A Long Time Coming?

 

The date is now set in concrete: the official release date for Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind’s Exploration of Space is August 15th (pre-order now).

In the meantime, I’m busy working with the Prometheus Books PR department to get the word out. (By the way, if you are in the media, let me know through Messenger or email and I can direct you to the publisher to get a review copy to you when they hit the warehouse and also schedule interviews, book signings, and online presentations).

Anyway, we have a lot of ideas for promoting the book including the release of my 10 part podcast with even more stories that couldn’t make the book. The publisher’s parent company, Rowman & Littlefield, publishes a literary magazine and asked me to be featured in an article. They told me that the book is highly anticipated in the UK (ROAD TRIP!!!...one can only hope).

They asked me a question that took me by surprise only because I never really thought about: "Is this a project you've been planning for a long time?"

I guess you could say it has been in the planning stages for many years. I just didn’t know it. I would read or hear many of the stories that appear in the book over the years and tuck them away in the back of my mind. It wasn’t until I had finished writing another book on the history of the town and area I currently live in – Mobile, Alabama – that I realized just how much I love history and writing about it, but not just everyday history. The offbeat and obscure history.

When writing "Hidden History of Mobile", I found myself gravitating to obscure stories found in the city’s early newspapers that have been long since forgotten. Tales about everyday life here in the Port City – the struggles the people who lived here faced, the humorous anecdotes that made the city what it is. It made the book go from being a stodgy old history book with “this happened on this date”, to a retelling those lost tales, the human side of the city’s history.

That got me thinking about those odd and obscure space stories I had heard about so many years ago and my love of the space program. I told a couple of the stories to some friends in casual conversation just to see what their reaction would be, and it was what I had hoped for: “There should be a book about that!”

And now there is.

Can’t wait until you all get a chance to read it!