Sunday, June 03, 2012

Touchstones

One reason I really enjoy looking at Ebay from time to time is that I'll find something really cool. I tried to land a copy of this some time back when I was working on writing THE FLOCK, but I couldn't find one. But last month I just happened upon one in a random search. It was very cheap, so I nabbed it.

Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History.

I really do wish I'd had access to this when I was working on the manuscript--it wouldn't have made any real difference in the plot or construction of the novel, but it would have been nice to be able to look at the contents of this issue as I wrote. It would have served as a kind of touchstone, I reckon.

So now I have a copy. And although the book is long since published and a sequel will see print in 2013, I'll keep this slim bulletin by the computer. Who knows what dreams it will inspire?


The wing bone of Titanis walleri.




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2 comments:

  1. MarkGelbart9:39 AM

    A good source for obscure scientiic papers is Paleopublications. Some guy in Idaho has tons of back issues of scientific journals for reasonable prices. You don't have to bid. It's probably a lot cheaper than ebay.

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  2. James Robert Smith6:44 PM

    Thanks! I'll check that out!

    I got this one for six dollars, counting postage. So I was happy to pay that.

    One bit that I did get for research on THE FLOCK was an article in the Journal of Paleontology about the discovery of a Titanis fossil in the Blancan deposits (which later turned out to be a case of an older fossil being mixed with younger ones). I couldn't afford a subscription to that publication, nor the price of an individual issue (I was dirt-poor in those days). So I wrote to the author of the piece and he sent me a photocopy of his article.

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