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Disease-Hunting Scientist: Dr. Laurie Richardson and black-band disease in coral
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/05/laurie-richardson-and-black-band-disease.mp3[/podcast] My newest book, Disease-Hunting Scientist (Enslow Publishers) has now been officially released, and so this week I’m giving you a column-sized version of another of the lengthy chapters devoted to individual scientists in the book. Dr. Laurie Richardson, Professor of Biology at Florida International University in Miami, is researching black-band disease in coral reefs—which means she spends a lot of each summer scuba-diving, often for hours a day. At 287,231 square kilometers, coral reefs are less than a tenth of a percent of the total ocean floor. But they support more than a million species of marine life. They are also dying, from pollution, overfishing—and black-band disease, among others. Dr. Richardson started her career researching “microbial mats,” communities of ...My new book Disease-Hunting Scientist officially released!
My newest nonfiction children's book for Enslow Publishers has now been officially released! (That's the cover at left; at the moment, that's the largest version of it I have.) You can order it now from Amazon.com or elsewhere. From the Enslow blog: Author Edward Willett tells the true stories of six real disease hunters in this new title in Wild Science Careers series, Disease-Hunting Scientist. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these "disease detectives" are coming up with new ways to fight diseases! For more information about this book, visit ...Page proofs of my book about the Bounty mutiny arrive
I received the PDF page proofs of one of my upcoming children's non-fiction books, The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie, from Enslow today. That's the title page. It's part of a series called Famous Court Cases That Became Movies--among the others in the series are books dealing with the Amistad mutiny (Amistad), Watergate (All the President's Men), and the Scopes "Monkey" trial (Inherit the Wind). In my case, the movie in question is the 1984 Dino De Laurentiis epic The Bounty, starring Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Bligh.There's some typo-finding and editorial query-answering to go, but I must say it's ...Title page of my next children’s non-fiction book
Just got the PDF of the rough layout of what will probably* be my next-published children's non-fiction book, Disease-Hunting Scientist: Careers Hunting Deadly Diseases--that's the title page at left. It's part of a series from Enslow Publishers called Wild Science Careers.It's been interesting to work on, since I got to interview several scientists who have studied diseases as varied as Marburg, Ebola, bird flu, SARS and black-band disease in coral. The focus of the series is on scientists who work "in the field," as opposed to just in a lab, so these men and women have travelled all over the world, waded through swamps, camped out in the ...Short story sale, and an end to Warhol!
I just had an email tonight that I've sold a short story, "Waterlilies," to Space & Time Magazine. Yay! It's the humorous tale of an artistic nanotech apocalypse. (No, seriously!)And another big Yay!, plus a sigh of relief: tonight I emailed my children's biography of Andy Warhol to Enslow Publishers. I had to put on a big push this past few days to get it done by the deadline, which was today (and was already an extension on the original deadline, which was the end of October). I can't tell you how pleased I am to send Andy out the door. Having immersed myself in his world for the last little while, I suspect I would ...The half-million-dollar guitar
The first guitar Jimi Hendrix set alight on stage has sold at auction for $527,044.Which is a great excuse for an excerpt from the biography of Hendrix I wrote for Enslow Publishers, Jimi Hendrix: Kiss the Sky:The Experience finished the album that spring, and called it Are You Experienced. Before it was released, the band did a tour of English movie theatres, as part of a revue that included Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck and headlined the Walker Brothers. (In Liverpool, when Jimi and Redding sneaked away to a pub between shows, the bartender wouldn’t serve them; he thought they ...An astonishing example of telepathy on my part
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be finishing up the sequel to Marseguro? How come I haven't seen a 'first line I wrote today' update for a while?"The reason, dear reader, is simple: I have been fleeing a deadline for ages, but it finally caught up to me, mugged, and ordered to me to make a choice: a finished manuscript or my life.So for the past few days my focus has had to be entirely on finishing a children's book for Enslow Publishers on the mutiny on the Bounty. Which I have now done, submitting it not ten minutes ago.Now there's nothing between me and finishing Terra ...My Janis Joplin bio arrives!
Today I received my author's copies of Janis Joplin: Take Another Little Piece of My Heart, the biography I wrote for Enslow Publishers. Another book out--the first of five or six bearing my name that should appear this year.Here's the back copy:Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Janis Joplin spent much of her adolescence looking for a place where she belonged. In 1967, she found that place onstage, singing with Big Brother and the Holding Company, a band from San Francisco. Joplin became a household name after the Monterey Pop Festival, and her star burned bright until her untimely death in 1970 ...Cover of my Janis Joplin book
As I noted in the previous post, my children's biography of Janis Joplin, Take Another Little Piece of My Heart, will be out from Enslow Publishers as part of their American Rebels series sometime this year (currently, Amazon says May).I just discovered the cover art has now been posted on Amazon, and here it is!This is the same series that my biography of Jimi Hendrix, Kiss the Sky, published last year, is part of, and the same series I'm writing books about Andy Warhol and Johnny Cash for this year.Back and looking forward
As you may have noticed, blogging has taken a back seat to other activities recently while I was acting in Beauty and the Beast up in Saskatoon, but I'm settling back into a regular home routine again and ready to start off a new year of Hassenpfeffering.And it's looking to be quite the year. First off, Marseguro will come out on February 5 from DAW Books. My deadline for turning in the sequel, Terra Insegura, is just ten days later.My children's biography of Janis Joplin should be out from Enslow before long, and I'm also finishing up my book on the Mutiny on the Bounty for Enslow, and have contracts to ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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