tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76825083344940793012024-03-12T20:07:12.179-07:00BioscapesA blog that explores the creative intersection of art, science, and education.Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-3673895370559796902019-07-10T14:09:00.001-07:002019-07-10T14:09:11.773-07:00Here I go again
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I didn’t
really understand how addicting writing fiction could be. It fulfills needs:
for approval, for enlightenment, for mastery of craft, for doing what feels
natural to do. In my case, I resent diverting time to write other things—like
these blogs, which serve largely as an advertising tool, and like creating
articles that actually pay the bills. Fiction writing has never paid the bills
for me—mostly because I abhor the time and effort it takes to cultivate a set
of paying readers. I actually enjoy the writing process itself. And while I
need and love an audience, it can be small, like a writing group. If anyone
ever makes anything from my fiction it will have to be some descendant
downstream with a talent for marketing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But, let’s
get back to addiction. I noticed that my last blog centered on my epiphany that
I actually had a story to tell after writing 28,000 words of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Once-Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master
Morticue Ambergrand</i>. Once armed with that epiphany I charged forward and
completed the book. I published it under the auspices of Penstemon
Publications. I had it reviewed by colleagues, and eventually by Kirkus, who
described it as “An enjoyable, post-apocalypse mind romp featuring
technologically bred demigods, future Stone Age tribes, and supercilious
worms.” Kirkus even compared me favorably with Kurt Vonnegut and Arthur C.
Clarke. (Yay!) The book became a finalist in the 2019 Colorado Authors’ League
Awards. But, to date, it has not generated income. It has consumed income.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, of
course, I am writing a sequel:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> A
Twice-Dead Genius Comporting with Misunderstood Abominations</i>. And I’ve now
written about 28,000 words and—I’m pretty sure I have another story to tell. Go
figure. This story (hopefully) will tie together <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Once-Dead Genius</i> with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Singular Prophecy</i>, another novel which I didn’t know was the prequel to the
second. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Here I go again. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I plan not to rush, even though
time could be an issue. I’m 72. I’m hoping if I write enough stuff and paint
enough pictures, someone will get the ball rolling and decide to buy everything
I’ve ever created—perhaps multiple times—and fill my pockets with cash. Should
I fall short of that goal, I will settle for a healthy “Well done!” from some
crazed individual who also thinks they just read a great story (when I get this
one written, of course).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Perhaps that crazed individual
could be you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
As a postscript: The image that
accompanies this text may turn out to be the cover of the novel-in-progress.
The trees are Mother Trees: the long-lived life stage of some aliens (The
Grovians) who have an alternation of generation life cycle. (More on that
later.)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQkTJo5vqVCh2j5rKX42bMKhz18d5nwXuwQLC3hvAHngZwek8kwMGu7JtFklpqFrAQSCBC9fFP9nXY5SU0_2xcG0ydlXqAWWR5qL2XCynB8PmQYhe1kx904Fpbh7Gmzea5vBBNJdcVVdB/s1600/Mother-tree-forest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="1200" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQkTJo5vqVCh2j5rKX42bMKhz18d5nwXuwQLC3hvAHngZwek8kwMGu7JtFklpqFrAQSCBC9fFP9nXY5SU0_2xcG0ydlXqAWWR5qL2XCynB8PmQYhe1kx904Fpbh7Gmzea5vBBNJdcVVdB/s320/Mother-tree-forest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-8840598095265675232018-10-01T11:56:00.001-07:002018-10-01T11:56:38.612-07:00Defining Writing Success
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve
written 19 books now and hundreds of articles. I’ve won book and magazine
awards. Respected literary bodies—not to mention friends, fellow writers, and
colleagues—have favorably reviewed my work. My audience, however, remains
small, as does my bank balance. Am I successful? What defines success for a person
compelled to write? These questions inevitably plague thoughtful people; no
matter where they reside in their travels from the first compulsion to express
themselves in words to their—final draft—shall we say.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
find myself asking the following questions:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Has
writing made you happy and/or fulfilled?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>If
one goal of writing is to communicate, have you successfully touched others?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>If
another goal of writing is therapy, have you healed yourself?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>How
important is the elegance of craft among your writing goals? Should that
supersede the mere act of effective communication—or are they inseparable?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>How
important is the need to be recognized for what you do—as either reflected in
monetary success or number of readers reached?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
I like the
process of using words to tell stories. Human beings excel at this process. In
fact, writing (and speaking) defines our species. We chronicle our successes
and failures and send them into the future with our children and tribe members,
and thus evolve culturally with a speed that far outruns genetics. So yes,
writing fulfills me because I have a talent for it that I have groomed and
exercised, producing a body of work I can be proud of. I am as happy about that
as my temperament allows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If awards and assignments are any measure,
I have communicated successfully with at least a select group of individuals.
In the past, writers wrote and others who believed in that writer saw to it
that the words found an audience. Today, writers are expected to disseminate
their own production. Some find that much easier than others. Do we fail at
writing if we fail (or fall short) when marketing? Perhaps. But I think we are
in danger today of losing some voices (and delightful words) that may be elegant
and on point, but crafted by timid souls. Noise should not be mistaken for
music.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
Regarding writing
as therapy: I remember one poet from my youth who claimed that he didn’t care
if anyone saw or heard his words. The act of creating them was enough. Perhaps
the creative act either aroused him—or healed him—in some way. Writing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> be therapeutic, not to mention titillating.
You can kill your enemies in fictional stories, say everything elegantly on
paper that dies on—or tangles—your tongue in face-to-face encounters, engage in
all kinds of carnal acts or change the way somebody else perceives the world
with your words. Skillful writers become non-invasive brain surgeons, subtly
changing the chemistry along the neurons of their targets. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
Have I healed myself?
To some extent, I suppose. At least I haven’t had to spend money on
professional shrinks and have not shot any friends, strangers or neighbors. I
leave my craziness on the page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
The elegance of
craft. Writers are invariably readers too. The writers I choose to read are
those who make me gasp, or cry, or tremble, or my heart change rhythm. We learn
by doing, by being told, by example—but we remember everything better or with
more clarity when the message is beautiful as well. So, I would feel less than
successful as a writer if I didn’t struggle sufficiently with telling my story
just right. I want to make my writing a work of art—something to admire not
just for the information residing there, but also for the turn of phrase that
turns information into rapturous epiphanies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
I confess. I have
always liked the teacher’s kind words or a pat on the head. I like getting
rewarded with allowances and grants for work well done. But those rewards are
insufficient. I wouldn’t want to write the same things over and over, even if
people paid me well to do it. I like the process of learning and creating
something new. I like admiring something original gleaned, but transformed,
from all the other human and original things generated by those who came before
me. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .25in;">
Would I write
again if granted another incarnation? Yes. To that extent I consider my writing
to be successful. The act of writing, especially when it rises within you like lava
ejected from a volcano, is an exercise worth repeating—and a very human thing
to do.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-83384926222750925442017-03-24T11:55:00.000-07:002017-03-24T11:55:09.583-07:00Novel solution with an end in sight
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Eureka! I experienced an epiphany
of sorts yesterday: I discovered, after writing 111 double-spaced pages (28,
515 words) in my novel, a potential pathway to a satisfying conclusion. That
doesn’t mean that I will follow that pathway without variation to the end, but
it does mean that a solution is within the realm of possibility—that I have
created characters that can interact, solve problems and grow and a plot that
can sustain their actions and motivations. Of course, I had some inkling of
where I wanted to take this creative effort and with whom, but I never know for
sure if I can reach that destination until I spill some of the contents of my
subconscious onto the page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I’ve read various people’s
approaches to writing novels. Some work from an outline from the beginning.
