Space Oddities Podcast Debut

Recently I mentioned that things have become rather busy for me here at the old writing desk. Hiking Alabama 5th Edition is on bookshelves and doing well, thank you very much and I'm researching and writing three new books. But what is really exciting is that pre-publication publicity for my new book, Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space, is beginning with a special series of podcasts.

The book tells some of the unknown, offbeat, and obscure stories of spaceflight, bringing the human side of man's greatest adventure to life. The stories are sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, but always fascinating. The are the lesser known and often forgotten stories of spaceflight.

As it turns out, there were way too many stories to put in the book so I decided to create a companion 10-part podcast cleverly titled, Space Oddities. The podcast will tell even more of these tales complete with rare audio clips. Each episode will come alive show notes that include newspaper articles, audio and video clips, and photographs related to the story.

The book hits bookshelves August 15th, but in anticipation of its release, the podcast will debut April 25th with a new episode released every other Monday until the book hits your favorite online or local bookstore.

You will find the Space Oddities podcast wherever you download your favorite podcast or by visiting the links below. 

Mark your calendar for the premier April 25th. I hope you enjoy it!  

• Buzzsprout\SpaceOddities
• Space Oddities Podcast Page

Book Release and Podcast Update

Things continue to heat up here at the old writing desk with deadlines looming and release dates on the horizon.

I had quite the surprise the other day when my latest hiking guide, Hiking Alabama 5th Edition, showed up on my doorstep - three month early! 

The book looks great. The editors at Falcon out did themselves on this one. This edition has many new hikes, plenty of updates to old favorites, and as always, all of the details you need to hike 50+ of the best hikes in the state.

The book is available at your favorite online and hometown bookstore or you can pick up an autographed copy by clicking here.

Meanwhile, the release of the new book, Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space, is getting closer. As I wait for the release date, I'm continuing work on the Space Oddities podcast. The podcast will premier on April 25th with an episode being released bi-weekly up to the book release on August 15th. I'll be posting the link to the podcast page soon.

The latest episode I am working on deals with the intersection of pop-culture (particularly the music) and the early days of the space program. Oh, there are some real gems out there. I do love this one in particular. It's a blues tune from 1957 by Roosevelt "Honeydripper" Sykes called "Satellite Baby".

Enjoy!

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!

A Suitable Sub-Title

 

I’ve been splitting my time between a ton of projects: Researching three new books (Best Easy Hikes Birmingham, A History Lover’s Guide to Mobile, and Everyone’s Gone to the Moon), working on weekly travel articles, and gearing up publicity for Hiking Alabama 5^th Edition and Space Oddities that come out in July and August respectively. 

For that last title, Space Oddities, a sub-title was easy to write. The book tells funny, obscure, and off-beat stories from our voyages into space hence the title, “Space Oddities-Forgotten Tales of Mankind’s Exploration of Space.” 

For the new book, “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon”, I was quite content with that title until I was contacted by my editor at Prometheus Books saying, “not so quick, sport. We need a sub-title.” 

The book will weave the story of Apollo 11 with what life was like here on Earth week by week from July 1^st to July 31^st, 1969, not as a day-by-day calendar but an intricate telling of the stories and how they relate. There are many fascinating, long since forgotten stories from not only the flight but life on Earth – the pop culture, news, etc. 

But this one stumped me. I had a really hard time coming up with a sub-title for this one. I loved: “The Moon Above, The Earth Below.” Trouble was, it was a copyrighted CBS news documentary title. I knew it sounded familiar. 

I asked a couple of my best friends what they thought. They came up with some great titles. One was a joke: Everyone’s Gone to the Moon…and All I Got Was This Lousy Shirt. 

Funny thing is, the publisher liked it, not as a title for the book but for when the book is published for publicity: “We’ll make t-shirts out of it!” 

Finally at the last minute I just threw some words down on the page and sent it in: 

Everyone’s Gone to the Moon - A Snapshot of Life on Earth and the Epic Voyage of Apollo 11

Bingo! We have a winner! So now that that is out of the way, the research begins in earnest.

More to come. Watch this space.

Let's Hope it's a Good One...

 

I hope you are enjoying the holidays with your friends and family and wish for you a joyous, prosperous, and healthy new year. 

It will be a laid back, non-eventful New Year’s Eve / Day celebration here. A lot of writing assignments are piling up and until I get to retire from my day job (yes, being an author does NOT guarantee lifestyles of the rich and famous, LOL!) I have quite a workload to take care of. 

