Two networks

When I was a little boy there were only two networks: NBC and CBS. Sixty years later we still have two networks. One is the interconnected digital network of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, e-mail, text messages, Web sites, books, magazines, recorded music, film, radio, television, smart phones and the Internet in general.

The other network is the interconnected personal network of mindful speech and active listening between two individuals augmented by the universal connection we all feel in silent mindfulness meditation when we know we are all truly one. It is not digital (except in the sense of holding hands).

I do not presume to know how either network works. I sure don't know what the rules are for participating in either network. Noticing the different characteristics of the two networks is interesting. It's all Indra’s Net.

    * * *

Last night I heard a wonderful performance by Alicia Mathewson, a singer, educator and healer. She sings beautifully--and very spiritually.







www.aliciamathewson.com

Mindfulness of the Mass Media

OK, I know this is crazy, but today I jumped over to my fourth book: Mindfulness and the Mass Media. I just got a hankering to write down some of the many mass media ideas that have been dancing around in my head. It seems that we are on the threshold of a whole new media world, and it is very exciting.

So what’s the next mass medium? Most books will simply say, “The Internet,” but the Internet is turning out to be more like the printing press: a platform from which many new media are arriving. Dividing them up and categorizing them is problematic because they are changing and evolving so quickly. Areas to look at include e-mail, Web sites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google, Wiki sites, intra-nets, targeted multi-media campaigns, and many more. Then there are cell phones and smart phones, which use both telephone networks and the Internet and do so in new and different ways.

How do these new media (and the old ones) affect us? How do we affect them? What is the most useful way to use them effectively for the happiness of ourselves and others? How can we avoid harm that can be caused by misuse of the mass media?

...and in the evening by friend Steve came over. We had a cup of tea and then went for a great motorcycle ride down to Nobska Light and on to Woods Hole where we had dinner at the Fishmonger's Café. The ride home in the evening was damp and misty but still fun. I love Nobska Light and have three pictures of it hanging in my room. Here is an aerial view.

 

Revised again

Enough people told me they prefer the original version that I am reverting:

 

This is a new poem.

It will explain everything.

We are one

it will say.

Impermanence

it will say.

Compassion

it will say.

In a lake,

a waterfall,

an ocean.

-- James W. Kershner, May 2013

The New Marketplace

• My friend Emily Chaffee of Emphatic Space | e m p a t h i c s p a c e |  https://www.facebook.com/empathicspace  has successfully raised money for her further education by asking over social media.
• Neil Gaiman gave a commencement address in which he talked about the new marketplace where traditional publishing modes are no longer appropriate.
• Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield became an international sensation with his YouTube video without using the traditional media.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2013/may/13/hadfield-david-bowie-space-oddity-video

All these signs point to a changing media landscape in which traditional ink-on-dead-treed publishing seems to be irrelevant. It's time to learn about what is happening next, including self-publishing and a multimedia platform.

Revised poem

Today I took yesterday's poem to my friends at the Mashpee Poetry Group, aka the Steeple Street Poets, and they made some suggestions I really like. It almost makes it a new poem.

This is a new poem.
It will explain everything.
We are one
it will say.
Impermanence
it will say.
Compassion
it will say.
a lake,
a waterfall,
an ocean
it will say.

James W. Kershner May 2013

New poem

This is a new poem

It will explain everything.

We are one

it will say.

Impermanence

it will say.

Compassion

it will say.

In a lake,

a waterfall,

the ocean.

-- James W. Kershner, May 2013

Digital platform

This morning I am feeling like I have moved to the new digital platform idea. It starts with one primary home page, which I do not yet have. It could be on Wordpress or somewhere else. this main page should link to the other pages in my platform, including:

• home page
• blog (here)
• facebook
• twitter
• book pages
• poetry pages
• YouTube videos
• Cape Sangha page
• Mashpee Poetry Group page
• public speaking page (of some sort) - workshops and classes?
• e-mail platform (MailChimp?)

Where does the money come from? My current theory is to put everything out there in social media and just see what happens. I believe something good will come out of it.

