Fun Facts for “The Andromeda Contact”

Factoid One
The model number of Jane’s blaster pistol, HM-F9, is simply the markings on two of the keys on my computer’s keyboard.

Factoid Two
The male inspiration for Dr. Philip Zimmer was actor Ed Flanders.
Here’s the weird story of how a 28-year-old woman even knows who Ed Flanders is…
I’m a big fan of Denzel Washington; I have always enjoyed his movies. I found out through my father that Denzel got his big break on a TV show called St. Elsewhere, back in the PSP era (pre-smartphone). It turned out that Hulu had St. Elsewhere available, and so several months ago I started watching it. It’s a good show, if a little dated in certain aspects (for example, no smartphones, and seriously…what was up with women’s hair back then?). In any case, Ed Flanders was in it, and I thought his performance as Dr. Westphall matched how I envisioned Dr. Zimmer.


Factoid Three
Lieutenant Commander Henson—who makes an appearance in the post-epilogue—is named after Matthew Henson, an African-American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary to the geographic North Pole.

Factoid Four
The shuttle which takes Jane down to Pecula Prime is named after Mark Hamill.

Factoid Five
Veronica’s hometown, Coventry, England, is the same as one of my beta readers.

Factoid Six
My father collects watches. I got the name of Dr. Xeric—the linguist featured in Chapter 3—from the name of a brand of watch he has four of.

Factoid Seven
I modeled the robomixers at Cosmic Melons—the juice bar—after the robomixers that mixed all of the cocktails at one particular bar on the latest cruise ship I was on.

Factoid Eight
I started working on this book in the early spring of 2023. It was my intention to release it after Carlsbad 13, “When the Universe Speaks.” However, as I was about halfway through writing “The Andromeda Contact,” I had the sudden realization that I hadn’t released a Cornwall romance since January. Not only that, but fans were asking about when the next Cornwall book would be coming. Therefore, I decided to put the Andromeda manuscript on the back burner because I wanted to keep my Cornwall series fans happy. Therefore, I began working on that story instead. It was also the same time I was working on putting the finishing touches on my 2023 holiday novella, “The Elves Who Wrote the Lesbian Christmas Song.”

Factoid Nine
I envisioned Sergeant Apone, from “Aliens”—one of my favorite movies—when writing Sergeant Racine in the chapter involving the mysterious space station.

Factoid Ten
Jane’s dislike of sour cream on her tacos comes from me. I loathe the stuff, and will not have it anywhere near my food.

Bonus Factoid
The concept of rogue planets has long fascinated me. Just the idea that there could be planet-sized objects—as small as Mercury, or even larger than Jupiter—free-floating in outer space, without being in orbit around a star is incredible—and many have been discovered.
What’s even more fascinating is that on certain such planets, life could theoretically still exist, even without receiving the energy from a host star. Earth, for example, might still be able to harbor life if it should go rogue because the planet’s gravity would allow much of the atmosphere to remain in place. However, any lifeforms remaining on the Earth in that case would have to get their energy from internal sources, and so it would be a difficult existence. Any humans left alive—if that were possible—would have to rely on heat and energy from deep beneath Earth’s surface. Another problem is that our planet would go through significant geological changes once it went rogue, making the sustaining of life that much harder.
We would, in fact, be better off abandoning the planet like the mysterious aliens did in “The Andromeda Contact.”