Writing…non paleontology

Even though I’m terrible at spelling and grammar, I like to write. Going through old drawings I found stories I wrote when I was a kid. I don’t remember writing them, or most of the drawings, but its fun looking over what I wrote. Back when my brother was in high school (he is 7 years younger than me) he and his friend Tom came home one day with a one-page science fiction story and asked me what I could come up with. After a few days, I had an outline for the story, a science fiction/fantasy I called ‘Just the Beginning’. Mainly because it would have had a nine-book storyline with at least one offshoot. I wrote the first book, gave it to my friend to look over, and he made his corrections/additions. Back then I was using an Amiga 3000 computer to write and had a dot matrix printer. I still have the story someplace. I wrote a few other stories/outlines for other stories. 

When my friends and brother played Dungeons and Dragons one of our group came up with this idea of making a newsletter called the Quest. We all said yeah sure and left it at that. The next time we played he had the first newsletter done, with adds, and a few stories he wrote. The others started writing for the Quest, and a few months later I started to write stories. It turned out I was the second most prolific writer in the group, with 23 stories (It ended up being a four-year publication).  One issue would have three of my stores going at the same time. The stories were mainly tongue in cheek, with digs at each other. I wrote more mainstream stories but did do a few digs at us.
I started writing a horror style story and nearly have it finished. I would talk to friends then I’d get an idea for a story. I’ve also started about a dozen or so stories just to get something written down, so I can come back to it later (or remember what the story was about). 

I decided to write Jurassic Park 4. I wanted to prove that a good story could be interesting and scientifically correct. I wrote it and wanted to find out how to get it published. I asked my aunt who is an actress how to get it looked at. She told me don't try to make it like Jurassic Park because Spielberg has that all snown up and make the story my own. I also contacted Alan Dean Foster (whom I met through a friend at the Tucson Rock Fossil Show) and ask him how to approach this, he basically told me to do the same thing. I put the book away for the time being and didn't work on it for a few years. I was working at Miners Gems with my coworker/friend Lisa. She was participating in an online writing group and talked me into writing my own story. Since I first wrote the story, paleontology had made advances and I used the work of Jack Horner and Mary Schweitzer's work on soft tissue in dinosaur bones and did not use mosquito's and frogs in the story (though I did write in references to my old Quest buddies in the book). I tried to find a publisher and agent, to no avail.  I wanted to have the book copy edited but didn't know how to go about it, so I again put the book aside. Then in 2015 (I think) I went to the Tucson Rock/Fossil show and saw a friend of mine, Ed Thomson (ET). He is a meteorite dealer whom I've known for a few decades. He had written a book that was published. I drilled him on how and who he had the book published. He told me, and I told him about my book, Dinosaur Isle (no longer having anything to do with Jurassic Park). He contacted Inkwater and told them I’d contact them. A few weeks after I got home (I was finishing up another project) I contacted them. They were interested and we made a deal and they published my book, Dinosaur Isle.

Dinosaur Isle has recieved five-star reviews, and people like it, however, its sells could be better.

I want it to be part one in a series of books. It was going to be a trilogy with one offshoot book, but then I started thinking more about it, and there will be at least 7 books….

I’ve probably a dozen different styles of books I want to write, science fiction, horror, fantasy…

Writing…paleontology

In 1996 I was at the Dinofest in Arizona. At the banquet, I was sitting at the table with Ned Colbert (a world-famous paleontologist). There was one seat empty next to me. His son and wife came to sit at the table. I looked at them and then Ned and thought family should sit with each other. I looked around and saw an empty seat at the table with Bob Bakker, I told them I'd go sit over there. Ned said I didn't have to leave, I smiled and said…" I'll go bug, Bakker." We laughed. At that table was also Mike Fredericks. He was publishing the magazine Prehistoric Times. I asked him if I could write an on-going series of articles on How to Draw Dinosaurs. He said yes, and my first article was on Sauropod feet. Since then I've written over 100 articles. We became friends and have gone to several conventions together. I have now published 3 volumes of my How To Draw Dinosaurs; volume 1 my first 25 articles and one from Dinosaur world; volume 2 is my second 25 articles, and volume 3 is my next 25 articles.

I’ve written two paleontology books, one is on Aletopelta, the ankylosaur Jim Kirkland and I named and described, and the beginning of Paleozoic and Mesozoic flying and gliding tetrapods. Again, I didn’t know where to go to get them published. I did contact one publisher about the Aletopelta book, they were interested if we could get the San Diego Natural History Museum to help pay for it. That didn't happen. I went to the San Diego Comic-Con around 2010 and I noticed the publisher McFarland, they published Don Glut’s Dinosaur encyclopedia, and I told them I was his friend and showed them my books. They contacted me a month later and they said they were interested in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic flying and gliding tetrapods book. I have a contract with them, and so far, the book is about 2000 pages with 1500 illustrations. I am currently finishing up the book and have a friend editing it. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to send them the edited pages and they will finally give the go-ahead to get it published. With the current research on ankylosaurs, I am glad they didn't go with the Aletopelta book, which I want to update.

I’ve also self-published some books and calendars; the before mentioned three How to Draw Dinosaurs, two volumes of Dinosaur skull a Day generic calendars as well as a Fossil Fish a Day generic calendar. I’ve written a small book on Stegosaurus, the first in a series of books, and my research on why Theropods didn’t have lips. Mike Fredericks and I have written three coloring books and are working on a few more. I plan on writing more books during the years.