Thanking Those Who Inspired Us

Last Friday, StoryCorps was promoting a National Day of Listening where they encouraged participants to tweet their thanks to any teacher who’d been a significant inspiration in their lives. One particular teacher immediately came to my mind, but 140 characters didn’t seem sufficient to convey the impact she had in my life.

I was at a career crossroads in Grade 13 ― whether to follow the rest of my Bachelor of Arts-oriented family to study the oboe and orchestral music, or to follow my interest in maths and sciences toward a Bachelor of Science degree. Then I had the good fortune to end up in Miss Potts’ Grade 13 biology class.

Miss Potts was a bit of an odd duck, but her students loved her for it. She had two somewhat quirky scientific loves ― sperm cells and mitochondria. If she could find a way to work either into the lesson, she would. During most classes, one or both structures would end up on the black board, usually including five or six feet of wavy sperm tail. She even had a stamp similar to the one illustrated above. If the ‘Beautiful!’ mitochondrion appeared on your test or paper, it was the sign that you’d done exceptional work. Most of all, her passion for biology shone through clearly, and we eagerly absorbed her enthusiasm. Coming to her class always guaranteed an interesting and entertaining lesson. And, through it all, her genuine interest in her students and her love of teaching marked her as the very best kind of teacher.

Miss Potts not only set my feet in the direction of science, but she also made me think seriously about teaching as a profession. In the end, bench research was my calling, but I can thank her for solidifying my career decision, eventually leading to twenty years in the field of HIV research.

So, to Miss Potts, thank you. For all the hours at the bench or at the hood, trying to beat a pathogen that still ravages the planet, destroying lives and families, and leaving millions of children orphaned, thank you. For the second career that developed, taking my love of science and turning it into a professional career writing crime fiction, thank you. It’s unlikely that either would have happened if you hadn’t entered my life.

Who was the teacher or adult who had the most impact in your life? I’d love to hear about how he or she made a difference for you.

Writing Habits – Music or Silence?

We writers are a funny bunch when it comes to our habits. For some, strict habits are a necessity ― this spot, at that time of day, in these particular conditions. Sometimes such habits are born of necessity ― ie. the writer who works full time and needs to write in the early morning or late at night when the rest of the family is asleep. Other writers have the flexibility to write wherever and whenever suits them. Some other habits may seem more random but can be just as important ― beverages and snacks of choice, or music required for writing. It is this last point that I want to look at today.

For some, strict silence is the only way to go. But for many, myself included, music is an integral part of the writing process. As writers, we can pull from the emotional aspect of music and build it into our own prose. Playlists can be useful for this process ― extended lists of music with a particular mood to help keep us in the right headspace.

Soundtracks are my mainstay. Lyrics tend to distract me, and I don’t need words to convey the emotional impact; the music can do that all on my own. So I have a large library of film music. My brothers, Jeff and Mychael Danna are a big part of that. Having scores that range from big orchestral to Celtic to ethnic, there’s something for whatever mood I need. Other top composers for me are John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Mark Isham, Patrick Doyle, Harry Gregson-Williams and Nicholas Hooper.

At this time of year, Mychael’s The Nativity Story score is a popular one for me. If the mood is right, I often find myself falling back on The Shepherd’s Gift, which may be one of my favourite tracks from a movie soundtrack ever (it’s gorgeous!).

Habits like this are not solely for writers, but for many other creative artists as well. So, as writers or other creatives, do you rely on music to give your craft an emotional boost? If so, what are your preferences?

Photo Credit: OAndrews

Forensic Case Files: The Murder of Tzar Nicolas II and his Family

Nicolas Alexandrovich Romanov, better known as Nicolas II, the last Emperor of Russia, was murdered with his family on the night of July 17, 1918.

Tsar Nicolas had abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917, marking the end of Imperial Russia and the three-hundred year Romanov Dynasty. Following his abdication, Nicolas and his family were placed under house arrest in three locations over the following year to protect them from those involved in the Russian Revolution. Their final destination was the house of a military engineer in Yekaterinburg. At 2 a.m. on July 17, 1918, the family was awakened and was told to dress and go to the basement. They were led to believe that this was for their own protection as anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching Yekaterinburg. Instead, Nicolas, Alexandra and their children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexi as well as four members of their household staff were gunned down by an assembled firing squad.

Nicolas was the first to die and was shot multiple times in the chest. The women of the family, clothed in gowns stitched with precious gems that afforded some protection from the first round of bullets, were finally bayoneted and shot in the head.

The bodies were taken to a nearby mine, where all their clothes and previous jewels were removed, and then the mine entrance was sealed with grenades. But the secret location of the Tsar’s resting place was leaked by several of the executioners, so the bodies were uncovered shortly thereafter and transferred to an alternate location. The Russians attempted to burn two of the bodies, but when this proved time consuming and difficult, they simply buried the remaining victims after dousing them with sulfuric acid to hide their identities. The bodies lay undiscovered for over sixty years.