Others start with a character and some event and then write their way to some
meaningful (or not) ending. My technique involves a little bit of both. I
settle on one or more major characters, squint my eyes to see a destination in
some distant future, then enjoy the organic nature of writing fiction until
narrative roots take hold and push up a shoot pointing in the right direction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I figure I’m somewhere close to
half way done. I have lots of work to do, but the work is fun. I look forward
to sharing an imagined future with characters I feel confident can lead me to
some enlightening place. If the destination is as rewarding as I think, I can
further sculpt the entire piece to a finished form.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Currently, in my novel the mind of
Rudy Goldstein, a 21<sup>st</sup> century genius who survived death with the
help of a sentient AI named Mnemosyne, merges with the mind of Twill, a shaman
descendent a million years in the future. The merger is painful. Rudy says:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sorry, kid. This is going to be hard on both
of us. I am sharing your brain now—I’m not just a voice in your ear. You will
know my thoughts and memories and I will know yours—although we both can’t be
in charge all the time. We wouldn’t be able to function. I know this seems like
magic, but it isn’t. I don’t believe in magic, at least not the supernatural
kind, and—deep down—I sense that you are a skeptic, too. We’re both human—at
least you are and I was. We’ll get through this. We may be in Master Morticue’s
cage at the moment, but we have some surprises for Mr. worm guy.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And both these characters have more
surprises for me, too, because novels represent an accommodation, sometimes
painful, between a writer and the story he is capable of writing and the
readers he hopes to reach. But writers must write and readers ache to hear new
stories. I know we will get through this together, now that the end is firmly
in sight.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-6054130228598913592017-02-20T09:05:00.000-08:002017-02-20T09:05:00.684-08:00Character Harassment
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Fictional characters often harass
their writers in unpredictable ways. Usually, this is a good thing. When a
character starts to write their own dialogue, it usually means the writer (or
at least his or her subconscious) has researched and processed the character to
the point where that character starts asserting their own point of
view—sometimes to the point where plot lines must change—perhaps creating more
work for the writer than they had prepared for. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I first really discovered character
harassment with Neesha, a young female protagonist in my book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Deep Time Diaries</i>. Her voice often
rang in my ears, telling me what to say. Of course, Neesha was loosely
patterned after my wife, so I had Neesha’s original template close at hand to
remind me of her ‘voice.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In my most recent book, I’m not
quite sure who Twill is patterned after—perhaps a younger version of myself—but
Twill has been harassing me of late, getting his ancient mentor, Rudy and
Rudy’s protector, the AI Mnemosyne, into more trouble than I thought I had
intended. In the following example from a recent chapter, Twill warns Morticue
not to mess with Spider Woman (Mnemosyne), although, at the time, he is chained
to a bench and apparently just a primitive wild groupie (human) not in a
position to make demands:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
see no danger to ‘Jadderbadian kind’ in you, scruffy ape.” Morticue gestured
with one arm, reminding Rudy of a maestro in front of his musicians. “You squat
in primitive huts near what appears to be some ancient construct of some kind.
Even as we speak, Captain Edelphine leads a military convoy to the base of the
artifact you surround. Can I assume this mysterious Spider Woman you venerate
is a local deity?”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Do
not underestimate Spider Woman.” Twill pointed a finger at Morticue. “She has
guarded my homeland for generations and has now sent Great Uncle Rudy to guide
me.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Let’s
not do a lot of ad-libbing, kid,” Rudy whispered.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Great
Uncle Rudy?” Morticue’s mouth orifice fluttered, exposing ivory barbs beneath,
and his chromatophores pulsed in a tepid yellow. “Where is this Great Uncle
Rudy?”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Twill
forged on, evading the question. “Spider Woman is wise.” Twill paused with a
shaman’s good sense of theatre. “Spider Woman knows about the star gate through
which you entered our world…and she knows it is not of your making.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Morticue
paused in mid gesture. His mouth orifice froze momentarily before he spoke
again. “The star gate. Your Spider Woman knows about the star gate?” The alien
turned toward his computer screens and activated them with a voice command.
“Link me with Edelphine.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Twill
continued. “Spider Woman has many powers. She weaves many complex webs. Do not
underestimate her.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“And
don’t over play our hand, my boy,” said Rudy</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“What
do you want, scholar?” Edelphine’s voice burst from a speaker on a nearby
console. “I’m rather busy.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Proceed
with some caution, Commander.” Morticue twisted on his bench to face the
speaker. “This creature knows more things than he should. He knows something
about the star gate and how we use it.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
knew it!” Edelphine spluttered. “This artifact is a threat. In the name of
Great Mother, I will reduce it to dust.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
wouldn’t,” yelled Twill, rattling his leg chain in the process.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Is
that the monkey?” Edelphine’s voice entered a higher register. “How dare he
address me directly?”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Spider
Woman says, ‘It is always best to speak clearly to fools before they step in
their own poo.’”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rudy
groaned. “No ad-libbing, kid. No ad-libbing!” Rudy glanced at the screen.
Edelphine’s mouth orifice seemed frozen in an ‘O’ configuration, fluttering at
the edges like an aspen leaf.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
So, Twill seems determined to up
the tension and get me into situations my other characters need to resolve. In
the end, character harassment has the potential to make a book more real, more
complex (and harder to complete) than it might otherwise be—but if the writer
is surprised by what’s going on, the reader should be too. The reader will keep
reading. The writer will keep writing. They both want desperately to find out
how this implausible fiction will end.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-13594539759734864942017-01-29T08:41:00.001-08:002017-01-29T08:41:57.854-08:00Is there intelligent life on Earth?
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Comedians, tongue only partially in cheek, may say, “There
is little evidence of any,” but how hard would it be to recognize an
“intelligent” species if you met one? Biologists are often inclined to ask a
modified version of that question: “In what ways is this creature intelligent?”
This reflects the fact that all organisms alive today on our planet represent
terminal lineages of 3.5 billion years of survivors. Their lines were all
intelligent enough to beat their competition and endure.
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my novel-in-progress, tentatively called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pet Stories: A genius groupie in the kennel
of Master Morticue Ambergrand</i>, aliens come to Earth and find a species of
primate that remind them of pets they left behind on Jadderbad. They discover
evidence of million-year-old ruins, but don’t connect those artifacts with the
primates they discover. Instead they make pets of them. Here is an excerpt
where Morticue, a Natural Philosopher interested in the alien artifacts,
‘explains’—in the presence of his pet groupie (human) named Fum—the
requirements for intelligent life:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Well,
Fum, point one: it’s obvious that any intelligent creature should be one that
delays sex until after metamorphosis. The passions of sex—from what I’ve heard
of the published reports of adults who have made the transition—and taken the
time to record their experiences—those passions cloud the mind to the point where
rational thought disintegrates. I’m sure you would agree. I’ve seen you rutting
around the neighbor’s female groupies, deaf to commands.” Morticue paused and
scratched his hide with several available hands. “But animals undergoing
metamorphosis on this planet are few and small-brained creatures. Could they
have a collective hive mind greater than the sum of its parts?” </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Morticue
shrugged most of his shoulders. “Point two: Intelligent life most likely needs
a dispersed nervous system like Jadderbadians—various sub brains to handle
routine bodily functions. That frees the primary Great Ganglion for rational
thought.” Morticue looked at Fum who had picked up some sort of polished stone
from the box and was holding it with one hand while stroking it with the digit
of the other. “And yes, point three: Intelligent life needs many manipulative
organs to handle the environment. Two obviously stunts mental growth.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fum
smiled as he stroked the stone.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Morticue
raised his third leg from tripod stance and ambled over to Fum with the
remaining two legs. “What do you have there, boy?” Morticue extended his right
lateral second row arm and Fum placed the stone into his hand. “Ah, a worked
and polished fossil. Probably a trinket of some ancient craftsman.” Morticue
sniffed the object carefully, viewing it in detail with all three eyes.
“Marble. The fossil of some sort of shelled sea creature. I see some unusual
markings in the ultraviolet. Of course, that leads to point four: Any
intelligent life needs a broad spectrum of sensory input. That’s the problem
with you groupies, after all. Very limited olfactory lobes; vision ends in the
purple wavelengths somewhere.”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
As humans, we prize our own skills
and talents: The use of symbolic language, acute vision, the ability to imagine
alternate realities, recognition of our social peers (and their motives) and
some talent at logical deduction—but had birds, for example, taken a slightly
different evolutionary turn and African primates become extinct, would they
admire the same kinds of attributes? It can be fun to think about.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-84001947157496722082016-09-19T15:59:00.000-07:002016-09-19T15:59:30.478-07:00What's on an alien's mind?
