"The Creative Process of Writing
is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"
www.virtualwritingcoach.com
November, 2008
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. John Seabrook's Flash of
Genius
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Writer's Connection explores the creative process
of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings,
and actions. We are an interactive community of authors
and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge,
skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre,
but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips
for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing
information.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton
and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript,
and are provided to the general public. Because we are
an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints
are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters
with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Publisher's Note
November, 2008
Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,
This month's newsletter features: John Seabrook's
Flash of Genius
3. John Seabrook's Flash of
Genius
John Seabrook's compendium of thirteen short stories of
past inventions, including Robert Kearns "intermittent
windshield wiper" which is now a movie with Greg Kinear,
is remarkable in its internecine world of patent attorneys,
inventors, and major corporations. The first story, of
course, focuses on Robert Kearn's "flash of genius" while
riding in his Ford Galaxy in 1962 in a light rain and
noticed that the rain was too light for a low speed wiper,
leaving streak marks on the windshield. He remembered
how his eye felt when a champagne cork hit him in his
left eye on his wedding night, and the "genius" was that
he thought he could design a wiper like an eye blink.
Twelve years later after firing four attorneys and representing
himself, Kearns won a $10.8 million settlement from Ford
and nearly $30 million from Chrysler after turning down
a $30 million settlement offer from Ford. For Kearns,
his five patents were more important than the money, and
he waited five years to cash the Ford check on the advice
of his oldest son. Kearns, a Ph.D. mechanical engineer
by education and training, died in 2005, eccentric, lonely,
and bitter after destroying his marriage and social relationships
except for his children.
The interesting twist about Seabrook's book (Seabrook's
uncle invented the "boil in bag" vegetables) is the interplay
of chance, fortitude, and ego that define the "inventor".
Other stories focus on: invisible gold, the fruit detective,
the tower builder, the spinach king, selling the weather,
and fragmentary knowledge, among others. The common thread
is the pure determination required to see one's idea to
fruition and the long lag time between idea, patent, production,
and marketing. Most of the stories talk about the painstaking
details in navigating the "patent trail" with more than
100 patents filed daily and few examiners to review them.
What has evolved is a labyrinth of "submarine patents"
which are "pending" or "in development" to avoid the 17-year
revolving door before free enterprise takes over from
the monopolistic practice of holding onto patents (witness
the brand-name drugs vs. generics and the billions of
dollars racked up by drug companies).
The chapter on "Invisible Gold" describes the mining of
gold in Nevada in the late 60s and 70s. Far removed from
the 1900 gold rush days in California with pans, picks,
and shovels, mining gold in the 60s uses strip mining
by removing tons of iron ore with behemoth machinery,
mini-camps, and government paper. Here's how it works:
prospectors pour over microfiche for unclaimed pieces
of land, buy a claim near an old mine now unworked, lease
the land for a 3% net smelter royalty where one percent
earns one a million dollars. You make money doing no work
after leasing the land for a 10-year period from the U.S.
Government Bureau of Mines. The breakeven point for pure
gold (at least 95% gold) is $250 a troy ounce; with the
price of gold at $1000/ounce today you triple your money
if you work the lease. But don't be fooled by the numbers;
strip mining is hard work with 18-hour days, 7 days a
week. In Alaska, gold season lasts 120 days (June through
September) and one's take can easily exceed three million
for working four months a year. One must figure in OSHA's
cost of land reclamation with fill-in dirt, planting,
and reforesting. From 1792 when Alexander Hamilton linked
24 and ¾ grains of pure gold to the dollar to 1971 when
Nixon raised the price to $42.22 an ounce, gold now sells
on the commodities market.
Of all Seabrook's chapters, the most interesting one for
me was "Fragmentary Knowledge" which talks about the intersection
of classical Greek history, mechanical engineering, astronomy,
archeology, mathematics, and philology. The chapter focuses
on "The Mechanism" a 3D representation of the solar system
with moving parts discovered by Greek sponge divers in
1900 from the depths of the ocean floor between Greece
and Italy. The item was labeled "#15087" and looked like
a shoebox lump of bronze; inside were fused metal pieces
of bronze encrusted with barnacles and calcium. The Hellenistic
invention turned out to be a mechanized version of the
solar system as known in the first century B.C. consisting
of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn. The Greeks have a tradition of great inventors
beginning with Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287-212 B.C.)
and used steam power, metal gears, automatic swinging
doors, and magnetism to advance technology in war and
peace time. In Seabrook's words, "what is essentially
a toy for intellectual amusement, represented a world
view for ancient Greece in the first century."
Helpful Hints:
- Read Seabrook's book and look for intellectual insights
today through observation and moral relativism.
- Argue for and against patent law infringement to
control monopolies versus the rights of the individual.
- Look in your kitchen and name the inventions including
the microwave, icemaker, kitchen tools, etc. Look
up the patents to see if owned by individuals or corporations.
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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University
of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist
for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach
and is accepting new clients.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of
South Carolina, consultant to Fortune 500 companies in
executive development, founded and managed Texas Community
Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing group home
services to persons with mental retardation, and for the
past 13 years founded and runs a clinical practice in
Northwest Houston.
He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel
a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate
interest in helping others become attuned to their creative
powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family
therapy and health psychology. He has published articles,
made presentations and conducted workshops about:
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality
