http://www.dinosaurextinction.com

[George Leonard <gl91bciiLt@earthlink.net>]

Dear dino friends, 

     May I ask our list's advice on my new website before I go fully 
public? it's at

     HTTP://www.dinosaurextinction.com

      I am trying to create, from the widely scattered data, a novel, 
EXTINCTION, set in the world of the KT Boundary. 

      EXTINCTION will be fiction but not fantasy-- a novel whose 
scientific dimension is, hopefully, even more accurate than RAPTOR RED. 

     I've done this successfully before. I've been publishing novels and 
producing entertainment for thirty years. (This novel's now at fourth 
draft, after two years.)

     My credits date back to the conception and choreography of the 
comedy rock and roll act Sha Na Na in 1969, which played the Woodstock 
Festival, the Woodstock movie, and Fillmores East and West. Currently 
director Ron Howard at Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures is trying 
to adapt my Simon and Schuster novel THE ICE CATHEDRAL to the screen. At 
the site, click on PUBLICATIONS for the sample first chapter of BEYOND 
CONTROL (one of the first novels about molecular genetics-- 1975!).  

     I WANT TO TRY FOR ACCURACY. 

     "Accuracy" however, in paleontology, means ACKNOWLEDGING, NOT 
AVOIDING the full SCIENTIFIC DEBATE on every scene. I've decided to add a 
long ENDNOTE SECTION: I think readers will actually enjoy seeing ENDNOTES 
substantiating the scenes, where I quote and thank people whose 
SCIENTIFIC ADVICE I used. 

       Or they can skip it, satisfied (one hopes) with the fiction. 
People like us will enjoy it, for the same reason we enjoy this list, or 
Mike's DINOSAURICON.  Imagine a single sentence about a sauropod 
extending its neck into a tree leading to a five page endnote which 
teaches the reader about everything from blood pressure to elephants' 
kneecaps. 

     (However, I can only accept SCIENTIFIC ADVICE NOT PLOT ADVICE.  
Please don't send any! First, it's cheating, second, what if you suggest 
something I've already put in there? When it comes out you'll think I 
stole it from you.)  
     
      Even if you have no scientific advice right now, if you spot any 
typos or awkward/confusing phrases, I'd be very grateful if you used the 
response mechanism there to alert me! Or just send me the word "test" to 
see if I get it. Did the thing take too long to download? My webdesigner, 
Stefan Klocek, is still on call and I can alert him.

     Please be honest. I'd rather hear about the problems from our group, 
whom I trust, before I start posting the site everywhere. 

     With thanks for your time,

     George
     http://www.dinosaurextinction.com


      
      

George J. Leonard, Ph.D. 
Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities
San Francisco State University
530 Humanities Hall
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, California, 94132
Ph: (415) 338-7428
FAX: (650) 366-5045
Website: http://www.dinosaurextinction.com