D Day for the First Frontier Writers' Rendezvous
The Wait
Is over.
Friday, June 7. It is on. So come on out and see the show.
Countdown
One...
Thursday, June 6. Not much left to do except wait to see who shows up tomorrow. Raining today but the weather says 40% chance of rain Friday and a high of 52 which is not great but is not too bad. Saturday is supposed to be overcast and a high of 62 which is actually better than the next two days which are supposed to be in the 80s. (All temperatures in Fahrenheit).
Countdown
Two...
Wednesday, June 5. I have a rough draft of the Miller talk. Signage is up in the air right now. I thought I had someone to make them but now that is in doubt. We will have signs but they may be kind of scrappy. Right now I am waiting for a walk-through of our space so I know what's where etc. We will do t-shirts for pre-order. Other than that, tranquility and serenity reigns throughout.
Countdown
Three...
Tuesday, June 4. All I need to do between now and Friday is write a 25 minute presentation on Joaquin Miller, have a backup plan in case our Pitch a Publisher and Creating a Dynamic Cover presenter does not show, make signage for the venues, print a program, and we will need 2 tills and furniture for the conference room (something I had not considered til just now).
Countdown
Four...
Monday, June 3. We got our banners and they look good. I am not sure how I am going to mount them. There is not any obvious place like a fenc or something and they are too big to hang on a car. I may wait til Friday morning to tackle that. I think we now have a full roster for readings. Still have heard nothing for our 2 workshops from Kentucky. I think I need a plan B just in case.
Next Time,
We will be more organized.
Sunday, June 2. Rednezvous a-comin' and I still have lots to do. Three things we still do not have sorted yet. Signage, wifi and credit cards. Signage I am working on today. It might not be elegant but we should be able to keep people from getting lost. Credit cards, we are going to punt because there is not enough time to set something up. It is possible the community center has wifi or at least internet but I seriously doubt it. We may be able to to some tethering to a smartphone but signal strength is not real good here. Once again, we may have to punt.
So
There.
Saturday, June 1. No post today. I went to a wedding in Bend where I was best man for the first time in my life. So there.
"Uncle Jacob's Ghost Story"
by Donn Kushner
Friday, May 31. Exactly one week left, and I think I have done all the damage I can do regarding the Rendezvous.
So today, I will write about a book: Donn Kushner's "Uncle Jacob's Ghost Story." I picked it up because I was curious as to what it was about. I have now read it and I still don't know. I did read it straight through and in a bookstore I never hesitate to put something down when it becomes too predictable or stupid. After reading, I was not even really sure where I should shelve it but according to the bio at scholastic.com, Kushner "wrote a number of very successful children's books." On the other hand, most of the Kushner bibliographies I found did not mention Jacob's Ghost. And as mentioned, a 72 year old guy found it interesting enough to read straight through which would not be true of many popular examples of juvenile fiction. It is legitimately a ghost story but it is neither scary or morbid. It was definitely not one of his more popular books, but I suspect that Kushner had an agenda, a reason for writing this particular story but I do not know what that reason was.
Stated first American edition, full number line. $9 at the bookstore or 9+shipping elsewhere.
Time to Relax -
What we have now is all we are going to get.
Thursday, May 30. One more potential workshop attendee. I ordered some 4'x8' banners for the Rendezvous. That is always kind of scary because it is $200 and I worry about how the final product will look because you never know until you see it. It always looks fine on the computer screen and then when it is printed, it is the wrong size, the colors are weird and crucial information is missing. But it is way to late to worry now. We have made our leap now we find out if there is water in the pool or just bare cement.
The Crowd—
Trickles in.
Wednesday, May 29. Another workshop attendee which gives a total of four so far. The Bend Bulletin is only running one ad so I am spending the budgeted but unused money for radio ads on KJDY, the local radio station. Our local extension service has a pretty good video camera, a Sony PXW X70 which has just been sitting in a closet so I am trying to see if I can find someone to shoot some video for the Rendezvous (and the '62 Days and the Museum). Still thinking about t-shirts but time is too short to try to print some. I may try taking orders and then print the shirts later. Other than that, the days drift by in a tranquil haze.
Plans
Can change suddenly
Tuesday, May 28. A couple of customers today; one cash and one trade. I thought my ad had run in the Bend Bulletin but it turns out that it didn't. And they want a credit card which doesn't work in this case. So we will see how this plays out. I may have $500 more in the ad budget than I thought I did. And one of our authors announced an intention to attend two of the workshops. So maybe things are not as desperate on the workshop front as I had feared.
