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.
I'm getting ready for the big release of my new book, "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", with the new book trailer. The book will hit both brick and mortar and online bookstores October 2023.
I've been
reviewing the manuscript for my latest book, Everyone's Gone to the Moon
(release date October 2023), to wrap up the accompanying podcast and realized
just how many stories from the book I love. The book focuses on life in the
month of July 1969 with an overview of news events - both famous and long
forgotten, memories of what life was like during the month by every day people
as well as NASA engineers and contractors, and of course, the pop-culture that
influences us to this day all intertwined with little known stories about the
flight of Apollo 11, our first manned lunar landing. One of my favorite stories
is this little gem about David Bowie and his song, "Space Oddity":
# # #
Astronaut Chris Hadley's Version of "Space Oddity"
Only days before the launch of Apollo 11, one of the most iconic rock songs of
all time was released. Even if you didn’t like the rock music of the day, you
knew the opening line of this song. Even today over almost sixty years later,
kids can be heard singing, “Ground control to Major Tom.” It was the classic
David Bowie recording, Space Oddity.
You can forgive people for thinking the song was about the first moon landing
since it was released only five days before the launch of Apollo 11 on July 11.
And in the lyrics, there is one line that sort of gives a nod to the lunar explorers
when Major Tom sings, “Here as I’m floating in my tin can, far above the moon.”
But that wasn’t the case. The song begins with a surreal 1969 countdown and
launch before Major Tom reports all is well and eventually that he is stepping
out of the door of his capsule, presumably for a spacewalk. That’s where things
take a bit of a dark turn as ground control loses contact with the capsule and
frantically try to regain communications.
In a 2003 interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Bowie set the record
straight saying that the song was in fact inspired by the 1968 Stanley Kubrick
movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey which was based on the popular novel written by
science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark.
“I was out of my gourd anyway,” Bowie told the magazine. “I was very stoned
when I went to see it [the movie] several times and it was really a revelation
to me. It got the song flowing.”
Nevertheless, Phillips Records saw a marketing opportunity and released the
song just prior to the Apollo launch. Despite a strong marketing campaign
complete with video, the song only peaked at number five on the U.K. charts and
barely made a ripple on U.S. charts coming in at #124.
As a side note, when the single was re-released in 1973, Space Oddity reached
#15 in America. When it was re-released one more time in 1975 by RCA Records,
it became Bowie’s first number one record.
The strong headwind Space Oddity faced in becoming a huge hit early on, at
least in the U.K., was due in part to the national radio and television
corporation of the British Isles, the B.B.C. At the time, the B.B.C. was
virtually in complete control over what the Brits heard and saw on radio and
television. When they heard the single, the company immediately banned it from
the airwaves until after the flight of Apollo 11 saying that it was in “poor
taste” to play it during the mission.
As the saying goes, someone didn’t get the memo about the ban and that someone
decided the song would make the perfect theme music for B.B.C. TV’s coverage of
Apollo 11.
“It was picked up by British television and used as the background music for
the landing itself in Britain,” Bowie later recalled. “Though I’m sure they
really weren’t listening to the lyric at all. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to
juxtapose against a moon landing. Of course I was overjoyed they did. Obviously
some B.B.C. official said, ‘That space song, Major Tom…blah, blah, blah.
That’ll be great.’ Nobody had the heart to tell the producer, ‘Um, but he gets
stranded in space, sir.’”
Original David Bowie Music Video of "Space Oddity"
Every now and
then I spend a day going out to various bookseller sites to read reviews of my
books. The one book that has been getting positive 4 and 5 star reviews is Space
Oddities. I’m reading reviews like:
“I enjoyed this book. I found it
well-written with great stories. There was some humor and I loved the author’s
tone.”
“This is not a technical history and Cuhaj does a fine job
bringing out the human element…Overall, there is something for everyone who
thinks they "know it all" about the space race. I highly recommend
this book.”
There are a fair
number of critiques that I take to heart. These are reviews that only serve to
make me a better writer and I do appreciate them.
But then, there
are those that just make me shake my head. Here are a few with the answers I
WOULD like to reply with, but I know when to curb my Jersey sarcasm:
“If you or
someone you buy gifts for is interested in the defunct space program, give this
book a read.”
Quick! Someone
tell NASA! They’re defunct! Cancel the next Artemis flight!!
(This is an actual
conversation from my website):
“This book is great.
How did you write it?”
On a laptop.
“No, no! I mean,
how did you write it?”
Sometimes a pen.
(No more comments
on this thread.)
“I give it one
star. I purchased this from Amazon and it arrived in the mail damaged.”
Let me call Jeff
Bezos for you.
“This book cost
me $22.95. I wouldn’t pay $25 for it!”
Ok, but thank you
for your $22.95.
“There is no way
you hiked all of the trails in this book.”
You’re on to me.
I’d better fess up to my family about my long weekends away and my affair with
chipmunks.
(A reviewer
comments on the story of Mobile’s Boyington Oak where legend has it, a man was
unjustly hung for a murder, but before he died, he said an oak tree would grow
where he was hung to prove his innocence. An oak tree did grow on the very same
spot.)
“Joe, do you know
how many oak trees there are in downtown Mobile? Imagine the number of acorns
rolling around over the centuries.”
Ok, I can’t argue
that, but are YOU going to be the one to end a 188+ year legend? Not me!
Oh, there are more, MANY more. I'd better get back to reading them, and just shake my head.
With storm clouds on the horizon for yet another "weather alert" day, my mind is wandering with a bajillion possible writing projects being yanked from the filing cabinet in my brain. I've had positive responses from a couple publishers about my proposed non-fiction WWII history manuscript, "GI Jive", and my short story collection, "A Fig Newton of My Imagination", but as I sit here and wait for the official go ahead, I'm pondering other possible projects.
The Alabama Gulf Coast has seen an incredible rise in the number of hiking trails and walking paths over the past few years. Since my PKD has been keeping me from doing any long hikes right now, I may research the possibility of authoring a new trail guide to those nice, shorter but just as fascinating and beautiful hikes.
I've also been reading a lot of mysteries again. Just finished the latest Miss Fisher mystery by Kerry Greenwood, "Death in Daylesford." Great read. Probably 10+ years ago I wrote a mystery that takes place in Mobile, Alabama during WWII at a local radio station. The characters were based on people I knew in my radio days. They get killed off one by one. LOL! It's fiction, people! Anyway, a publisher loved the first two chapters, wanted to review the rest (which I hadn't quite finished yet), and I was pushed into completing it. Basically from chapter 3 on it was trash. I think I may revisit that one.
So many options and if you know me, I'll tackle them all at once. :)
I'm pleased to see that my book, Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space continues to receive glowing reviews. Here's the latest by Edward Journey on the Alabama Writer's Forum website:
The first book trailer for my new book that will be out in October, Everyone's Gone to the Moon: July 1969, Life on Earth, and the Epic Voyage of Apollo 11, has dropped. There are so many great stories from that month - both little known and forgotten global events and personal stories by average people, NASA employees and contractors, that I couldn't possibly put them all in this 2 1/2 minute video. Version one is ready for viewing. Note: This is a YouTube video so you may be asked by Facebook to go to an outside link. Enjoy! I can't wait until all of you get the chance to read it when it's released.
