Final Report

Thank you.

Yesterday I submitted the final report about my sabbatical to the the president of the college. Below is a brief summary of my conclusions.

I want to express my gratitude the Cape Cod Community College Board of Trustees, and to Dr. John Cox, president of Cape Cod Community College, for approving my request. I also want to thank Vice President Susan Miller, Deans Lore Loftfield DeBower and David Ziemba, Professor Sally Polito, and Administrative Assistant Cindy Pavlos for their extraordinary level of support, assistance, and friendship that made it all possible. I am deeply grateful.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Blogging opens the door to the first of three major lessons from the sabbatical:

·         The integrated digital media platform is the new marketplace of ideas.
This stands in stark contrast to the second major lesson I learned from the sabbatical:

·         Mindfulness of the present moment in a natural environment is essential.                           
Resolving this apparent contradiction is my third lesson:

·         A wise person keeps the natural and the digital worlds in balance.

WRITING ACCOMPLISHED:

·         I completed my 30,000-word spiritual memoir, I Just Want to Be Happy.

·         I wrote 25 chapters of a planned 31-chapter English Composition textbook, The Elements of English Composition..

·         I outlined and began outlining Mindfulness of the Mass Media, a future book project.

·         I wrote about half a dozen poems.

HIGHLIGHTS:

·         The joy I felt being named a writer in residence at the Wildacres Conference Center was only exceeded by the joy of writing in a remote cabin high on the Blue Ridge Mountains with all conveniences provided to me.

·         I had a wonderful “aha moment”at the Grub Street conference keynote address when rock star, poet and Kickstarter phenom Amanda Palmer told us to throw open our shutters, stick our heads out the windows and call out to the teeming marketplace below! This is not my father’s publishing industry.

·         I had another breakthrough, at Wildacres, when I got to know author Jana Bounds, who published her novel, Magenta Rain through Amazon Create Space. She described the process in a way that completed the picture I got from the Create Space executives at the Grub Street Conference. This is not my father’s “vanity press.”

WORKSHOPS AND RETREATS ATTENDED:

I attended two retreats and four writers’ conferences in seven months

·         Metta Meditation ten-day workshop Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Mass., February

·         AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs), four-day conference, Boston, March. (I represented CCCC at the Two-Year Caucus there.)

·         Grub Street The Muse and the Marketplace, three-day conference, Boston, May

·         We Can! Benefit one-day presentation with four successful writers, May

·         Wildacres Writers Retreat, seven days, Little Switzerland, N.C. July

·         Wildacres Writers Workshop, seven days, Little Switzerland, N.C. July

·         Wildacres Writer-In-Residency, seven days, Little Switzerland, N.C. July

·         Cape Cod Writers Conference, five days, Hyannis, Mass.. August

PUTTING STUDENTS FIRST:

·         I am coming back refreshed, renewed and rejuvenated. I have had time to write, and I have also had time to relax. I am looking forward to returning to the classroom with new enthusiasm.

·         I have deepened my understanding of grammar, composition, rhetoric, writing, editing, publishing and the mass media. This comes on top of my previous 30-year career as a professional writer and editor.

·         I have learned about the emerging new technologies and new media from people on the leading edge of these changes.

·         I have deepened my understanding of the benefits of mindfulness in education, so that I can apply the most useful aspects in all my classes.

Catching up

I have not bogged for about a week because I was attempting to attend the Cape Cod Writers Conference while moving from one apartment to another seven miles away. Somehow the stress got to me, and I contracted pneumonia, so I am resting and recovering.

I am also remembering with great gratitude the wonderful last six months.

Cape Cod Writers Conference Day 3

On Wednesday I learned a lot from two teachers: Fern Reiss and Hillary Rettig.
In the morning Fern Reiss talked about ISBNs's and cover design. She explained how one company--Bowker--controls all ISBN's in the U.S. She said it costs a few hundred dollars to purchase ten ISBN's from Bowker.

She also urged us to hire a professional book cover designer, rather than try to do it ourselves. She told a story about a rich executive who insisted on doing the cover his way, only to discover that the product code wouldn't scan correctly so that the books could not be sold in bookstores.