No Point
In wasting energy by bucking the current- today we just go with the flow.
Monday May 27 Memorial Day. Sold one book online. Other than that, absolute utter still dead calm reigned. Couldn't build shelves because all the hardware stores are closed. Did clear up the backlog of books to be triaged (except for a small handful of truly difficult cases.). I think part of it is this is a Monday of a three-day weekend. Cañon City is a good solid five hour drive from Portland so you need to be out of here by noon at the latest and I bet most are gone well before then.
It's Real Purty
When it stops raining.
Sunday May 26 (Memorial Day Weekend)
Pioneer roses in Cañon City.
Anticipation,
An - ti - ci - paaaaashun.
Saturday, May 25. I think I have done almost everything I can about the Rendezvous. Not much left but catching inquiries and waiting. I have a lot more flyers than I need. I will run up to Prairie City tonight to see if I can place a few. Quiet on the bookstore front. Have not seen anyone all day. Pretty decent day though, great day for Nubistry.
Exactly 2
Weeks left.
Friday, May 24. The ad co-op thing keeps growing. I think I need to follow up on the t-shirts. Added another two tiers of shelves today. Not a huge improvement but every little bit helps. Rained cats and dogs about mid-afternoon. Hope that does not happen during the parade as it sometimes has.
Rare Treasure?
Or fire starter?
Thursday, May 23. Sent an email about ads and flyers to all the Rendezvous presenters. Spent the rest of the day triaging books. It is the outliers like this that slow me down. Does anyone whant this or should I toss it?
Aim for the Stars,
and gloat when you clear the trees.
Wednesday, May 22. Got the shelves up. Accomplishment is good but it had a slightly frustrating feel because one four foot length by 7 tiers high (8 if youcount the top) makes just a little movement in my books/shelf ratio. Got a call from Kim at the eagle abt the co-op ad. Asked for the email of those who were interested. I said I would do it tomorrow.
A Little bit More Than
Two weeks left.
Tuesday, May 21. Just one flyer request so far but we have a day or two to spare so I will send out some emails tomorrow. Also tomorrow I will get one more 5' bank of bookshelves up.
Meanwhile, in Cañon City:
The First!
But, we hope, by no means the last.
Monday, May 20. We have one workshop signup for Paty's workshop. The flyers are printed and I will pick them up tonight and tomorrow I will find out who still wants hard copies.
Think Globally,
Act locally.
Sunday, May 19. This distributing flyers digitally has real merit. It depends on having a geographically dispersed collection of people who want to help promote it but it makes it possible to reach more people more efficiently than we could by any other method. I have already ordered 100 flyers for the luddite holdouts and I expect that I will have some left over. Maybe frame some as souveniers of the 1st Frontier Rendezvous?
Just asking.
Why?
Saturday, May 18. Apropos of nothing: Would an exceptional organization whose individual members were only average be better or worse than a conventional organization with exceptional members? Which matters most, system or personnel? What is the metric? And how could one make the measuremeent?
Spent the day making bookshelves. Still behind but I am closing in.
Print or Digital?
Yes please!
Friday May 17. Thanks to a suggestion from Kathy Coatney I have put a downloadable/printable version of the flyer here . It is 8.5x11 inches at 300dpi. I have put a slightly smaller version of the flyer here. This one gives 1/2" side margins and 3/8" top & bottom if printed at 300dpi and centered.
Sometimes The Old Ways
Are the best.
Thursday, May 15. Did a flyer that we can post. Now how about some t-shirts?
Hitting
On all cylinders.
Wednesday, May 15. The co-op ad thing continues to be popular. Had another couple of inquiries today. Meanwhille, the Bookstore got a couple of boxes of books. Some look kind of interesting like some stories by James Fenmore Cooper that I did not know existed. Plus a number of really beaten up primary grade school books from the 1950s.
They Say it Pays
To advertise.
Tuesday, May 14. The ad co-op thing seems pretty popular. I am still going to wait til the 26th in case there are any late bloomers in the crowd. I came back from the store this evening, someone was unloading a couple of bags of books at my door. Some pretty good fantasy plus the usual mix.
We Shout
And wave our arms.