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the fun challenges of writing science fiction
requires getting inside the head (or equivalent) of an alien intelligence and
writing suitable dialogue. A writer needs to meet the same challenges of
writing dialogue for humans—such as coming up with original content and mixing
it with stage movements and observations about the surroundings—while also
viewing the world through a different set of sensory organs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The aliens in my story, for example, do have eyes, but they
have three of them. I envision them being able to focus with binocular vision
with any pair, but then being able to use the third to observe other
things—just not with the same depth perception. Their peripheral vision might
approach 360 degrees. What would that be like? Also, I want them to be much
more odor-oriented. Consequently, they would pay much more attention to smells
and other chemical cues and their language would reflect that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of how our language reflects our visual
preoccupations. “See you later!” “Would you look at that?” “Good to see you
again.”—and so forth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even if vision is important to an alien, they may see more
of the electromagnetic spectrum than we do. Bees can’t see the color red, for
example, but they can see into the ultraviolet. Many flowers accommodate insects’
ultraviolet vision by producing markers only seen in UV light to lead insects
to the center portion of a floral bloom where the insects can help flowers have
sex with other plants.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And alien conversations will reflect many of the same things
that preoccupy humans: things relating to social status, health, physical needs
and other things. In fact, some scientific wag said the three critical
questions any organism must ask of another in order of importance are: Will you
kill me? Can I eat you? Can I have sex with you? One might also add: Can you
help me?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That last question may be one of the central ones in my
book. Cooperation among living things is one of those underappreciated aspects
of biology on Earth. We humans depend on a hundred million microbes to keep our
own body functioning properly, for example. We didn’t even have to ask for that
cooperation. It was in place when our brains turned some critical corner and
allowed us to imagine impossible (or at least improbable) things—liking having
conversations with extra terrestrials.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-64970828313712814202016-08-15T13:50:00.000-07:002016-08-15T13:50:13.940-07:00Creating plausible aliens
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>The aliens
(Jadderbadians) in my novel adopt remnants of the human race (a million years
after a catastrophic asteroid impact) as pets. Because I want my title alien,
Morticue, to be a complex and sympathetic character, I needed to develop a
background for him—one that included his natural and well as personal history. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>To make
things a little easier on myself and to provide a situation in which both
Jadderbadians and humans could comfortably live together, I postulated a
species from an Earth-like planet—although one a third larger than Earth and
with even more water. I used my background in biology as a primary resource.
Most SF writers do, in one way or another, draw on the biology of our native
planet. We have no other option. Thus, the horrific alien in the movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alien</i>, was patterned after the lifestyle
of wasps and similar insects who lay their eggs inside hosts. The young eat
their way to maturity and the outside world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Here’s my
attempt to describe Jadderbadian biology and natural history. Although every
detail will not be used, I will have these notes to refer to as I develop my
characters. The details, of course, will be subject to change, should a bolt of
inspiration strike me. Such are the god-like prerogatives of SF writers <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Morticue (Emerald 31)
& Selaea (Amber 86) (Tripodians from a planet, Water, circling a dwarf
yellow star near the belt of Orion)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Biology/natural
history:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tripodians measure roughly 2 meters tall. They have internal
skeletons, bilateral symmetry, tri-radial arms and legs. They possess coarse, hairless
skin, somewhat mollusk-like in texture. Their home world is Earth-like, though
one third larger (with roughly one third more gravity) and 75% ocean. Races
vary in skin color (emerald, amber, and turquoise varieties), eye decoration
and arrangement of sensory pili on their skin. They possess certain insectoid
features, including a succession of larval phase transitions that add limb
whorls. They are born as simple tripodal aquatic creatures with a small head
and incomplete self-awareness. The first molt produces a functional, trainable
and fully terrestrial tripod with its first set of 3 manipulating limbs. The
second and third molts produce progressively larger adults with 6 and 9 limbs,
respectively. The progression typically takes 400 to 450 years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tripodians don’t transform into sexually
active forms until after third molt metamorphosis, but they do take companions
before this time and are serially monogamous. The sexual phase lasts just 1
year for males and 10 years for females, during which time adults must mate,
females reacquire juvenile gills, lay and protect their egg cases and young
tripods before they die. Tripods that survive their time in the ocean wade
ashore before first molt. Second stage (6-armed) adults arrive at breeding
grounds and adopt two or more “Firsties” to raise and educate. “Seconds” &
“Thirdies” pursue careers in art, science, technology, and philosophy. Many
Thirdies serve as judges, spiritual advisors and philosophers until their final
molt into adults. Thirdies aspire to wisdom and accomplishment before giving
themselves over to the pleasurable excesses of a brief adulthood.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tripodians passed through mental phases not too unlike those
of humans, though stretched out over 5 million years rather than a million.
These phases—that involved a progression from creative tool use to self-awareness
and consciousness and from innovative art to primitive totemism, religion and
natural philosophy—were, also like humans, stimulated by especially violent,
concentrated cycles of climate change. Tripodians discovered rational thought
processes that led to what humans would describe as “scientific inquiry,” though
tripodians relied more on intuitive insights to spark new explorations. Thirdies,
who left extensive recordings prior to their final molts, more often made these
insights.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-18255180925838266482016-08-07T11:59:00.001-07:002016-08-07T11:59:39.268-07:00The games SF writers play
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Readers
and writers of science fiction tend to be science nerds of one flavor or
another. By definition, SF is fiction, but it is fiction extrapolated from the
natural laws and phenomena that scientists have distilled from their experimentation
with nature. Thus, writers are constrained knowing that E always equals mc<sup>2</sup>
and objects in free fall will suffer collisions based on the particulars of
mass and gravitational forces. Readers also know about these constraints and
delight in discovering that a writer may have failed to do his homework. SF
writer Hal Clement, known for works like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mission
of Gravity</i>, explained the kind of games SF fans play with each other in an
article he wrote in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Astounding Science
Fiction</i> in the 1950s:
</div>
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<span style="color: black;">“Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work...The
fun...lies in treating the whole thing as a game. I’ve been playing the game
since I was a child, so the rules must be quite simple. They are: for the
reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible
of the author’s statements or implications which conflict with the facts as
science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few
such slips as he possibly can.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: .25in; tab-stops: -63.0pt -59.0pt -.75in -50.0pt -.25in 5.75in 6.25in 6.75in 7.25in 7.75in 8.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: .25in; tab-stops: -63.0pt -59.0pt -.75in -50.0pt -.25in .5in 5.75in 6.25in 6.75in 7.25in 7.75in 8.25in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The writer
makes the first move in this game by telling a story. The reader makes all the
other moves in the game, trying to see how the writer may have gotten the
science wrong. Clement played his part of the game so well, that readers still
devour his work today. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mission of Gravity</i>,
along with related fiction and commentary, appeared in 2002 under the title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heavy Planet</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Clement
was famous for creating believable aliens. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mission of Gravity</i> aliens subject to the immense gravity of a rapidly
spinning Jupiter like planet called Mesklin evolved flattened, centipede-like
bodies to accommodate gravity that varied from 3 times Earth normal at the
equator to 700 times Earth normal at the poles. He designed a biochemistry for
his creatures based on methane as the key solvent rather than water. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
new book will also feature aliens, although not quite from so exotic a world.
