Hey, Ero, good morning. How are you doing today, Jamie.
I'm so good. How are you? Absolutely fantastic and very excited to talk
with you because, I mean you're talking about the big eclipse. I mean
every age group is talking about it and wants to somehow, some way participate
with it. Right. It's like the best thing ever. I love it.
It's so fun to talk about. You know. Even though that there's
there's like a little area of the nation that's going to get the full one
hundred percent effect of the eclipse, there's other parts of this, and I
think the listeners need to understand that you might get eighty percent, you might
get forty percent. It's still going to be a part of our journey.
Yep. Absolutely. And my mission though is if you're closed, if you're
on that deep partial and you can go to the extra couple miles in order
to get to totality, do it. But you know what, the one
of the things that I'm learning and doing the studying about this as we get
closer and closer, Boy, this is a money making entity, is what
it is. Because people are they're out there with their RVs and they're charging
a lot of money for it. I mean, has it always been a
money maker? Oh my gosh, you know, I think, I don't
know. I don't know. I think in twenty seventeen people started to notice
that. And I can't really speak for before that, but certainly now there
are definitely some people who are really taking advantage of that. I was on
a discussion board and I saw that somebody was like, oh, I still
have camp site available for your RV, you know, if it's all self
contained, like no hookups, for just five hundred dollars, And someone else
goes, that's a great deal, and I'm like, what kind of world
are we living in? So I'm trying to keep my book at eleven ninety
nine, okay for you to put this book together? Though. I love
the angle that you take, and that is from the Sun's point of direction.
Yeah, yeah, you know. I have that idea for it.
When I was watching the total solar eclips and I just thought to myself,
even if I was the Sun, you know, what would I be thinking
as my friend Moon was like literally moving in and stealing my life. And
I just had that idea for it, and I was like, this is
really fun to explore in a children's book. That also is applicable, I
think to every age, because who among us has it felt a little bit
slighted when a friend or a teammate or a coworker kind of moved in on
our thing. Right. One one of the things that listeners need to understand
is you've got to get those glasses. And what I did was I just
went onto Amazon and just bought like fifteen pairs so that I would have a
you know, it becomes a conversation piece. You know, you start talking
about the eclipse and I go, you know what, I have a pair
of glasses for you. And because they're not that expensive at all, but
you have got to have the glasses, not sunglasses. You've got to have
these glasses right, and they have to be certified. So if you do
get them on Amazon, make sure that you're checking to make sure that they
are actually certified safe. There were unfortunately some incidents instances in twenty seventeen when
there were some that were you know, put out that work approved. So
just do your due diligence there and check it out and get them now.
Because like you're talking about price gouging, that will happen with those glasses as
they get scarce leading up to the eclipse, so right now is the perfect
time to get them. Get them now, and they're you know, they're
home improvement stores. You'll start seeing them on shelves. Just pick them up.
Just get them. There are a couple of less you know before you
have to try to buy welding glasses or something that people do. I did
that as a kid because my dad was a welder. So I totally get
that we would be out there at that big old helmet on there feeling like
we were Darth Vader. Yes, exactly. And you can still you know,
if you don't have a glasses, it's not the end of the world.
You obviously can't look directly at the sun. Please don't do that.
But there's a lot of indirect ways you can do it. You can make
a pinhole camera, or you can even get a kitchen collander and use it
to create those present shadows on the ground. So there's a lot of cool
kind of homemade diy things you can do. But do not look at the
sun without those certified filters on this well, you're gonna think I'm a freak.
Jamie. In the way that we had a full eclipse in the South
Carolina area a couple of years ago. And what I did, I didn't
get the glasses, but I just went out into the forest and sat on
the forest floor and I experienced nature as that was taking place. It was
the greatest experience because all of the birds stopped singing. I mean, it
was just it was just so peacefully. Just accept it as what it was.
Yeah, Rad, you're my people, because I also, you know,
at least you kind of knew what to expect. I was chasing around
a three year old trying to figure out what was going on. But when
you get to experience that moment of totality, you know, and like I
said, if you have a chance to go to totality in that path,
it is absolutely worth it because it is just don't you think it's just hard
to describe that moment and that moment of awe. That's the best I can
describe. It is just it's like a moment where you're kind of outside yourself
and your perspective on the universe changes. Well, what I did was I
took my journal outside and I was writing in it as it was happening.
And I really do suggest that listeners do something like that, so they can
document that moment because it's once in a lifetime, maybe twice. But the
thing is is that you experience something that your entire body it just will never
forget. Yeah. No, I love that, and I'm telling you like
you are my people. So in the book. My favorite part about my
book is that we put a memory page in the back so that people can
write down their memories. Because once you experience something like that, you just
don't want to forget it, and then you want an excuse to share it
with someone else, right, And so the children's book is the perfect excuse
for that. Hey, I'll read you my book and then I'm going to
talk for a few minutes afterwards about how cool it was to see one.
