IS WRITING A BLOG LIKE ENACTING LAWS?

 

Probably million of words are published daily on blogs. How many are read by anyone but the author and a few friends. Similarly millions of words appear in the Congressional Record each year. Have you ever read even a paragraph from the Congressional Record?

What impels you to take time and read a blog? Or for that matter anything?

Think about these questions as you read or write your next blog. And it you’re so inclined, please tell me what you think.

Yes  No  Maybe

__    __     __           I read blogs with catchy titles.

__    __     __           Does humor make a title interesting?

__    __     __           Do personal questions in the title draw you in?

__    __     __            I read blogs that provide me with useful info, i.e. I’m a writer and find writers’ blogs helpful.

__    __     __            I like blogs that mention science.

__    __     __            I like blogs that mention politics.

__    __     __            I like blogs that mention the paranormal.

__    __     __             It’s a habit. I generally read this blog.

__    __     __             I read blogs, which were cited elsewhere.

Maybe writing successful blogs is like writing legislation that is eventually enacted. Otto von Bismark is credited with saying: “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”

In any case, I’m interested in your thoughts. Please make a comment.

JL Greger

Not knowing how to interest others in my blog bugs me.

What Do Science and Novel Writing Have in Common?

Many Americans consider science to be collection of boring facts, as dry as the stuffed animals and bones in natural history museums. That’s an unfortunate misconception, which probably reflects poorly taught classes in school.

Science should be thought of as a verb not a noun. Science is the collecting of information on the natural world in an organized and systematic way and the applying the accumulated knowledge to solve problems or test hypotheses.

Aha, you say. That definition of science sounds a bit like crime solving and mystery writing, actually novel writing in general.

Writing is a lot like doing a science experiment.

1. Writers and scientists make observations. (Granted scientists try to quantitate their observations more than writers.) 

2. They organize their observations into a whole (i.e. writers develop plot; scientists – hypotheses).

3. They test and refine their “whole,” (i.e. writers edit their prose; scientists run experiments.)

Science and writing both require a lot of hard work to gain occasional flashes of insights. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, they’re  “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Science and writing are both dynamic. Both, when well done, generate further thought. So, I think our society needs more of both.

JL Greger

Oak Tree Press will be publishing my new medical mystery Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight in March 2013.

New Year's Resolutions

Every shopper likes a good deal; every writer a good idea. Most of us see lots of great ideas, but forget most of them. That’s why I “coupon” them.

Is “couponing” a real word? I'm not sure, but there are certainly lots of “guides to couponing” found on the WEB and in popular women’s magazines.

Maybe couponing should be one of your New Year's resolutions. I substituted the word ideas for coupons into a composite guide for couponing. My examples will focus on the development of my two novels Coming Flu, a medical thriller published by Oak Tree Press in July 2012, and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight, a medical mystery to be published in April 2013.

         1. Look for ideas everywhere. Printed materials, TV, ads, etc. I like to include bits of science in my novels to add authenticity. So when I read Science and other scientific journals weekly, I pull pages that look interesting. I save maps and menus when I travel. Now for the hard part. 

2. Identify a use for ideas. Write on each saved item an anticipated use when you clip it. For example in April 2010, I read an article “The Microbes Made Me Eat It” (Science 328: 179-180) and labeled it, in my messy scrawl, “novel on obesity.

3. Focus your collection activities. Random collections are difficult to use and bulky to store. That’s one problem with computers, most of us save too much unsorted (or poorly sorted) fluff. 

Throughout 2010, I looked for and found interesting articles in medical journals on how the trillion microorganisms in our guts influence us, including our weight control or lack of it. The result was Dr. Izzy Roth and Dr. Richard Varegos, the diet doctors in Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. Unfortunately for them, Izzy is killed in the first chapter of this medical mystery and Richard is suspected. 

          4. Don’t save stuff that is easily available on the Web. To emphasize how difficult it is to lose weight, I set many scenes in Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight in popular restaurants in the Albuquerque area. I used the menus published on the web to give descriptions of food.

           5. Review ideas regularly and purge. In 2006, I started saving articles on mutations in the flu virus, the development of vaccines, epidemics, and the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act with the intent of using them in a novel. Re-examining the file when it was a half-inch thick finally gave me the incentive to start writing Coming Flu. Yes, I did use this information to create a realistic (certainly not optimal, but not a worst case scenario either) of what could happen if a new and deadly mutation of the flu virus hit a community before vaccines to the new virus were available.