Nevertheless, I must fashion the world they come from in a way that is
consistent with what scientists know about Earth’s biology and ecology. In
particular, I will feature some of the knowledge science is rapidly acquiring
about microbiomes: the mostly hidden world of microbes that coexist with the
cells of complex organisms like us and provide many of the biochemical services
we must have to survive. A key question becomes “Whose in charge?”—us or our
microbial infrastructure? Undoubtedly alien worlds will have similar
relationships between the first simple life forms that evolved on their planet
and any complex ones that developed later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
next blog entry will feature some of the specifics of the world of Morticue
Ambergrand and his kin. It will be up to you to see if the world I create is
plausible. Let the games begin!</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-37194464204460774722016-07-29T07:11:00.000-07:002016-07-29T07:11:00.786-07:00Affirmations
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Affirming yourself
and your work</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Writing requires many skills: creativity, patience, craft,
conviction and dedication. When done correctly, it brings the rare satisfaction
of knowing that you have not only communicated effectively with your audience,
but have entertained them and sometime even altered how they feel about
themselves and the universe at large.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I enjoy writing both fiction and nonfiction, but there is
something especially satisfying about telling tales that compel people to laugh
or cry or ponder imaginary people exploring non-existent, but believable
worlds.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Writers usually labor at their tasks in isolation. They also
must reveal intimate glimpses of the human condition by drawing on their own
experiences. They tend to suffer from many of the same insecurities as other artists
or lovers, never quite sure if they have succeeded in reaching another soul or
have simply embarrassed themselves with fumbled intimacies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, to endure in the process of writing, when any accolades
from devoted fans are still in some imagined future, writers often resort to
reviewing affirmations to keep their fingers on the keyboard. Below are some
affirmations I’ve compiled to keep me on task with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Groupie Genius in the Kennel of Morticue Ambergrand</i>. Feel free to
affirm your own impulses to write with any of these that appeal to you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Writing is one of the ways I show love to others by sharing my
knowledge, insights, and wisdom.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I have a unique voice that is expressed through my writing.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My story matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All I can do is all I can do, but all I can do is enough.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My story is one that only I can tell.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I love the creative process of writing.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time spent writing is productive time.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sharing journeys expands what it means to be human.</i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our stories tell the lies that reveal universal truths.</i></b></div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-77739795662638034002016-07-23T07:25:00.000-07:002016-07-23T07:25:23.409-07:00Building worlds, imagining futures with science fiction
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Building worlds, imagining futures</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
I’m doing it
again: writing a science fiction novel. I wish I could fully explain why. It’s
difficult and time consuming. It can be frustrating—not just the act of
creation, but the process of sharing and dissemination. Creating something new
and elegant is a great pleasure. The rest of the process—especially
marketing—becomes a chore. It involves negotiating the increasingly complex
social networks of fellow humans. And, as some wag said, the more humans I come
to know, the more I like my dog. But that observation has become the nucleus of
my next tale: What if humans were the pets and more complicated aliens—let’s
call them Jadderbadians—felt that spending time with humans was preferable to
dealing with other Jadderbadians?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The title of my
novel is “A Groupie Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand, a tale
of alien invasion and companionship in Earth’s distant future.” I’m hoping the
title conjures thoughts of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court </i>and other titles where the author explores
the human condition with tongue firmly placed in cheek.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
As I see it now,
the purpose of these blog entries shall be to:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 84.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -48.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Share the process of creation so that others
with similar inclinations can benefit</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 84.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -48.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Talk out the details of my tale as I proceed to
clarify them in my own mind</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 84.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -48.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Explore the development of my characters</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 84.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -48.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Build a community of interested readers that may
also serve as a painless form of advertising</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 84.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -48.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Introduce myself to those who might be
interested in exploring my writing, illustrating and graphic design efforts</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 84.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -48.0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Test my story line and premises</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Why science fiction?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some
have asked me: why use the vehicle of science fiction to tell this story?
Couldn’t I reach a more general audience without resorting to an exotic future
and even more exotic aliens? Perhaps I could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But science fiction appeals to me in many ways:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Science
fiction has always sparked my sense of wonder by making me imagine all the
“what ifs?” of possible futures. Furthermore, science fiction builds futures
consistent with what we know about nature through the study of science—a
powerful tool for solving problems and answering questions using nature as the
final arbiter—the stage on which experiments prove or disprove how we think the
universe operates.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Science
fiction allows writers to explore the human condition as naïve outsiders with
new perspectives. Gene Roddenberry used the original <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Trek </i>to address questions of gender and race because there was
no other way to do it in a public forum during the sixties. Let Klingons,
Vulcans and tribbles show us the error of our ways by entertaining rather than
preaching.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Science
fiction tends to address the BIG QUESTIONS we all ask ourselves: Why are we
here? Why does the universe exist? Does our personal consciousness survive
death in some way? Why does our universe support life and how common is it? Do
supernatural forces exist and, if so, how do they operate? Do our individual
lives have purpose beyond mere survival? Is conscious intelligence limited to
life or can we create it? To what extent can we build the futures we want and
to what extent is our behavior limited by evolutionary accidents?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
Science
fiction provides a powerful way to dream with your eyes open. Colorful stories,
in general, allow humans to tell the lies that reveal universal truths. In the
deep past we sat around campfires and mesmerized our comrades with the tale of
how we stole dinner from that dangerous cave lion. Today I want to tell a story
about how an alien and his human pet find their way to a future filled with
promise because of the dreams they share and the mysteries of life they can
only solve together. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .25in; text-indent: .25in;">
Pull
up a log if you want to join my tribe around the campfire.</div>
Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-40243057645063640742013-05-09T08:23:00.000-07:002013-05-09T08:23:24.877-07:00Next Big Thing blog campaign!
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Today I host the Next Big Thing blog campaign—an
opportunity to talk about my own YA book, but also help promote the work of
other authors and illustrators who create neat books for kids and young adults.
The campaign began in Australia, but became international. Authors answer the
same ten questions about their upcoming or recent book title, than “tag” two
other authors to carry the baton in succeeding weeks. Today I will be talking
about my science fiction adventure, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Singular Prophecy</i>, and then giving the nod to two other authors I admire:
Nancy Oswald and Libby James. I hope you enjoy these insights into the process
of creating children’s literature! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What is the working title of your next book?</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">I
am working on a collection of some of my published nature essays for adults
called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confessions of a Time Traveller</i>,
but the book I would like to discuss today is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Singular Prophecy</i>—a labor of love for young adults that also
involves time travelling and first contact with an alien species.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2R5Fg3JXM8JkNSIfc3aDPckV8IoVXIbLuvYbapEr88y2lp67wF_n-K1oCIg9XCU5T2_j4aX5Uew75KiEMn98hUAIBmU6KdyERt0hLrgO39fQvQ6-6UZ9U0zAAfvBv6WC-55XRxg5nAnXJ/s1600/Singular-Prophecy-3X4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2R5Fg3JXM8JkNSIfc3aDPckV8IoVXIbLuvYbapEr88y2lp67wF_n-K1oCIg9XCU5T2_j4aX5Uew75KiEMn98hUAIBmU6KdyERt0hLrgO39fQvQ6-6UZ9U0zAAfvBv6WC-55XRxg5nAnXJ/s1600/Singular-Prophecy-3X4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Where did the idea come from for the book?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A Singular Prophecy</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> developed from my passion for
collecting fossils and from a childhood incident that helped to give my life
direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Fossil collectors are always looking for that find
of a lifetime that will make a career and reveal something new about the
history of life. My protagonist, Ryan Thompson makes such a find, but discovers
that the history of life on Earth is intimately tied to life that evolved
elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The childhood incident was a story told to my mother
