About writing generally
worldsfair | July 6, 2006Usually, when I write a humour piece, it all begins with me in the car listening to the radio, waiting for those moments when a song comes on that I hate - loath even. For instance, something like "Truth" by Spandau Ballet is just the sort of thing that will (seriously) make my ears bleed and force me to turn the stereo off. At which point, I have a moment of silence to think about things that could work in a science humour context.
I find I usually start off with a silly title, and then essentially it goes from there. Because I teach, I also try to see if I can coerse the piece into…
worldsfair | July 5, 2006O.K. so this letter basically bites. Type written, and as "form letter" as a "form letter" can get. I mean, it's not even technically addressed to me, which I take is not a good sign at all. Furthermore, if I read the signature right, I'm pretty sure it says "Me Cute." Which I interpret as just another put down, a letter that basically says, "I'm sorry but I have to reject your essay and in case that doesn't make you feel bad enough, you should also know that I'm way better looking than you are..."
Rejection Letter Grade: F
(See previous rejection letter: The New Yorker)
worldsfair | July 3, 2006
Last week I got this year's Believer Music Issue in the mail. For those not quite in the know, The Believer is not anything alluding to the religious right - rather, it is a marvelous magazine that succinctly describes itself in the following manner:
The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long. We will focus on writers and books we like. We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was "The…
worldsfair | June 30, 2006O.K. it looks like I'm going to use this site as a repository of my various science writings. In truth, I still consider myself a bit of a neophyte in this matter, but nevertheless, I've been lucky enough to publish the odd thing here and there.
In this vein, below is a copy of my first successful query letter written to that wonder of a wonderful magazine, Maisonneuve (sent on Jan 29th, 2004).
Dear Editors
MAISONNEUVE
It's like this...
Science geeks like myself can also be of the adventurous fold. And from this unwieldy mix, we can produce some pretty interesting dialogue on any number of…
worldsfair | June 27, 2006(Actually posted this a little earlier, but we're learning the ins and outs of blogging, choosing categories etc).
This is in regards to the Nude Mouse piece, shown earlier today...
This wierd little conversation piece initially began as a query to the Believer for a fiction interview piece. My letter to Matt Derby went as follows:
>Dear Matthew,
So I've been quite enjoying your interviews of late, and wanted to query how it is that one gets involved. In this respect, I'm a little on the naive side, since my writing endeavours have only been in practice for the last year or so. However…
worldsfair | June 16, 2006(This is an old slide I used for one of my genetics classes - the general idea about what Grimace is exactly was pilfered from a graphic design school advertisement I saw where several presumably student's works were showcased. if you happen to know who the student was that originally designed it, let me know, because a few of my graduate students are interested in finding out).
I can't remember exactly how I found out about McSweeney's, but I do know that upon reading Wendy Molyneux's "How To Tell People That You Are A Billionaire Without Sounding Obnoxious", I was pretty much hooked. Also,…
worldsfair | June 14, 2006Oh dear, there is certainly a lot of discussion over Ann Coulter's new book - in particular, her breathtaking views on evolutionary theory.
Hmmm, when I wrote Chapter Titles From My Creationist Textbook, I had no idea that it already existed or was perhaps in the process of being written, since it's clear that this must be the sort of reading she's basing her arguments on. Or maybe my original query and edit (below) leaked out somehow?
...Reviewing a few immunology textbooks, which led (of course) to procastination, which ultimately led to this.
cheers, dave ng
LIST SUBMISSION: HEADINGS…
worldsfair | June 14, 2006Because I am lucky enough to be in a position where my living is not dependant on writing, I've always taken the attitude of aiming high since the worst that can happen is that you get rejected from a place where you figured you would have been rejected anyway.
Using that kind of perspective, you can still bathe in the smugness of knowing that you were ultimately right in what was going to happen; and if you do happen to succeed, well then, that's just pleasant all around. My first ever attempt at some serious non-academic science writing involved detailing a trip I took to Lagos, Nigeria.…
worldsfair | June 6, 2006
Here is a selection of my writings on-line, many but not all of which are about science, technology, and nature - Ben
B.R. Cohen's Days at the Museum, a short series of dispatches from the Smithsonian.
B.R. Cohen's Annals of Science, a series of short stories about science and history and sometimes strange people.
"I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell", over at The Morning News (January 2009)
"An Anti-Environmentalist Writes His Next Column While Eating Take-out and Driving His Hummer", at McSweeney's (September 2008)
"Bisphenol-A: The One Act Play", at Dave's Science Creative Quarterly (May 2008)
"…
worldsfair | June 5, 2006Here is a selection of some of the writing I've done - Dave.
"True Encounters in my Research Career", The Walrus, September 2007 (with Chris Hutsul). (commented upon at The World's Fair)
"The Reason Is Math Bush Edit", Science Creative Quarterly, September 5, 2007
"Analyses of the Six Degrees of Separation of Bacons Other Than Kevin Bacon", Science Creative Quarterly, April 26, 2007
"Words I See When I Read the Phrase "Intelligent Design" While Squinting", McSweeney's, April 11th, 2007
"An Intelligent Designer on the Cow", Inkling Magazine, March 21, 2007
"Anytime", Science Creative Quarterly…