I had so many ideas for my first blog post. Instead of those, I decided to try to make it interesting.
Interesting to others, that is. Nothing is interesting to everyone. And some things are interesting to no one. But if I can take things that are of interest to me--things that you might not have ever given any thought to before--and create interest for you, then we should both be happy. I promise to do my best.
My first real posts will come soon, and I’m giving almost nothing away to say that they involve ghosts, sleight of hand, a flying Bible, and the vocal stylings of Diana Krall.
My motivation for starting this blog is to support the publication of my first book. Everyday Extraordinary is scheduled for release in March of 2026. Creating a website and blog is something authors are supposed to do, so why not? If it gives my book a shot at getting into more hands (and minds), I’m all for it. I sincerely believe it contains a wealth of valuable information presented in an enjoyable style.
Today, nearly eight months in advance of the book’s release, the production gears have been churning on the publisher’s end for several months. This is all so new for me. I’ve had many dozens of things published since my first professional article appeared in 1983. Some were even books, though highly specialized ones that you’d almost certainly not want to read. Those books are actually collections of separate chapters by different authors. I helped to curate and shape them, but they’re squarely aimed toward narrow academic markets. They're considered successful and the series has continued for a generation under the competent stewardship of former colleagues. I certainly didn't do it for the money. Over the years, I raked in roughly a whopping $250 in royalties. (You read that right.)
Only textbooks and a limited number of “monographs” (single-topic, usually single-author books) have a chance to make any significant money in academia. I was always paid well by my university and had no interest, need, or time to supplement my salary writing textbooks. I wanted to conduct original research, the products of which lent themselves very well to chapters and articles in the 10-40 page range.
Rather than earning money, for me, working on those books was a way to give back to my discipline, which, for the most part, has treated me very well. But even better, those endeavors allowed me to work with some great social scientists, as we together fine-tuned their articles for publication. That process both broadened my knowledge of the field and made me more mindful about my own writing.
My forthcoming book is a totally different animal. It’s currently moving through a starkly different publication process, and I'm learning a lot and finding it fascinating. I’m sure I'll talk about this in future posts. Right now, I'm still amazed that only a few short years ago, I had an idea for a book to twiddle around with during COVID. I neither expected nor cared much about it ever getting published. Good thing. I soon learned that very few completed books are ever picked up by publishers, and that few of those ever succeed. I was mainly writing for myself and my friends, and it wasn't until the chapters began to really add up to something that my thoughts of publishing a book came to the fore.
I will say that my publisher, Prometheus Books, seems to be doing a lot to give my book a chance to succeed. They’re an imprint of the Globe Pequot Publishing Group, which lends them a degree of marketing clout that no small press could hope to achieve on its own. It’s already available for pre-sale on all major online bookstores and is getting promoted at sales conferences. They even assigned me a publicist! Prometheus has also enlisted major distributors, such as Simon & Schuster, to get it onto store shelves.
Honestly, I never expected all this—but I’ll take it! And as a dyed-in-the-wool realist, I’m also aware that the book is not for everyone, and a few negative reviews could kill it. But wow. It’s going to have a shot!
My earliest interest in cutting-edge science was mainly in evolutionary biology. As a high schooler, I watched National Geographic TV specials about archaeologist Louis Leakey, who unearthed the remai
We recently lost the wonderful Diane Keaton, perhaps best known for her portrayal of Annie Hall in the film of the same name. There’s a funny scene in the movie that’s relevant to this post. In it, An
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