Authorian Adventures in the Ether

ReNunion

Granted “Troopers” had always been a less than inspiring nickname, but “Emerson Troupers” is not what they had in mind when this particular graduating class had unsuccessfully pursued a new school image, as sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Yet still they came. Not so much to honor the school, but to honor the memory of a time when they had all come of age.
Stories of nostalgia, embarrassment, awkwardness, and sorrow soon gave way to legends of growth, progression, and joy. 

The bittersweet sadness of the event was, at times, overwhelming.
Where had the time gone?
How could I not have paid more attention back then?
Where were the other 300+ classmates?
He/She was my best friend, how did I…how could I lose touch?

Yet still they came.
To laugh, cry, argue and embrace. Such is the stuff of re-unity.
At a point in time, we resurrect that part of ourselves that was then so that we can better realize and understand who we have become.
When the, ever so brief, moment passes, we are all left , a little…no… make that a lot, better for the experience.

This author thoroughly enjoyed himself and wishes to thank each and every one present for taking the time to,
not just “state your name and laugh”, but for sharing your stories with me.

Destiny put all of us on different paths, but when Destiny allows those paths to cross again, life’s journey becomes a bit less formidable. 
As we begin our next 40 year journey into 2nd adulthood, I am comforted.

ENJOY!

Aspirationale

“To long, aim, or seek ambitiously the fundamental reasons”
Most of my thoughtful life has been spent on this quest.
Most of my rational life has been spent on the quests of those who employ me to think.
All of my emotional life can be found in the joy and sorrow that questions the rationing of my thoughts.

It occurred to me, while driving thru Sedona a few weeks back, that, just like in Forbidden Planet, thoughts are most powerful.
And while some believe that thoughts alone can generate the power necessary to alter the Universe, I think, without a Krel-like energy source, my thoughts will only change my mind.
My actions, on the other hand, have the ability to create a better world.

With this change in mind, it becomes imperative that I stop rationalizing and create some thoughtful Authorian ACTION Adventures, RIGHT NOW.

Mystical Coincidence? Who Cares, 70% royalties from Amazon!!!

On Saturday I had the privilege of conducting a workshop for the Arizona Authors Association in the majestic surroundings of Sedona, AZ.
My thanks to the very attentive, appreciative and talented Authors in attendance!

IF one can get beyond the awe-inspiring wonder of Mother Nature’s artistry (no easy task),  there is a chance you will feel something more when spending time in Sedona. 
Scientists will tell you it is just the magnetic pull of the iron rich red rocks that surround you.  Some Locals will tell you it is the power of “Energy Springs” or “Vortexes”
drawing you out of yourself or supercharging your inner most being.  Other Locals will tell you it is the influence of Extra Terrestrials and supernatural beings who frequent the area.
Native Americans simply recognize that sacred Mother Earth is protected by “Spirit Keepers” and she has placed many in this region. 

Regardless of explanation, there is no denying that my trips to Sedona have ALWAYS presented ME with a renewed sense of clarity about some aspect of my life. 
Occasionally, as was the case Saturday evening, I returned to my world, to find some things that I would consider mystical but the skeptical might find merely coinicidental.

Incident 1: 
During my workshop “Moving Words: How to Market YOUR Work Online”, I was asked “Does Amazon offer us any tools to support this?” 
My basic answer was “Yes, but they are not very profitable”.   When I got home this email came to me from Amazon titled “New 70% Royalty Option”:

Dear Authors and Publishers,
We are excited to have launched the 70 percent royalty option for books published through DTP on the Amazon Kindle and Kindle Applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and Android phones. You can now earn 70 percent of list price in royalty, net of delivery costs, for each sale to U.S. customers. Average delivery costs are $0.06 per unit sold.
To participate in the 70 percent royalty program,
1.  Log onto http://dtp.amazon.com
2.  Select 70 percent royalty option for each of your eligible titles
(see details at http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=437)
We are also excited to bring you improvements in the DTP UI such as a more intuitive “Bookshelf” feature and a simplified two-step process for publishing.
These features make it more convenient for you to publish using DTP. For more details, please see the updated DTP terms and conditions
(http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=2)
and press release (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1443030).
As you know, DTP is a free, fast, and easy self-publishing tool. If you need help using DTP,
please visit our Community homepage (http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums).
If you don't find your answers there, reply to dtp-support@amazon.com and we'll be glad to answer your questions.
Sincerely,
Amazon Digital Text Platform Team

 Hmm, the Amazons are are Native South Americans…

Other Incidents will be reported here later…but I had to get this one out to my Author friends ASAP!

