Conversation with Sharman Apt Russell discussion
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Sharman
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Jan 08, 2015 11:23AM
Just ask a question here or leave a comment about Diary of a Citizen Scientist or any of my other books or the writing life in general.
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Hearty congratulations on being chosen by The Guardian! I'm so delighted to join the group, Sharman, and look forward to this conversation. Thank you for calling us all to share.
Sharman, I'll be discussing Diary of a Citizen Scientist with our small reader's group in Hillsboro on Feb. 18. Should be fun.
That's great, Harley! And thanks, Rose.
Sometimes you come across an article about books and why we read them that is completely satisfying in every way. Such is Nicholas Dames' "Seventies Throwback Fiction" in n+1 found here:https://nplusonemag.com/issue-21/revi...
I found it on The Rumpus, if that link doesn't work. Anyway, Dames is irresistible.
That was interesting, Rose.So here it is February 3. The sunrise was pink and orange and the clouds turning yellow now. I am working on my science fiction Knocking on Heaven's Door coming out this fall, just re-reading before I hand the text over to the copy editor. But I'll check back here every hour or so!
Sharman, I just noticed a paper entitled "Developing natural resource career pathways through citizen science. Author Rowan Converse (Bosque School). This is being presented Friday (6th) afternoon at the Arizona/New Mexico Section of The Wildlife Society meeting in Las Cruces.
Thanks, Harley. I would be interested in that connection between natural resource career paths and citizen science. I think there is more work being done by the agencies to guide and nurture and direct citizen science projects, certainly. It's such a smart way to engage the public--at the very least.
I'll see if I can get a copy of the paper.
Hi Sharman! I have a question about the writing life in general, but for you specifically. Do you tend to work on one large writing project at once and take it to completion, or do you juggle many projects on the table at the same time? For instance, can you switch easily from editing the sci-fi draft you're working on today to something else tomorrow?
Hi, Alisa, I juggle. I think writers usually learn to do this because they have to do this--juggle so many parts of life, teaching and writing and family. And then there is the article about this or the post about that (social media brings new commitments) and the revision of one book interrupting the start of a new book. Since good revision also means time away from a project, it's also natural to juggle--to begin a project while letting another project "breathe" or simmer. And--also!--since so many of us love to move between genres, it feels natural to want to write some poetry or fiction, say, as a complement or break from the nonfiction. This isn't to say that burrowing deep into a text isn't sometimes important. To lose oneself in a story for weeks or months. But that almost feels like a luxury. Something I would like to do and sometimes do but mostly can't. Mostly...it's a juggling act that one become pretty adept at.
P.S. This is not to say that I don't take those large projects to completion. Most of my nonfiction books have been done under contract and in under two years.
Thanks for the insight into your writing life. I suspected you to be a juggler, and that's a skill I'm trying to teach myself this year now that school is behind me. It's a steep learning curve, though in some ways, not all that different from switching between school tasks on a day to day basis. I like your description that "burrowing deep" into a text feels like a luxury. I remain in awe of your productivity on so many fronts!
Hi Sharman, What a lovely day we are enjoying here in southwest NM. I will be out in it this afternoon for sure. I have five of your books on my shelf now and hope to add this one next.I am engaged in tracking and reporting precipitation as part of the CoCoRaHS network at my home since 2008 and this practice has been a great teacher of climate variation. Extremes are the norm at least in southwest NM! Same is true of insect and animal populations. I keep noticing things I have never seen before and that is after living here for over 30 years. Two years ago I noticed an abundance of black beetles, epicauta pennsylvanica, chewing on baby mullein. Digging further into these guys I learn their larva jump onto passing bees and get transported to the hive to feed on eggs and larva. They also search out grasshopper egg pods where they become immobile legless grubs before pupating into adults the following summer. Next I had to learn about our native bees and how sometimes the introduction of european honey bees can have a negative impact on some native bees, particularly bumble bees. As you are probably aware, last summer we had a huge crop of grasshoppers. I got ahold of "A Manual of Grasshoppers of NM" and began scratching the surface of their biology; the wide variety of species, life cycles, population dynamics and distribution. Nothing on culinary uses but that will be fun to explore. My favorite and super abundant last year is the black male or ebony grasshopper, Boopedon nubilum or BOOPIE. It loves blue grama and other grasses but leaves the garden alone. When it flies it clacks and the hind tibia displays a beautiful creamy red color. The female of the species is larger, gray-green in color and doesn't fly. Nature is so fascinating, my apologies for getting carried away!
Alisa, Sharman - and then there are the one trick ponies like me. I need complete focus on a work and can no more put it down and pick up something very different for a while than I can play the flute while strumming a guitar. But that's one of the most interesting things about authoring. There's not one way to do it. Each writer must find his or her own way. It's not called the lonely art for nothin'!
