Christa Avampato

Joy today: Halloween writing and reading with Neil Gaiman

Happy Halloween! Anyone have a writing-inspired Halloween costume? Let’s see ’em – post a pic in the comments.

Also, if you’re looking for some fun Halloween literary entertainment, I’ve got some for you:

Neil Gaiman reading Poe’s poem, The Raven:

The origin story of Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman traces its roots to the Middle Ages! This link also has some fun related Halloween content at the bottom of the page, too: https://www.history.com/news/legend-sleepy-hollow-headless-horseman

And when you’re all done with your pumpkins, don’t throw them in the trash. Instead, treat the wildlife in your gardens and local woods who can make very good use of them.

Joy today: Community colleges deserve more credit

For the past few weeks, I’ve been looking around for an affordable way to take some science pre-requisites. While I’ve learned so much in my biomimicry studies, I really need a much stronger foundation in science and research to do the work I want to do—using nature’s designs to build products, systems, and services.

This led me to reach out to a Principal Investigator (PI) who runs a nanotechnology lab here in New York City, where I live. We’ve had some wonderful conversations and are planning to do a short research project together this spring which will be my last requirement for my biomimicry certificate. I’m considering doing my PhD with him, and to make that a possibility I need to take science requisites: two semesters each of biology, chemistry, and organic chemistry. The challenge—science classes are expensive!

I investigated online options thinking that would be the most economical way to go. Not by a long shot! They didn’t have any with labs, which is what I need, and I was astounded at the cost – $700 per credit for 22 credits left me looking at a tuition bill of over $15,000. And that wasn’t even the total cost since I’d have to get the lab experience elsewhere. I was crestfallen.

Then on a whim, I decided to look into the local community college – Borough of Manhattan Community College. And what to my wondering eyes did appear? Classes conveniently timed and in mixed formats of online, in-person, and hybrid at $263 per credit for in-state residents like me. I’m elated! I can get all my requirements in done right on time to (hopefully) start my PhD in the Fall of 2021.

Community colleges are unsung heroes in our communities, and I’m going to be shouting about their value for a long time. If you have dreams that require some additional education, I highly encourage giving your local community college a look. I hope you’re as surprised and delighted as I am by the opportunities they offer.

Joy today: How Twitter gave me my new writing opportunity

As many of you know, I’ve been working on my science writing and bringing since into my career as a product developer. I’m so excited to share that over the next few months, one of my favorite biomimicry publications is going to publish a series of pieces I’ve been wanting to write. I’m over the moon excited about this, and as a source of inspiration, I wanted to share how it all came about.

Twitter magic and the glass sponge
I’m pretty active on Twitter where my feed is mashup of different topics, two main ones being my writing and my work in biomimicry. A couple of weeks ago, I learned about the glass sponge for a grad school assignment.

Very quick recap: the glass sponge lives on the ocean floor over 1000 meters below sea level and is one of the oldest species in existence today. It builds one of the the most stable structures on Earth with the minimal amount of material needed. Its glass is transparent, flexible, and created from sea minerals (such as calcium carbonate, salt, and carbon dioxide) at ocean temperatures (~4 degrees Celsius, ~39 degrees Fahrenheit). It is created and then biodegrades without any toxic waste. Human-made glass is extremely fragile, expensive, and dirty to create—glass and cement production generates 5-7% of the Earth’s greenhouse gas emissions. It requires very hot temperatures in a kiln and therefore is also energy intensive.

Though we’ve known about the glass sponge for decades, engineers, designers, and scientists have no idea how it creates its glass and we’ve never been able to replicate its far superior product. It’s an absolute mystery. But when we learn its secrets, it has the potential to transform our construction industry into one that’s sustainable, clean, and healthy for the planet.

Power to the crowd
So…back to my writing. I wrote a tweet about the magnificent glass sponge just as part of my regular social media promotion of science and biomimicry. It got a lot of attention and became the 2nd most shared story about biomimicry on Twitter the week I posted it, second only to one my Mashable. That got the attention of this publication, and they asked me if I’d like to write something for them. And heck yes, I would!