Monday, May 13. We bought the final ad for the Bend Bulletin which will feature '62 Days as well. Kathy Moss said the Blue Mountain Eagle offered a discount for individual authors' ads in conjuction with our buying a display ad. I sent out an email blast to our authors and we will see what that produces.
The Future
Is unknowable.
Sunday, May 12. Looking at yesterday's post, I fear I may have been a little more inflammatory than I had intended especially in the headline. I am not suggesting that any totalitarian state in likely to morph into the Borg in the near future. But one or two generations from now, it is hard to say where we might be. I keep being reminded how far we are now from the world I grew up in. For instance my brother, who is a very decent and civilized person ran a trap line here in eastern Oregon as a teenager and I still have a very nice beaver pelt hat from those days. Just last week I heard some of my nieces express horror and dismay that the old man could have done something as horrible as killing and skinning an animal. By the same token, Mr Hanky the Christmas poo or the poo emoji would have been considered not only obscene but criminally so in 1950. So I suspect that I am not capable of imagining the world that the grandchildren of today's young adults will inhabit. We can only hope.
Is There a Hive Mind
In our future?
Saturday, May 11. More apropos of nothing;
Continued reactions to Keegan's "The First World War." In the aftermath of WWI, democracy in various flavors seems preponderant especially if we give weight to technological prowess. But the errors and excesses of democratic governance are all too apparent. Now we have the rise of China which may not be an ideology but is a coherent system whose sole object is the expansion and enhancement of state power. This is the state Neitzsche foreshadowed when he spoke of the death of God, stripped of any fascist mystical romanticism. There is no higher power, there are no moral constraints. Everything that augments the power of the state will be used. Nothing which impedes the state will be permitted.
We are sailing uncharted waters here. Space war, biotechnology, artificial intelligence; our times are full of things which have never before existed in the history of the world. We could be standing at the cusp of a new kind of state.
I am not despairing. I believe that the messy flexibility of democracy is inherently more stable in the long run. Centralized autocracies must all be subject to the judgment of a single person. If history has any lesson at all, it is that human judgment can be flawed. One of the commonest flaws is unwillingness to recognize one's own errors which by itself has been enough to bring down several empires. Still, it is in our self interest to raise our own level of performance to the very best we can do.
Two More
Eager authors
Friday May 10. We have two more potential book sellers: Kelly Cooper and Karen Nitz author of "Harney County". I do not know the name of Kelly's book. Welcome aboard to both.
Short of Time
So I am taking the long view.
Thursday May 9. Apropos of nothing;
I just finished reading "The First World War" by John Keegan and it got me to thinking. The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 and in Europe was quickly replaced by a hereditary aristocracy which evolved into a system which produced the Renaissance which lead to the Elightenment which led to an emphasis on thechnology which lead to world donmination. Then in 1914 at the peak of this domination the whole thing imploded and 4 years later all the ancient monarchies were either gone or politically neutered. Fascisim had its fling in the early 20th century but it pretty convincingly self-destructed. Then Communism ditto which left liberal democracy and scattered autocracies. Since then, democracy has been the norm. Nations call themselves "Democratic" when they are no such thing. Which bring us to now.
I Said I Would
And I did.
Sent out an email to a travel writer at the Bend Bulletin today plugging the Rendezvous. We will see if it produces any results. At this point, I am out of ideas. I may try searching Oregon travel blogs and see what they offer.
Crunch
Time
Tuesday May 7. We have exactly one month left. Not much new to report. I did just check, and we are listed on Travel Oregon, the Grant County Chamber of Commerce and the Blue Mountain Eagle so that is good. Tomorrow I will reach out and try to get some travel writers interested.
Atque in perpetuum,
frater, ave atque vale.*
Saturday, April 27.
Daniel Thomas Driscoll July 6 1950 - April 27 2019.
Brother, friend, companion. You are missed.
* And for eternity, brother, a tribute and farewell
The next regular post will be on Monday May 6.
Hiatus
Pause
Friday, April 26.
Book Overload
Back tomorrow.
Thursday, April 25. 
Back in the Saddle Again
And we're approaching the end.
Wednesday, April 24. Ok, back on track. I have verified that all the print ads have run. The local radio ads start on Thursday (4/25) and run to the following Tues plus 2 ads on the KJDY facebook page. If anyone sees these, let me know what you think. We are also running ads on Annual Oregon and Beyond50Radio from this Thursday to May 30 so you might want to check them out as well.