I just got a facebook note from Carrie Newcomer, my favorite folksinger. It links me to her main page, where she provides links to facebook and twitter. She also has an ongoing conversation going with her fans. this is the new way. www.carrienewcomer.com

I just had a great talk with my dear friend Dan, who is also excited about my new point of view. He wasn't to learn more about the Amazon publishing platform, as I do.

This afternoon I went for a five-mile run, which gave me the opportunity to think clearly. I am definitely heading toward Amazon's CreateSpace to publish I Just Want to Be Happy. I am more interested in getting the book out there than in getting the right agent and publisher. Why not? After my run I sat down and read information on CreateSpace's Web site and also three independent reviews of it. I think it is excellent. I can also add Kindle e-book editions. This feels like a breakthrough!

Wednesday decision

I believe I am going to focus my attention on establishing a digital platform for James W. Kershner. It will include a blog, facebook, twitter, goodreads, dailymile, e-mail, my college site and other things still to come. It will provide access to my books, poetry, videos, public appearances, and random thoughts. It will all be coordinated. The books will be available in printed form, e-book form or free for download. I can link to the Cape Sangha Website and also have a place to promote public appearances.

Why not? If I go the old-fashioned publication route, I still need a digital platform and I would have to endure the year-long publication deadline. Why not just plow ahead anyway?

Perhaps I need to do one more update to I Just Want to Be Happy, then rush through The Elements of Academic Writing, Wither the Revolution, and Mindfulness and the Mass Media.

Digital platform

Maybe where I should head is toward a digital platform.
Maybe I should establish a Web site with links to my blog, facebook, twitter and other sites. Maybe I should post my books, poetry, columns, and everything else for free. Maybe I can give it all away for free, to attract a following and to get the words out there. Then I can just see what happens.

This changes everything.

Final Fling

Today was the day of the English Composition I common final exam, which is traditionally followed immediately by the Final Fling, a pot-luck luncheon for faculty and staff with copious amounts of decadent foods. Today's was no exception. It was also very nice to catch up with a lot of colleagues I have not been seeing since I have been on sabbatical. I think I bored them all with my current theory that turns traditional publishing on its head.

Instead of trying to find an  agent and publisher, perhaps I should print my own books, set up my own digital platform and give it all away. Somehow that feels right. Maybe if we recognize that the new marketplace and let go of the old, transactions will happen in very different ways. It's all about the digital platform.

Indra's Net

There is an ancient story from the Ganges River Basin about a giant net, like those fishermen wove. Along the lines of this net dwell all beings, objects feelings and perceptions. If one knot is touched, all other knots in the web are affected, if only by a tiny vibration. Indra's New, it is said, was bejeweled, and in each facet of all the jewels were reflected all the other jewels in the net.

We seem to have recreated this with the Internet. In the latest edition of my book, The Elements of News Writing, I said that people who can figure out how to make order out of the information overload will  be in great demand. Now, in 2013, an interconnected network of social media sites are creating one way to make sense out of the cacophony of information out there in the mass media.

Perhaps establishing a digital platform of social media sites, personal blogs, separate Web sites, and connections to books, newspapers, magazines, recorded music, motion pictures, radio, television, and whatever comes tomorrow is what is coming.

I've been trying to work on new chapters for the new expanded Happy, and I don't like it at all. I wanted the original to be a few extraordinary anecdotes, not a whole memoir. I don't think I should continue on that path.

Perhaps this unconventional book can be presented in an unconventional way in the new marketplace.

Second thoughts

I kept writing the new chapters for the new version of Happy, but something was not quite right. I am not sure this is the way forward. I think perhaps I can expand and maybe divide some existing chapters, without devoting whole chapters to childhood issues.

I went for a three-mile run today, and my clearest thinking seemed to emerge from that. It leads me to tweak the existing version, rather than a total rewrite.

Amanda Palmer encore

OK, just one more post about Amanda Palmer, and then I'll get over it. Her basic message was to let go of old ideas about publishing, recording and networking. it's a while new world out there and it is exciting. Here is a video recorded at the Muse and the Marketplace keynote speech. She is amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-F_iEg6bf8&noredirect=1

Meanwhile, Thursday turned out to be productive. I couldn't write at first, so I went for a run, and the next thing I knew I was full of ideas. So I wrote most of the new Chapter 2 of my book, about my childhood.

