy Awards ceremony – “Wings” won the “Outstanding Picture” award (1929)
• Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest (1975)

Let’s see what today’s news reveals to us.

And finally, happy Finnish Name Day to everyone called Essi, Ester and Esteri. It is so good to send best wishes to huge numbers of individual strangers by name in such a few words.

I hope the remaining 229 days of 2013 go well for all my readers, although I cannot name you individually.

Afternote: Of course, some would say that a singing astronaut is only one step away from the actor astronauts who pretended to land on the Moon in 1969. But that’s just me trying to embrace as wide an audience as possible 😉