Hello all of you beautiful people!

Finally got around to writing my newsletter! Let’s dive straight in and look back on June 2025, shall we?

I Officially Earned My PhD!!!

That’s right folks! Your girl is finally a Dr. Mellema! I successfully defended my thesis on June 4th! I survived a foot infection a few days before, followed by days of nasal drip right before the day, to knock the presentation out of the park! It was my best presentation of my science career so far, incorporating animations throughout my talk.

8+ hours of practicing that talk paid off! (And no, I’m not counting the time I rested between run-throughs)

I do have a recording of the presentation, I just need to check if I can post it anywhere for folks to watch (since it may be under the University of Utah’s copyright law? I’m not sure. Better safe than sorry).

June Blog Post!

The blog is back! This one was inspired by a random book review that harped on a book’s world building lacking firearms. Link Below! (And yes, I accidentally forgot to alter the title in the art after I changed it in my blog. The joys of being the only editor!)

Having a Broken Rib Sucks

Funny story; I managed to crack a rib only a few days after I defended my thesis.

How, you may ask? By falling off a cliff during a mountain bike race. While I’m happy that I can now say I’ve truly fallen off a cliff, I hope to never repeat that event ever again.

Also, the fact that I only walked away with a cracked rib and bruises is a small miracle, considering the crash. I’ll take the small crack, honestly.

While this is not my first time with a broken rib, this is probably the worst broken rib I’ve ever had. Normally I’m able to still be pretty active during the recovery process, but this crack is to the left of my sternum. The pain is so much worst than having the crack on the side of the ribs. I honestly couldn’t sleep properly for three weeks.

I think I’d be handling the pain/insomnia better if it hadn’t been right after my defense…. [Insert Heavy Sigh]. The body can only take so much.

Why am I bringing up the broken rib? Turns out that having an injury that inhibits your sleep really puts a damper on one’s creativity. I ran out of steam to attempt any of my other scicomm ideas (I’m frankly lucky that I got the blog post out with all of the pain).

But I do have a list of scicomm projects that I’m working on later on in the newsletter, so stay tuned!

How’s The Thesis?

A little behind-the-scenes for the thesis process: I sent in my thesis for revisions, and then I got an avalanche of edits to fix (mostly formatting issues) before I send it back in to officially-officially recieve my degree.

I didn’t think it’d be too bad until the editor asked me to change all of my bibliography to lower case… Which I had to do manually. Hours of going through each source and changing the title to lower case. It was slightly maddening, if I’m being honest.

And as of yesterday, I received another round of revisions including more edits that they didn’t see the first time. My goodness, this is becoming a nightmare. Just let me have my thesis already!

SciComm In the Works

I have multiple projects going forward for the next few months (not counting the actual scicomm business or patreon I may be starting up):

1) Making my PI’s website before I leave: My PI is allowing me to buff up my scicomm resumé by allowing me to work on the lab website! I have quite a bit of experience from building my own (https://www.rebeccamellema.com/) and from upkeep of my blog. The more I can add to my experience, the more useful I can be in the job market… I hope.

2) Making Experimental Protocol Videos: I’m also going to be providing my lab with voiced videos walking through many major lab protocols. I have the footage for cardiac puncture, and will be working on the venaflux assay video come Monday. Next is figuring out how to properly put a voiceover on what I have.

3) Cold-emailing scicomm Nonprofits to become a volunteer: I’m kind of out of ideas for jobs at the moment (The rejections are coming in weekly at this point), so I’m considering just volunteering my butt off to buff up my resumé.

4) Science Videos: Once I finish the protocol videos and learn the ins-and-outs of video editing, I’m going straight into science videos. And I’m not just saying it this time: the videos are happening. I’m working on getting footage to use in the videos, and I hope to do more animation once I’m no longer in the “moving trenches.” The thing is, video making takes me longer than writing, so I can’t just pump out a video in a weekend yet. Hopefully I’ll get there as a scicomm creator, but we’re still learning.

5) Finish The Dragon Rider Book draft: Again, I do consider this fundumentally a scicomm project just do to the amount of science in this book. And since I’m jobless, we might as well chase the childhood dream 100% and throw myself at finishing a real book. I’m already on chapter 22, and the two alpha readers who are reading it are loving it (I love you alpha readers!)!

And of course, I’m keeping the blog thriving! Due to me moving at the end of the month to a different state, I think I’m going to focus on a blog explaining “Gaining immunity to snake venom.” It’s very close to my field of study, so I can easily pump out a blog post in a night if I have to.

(But I do have personal beef against the whole “Dire Wolf” story, so don’t worry. That’s getting it’s own blog rant come next month when I’m not packing).

Book Chat: Discussion about Self-Publishing Decision pt 2

Ah yes. As promised, here’s the second part about why I’m going to probably go self-publishing.

So the hard truth about modern day traditional self-publishing is that traditional publishers are offloading a lot of work onto authors to do their own promotional work. This can take an emotional toll on authors who just want to write the book.

Here’s the thing though: I’m already doing my own promotion of my scicomm work and soon-to-exist business. Self-promo does not scare me. Nor does doing my own formatting or editing. Does it suck that it’s going to be a lot of money on my end? Yes, absolutely. But does it scare me? No: I do my own formatting for my website. I’m learning how to do my own formatting for my videos and science illustrations.

In short: I’m already doing self-publishing work with a lot of my other projects, so the idea of that extending to my own novel doesn’t shake me. I’m so self-taught at this point from scicomm work and PhD work that rolling up my sleeves to figure out how to publish a book is par for the course at this point.

Time to Move in August!

I will be in another state by the time July 31st rolls around! Wish me luck on the move! I’m going to get 1 full month of having no obligations

Onward!!!

-Becca