Tag: On Writing

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The Year in a Writer’s Life – 2016

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The WriterAfter writing hundreds of thousands of words it is safe to say that 2016 was a productive year. To recap the highlights:

As I write this I’m doing the final citations on Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America for Fall River Press of Sterling Publishing. The book will be released in late July of 2017. The opportunity to write the book came about through a combination of luck and the success of my previous books. My Sterling editor approached my literary agent with an idea: because Tesla and Edison were doing well, the publisher wanted to start a similar series on historical figures. First up was Alexander Hamilton (the Broadway musical has everyone all atwitter about this otherwise little-known early politician) and Abraham Lincoln. Did my agent know anyone who might be interested?

Given that I had already provided my agent with an early draft of a proposal for a Lincoln-related book, she immediately contacted me. After convincing my editor that my lifetime of independent Lincoln studies showed I knew as much (and more) about Lincoln than I did about Tesla/Edison. I got the project. Look for it next summer. Here is an early version of the prologue to give you a flavor.

Of course, I also had a book come out in stores this year. As noted in last year’s update, my big writing project last year was Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (again for Fall River/Sterling). The book was released officially in late July 2016, though to be honest, it wasn’t put on display until months later because of Barnes and Noble’s bizarre promotion of “adult coloring books.” Now that it finally is being displayed its sales are doing well.

Meanwhile, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity is into its 7th printing and has been translated into several languages. The book continues to be a huge success.

Phew. That’s already a rather busy writing year, but to this I added hundreds of blog posts on Science Traveler, Hot White Snow, and The Dake Page, not to mention way too much time writing long discussions about climate change on sites such as Facebook.

But wait, there’s more. I also contributed to the CPRC newsletter (science) and began a recurring book review column in the Lincolnian, the quarterly newsletter of the Lincoln Group of DC. During the year I also gave a short presentation on the group’s “Looking for Lincoln in Illinois” trip.

Oh, and somehow I found time to read 107 books, 27 of which were related to Abraham Lincoln and from which I took copious notes.

So by anyone’s standards this was a busy writing year. I also had a busy year traveling, which I summarized in my year-end “Year in Science Traveling” post.

And 2017 looks like it will be more of the same.

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His next book is on Abraham Lincoln, due out in 2017.

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Photo Credit: Ru Sun

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The Year in a Writer’s Life – 2015

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Hemingway's typewriterThe last few days of 2015 are bringing me somewhat of a breather from science traveling and writing and reading. It’s been a busy year in all respects. The writing scene has been especially productive.

Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World was the biggest project this year, though definitely not the only one. Following on the success of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (which enjoyed its 3rd, 4th, and 5th printings in 2015!), Fall River Press of Sterling Publishing asked me to write a follow up in the same style. So not only is Tesla still in Barnes and Noble stores, it will be joined in the summer of 2016 by Edison. Needless to say, writing the Edison book kept me busy writing a good part of the year.

But it didn’t stop there. I also wrote an e-book that looked at the surprisingly many connections between my two favorite historic people. Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate is published on Amazon and available for download to Kindle or the Kindle App on any smartphone or tablet. You can also download my earlier e-book: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time.

This year also saw a few articles. “Abraham Lincoln: The Majesty and the Math of Niagara Falls” was published in the Sept/Oct issue of The Lincolnian. In addition, the next issue will begin my new recurring column in which I offer reviews of two Lincoln-related books. One of the two will be on a new Lincoln book while the other will review a “Classic Lincoln” book, that is, a book that has been around for a very long time and perhaps forgotten or unknown.

To this you can add an article I wrote for the Smithsonian Civil War Studies.Org online newsletter, “And the War Ends,” plus an article for the CPRC Newsletter. The latest issue of the CPRC Newsletter also included an article about me and the SETAC award I won this year.

And let’s not forget the blogs. Over the course of the last year I’ve written around 250 posts combined for Science Traveler, Hot White Snow, and The Dake Page. That’s a lot of writing.

My opening sentence of this piece is not quite accurate. I’m not actually done writing for the year. I’ve been working diligently on my Lincoln book proposal and will be doing some last fine-tuning of it this week so I can send it to my agent immediately after New Years. While she’s reviewing it I’ll be continuing to write the sample chapters. The goal is to have the publishing contract in place as early in 2016 as possible so that I can be working on that book for a 2017(?) release.

So 2016 should be a very good writing year as well.

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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An Editorial Calendar for Writers (On Writing)

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Hemingway TypewriterTo 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, making time to write isn’t always easy. Sometimes your computer systems decide to make life difficult; other times “life” keeps you busy enough; and still other times you need to take a break from work and stimulate some Vitamin D production on the nearest tropical beach with an umbrella-based beverage.

But I digress. This post is about creating an editorial calendar. If you’re like me you have a million WIPs (works-in-progress) all running at once, so it’s critical to keep them moving and meet any requisite deadlines. My current projects, for example, include the manuscript for a book on Thomas Edison (submitted last week to the publisher), an e-book on connections between Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla (to be out on Amazon next week), a long article for the Lincolnian (an Abraham Lincoln newsletter), and my usual suite of blogs. Add to these at least two book proposals and tons of research time for future projects. Juggling so many balls in the air can be tiring.

An editorial calendar is what it sounds like – a calendar on which you schedule your writing commitments. You can combine it with your “to-do” and “event” calendars if you wish, but it’s important to keep track of everything you need to write and when it is due.

In addition to the ongoing book projects, I provide content for several blogs. My main author site has a blog called Science Traveler. This post is on my creative writing and memoir site Hot White Snow. I also contribute to The Dake Page (science communication), the Lincoln Group of DC Facebook pageand blog, and will shortly start my own Lincoln blog as part of my outreach for the new Lincoln book. I have to write for each of these. You may also have articles for magazines, editing sessions, and a variety of other writing assignments.

An editorial calendar can be as simple or complicated as you need it to be, though I suggest starting simple and expanding only when it’s obvious you have to….

[Read the rest on Hot White Snow]

The above is a partial of a full article on Hot White Snow, my creative writing blog. Please click on the link above to read further. Thanks.

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His next book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, is scheduled for release in summer 2017.

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Rounding Up the Writing Life

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Finally getting a chance to write on Science Traveler for the first time since Monday’s update on the Scandinavia trip plans. That trip is for the end of May, but before that a lot is happening. Much of it is writing. And the rest of it is doing interesting things worth writing about.

Current warsCurrent writing projects are headlined by my forthcoming book on Thomas Edison. The publishers of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity asked that do a similar treatment of Tesla’s biggest rival. I’m working on the early chapters and finding that Edison, like Tesla, was an interesting personality, though in a few ways almost the opposite of each other. Surprisingly, Edison wasn’t as great a businessman as most people think. The irony is that while others often got credit for the contributions of Tesla, Edison often got credit for the contributions of others. Publication is scheduled for 2016 but I’ll post more on this here as the writing progresses.

My concurrent e-book writing project is called Lincoln and Tesla: Connected by Fate. There are a surprising number of connections between Nikola Tesla and our 16th President, and this book takes a look at all of them. Stay tuned for more info and expected publication on Amazon this summer. Here’s a preview.

Other writing includes a forthcoming piece called And the War Ends I wrote for the Smithsonian Civil War Studies website. This will be the third article for them and covers the end of the war and Lincoln’s assassination. This week has also seen a “microfiction” experiment called Executing One Final Joke on Hot White Snow and How the Media Enable Climate Denial and Misinform the Public on The Dake Page. Oh, and there is the Lincoln and Science book proposal.

I also have tons of events on my calendar that will keep me busy for a while (as if writing two books and a proposal for a third wasn’t enough to do).

  • March 21: Lincoln Institute full day symposium in Ford’s Theatre
  • March 22: Wine-tasting and bald eagle viewing on the eastern shore
  • April 9: Tesla Spirit Awards in Philadelphia
  • April 11: Lincoln Group book discussion
  • April 14-15: Ford’s Theatre events related to Lincoln assassination
  • April 21: Lincoln Group dinner meeting
  • April 24: CPRC-SETAC Annual Spring meeting
  • May 16: Lincoln Group Legacy of Lincoln full day symposium

And that’s just for starters.

Somewhere within this time frame I should be receiving my first advance payment for the Edison book and my spring royalties for the Tesla book. The Tesla Wizard book is back in Barnes and Noble stores and selling fast while the Tesla and Renewable Energy e-book is available on Amazon. On top of that, yesterday I shipped a second case of 24 books to the Tesla Science Foundation for them to give as gifts to teachers who have worked so hard to get Nikola Tesla incorporated into school curricula.

It’s a good life.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for over thirty years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and the e-book Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time.

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