You know what bugs me about my couponing system? It's easier said than done, especially the regular purging part. That's why my office is a mess and I have two file  cabinets of semi-sorted ideas waiting to be used.  

BEST WISHES IN 2013.  

JL and her faithful Bug

Are You Ready for COMING FLU in the Winter Book Blast?

Which neighbor would you fear more: a friendly neighbor infected with a new flu virus or a
not-so-friendly neighbor who is a drug dealer? 

Think about the relative amount of column space that newspapers devote to crime and to science. Most of us would fear the drug dealer more. Readers of Coming Flu are challenged to rethink their priorities. 

Don't worry if you don't like a lot of science. Coming Flu is action packed with lots of surprising twists and turns. The realistic characters are like you and your neighbors, just quirky enough to be lovable. 

One reviewer said, "Contagion move over. Coming Flu has realism and heart. I can’t wait to see the movie!" 

Here’s a peek into Coming Flu. A new flu strain – the Philippine flu – kills more than two
hundred in less than a week in the small walled community near the Rio Grande.
The rest face a bleak future under quarantine. One of the residents Sara Almquist, as a medical epidemiologist, pries into every aspect of her neighbors’ lives looking for ways to stop the spread of the flu. She finds promising clues – maybe too many? 

Coming Flu makes a great Christmas gift for men and women. Select it and other books in this Winter Book Blast.

JL Greger and Bug 

Genres:  Crime and Mystery

Purchasing links:
Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Flu-J-L-Greger/dp/1610090985?
Oak Tree Press http://oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm#ComFlu

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Winter Book Blast Event

 

COMING WINTER BOOK BLAST EVENT

   Shop December 15-23 the Blog Hop

 Books for yourself and others

THE EDIBLE BOOKSHELF will host a variety of authors. Visit their websites and pick your favorites. Along with daily features, you’ll have a chance to win FREE books.

Here’s how the book blast will be organized.

Dec 15th: Action Adventure
Dec 16th: Drama
Dec 17th: Crime  Coming Flu will be featured.
Dec 18th: Romance
Dec 19th: Young Adult
Dec 20th: Historical Fiction
Dec 21st: Mystery/Detective  Coming Flu will be featured
Dec 22nd: Fantasy
Dec 23rd: Young Adult Fantasy/Paranormal

Giveaway Rules: US residents can enter giveaways for either paperbacks or ebooks. International residents can enter ONLY for ebook giveaways. International residents can enter the grand prize giveaway, but they will only receive ebooks listed, or listed paperbacks will be exchanged for ebooks due to high shipping costs. 

Sharing books
I always try to put something to make you think in every blog. In the winter 2012 issue of On Wisconsin, I read about an interesting idea - little free libraries. It seems that residents of Madison WI have converted birdhouses (or made similar structure with a big latched door on the front), filled them with used books, and installed them on posts in parks or near busy intersections. Anyone can "borrow" one of the books inside the little free libraries. Anyone can leave a book for others. What a friendly idea!

On Wisconsin is a publication of the UW Alumni Association. You can learn more about little free libraries and see pictures at www.onwisconsin.uwalumni.com.

MAKE SCIENCE FUN - READ A NOVEL ON SCIENCE

The U.S.’s rank in the Global Innovative Index dropped from 7^th to 10^th this year. The validity of the survey published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations, and INSEAD, a business school could be questioned (Education Week, J. Tomassini blog, July 9, 2012). Reports like this cause many to worry about science literacy of Americans and to wonder about the U.S.’s public and private investments in science education. Please forget politics and just keep reading please.

Making science interesting and fun for kids.

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate on Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the National Academies of Sciences, NIH Office of Science Education, and dozens of museums and conservation groups have invested in science education programs for children and teens (K-12). Most of these programs have teamed scientists with educators to create innovative and fun science education modules and curriculum for students. These programs work but do not reach enough children, especially those in poor school districts. If you doubt these generalizations, Google any of these organizations.

What about making science interesting and fun for adults?

Fun depends on the eyes of the beholders. There are hundreds books on science topics (medicine, the environment, astronomy, etc) published for the general public every year. Obviously many adults enjoy these books.

A few of these “science books” read like action novels, particularly Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone and The Demon in the Freezer. If you like horror, it’s hard to beat Preston’s description of the symptoms of smallpox with the skin peeling from the live bodies. And John Barry really “develops the character” of several of the dedicated (but quirky) scientists, leading medicine at the time of The Great Influenza (the early 1900’s).

Okay, you say, but I really like novels better than non-fiction.

