A year ago I wrote some “Reflections” on the first anniversary of trading in my well-paid job as a scientific consultant for a new gig as a poor starving writer. My conclusion last year was “It was the best decision I ever made.” After another twelve months as an impoverished writer my new conclusion is an even more emphatic “best decision ever.”
When I left paid employment my book Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity had been in Barnes and Noble bookstores for only a month. It’s now into its 5th printing, bringing the total to over 65,000 copies (plus multiple foreign languages). The book has been such a great success that the publisher came back to me for a follow up – Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World is now written and in the design stage with a 2016 publication date. I also published two specialty e-books on Amazon. The writing life is good.
The traveling life is not so bad either. In the last year I’ve traveled to wild Yosemite and even wilder Everglades and Dry Tortugas. I’ve experienced three Scandinavian countries and cruised through Norwegian fjords. I’ve also visited New England twice and been drenched by the waterfalls outside Quebec City. In the next few months I’ll be in Paris, London, New York City, Gettysburg, and Salt Lake City.
The latter is to pick up an award; I’m being recognized for my contributions over the last 25 years serving SETAC and my regional chapter. I’m honored to receive such a prestigious accolade.
Over the coming year I’ll be writing even more. The Abraham Lincoln book I’ve been researching for, well, it seems forever, should finally get a chance to see the inside of a bookstore. As a VP for the Lincoln Group of DC I’ll continue to expand our outreach and education activities as I immerse myself deeper in that long-time intellectual study. I even have an idea for a compendium of essays by Lincoln scholars.
But that’s just the beginning. My list of “books-to-write” has grown to over twenty, one or two of which are in genres that may be unexpected. The order isn’t necessarily settled, it will depend on finding publishers, but one thing is clear – I’m going to have to write faster to get them all done.
On to the next adventure!
David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.
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This poem (yes, a poem) was a big departure for me. Not only do I not write a lot of poetry (the reason for which may or may not become obvious), I tackled the difficult and serious topic provoking the “Black Lives Matter” movement. This was a response to a writing prompt. [
I can’t read half of my Facebook posts. As I scroll through my feed I come across such a diversity of languages it appears Facebook is randomizing its database of world users.
I’m writing this to take a break from throwing out my life. For more than three decades I worked as a scientist, mostly for various consulting firms in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. About two years ago I resigned from my last employer to become a writer. Part of me held out the option of going back into consulting if the writing gig wasn’t going to work. That part has moved on; it’s the writing life for me.
It’s time for a science debate in which all the candidates for president – Republican and Democratic – engage in an honest discussion of science-based issues. Such is the premise behind 
This is the story of Henrietta Lacks, her HeLa cells, and her family’s struggle to learn about their long dead mother. It’s also a detective story, a story of medical conduct, a story of Jim Crow, a story of modern and historical psychology, a story of ethics, and a story of religious faith. It is even a love story. It is all of these things, and Rebecca Skloot has successfully merged them into one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in many years. [
A new peer-reviewed paper was published recently in the scientific journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology. Its title is “Learning from Mistakes in Climate Research” and the objective is to survey recent “denier” papers, that is, the rare papers that reject the unequivocal scientific consensus that human activity is warming our climate system. The authors – seven climate scientists and science communicators from Norway, the Netherlands, the United States, the UK, and Australia – highlighted the errors in fact and logic common to the selected denier papers.
Our monthly dinner and lecture meetings return on Sept. 15th with Michael Ross, who will speak about “Lincoln and Johnson: The Struggle to Re-unite a Nation.”
Join us on a tour of “Lincoln’s Final Footsteps” as he visits General Grant at City Point and Petersburg. Among the stops are Grant’s headquarters, Appomattox Manor, Fort Wadsworth, and the Wallace House and Centre Hill Mansion in Petersburg. Tour led by registered master tour guide Craig Howell.
To be a writer you have to write…a lot. Much of your writing won’t see the light of day, but it’s critical to keep writing daily. That said, 
