The New Book Is Here!

It's Box\ing Day! Or actually, unboxing day. I felt like Steve Martin in the movie, "The Jerk" - "The new book is here! The new book is here!" Everyone's Gone to the Moon is on bookshelves now!

 

 

Release Day is Here

 

It seems like it has been forever waiting for this day to arrive but it is finally here. My new book, Everyone's Gone to the Moon: July 1969, Life on Earth, and the Epic Voyage of Apollo, starts rolling out to online and brick & mortar bookstores today! The book takes a deep dive into the month that changed history, the month when we first landed on the moon, through the events both famous and long since forgotten, the pop culture, and personal stories of what life was like that historic month as told by average Americans, and NASA engineers and contractors. Get your copy today! I'll be posting some more excerpts over the next few days and an additional podcast series is in the works. Stay tuned.

Here is only a small sample of what you will find within the book's pages:

New York City welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts upon their return to Earth.

Cooling off with an ice cream on the streets of New York City, July 1969.

A fictional cartoon band, the Archies, hit #1 on the music charts with the song, "Sugar, Sugar." Sales got a boost when the Kellogg's cereal company printed a copy of the song on what was called a FlexiDisc on the boxes of Sugar Pops.

Women were beginning to make inroads as engineers at NASA and with their contractors.

The man who leased his land to the organizers of the Woodstock music festival saw his neighbors threaten his life and farm.

Cigarette manufacturers were forced by Congress to put warning labels about the dangers of cigarette smoking on their products.

Everyone's Gone to the Moon Ready for Release

 

Tomorrow (Oct. 16th) is the big day - the release of my latest book, "Everyone's Gone to the Moon." Here is a brief word from our sponsor (that would be me :) )

7 Days Until Book Release!

 

We are only seven days away from the release of my new book, Everyone’s Gone to the Moon: July 1969, Life on Earth, and the Epic Voyage of Apollo 11, so I thought I would share with you one of my favorite stories from the book.


As I’ve mentioned before, the book focuses on the month of July 1969, a transformative month if ever there was one with humankind first venturing into outer space to land on another world. But besides telling forgotten and obscure stories of the preparations and eventual first landing on the moon by the crew of Apollo 11, it tells the complex story of life on Earth that month - the racism, wars, political upheaval, even the pop culture that was upending what up until then were the norms in music, movies, the arts, and life itself.

The book interweaves the story of Apollo 11 with some of the big news events, lesser known and obscure events of the period, and most importantly, stories from both everyday people as well as contractors and engineers that worked on the Apollo program shedding light on what life was like in July 1969.

One of my favorite stories about life in the late 60s comes from a fellow you might know, author Joe Formichella. Here’s a portion of his story:

Joe’s family was devout Catholic and he paints a vivid picture of what life was like in the 1960s growing up with eight siblings.
“We had a small black and white television and a small living room,” he said. “With eight kids we would have to fight for a seat so we could see the T.V. And there was a specific T.V. hour when we were allowed to watch it.

"We lived in a small house. The washer and dryer were located in the dining room right beside the chair where my dad always sat for dinner. The dryer was very noisy and with eight kids it would be running all day. We would all sit down for dinner and when it was time to begin and my father was preparing to do the benediction, he would lean back in his chair and open the dryer door so it would stop running. When dinner was finished, he would lean back and close it again to restart the machine.”

Joe’s father was a die-hard New York Yankees fan. On occasion, he would load the family into the car and make the five hour drive from Syracuse to New York City where he would randomly pick an obscure place to go. “There’s a deli here we haven’t been to in a while” or “let’s go to such-and-such a place.” It was all an excuse to drive into the Bronx where they would pull up to the original Yankee stadium. The old stadium used to have a gap in the outfield fence where people on the outside could look inside the House That Ruth Built and gaze in wonder at the deep green field of dreams where the legends of the game – Ruth, Maris, Mantle, Gehrig – had all played.

“Just look,” Joe’s father would say. “Just look.”
That was a catch phrase Joe’s father often used. “Just…” fill in the blank. When it came to the country’s first journey to the moon, the elder Formichella was all in. He had an undeniable exuberance when it came to the first lunar landing that was contagious. To him, it was a noble and patriotic endeavor, not only because of the technical achievement, but also because the country’s first Catholic president, John Kennedy, had set the course.

“When they [Apollo 11] landed on the moon, I remember my dad saying, ‘Just watch. Just watch’.”

As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, Joe remembers walking outside into the balmy Syracuse summer evening and looking up at the moon. Somehow, it made him feel closer.

Where it All Began

 

Joe, age 17, hiking in Bear Mountain State Park

100 years ago today, the first section of the Appalachian Trail was opened to the public in Bear Mountain State Park, NY. I thought it would be appropriate to resurrect one of my old short stories. I grew up only a stone's throw from the trail. It's where my love of hiking and backpacking began. My first backpacking trip was, shall we say, eventful. Enjoy, won't you?

First Signing for Everyone's Gone to the Moon

 I know, it's been a while again since I've posted on the blog. It has been a busy and trying summer what with moving to the north land (Delaware) and back again to the Mobile area, the passing of my mother-in-law, and preps for the release of the new book, "Everyone's Gone to the Moon." 

Now that I'm starting to settle into the new digs, the first thing I did amid all of the boxes and turmoil that goes with moving is to start setting up book signings for "Everyone's Gone to the Moon." The first I can announce will be December 2nd at the annual LitCon / Mobile Book Festival in Mobile, AL. The festival is a chance to meet and hob-nob with your favorite authors and check out their latest books. It's a great time and best of all, it's free to attend. More signings and presentations are on the way. Stay tuned.