During the class, on of my classmate talked about working for a company that designed restraint devices used on terrorists. Another student found the subject so upsetting that she left the room. I said calmly that I, too, felt upset by the subject, but I am willing to talk about it. Later the first classmate left the class. I hope what I said did not contribute to that.

I had lunch with my good friend Ann, and we had a great talk about writing and Buddhism.

Hillary Rettig

In the afternoon Hillary Rettig began a three-day class about avoiding procrastination and becoming more productive. It was excellent. One idea she has is to write on a computer that is not connected to the Internet.


She also emphasized that feeling lazy is a symptom, not a cause. She said to get rid of all the "shoulds."

She mentioned an essay, "Still Writing" by Ann Tyler. I hope to find that.

"Use your time congruent with your values" says Hillary Rettig.

Cape Cod Writers Conference Day 2

The conference has been very good.

Monday afternoon I had an excellent one-hour session with agent April Eberhardt who gave me some excellent suggestions for my memoir. Basically, she gave me some old rules from my journalist days, like, "Start with your best stuff." I think I need to completely restructure my memoir.

In the late afternoon She gave a talk to about 30 of us and lamented the sorry state of publishing today. Even though she is an agent, she no longer advises writers to use the same old agent-editor-publisher route any more. Everything has changed, she says, and the other teacher I have been following, agrees.

Tuesday morning, Fern Reiss talked about the importance of a good 30- to 60-page marketing plan for your book, regardless of whether is it self-published or not.

An interesting tidbit: Lightning Source is owned by Ingram, the largest book wholesaler, and Create Space is owned by Amazon, the largest book retailer.

She said to consider Internet search keywords when choosing a title.

Cape Cod Writers Conference Day 1

Monday morning, Aug. 5, was the first day of a five-day course on self publishing taught by Fern Reiss. She was excellent, and she confirmed the same ideas I learned from previous conferences.

Fern Reiss

She said 10 years ago, finding an agent to gt you in the door of a major publisher was what it was all about.  today's publishing industry is radically different. the major players have merged, shrunk and downsized dramatically.

She said self-publishing gives the author control, but may mean the author has to shell out between $5,000 and $10,000 to finance the publication. On the other hand the per-book profit can be much higher in self-publishing.

She said we need to remember that the shelf-life of most bookstore books is three to four months.

She said we need to keep abreast of what is happening in the business, keep track of the competition, and remember the cover needs to work on a tiny image on a computer screen.

One interesting thing is she recommended printing a set of pre--publication galleys to send to the seven trade journals, hoping for a review. They wasn't to get those three to four months prior to publication. A good review there makes a big difference.

She also recommended getting full Library of Congress Catalog data with a CIP number, not just a PCIP number

My favorite line form the morning was:

"Benjamin Franklin was self-published."

Comedy from Asheville on NPR

This week's episode of "Wait, Wait, Don't tell Me" was recorded in Asheville, NC, and includes lots of Asheville jokes and references--even a shout-out to Malaprop's Bookstore!
http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/

I've been home for a week, getting accustomed to the "real world."

This evening is the opening of the Cape Cod Writers Conference.

Home again

I am back home.
It is now Wednesday, July 31, and I am finding it very difficult to make the transition from being on retreat in a remote mountain cabin to being back at my regular world, nice as it is.

I know I need to find a balance between the interconnected online digital world and the peaceful and serene natural world. I need both in my life. When I left Plum Village last summer Brother Ky Lee gave me a cock on which he had painted the Chinese symbols for "Mountain" and "River." Mountains and rivers are both very important to me. So is being connected with my friends and family.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I simply tried to adjust to civilization. It included going to my office at the college and cleaning out my e-mail, which was overloaded. I also had to deal with the most pressing business obligations. There will be more of that today. On Monday I drive from Carlisle, Pa., to home. It was a long, hard drive. On Sunday, I drove from Wildacres to Carlisle, Pa. That was a long drive too.

And Saturday was my final day as Writer-in-residence, or cabin dweller, as I prefer. It was great. I had breakfast in the dining hall with staff. All three artists-in-residence had lunch together in the little Switzerland Café. And then Lona, the storyteller, brought over some frozen stuffed shells, which she heated up for our dinner. After dinner we saw a bear at my cabin door. That was definitely a highlight of the trip.