For this column, NASW book editor Lynne Lamberg asks NASW authors to tell how they came up with the idea for their book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, funded and conducted research, and put the book together. She also asks what they wish they had known before they began working on their book, what they might do differently the next time, and what tips they can offer aspiring authors. She then edits the A part of that Q&A to produce the author reports you see here.
NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines to submit your report.
Publication of NASW members' reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of their books. NASW welcomes your comments and hopes this column stimulates productive discussions.
How does a writer research a book on the computer game Minecraft for elementary school-age children? By playing it–a lot, Linda Zajac reports. In The Unofficial Guide to Minecraft Survival, she provides tips to help users stay alive in the game, and in The Unofficial Guide to Minecraft Mods, she explains how users can vary their gaming experience. Both books include STEM and coding sidebars.
Harvard geometer, Fields medalist, and McArthur Award recipient Shing-Tung Yau grew up in poverty in China and Hong Kong. A teacher’s recommendation enabled him to pursue doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician’s Search for the Universe’s Hidden Geometry, Yau and NASW member Steven Nadis tell Yau’s engaging story and explore his work.
In Dennis Meredith’s latest scifi thriller, Mythicals, fantasy beings from other universes live among humans, disguised in high-tech flesh suits. When the fairies, angels, elves, and other Mythicals discover the native species, i.e., humans, are ruining their planet’s ecology, they mobilize to halt the destruction. A human freelance technology journalist learns their plans, and then....
From Zeus’ thunderbolts to sci-fi fiction, films, and comics, death rays rouse public interest. The Pentagon has explored the potential of the laser, invented in the late 1950s, to shoot down ballistic missiles and achieve other military aims. That involved many alluring but ultimately false starts, Jeff Hecht reports in Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon.
What comprises evidence at a crime scene? What do forensic entomologists do? Forensic scientists face a profusion of daunting tasks, some as rare as determining the effects of a poison dart filled with ricin or tea containing active radionucleotide polonium-210. In The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book, Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas Svarney reveal the field’s mysteries.
“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech,” Mark Twain asserted. In Public Speaking Super Powers, Carma Spence tells how to structure a speech for coherence and flexibility, develop the right stories for your message, and overcome fears of speaking in public. With practice, Spence maintains, everyone can become a better public speaker.
In 1940, as German U-boats blocked ships attempting Atlantic crossings, a 15-alarm blaze at Baltimore’s Crown Cork and Seal factory consumed nine acres of baled cork, a sealant crucial to the defense industry. Was the fire caused by Nazi sabotage? In Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II, David Taylor describes this event and its impact on the lives of three men and their families.
Perhaps 20-40 percent of worldwide tourists partake in wildlife-watching. When done right, that experience enriches travelers’ lives without interfering with those of animals. In Pandas to Penguins: Ethical Encounters with Animals at Risk, Melissa Gaskill profiles twenty-five species and one endangered ecosystem that draw tourists. She highlights local ecofriendly travel outfitters in each area.
A 1970 Monty Python sketch in which a group of Vikings chant “spam, spam…” to overwhelm conversation around them sparked use of “spam” for unsolicited email. JPEG stands for the “joint photographic experts group” that devised the now standard way to compress images. In The Computer Book, Simson Garfinkel and Rachel Grunspan provide backstories for 250 seminal events in the history of computing.