Blew it
Again
Tuesday, April 23. Spent the day with my daughter. I did prove that this site works ok on an iphone, so that is good.
Blew
It
Monday, April 22. Retroactive post. My daughter just blew in on a cross-country trip from Vermont to the Oregon coast and back again so I am a little distracted.
It is Full Spring Now
The bees are buzzing and the birds are going nuts.
Sunday, April 21. A beautiful Easter Sunday in Canyon City. Still bug hunting. Starting to think it could be a Chrome bug so I am loading Firefox onto my phone to see if that makes any difference. Breaking news: It works fine on Firefox so it is a Chrome issue. I'll be interested to know how it works on an iphone.
Bugs
If you can find them, you can squash them.
Saturday, April 20. A day of total non-accomplishment. I discovered that my phone version of this site does not present the links button properly. I have been wrestling with it all day. I thought there was something about some image that was making it choke but today's post has all the pictures removed but the problem persists. Maybe everything will be much clearer in the morning. I hope so.
Mobile Users
Are people too.
Friday, April 19.The Rendezvous ad for mobile devices is up and ready for viewing . Let me know if you see any mistakes or problems
Marking Time
While time marches on.
Thursday, April 18. Built bookshelves. And sold a book on my online bookstore. Which does not happen very often. I have neglected my own site for too long.
On My Own Sites
The rates are very reasonable.
Wednesday, April 17. Swapped out the google ad at the bottom of the Oregon Guides Publishing Home Page for a Rendezvous ad. Only the desktop version today. Those viewing this on a phone will have to wait until tomorrow when I will finish up. Nothing else Rendezvous related.
Spring in Canyon City
Not much Rendezvous related to report. The bookstore had a couple of customers and shipped one book out.
6 Workshops x 20 people max,
Means 2.14 tickets per day to sell out.
Monday, April 15. Got my taxes off no sweat. Busy day storewise, 3 online and 1 walk-in. A bunch of the ads should start hitting right now although I have not received any formal notice to that effect. I hope so because I really want to start selling some tickets.
Happy Tax Day
Happy, happy, joy, joy.
Sunday, April 14. Today I finished some poetry judging that I had promised and then got ready to actually do my taxes tomorrow. If I seem casual that is because not much changes in the used book business from year to year. At least not out here, so I will be fine. I hope that will still leave time to get the financial end of the Rendezvous straightened out. That will be nice because then I can pay some of the bills I have taken on. The ads should start coming out in the next week or so. We will see what that brings.
4 Author's Reading Slots Remain
Welcome Margot Heiniger.
Saturday, April 13. A very diverse collection of visitors at the bookstore today, including one who will be doing a reading at the Rendezvous. Welcome to Margot Heiniger who will be reading from her new book "Healing Dog Trauma" at 2:30 pm on Saturday June 8.
Getting and Spending
Seems backwards somehow.
Friday, April 12. I am surprised at how much trouble I have spending money. I expected raising money to be tough but I have some money now and I cannot seem to get it where I can write checks against it. I hope we get it straightened out quickly because I have made a bunch of committmentsto my advertisers and I do not want to the "Your check is in the mail" dance.
Ever at My Back I Hear
Time's winged chariot hurtling near.
Thursday, April 11. 59 days and 0 tickets. Still do not actually have money in hand but I think it is close enough to buy some local radio ads and print in most of the regional papers. And I got an inquiry from someone who is doing a local calendar website and I will get in touch with them tomorrow. 
.
The Final Stretch
Now or never.
Wednesday, April 10. Placed ad in the Firehall Press today: 
If anyone notices some mistake or oversight, please let me know. On other fronts, sort of hanging fire. I got the TRT grant check which is made out to GREAT and I am having a hard time getting ahold of them (GREAT). But that's ok because I'll need at least one more day to have ad copy ready anyway.
Making Progress
(If the creek don't rise)
Tuesday, April 9. Good news! We were awarded some ad money from the Transient Room Tax Committee so I will be writing ads tomorrow. Still trying to get ahold of the gofundme money. Have an ad ready for the firehall press but I have not heard from them yet. Canyon Creek is near flooding. Picture Gorge and Kimberly are closed to traffic. I have seen it higher but not in many years. Going now to check my storage unit which is right on the banks of Canyon Creek.