Try a novel with a science theme. These novels are not stodgy textbooks but real mysteries, thrillers and romances. The science in these novels adds credence and color to the novel but does not overwhelm the plot.

For example, one reader asked me why I didn’t mention cytokine storms in Coming Flu. I know many severe flu symptoms are due to a cytokine storm (an over reaction of the body’s immune system to the flu virus), but I’ve seen a glazed look in the eyes of too many college biology students when the cytokine storms were explained. Despite the “short cut,” you’ll learn a bit about vaccine development and immunology from Coming Flu. More importantly you’ll think about the wonders and limits of modern biology.

Fun books with tidbits of science written by scientists or physicians

My medical thriller Coming Flu is the point of view of an epidemiologist trapped in a quarantined community because of an unstoppable flu virus. My next novel Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight (due out in April) is from the point of view of an associate dean in a medical school investigating charges of scientific misconduct against a “diet” doctor. I was a professor in nutrition and toxicology.

Robin Cook, a physician, wrote more than twenty-five medical thrillers, the most famous being Coma.

Kathy Reichs, an anthropology professor, writes of modern forensic anthropological techniques in her Tempe Brennan series of crime novels.

Camille Minichino, a retired physicist, writes mysteries with titles based on the periodic table.

So why not borrow one of these books from the library or better still buy one. I think fans of mysteries and thrillers, will enjoy these books. They may even decide that science is fun.

J.L. Greger and Bug
otpblog.blogspot.com 
craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com 

ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT US?

by J.L. Greger

 Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray said, “There is only thing worse in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Was he right? Probably most writers and scientists would agree, perhaps not all politicians (or at least former politicians).

Is publicity just for the ego?

Scientists and writers want publicity for practical reasons. First the obvious reason – sales. Consider the plethora of books, which are written or at least 80% written by ghostwriters, but “authored” by celebrities. The publishers know the celebrity’s name and the attendant publicity (past and present) help sales and ghostwriters happily take the money to the bank. Everyone wins.

Generally, scientists believe a good image and publicity are essential to gain the support for scientific research by the electorate and policy makers and to attract talented students. In 2009, universities in the U.S. spent $55 billion on research and development; the federal government provided 59% and state and local government provided 7% of these funds (NSF/ Division of Science Resource Statistics. Survey of Research and Development at Universities and Colleges, FY 2009 http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf11313/pdf/tab1.pdf). In other words, scientists depend on public opinion for financial support of their research.

Is bad publicity really bad? What constitutes bad publicity?

It depends.

Lots of people complained about Dan Brown’s literary style and his use of historical information in The DaVinci Code. All the attendant bad publicity probably helped sales. The “tell-alls” of disgraced celebrities sell better than well-written memoirs of less famous, but often heroic, people.

Scientists found guilty of scientific misconduct are often barred from being a principal investigator on federal research grants for several years. Many quietly resume their careers afterwards. Those hit with a firestorm of publicity are often forced into a career change. The seriousness of the offenses does affect the level of publicity, at least sometimes. So there is such a thing as bad publicity for a scientist.

Perhaps some variables are more responsive to bad publicity. I suspect recruitment of students, particularly graduate students, to a major in the sciences is a variable sensitive to image and publicity. Between 1998 and 2008, the number of doctorates earned in the sciences grew by nearly 40% (Nature [April 20, 2011] 472:276-279).

Many factors influenced this growth, besides the job market (which was not that good for newly minted PhD scientists). One is the changing image of scientists, i.e.  positive publicity on scientists and science in fiction and in the press.

Before you say no, think of the scientists depicted in fiction and movies before 1980, i.e. Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Strangelove. Christopher Frayling studied a thousand horror movies distributed in the United Kingdom between 1930 and 1980 (New Scientist [Sept. 24, 2005] 2518: 48). He found “scientific research” was a threat to mankind in 39% of these films. Since 2000, being a scientist has been “cool” in mainstream TV shows and movies. The 2011 movie Contagion grossed $130 million in theatres. Two popular network TV shows (CSI and Bones) feature quasi-realistic scientists as their heroes and heroines.

Bottom line?

Oscar Wilde was probably right, at least much of the time. Maybe that’s why so many authors, scientists, educators, etc. are writing blogs. The next questions are:

Does anyone read most blogs?

Are they worth reading?

What makes some worth reading?

Do you care to comment?

Or will these questions just remain my bugs (annoyances).

JL Greger

The medical thriller Coming Flu will have a sequel in April. It’s called Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight.