That’s A Wrap for April!

Hello one and all! Here we go again for another monthly newsletter!

Fun science fact that I learned today at the Aviary (and got to see some baby Barn Owls, shown below!): Adult barn owls usually live off of 2-3 mice a day, but their growing babies eat 7 mice a day! The little owls in this picture are smaller than an adult barn owl, but weigh more than an adult!

Blog Post of April

I’m breaking the mold a bit for my blog post this month.

If you’re not aware, I was part of a series of Dungeons and Dragons games that I played for Science and Sorcery’s “Playing for Palestine” series! If you’d like to support the charity, the link for donations is still live! (I think it will be until after May 4th).

The blog post covering how I incorporated plant science into my character can be found here! It was a plant-themed game, so I went ham with the plant science facts (specifically plant toxins). I then compiled all of those plant facts into April’s blog post!

Link here: http://gettingthesciencewrite.com/Dnd-Character-And-Science/

Since I’m not super confident on how HeroForge’s copyright stuff works, I feel comfy putting this screenshot in this newsletter, but less comfy putting it on my blog.

Meet Donna! She was so much fun to play. As to how I made her figure above, I made a second hand that held the plants and then clipped it into her arms. You can kind of see the extra hand on her left side; I tried to bring her arm close enough to cover that bonus limb.

May’s Blog Post?

I’m flip-flopping between two topics right now: examining how scientists are portrayed in fantasy through the use of mages/wizards, or looking at how a dragon’s breath weapon could work scientifically.

The former idea was actually supposed to be this month’s blog post, but due to how busy everything got, I switched to a shorter post idea at the last minute. And I’m a little nervous about how much time I’m going to have in May to thoroughly write the “mage” idea because the more essay-ish posts take way longer (mostly because there’s so much more editing my wonderful friend must do!). Ideally, I’m able to write both of them so I can keep one of them in my “just in case” pile, but I doubt that’ll happen just with how hectic May is looking to be.

Knowing me, I can pump out the “breath weapon” post faster. So, currently I’m aiming for the mage post, but anticipating switching to the dragon one.

You Said You Were Writing a Book Last Newsletter?

Here’s the long story so far:

This book started as a joke between my Dungeons and Dragons players. They were in a bookshop, joined the book club, and when asked about the name of the book, I pulled one out of thin air (well, not exactly out of thin air, but it’d take to long to describe the book I parodied in the name). For funsies, I decided to write two chapters of the “book” more as a prop

And those two chapters have now turned into 11 chapters at the time of this writing. And I have plots for 4 more subsequent books. Um… oops?

Now, this is the (counts on fingers) fourth book I’ve attempted to write in my lifetime? I tried writing one in high school, one in college, and one not long after undergrad. I’m honestly super impressed that I’m still writing this book, as my previous ones fizzled out after chapter 6 or 7.

(I’ll have to discuss my experience with NaNoWriMo, because that squashed my desire to write a book for years. More on that in a different newsletter!)

Do I wish to publish this book? Absolutely. I’m loving this story. But do I think I can get traditionally published? Absolutely not. If I ever publish this book, it would have to be via self-publishing.

Now, this is not because I don’t think my story has value; it’s because my book is not exactly marketable. There’s no romance subplot (or any at all), it’s a comedy, it mocks many classic fantasy tropes/cliches, and it uses science rather than a unique magic system (magic exists, but since the main character isn’t a mage, I don’t focus on magic). My story is very niche, and no publisher is going to risk anything on a niche book that doesn’t follow trends. Therefore, I probably will bank on self-publishing if I want this book out into the world. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I don’t see any publishing company picking up my book.

If I ever self-publish, I will also lose money on the book, most likely. An editor costs up to $3,000, followed by cover art that could be $500, and publishing costs for getting proof copies could go up to a couple hundred dollars, and probably way more costs that I can’t think of off the top of my head. On top of that, self-publishing requires me to do 100% of the promoting (though it sounds like traditional publishing does that too from what I’ve heard).

Unfortunately, I’m not great at social media-ing. I try, but it’s definitely not a gift.

Why am I thinking of the pricing already if the book doesn’t yet exist? All I can say is that my mind wanders a lot during lab. For some reason, I’ve stumbled onto publishing episodes while I listen to my writing-focused podcasts as I do experiments, so it’s been on my mind.

But it’s such a fun book to write. I may post little updates or little trinkets that I make for the book. If I finish, and it’s too expensive, I’ll just publish it on my personal website/blog. It’d fit perfectly with my blog’s theme!

I think next newsletter, I’ll discuss my actual writing process in more detail. Until then, it’s still a secret 🙂 (he he he, cackle cackle cackle).

Speaking of Lab, How’s That Going?

Stares into the camera

It’s rough out here, friends.

I managed to get a good chunk of my introduction written for my first-author paper (busted out that intro draft like a boss!), but finishing the final experiments for my paper has been an issue. I need more Inflammatory Bowel Disease patient blood for my experiments, and I haven’t been able to get any for a while. While I can keep going with my mouse experiments, the human experiments are kind of important.

The lab has also made it very difficult to move forward with some of my scicomm projects, including the video script(s) and the blog. I’m hoping May gives me some breathing room so I can pump out a few posts and scripts.

What Media Are you Enjoying?

I’m currently reading Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, which is about two characters participating in a race with carnivorous magical horses that can either eat you or drown you depending on the situation. I’m not too far into the book (only 20%), so I’m still forming an opinion on the book. It’s way more intense than I was expecting, though, which I’m thoroughly enjoying.

I’m taking a break from playing video games at the moment, but I have Final Fantasy 8 to finish once I pick my switch back up.

Music wise, I’ve stumbled onto the Sondhiem musical, “Merrily We Roll Along” and have been immersing myself in some of the songs. I forgot how much I enjoy Sondheim’s lyrical dexterity!

Inkarnate Maps!

(I kind of want to try doing a little creative bit at the end of these newsletters. This month, it’s a map. Next month, maybe a poem? Who knows!)

Some of you may know that I make fantasy maps for fun, and I realized my newsletter could be a fun way to show off some of these! (Also, if you want me to make you a map or have map ideas, let me know!)

The Inkarnate map is here if anyone would like to use it: https://inkarnate.com/m/ZLy5yK-asteus/

That’s a Wrap for April! I’ll see you next month!

-Becca