tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15871326672973888832024-03-12T16:29:17.244-08:00Mammoth TalesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-83447241403155577492019-06-14T14:36:00.002-08:002019-06-14T14:36:56.115-08:00I'm not dead yetI've started researching my next book. It's going to be about permafrost and, yes, there will be mammoths.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-21315778547646555672018-12-23T13:06:00.000-09:002018-12-23T13:06:24.567-09:00A Holiday WarningThis is a rerun of a post I wrote for my other blog a few years ago. I think it's still relevant.
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The men in black (MIB) entered UFO lore in 1956 in a book entitled They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. The author was one Gray Barker who had been a member of one of the first American UFO groups, the rather ambitiously named International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB). Though Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-41508239698666773302018-11-27T14:28:00.001-09:002018-11-27T14:28:09.008-09:00Yay! Royalties!I was at the local Barnes & Noble the other day picking up a birthday present for my sister and, while there, decided mosey over to the science section to see if they had any copies of my book. What to my wondering should appear, but a paperback edition of Discovering the Mammoth. It looks very nice. I bought a copy to show people and took it to dinner at my corner brewpub. While I was Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-698196378648352872018-05-20T20:44:00.000-08:002018-05-20T20:49:39.701-08:00The Monsters of IslandiaI just noticed that the Google Doodle of the day is Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Had I known they were going to do this, I would have written something special about it. Fortunately, I have an old post about the sources of one of the more interesting maps.
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Last fall while researching my article on images of walruses and possible mammoths on Renaissance maps, I looked atUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-68821760017538714902018-03-27T15:52:00.000-08:002018-03-27T15:52:04.300-08:00Things are not going wellToo long; didn't read version: I'm unemployed, broke, and the storage place is going to auction off all of my belongings in a few days. Send money.
When I began blogging, about fifteen years ago, I debated with myself over how personal I wanted to get. Should I talk about my depression and other issues or stick to commenting on the rest of the world? I chose the latter. I'm a fairly shy and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-6378455964270107132017-09-11T20:00:00.001-08:002017-09-11T20:00:07.360-08:00The mammoth that never was
In the three-hundred-fifty years since Europeans first
received reports of a mysterious creature in Siberia called the mammoth,
nothing has engendered more public fascination about them than the occasional
discovery of nearly intact, frozen carcasses with flesh still attached. At some
point in the nineteenth century, frozen mammoths became a staple of
catastrophist theories. As one of the usual Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-4438241841920347902017-08-31T19:35:00.000-08:002017-08-31T19:35:37.822-08:00This Is Going to Be So Fun
This week the book was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal.
The reviewer (Richard Conniff) takes a while to get to the book, preferring to
start with wondering who I am.
Discovering the Mammoth is one of those books that make you
wonder about the author as much as about his topic. John J. McKay writes that
he got started with a single blog post aiming to establish "a chronology
of what Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-15259230134763489912017-08-12T20:22:00.003-08:002017-08-12T20:22:54.609-08:00My book is outAs of Tuesday, my book is officially out. Rush to your local bookseller and demand they sell you a copy. Get your friends and family to buy one. Badger your local library to acquire multiple copies. Donate one to your high school. Nag the school board to design a course based on it. I'm available for interviews. I'm available for signings. I'm available for lunch (if you're paying). Let's sell Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-64131229177718583632017-07-15T20:37:00.001-08:002017-07-15T20:37:29.907-08:00And yet anotherOh look, here's another review. Barnes & Nobel has this one on their page for the book.
Library Journal
When people first encountered the extinct mammoth remains, opinions varied on what these creatures were. In a thorough look at the beginning of paleontology, especially cultural influence and assumptions, technical writer McKay traces how people interpreted this mystery. The author Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-6014555360069280012017-07-12T14:40:00.000-08:002017-07-12T14:44:16.417-08:00Another reviewToday, I have a review on Booklist Online. It will also go out in their weekly news letter. It's recommended both for adults and teens. Since it's behind a subscription wall, I'll quote the whole thing here:
Discovering the Mammoth: A Tale of Giants, Unicorns, Ivory, and the Birth of a New Science.
McKay, John J. (Author)
Aug 2017. 256 p. Pegasus, hardcover, $27.95. (9781681774244). 569.6.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-1319326546075527722017-07-11T14:04:00.003-08:002017-07-12T14:41:04.886-08:00Book updateThe book has been printed. The printer started shipping to wholesalers last week. It should finally work it's way into your local bookstore the first week in August.
Meanwhile, the British science journal, Nature, is planning to review it and the Christian Science Monitor will be interviewing me for their review page.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-11786074705178762542017-07-01T17:23:00.000-08:002017-07-01T17:23:20.661-08:00What is history?My answer to a Quora question:
History is a useful narrative constructed from what we know about the past. Let me unpack that bit by bit.
"History is a ... narrative..." History is not an accurate reproduction of the past and it is not all of the facts. History is a story (as the word indicates). We know he names and home towns all of the soldiers involved in D-Day. We know what many of them Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-34999243899675470192017-06-29T15:10:00.002-08:002017-06-29T15:10:33.135-08:00To my journalist and media savvy friends
This is an expanded version of something I just put on Facebook. Most of my Facebook friends know I currently live in Anchorage, Alaska. I hope here to get some advice from a wider audience.