What I’ll be writing
They asked me to pitch a topic to them. True to my brand, I gave them 10 pitches hoping there might be one in there that they’d like. To my surprise, they loved them all and asked me to write one a month. So, we’re off the races and here are the first few topics that will be coming out in the next few months:

1. Biomimicry and the Green New Deal (November)
2. Biomimicry and materials science (December)
3. Biomimicry makes the case for species conservation (January)
4. Medical applications of biomimicry (February)

I tell this story because I want it to inspire you to get out there and shout about what you love, what fascinates you, not because you hope it gets you something but just because you love it so much that you can’t keep it to yourself. I’m thrilled by this development in my writing. Shocked even. And even if no one liked the glass sponge tweet, it wouldn’t have mattered because I love it and wanted to share it.

The big publishing take-away
That’s the bit no one ever told me about publishing. In the age when people are obsessed with platform and followers and likes and retweets, too many of us have forgotten about joy. That’s the thing to focus on. That’s the secret sauce that keeps us going. Fill up your head, heart, hands, and feeds with joy, and see what happens. It’s a skeleton key that unlocks doors we didn’t even know were there.

Joy today: How to write a nonfiction book proposal

I started my first nonfiction book proposal tonight. I wasn’t sure how to craft one so I turned to Eric Smith’s website. Eric is an agent, author, and one of the most generous people in the publishing industry. I highly recommend all his Twitter and website to every writer I know!

He shares his tips for a successful nonfiction book proposal he put together with one of his clients. He also links to several excellent posts by Jane Friedman, Nathan Bransford, and Brian Klems who provide amazing advice for nonfiction book proposals on their own websites.

Happy proposing, and writing!

Joy: I believe science (and writing about it) is service

I just heard about President Jimmy Carter’s fall. This weekend, I learned a friend’s mother sustained a serious injury from a fall. Over the summer, we lost a dear friend of our family after he fell and injured his spine.

Recently, I’ve started to think about how I could use biomimicry to develop products that protect older adults from falling injuries. The stats are more startling than I realized:

– Every 11 seconds, an older adult is treated in the ER for a fall
– 1:4 Americans over the age of 65 falls each year—29M falls causing 7M injuries
– Scariest of all, every 19 minutes an older adult dies from a fall

People ask me why science is so important to me, why I would make this career change now to study biomimicry when I could just happily continue along as a fan and promoter of science, and not a practicing scientist. This is why: it can change people’s lives. Science is service, and if we aren’t being of service to one another then what are we doing with our time? There are many ways to serve – millions of them every moment of every day. The combination of science, product development, business, and writing about all of it just happens to be the one that lights me up.

Joy today: How Tech Sabbath is helping my writing

Last week, I tried taking a Tech Sabbath. Started by Casper ter Kuile via Twitter with the hashtag #TechSabbath, it’s a ritual of shutting off social media, email, your computer, and your phone as much as you can after work on Friday night to Saturday night. I mostly disconnected from technology for that 24 hours and it was amazing. I finished outlining my third novel that I’ll write as part of National Novel Writing Month this November and then spent Saturday with friends in Philly. I came back to tech today with a little less attachment to it and more joy. So it’s safe to say that I’ll be making #TechSabbath a part of my self-care.

Joy today: The Imagine Science Film Festival starts this Friday

Image taken from Science for Nanos: Taking Flight

As a scientist-in-training in the field of biomimicry and a beginning filmmaker, the Imagine Science Film Festival is a perfect lab for people like me who want to use the medium of film to ignite and inspire curiosity and wonder about our natural world.