by a fortuneteller: The fortuneteller said my mother wouldn’t be famous but one
of her children would. I decided that child should be me. The same kind of
prediction motivates Ryan in the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What genre does your book fall under?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A Singular Prophecy</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> is YA science fiction, although
many adults have enjoyed it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters
in a movie rendition?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Yikes! I watch few movies and many of those I’m
familiar with date me. That said, I see Ryan as kind of a young Harrison Ford
with a pragmatic sort of heroism that might not surface without the help of a
strong woman, like his girlfriend, Skeets. A young Sigourney Weaver might play
Skeets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Two aliens attempt to subjugate two Earthlings and
take over the world, but in the process have to cooperate to save the entire
universe from disaster!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Who is publishing your book?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This book was a self-publishing venture. It’s
available in soft cover through CreateSpace and is also a Kindle book on
Amazon. Several conventional publishers nibbled on the book, but didn’t bite. I
decided to jump into the world of self-publishing and test the waters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">How long did it take you to write the first draft of the
manuscript?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I worked on this book, off and on, for well over a
decade. Several groups critiqued it in various forms. I feel it became richer
for the extended effort (though not a cost-effective process!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What other books would you compare this story to within your
genre?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I find that many of the early books by Robert
Sawyer, a Canadian SF author resonate with me. He also likes to write about
paleontologists and their obsessions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Who or what inspired you to write this book?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I wanted to make a fortuneteller’s prophecy come
true and spend time in a universe of wonder and possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Can the universe be considered a work of art molded
by the life that evolves within it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Next in line...</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So now I would like to introduce you to Nancy
Oswald, a writer who will whisk you back to 1896 Colorado in her award-winning
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rescue in Poverty Gulch</i>. You
will meet and thoroughly enjoy Ruby and her donkey Maude as they make their way
to Cripple Creek, Colorado. Nancy will post her blog on May 23. Check her website
at <a href="http://www.nancyoswald.com/">www.nancyoswald.com</a>. Rumor has it
that Maude has a blog there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOPBFx9UNEBpfhesbvHbTqCH5JIyRNQE0Ji2ZXjFD57hOy19wqedyGHwsoKDNY4QAKJIrSueLYXu_0vGXaspW3TFSGE8Y0ErE-SlBliAPTPh7Gq4CbhKtXWM7QiTNLHoVpgY3VerlM3ld/s1600/Rescue_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOPBFx9UNEBpfhesbvHbTqCH5JIyRNQE0Ji2ZXjFD57hOy19wqedyGHwsoKDNY4QAKJIrSueLYXu_0vGXaspW3TFSGE8Y0ErE-SlBliAPTPh7Gq4CbhKtXWM7QiTNLHoVpgY3VerlM3ld/s320/Rescue_cover.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Next, on May 30, Libby James will reveal her Muffin
Magic—a picture book about a boy, his dad, and some muffins that help make a
dream come true! Don’t miss her entry at libjames.blogspot.com.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghCrvncOIM2J_v9lUZfWWfavSmJhWQxvpr_4wfuQLcCAcSEGY6SURRavXi4rr8N5BEFfW0FQ4wqyaAg1qKgVARORf3JdKACZ5pB0gRJc6aiif0JegzIKUyL07Mv7A2F1aZ1yuv1wCLNaJa/s1600/Muffin-Magic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghCrvncOIM2J_v9lUZfWWfavSmJhWQxvpr_4wfuQLcCAcSEGY6SURRavXi4rr8N5BEFfW0FQ4wqyaAg1qKgVARORf3JdKACZ5pB0gRJc6aiif0JegzIKUyL07Mv7A2F1aZ1yuv1wCLNaJa/s320/Muffin-Magic.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Hope you enjoy this fun game of author tag!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-25460154496755401782013-05-01T09:38:00.001-07:002013-05-01T09:38:19.923-07:00Alive and Aloft in the Aeolian ZoneI recently had fun researching an article for Colorado Gardener magazine about the life that exists in the atmosphere all around us. The atmosphere serves as a kind of bloodstream, distributing life and nutrients across the globe. The illustration I created shows a fraction of the traffic in this bloodstream. Enjoy the complete article at: http://online.publicationprinters.com/launch.aspx?eid=8e1361e3-c364-4880-add7-ae1768b1f70a<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrB09fMiDQegwExnplztuwmGvrKozldhG1dEbv5O7yJfgye933inAyQ7hAUDp3on5nGw9Sr_0ukmLoqKWaMMGwNLd6-EiaEDPV97eu2DPVmH_SXo7Ze9dE5n1gXlsdOMSV0F-4CeSz9DT/s1600/Aeolian-zone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrB09fMiDQegwExnplztuwmGvrKozldhG1dEbv5O7yJfgye933inAyQ7hAUDp3on5nGw9Sr_0ukmLoqKWaMMGwNLd6-EiaEDPV97eu2DPVmH_SXo7Ze9dE5n1gXlsdOMSV0F-4CeSz9DT/s320/Aeolian-zone.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
<br />Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-32938352439857343322012-12-13T08:08:00.000-08:002012-12-13T08:08:17.222-08:00Free Kindle download
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">FREE on Kindle, SAT.
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Young paleontologist,
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also made first contact with two 70 million-year-old alien intelligences. Thompson
struggles with the aliens for control of his mind and body while trying to save
the Earth and shape the future of an entire universe.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscraoXMhWygguQkD0od2TERzM9mO5hfd5KAOHrTW0zLWa5yMQpRGQiCIWXMV0IMtVUzdR3YCtQpIEpPU-o9FxgjMptxS2F-r2Srbbv8FvsFx0lZkkK8nVKxFEUxj8S1eZK0zwDmRtXV3-/s1600/Singular-Prophecy-3X4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscraoXMhWygguQkD0od2TERzM9mO5hfd5KAOHrTW0zLWa5yMQpRGQiCIWXMV0IMtVUzdR3YCtQpIEpPU-o9FxgjMptxS2F-r2Srbbv8FvsFx0lZkkK8nVKxFEUxj8S1eZK0zwDmRtXV3-/s1600/Singular-Prophecy-3X4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-35196217470085286072012-11-01T16:03:00.000-07:002012-11-01T16:03:23.140-07:00Ice Age Legacies
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The 32,000 year-old stash of a Siberian arctic ground
squirrel gave two Russian Scientists the opportunity to bring an ice age
variety of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silene stenophylla</i>, a
narrow-leafed campion, back to life. The plant had shared the Siberian plains
with mammoths, wooly rhinoceroses, and giant bison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silene </i>serves
as an example of the rich biological material encased in permafrost, an ice age
legacy totaling almost one fifth of the land area on our planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The image I created for a November 2012 article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The North Forty News</i> (<a href="http://www.northfortynews.com/resurrection-from-permafrost-and-other-ice-age-legacies/">http://www.northfortynews.com/resurrection-from-permafrost-and-other-ice-age-legacies/</a>)
shows what the resurrected plant looks like. The mammoth in the background
represents the paleoartist’s longing to actually see an entire ice age
landscape recreated—to be able to see into the past and witness firsthand some
portion of the twisted road that led to our here and now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPDU_j6wVEooyCMOoiwAMmlr18rn2B6b2BZb5cLFEQ-Wqm-iSzZz-AnEm4kzm_Qb0eL54Rm8Mg8oHOkXBXnOyeN_5ZLWLpP5gGaz9BA0UqdoQ0HDq9yzWoo-jWjaHv0Go9gfV046wY_0B/s1600/Silena-stenophylla0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPDU_j6wVEooyCMOoiwAMmlr18rn2B6b2BZb5cLFEQ-Wqm-iSzZz-AnEm4kzm_Qb0eL54Rm8Mg8oHOkXBXnOyeN_5ZLWLpP5gGaz9BA0UqdoQ0HDq9yzWoo-jWjaHv0Go9gfV046wY_0B/s320/Silena-stenophylla0001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-40212539775428110522012-11-01T12:30:00.000-07:002012-11-01T12:30:48.976-07:00Dr. Johnson Goes to Washington
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Dr. Kirk Johnson, paleobotanist and educator extraordinaire
at the Denver Museum of Nature and Scientist, gave a farewell speech October 1,
2012. The Smithsonian Museum saw an energetic, creative scientist with a vision
for popular education and snatched him from our midst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assuming he follows the course he set for
himself in Denver 22 years ago, he will transform the Smithsonian into an even
more effective interface between people and what they need to know about their incredibly
old and complex world.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Johnson still has the playful instincts of a child. In fact,
he considers the world his sandbox and relishes each treasure he finds
there—like the trove of fossils excavated in Snowmass Colorado last
year—fossils that graphically illustrate an ice age world most of us would find
hard to imagine. He wants people to understand and marvel at ancient heritages
that lie beneath our feet, telling tales of struggle and evolution that
ultimately produced our own imperfect, but sometimes promising, species.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Johnson emphasized the special time and place we occupy with
mind-blowing timelines and scenes of Earth’s dynamic beauty. As a species we
are poised to transform the Earth—either to benefit or decimate the rest of the
living planet. We can’t act responsibly unless we know what that world contains
and how it got here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Johnson discovers, explains, and inspires like few people
can. Those are three skills Washington D.C. could certainly put to good use. He
promises to come back and charges Coloradoans to take care of “his museum” in
the meantime—an institution that inspires more volunteers than any other
natural history museum in the world!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Artist Ray Troll captured Johnson’s intensity and obsession
with fossil plants in this illustration for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cruisin’
the Fossil Freeway</i> (Fulcrum, 2007). Troll also captured me on a volunteer
trip to Western Colorado that unearthed fossils for a museum in Vernal, Utah.
I’m the Paleonerd on the right!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wYrQRo0C-QD_1UrV73ff9MC_PryRLmqzz8mX5_9J3pwoN9c2FwePk695WgwH0HSm1KJbuUjxeohB5GKuHwr_24F_NXBXL7odS6B4yBT6daefFR44mqJGZ_qwGH9e7ej5olCQ1hogEUTc/s1600/Kirk-Johnson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wYrQRo0C-QD_1UrV73ff9MC_PryRLmqzz8mX5_9J3pwoN9c2FwePk695WgwH0HSm1KJbuUjxeohB5GKuHwr_24F_NXBXL7odS6B4yBT6daefFR44mqJGZ_qwGH9e7ej5olCQ1hogEUTc/s320/Kirk-Johnson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRe3RJtsmRc3sM6P9hffZnW_vgPmONEiCPOjxJCYh4Zf8OWXva62Db5Yb4dXqKEm8eBL6JjTVSl48vqTHSP0CqOEvJseAdaWbMrhllo5Zv6y5_ah-nY85zBrZhBz4BM8xKmNjzHl3Vn8Jw/s1600/Paleonerd-syndrome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRe3RJtsmRc3sM6P9hffZnW_vgPmONEiCPOjxJCYh4Zf8OWXva62Db5Yb4dXqKEm8eBL6JjTVSl48vqTHSP0CqOEvJseAdaWbMrhllo5Zv6y5_ah-nY85zBrZhBz4BM8xKmNjzHl3Vn8Jw/s320/Paleonerd-syndrome.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-77563551365338382162012-09-03T14:50:00.000-07:002012-09-03T14:50:37.633-07:00Surviving & sometimes thriving with fire
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The west has been on fire this summer, changing lives and landscapes.