Deliberate Effort -
Not mad scramble.
Monday, April 8. It is quarter of 8 as I write this. I keep resolving that I am going to do nothing else each morning until I have written that day's gazette. And so far, each morning life happens and it is the end of my day when I get around to this. But I did get the new printer up and running. I know I am a curmudgeon but I like copper and I was suprised when I opened the printer box and there was no usb cable. Nor was there any mention of usb nor cables in the instructions. It was only by going online that I discovered that the usb connector is hidden under the scanner platen (along with the ethernet port). Still need to check on the gofundme money.
First Things First
Unless something breaks.
Sunday, April 7. Sold two books the day after I listed them. People really like that buried treasure stuff.
Nothing Rendezvous related today, but tomorrow I have to try to shake loose the money in the gofundme account. Before I do that however, I need to start my day by getting a new printer because the old one died this afternoon.. That takes priority over everything else because it is a crucial piece of the book shipping process. Tomorrow will be busy for certain and, we hope, productive.
Conundrum
Ebay might be good for womething like this but it is a real time sink and I have none to spare.
Got a Hammer and Nail,
Gonna build some bookshelves.
Friday, April 5. Spent today working on bookshelves instead of Rendezvous stuff because we are at a crisis for space to put all the books.
So Many Options
So little time.
Thursday, April 4. Turns out there are a LOT of literary blogs, websites, etc., to the point that I am going to need some way to whittle it all down to a managable size. But it is not immediately clear to me what the criteria should be. As it is, a blog led to a list of literary magazines which it took all afternoon to read through. Actually I did not read it through, there was still a good sized chunk of list left. If I can reconstruct the path that took me there, I may go back and finish. On the other hand, in a couple of hours looking at some hundreds of publications, I found two that sounded worth contacting and offered email addresses. Was this an optimal use of my time? If not, as I said there are far more potential correspondents than any mere mortal could ever hope to keep track of.
Mea Culpa
We blew it.
Wednesday, April 3. Retroactively.
Getting the Word Out
To a few at least.
Tuesday, April 2. Sent out notices to Travel Oregon, EOVA and the Blue Mountain Eagle announcing the Rendezvous. I sent emails to Travel Oregon and EOVA and no response yet so we can only hope. Tomorrow, time and energy permitting, I will try reaching out to whatever bloggers and travel writers I can find. If You know anyone worth contacting, please let me know.
We Are Social
Or at least trying to be.
Monday, April 1. We now have exactly (31+31+7) 2 months and one week to get ready. Thanks to Kathy Moss we have an events page on facebook under "Authors, Readings and Workshops." Those of you on facebook check it out an pass it along. Meanwhile, I am restarting my twitter account https://twitter.com/dgdriscoll where I will post regular updates about the rendezvous.
Fortunately, My White Elephants
Do not require much care and feeding.
Saturday, March 30. Almost done cataloging. Down to some sets which are hard to know what to do with. 7 volumes out of a 20 something volume set of Time-Life "The Old West," 17 volumes of the Life "Nature Library" (Animal behavior, ecology, plants etc.), a fairly complete run of American Heritage from 1962-68, and a complete 15 volume set of Childcraft from 1954 which has had a hard life. What are they worth? Hard to say. The first question is: Does anybody want them? So that is where I start my day Monday. But that is the bottom of the stack so, as soon as I have decided what to do with them, my floor will be clean and I can turn to other concerns.
Spring -
A time for hatching things.
Friday, March 29. Busy selling and cataloging books. It is always hard to know what to do with something like "Cinders & Smoke A mile by mile guide for the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge trip." Definitely rare and in good shape but how many people want a tourist guide from 1965? On the other hand, this particular item is a 13th printing from 1980 so it had lasting appeal. I am going to put it up at $10 and we will see what happens. I just checked the tickets inbox and nothing yet. But one more good day and I will have the book stack worked down to a managable lump. Then I can get back into marketing.
Pacing,
Is the key.
Wednesday, March 27. Gray day, not much activity on my part. A few customers came in and I did some book shelving to clear a little more space. I am going to have to start building more bookshelves real soon.
Gusty
And brisk.
