Next Book Projects

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the books I was finally able to complete this year and get into print. Still don’t know how I was able to do it but I got it done. However, those books are only the beginning of what I plan on being a very busy year of publishing. Unfortunately, those four books were the first to be completed because they were the easiest to get done. I only have one more ‘easy’ book to get done and that has been delayed in editing for the past month because of a variety of events that have conspired against me sitting down at the computer and proof reading.

The next book, the one that is in process right now, is another fun one that really is a snapshot of a time in my life when I was finally able to connect with my community. “Once A Rotarian, Always A Rotarian” is a collection of posts about some of the speakers I met, events I attended, and other thoughts about being a Rotarian. The lessons from which I still carry with me to this day even though my participation has been lacking over the last couple of years.

Follow the completion of that book, I will begin working on my collection about my first three years as a Mason. Again, this is a book dedicated to one aspect of my life that has profoundly changed me for the better. The working title for this book is “Three Years After Three Degrees: How Freemasonry Made Me A Better Man”. I guess we will just have to see if that title sticks and how exactly I want to arrange the essays (that could be the most time consuming part).

Another book I guess you could say is in progress would be the children’s book that I am working on. The text is done… it is a very short picture book so that didn’t take much time at all especially considering the fact that I wrote it nearly a decade ago. However, I still have to conduct the input and supervise the creation of the illustrations for the book. That will definitely be a first for me. This one might be the book that I am most excited and nervous about finally seeing in print.

From there my attention will be focused on creating an adult picture book as there are numerous essays from my travels (especially across Pennsylvania and Virginia) and hundreds of pictures that I have selected to accompany those words. There is a bit of editing that needs to be done to the text but the photos are pretty much ready to go. However, in the end, if there is a book pushed back it might be this one simply based on the cost of production and eventual cover price.

Lastly, the year wouldn’t be complete unless I took some time to annoy some people which is why I am going to pull together all of the ‘polarizing’ posts into a single collection. I also expect this to be the longest book of the year coming in between 400-500 pages. That is a lot of politics and firearms. While I am fairly certain how to organize the book, I am still at a complete loss for a title so, at this point, I invite you to submit your idea. The prize pack includes recognition for your contribution in the acknowledgements of the book as well as a free signed copy once I have it in hand. So, ready through the posts on this blog that fit the subject matter and let me know what you come up with.

So, four books done, two in process, and three more planned for the year. Well, that is at least the plan at the moment. If life continues in the same manner that it has over the past month, I might be lucky to get one or two more out. If things calm down, I should be able to have nine books in print by the end of the year. And, if it turns out to be particularly cold down south this year and I am able to find some time, I might just get some more done. No pressure!

Something A Little Different At The Office

Every once in a while there is something a little different that happens at the office. Well, not at the office necessarily but with our clients. I’m not talking about anything major just a minor change in the routine. This was the case last week when we took a momentary step back from our usual public relations duties and assisted in the creation of a video case study. For me, this was a first, as in all my years of experience there has been an odd gap in this area… plenty of written case studies but nothing that was committed to film.

Unfortunately, due to a previous obligation, I was not on site for the shooting of the interviews or the organization at work but I have been taking part in about every other aspect of the process from coordination to script creation. Come to think of it, it has been some time since I have been involved in writing for the camera as I believe the last time I ventured into that genre was during a screen writing class in grad school the lessons and techniques from which I am still employing today.

Of course, while some may see the filming as the culmination of our work. It is really on the midpoint at best as there has certainly been plenty of work prior and there is still a multitude of objectives that must be met afterward. This includes editing, dissemination, publication, and making sure that everything is ready to go for a trade show in a couple of months. Additionally, this project might lead to similar projects with a few other customers down the road including the possibility of filming at the aforementioned trade show. It just goes to show that most of the time great work leads to more great work.

In the week since the raw footage was captured, it has been a waiting game as we are all eager to see the resulting product. We pretty much know what to expect but nothing is ever certain until you see it for yourself. In the meantime, many of those other projects are slowly unfolding and there has been a plethora of other projects both for this client and others that have occupied my time and my mind. This includes some upcoming travel and a few things that are finally coming to fruition. All of these things took a considerable amount of time and energy to get done but, in the end, our clients are happy which means we are doing our jobs and exceeding expectations.

Editing And Emailing

A couple of weeks ago I was making the final round of edits to my new book when I decided to do a quick search of my previous titles to see if they were still available for sale. Given the fact that this new volume would incorporate basically all of the previously published works I was going to pull the printing of the previous collections…. Don’t want multiple versions in the marketplace at the same time. Well, that was my original intent but it wasn’t what I found.

As it turns out, the publisher for my previous collection had gone under in the decade since my chapbook was put into print. I guess you could say that this issue was resolved much faster than expected. However, when I dug a little deeper, I did find a couple of websites that had scanned the contents and basically made the book available for digital download. This is not something that I approved or appreciated so I did some research and found the people with whom I needed to speak from the websites.

For those of you who may run into this issue of copyright infringement, here is the DMCA Notice letter that I sent:

To Whom It May Concern, 

My name is Sean and I am the author of Kaddish Diary. Your website, SAMPLE.net is infringing on at least one copyright owned by me.

A book was copied onto your servers without permission. The original book and poems, to which I own the exclusive copyrights, can be found at:

http://www.isbnsearch.org/isbn/1589983637

The unauthorized and infringing copy can be found at:

http://SAMPLE.net/kaddish-diary

This letter is official notification under Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”), and I seek the removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your servers and website. I request that you immediately notify the infringer of this notice and inform them of their duty to remove the infringing material immediately, and notify them to cease any further posting of infringing material to your server in the future.

