After eight long years, my first book is about to hit the stands. “Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon” has been released by Oxford University Press. I have the first copy in my hot little hands. My first book! This is so neat!
Excuse me for that outburst.
Seriously, this is a new look at the meaning and origin of the myth of the gorgon, with original theories. At any rate, I haven’t found anyone else who came up with them.
(P.S. – the book is published under my Real name.)
The first one that asks what Greek Mythology has to do with bad movies, arcane algebra, or ISO9000 gets a slap.
Congratulations! Oxford University Press yet! That’s pretty impressive. It sounds like it might be an interesting read too. I’ve always been interested in classical mythology. But what does Greek Mythology have to do with bad movies, arcane algebra, or ISO9000?
Congrats, Cal—isn’t it GREAT? Have you done the “hugging my book dancing around the room” act yet? You have a great publisher (a damn sight better than MINE, I might add).
Ummm, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours . . .
Thank you. High praise from the Film author! No, I haven’t danced around with the book. I took out the real Bull Horn I got at the Renaissance Fair and blew it, though.
My web site guy was supposed to post the scan of my book cover by now (the picture on the home page is what I WANTED to be the cover). If you go to http://www.MedusaMystery.com you can see a picture of me, looking professorial. All I need is leather patches on my elbows, and a pipe. My wife drew the line at the pipe.
Congratulations! It sounds really interesting, I’m going to have to pick it up. (All I know about Perseus and the Gorgons I learned from “Clash of the Titans”, LOL)
I agree with your wife, a pipe would have been overkill.
Authors galore (not to mention aging rock stars et al.) on SDMB: We are in the presence of greatness. Congrats Cal! Mighty impressive bio you have there on your site, I might add.
And to think that these luminaries condescend to mingle amongst the rest of us commoners.
I use to be interested in mythology, (when I was young and my brain wasn’t as cluttered with crap as it is now) and when I tried to get back into mythology, it reads like a soap opera update. It’s like the players keep on changing… Anyone who can interpret and keep this stuff straight is aok by me.
No that my endorsement means anything or will help you rake in the dough.
This book has COST me more to write and produce than I’ve gotten back. I wouldn’t mind if the book made some money. I could use it to finance my next book (pretty soon, you’re standing around on street corners selling little books in hushed tones to the other junkies). To tell the truth, though, I haven’t made enough money off any of my writing to make a monthly payment on my house.
Don’t quit your day job. If the thrill of getting your name in print (and the bragging rights) isn’t enough then you’re in the wrong line.
My stuff has appeared in some weird and eclectic places. No magazine has published more than one piece by me – except the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (J AAVSO). My only work on-line is a ghost story that won the local Halloween contest. If you’re interested, you can find it at http://www.saugus.net/Events/Halloween98/adult3.shtml
There’s another picture of me on the page. I think it’s the scariest thing at the site.
If you’re interested, I can list my other writings. You might have to dig for them. My personal favorite is “Weequehela”, which appeared in “New Jersey History” a few years ago. The problem is that almost nobody has copies of that journal – even college libraries in New Jersey usually don’t.
You might check out the April, 1979 issue of Scientific American, pp. 150+. My first published writing. I am nothing if not eclectic.
Okay. I’ve dug out my rap sheet. Here are a few things tha might be interesting:
“Weequehela” in New Jersey History, vol. 111 (3-4) pages 1-16 (Fall/Winter 1993). The true story of a Delaware sachem put on trial for murdering his neighbor, an English captain. Not at all what you are picturing – a fascinating story, and one that hadn’t been properly told before. Even respected historians were getting that facts wrong in what was, literally, a footnote in history. I got interested because it happened near my hometown in 1727
“The Meaning of the Thunderbolt” in Parabola (The Magazine of Myth and Tradition)Vol. 17 (4) pages 72-79 (Winter 1992) The use of a ZigZag as a symbol for lightningis only a couple of hundred years old. In the ancient world the universal symbol for a lightning bolt looked very diferent, and not like a lightning bolt a all. But it really WAS universal – the “Vajra” of Indian and the “Keraunus” of ancient Greece were essentially the same, and this image was used from Spain to Japan. Howcum?
“How Retroreflectors Really Work.” Optics and Photonics News Vol. 4 (12) pages 6-7 (1993) Probably not the way you think they do.
“The Physics of Karate” Scientific American Vol. 240 (4) pp. 150 to 158 (April, 1979). Another Article of the same title (but with more math) appeared in American Journal of Physics vol. 51 (9) pp. 783-790 (1983) Just what it says – and a lot of fun it as. I coauthored both of these with Prof. Michael S. Feld of MIT and Ron McNair, who founded a dojong at St. Paul’s AME Church in Cambridge as a way to keep kids off the street. He died in the Challenger explosion.
Besides these I have a bunch of highly tchnical articles (“Spectroscopic Determination of the Hindered Rotational Behavior of the Cyanide Ion in Alkali Halides”, Physica Status Solidi(B) vol. 146 pp.303-310 1988, and that sort of thing), which I will provide only upon request.