Tuesday, March 26. As I indicated yesterday, I started today planning to do more cataloging since I have plenty of that, but first I needed to do just a little on the website and by the time I had that done, it was 5:30. But I think the website is done. I added a bunch of pictures of the community center and in additon to giving people an idea of what to expect, it brightens up the page considerably. Click on the "Rendezvous" and see what you think. Kathy Moss said she would put up a facebook page so that should help build traffic. And I think I made some progress for getting money from gofundme to GREAT to ads. Fittingly, we are starting in fits and starts.
Workaday
working.
Monday, March 25. Nothing happened on the Rendezvous today. Except that I found out that a source of advertising money I was sort of counting on will be delayed at least 1 month. Considering that we have only 2 1/2 months to R-Day, this is going to cause some stress. On the plus side, I got a bunch of books cataloged which is good because I am running out of floor space. Some Random House books, some A.W. Eckert, "The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance", good stuff. There is enough cataloging remaining to keep me going for a week but I do not think I can take that long.
Mighta' Gone Fishin'
But the road to the river is a mighty long way.
Sunday, March 24. Not never on a Sunday but only lightly and even then, with restraint. I spent the afternoon plowing through Joaquin Miller's "The Destruction of Gotham" which seems to be Miller's variation on "The Gilded Age" written ten years earlier by Mark Twain and Charles Warner. I am only about a third of the way into it so I can not judge its quality yet but it does have some interesting aspects. It is one of the liveliest pictures of New York city in the gilded age I have ever encountered. Some of the scenes he describes are striking and he catches them with an outsider's eye. If there ever was an imagist novelist, Miller is it.
At Last
At least for the moment.
Saturday, March 23. It is up and running. Follow the link in the masthead to check it out. And I need to spend a little time on the book business which has been mostly neglected this past two weeks.
Welcome
Another pioneer.
Friday, March 22. We have a new workshop presenter. Welcome to Carmen Peone who will be presenting "Self-Edit into Publication" at 8pm on Friday (June 7). Carmen will also be doing a reading from her "True to Heart" trilogy at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon.
On other fronts, the end is in sight and we should be able to sell tickets next week. I know I implied yesterday that I would be done today but I did make definite progress today. Finding a path to transmitting text data with the quotes and commas intact from html to php to javascript takes a few tries to get it right.
It Lives!
Not too pretty though.
Thursday, March 21. You can go to the Rendezvous site and select one or more workshops and then fill out a form which will be saved as a file on my server. Just got it all working at the end of today so tomorrow I will wring it out to find any problems and then clean it up so it is inviting.
Just Enough Time-
To make it around the world in 1873
Wednesday, March 20. I hope 80 days turns out to be just enough time for us. Still working on payments. I think I have all the pieces in place and by tomorrow I might have them all working together. I hope so because spending a week+ on the web site means I have been letting a lot of other things slide.
More Progress
No, really.
Tuesday, March 19, So I need to record which workshops a visitor selects on the website, then I send tickets/receipts (and figure out ho to handle tickets at the rendezvous, but that will not happen on the website). In the process I cleaned up some of the css so it looks better. If you go to the site and click on the "Add this workshop" button will add it to a javascript array but I ran into some hiccups with getting the data into a form. That will be the program for tomorrow, and I think I just figured out how to do it without using email. We will see what happens tomorrow meanwhile you can critique what we have so far Here .
Progress
Of a sort.
Monday, March 18, Ditched PayPal, at least for the front end. I have the css mostly done and a json structure for the information I need to sell tickets. Tomorrow I will figure out what to do with that information.
Gather ye Rosebuds ...
Or call me lazy.
Sunday, March 17, Beautiful spring day in the 60s so I spent the afternoon organizing one of the storage units.
Beautiful Dreams
Crushed by ugly reality.
Saturday, March 16, Spent the day wrestling with PayPal. Lost decisively — paypal does not like to sell tickets. I can either go to a third party app that will hook into paypal or I could probably paste together something ugly that will work. It's late so I am going to quit and think things over but I think what I will do is set the site up so people can email me a request for tickets and I will then invoice via paypal. But tomorrow is Sunday so I will meditate on the matter and Monday I will have a solution and we will march on.
Another Reader
Reading writing.
Friday, March 15, Rose Howe, an alumna of last year's book fair will be back and she will be doing a reading from her autobiography "The Long and Winding Road." I look forward to it. We continue to work on setting up PayPal so we can sell tickets to the workshops. Not done but I was able to get onto the paypal site today and I did set up acknowlegement pages for completed and aborted transactions here: https://oregonguidespublishing.com/fwc/confirmation.php and https://oregonguidespublishing.com/fwc/cancellation.php. If anyone notices any problems with these pages, please let me know right away.
