Manifest #54 – This payload is for Tina Glasneck and is composed of her numerous works inspired by a passionate love of the Norse gods, legend, and myth. Glasneck is a USA Today bestselling author and resides with her loving and stoic software developer husband, two gregarious children, and their delightful guinea pig in Virginia, United States of America, Earth. 

Glasneck sends a very special thank you to Dr. Susan Kaye Quinn for developing and organizing the Writers on the Moon project. 

Learn more and connect with Tina Glasneck through her website at www.TinaGlasneck.com

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for your interest in learning more about the story behind my stories that I’ve included in the lunar time capsule payload.

I’m ecstatic to be a part of this epic opportunity.

Life has continued to teach me that there is magic all around if we choose to find it.

And since the moon places me one step closer to Asgard, I’m getting to send a direct missive to the gods! What a dream come true for sure.

So, grab your cup of coffee (or magic bean juice), and let’s chat. Being 42 years old, I’m now at the point in my life where I live authentically as I am, telling the stories I love, about worlds inspired by my imagination, legend, and lore. I remain uncompromisingly me. That is part of fighting to live.

You see, I was a preemie, born two months early and weighing less than a bag of flour.

Doctors didn’t think I would make it.

My mom went into shock from blood loss and had to have a transfusion, and life became one big battle.

But all of those struggles over the years sowed seeds in the fertile ground of my imagination. Books always provided escapism. They were my tools to learn about new things, places, and ideas. As I grew older, books fostered adventure, where the world became my playground. Faraway lands became conduits for hands-on learning as well as paradigm-shifting and life-shaping moments. 

Through the words of historical and contemporary figures, I began to find and would later develop my writing voice. Seeding the ground with hope sprinkled throughout the years has created a beautiful field of blooming wildflowers. How is it possible that all of those moments I thought highlighted brokenness and were as fragile as blown glass have created a daisy chain, a crown I wear on my head to make the fantastical?

But, I did not get here alone. If it weren’t for the support of my loving family, friends, and readers, I might have given up the dream of writing long ago. It is not about talent because that gift will only carry us so far, and opinions are subjective to success. But it is about hard work, determination, and a no-quit attitude. Those have gotten me the farthest in life. But even more than that, it’s the overwhelming and heated passion and imagination that continue to propel me forward—as if the gods breathe upon me, urging my fingers to type, my mind to dream, and my stories to form.

Every story in the catalog has an intimate connection to me. I indeed weave elements of my life, experiences, hopes, dreams, conflicts, and pains into my pages. A part of me has done so for posterity’s sake, too, so that I can look back at my life and read about those things with a bit of mirth. 

From unrequited love to the feeling of the warm sun beating down on my skin as I kicked up the water in the Mediterranean Sea, to even the adventure of hiking through Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Jerusalem, there are so many things I don’t want to forget.

All of the fruit-producing seeds sprout and take hold, creating something quite beautiful.

And in that beauty, I continue to find great hope.

I can’t help but be reminded of the little girl who danced in a field of wildflowers, wished on dandelion fluff, and found magic all around her. I’m so happy to know that little girl is still me.

What about tomorrow and the times yet to come? I don’t know what the future holds, but I am looking forward to this next stage of the journey. I’ll look up at the sky and know that shooting for the moon is not just a clumsy wish. I’m very much there!

Sending love and light always,
Tina Glasneck