Fire has been remaking the terrestrial world for at least 400 million years. In
the Harvest 2012 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colorado
Gardener</i> magazine I elaborate on this theme in “Surviving and sometimes
thriving with fire.” Climate change will make our collective response to fire a
moving target, as habitats regroup under changing temperature regimes. I’ll be
interested in any feedback you have to the topic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Here’s the link: <a href="http://digital.publicationprinters.com/publication/?i=124374">http://digital.publicationprinters.com/publication/?i=124374</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNZCumAX1ko8xij4BJfRVdeYHKKZAS45ra5i5enjusJUz-BnL2OnFkXPDT-FjRm5ugaCcCTC_4Uujen6F34OCdlEYdzr0zBRqYeg0LrSFKJPpYAbEPPdeugKZgXvRgHMI8Pc3oSzLlecQ/s1600/Corydalis-aurea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNZCumAX1ko8xij4BJfRVdeYHKKZAS45ra5i5enjusJUz-BnL2OnFkXPDT-FjRm5ugaCcCTC_4Uujen6F34OCdlEYdzr0zBRqYeg0LrSFKJPpYAbEPPdeugKZgXvRgHMI8Pc3oSzLlecQ/s320/Corydalis-aurea.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">My illustration features <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Corydalis
aurea</i>, or “golden smoke,” a flowering plant that pioneered burned mountain
territory after the Hayman Fire in 2002. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-6376157581502688592012-06-30T10:28:00.000-07:002012-06-30T10:32:55.678-07:00The Social Conquest of Earth<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwCK1dAlPL-NC0IgoRKKK17ZE53WxbsIKdolpn0cTvE4Ni6FQM_XnnPQoDhSChFXpaqhBDGniwvUszV1nq3rkghyphenhyphenDeHE2FID6D_gvn1mW7ffqpZqBC8DNHiUotLG1mDCygYco2G8miPbH/s1600/Social-conquest-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwCK1dAlPL-NC0IgoRKKK17ZE53WxbsIKdolpn0cTvE4Ni6FQM_XnnPQoDhSChFXpaqhBDGniwvUszV1nq3rkghyphenhyphenDeHE2FID6D_gvn1mW7ffqpZqBC8DNHiUotLG1mDCygYco2G8miPbH/s400/Social-conquest-art.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
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Disturb
ants’ nests and soldiers boil out, mandibles gnashing, ready to fight. Workers
move larval grubs to deeper sanctuaries. The queen abides in her chamber,
poised to generate more eggs to replace fallen comrades. Disturb human
communities, as the raging High Park fire is doing in northern Colorado, and
fire fighters swarm to action. Relief workers provide food and shelter. The
wealth of individuals and a nation buys resources to protect lives and limit
damage. According to E. O. Wilson, Nobel Prize winning scientist and author,
both ants and humans are demonstrating the amazing power and adaptive success
of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">eusociality</b>—the altruistic
behavior of multi-generational social groups to defend home and hearth. Wilson
outlines his latest ideas in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Social
Conquest of Earth</i> (W.W. Norton, 2012).<o:p></o:p></div>
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For some
people, being compared to an insect the size of a rice grain may not be appealing.
Others may only attend to ants when they invade a picnic basket or kitchen.
Ants, though small, wield large ecological clout. Wilson estimates the combined
worldwide weight of ants and humans to be roughly equal. Other insects belong
to the eusocial club, including termites and some species of wasps and bees.
Among vertebrates—animals with backbones—only naked mole rats, a few bird
species, and perhaps African wild dogs flirt with effective, multi-generational
eusocial behavior. Humans stand out because they have combined their primate
social skills with enormously enhanced brainpower. They pass on their skills
not only through the relatively slow mutation of genes, but also through the
rapid dissemination of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">memes</b>: ideas transmitted through the cultural tools
of art and language.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Genetic
changes have molded social insects over hundreds of millions of years. In the
process, ants, termites, and bees have flourished, but they have also solidly
integrated themselves into the living world—the biosphere. Ants farm fungi and
milk aphids for a sugar boost. They jealously protect food and shelter their
preferred plants from other animals. Ants return the dead to the earth and succumb
to predation themselves, entering food chains at several levels. Plants enlist
ants, bees, and other insects to assist in their sex lives. The success of
social insects is reflected in the success of the communities they inhabit.
They demonstrate the fact that cooperation among different species is often
as—or more important than—the competition between them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We humans
took a fast track to eusociality that, while highly successful in the short
term, plagues us with conflicting loyalties. Wilson says, “The origin of modern
humanity was a stroke of luck—good for our species for awhile, bad for the rest
of life forever.” Selfishness, cowardice, and hypocrisy serve individual
survival, but honor, virtue, and duty serve our group survival. He claims these
contrary impulses will always be at war with each other. But he does hold out
hope that we can overcome our flaws. He’s encouraged by the ways we are
becoming more interconnected as one global, rather than many tribal,
communities.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The High
Park fire threatens the home of a teacher friend. Her recent e-mails to 67
friends and family members apprising them of her situation demonstrates this
hopeful trend. Offers of help poured in—from neighbors, from acquaintances and
colleagues, and from individuals who have put time and sweat into helping her
and her family build this home. She also received a lot of prayers and words of
hope—from Christians, Buddhists, spiritualists of other persuasions and even
atheists. And now that the fire has consumed over 80,000 acres, help from State
and national political organizations continues to arrive. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Humans excel
at providing help to others during crises. In the deep past, it was the tribe
that rallied its chiefs and priests and the gods they nurtured to bring aid and
comfort. Later, cities and nation states did the same, protecting their own, while
often coming into conflict with other political and religious groups. Today, we
are slowly forging world-wide person-to-person connections that are breaking
divisive barriers: barriers erected by differences in politics, religion,
sexuality, and race that have served us reasonably well in the past as ways to
preserve regional social groups—but have NOT served well at all to integrate
our species effectively into the global web of life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We get into
trouble when politics leads to dogmatism and inaction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We get into
trouble when religion leads to tribalism and irrationality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We get into
trouble when science creates power without responsibility.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We get into
trouble when language and art confuse rather than inspire.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I truly
appreciate Wilson’s comment that “History makes no sense without prehistory,
and prehistory makes no sense without biology.” We too often forget that we are
not the masters of the world we are its consciousness. Because of our social
success we are like a hippo thrashing around in a rose garden—where HIPPO
stands for Habitat destruction, Invasive species dispersal, Pollution,
Population excesses, and Overharvesting of resources. If we can effectively rally
our considerable smarts, Wilson sees a bright future. “If we save the living
world,” he says, “we automatically save the physical world, because in order to
achieve the first we must also achieve the second.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Although
Wilson is a rationalist, he admits to a certain amount of blind faith—perhaps a
product of the eusocial talents he, like the rest of us, possesses. “Earth,” he
believes, “by the twenty-second century, can be turned, if we so wish, into a
permanent paradise for human beings, or at least the strong beginnings of one.”
The tools we will need are an ethic of treating each other with simple decency
(the Golden Rule), the unrelenting application of reason (the scientific demand
for testable proof), and an acceptance of what we truly are: an intelligent,
socially adept fragment of an old and continuously evolving biosphere.<o:p></o:p></div>Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-9544180748806188552012-06-02T13:20:00.000-07:002012-06-02T13:20:21.893-07:00Following the Shadow of VenusNext Tuesday, June 4, the shadow Venus slowly plows across the face of the sun. Although not super spectacular to watch, this regularly occurring cosmic show provides scientists with lots of valuable information. In the 18th century, precise measurements of the event gave astronomers an accurate estimate of the size of the solar system. Today's scientists are using light from the event reflected off the moon to help calibrate their techniques for finding Earth-like planets around other suns. Read the details at http://www.northfortynews.com/following-the-shadow-of-venus-other-heavenly-sights/<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjme-8s20byHUxRQB8_DSfI1SuGsNujN0iwjwHqxR7q0e4gN0VVpnzDAdJ4MV77YTAlELUHJMqdrLON-Pg_J8cTDHn2ZTpyBOcTDIc3GCyms3_DsrzmP26-F5GwweyC_mLAG7PneXMbzd_V/s1600/venus_transit_6-8-2004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjme-8s20byHUxRQB8_DSfI1SuGsNujN0iwjwHqxR7q0e4gN0VVpnzDAdJ4MV77YTAlELUHJMqdrLON-Pg_J8cTDHn2ZTpyBOcTDIc3GCyms3_DsrzmP26-F5GwweyC_mLAG7PneXMbzd_V/s320/venus_transit_6-8-2004.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
<br />Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-63015363679878678202012-05-25T07:28:00.000-07:002012-05-25T07:28:21.002-07:00The Great Unconformity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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The right images
bring abstract ideas to life.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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On May 19,
I accompanied some geologists to Pinewood Lake west of Loveland, Colorado.