Joseph wrote: "Hi Sharman, What a lovely day we are enjoying here in southwest NM. I will be out in it this afternoon for sure. I have five of your books on my shelf now and hope to add this one next.I am enga..."
Joseph, how neat to see you here. Yes, it's a beautiful day. I just went for a run and left behind my long sleeves soon out the door. The beauty of some of the grasshoppers here...the big lubbers and the 1960s psychedelic Painted Grasshopper. And it's a gift to find such pleasure in grasshoppers...because there are so many! You live in such an abundant world.
Mary wrote: "Alisa, Sharman - and then there are the one trick ponies like me. I need complete focus on a work and can no more put it down and pick up something very different for a while than I can play the fl..."Hi, Mary! I know what you mean. Diversity in everything. And one of the first things, perhaps, that we need to do as writers is discover how we work best--where, what, why. Discover our own process and then fit that into our lives.
Very insightful, Mary. The minute I think I have a routine, life throws a wrench in the mix and I have to re-invent. All very normal, I suppose, and part of the evolving writing life.
Your commitment will get you there, Alisa. As Sharman says, discover your process. Enjoy the journey! It doesn't have to be a torment. For me, it's an intellectual engagement like no other and, most often, pure joy. Until, of course, an editor takes my hand and then, it's a sentence to the pressure cooker!!
Greetings Sharman: I'm in Fairbanks and head south to Gila on Wednesday, but don't get there until Thursday. The sun came up at 9:30 AM, will set at 4:41 PM and it is presently -17º in Fairbanks and +2º at our house.I'm almost done reading diary of a citizen scientist and have enjoyed it hugely. There is a lot of appealing whimsy in it and I appreciate that, plus I have never seen a tiger beetle, or if I have I didn't know what I was looking at or, more likely, never looked! I will now! I know that citizen scientists have been contributing to society's knowledge for generations. In Alaska for many years the observations and well known information of Alaska Natives was recorded in stories and was depended upon by them for much of their life's activities. The "scientists" would not use that information because it was not recorded and measured by trained technicians or scientists so was "unreliable", but over the past several decades they began to understand this information was a vast accumulation of such things as ocean/shore interactions, sea ice conditions, animal life, weather, etc. etc. and was very useful. 10,000 years of observations passed down generation to generation were worth a great deal!
Cool anecdote, Merritt (no pun intended!). Thanks.
Sharman,On the heels of your success with tiger beetles and writing as a citizen scientist, do you see a "Diary Part 2" in the future?
So, your book makes clear that all of us can participate in documenting the natural world around us--doesn't matter if a person lives in the heart of Los Angeles or the heart of the Gila National Forest. I take it as a challenge (I am the Los Angeles variety) and I am going to take note. Maybe you can help with some parameters. I am lucky--I probably have about 60'x100' of scrub Hollywood Hill land in my backyard. There's a lot of wildlife--from weird looking pale beetles the are startled when I lift a log to the skunk that I back up from if I run into him on my way to the garbage at night. Should I stick to this area--somewhere I can be daily, somewhere I know intimately or should I strike further afield. There are canyons nearby that I visit once or twice a week? Should I start a project there?
Merritt wrote: "Greetings Sharman: I'm in Fairbanks and head south to Gila on Wednesday, but don't get there until Thursday. The sun came up at 9:30 AM, will set at 4:41 PM and it is presently -17º in Fairbanks ..."Hi, Merritt, how great to hear from you! And that is such an interesting point--the natural history observations and "citizen science" work done for generations by Native Americans. I did remember to note in my book that I was the first person to document the first instars of the Western red-bellied tiger beetle, not necessarily the first person to ever seen them--thinking of all the Hohokam and Tohono O'odham and Apaches who came before me. See you this Saturday, I think!
Mona wrote: "So, your book makes clear that all of us can participate in documenting the natural world around us--doesn't matter if a person lives in the heart of Los Angeles or the heart of the Gila National F..."Hi, Mona, I would definitely go to the Nature's Notebook site--just google those words--and see if observing the life cycle of plants and animals in your backyard is appealing. The LA Natural History Museum also has a number of citizen science projects, and it would be fun to see what they are doing.
P.S. Specifically, the LA museum is looking for butterflies and spiders, I think. What better? Also they are doing a "nature map" of LA and ask for photos of wildlife to be sent to them. I don't know how useful it would be to set up a motion-sensitive night camera in some of those canyons...but it sounds intriguing.
Alisa wrote: "Sharman,On the heels of your success with tiger beetles and writing as a citizen scientist, do you see a "Diary Part 2" in the future?"
