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Old 09-23-2020, 11:45 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocketflyer
Bob, you are a better wordsmith than you think.
Plus, people who are interested in the subject *won't* refrain from buying your book--or books--on the histories of the closed model rocket companies just because you aren't an H.G. Wells (who is?). Also, there are situations where being a wordsmith is overkill--I can provide an example from our own hobby and sport, which Stuart Lodge (a long-time British space modeler, competition flier, and contest judge--he almost single-handedly got model rocketry legalized in the UK [the infamous 1875 Explosives Act stood in the way; it kept the British Interplanetary Society from conducting rocket experiments]) told me about:

G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry" is, as Stuart pointed out, "muddy" and longer than it needs to be, given its intended purpose. While it provides all of the technical information that a good handbook should have, it is "muddy" in the sense that it needlessly includes too much personal information about Mr. Stine, too much historical information about the hobby, and too much extraneous material (such as the account about Dr. Frank Malina's comment about three-feathered arrows [made after Army aerodynamics experts expressed doubts that the three-finned WAC Corporal would fly stably, as all previous rockets and bombs had used four fins]; there are other such anecdotes in the book). But:

Stuart wasn't for a moment suggesting that these things aren't interesting; they *are* interesting, and useful, but their proper place is in a model rocketry history book. The extra material makes Stine's book dauntingly thick, which makes the hobby appear to be dauntingly complex, to many beginners and would-be beginners. Recognizing this, Stuart Lodge wrote a true handbook ("The Model Rocketry Handbook," which has been updated since its first [1990] edition, see: https://www.amazon.com/Model-Rocket...r/dp/B01B99PYNS ), which is now called "The Model Rocketry Handbook: 21st Century Edition" (see: https://www.abebooks.com/book-searc...r/stuart-lodge/ ). I can't, offhand, think of any pithy quotes from either edition of Stuart's handbook, but the logically-ordered technical information that they present is well-imprinted in my mind, and:

Both editions--which can be read in an afternoon, leaving ample time to spare--are only a small fraction of the thickness of G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry," because they contain only the information that a handbook should have, yet they cover all of the subjects and techniques that Stine's book does. (Stuart has also written other, specialist books about model rocketry, which cover competition flying, scale modeling, etc.). Also:

Your book (or books) about now-defunct model rocket companies (and about the history of Quest Aerospace) could--and should--be written as a book (or books) containing the extraneous information in Stine's handbook should be written. That is, it (or they) should be written in a conversational style, the literary equivalent of an old-timer telling stories about his or her past experiences (as is done, verbally, in "living history" audio and/or video recordings series [we have a local radio program that does this with older residents]). In a book or books, your written accounts could be interspersed with, and amplified by, photographs, catalog and technical report/experiment manual artwork (even Cox had a model rocketry experiments book; the Ninfinger Productions website http://ninfinger.org/rockets/rockets.html is a great online resource for scans of such publications), etc.

I hope this information will be helpful.
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