We geek out on books about the sciences, remote places, and unique spaces - so when we heard about Paul Freeman’s book “Space Lands” we just about hit the moon in excitement. The book is an exploration of “the past and future sites of the rocket age,” and features large format images of places that look straight out of sci-fi movie sets, but actually exist out in the desert oasis of the Southwest.
We were so excited about the book, we decided to catch up with Freeman and ask him a few questions about the story behind his book - enjoy!
What inspired you to create space lands?
I’ve had a nostagic view of the space race because I was a child during the Apollo program and expected to be in space myself by the time I hit forty, and of course this didn’t happen. When I travelled to New Mexico I was inspired by the mixture of optimism created by the plan to create a Spaceport, while at the same time the area is littered with what seemed to me slightly melancholy reminders of the optimism of the 1960’s. I found this arc of optimism to a failure (in some terms) back to optimism rather poignant.
What is the most fascinating factoid you know about space?
Apollo pre-packaged meals were sealed in a plastic packet which included a large green anti-nausea pill. (Sometimes I wish fast food vendors would take a similar approach).
What part of the bookmaking process did you find most inspiring?
That moment when I stripped the UPS packaging off and saw the high quality of the dustcover on my Blurb hardback for the first time.
If you could share one bookmaking tip with the world, what would it be?
Show the reader something they have never seen before. It might be right in your backyard, you don’t have to go far to find it.
One Comment
Hey Natalie,
still browsing through your posts.. great thing keeping up to date this community. Still haven’t found a way to contact any admin/author on Blurb.
I was checking on the categories for the published books, and none fit to the one i am writing at the present time, should be in philosophy rather than prose.. Maybe a bigger diversity for categories might be considered.
On another hand checking on what Blurb has to present for its clients.. a Booksmart to PDF might be awesome too ! as we the authors of our own books would like to keep a portable format on ebook readers or just on our hard drives / especially knowing that not everyone is familiar with Adobe products for designing.. or exporting book into PDF format.
Thank you for reading this.
hoping these points will be taken in consideration.
Georges.