In "The Moon on Ice," Sandford uses humor and dramatization to enliven a meteorite hunt around Antarctica.  The result is an essay with broad appeal that extends well beyond a science-oriented audience.

Sandford, "a space scientist," who is a member of NASA's Ames' Astrophysics Branch and a co-leader of Ames' Astrochemistry laboratory, mainly writes scientific papers.  "Scientific papers are typically written in the third person, and quite often the presentation is remote and very linear." As an outlet for his creative and humorous sides, Sandford contributes regularly to the Journal of Irreproducible Results and the Annals of Improbable Research (where he also serves on the editorial board), "mad magazines, for scientists.

"A Moon on Ice" was written specifically with Creative Nonfiction in mind.  "My research associate had a subscription to Creative Nonfiction.  He'd heard there was going to be a special science issue and urged me to write something."

This piece came out of a journal Sandford kept while in Antarctica. "When there are a lot of storms and the wind's blowing, I'd be free to sit in my tent and record my thoughts and impressions."  Some things that Sandford had never given much thought to filtered into his consciousness when he actually sat down to write the essay.  For example, it dawned on him how everyone always stood downwind, which resulted in this witty reflection:  "I have participated in conversations where as many as six people stood in a long line oriented perpendicular to the wind, everyone facing downward and heatedly discussing an issue, all the while without once looking at each other."

Sandford had to concentrate a bit more on this piece than he would on a scientific paper.  At first, he wrote the story out, using a conversational voice.  "Then I went back and combed though it, fleshing out the creative side.  For example, normally I wouldn't wax poetic for the first five minutes about the wind.  But I knew it would help the story if there was some kind of unifying theme that would also establish the mood and the feeling of the place."

The wind provided a structure to frame the essay with as well.  "I didn't worry about structure per say.  I just knew the structure had to flow in order for the essay to read well."  Sandford, who never formally studied writing, attributes much of his essay-writing ability to "subconscious imitation." "I read voraciously.  My wife's a librarian so our house is always packed with books."

From the beginning, Sandford focused on tailoring the essay for a specific audience, the readers of Creative Nonfiction.  "I give lots of talks; the audience ranges from scientists at science conferences to first grade classes. One of the things I did, when I was getting ready to write this was to look at the latest issues of CNF to get a sense of who my audience was."  In the case of Creative Nonfiction, Sandford surmised that he was aiming at a diverse audience, not necessarily one oriented toward scientific topics.

"If there is a theme in my writing it's that I like people to walk away not only having enjoyed reading it, but having learned something they didn't know before.  I became a scientist because I find the universe to be a fascinating place with a lot of cool stuff going on and, I have a big mouth so I like to share the cool stuff I see with other people."



Stephanie Susnjara