Please also be advised that law requires you, as a service provider, to remove or disable access to the infringing materials upon receiving this notice. Under US law a service provider, such as yourself, enjoys immunity from a copyright lawsuit provided that you act with deliberate speed to investigate and rectify ongoing copyright infringement. If service providers do not investigate and remove or disable the infringing material this immunity is lost. Therefore, in order for you to remain immune from a copyright infringement action you will need to investigate and ultimately remove or otherwise disable the infringing material from your servers with all due speed should the direct infringer, your client, not comply immediately.

I am providing this notice in good faith and with the reasonable belief that rights I own are being infringed. Under penalty of perjury I certify that the information contained in the notification is both true and accurate, and I have the authority to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright(s) involved.

Should you wish to discuss this with me please contact me directly.

Regards,

Sean

Unfortunately, after sending off this request and continuing the search for some of the other books in which my work has been included, I found that Charles Fishman’s anthology, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, was also out of print due to the publisher discontinuing operations at the end of last year. I guess I chose the right time to work on the manuscripts that have been sitting on my computer for the last ten years. Stay tuned for details about this and other books that I am releasing to the masses this year!

Out Of Academia

I will get back to this at some point!

Over the past several weeks I have noticed that many of my friends are leaving academia. It seems to be a nearly daily occurrence on my Facebook feed to see someone leave an academic or research institution for positions in finance, sales, and other, completely unrelated, fields. Having been in that same situation myself, I know both the pros and cons of that field and while there are many great benefits derived from leaving academia there are also a number of things that I miss on a regular basis namely the time and freedom to think, debate, and explore.

While I have enjoyed my career beyond the studious walls, there are times when I think about the work that I was able to do and the pieces I was able to publish. Those are the times when I miss the long days, late nights, and piles of rejection letters. It is a life that is fueled by the occasional kind note, acceptance letter, and rare inclusions in literary journals. And, at least for me on the literary side of things, it is a way of life that is disappearing and is rarely provides a means of financial support. This is the primary reason that I have heard from those leaving academia and it was my reason as well.

Many of us who have departed continue to find small ways to remain active in this unique world. When I first left I continued writing and submitting to publications keeping the daily routine of rejection sprinkled with acceptances. Since those early days on the outside, I did stray from writing and research for a little while but, since then, I have slowly come back to those relaxing and stressful habits.

The industry in which I now work does provide a little bit of the same feeling that I would get in academia. I still write for clients and seek inclusion in a variety of publications… a completely different set of publications but the process is quite similar. However, it has been the personal projects that have brought me back to those productive days namely researching my family and keeping this daily blog.

Even though the results are completely different from what I used to produce (and definitely less polished), I am back in the process and have a daily routine that combines my previous life with my current one. With that said, discovering where I come from, exploring who I am, and sharing both my discoveries and opinions is proving to be just as fulfilling as the work that I once produced. Maybe someday I can even go back to publishing but, for now, I will simply enjoy the process.

Avoiding Pumpkins

You can't move a letter without putting forth the effort.

The one thing that people keep asking me with regard to my blog is how do I find the time to write and post every day? Well it is quite simple really, I work the graveyard shift. Being that I am the only one up in the middle of the night it is easy to find some quite time to sit at the computer and jot a few notes about what is going on that day, what happened yesterday, or what happens to be on my mind at the time.

Finding time isn’t hard but figuring out what I am going to write about can sometimes be a challenge. I have a few weekly topics/series that provide plenty of fodder but they don’t account for every day of the week. Every week I know that there will be one Rotary related post, one travel post, and a “quote” of the week. Other regular topics include the Mason related postings, occasional networking events, and genealogy centric posts will soon become more prevalent. That leaves a lot of days to fill in.

In this instance I am fortunate to have some OCD writing tendencies. I have an excel file with all the ideas that rattle around in my mind. Most of the time I am able to get them scribbled down on something before they evaporate. To date, I have been diligent about this so that I have a list of topics that will take me through October. With that said, when a time sensitive subject or if the mood strikes me to write about something else, this digital calendar allows me to easily shuffle around the scheduled content. Every once in a while I can even get ahead and take a day off here and there.

Obviously, that has not always been the case as I have taken some postings down to the wire. But, knock on wood, I have yet to turn into a pumpkin and the slipper has always fit even though it sometimes causes blisters. And, fortunately, there has only been a few times where someone has reacted like I was Gus yelling “Happy Birthday!” I guess that is bound to happen when you share your opinion and limit the amount you allow yourself to be censored.

On the flip side of my OCD writing tendencies is the fact that I am constantly struggling with the internal editor yammering on and on about limiting repetition, eliminating clichés, over-saturation of adjectives, and just being long winded in general. I am making a concerted effort to silence that voice when writing this blog but it is a daily/nightly chore. This is designed to be an open, free flowing, sometimes rambling forum with the simple purposes of production, routine, and discipline. Hence, the daily posts.

During this time of transition and uncertainty, blogging on a daily basis forces me to focus on one thing for at least a small portion of the day. Sometimes I reflect on the good things in life, sometimes I vent about the annoyances, and sometimes it is simply a matter of recording experiences so that I can recall them in the future. Regardless of the reason on any given day, I am focused on writing and trying to free up my overly rigid creative process.

This is why I chose to write every day and why I force myself to develop content. What motivates you to write? Do you have a specific area where you write? How do you find the time? From where do you cull your content?