Books

This is relatively new territory for me, creating my own book. Not that I haven't visited this territory before. A few years ago I had been in talks with a Wiley publisher on a project, and I have worked with other authors, but my own book? Yes, it is happening. Actually, it already has. The crapcan book, "How On Fire Are We?", is a compilation of stories from fellow Lemons and ChumpCar racers. But aiming higher, sort of, I've resumed work on earlier book projects and have drafted several others, enough to flesh out the concept.

	Study Guide for Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering - Many years ago, when I first started developing and writing laboratory experiments for the students, Jim Shackelford asked if we like to work with him to create a companion study guide for his text book. Sure. We could do that. And my colleague Jerrold Franklin and I did. (1988)		Instructor's Manual for Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering - Three years, for the fifth edition of Jim Shackelford's text book, we put together a much more substantial manual, over 600 pages for the instructor. This manual contained updated experiments, supplemental material, and the solutions to the example and homework problems. (2001)
	Laboratory Experiments for Materials Science - This is a rewrite of the experiments and demonstrations I developed for the courses and outreach events I was involved in. They are being updated and reformatted for a larger, more general, audience. (2006)		Six Ways of Looking at a Pomegranate - One day my friend Mary Hook dropped by with a picture she had just finished drawing, and she wanted me to digitize it for her. Before we were done we had this little book. (2008, unpublished)
	The Book of Skwirl and Family This is volume 2 of a photobook filled with memories of our trips and adventures together, and with her family. (2009, photobook, private)		How On Fire Are We? - A labor of love that tries to capture the spirit of crapcan racing, as told by the racers themselves. This thing ended up being a 320 page beast, with over 400 photos and illustrations, and yet more teams wanted to get their stories in it. There are rumors of a second volume, and crazy rumors of an audio book. (2014)
	Horrible Idea - This story is not about making motoring history. It's not about a fantasy car and it's not even about impressing our friends. It's about the deciding this "horrible idea" was a good idea, then going for it. (2018)		Canyonlands - It was a trip to remember, four-wheeling with friends in the wilds of Canyonlands National Park. (2019, photobook, private)
	Book of Skwirl, The Erlangen Years - It seems like it was centuries ago when we both lived and worked in Erlangen, Germany. (2019, photobook, private)		Race Day - When my nephew Kai was only four years old I laid out a race track in my home using masking tape, then photographed his Playmobile F1 cars to create a story about racing. I didn't finish it, and the cars are long gone, but for Chistmas in his last year of college I finally comepleted it and presented it to him as a book. (2019, unpublished)
	Road Trip - It's not simply about the hours, the days, the miles together in a car as the sights go by. It's about the years knowing you as our lives go by. Someday we'll get there, to our destination, not that that was ever our real goal. Sharing this road together, every minute, every mile, was why we were doing this. (2021, private)		Blue Fires at Dawn - is a story about the life of one of early Ag aviation's premiere pilots. It tells of his early days learning to fly and crop dusting in the Southern United States, his adventures in Nicaragua, working for Louise Hatchock and the Stateline Gang, a violent encounter with disgruntled Mexican dusters, and his eventual move to California where he dusted, sprayed, fertilized, and seeded fields all over the Sacramento Valley for 30 years. (2023)
	Stories, All Mine, Mostly True - This one is as close to a memoir as I will ever write. It includes true stories from my life, reprints of articles I have written, and stories based on dreams and other musings. (2023)		The Colborns - Subtitled "Walter, Anna, and History", it's a genealogy-driven story about the lives of two people who experienced first hand a number of the major events of the early twentieth century, including the big steel strike, the Lincoln Highway, and the Saint Francis Dam failure that killed Walter. With Walter's death Anna this becomes a women's story that takes her through the depression, the dust bowl migrations to California, the Kern County oil boom, World War II, and finally to homesteading in Alaska. (In progress)
	Team Tinyvette, Volume 1 - This is a story about two guys who dragged home a field-find Opel GT, turned it into a race car within nine weeks, dressed it up as one of the 24 Hours of the famous Le Mans-winning Corvettes, and took it racing in the 24 Hours of Lemons. Volume 1 covers their first five years of racing, plus two runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats. (2023)		Team Tinyvette, Volume 2 - This volume picks up the Tinyvette's story in 2015 and chronicles the ups and down and fun and challenges of keeping a 50-year old car in good enough shape to be able to knock off 600 to 1,000 miles in a weekend of racing. It also includes a condensed verion of their Cannonball Run story. (In progress, available in late 2023)