Tag Archives: Writing

New Projects

by AJ Gulyas Posted on December 4, 2012

I’m in the beginning and middle stages of a whole bunch of new things, many of which are exciting to one degree or another.  I’m a colossal dork, so I use the Project Name Generator to categorize projects in ways I’ll (hopefully) remember.  I use Trello to keep track of the different stages and (again, hopefully) keep myself on track.

Some of these projects are purely internal and self-contained–new class ideas, new assessment ideas, and the like.  Others will (once again, hopefully) see the public light of day in some way.  I like code names because they’re fun, but also they allow me to talk about things publicly (like this) without giving too much away.  There’s no legal reason why I shouldn’t talk about these things too much, but I’m becoming superstitious in my old age and don’t want to jinx anything.  So, here’s a brief rundown.

  • OPERATION LEMURIA is a project so utterly secret and potentially cool that I’m barely allowing myself to think about it.  If this works out, it will become public in some way in the Spring.
  • POSEIDON DREADED is a conference paper which is not–surprisingly–about Doctor Who.  At least, not directly.
  • STEAMY FREAKY PARACHUTE is a nifty little set of very brief history writing gigs.
  • SWIFT WOODEN JUPITER is a paranormal/history themed project.
  • RANDOM ANACONDA is not on the list above, but is a course re-development/updating project I’ll be working on in the Winter semester.

I need to get back in that habit of using this site as a place for keeping track of what I’ve been doing with my work-related time.  Stay tuned.

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Writing Stuff

by AJ Gulyas Posted on September 25, 2012

Working on a tiny part of a large project that someone other than me is running.  Mostly it involves editing historical documents and writing some (fairly substantial) introductory material.  Of course, my brain being empty for the day, I’m writing about the writing than actually doing the writing.  That’s probably because I’m not—deep down—a “writer’ as much as I am a teacher who likes to write; this stuff comes much harder than it probably does for more writerly writers.

So, this project (which has turned out to be a little more involved than I initially thought) has—regardless of anything else—provided me the opportunity to explore some additional sources to use in my classes.  This writing (and the other writing I did over the summer—not just the book, but more bureaucratic and procedural stuff) has done a few things for me that I didn’t expect.

First, I completely rewrote most of my writing assignments for my classes.  Nothing huge, just clarifying expectations and streamlining the words.  I’ll be interested to see if the changes result in different, improved work from students.

Second—and this was not unexpected—is that the connections between my teaching and my writing (including writing that doesn’t directly bear on the subjects I teach) improve my teaching and, especially, my creation assessment activities.

A ramble, this, but one that clarified some things in my mind.  Thanks for tagging along, if you have been.

Now, back to work.

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And Away It Goes

by AJ Gulyas Posted on July 24, 2012

At 90,003 words (not including notes or bibliography), the not-yet-formally-titled Space Brother book is off to the publisher. A month, I point out, ahead of schedule, as I needed to clear the decks for the upcoming fall semester and some other projects. It may be the first time I’ve submitted anything before the deadline.

So now, I’ve got some time while the thing makes its way through the publisher’s system and they find all the things I need to fix. Watch this space for updates.

During the next six weeks or so, the blog here will be more focused on History and Teaching rather than “the Strange” as that part of my annual work cycle is gearing up and I desperately try to make my classes more interesting and useful for all involved. It’s not a moratorium on flying saucers, but it’s close…

…At least for now.

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Hack and Slash

by AJ Gulyas Posted on July 12, 2012
271 Marked-up Pages

I’m about 2/3 of the way through the first major, full on edit of the Saucer Book Project and I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far.  More words stayed than I thought would and I’ve been able to add a few thousand here and there, making connections more explicit and strengthening the argument.

And, of course, adding in the section about Billy Meier, the Swiss Contactee whose story spans decades.  Whole lot of information to sort through there, but I think I have an approach that’s narrow enough that it doesn’t become the Billy Meier chapter (it’s in with the 1970s stuff).  One of the biggest issues with the Meier material is that the original translations of the 1970s notes are pretty heavily edited (editor Wendelle Stevens removed inflamatory statements about religion and politics.  I mean, what’s the point?  Oh, and I think I met Stevens once, back in ’96 at a UFO slideshow in a hotel conference room.  Not sure though…)  Still, I think it works for my over all approach and, besides, a book about Contactees without Billy Meier doesn’t really work…

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And that’s the First, Complete Draft Done

by AJ Gulyas Posted on July 7, 2012

[progpress title="Flying Saucers, Space Brothers, and Interplanetary Femme Fatales" goal="79586" current="79586"]

First Draft
That’s quite a stack of paper…

It came in a bit under 80,000 words, but that’s fine.  I still have some filling out to do, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s chapter and the conclusion is pretty under-developed. I strongly suspect that the final word total will be closer to 90,000 than 80,000 but I am happy to have some leeway for shaping the thing.  I know there are places that are kind of flabby that could use some tightening up.  I had a real fear that I’d get to, say, 45k and have absolutely nothing left to say.  This will not, apparently, be a problem.  Saying it well, however, is going to be the real challenge…

So now, I begin editing, with two more significant chunks of writing left.  Then polishing, finalizing, and shipping the blasted thing off so I don’t have to think about it for a while!

