Category: Book Writing

End of Year Self-Promotion

I will eventually do a “Year in Blog” post with a bunch of links to top posts and so on, but not until the year is actually over. At the moment, I’m too busy prepping next term’s class to do all the link chasing. That doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little self-promotion, though.… Continue reading End of Year Self-Promotion

Superlative Science Books

Three quick items relating to science in book form: 1) It’s that time of year again when every media outlet of any consequence puts out a “Year’s Best {Noun}” list, and John Dupuis is checking the lists for science books so you don’t have to. It looks like a pretty reasonable year for science in… Continue reading Superlative Science Books

How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: The Cover

I’m looking at an email from my editor when Emmy wanders by the computer, sniffing around just in case a crumb of food has fallen on the floor in the last five minutes. “Hey,” I say, “Come here and look at this.” “Look at what?” “This:” “It’s the cover for my new book.” “A-hem.” “OK,… Continue reading How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: The Cover

Dog Physics Around the World, and Beyond

When we got home from visiting Kate’s family yesterday, there was a large shipping envelope from my agent waiting for us. This can mean only one thing: author copies of foreign editions! That’s the Czech edition, Jak naučit svého psa fyziku, which seems to have used the same glasses-wearing golden retriever as the Brazilian edition.… Continue reading Dog Physics Around the World, and Beyond

An Incomplete List of Pop-Culture References in How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog

I’ve been going through the manuscript for the book making up a list of glossary words (a frighteningly long list), and also noting miscellaneous pop-cultural references– quotes, direct mentions, paraphrases, etc. I’m sure I’ve missed a few– many of them occur in section titles, which my eyes tend to slide right over as I read… Continue reading An Incomplete List of Pop-Culture References in How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog

Emmy in Ink and Pixels

“Hey, Dude, what’cha doin’?” “I’m checking out the dog drawings I commissioned for the book-in-progress. Here, take a look:” “Hey, wait just one minute. That looks like me!” “That’s the idea. Since you’re in the book, I thought it would be nice to have some pictures that look like you, rather than just a clip-art… Continue reading Emmy in Ink and Pixels

Dog Physics On TV: Set Your DVR

I learned today that the National Georgraphic Channel video I mentioned last week has actually already aired on the network. It was last week’s episode of the series “Naked Science,” titled Living in a Parallel Universe. I haven’t seen it, obviously, but it’s running again, tomorrow (the 26th), at 4pm (Eastern (US) time). Set your… Continue reading Dog Physics On TV: Set Your DVR

How Many Books Is That?: Modeling Amazon Sales Rank

A few months ago– just before the paperback release of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog— Amazon started providing not only their Sales Rank data, but also sales data from Nielsen BookScan. Of course, the BookScan data is very limited, giving you only four weeks, and the Sales Rank data, while available over the… Continue reading How Many Books Is That?: Modeling Amazon Sales Rank

What to Tell Your Dog About Einstein

Regular blogging has been interrupted this week not only because I jetted off to southern MD but because this week was the due date for the manuscript of the book-in-progress. It’s now been sent off to my editor, and thus begins my favorite part of the process, the waiting-to-see-what-other-people-think part. I’m pretty happy with it,… Continue reading What to Tell Your Dog About Einstein

Hello, Southern Maryland: Talk Wednesday at St. Mary’s College

I’m in last-minute-revision mode here, made mroe frantic by the fact that SteelyKid developed a fever yesterday, and had to be kept home from day care. I did want to pop in to note that I will be giving the Natural Science and Mathematics Colloquium at St. Mary’s College in Maryland tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th.… Continue reading Hello, Southern Maryland: Talk Wednesday at St. Mary’s College