Sporadic rain and chill air dulled the greens of spring growth. Normally blue
skies were slate gray. At one point we detoured off the dirt trail, traversed a
meadow, and made a U-turn hook that forced us to climb down a couple of feet of
exposed vertical slabs of rock. We had just crossed what geologists refer to as
the “Great Uncomformity.” Above an extension of the vertical rock strata lay
many layers of red, pebble strewn, compressed soils from a time on our planet
when dragonflies the size of pigeons darted between alien, green-trunked trees
soaring skyward to bottle brush tops covered in spores.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In
geologist’s terms, uncomformities are places where layers of rock come together
that are very different in age, as measured by radioactive dating techniques or
recognized stratigraphy. Angular uncomformities are such junctures where the
layers are at odd angles to one another—sometimes as much as 90 degrees. When
geologists see this, the image can strike them a mental blow because of what it
implies: stretches of time laid bare that are so vast as to shatter human
comprehension.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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James
Hutton (1726-1797) saw such a feature in England. It consolidated in a flash
what he already suspected: that the Earth was a tremendously old planet—much
older than what Biblical scholars proposed. He went on to write a two-volume
work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Theory of the Earth</i>, which
crystalized this conclusion for others. (I write about this in more detail in
my book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Restless Earth: Fossils</i>,
Chelsea House, 2009.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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The
following information helps make the image of rock layers lying at right angles
to one another so powerful. The oldest of the vertically oriented rocks at this
site can be dated at 1770 to 1670 million years old (1.7 billion years). This
age predates all life more complicated than single cells. The vertical rocks
were originally deposited as ocean sediments at a time when dry land was a
sterile desert. Over time, they were crushed to rock; then partially melted.
Imagine the vast stretches of time to form layered muds and sandstones
accumulating millimeter by millimeter, and then imagine the additional eons
necessary to compress everything to a semi-molten sludge. And THEN imagine the
slow heave of forces that twists everything upright: old ocean beds stood on
end.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But that’s
only part of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Imagine the
forces of wind, water, and time scouring a billion years away to dust, carrying
it somewhere else to settle. Then a new, slow cycle of deposition begins—piling
up 300 million years of forests and dragonfly wings—until the dinosaurs die and
mammals build their empires on the ashes left behind. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, two
temporal dynasties of dirt lie at right angles to each other, with a monumental
gap eroded to oblivion between them. THAT is the Great Unconformity. That is
what humbled Hutton and every geologist since. They become mesmerized by
temporal vistas exposed at the intersection of angled eternities.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhXp_kU6TRUwqyKOexJ574WSMSLWQHalweNCIb44T5-8G0T7NGPS8KMMKtE15yhdniI-fe3OXL0SJ0q4prwp1RVANGiF6qeJOuB4xhRGLKpCk0AUv5S_nMchK0CWEuYr37Wt6iYo5pXMe/s1600/Great_Unconformity_Pinewood_Res.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhXp_kU6TRUwqyKOexJ574WSMSLWQHalweNCIb44T5-8G0T7NGPS8KMMKtE15yhdniI-fe3OXL0SJ0q4prwp1RVANGiF6qeJOuB4xhRGLKpCk0AUv5S_nMchK0CWEuYr37Wt6iYo5pXMe/s320/Great_Unconformity_Pinewood_Res.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Great Unconformity</b>. Photo by Herb Saperstone</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-59723039714566507532012-05-24T18:29:00.000-07:002012-05-24T18:29:17.956-07:00Brian Grove: My Perfect Pitch<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">I was
contacted by a British author named Brian Grove with a very useful
website--especially for relatively new authors--but he also has links to a long
list of active publishers in a variety of genres and nonfiction areas within a
global market. Seems like a nice concept for an author's blog. Hope you enjoy
his site.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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is: http://myperfectpitch.com/</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-58222484117747159422012-05-11T10:30:00.001-07:002012-05-11T10:30:48.559-07:00Ice Worlds<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Sometimes images just won’t leave you alone. This was the
case with the artwork I created for next year’s WIPS symposium on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ice Worlds and Their Fossils</b>. We live
during an interglacial period in Earth’s history, but we still have ice at the
poles—a relatively rare event for much of Earth’s past. The Pleistocene ice
ages forged human beings out of primates stressed by relatively rapid shifts in
climate. Likewise, ice carved evolutionary changes in the Paleozoic, ultimately
destroying the equatorial lycopod/fern/pteridosperm forests that now form our
modern black energy reservoirs of coal and gas. I felt that snow among the
alien plants of this era helped emphasize the impersonal forces of climate that
have shaped the bodies and brains of not only us, but our distant forbears as
well. We are built with elements cooked in the bowels of stars, but chiseled by
shards of ice and the chill winds of time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTNZ3CLyYUfrrTgtMgS2-yzI5t3wZ-jKCyhuYwFNV_HLQyiysKyPUIpUYdKEXVTo0moZzR1WVJ6xDXkQ4qlmfEAxjLthnRICLYFHpPJo2V0J6lznEzxwCRDgsy3XDso08D_T3af6YGpx-/s1600/Symposium-poster-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTNZ3CLyYUfrrTgtMgS2-yzI5t3wZ-jKCyhuYwFNV_HLQyiysKyPUIpUYdKEXVTo0moZzR1WVJ6xDXkQ4qlmfEAxjLthnRICLYFHpPJo2V0J6lznEzxwCRDgsy3XDso08D_T3af6YGpx-/s320/Symposium-poster-1.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">In 1882 Robert Koch discovered the TB bacillus—one of the human race’s oldest pests—and one that continues to infect about one third of us. The bacterium doesn’t rate high in our awareness in comfortable Middle America because it tends to thrive in poverty and rides piggyback with other ailments like HIV, also rampant in the third world. A latent form of the microbe hides out within us, however, ready to strike when opportunity arises. Such dormant TB recently turned up in 120 Longmont students in Colorado and among college students at CU.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The May issue of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">North Forty News</i> will carry my article about some good news regarding TB: CSU researchers have found a way to keep TB cell walls from forming properly—a discovery that may provide a potent new weapon for replacing antibiotics that are rapidly becoming ineffective. Check in at <a href="http://www.northfortynews.com/">www.northfortynews.com</a> sometime after April 24. The article will be under “Science and Nature.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I created the following image of Koch and his microbe discovery using white pencil and charcoal pencil on blue matteboard. I feathered the boundary in Photoshop. I believe the monocolor approach will work well on other future projects. Pencil is still an effective medium.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglE4CimZhG7Ymc7aNMmC_afHKgpIcWy2bbdkqySufvkABKoOpOUOFciba_VdFQHA9s9-tdZMT__MUDdSlFLxcAsuVei4OavvgLnozZHNq1udSZBjdVjTZqB2I-owYg3VY2gff8ORPPCdBj/s1600/Robert-Koch-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglE4CimZhG7Ymc7aNMmC_afHKgpIcWy2bbdkqySufvkABKoOpOUOFciba_VdFQHA9s9-tdZMT__MUDdSlFLxcAsuVei4OavvgLnozZHNq1udSZBjdVjTZqB2I-owYg3VY2gff8ORPPCdBj/s320/Robert-Koch-small.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-5134950155662213862012-04-10T15:59:00.000-07:002012-04-10T15:59:07.386-07:00The world through an insect's antennaeAs humans, we feel pretty special about our mega brains and our visual acuity, but insects interact with the world in quite special ways. I had a chance to explore these amazing sense organs in a recent article for Colorado Gardener magazine. If you get a chance, take a peek at: http://digital.publicationprinters.com/publication/?i=106273<br />
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Here's an up close and personal view of a Rove beetle's ostentatious sensors:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizWdP6abc_loyDN_gJiPg5ve0y_m5Od_zxJO1mAwjYt6GqlA-dd6cDK9B0SoEvVuX47n3IyHdT_QS2L75QX_t_x8dGeAwfs4UZNJ1fn3A7UP_YkefNlOwcd7OCdLv6ew4UBBaiSNfZmSvH/s1600/Rove-beetle-antennae-8w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="92" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizWdP6abc_loyDN_gJiPg5ve0y_m5Od_zxJO1mAwjYt6GqlA-dd6cDK9B0SoEvVuX47n3IyHdT_QS2L75QX_t_x8dGeAwfs4UZNJ1fn3A7UP_YkefNlOwcd7OCdLv6ew4UBBaiSNfZmSvH/s320/Rove-beetle-antennae-8w.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-6040926874367288132012-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:002012-04-07T09:03:00.731-07:00Marketing in an e-pub Universe<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>959</o:Words> <o:Characters>5469</o:Characters> <o:Company>Biostration</o:Company> <o:Lines>45</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>12</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>6416</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">The following recently appeared in the Colorado Author's League newsletter, <i>InPrint</i>, but I believe other writers will find it of interest.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I recently created my first Kindle e-book: A YA SF tale called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Singular Prophecy</i>. I’ve traditionally published many times, but like other authors I smell change on the wind and don’t want to face a digital publishing stampede ignorant and unprepared. I would like to make a killing, but don’t want to be trampled by behemoth publishers also deciding which way to bolt. Marketing, the weapon of choice for authors and publishers hunting for fame and financial success seems to be morphing in our hands, even as we take aim and prepare to fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Individual authors should take advantage of their small size and agility rather than closing their eyes and hoping for the best.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Helpful old school marketing strategies<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Authors know about book signings, school visits, presentations at various venues, and radio and/or TV spots, but the effectiveness of these venues is waning. Local book signings and book launch parties can still be useful for practicing speaking techniques and reaching core audiences of friends and acquaintances. Signing tours, unless sponsored by a publisher, can be expensive in both time and money. Schools have less money for author visits, although writers can now save time and lodging with Skype appearances. For ex school teachers, like myself, these visits also provide a chance to meet our audiences in person and witness the birth of intellectual passion in young eyes.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Presentations provide exposure to a wider audience, but usually involve more travel and some expense. I’ve presented at science teacher conferences, reading conferences, science fiction conventions, and smaller venues like senior centers and gift stores. Sometimes authors get paid for such gigs, but often present to sell a few books and network. My science titles never seemed ripe for talk shows, but I have done some Bookends TV interviews for the local educational channel, benefitting some teachers and insomniacs.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Blogging & social media: New marketing keystones<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Patricia Stoltey, author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Prairie Grass Murders</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Desert Hedge Murders</i>, is a silver domed veteran like me, yet she has embraced the new online media and is plowing furrows and planting seeds that will grow audiences for her next books. Stoltey took a year off to establish herself as a blogging presence. Her site, <a href="http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com/">http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com</a>, is subtitled “Thoughts about writing, Colorado authors, social networking, and getting published.” She accepts guest bloggers, does occasional interviews, makes guest appearances on other blogs, and contributes to group blogs, such as Chiseled in Rock. “After doing a lot of homework,” she said, “I realized how important it was to build a network of online friends just as we work to establish a network of writers and readers through writers groups, book clubs, conferences, and conventions.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stoltey advises writers to use tools like Book Blogger Directory (<a href="http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/">http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/</a>) to find bloggers who read and review the kinds of books they write. Writers then need to follow likely blogs for a while, participating in discussions, and look for opportunities to get their books reviewed and make connections with like-minded readers and writers. In a sense, writers can create a network of contacts almost the way experience in the real world builds neural networks in the brain. Writers build virtual memories of themselves and their work that can grow quickly and endure.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I discovered another growing network developing specifically around e-books, like those produced for the Kindle. Candace Cheatham is Associate Editor for Kindle Nation Daily, a group that donates Kindles to classrooms. Students review YA books to receive credits to expand their e-libraries. Students look for low or even free titles to purchase or borrow, but if they like a book, the potential exists for a title to take off. (See <a href="http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/">http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/</a>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Blogging, twittering, facebooking, and such work together to create these virtual networks. Managing all this social intercourse can compromise a writer’s sanity. I ran across another resource called “How to Set Up Your Social Media Listening Dashboard.” </div><div class="MsoNormal">(<a href="http://www.risdall.com/listen/RMGSocialMediaListeningDashboard.pdf">http://www.risdall.com/listen/RMGSocialMediaListeningDashboard.pdf</a>) This white paper outlines how to optimize your social media experience by learning how to effectively listen to these inputs and then employing a strategy of identifying objectives, strategizing action plans, using those plans, and finding ways to measure their effects.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">E-publishing can be liberating<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Experienced SF author, David Dvorkin, author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time and the Soldier</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Business Secrets from the Stars</i>, has created e-book versions for 15 old and new titles—many out of print and languishing in files and hard drives. “I never intend to approach a traditional publisher again,” he said. “I’m filled with enthusiasm for writing again, and I’m more productive now than I have been in years. I know that the books and stories I write will be published—without the absurd delays imposed by the nature of traditional publishing’s small-minded dinosaurs.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dvorkin and his wife even created an e-book publication business by designing covers, editing, and formatting books for other authors. (See <a href="http://www.dvorkin.com/ebookpubhelp.html">http://www.dvorkin.com/ebookpubhelp.html</a>) Those who e-publish need to be aware that if they can’t design and edit books themselves they will have to buy those services. Inexperienced writers still need the filters of writing groups and editors until they can recognize their own professionalism.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dvorkin recognizes that we live during a time of transition. He advises unpublished writers to pursue a traditional agent-to-publisher route for the time being. He also claims that five years from now he expects to offer this advice: “Pay no heed to the desperate traditional publishers in their business death spirals. Self-publish your work as an e-book.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Whether or not his specific prediction and timetable pan out, writers will do well to stay alert and attentive. “The times,” some old dinosaurs sang, “they are a-changin’”—especially for writers hungry for literary and commercial validation.<o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7682508334494079301.post-40395595717779105552012-03-17T13:29:00.000-07:002012-03-17T13:29:53.499-07:00Time and the Soldier<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>196</o:Words> <o:Characters>1120</o:Characters> <o:Company>Biostration</o:Company> <o:Lines>9</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>2</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>1314</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">I love science fiction because it pushes the envelope in many ways. As a genre, it tends to focus on big ideas, sometimes at the expense of characterization, but the best writers find ways to turn “what ifs” into great stories.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">TIME AND THE SOLDIER, a 2011 book by veteran SF author, David Dvorkin, brings new twists to a classic time travel scenario. His tale starts in 1945 with a secret, Manhattan Project-style operation that discovers the rudiments of time travel just before the end of World War II. Dvorkin takes soldiers good at surviving and killing, mixes them with equally focused and determined women, and sends them “downstream” into the future on a complicated, 150 year journey that tests all their skills and determination. That journey also tests their humanity and severely stretches the bonds of love between them. At times, the reader may not know quite who to root for. In the end, we have to root for our own flawed humanity and what we might create in some unknowable future.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmu3iIu-pfNJ6mxCi-dNrTV7J4MoSSHJAov57XIHPMsIeL2h0wmBLA7Ss0mzD879k5mgk4t3uSvcUGBjLNktnePoJ8mCFKVFJz6u2sK3MGv0d7KDKUi0Y1Yq44XD6_deL8VUgSqucQd3h/s1600/Time-&-the-Soldier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmu3iIu-pfNJ6mxCi-dNrTV7J4MoSSHJAov57XIHPMsIeL2h0wmBLA7Ss0mzD879k5mgk4t3uSvcUGBjLNktnePoJ8mCFKVFJz6u2sK3MGv0d7KDKUi0Y1Yq44XD6_deL8VUgSqucQd3h/s320/Time-&-the-Soldier.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Learn more about Dvorkin at <a href="http://www.dvorkin.com/">www.dvorkin.com</a>. His science fiction titles have included three Star Trek novels. He’s also an author of mysteries, horror, and some non-fiction titles. If you happen to haunt SF Cons, he turns up regularly at MileHiCon in late October in Denver.<o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->Gary Rahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15804154905896206366noreply@blogger.com1