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Final Lap (of the time trials)

by AJ Gulyas Posted on June 30, 2012

[progpress title="Flying Saucers, Space Brothers, and Interplanetary Femme Fatales" goal="85000" current="72000"]

Venus
“Venus in a New Light” from the Smithsonian

I’m closing in on the end of the full rough draft–a little later than I wanted to, but still with a good few weeks for editing and finalizing everything.  Things:

  • This is probably going to be longer than 85K words, which is good, because I’m sure a bunch of the words are coming out in the editing process.
  • I’d forgotten about writing captions for photos, so that’s another item for the to do list.
  • I’ve been talking about some of the themes of the book in various venues:
  • People ask me when the book will finally be out and I really have no idea.  I deliver the manuscript by August 31 and then its in the hands of the publishers as they edit, layout, make changes, after which I approve changes, create an index, and so on.  I’m doing the best I can to make sure the manuscript I send them is as trouble free as possible.

So I ‘m on the final part of the first part of the whole process.  I’m finding the process of working with a publisher to be almost as interesting as the actual subject material.  So far, the editor I’m working with has been helpful and friendly, which is all I ask.

And now, back to work.

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Aetherius! George King, Writing, and Progress Report

by AJ Gulyas Posted on June 5, 2012

 

[progpress title="Space Brothers on Patrol" goal="85000" current="60175"]

I hit 60K words last week.  Hoping for as much production this week (shortened due to a trip out of town).  I’m still on pace to finish when I want/need to–sooner, if I can find a healthy way to do without sleep.

Today’s work will involve the Aetherius Society and Rev. George King–the Contactee who looked least like a Contactee.  British, dignified, master of Yoga (rather than master of the Royal Order of Tibet, which wasn’t even a thing, really), King founded the Aetherius Society, the first actual, registered non-profit flying saucer religion.  It’s still going strong and there’s a branch down the road in Royal Oak that I feel I should visit.

So, today’s goal is a couple thousand words.  Hit 3400 in one day last week–kind of a fluke, as I seemed to be in some manner of trance.  Perhaps, from the aether, Rev. King will send me some sort of yogic motivation.  that would be much appreciated, as I’m just about out of coffee.

 

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Pushing Ahead

by AJ Gulyas Posted on May 22, 2012

[progpress title="Space Brothers on Patrol" goal="85000" current="51106"]

End of the semester = more time for writing.  I’m teaching online-only over Spring and Summer sessions so I am getting some traction.  My goal is to have all the words down by the end of June, enabling me to hack most them away and replace them with better ones during July and August, giving me plenty of time before the August 31 delivery deadline.

(One thing I need to remember to do is place the photos and write captions.  That’s going to be a new experience.)

I am slowly but surely overcoming my compulsion (borne of procrastination) to edit as I write.  I’ve never really been a multiple revision sort of writer (or any sort of writer–I still feel very new at this sort of thing, despite having written professionally.  This is just so many more words!), so it’s a luxury to still have 3+ months to finish up.

Speaking of finishing up, it’s time to hit “publish” and get into the office.  I need to finish up thinking about Contactee romance today, if I can stand it.

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Off the Road, Back in Front of the Keyboard

by AJ Gulyas Posted on May 1, 2012

Unlike the friendly man on the plane, I am—apparently—unable to to write while traveling.  Throw in the end of the Winter semester with its frantic meetings and more frantic grading and my time decreased more. Thus, sadly, April was mostly a planning/reading/organization month than a writing one.

Which is not, all told, a bad thing.  I think I’ve figured out a way around some of the structural problems I’ve been running into.  I’m at a good point to slow down and figure out if all this stuff I’m writing actually goes together the way I think it will, or if a different approach would better serve the ideas.

Of course, this would have been a swell thing to do before I started writing (and I do have a fairly robust outline).  This is just a good point at which to find problems (and fix them) before there are simply too many words to safely rearrange.

I also keep finding cool stuff, such as Elizabeth Klarer’s memoir which is, perhaps, the best of the Contactee romances (not that there were many).

But now, during May and June, I need to get the words down and hammer them into shape.  This may, in fact, destroy my mind.

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Visiting the Gray Barker Collection

by AJ Gulyas Posted on April 1, 2012

Door to the Barker Room

Visiting The Gray Barker UFO collection, based at the Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library in Clarksburg, West Virginia, was not a dream come true.  It was a dream come true ten years ago on my first visit.  This time, it was work. 

Of course, Ten years ago, it was work as well.  I was finishing the research phase of my MA thesis for the history department at IUPUI.  The problem, back in December 2002, was that that I was

(a)not as a good a researcher as I am not (and I’m still not great) and

(b) I was overcome by the awesomeness of being in the town where Gray Barker wrote They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers.  I was unfocused—not having started the writing on the thesis, I wasn’t entire sure what I needed—and pushed for time. 

This time, however, I had more than enough time (a day and a half), resources (better laptop, a scanner, 3G hotspot for quick research), and focus (I needed correspondence with a number of people I’m writing about).

A stack of zines

The trip was a success (not least because of lunch at the Ritzy Lunch, home of the best Italian sausage sandwich I’ve ever tasted)—I found some great letters between Barker and figures like George King and Truman Bethurum.  I also examined some books that I hadn’t been able to track down myself—Marla Baxter’s My Saturnian Lover is probably the best find, although Bethurum’s Voices from the Planet Clarion is  exceedingly useful as well.

David Houchin, who’s in charge of special collections at the library, was a great host; very helpful and full of great stories about Gray Barker and information about the Clarksburg area. 

But now that I’m home…back to work.

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