The Apollo 11 moon landing was the defining moment of my childhood. I was a couple of months shy of my fifth birthday, but I still remember my parents getting me out of bed at some unbelievably late hour (9 or 10pm, actually) so that I could see Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climb outside their Lunar Module and bounce around on the lunar surface.

But the landing itself wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. I was just as interested in the people reporting on the mission from back on Earth, especially Walter Cronkite and his expert commentators. I remember either Walter or Bob Keeshan (aka "Captain Kangaroo") in a white jumpsuit, walking around on a mock-up of the landing site, explaining what was going to happen and what it would look like.

And so began the two paths my life has taken, which at times have seemed opposed to each other but may actually be more like partners. I like the exploration and discovery in science, but I see all that not in terms of facts and figures as much as in terms of stories. It's not enough just to know how the world works - I've got to know how we found all that stuff out and what it means.

There I was as a kid in the 70s, watching shows like Nova and paying attention to how the narration worked as much as anything. Then when I was in high school, along came Carl Sagan (who I'd already seen on Nova) and James Burke. There was a time when I saw Cosmos and Connections and thought, "Yeah, that's what I want to do!" Maybe it was all those teacher genes I inherited making their presence known.

Well, as you know, that's not where I ended up. It's only been in the past few years that I was able to get my math/science side and my writing side working together. I've written a science-based story in Lunar Pioneers and math-based stories in The Mathematical Nights. Now I want to see if I can do the complete package, writing stories that cover a broader math/science field. Hey, STEM is big in education these days. I might have a decent chance with it.

And meanwhile, there's a new generation of "science explainers" (or "boffins," as the British call them) to check out - Neil DeGrasse Tyson, of course, but others as well. None as good as Carl and James yet, but you never know.