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Dear
Invention Mysteries: What got you interested in inventions?
It goes all the way back to my teenage
years, around my sophomore year in high school. I remember two new
inventions that hit the market back then that were both huge hits.
Each one made me dream of someday inventing a product that everyone
wanted to have.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: Have you
ever invented anything yourself?
Yes, in 1998 I invented and marketed
the Impeachment card game. It was popular with Republicans and
Democrats. I took it off the market once the impeachment process was
over, but I plan to reintroduce it as a collector's item someday.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: You've
mentioned your dog in a couple of stories. What is his name and what
breed of dog is he?
His name is Patent, and it doesn't
matter what breed of dog he is because he exists only in my
imagination. His sole purpose is to help make the stories more
interesting, and his appearances in this column are rare. Hey, if
psychologist Frasier Crane can name his fictional dog Pavlov on
"Cheers," then I can name my imaginary dog Patent. The only animal
that I currently own is a very cool black horse named Bocephus.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: Who is
Invention Mysteries written for?
It is written both for adults and
for kids. It's entertaining for adults and educational for kids.
Kids can even use some of the articles for their school reports.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: What gave
you the idea for this column?
I had been writing a regular column
for Inventors' Digest magazine when one day a light bulb went on in
my head in 2002 (it really does happen that way) and I thought of
expanding it to newspapers. The original format was going to be a
"how-to" advice column for would-be inventors, but an editor told me
that it wouldn't appeal to enough readers, so I changed the theme to
"the little-known stories behind well-known inventions" and kept it
that way ever since. The column made its debut eight months later,
in 2003.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: Where is
Invention Mysteries headquartered?
In my mind!
[to top of second column
in this article]
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Dear Invention Mysteries: What does
it mean to have a column "syndicated?"
To be syndicated means that more
than one newspaper carries the column. Currently, there are 17
newspapers that carry it, and I recently signed on with the folks at
American Profile magazine to syndicate the column for me.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: What is
your journalism background?
I learned it by doing it, and I'm
still learning. I've never had any journalism courses. I was a
business major in college, and I started working with inventors part
time back in 1998.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: Do you
ever get requests to speak about inventions to local groups?
I've spoken to some of the Kiwanis
and Noon Optimist groups and a few others. I was recently asked to
speak to a class of fifth-grade students at my old grade school. The
thought of speaking to a bunch of kids scared me at first because I
was afraid that they might not like what I told them or that they
might start shooting spitballs at me! Fortunately, they took it easy
on me. I guess they liked my speech.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: How long
does it take you to write each story?
It usually takes between five to
seven hours to do the research and another four to six hours to
write the story. A local college student has been helping me with
the research for the past six months, but I do all of the writing
myself.
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Dear Invention Mysteries: How long
do you plan to continue writing Invention Mysteries?
For as long as I can keep thinking
of new stories to write, which should be at least a few years, since
I usually get one or two new story ideas while researching each
story.
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann is the author of Invention Mysteries. He can be
reached at niemann7@aol.com.
© Paul Niemann 2005
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