Alec Nevala-Lee

The most urgent problems of our time can’t be solved by people like Alvarez alone—but they’ll never be solved without them. In COLLISIONS, I try to explain why. I hope you’ll check it out. (And like everything else I've written, it's a great book for dads.)

Even in outline, Alvarez's life is astonishing. He also embodied a vision of what a scientist could be: curious, audacious, brilliant—and deeply flawed. Writing about him changed the way I think about science, creativity, and what it means to solve problems.

Today is the publication day of my new book COLLISIONS: A Physicist’s Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs (@wwnorton). It’s the first biography of Luis W. Alvarez—a scientist whose life took him to the most incredible places imaginable. wwnorton.com/books/97813240…

I'm still a little embarrassed that I didn't mention this in the Fuller book

Because a novelette can be written in a shorter timeframe than a full novel, it allows writers to develop and refine skills that will be useful for longer projects, while also providing a form that is deeply rewarding in itself.

🚀 Join our Writing the SFF Novelette online seminar! Discover the secrets of crafting otherworldly tales in 10,000 words or less.👽 🪐 Unearth hidden alien worlds! 🧙‍♂️ Learn to make wizards wave wands! 🚀 Warp speed plot development! Don't miss it! #SciFiFantasyNoveletteSeminar

The Whole Earth Catalog, a counterculture icon from the 1960s, has just landed online! You can now explore the entire digital library of this historic publication and its descendants for free. Here's how: 📸 Cameron Getty; Getty, AP; Alamy // 🔗 wired.trib.al/yMWGMsh

This reference to "Byron's image as the personification of the Byronic hero" reminds me of what Homer Simpson said when told that he had a genetic condition known as Homer Simpson Syndrome: "Oh, why me?"

Me pitching exactly the same random essay idea every time I get a new editor's contact information

It is a fascinating case study in myth making even in our modern communications age where everything can be verified. I knew Bob's tale for years & took it to be true until @nevalalee did a clinical autopsy. This 🧵 is mostly this article 👇 slate.com/culture/2022/0…

@MrBeamJockey Technically, it means "the publisher made an offer so good that the agent preemptively took the book off the market," which isn't exactly what happened here, but it's close enough.

@nevalalee What does "in a pre-empt" mean?

Now I just feel like I'm writing the world's longest Oppenheimer fanfic

@saltyhorse Thanks for the tip—I hadn't seen this before, and it's great!

@nevalalee I learned about Alvarez from this video, and I didn't realize he's the subject of your next book until I listened to your Hugos There podcast youtu.be/aY985qzn7oI?t=…

A nice mention of my boy Luis Alvarez in the opening of this great piece by @__katrinarenee in the @nytimes. (To be fair, the article that Alvarez saw that day didn't mention Meitner either—I've read it!—but I agree that she deserves a lot more credit.) nytimes.com/2023/10/02/sci…