You know, I was going to ask you when I was prepping last week
for our conversation, I was going to ask you, does Mars have something
like this? And oh my god, it's been all over the newspaper this
week because that little robot up there or the rover up there on Mars caught
some moon action going on up there on Mars. Isn't it cool? But
I don't think, and I'm not a space expert, so I won't profess
to be one, but it's really special the relationship between the Earth specifically and
the our moon and Sun. That the math and distance works out so that
that moon perfectly lines up and completely covers the Sun. I think that is
unique. The eclipses I've seen of Mars have been you know where it's like
it's much smaller, right, so you can still see like the donut.
But it's so cool how it works out from Earth when you're in this in
the right place and you get to see that solar corona, because that's really
the mesmerizing part, Like you said, when the light really goes out and
the you know, and the wildlife starts acting differently and it gets cooler.
It's just a completely different experience, you know. But yeah, space is
pretty darn cool when you start checking it out. And I'm really excited that
this whole generation of kids is going to i mean everywhere in the United States
and the content the United States they'll get to see at least a partial eclipse,
and it's so cool that this whole generation of kids is going to be
exposed to it. Let's talk about that moon, because you know, the
moon is going to be covering the sun. Now, is it going to
be a superhero or is it a thief for stealing the sunlight? I know,
right, it's it's it's bolth like in my book. I think that's
that's kind of the big The big arc is that it's completely rude, right,
and it's very selfish. The moon is selfish, and then in the
end that moon isn't selfish and they get to shine together and shine in a
completely different way, and sun wouldn't be able to do that without the moon.
So I think that it's actually both right, and it depends on our
perspective, and it's a good It's a good thing for us adults to remember
too, that that we might think one way right, and then if we
look at things just with the little different viewpoint, we can see things a
completely different way. Now with the way that you're making a connection with children
with the eclipse, Is your next book going to be about the northern lights?
Because that's another shock and awe too when you see those northern lights.
You know what, I'm going to take that under consideration. I can't share
yet what my next book is going to be, but I'll come back and
tell you about it. When it's out. How that. Now, where
are you going to be at when this eclipse takes place? Well, I
live in Nebraska, and Nebraska's only going to have a partial eclipse this time,
So my family and I are joining about a million other people who are
expected to travel down to Texas. So we're going to go there and hope
for some clear skies. And I've got a bunch of appearances at schools and
science museums and children's museums, and I'm just I'm looking forward to an incredible
week down there. I was doing some research on this recently, and it's
amazing how NASA is investing in so much of things like what you're doing.
In other words, they're taking research like that you have done and they're combining
combining it with other people's research, and they're learning how the effect, how
it affects us personally. But I just love the fact that NASA is a
part of this. Oh my gosh, NASA is doing incredible things with this
eclipse. They have ambassadors in so many communities, like you know, they
they're just really doing it that I'm so proud of that agency and everything that
they're doing to really make the most out of this and hopefully create a whole
generation of kids that are excited about space and remind all of us adults why
it's so special and why this is so important. And they're doing so many
experiments, you know, because it's a it's a unique opportunity for them to
study the sun. See. And I'm so proud of you because I mean,
these are the kind of books that I had when I was a kid,
you know, when when when I was you know, we would we
would get these from like the Weekly Reader, or they would want some month
we'd have to fill out a piece of paper and and and so I'm so
proud of you for putting this book out there for children, because now they've
got something they can call their own and experience it themselves. Yeah, thank
you so much. That's really meaningful. That's exactly what I was hoping to
accomplish. And people are still buying those paper books. I can I can
attest these types of books are are still very worth having in your home.
Where can people go to find out more about you, Jamie and find out
more about the book. Yeah, absolutely, Solar eclipsbook dot com. That's
the website for the book. You can learn more about kind of this journey
of the book. And also we have some special deals for classrooms and book
order discounts, that kind of thing on the on the website. And I'm
really happy to say just as of yesterday, our Spanish version is published,
and so yeah, so you can get the book also in Spanish, and
then you can also buy the book just anywhere online that books are sold.
Your local bookstore can help you out, and of course those big guys that
we know so well to Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Nobles, those types
of places, but solarclipsbook dot com is a great place to start. I
love it. Please come back to this show anytime in the future. The
door is always going to be open for you. I love it. Thank
you so much. It's been a pleasure. Will you be brilliant today?
Okay, Jamie, Okay, same to you.