embracing the gray

When telling stories about loved ones

Embracing the Gray is made up of stories of my life strung together with some reflections, tears and giggles. As I have been writing about particular people: First love, a$$hole step-father (not Joel), high school friends, mom, dad, etc. I have wondered to myself how much I should "clear" with them as I write.  I am of course and telling the truth from my perspective and I'm certainly not out to smear anyone . . . well except for may the aforementioned step-father, but such a public telling is sure to make some folks uncomfortable*.  At the same time, I don't want to "ask permission" because at the heart, these are my stories to tell. 

Common courtesy is simply nudging me to give them a heads up.

What say you writers?

*This does not include three daughter who are each wondering if they have their own chapter.

Land the damn plane already

This is my first book, still trying to transition from being a blogger to thinking through an entire book project.  At this point, I am almost done with the structure and organization of the book, but am finding myself wanting to keep adding stuff.  So . . . I am going to need to land the plane and stop adding post-its to my board.  *sigh*

I'll let you know how that goes.

Thoughts on choosing and hiring an editor

One of the aspects of this project that is obviously pretty important is how I will hire and work with an editor.  As I start putting together a budget, get referrals, etc. I wonder what advice folks might have.

• What questions should I ask as I am "interviewing" folks?
• What would be fair compensation options?
• What should I watch out for?
• Anything else?

I am very early in the process, but never hurts to start looking.

An invitation to The Faith Bloggers' Book Writing Collective

UPDATE - June 2009: After much thought, it looks like The Collective will not get off the ground and folks will go their separate ways.  Too much life to deal with for Bruce.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACT AND TIME LINE
Monday, April 13th @ noon PST.

Over the past few years, I have been struggling with what I sense is a calling to be more focused in my thinking about church, culture and life.  As a blogger, I am just cocky enough to muse and speak to the church, but in many ways scared enough to avoid the impact or rejection that could be experienced by publishing in book form.  I firmly that believe that in book form thoughts are more fleshed out, a wider audience is reached and we can participate in a larger conversation about the future of the church in the world.  I also think that the process should reflect the worldview and sensibilities of the author.  With all of these things in mind, I finally decided to forego a traditional publishing house and go ahead and try this out.  I also know myself well enough to know that I can't do this on my own.  So, why not see if folks would be interested in being part of this together?  With this thought in my own mind, here is my idea: The Faith Bloggers' Book Writing Collective, a grand experiment of faith bloggers working together in order to see each other through a disciplined practice and adventure of book writing:

If you are anything like me, you have had at least one or all of the following thoughts:

• I'm a blogger who has felt called to publish my thoughts and ideas in book form, but have not had the discipline, catalyst or forum to do so.
• While I know there are benefits to using a traditional publishing house, there is something about self-publishing or print-on-demand that feels more organic and true to source sensibilities.
• I am pretty self-sufficient, but, wow, wouldn't it be great to lean on others who are going through this process in order to share resources, lend support and hold each other accountable?
• If this is ever going to happen, I need some help landing the plane.

Let me be very clear in saying that we are not going to form a publishing group, folks are still responsible for things such as their book blogs, securing editors, designers, etc., but what a resource we could be for one another in the midst of it all.  

I think I would like to limit the group to 12 people as one part of this will be video conferencing and more than that would be cumbersome.  I have also put together a working Collective Covenant in order to let you know what I am am committing to and what I think might be reasonable expectations.  If you are REALLY interested in this, I figure you'll head over and take a look.  Since this is my ideas, for this first - yes I said FIRST - round of writers, I'll help organize and keep the process moving forward.

I am also thinking about gathering some folks who may be interested in being contributors to this blog.  Maybe you have already self-published and would like to offer advice, maybe you are an amateur typesetter and editor and want to muse a bit.  If you are interested in this, please let me know.

So, feel free to ask questions here, check out and make comments on The Collective Covenant.  You can also check out a sample of The Collective page that would hold your info on this site.  If it looks like this is a go, I'll do some major blog redesigning.

So there you have it, please let me know if you are interested, send me an eMail and we can get this thing moving.  It is my hope to start up in earnest sometime after Easter.

Really, I mean Really?

UPDATE - March 11, 2009 -Well as it turns out, the proposal was accepted, but we could not come to an agreement on digital issues.  No hard feelings, but I am going to try the whole self-publishing a free digital copy to prop up a real live book.  We shall see how it goes.  A more in-depth post here later.

Just claiming this small slice of blogland on the off chance that someone accepts my book proposal about the future of the institutional church.