​​                             Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Just because you don't consider yourself a gung ho writer, you can still become a very good writer, if you write. 

First up, get inspired. Think about what you want to write. make a list of things that you want to put in your book. Look at past writing and "steal" from yourself. If you have writers block, your job is actually a great inspiration. Even if you're a kid, you have daily responsibilities. Ask yourself what you want to write about your job. Let others give you friendly suggestions, even if they aren't as positive as you would hope. Next, begin to jot down ideas. Getting your ideas out on paper can help you create knew and better ideas. These ideas can be messy and confusing, but that's ok as  long as you can understand what you're writing. Use things like brainstorming and making lists to help you get going. Then, start to separate your ideas into chapters. Decide which ideas fall under other ideas. After you've done that, start to smooth out choppy ideas into sentences. Now you have the first draft complete. And then it's time to, edit, edit, edit. Go back and check mistakes, cut stuff out, and revise, by the end of all of this, you'll probably be on your fourteenth draft. Afterwards, title your book. Editors and publishers may have suggestions that you may or may not like, and you may have suggestions that they may or may not like. You can add a subtitle (a subordinate title of a published work or article giving additional information about its content) if you would like to. Finally, the design of your book. Publishing companies may hire an artist, or ask you what you want it to look like. After this step, you've written a book. ​

Hi! My name is Paula Sanchez, and I am Alcopoco Mars' resident architect. I'm on my first week in space aboard the international space ship headed for Mars, the first alien planet that the human race will colonize. I am here with several very intelligent persons on this amazing journey. In this post, I am going to tell you about life aboard a spaceship. 

People in space need to keep clean just like people on earth do. But on the international spaceship, we only have microgravity, so mornings are a little different. We wash our hair with rinseless shampoo because showering would cause water to damage the inner workings of the spaceship. Astronauts and other people being launched into space get personal hygiene kits, with things like toothpaste and a comb or hairbrush. The microgravity causes the toilet to be a little more complex. We have to hold ourselves down to the toilet with leg restraints, and instead of flushing...er...waste down the toilet, we have to have it get sucked out by giant fans. It's very uncomfortable, though it's the only way to do your business. This is how we get ready for the day, though it's not as glamorous as it might seem. 

In space, you have to exercise a lot, or else your body might lose muscles and bones. Once we land on mars, our bodies will need the strength to walk around in a non-microgravity environment. We have to exercise for two hours a day in order to keep our bodies working properly. But you can’t just lift weights or run on a treadmill. On the spaceship, the microgravity causes things to weigh a lot less. So the equipment has to be specially designed in order to make sure we get the exercise we need. Being in space strange when it comes to the anatomy of the human body. All we know about how we work is based on how we work on Earth, so this is an incredibly strange experience. 
In space, the food situation is a little different. Some food, like brownies can be eaten like they are on earth, like brownies and fruit. Other food requires water and heat, like mac and cheese. There aren’t fridges in space, so food has to be specially preserved so that it doesn’t spoil. This could be hard, because our trip is six months long. Condiments like ketchup, mustard, salt, and pepper are on the ship, but the salt and pepper is liquefied. Usually a nutritionist is on board to help astronauts with balancing their diets. It's weird and hard to get used to, but eventually you do. 

​You can have fun in space too. In your free time, you can do many things. Playing can help lonely astronauts with depression. The ship’s flight planners set aside free time for the astronauts to do what they want to do. You can even play with toys in space. A popular NASA experiment is seeing microgravity affects them. Something cool that you can do in space is looking out the spaceship window. You can watch the earth spin and turn on it’s axis or just plain look up at the sky. Sunrises and sunsets occur every forty-five minutes in space, if you look at Earth. Astronauts also get the weekends off. Crew members can talk to their family and friends during this time. I personally enjoy having fun with my crew members and talking with my family at home. 

I can't wait to arrive on Mars, though being on the international spaceship is fun! Thank you for reading!