The book stemmed from weekly journal entries--short stories Dixon wrote of his bicycling group from years ago. "I didn't think accuracy really had a place, so the writings were sort of a humorous spoof on life," Dixon said. After group members passed the entries on to friends and family, dozens of non-cyclists eagerly awaited his tall-tales. "That ultimately gave me the idea to make a novel."

From Dixon's entries arose "...And We All Died Laughing," a 300-page epic adventure incorporating cyclists, space shuttles, comets bearing down on Earth, rodeo clowns and Native American spiritualism. "I had a contract to publish it, but the publisher went bankrupt," he said. "And because I felt its time had passed, I never pursued publishing it again." Dixon wrote a second larger-than-life science fiction novel, but never chased a contract because he disliked the ending. Because writing is something Dixon does "primarily for his own amusement," however, he is currently writing a popular science book on the subject of time.

While writing seems to run in his family, beginning with his great grandparents down through his daughter, Dixon joked that making a living from it does not. "There must be a defective gene being passed along that prevents us from making money in the writing profession," he said. "However, there is hope--it could be getting watered down by now."
--Dave Mosher

"We have been able, for the first time, to obtain well resolved, two dimensional images of the gas motions in distant star forming galaxies, whose light has traveled more than 11 billion years to the Earth," said Reinhard Genzel, lead author of a paper in this week's issue of Nature in which these results are presented."
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