Maybe a few books out. Yes! But my next nonfiction book builds on a previous book called Hunger: An Unnatural History and concerns the introduction of high-caloric, fortified ready-to-use food, designed specifically to cure and prevent childhood malnutrition, into the commercial market of the world's one billion poor and malnourished. Capitalism and snack food! What some food aid experts believe is a solution to chronic global childhood malnutrition (a quarter of the world's children.) Like my other nonfiction books, I will be using a lot of research skills and entering into areas into which I am not an expert...
That's fascinating! And yes, a nod to the diversity topic we discussed earlier. I'll bet one major writing project helps to inspire the next, though they appear unconnected on the surface.
Yes, absolutely, all that writing springs from one psyche, after all. Over time, a body of work reflects some kind of unity and coherence--one would hope, at least. My longtime interest in hunger is kind of an outlier. But my desire to do some kind of community service as a writer, to have a role in the larger community, isn't.
Sharman wrote: "P.S. Specifically, the LA museum is looking for butterflies and spiders, I think. What better? Also they are doing a "nature map" of LA and ask for photos of wildlife to be sent to them. I don't kn..."I have an acquaintance who has a motion sensitive camera. Maybe he'll let me borrow it. I know we'd catch coyotes as I see them quite often. I am sure I would catch creatures that I'd be surprised to see. I just joined Nature's Notebook--and will definitely look into the Natural Museum. Like the idea of documenting spiders. One aspect of your book that pulled me in is the fascination w/ the tiger beetles. And how you share your intrigue as it grows exponentially. You really capture it in the last few lines before Oct. 11 (page 70.)
Mona wrote: "Sharman wrote: "P.S. Specifically, the LA museum is looking for butterflies and spiders, I think. What better? Also they are doing a "nature map" of LA and ask for photos of wildlife to be sent to ..."p.s. I will include the quote: "The physics of beauty is really the biology of beauty, and the biology of beauty is what we claim as our own, what we build inside our bodies to resonate with what we see outside in the world. Now I understand that almost everywhere I go, for the rest of my life, I will see tiger beetles. Everywhere I go, because of that, the world will be more beautiful."
Sharman, congratulations on a book that features disciplined science, plain-spoken text, accessible enthusiasm and perspective-maintaining humor (“Once successful, [the male tiger beetle] may stay attached for hours, like some nightmarish backpack.” Marvelous!) Question: do you take voluminous notes, then pile them up in front of you and start “writing the book”? Or do you flesh out the abovementioned layers as the days, the excursions, the experiments and the insights progress over time? Or something in between? Hard for a fiction writer, even one working within the strictures of a particular dramatic form, to grasp the challenge of sorting, choosing, ordering so MUCH information and keeping one's head far enough above the fray to see where you're going.
Hey, Mona, so neat to think of you doing Nature's Notebook! We'll have to compare notes. I discovered all kinds of things about plants that were so seemingly familiar to me. (Mostly I learned new things about their sex life, of course.)
Jim wrote: "Sharman, congratulations on a book that features disciplined science, plain-spoken text, accessible enthusiasm and perspective-maintaining humor (“Once successful, [the male tiger beetle] may stay ..."That's a good question, Jim. I take enough notes and absorb enough information about my subject (tiger beetles or previous subjects like butterflies) so that I have a framework, a big picture--so that I feel centered in the subject. Then I start writing and keep consulting and keep double-checking facts and details. This book, of course, takes place over time and was very much a journey. I wrote it as it happened, and that energy of present tense and immediacy was part of the book's energy. I also had a structure in place--a linear one--and that helped me organize the material. Of course, I didn't really know what was going to happen next. Would I find the larval burrow holes of the Western red-bellied tiger beetle? Would I meet a mountain lion in the wild? But as a writer I have learned to trust that whatever happens can be made interesting through language and reflection--I have learned to trust the serendipity of discovery. Other books have been organized differently. I think, in essence, I need a general grasp of what I am doing and a good sense of my structure and approach. Then I need to let the work evolve and grow organically out of that...
Sharman wrote: "Jim wrote: "Sharman, congratulations on a book that features disciplined science, plain-spoken text, accessible enthusiasm and perspective-maintaining humor (“Once successful, [the male tiger beetl..."It would be easy to say, given your description, that it's easier than fiction, that you don't face the blank page in quite the same way when you do one of your novels -- and maybe for you, that's true. But (if I may flatter you some more) writing this good has to be a mega-effort even if your feet, your eyes and your curiosity take the place of "Sh!t, what happens now??" I envy you your focus. Great book!