Here’s what you can expect from me in 2022. It’s going to be a great year! Again, Happy New Year! Hope to see all of you on the trail soon. 

COMING IN 2022: 

June 2022: Hiking Alabama 5^th Edition (Falcon Books)

August 2022: Space Oddities-Forgotten Stories of Mankind’s Exploration of Space (Prometheus Books)

Winter 2022: Best Easy Hikes Birmingham (Falcon Books)

Winter 2022: A History Lover’s Guide to Mobile and the Alabama Gulf Coast

Just When I Said...

I can say one thing about my part-time job as an author and freelance writer. I am never bored with nothing to write about.

Just after I posted my last blog entry, in comes a slew of projects. In the pipeline, I have eight articles for TravelAwaits to write, two publishers have approached me for two new books and a third is waiting for me to complete a proposal before committing.

I don't think I will be bored in retirement.

In the meantime, I'm awaiting the final proofs for Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space which is set for release in July. The last go round wasn't too bad. It's funny how the acquisitions editor red it and only found one error. Give it to the content editor and POOF! I think he must have ran out of red ink. LOL!

Those edits were basically minor corrections, but some of his remarks puzzled me. For example, what comes to mind when I talk about mice being loaded onto a rocket and I say, "the rocket exploded and the mice were lost"? He questioned that and asked, "did they escape and run away?"

Guess you can see it both ways. I can't but the editor knows best.

I hope the "Space Oddities" publisher signs me up for presentations at all of the NASA visitor centers. Now THOSE will be some fun book signings (and road trips). Meanwhile, while I wait for the final proofs, here is a teaser for you, the first trailer for the book. Hope you enjoy it.

The Proposal

 

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I am at a quandary over my next book project and the perplexity continues. This interim period for me between books is an odd time. As I close out the editing process on my latest two titles, Hiking Alabama 5^th Edition and Space Oddities:Forgotten Stories of Mankind’s Exploration of Space, I get the bug. It’s a feeling that I really need to write another book. These last two books have led me to a thousand new ideas for other titles. They are rushing around in my head, each one shouting at me that it needs to be the next one I need to pursue.

Unlike big name and world famous authors, writers like me are not under long term book deals. It’s a fight to get the attention of a publisher and have our book ideas get past the dreaded Acquisition Editor. We do this through query letters first where on a single page we have to describe our idea by making the words jump off the page and smack the editor in the face making them sit up and take notice and say, “Hm, interesting idea.”

 I have been very fortunate since my first book, “Hike America Alabama” (later renamed “Hiking Alabama”) was published in 2000. That book offer came to me by chance when I approached the publisher, Beachway Press (later Falcon Guides) with another project. They declined my idea and offered me the Alabama book. Sweet. My third career was born and ever since, I have been able to skirt around the query letter step.

When it comes to my outdoor recreation books, since I have been with Falcon so long, they usually come to me when it’s time to update my previous titles or to ask if I would be interested in writing this book or that book. That has been the case with PaddlingAlabama, Best Dog Hikes Alabama, Hiking Through History, Hiking the Gulf Coast, and Hiking Waterfalls Alabama. For my non-fiction history books, that is another story.

For my history titles, I make the bold move and skip the query step and go right to the proposal. A proposal is the blueprint of a book that outlines every detail, every nook and cranny of what I envision a book to be complete with a detailed outline of each and every chapter, how it should be marketed, and so on. Not to pat myself on the back but my proposals usually hit the mark and spur the Acquisition Editors to call, ask questions, and sign me on. That has been my experience with Baseball in Mobile, Hidden History of Mobile, and my latest, SpaceOddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind’s Exploration of Space.

That last title, “Space Oddities”, was the most fun I had writing. The researching and writing was everything I believed writing should be and it spawned a dozen different ideas for future books, each one more exciting and interesting to me than the first. That is where my problem lies. 

As I said in the beginning, each one of these ideas are shouting at me, “Write me! Write me!” I literally have five proposals started for different titles. While researching the proposal for one book I’ll stumble on some interesting facts for another that sucks me into the proverbial rabbit hole and the next thing I know, I’m working on that proposal instead of the first one that I originally started on.

But this is a good problem to have. With retirement from my day job imminent, I see a whole new world opening up. I can’t wait for that adventure to begin. But before that time, I have a proposal to finish writing. Oh, wait. Look at that over there. That would make a good book.

The journey continues.