Returning? from the Radical Sabbatical

Using the mathematical rather than the political definition of radical, we discover that my “extended period of leave from one’s customary work” appears to have been in pursuit ” of the root or origin”.  Put another way by Inigo Montoya in the Princess Bride, “…Go Back to the Beginning…”. Over the last several months I have been on a quest to find the foundational elements upon which my tommorrows need to be built.  This time of  alleged “rest and reflection” has yet to produce a singular “Aha” moment, and has instead been frought with various challenges that do not seem to provide any specific resources for buiding anything.

Now comes the dreaded “Return” word,  implying I have to “get back to work”.  And maybe, like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory I merely need to set about doing the day to day until enlightening strikes.  Or maybe I am very close and in the remaining moments of this leave, some unanticipated fireworks will provide the spark and I will Re-turn the page and embark on my next adventure.  Hmmm…Princess Bride just came on the TV

Protent chill?

Last week my eyes opened with the first inspirational moment I have had in the last 4 or 5 months.  I immedialety sprang to my keyboard with positive thoughts begging to be unleashed at 4:30AM.  But my wordpress Admin login failed to produce its familiar list of options.   It seems the latest upgrade was no longer compatible with my underlying database.  My momentary panic was eliminated by the obvious presence of 30 months work still being displayed on my site.  I just couldn’t add anything new.  I dismissed the thought that this was a sign to move on from my committment to protent and instead contacted those wonderful support people at GoDaddy. 

“Hmmm…” they said, “Never saw this before.  Let me go check with the support team across the hall”  While these are not the words I wanted to hear, I remained steadfast in my belief that I had not lost anything, except whatever that inspirational thought was that got me up at this hour.  “Okay”  they said, “here’s what you need to do…”  Within a few hours all was as it should be AND I had made the commitment to backup my wordpress, at least once a week.  While none of you may care to look back at my earlier episodes, I find an occasional trip down the road that brought me here to be an excellent form of self-therapy.

So why am I telling you this?  Well, the last few months have been as challenging a period for me personally as any period in the last 20 years.  All of the thoughts and affirmations that have served me so well in my life, fell short.  And Protent?  My protent generator just froze up.  Even this past week, I was inundated with a series of  trivial and ridiculous circumstances that should have easily ended any protential thoughts I had for this blog.  Is that the best you can do Life?  I am here to tell you, God and Nature that protent isn’t going anywhere it’s  just been chillin…

Waiting for Good Mo

To paraphrase Napoleon, “There are ONLY two things that motivate, fear and interest… the fearful seek mere survival,  the interested triumph…While glory is fleeting, obscurity is forever”
In one of the Pirate movies, Davey Jones (NOT the one from the Monkees) recruits a motivated crew by asking “Do you fear Death?”. 
And, of course, FDR tried to motivate his God-Fearing Nation to fear Fear. 

In Quantum Leap Thinking, James Mapes devotes an entire chapter to FEAR-THE GREAT TRICKSTER calling it “False Evidence Appearing Real”.
He tells us not to waste energy avoiding things we are afraid of but to direct that energy in a positive direction.

Noel Coward(pun intended) tells us that our motivation is the paycheck we get at the end of the week.  I’m not sure if these words of wisdom apply to unemployment checks.

Some Native Americans arise each day, observe, and determine what nature inspires for that day.

I arise each day,  my mind awash with thoughts and dreams of failures and successes, real and imagined.  Most days it is an overwhelming flood, that must be diverted in order to do the things that society expects me to do.  On rare occasion,  there is an inspirational path, clearly defined, that MUST be taken.  While rare, occasional inspiration can be very frustrating, espeically when fearful re-action is readily available 24×7,  I have no interest in mere survival.  

PS:

Thanks Griffin!  I sense you have delivered our message.

Our Griffin’s Story

Just under 3 years ago while traveling at 70mph across the California desert, word came to us that our sixth grandchild would be born 3 months premature.  His mother chose to name him Griffin after the half-lion half-eagle creature of “divine power”.  With a tiny 1.5 pound body that fit in the palm of your hand, Griffin amazed everyone with his ability to survive the trauma of two surgeries that would have ended the life of a mere mortal.  And while,  his body and mind were now denied any semblance of normalcy,  nature allowed him to keep the heart of lion and the free spirit of the eagle. 

Griffins are also known as guardians of treasure.  And while we now, sadly, prepare for him to leave his mortal confinement, we can take great comfort in discovering what his legendary life force will still accomplish.

iThink therefore iPad?

