The Moon On Her Mind
Journalist and author Rebecca Boyle on the shift from news journalist to author
“I want to help people find connections between themselves and the natural world.” —Rebecca Boyle, author of Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution and Made Us Who We Are
Preview: Episode 103 How the Moon Made Us—and How One Woman Tells the Story of the Moon
As a journalist covering the cosmos, Rebecca Boyle has long had a personal passion for the moon and all the ways it has influenced humanity—scientifically, culturally, spiritually, even biologically. She turned her passion for the moon into a book, OUR MOON: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (Random House, 2024), which comes out next week. In this week’s episode, we speak with her about the many differences between writing articles and writing a book, in terms of structure, research, scheduling, focus, and what success looks like. We speak, too, about the challenges of parenting young children while writing a book—as well as writing through other upheavals (you know, like a pandemic and moving to another state).
Rebecca has reported from particle accelerators, genetic sequencing labs, bat caves, the middle of a lake, the tops of mountains, and the retractable domes of some of Earth’s largest telescopes. Her first book, OUR MOON: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (Random House, 2024) is a new history of humanity’s relationship with the Moon, which Rebecca has not yet visited on assignment. Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., Rebecca is a contributing editor at Scientific American, a contributing writer at Quanta Magazine and The Atlantic, and a columnist at Atlas Obscura. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Smithsonian Air & Space, and Popular Science. Her work has appeared in Wired, MIT Technology Review, Nature, Science, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist, Audubon, Distillations, and many other publications.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
What a joy to hear Pádraig Ó Tuama read and talk about “The Coup” by Valencia Robin in his podcast “Poetry Unbound” hosted by On Being. Robin was our guest in episode 65 on the relationship between walking and creativity—a recurring theme here on Emerging Form! The poem is so powerful—about the dynamics between a daughter and her single mother, it’s intimate and deeply unsettling and beautiful.
It’s an old article, but I really enjoyed reading this interview with poet Gregory Orr on Plume in which he discusses his book Selected Books of the Beloved, 530 untitled lyrics, which I have and deeply love. It’s interesting to see which poems he pulls from it to show the arc of the book. He speaks a lot about process over the last 20 years. It’s a beautiful insight into his work—oh, and it occurs to me now in a sweet coincidence that Orr was one of Robin’s mentors! Ha!
Christie:
This lovely Last Word On Nothing post by Emily Underwood made me long to go on a train trip.
This essay by Eden Robins about leaving her corporate job to become a crossing guard (a job that comes with health insurance) and how that decision aided her creative work really resonated with me.
Contact Shine
Sometimes we don’t know
what we’re capable of
until we find ourselves
in the light of another;
suddenly we’re radiant,
downright incandescent—
as tonight, the blue snow
gathered the light of the full moon
in its facets and it flashed and sparkled,
though the snow owns no shine of its own.
This is how it is with my heart—
when I am with you,
it becomes a luminous living thing
and I barely recognize it,
resplendent-sprung and bright-winged,
where just moments before
it was dull. Even the memory of you
can make me shine.
As if nothing is lost.
As if we are made of memory.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, Rebecca shares an essential organizing principle for creating chapters in a book, what excites her about helping her readers make connections, and the art of shifting identities (from not mother to mother and journalist to author). If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
What creative identities are shifting for you right now?
How does parenting affect your creative practice?
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