The New York City-based festival kicks off this week on Friday, October 18th, and runs through next Friday, October 25th. There are events each day at various locations around the city, and the majority of the films are short-format. Whether you’re interested in science, filmmaking, or a combination of the two, this festival is a wonderful way to see new research that’s emerging as well as new ways of explaining and communicating science. Get a feel for the festival by check out the trailer at https://vimeo.com/363581326

The whole schedule is available online, along with links for tickets sales, and here is a summary with all of the direct ticket links for each:

Friday, October 18
Phantasmic Futures
Opening Night of the Imagine Science Film Festival | The spaces between utopia and dystopia, gene editing, and the post-anthropocene.

Saturday, October 19
Science for Nanos: Taking Flight
Film program for kids at the Imagine Science Film Festival | Whether by wing, flipper, jet, or rocket, everyone must leave the nest someday.

Hi, AI
Can humanoid robots be our friends? Scientists and tech visionaries believe that artificially intelligent robots will become an integral part of everyday life.

Sunday, October 20
Emergent Minds
Films on perception and memory, consciousness and identity, and the spaces that lie between mind and circuitry.

Tales from the Biosphere
The surface of the earth teems with stories, a drama which has played out over millenia. Will we continue to play a part of it all?

Monday, October 21st
Symbiosis Lab: Talks, Films, and Drinks
Watch six working scientists and six pro filmmakers as they compete to create new genre bending works in science filmmaking.

Tuesday, October 22nd
Self-care, Alchemy, and Other Life Hacks
Each year we save some of the most audacious reconfigurations of scientific themes for a program of largely animation and experimental film

Modern Hauntings
The film program in which we allow some of the phantoms banished by science back into the proceedings.

Wednesday, October 23rd
Twilight Geologies
This program collects 4 brilliant experiments in light, landscape, perception. Luminous photochemical effects. Climactic celestial events.

Thursday, October 24th
Eyes on Elsewheres
How do we observe that which we cannot experience directly? Whether searching the surfaces of distant planets or peering into the quantum world, science seeks to extend our perception ever further.

Friday, October 25th
Emergence
Six new science films in which emerging filmmakers and working scientists have been paired and supplied with production funds to create new genre bending works in one week examining all aspects of emergence.

Joy today: A big moment for my business

I’m closing out this week on a really wonderful high note! I’ve been put on retainer with one of my fantastic clients in my independent product development consulting practice, DoubleOrNothingMedia.com. In exchange for about one day per week, I’ll be able to fully cover all my expenses plus a little extra. I love this client and the work I do for them is creative, gratifying, and impactful.

This happy news also gives me a huge amount of flexibility and peace of mind to pursue my independent projects over the next few months in my writing, biomimicry practice, and film. I’ll also use this time to seek out other clients as well. So I definitely won’t be resting on my laurels, but instead making hay while the sun shines with the stress of being a business owner subsiding for a bit. I’m so grateful.

I know there are a lot of you out there, slugging it out as independents and trying to establish your own businesses and consulting practices. I want you to know it’s possible; it’s not a pipe dream. It’s hard work and it takes time, but it’s attainable.

Thank you to so many of you who have been cheering me on, especially during this challenging rollercoaster of a year in 2019. I appreciate it more than I can say. Happy weekend, friends.

Joy today: My favorite writing moment

The writing moment I love best: I write a scene, do research for the next scene, and find an eerie, wonderful synchronicity with secret history I uncovered in my research and never knew before. These magical moments makes me feel that the story I’m writing is meant to be written by me. It’s happened to me many times, especially in the course of writing my second Emerson Page novel. Every single time it happens, I’m amazed.

Joy today: A podcast about biomimicry

Hi all! Quick question for you: I’ve thought about starting a biomimicry podcast because there isn’t one (which is shocking considering there’s a podcast for nearly everything!?) If I did start one—interviewing people who practice, use, teach, and study biomimicry, and talking about new cool biomimicry inspirations—would you listen?

In case you haven’t heard of biomimicry, it’s the practice of applying the genius designs of nature to the human-built environment. This could be products, systems, processes, buildings, whole cities, you name it! If humans design it, looking to nature for design inspiration and guidance will make designs more sustainable, efficient, and beneficial for the planet. Check out more about what biomimicry is by visiting https://biomimicry.org/.