Here's a gratuitous mammoth picture so you'll stop and read the post.
My mammoth book comes out in six weeks. I need to do what I can to help promote it. My publisher is sending out review copies Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-36641112378989177412017-06-12T11:56:00.001-08:002017-06-12T11:56:53.089-08:00We Have a Review!Publisher's Weekly, the trade journal of the publishing industry, chose the Discovering the Mammoth to be reviewed this week. They can only review a fraction of the new books each week, so I think this is a good sign.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-73638215658419219312017-05-15T19:01:00.000-08:002017-05-15T19:02:06.319-08:00It's meI don't usually post pictures of myself online. None of my social media avatars are pictures. But, the publisher needed a dust jacket photo, so I may as well share it. After all, it's going to be printed by the millions when my book becomes an international, runaway bestseller.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-2896885397270393992017-02-21T16:38:00.000-09:002017-02-21T16:38:02.979-09:00Book UpdateLast night, at around midnight, I finished the last revisions on my book and shipped it off to publisher. My editor will be taking it to the London Book Fair next month. She also told me Nature has requested a review copy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-24505025907247566832016-11-27T20:31:00.003-09:002016-11-27T20:31:42.433-09:00Amazons on a mapWhile reviewing some of the illustrated maps I used for the book, I've taken to hunting for Amazons. This group is on the Pierre Desceliers 1550 map of the world. The map was probably commissioned as a gift for Henry II of France.
Amazons
Above is the illustration of a thing worthy of memory and of being described, that is, strange and barbarous women who are experts at war and who are Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-28802677272237545212016-11-21T17:18:00.000-09:002016-11-21T17:18:00.050-09:00Book UpdateMy publisher, Pegasus Books, has released their summer catalog for next year and guess who is in it? This means it's starting to show up on the pages of Amazon and other fine booksellers. When I pointed this out on Saturday, some of my friends went pre-ordered copies. This gives it a sales ranking in the Amazon system and, as of today, it is the #1 New Release in Science > Fossils.
Amazon
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-11630051276039546652016-10-03T20:03:00.001-08:002016-10-06T09:52:20.946-08:00Where are you going little ship full of wolves?Olaus Magnus' 1539 map of Scandinavia, the Baltic Sea, and the North Atlantic, entitled the Carta Marina is a milestone of European cartography. At the time, it was by far the most accurate map of the region that had ever been made. Along with the correct geographic details and placements of human settlements, Magnus covered the map with hundreds of drawings of human history, ethnography, and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-43112070097327107102016-09-28T18:03:00.001-08:002016-11-02T11:47:12.597-08:00The Ugly MammothToward the end of the last ice age, there were three(ish) types of mammoths in the world. Last week, in California, paleontologists excavated a skull that doesn't match any of the known three.
The Dig. Source.
The first of the major mammoth types is Mammuthus columbi, the Columbian mammoth. The Columbian was one of the biggest proboscideans that ever lived (putting it in the top ten largestUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-87332130693878892972016-09-23T13:04:00.001-08:002016-09-23T13:04:40.630-08:00And we have cover artUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-84500042218837765822016-09-21T12:11:00.002-08:002016-09-21T12:11:57.065-08:00Book UpdateMy publisher just showed me a mockup if the book cover. There are some changes that we want to try out. When everyone is agreed on a version, I'll get to show you all. There've been some delays at the publisher (they moved their editorial offices) and my release has been bumped back to June. This gives up plenty of time to work on a pitch to out friends as to why woolly mammoths are the perfect Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-67177786760648560172016-06-30T09:01:00.000-08:002016-06-30T09:01:14.324-08:00Kaboom! Tunguska, 1908I originally posted this on the the centennial of the blast.
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One hundred eight years ago today, something exploded over Siberia.
The weather in central Siberia on June 30, 1908, a Tuesday, was warm and mostly clear. Ten days after the summer solstice, the days are not appreciably shorter than they are on that longest day. In Siberia, that means the days are very long. North of the Arctic Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-83784874557147064622016-06-06T09:34:00.002-08:002016-06-06T09:34:29.420-08:00Now What Am I Supposed to Do?Have I mentioned lately that I was writing a book? Yep, little, old me. Saturday, I finished it. It's written, proofed, noted, biblographied, illustrated, and captioned. Then I tied it up with a virtual bow and shipped it off to my agent. It weighs in at a petite 88,592 words. This morning I heard back from her. She thinks it's satisfactory, or, as she put it, "You are amazing! Not many first Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1587132667297388883.post-60740043045523568302016-03-31T18:19:00.000-08:002016-07-27T17:00:22.377-08:00Trilobite NoteAlmost six years ago, I wrote a piece about an early trilobite discovery and evidence of prehistoric and pre-literate knowledge of the nature of trilobites. It was pretty good and was included in The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs, 2010. Flash forward to this weekend. Catching up on my mail, I found a letter from a museum conservator in Utah asking about the source of one of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2