feeling thankful

Here are two crazy unbelievable things:

1.  My book Would You Stay? which started as a little project in Chernobyl in 2007, will be a book out there in the ether, as of tomorrow.
2. We were, I must confess, still making last-minute improvements until 10 o'clock tonight. But now it is really and truly on its way.

Tonight I am feeling so grateful to all the people who helped in so many ways over the years to bring this dream of mine to life.

Including photographers Alana Smith and Jason Sexton, who went out with me to the Susquehanna River on a chilly fall day and took a bunch of amazing author photos for the book.

(The one above is by Alana.)

Interview today on The Takeaway

I was just interviewed about my book by the NPR show The Takeaway. It will air at 9 am today (Oct. 29). Listen live here - www.thetakeaway.org. Later I'll post a link to listen after the fact.

OK: here is the link to listen:

Chernobyl and Fukushima book in one week

Friends,

It's still hard for me to believe, but in one more week my book on Chernobyl and Fukushima will be out. It's called Would You Stay? and it's being published by TED Books, the people who do the TED talks.

It's an e-book, which makes it feel less tangible but I am so excited I keep waking up and wondering if it is really happening.

I first went to Chernobyl in 2007 and I've been working on this on and off for 6 years. I never expected initially it would become such a big project but it always felt important, and after the 3.11 earthquake in Fukushima it felt doubly important.

During the next week I'll post some photos from the opening sequence. Today just the cover...

Here's a caption: 

If you arrive by train, as the nuclear personnel do, this is your first view of the sprawling Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, across the cooling pond. The station that once generated power now consumes it. The new heating plant has the only active smokestack on the horizon. Beside it are the unfinished, abandoned cooling towers. Beyond the smokestack at right is the “Shelter Object” which covers the Fourth Block of the plant.

Even after Fukushima, Chernobyl remains the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. The population within 30 kilometers was permanently evacuated, including residents of Pripyat and many villages. Although the Chernobyl plant finally stopped generating electricity in December 2000, today 3,700 employees continue to work at the plant. They commute from their new city of Slavutych, which was built after the accident to replace Pripyat.

Thanks for all the encouragement from many of you over the years!

Mike