Taking Care of Business

Well, the pile of mail on my work table finally got overwhelming, so I spent a big chunk of the day going through it all, and throwing most of it away. A few things actually required action, so it was good to get that done.

I also set up a MailChimp account and sent out the Sangha newsletter that way. I think it will save time in the long run, but it used a lot today. It interconnects with Facebook, Twitter and other social media, which seems to be what the future is all about. That is what the conference taught me.

This evening is the banquet for the members of the student newspaper and other clubs. We used to have a separate one just for the newspaper, but the students wanted to combine it with the others.

Stuck on Tuesday

The weekend conference was so inspiring that it leave me almost unable to write. I wonder what that's about. From what I learn, I need to rewrite my memoir with a more coherent story arc that shows my progress from an unhappy little boy to a happy old man. The journey is the thing. That task seems to daunting that I hesitate to start.

Meanwhile, I know for my physical and mental health I need to go for a run, preferably every day, but definitely today. I also want to simplify the e-mail list I use to invite people to the Cape Sangha by setting up a database in MailChimp. I have done the preliminaries, but it will take several hours to intense work to get it done. Also, there is a pile of mail and other paperwork stacked up on my work table. I really should sort through all that. So I find myself paralyzed by indecision. Instead, I started a load of laundry.

I think I should run first because that clears my head and makes it easier to make the other decisions.

Amanda Palmer

I am still feeling deeply affected by the talk Amanda Palmer gave at the Grub Street Conference Saturday night. Someone mentioned that she did a TED Talk, which I just played. It is wonderful too. What an amazing woman:

http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html


Here is a photograph that was taken at the Grub Street talk Saturday night.

Grub Street Day 3

Sunday at Grub Street was great too. Breakfast was delicious, and I had a few good conversations. Then I had my "Manuscript Mart" session with agent Margaret Riley. She thought my query letter was simplistic and not as good as the writing of the sample chapters. She thought my bullet points did not work at all. That goes with what the other agent suggested, which is to just use one of them. As for the writing, she thought I needed to focus on the journey and not get pedantic or instructional. The Buddhist philosophy will come out through my experience. She also wanted me to show the suffering early in my life in order to show how I overcame it. She wants me to "do a deeper dive."

Then I went to a workshop by Matt Salesses on the Elements of Style. He said "A common word used in an interesting way is more interesting then an interesting word used in a common way." He also urged us to think about the rhythm and meter of our prose, using more stressed than unstressed syllables, usually ending on a stressed syllable.

In my spare time I thought of seven new chapters for my spiritual memoir:

1. Childhood "unbelonging"
2. Early romance: Rita and Florence
3. Summer of 68 in the Haight
4. Early days at Marietta
5. Summer with Charlie and LSD
6. Sentinel Reunions and other wild parties
7. “Aujourd’hui, maman est morte.”

The next workshop was on voice in writing, and it was excellent as well. the teacher was a young woman named Alexandria Marzan-Leshevich. She talked about the voices of the author, the narrator and the character, which must be considered separately. We did a delicious exercise in which we tried to rewrite a paragraph from one author in the voice of a very different author. IN our own writing, she suggested we find a passage where the narrator's vice "sings," and then see what characteristics make it sing. Then try to apply those same characteristics to passages where the writing is more flat.

The luncheon keynote speaker was the world-renowned literary critic James Wood, who reviews books for the New Yorker. He read passages from great authors, such as Nabakov and Chekov, and pointed out how they were "serious noticers." He said stories are made of details, and a dynamic combination of surpluses and disappointments.

After lunch, I could have stayed for a couple more sessions, but I felt I had taken in so much that I couldn't learn any more.

I can't wait for next year's Muse and Marketplace workshop by the Grub Street Writers. Great job, Grubbies!

Grub Street Day 2

What a great conference!
I want to join Grub Street and participate in more of their events.

After a good night's sleep I enjoyed the continental breakfast and two morning workshops. In the 9:45 session, Cam Terwilliger game an excellent talk about Point of View, with excellent examples. Once again, The Great Gatsby came up, as an example of a first-person limited narrator who is not the main character. I really need to read that book again. He also talked about "psychic distance" or "narrative distance" as something that can change what the reader sees without switching point of view. This is going to help me in teaching creative writing, as well as in my own creative writing.