There was a WHOLE LOT of anticipatory hype surrounding Apple’s new iPad and though Steve did his Jobs last week, once again, it appeared to be nothing more than a really big iPhone.  That is, of course, if you are not trying to sell Kindles or Sony ebook readers.  To me, it appears, Apple is trying to do for the eBook what it did with digital music.  However, this theory assumes that there are billions of consumers out there who are just waiting for the right device to present them with thousands of pages of digitized text.  While I’m not so sure this is the case, we must face the fact that our Reading Material MUST evolve.

A few weeks ago I gave a presentation on Digital Media to some very attentive Junior High students.  I coined the term ISARS  (Information Storage And Retrieval System).  The Book and other paper based media represent STATIC ISARS.  Their information does not change, they don’t require an energy source(other than light) and they pretty much last for multiple lifetimes, if properly preserved.  The iPad, Kindle, Laptop and Desktop Computer are DYNAMIC ISARS.  Their information can change in a subsecond, they require varying amounts of energy and they pretty much last until they are replaced by next year’s technology.

I just built a website for my 40 year High School reunion.  The primary record of our graduation in 1970 is recorded in our Yearbook…A Static ISARS.  Using a scanner I digitized many critical pages from this document and was able to build an online directory of all our grads with an accompanying picture.  It is fully searchable and updateable as current information is retrieved and stored in the internet “cloud”.   Clearly, this is a vastly superior, greener way to share information.   However, without someone to oversee the presentation of this information for even the next 10 years, it will not be around for our 50th reunion.  So, as much as we all want to save trees, we MUST print at least one Static ISARS to ensure, at least, this year’s updates will be available for those of us lucky enough to make to to the 50th.

As a society, we have made the delivery of information more important than the content delivered.  My iThink device tells me this is wrong, but it’s over 57 years old and  is very selective about what information it retrieves, PROCESSES, and stores.  So what does it know?

Micro Soft Motivation?

Admittedly my Authorian adventures have been on hiatus for these last few months.  So much so,it appeared I was destined to walk a different path.  Then I got a completely unsolicted invite to a book signing that begins at, of all places, the “Microsoft” Store in Scottsdale Fashion Square and concludes at Borders Books.  At first I was going to turn them down, but they were very persistent and enthsuiastic.  SO, I created a 60 second Powperpoint book “trailer”, got my passport updated to allow travel to Scottsdale, and tomorrow(Saturday, 1/23/2010 at 1:00pm, I think) I will be discussing Considering SomeplacElse, while the trailer plays behind me on the big screen in the Microsoft computer theater.

Now this, in and of itself, is not sufficient motivation for me to get back on the Authorian path,  but then, I virtually ran into one of my High School English teachers.  AND she just happened to be the one English teacher that prefered to focus on the joy of creative wordsmithing.   Next I had several author friends, independently, ask me when my next novel was coming out…my 40th High School reunion committee ask me to author a website…my day job is wanting me to author some very compelling software solutions and then write up the training documents to go with them…another junior high wants me to speak about Authoring Software and just plain Authoring… and finally I have at least three videos that I NEED to make.

So it just could be that my Authorian Adventures were temporarily replaced by a vision(or maybe vegin) quest.
For now, it appears, I am back on track, walking softly but carrying my big shtick.

New Year, Re:Solutions

I like to invoke Socrates at the beginning of all my presentations, regardless of content.  With my younger audeinces, very few even know of him, and with most of my audiences, initially, the Socratic Method flies right over their heads.
But I do it anyway because I want my audiences to make me to define my terms until they understand.

Dilemma essentially means two solutions, both can be right and both can be wrong.  Socrates defined it by describing how Plato came to him and asked to learn the law.  Socrates offered to teach him the law for 1000 pieces of silver,
but Plato(being a Philsopher) had no money.  So Socrates invented the student loan and told Plato he only had to pay it back if he won his first case.  After several months Plato decided that the law wasn’t for him and announced that he was leaving.  Socrates asked him to pay up and when he couldn’t Socrates took him to court.
The court ruled in Plato’s favor and said he did not have to pay.  Socrates was delighted, Plato had won his first case.

Last week, I was offered an opportunity to do a book signing and presentation in Scottsdale, AZ.  I was also contacted by some Hollywood types looking for some scripts.  My grandkids asked me when the next Rocky the Polar Bear episode would be published.  My day job is expecting a demonstration of the sophisticated application I have been working on.  I have been building a personal effort tracking system that is not quite done.  And I want to get back to weekly postings on my blog. All of these things require my attention and  all of these things are worthwhile activities   I call this the Multilemma.

Since all answers are right and all answers are wrong, it becomes very easy to rationalize doing nothing. 
To break free from this motivational paralysis, I have re-discovered the wisdom of incremental action.
If you just can’t decide what you are supposed to do this year, start with what feels right today.