In 1989, the news broke that the suspected remains of the Tsar and his family had been discovered ten years earlier, but those who knew the location had not come forward. Dr. William Maples, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Florida, offered to put together a team to examine the remains. Once in Russia, Dr. Maples was quickly able to identify the remains ― The Tsar by the shape of his face and a deformed pelvis from so many hours spent on horseback; the maid from her worn joints due to countless hours of manual labour; the Tsarina by her expensive platinum dental work; three of the four daughters by their bayonet wounds as well as pelvis maturation. Later, in 1993, with the advent of new DNA techniques, Maples’ initial results were confirmed. On July 17, 1998, the remains of the Tsar and his family were interred at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, exactly 80 years after their execution.

But two bodies were missing, those of Tsarevich Alexei and Maria. In 2007 a small burned area was discovered in the Ural Mountains, overgrown with nettles and holding the remains of a teenaged boy and a young woman. DNA testing confirmed that the missing children had been found and the mystery of the Romanovs was finally solved.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Forensics 101: Carbon Dating

In a Forensic Case File a few weeks ago, we talked about how a French scientist concluded in 2007 that the remains discovered in Paris in 1867 were not those of Joan of Arc. One of the tools he used to determine that the remains were actually those of a 1400-year-old mummy was C-14 analysis, more commonly known as ‘carbon dating’. But what is carbon dating, and how can we use it to measure the age of historic samples?

Carbon is one of the six major building blocks of life, along with nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. But all carbon is not created equal. Nearly 99% of elemental carbon is carbon-12 (C-12), which means that the carbon atom contains 6 protons and 6 neutrons. But there are several alternate forms of carbon; it is C-14 (a carbon atom containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons) that is crucial in carbon dating.

The most available source of carbon for living things is through the atmosphere. Plants respire, taking in CO₂ and using that carbon to grow. When we eat plants (or eat other animals that eat plants), those building blocks are transferred to us. As long as we continue to eat, fresh carbon gets built into our bodies. But the moment we die, we stop taking in new carbon and that’s when the C-14 clock starts ticking as it slowly starts to break down.

C-12 is stable form of carbon, but C-14 is unstable and ultimately breaks down into nitrogen and hydrogen. Using C-14's known half-life of 5,730 years, scientists can calculate when the organism being tested died. To do this, a small amount of organic sample (bone, wood, shell, peat etc.) is pulverized and burned, producing CO₂ containing a mix of both C-12 and C-14. When the sample C-12/C-14 ratio is compared to the current atmospheric C-12/C-14 ratio, scientists can estimate the age of the sample. In the case of Dr. Philippe Charlier, he was able to determine that his remains were too old to possibly be those of Joan of Arc.

Carbon dating is a valuable tool for discriminating  archeological samples from potential forensic discoveries. It has been used to date remains discovered at construction sites, confirming that a modern forensic investigation is not required, and allowing the remains to be returned for proper reburial to the Native American tribes originally populating the area of discovery.

Photo credit: tantek

Writing For The Love Of It

When we first start to write, we write for the sheer joy of it, for the love of storytelling and being creative. To a certain extent, that changes when we start to write professionally. Then we no longer write just for ourselves. Now there are genre and grammar rules that must be followed and other people to satisfy ― our agents and editors, our readers. Also, as much as we love to write, at that point it begins to compete with the business aspect of an author’s career. And with that come the distractions of what is now expected of an author ― social networking on multiple platforms and marketing. For many of us, it can become a crushing pressure to do all of this on top of maintaining a 40-hour workweek to put food on our tables.

Ann and I are currently working on a new proposal. As with any new project, the front end tends to be heavily loaded with technical aspects and the research that is required for proper planning ― locations, character creation, details of involved agencies, new scientific details etc. It’s easy during this period to forget why we loved to write because, well, we aren’t writing yet.

Last week I was really feeling it. There’s a lot going on in my life right now between work, family and writing, and I knew I needed to find an outlet. I sent out the request, and Ann was immediately on board. When we started writing together years ago, it was just for us, so we took a short break to go back to where we started. It’s been a long time since we were able to do this and I have to say it really felt great. It was different than before ― learned craft is now involuntary, and bad habits like passive voice and head hopping are now mostly non-existent (or are caught and edited out) ― but there is something freeing in just writing for the sheer joy of it. And if no one saw it but us, it would still be worthwhile.

How often do you take some time to just write for you? Or, for other creatives, to just sing or paint or draw, just for you? Does it refresh you to go back to your professional craft, remembering why you love it so much?

Photo credit: hpaich