The 11:15 session was a panel of agents and editors discussing how to get nonfiction published. Every one talked about the need to have a platform--particularly a social media platform. Three keys, according to agent Regina Brooks, are:

1. a hook,
2. great writing, and
3. a platform.

She also mentioned making sure the whole book has a story arc and is not just a series of essays. My "Happy" book has that problem. I need to create an overriding story arc.

There were two excellent afternoon sessions. One was a "pitch" workshop in which writers had two minutes to pitch their book ideas to a panel of editors and agents, who critiqued their presentations. I learned a lot about how I need to make a compelling argument for my story in a very short time.

Later I heard a program by an executive from Goodreads.com, which I had never heard of before this conference. I am now convinced that I need to establish a presence on Goodreads in anticipation of the publication of my favorite books.
www.goodreads.com

In the evening, the keynote address was the highlight of the whole conference. The absolutely amazing singer, songwriter, poet, rock star and intellectual Amanda Palmer gave a talk that made me laugh and cry. She also sang two songs and answered questions.  She used metaphor and simile to talk about the new marketplace for artists, musicians and writers. She said the marketplace is dangerous and dirty, but we should at least stick our heads out the window and call out to our friends. We writers, she said, have always had the impulse to connect the dots and see the patterns.

 "If you are connecting dots and using words, you are a writer," she said.

She urged us to keep connecting the dots and saying what we must and to put it out into the marketplace any way we can. The world is changing at he speed of the Internet, and we need to accept that.

She spoke about a poem she posted on the Internet after the Boston Marathon bombings that expressed her wonder at what must been on the mind of the 19-year-old bomber cowering in the bottom of a boat. She drew a lot of criticism for expressing empathy for the bomber. She said some people said this is not a time for empathy. "I think that's fucked up," she said, and got an enthusiastic round of applause. She is kind, compassionate, bright, witty and talented. I plan to learn a lot more about this woman who calls herself "Amanda Fucking Palmer."

Grub Street Day 1

Already this writers conference is much better than the last one. I have learned a lot. First of all, I am glad I got a room at the conference hotel--The Boston Park Plaza. My room is very comfortable, and I can leave most of my stuff upstairs while attending the workshop sessions.

The first session was about social media, and the speaker gave us some excellent ideas, particularly the importance of joining Goodreads. He also said all authors need to be on facebook and Twitter and they need to have their own name as a domain, and perhaps a site for each book as well. He said we must all work very hard at promoting our own books.

The second workshop was about plot, and the speaker used the example of the Grimm Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel to illustrate what plot does in a narrative. In the end she likened plot to the original meaning of the work--a parcel of land. The plot is the land your story covers. She said a person sitting in a chair might be interesting, but it is not plot.

Then I had my meeting with the agent who read my sample chapters from I Just Want to Be Happy. Edward Orloff. He said the writing is good, which thrilled me. He said the length of my manuscript--30,000 words--is too short. I should get it up to about 50,000 words. He also said a more coherent theme might help. He also suggested my query letter concentrate only on the incident with Thich Nhat Hanh. He also found the incident with Sean in the prologue hard to believe. Ray said that so, so I will have to work on that. Just because it is true does not mean it is believable. In the end, Orloff said that if I expand and improve the manuscript, he would be willing to take a look at it.

After that I listened to a reading form this year's Grub Street Prize-winning book, which was very interesting. After that I wandered down the street and found City Place, which has a food Court. It is neat the dental clinic where I have been getting my implants, but this time I approached it form the other direction.

Working indoors and out

Outside, I am continuing to work on my garden, producing aches and pains in planes I didn't even know I had places, as they say.

Inside, I worked on Chapters 6 and 7 of The Elements of Academic Writing over the last few days. I spent a couple of hours this morning planning my itinerary for the three-day writers conference I will be attending over the weekend in Boston. It is put on by Grub Street, and I think it will be a wonderful experience.
http://www.grubstreet.org/?id=173

The host hotel--The Boston Park Plaza--has been booked up for months, but I called today and they had a cancellation so I got a room at the conference for Friday and Saturday. That means I will not have to do the two-hour commute up and back those nights. I am particularly thrilled because the commuting problem is what spoiled the AWP conference I attended in February.