Rebecca Boyle
Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are
(Nonfiction, January, Random House)
“Our Moon is a history of humanity’s relationship to Earth’s satellite, showing how the Moon has influenced everything from the length of the day to the evolution of life to the origins of human culture, religion, and science.”
Colorado Springs, Colo. I am a science journalist, and I often write about planetary science and astrophysics for magazines. I realized I had a lot more to say about the Moon than I could fit into articles, so I developed a book proposal, with the help of my wonderful agent. This book would probably have been done two years earlier if not for the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the fact that I had My friend Peter Brannen connected me with his agent, Laurie Abkemeier, who is outstanding and the reason this book happened. I learned that writing a book is not like writing magazine features, no matter how skilled you think you are at doing that. …I [also] learned that a book will never feel done, and in my deadline-driven journalist mind, there’s always something more I could say. I have kept my head down and my eyes up throughout my career. I started out as a newspaper reporter, but I have been a freelancer for 15 years, so I am always working and always looking for the next story. I would have enjoyed the process more, instead of being so worried about what came next. … My wonderful editor kept advising me not to worry and to have faith in myself, but it’s in my nature. And if I could go back in time, I would have not written this book’s first draft during a global pandemic. Write what you want to know. I think this is as valid for a nonfiction journalist as it is for a novelist. … I know writers are often advised to write what they know, or to draw on their own experience, but to me, this leaves out way too many opportunities for discovery and creativity, not to mention empathy. I am continuing to write a lot of magazine articles about astronomy, astrophysics, the Moon, and biology. There’s always so much going on, it’s easy to stay busy. I am also developing another book idea, but it’s too early to say anything about that yet!