Some days, You Get the Bear,
Some days, the bear gets you.
Thursday, March 14: Today's record was one of solid non accomplishment. At least as far as the Rendezvous is concerned, the store acquired a huge trove of Louis L'Amores. Today was supposed to be the day I set up an online payment system with PayPal. I have done this before and I expected it to be a drawn out frustrating process but I was being optimistic. The nub of the matter was that necessary pages that were off line. So I have accepted defeat with as much grace as I can muster and will pick up the struggle tomorrow.
Money Matters
Tickets on sale (soon).
Wednesday, March 13. Putting the Rendezvous website on a more business-like footing. Paypal button does not work but Paypal is complicated enough that I need to set aside one day just for it. We are getting there. Unfortunately so is June 7.
Another Vendor Joins
(At least in spirit)
Tuesday, March 12: Welcome to Corinne Anderson of Ink Smith Publishing and Native Ink Press. She may not be able to attend but we should have some materials from her imprints.
Can't Forget
About out mobile bretheren.
Monday March 11 Here is the mobile version of the Rendezvous logo:
. You won't see this version on the rendezvous site unless you are using a cell phone.
It Lives!
Time to move on.
March 10: It is up and you can check it out Here. I still see al lot of things that would make it better but I need to turn to the website itself so we can attend to trivial matters like selling tickets and such. And I still have to make a mobile version because there is no way to make the hxw ratio work on a phone.
5:00 on Friday
And I am not quite done
March 9: Still working on the new logo/masthead for the Rendezvous. Not quite finished but getting close.
Sneak Peek
Close to finished
March 8: Still working on the new logo/masthead for the Rendezvous. Here is a look at what I have so far. I hope to have it finished by the end of today.
Less Than 3 Months
til Rendezvous
Apropos of nothing:
The word "anti-Semitism" is all over the news lately and every time I see it I am bothered. If I want to keep from freezing I use anti-freeze. If I want to stop fungus, I use an anti-fungal. "Semite" refers to a linguistic group which includes Jews, Arabs and a handful of other tribes. So anti-Semitic should refer to opposition or negation to members of this group. Except it doesn't, it means "anti-Jewish."
So my question is: If they mean "anti-Jewish" why do they always say "anti-Semitic?"
Keepin' On
Keepin' on.
Still working on the new logo. Zero response from book illustratiors, not much else to report.
Lousy Weather
Cold, grey, wet.
Tuesday, March 5: Another $100 in the gofundme kitty. Thanks, Dan. Email blast to book cover vendors sent. Way fewer bounces than my publisher list. Don't know if that reflects the source's quality or the nature of the different fields. Logo is coming along. I think I can get it done this week.
Small Steps
But in the right direction
Monday, March 4: We are now up to $320 in gofundme, thanks Carey. Dancing Lemur sent a "guide to submitting to publishers and agents." You can check it out Here. I plan to spend today working on a logo for the Rendezvous and sending an email blast to book cover illustrators.
We Are Filling Up
Welcome to K.A. DaVur
Sunday, March 3: We have two more workshops and two more readings: "Pitch a Publisher" by Amanda Lamkin and "Creating a Dynamic Cover" by the directors of Line by Lion and 2 readings by K.A. DaVur, "Alexandra Campbell, Private Eye" and "Cahrlotte and Daisy." Things are filling up we have just one workshop open.
Apropos of nothing: If you look at a graph of say, income distribution in America you get a chart with a short, steep climb on the left of the median where most of us are all bunched up and then a long, long tail on the right that tapers off at the far end where the hadful of really rich live. If you go for a graph of intelligence distribution in America, you get a perfect bell curve because the intelligence measuring experts adjust their raw data until it fits the theoretical curve.
Plans.
And a digression
Talked to the local radio station today and I could do a locally targeted facebook + radio campaign for about what we have in the kitty right now. But first I need to figure out the mechanics of getting money from gofundme to GREAT, our 401c3, and from there to the station. Maybe I'll tackle that tomorrow when my head is clear.
