William R. Forstchen

"Q&A: Goddard and a Novelist: Stories I Have Set in Your Wonderful Facility"

ABSTRACT -- Since first coming to visit Goddard in 2010, as part of a visitation program arranged by my publisher Tor/Forge and your public affairs office, I have had a fascination with your facility. I'm an Apollo Age kid, my heroes were astronauts, and as I entered the field of Science Fiction short stories and novels, most of my themes were about the positive future ahead of us. Since my first visit in 2010, several more have followed, along with a number of New York Times best sellers. My novel Pillar to the Sky is about the building of a geosynchronous "elevator," in which one of the major characters is a researcher at Goddard, and my main characters start as graduate interns there. You guys are doing the future and that is what I love to write about!

A large part of this presentation will be in question and answer format.

SPEAKER -- William R. Forstchen, Ph.D. is a Faculty Fellow and Professor of History at Montreat College, near Asheville, North Carolina. He is the author of 50 books, ranging from scholarly works about the American Civil War to his "other life" as a science fiction novelist with half a dozen New York Times best sellers to his credit. His novel Pillar to the Sky is primarily set at Goddard. Besides his interests in History and Space Technology, he is an amateur archeologist with trips to Mongolia, Russia, China, and Romania. He lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the setting for his One Second After series, and flies an original "warbird", a 1943 Aeronca L3B.

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