Hi Sharman,So sorry, I missed 2/3 discussion, and this is a tad tardy. As of yet, i have not gotten your latest book, but i will soon. Your work is very special. The concept of "citizen science" was supported and inspired by my biology professors at the college i attended way back in the 90s. We learned that in the world of biology all "studies" are about paying close attention to a species and its habitat, and recording frequencies, changes, methods, and whatever else we notice. Keeping good records and playing with the results in the computer. Any person can, if they want, become a scientist of sorts which is exciting. My question is (and could be answered if i had your book) how many months or years of research do you perform and what are your favorite "sources" of information (i.e., databases, text books, journals, most recent or a mixture of historic and new, local or worldwide). And what decisions do you make for keeping or tossing certain pieces of information? Thank you!
Hi, Heather, thanks for joining in. You know, the research varies but I usually spend about two years on a book. I do use textbooks to get centered in a subject and then I rely on more current scholarly papers for more current information and for the odd detail. Again, every book varies. Some will rely more heavily on interviews, for example, if the information is very new or not available--like with this newest book on childhood malnutrition. What information to keep and what to toss? Ah, well, I keep what I know is pertinent to the themes and the subject matter and also just what interests me. That can get pretty subjective and that won't please every reader. In the end, you don't please every reader. You go on an adventure that pleases you...
Thank you Sharman. Your answer to my query about your sources was interesting -- yes, there has to be that grounding piece (i.e., Textbook) from which all other pieces of info can radiate from. . . (ex-librarian here). Love what you said, "In the end, you don't please every reader. You go on an adventure that pleases you. . ." Believe it or not, this was exactly what i needed to hear today. It fills in the hole of the gaping question a writer may ask herself from time to time. . . "why do we write anyway? or "who is going to care what i write?" and better yet "who is going to like what i write?"
We do all ask those questions. I suppose very, very successful writers don't, but that would be where success could be counter-productive. I believe in a humility of writing. No one cares too much. Not everyone or maybe not anyone will like what we write. But we write because we love to write, because writing helps us be more who we are. (Wow, a little "preachy," I know.)
No :-) Sharman your comment was not preachy at all. It is sound experienced advice from a wonderful writer and I cherish it and thank you. All your posts were immensely helpful.
If you're being preachy, you're preaching to the choir. Every once in a while a new author approaches me about a poor review. I always remind him/her that no one writes for everyone. Some are gonna love you, some are gonna hate you and everything in between. There are wonderful authors whose expertise and talent I admire - but I can't read them to save my soul. Go figure.I don't know about loving the act of writing. That starts all of us out, of course. But for me, and everyone's different, I've been doing it so long, it's simply what I do. I can be proud of what I do and happy when I've done it well but do I love it? Hmm. Jury's still out. It's what I do. It defines me. I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop. Sometimes, I'd like to.
Mary, very interesting what you wrote about "jury is still out" on whether you love writing per se. It is way cool that you are devoted and "do it" -- and it is what defines you, however, it is not a shallow love affair, but a more challenging working relationship perhaps. Thanks for that honesty.
Oh, your most welcome, Heather! Best of luck in your own journey. It's different for us all. . .
I'm nearly ready to send out an essay that began as a meditation on the ring of smog we often see around LA's horizon. Yes, you inspired me, Sharman. I'm not a scientist--and I don't know if anyone will publish this, let alone read it--but writing is action. The Earth has a voice we must keep trying to translate for anyone who will listen.
Rose wrote: "I'm nearly ready to send out an essay that began as a meditation on the ring of smog we often see around LA's horizon. Yes, you inspired me, Sharman. I'm not a scientist--and I don't know if anyone..."Beautiful last line, Rose.
Sharman, if you're still taking questions, I'm wondering about your style of note-taking and organizing. Do you use index cards? A spreadsheet? Highlight and annotate the heck out of your books and carry them around with you? Read and commit to memory? And do you find your style varies for each book? Mahalo, Kim
Kim wrote: "Rose wrote: "I'm nearly ready to send out an essay that began as a meditation on the ring of smog we often see around LA's horizon. Yes, you inspired me, Sharman. I'm not a scientist--and I don't k..."Writing is action. That's another great line.
Hi, everyone, it's fun to continue the conversation a bit. Kim, I don't use anything as organized as a spreadsheet or even index cards. When I am interviewing someone, I scribble or sometimes tape the interview. I do highlight and annotate books. Kindle, for me, is pretty useless for research--so far. Maybe I'll get more adept or change. But I need to turn pages and remember where I was physically in the book in order to retrieve information. I do carry around some kind of internal organic brain device that is always matching up new information with information I have already--that is creating something and synthesizing research. Sometimes as I sleep. ;)
Sharman wrote: "Hi, everyone, it's fun to continue the conversation a bit. Kim, I don't use anything as organized as a spreadsheet or even index cards. When I am interviewing someone, I scribble or sometimes tape ..."Ah, that kind of brain. I wonder where I could order one of those!
