At Long Last: A Little More Good News

After this little bit of good news, it seems almost gluttonous of me to tell you that I have a little more good news to share with you. Yesterday, while I languished at home, ill and without stable or consistent wireless access, I finally managed to access email .. and when I did, I learned that ...

I received an email from the book reviews editor at Science magazine, asking me to write (what else?) .. a book review. Science, you say .. Do you mean ... ?

Why yes, I do mean ... !

The editor emailed me to ask if I'd write a review of a particular book, Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience, by Jeremy Mynott (Princeton University Press; 2009), since the first person decided he couldn't review it.

I have one month to read the book, write a 750-850 word review, deliver it and then work with the editor to get it into an appropriate format and "voice" for Science magazine! Since I agreed to write this piece for Science, the editor asked me not to review this book on my blog or elsewhere.

Perhaps most surprising (to me, anyway) is how the editor found me. It seems he reads my humble blog occasionally, and because I write lots of book reviews and publish them on my blog, he added me to his (potential) book reviewer list. Science pays a $100 "honorarium" for book reviews and retains copyright (well, along with me), although they do provide an "author's link" to the review so you all can access and download the PDF free-of-charge.

As far as the Nature book review goes, I am looking over the editor's rewrites today and will be sending those in soon. So it won't be too long before I will be published in both Nature and Science! Not bad for someone who can't find even a poverty-level job doing anything at all (not even scooping cat shit).

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Wonderful! It's about time you got something of a break!

Small steps towards the less deprived life you deserved all along.

Excellent! I look forward to reading the review and then - if the review is positive - the book.

By oscar zoalaster (not verified) on 11 Jun 2009 #permalink

Gluttonous? Absolutely not. After all the things you've had to go through, it's about time your talents were rewarded. This is long overdue. I love that he found you through the blog too, that's awesome.

Anyways, congrats!

Hurray! You go, Grrl!

By Julie Stahlhut (not verified) on 11 Jun 2009 #permalink

I TOLD you that you should be your OWN editor!!

By Murray Hansen (not verified) on 11 Jun 2009 #permalink

Booo! Booooo!

Sorry, I'm just envious.

P.S. If any editors of Science are reading this, why didn't you accept my 215 page manuscript PROVING that Einstein was wrong, and that, PROPERLY DECODED, Don Quixote correctly PROVES that life was seeded by 13-armed aliens.

Congratulations! And get well soon. I'm just recovering from something nasty and I have to travel - I love seeing new places but traveling knocks me out at the best of times.

By MadScientist (not verified) on 12 Jun 2009 #permalink

Excellent!

By David Harmon (not verified) on 12 Jun 2009 #permalink