Apropos of nothing here, I got to thinking about Irwin Schiff today. For those who don't know, Schiff built a career and, for a very long time, made a pretty good living by flouting legal and financial norms. He was able to get away with it because his behavior was so outrageous that the legal system could not cope with it. But in 2005 Mr. Schiff died at the age of 87 inside a federal prison. I estimate that at that time he was about one year into a 14 year sentence.
Another Milestone
more support
Friday, March 1: Maybe I worry too much. We got another contribution in the gofundme campaign today so now we are up to $220. I offered 10'x10' vendor spaces at $15 a pop without really thinking things through and I think it is past time for me to stop and see if that makes any sense and if not, see if I can make a graceful recovery.
Refinement
We polish our presentation
Thursday, February 28: The gofundme campaign is definitely not setting the world on fire. One thing is that successful campaigns seem to be mostly about people and so I changed to headline picture to one with lots of people in it. I fear it is too late because most potential donors have already seen the campaign and moved on but we can hope.
Progress!
A presenter and a donation in one day.
Wednesday February 27: At 6pm yesterday evening I was just a bit anxious since it has been 5 days since I started the gofundme campaign with with zero shares, comments, money or anything. Then just before dinner, I got a notice of my first gofundme donation and right after that I got two email replies from prospective vendors for the Rendezvous. So things are starting to heat up. You may note we have also changed our headline type face. The previous one worked for poetry but not for this.
Reaching Out
Come all ye vendors
Today I am going to do the first email blast to book publishers to see if we can entice them to come and market their services to the vast throngs of budding authors at the Rendezvous. Will any of them step up? Stay tuned and find our.
New (sort of) Logo
Dialing it in
The updated Frontier Writers' Circle logo is at the top of today's page. I needed the final version before I got to work on the Rendezvous logo which is up next. Not perfect, and not terribly different from the previous version. But it is close enough that I do not want to spend a lot of time tweaking when I have so much else to do.
So Far,
So good.
As of February 22 our lineup (chronologically) is: Kathy Moss Prepping Persona and Personality in Cowboy Poetry, Kathy Coatney The Ins and Outs of Writing for Trade Magazines, Reading by Paty Jager, Paty Jager Characterization-Making your characters come to life, And Reading Backcountry Flying off Grid by Doug Ferguson. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Waiting for February to End
gray overcast in the desert too much
Today is a very slow day — I blame it on the weather. One of the benefits of living in in a desert is that, warm or cold, the sky is usually blue. But the last few weeks have been overcast with persistent snowish precipitation. In addition I have to go to Bend today, a three and one half hour drive each way. Remember what I said about frontier meaning that we are geographically isolated from services? So a 20 minute doctor's appointment means this day is shot. We will make it up tomorrow. Promise.
We Have a gofundme Campaign
Is Canyon City ready for the 21st century?
As far as I know, no one around here has ever tried a gofundme (or kickstarter) campaign. We have to buy advertising and we need to do it now. There is grant money available from various sources but most have a six month to one year lead time. Gofundme works immediately but its iffy: if it clicks, it can be wildly successful and if it does not click it will be a total failure. If I knew what it takes for a successful campaign, I would become a consultant at $500/hr. One thing that is known is that the more people we reach, the better our chances, so please everyone help spread the word about our campaign to all your contacts. Send people to our campaign. If you need a link, the url is: https://www.gofundme.com/Frontier-Writers-Rendezvous . The key to making the Frontier Writers' Rendezvous a howling success and putting Canyon City on the map is spreading the word so tell everybody. Twice.
Are You a Frontier Writer?
Probably - How far to a Starbucks?
I would like to prevent any misunderstanding about what I mean when I say "Frontier Writer." Words are important and "frontier" was chosen quite deliberately. "Frontier" is an especially tricky word because it has a different meaning in the US than it does in the rest of the English-speaking world. In most of the world, "frontier" refers to a border between counties. France for instance has German, Spanish and Belgian frontiers. In America we use "border" for international boundaries and reserve "frontier" for the line separating law, church and commerce on one side from the wild and ungoverned on the other.
The United States Government recognizes the special meaning of this word by designating as "frontier" those "Sparsely populated areas that are geographically isolated from populations centers and services." The Frontier Writers' Circle is a recognition of the fact that where we live affects how we think. In frontier regions, we live in an environment very different from the typical American experience and our writing will reflect these differences.
That said we intend to be very inclusive. Any style, any genre, fiction, non-fiction, children's or densely technical is welcome here.