Posts
Final preparations are being made for the printing of When Towns Had Teams. As most of you have noticed, I’ve been posting less on my blog (s). Much of that has had to do with the inordinate amount of things required of me as an independent publisher.
In forming RiverVision Press, my goal was to create a small press that has the capability to produce and distribute books about Maine that other presses might be apt to pass over. The story of town team and semi-pro baseball in Maine and the players and towns represented is one such project. There are many other similar stories that need telling. I’m in the early stages of planning my next book, which will be the big release of 2006 by RiverVision, as well as exploring releasing a nonfiction book by another Maine-based writer. I have a few ideas and will probably call for manuscripts later in the year.
Having said all of that, it is absolutely overwhelming taking on the role of publisher, in addition to being a writer. I recognize why others shy away from it. Not only do you have the manuscript to polish and get ready for the printer, you have all the other responsibilities from marketing to distribution and the other endless tasks that running a small enterprise requires.
I’m quite pleased that I’m nearing an agreement with a printer (a Maine-based company, btw) and I am confident that the book will actually be available in September (hopefully the first week) for shipping.
I’ve already received several pre-orders of the book, which qualifies the buyer to a hand-numbered and personalized copies of When Towns Had Teams. I have completed a mailing to many of the former players and others that I interviewed. From that mailing, two mail orders were sitting in my mail yesterday.
I made several phone calls to book sellers around the state and most independent book stores are eager to carry my book. Some, like L.L. Bean, require that I have my book carried by a large wholesale distributor like Ingram. There is a smaller Maine-based distribution network that I was given the name of that I’ll need to check out.
As you can see, I often end up with more tasks then there are hours in the day. If I didn’t need to grab four of five hours of sleep, I know I could get more done, but being the weak creature that I am, I do require some sack time. Oh, and did I mention my responsibilities to the Twilight League? Needless to say, I’m a bit busy of late, but I’m very encouraged by where I’m at project-wise. Finally, I can see a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel and When Towns Had Teams is going to be a book that I’m proud of and I think others are really going to enjoy. BTW, it’s bigger than I thought it would be. I haven’t done my final layout, but my calculations based on the technical support provided by the printer have the estimates of a book that will be around 300 to 310 pages. With the original photos that I’ll include and the wealth of historical details, as well as the great stories of a wonderful group representing the last great generation, I think it’s certainly a value at the current price of $17.95.
I’ll continue to provide details as they unfold, both here and at the RiverVision website.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
My full social calendar
I've gotten out in a social setting for two days in a row! My workaholic ways have enjoyed a brief respite over the past two evenings.
Friday night, it was at teammate John Carriero's place for burgers, brats and beer, after our doubleheader was rained out. Last night, it was Mary and I stepping out and heading up the road to the Winthrop/Monmouth town line for some BBQ.
Granted, I had put in a full Saturday at that point and was ready to leave the crib and not have to cook. In the morning, I headed down to Portland to cover an all-star game for 14-year-old Babe Ruth players. The game took place at Haverty Field. This ballpark had been a staple of Twilight League baseball in the 1960's, when John Haverty had built it behind his stately home on Washington Avenue, for use by his Haverty Buick Wildcats, as well as other local teams. Over the years, the field has fallen into disuse and it wasn't maintained any longer for baseball. Frank Watson, local businessman and owner of Lender's Network, as well as an avid baseball fan, former Twilight player (and current sponsor and GM), and a great supporter of local baseball, bought Haverty's home and has been involved since April in restoring the field. His son's Babe Ruth team of 14-year-old all-stars are currently using the field. I was there to write an article for next weeks Forecaster on the league.
Speaking of The Forecaster, I had an article this week on a former Twilight League player, Leif Ekelund, now playing professionally in Arizona in the new professional, independent, Golden Baseball League. I enjoyed doing the article and I especially enjoyed beating the Portland Press Herald to the punch. Ekelund hails from Cape Elizabeth and his story is an interesting one. Here's a young man who headed to the west coast to go to grad school and he attends a two-day tryout camp and is offered a professional contract. Seems to me that it was an interesting feature, but then again, that would mean some of the hacks at the Press Herald might have to do a bit of work.
Came home, spent three hours mowing my lawn at the compound and then, after a quick shower, Mary and I were off to find Little Dan's BBQ. We weren't disappointed. It is literally at the town line on the right heading towards Augusta on Route 202. It's easy to drive by, if not for the smoking train sitting out front. Non-descript and working class to the core, the barbecue was worth driving for. I had my usual pulled pork plate and Mary had half-a-rack of ribs. Both were tasty, with sauces available on the table to add to your own liking and taste. I had the corn bread and potato salad for sides. The potato salad was tasty, with just the right mix of seasoning and mayonnaise. The corn bread was sweeter than most and very moist.
I washed it down with a couple of PBR's and Miss Mary had a Sam Adams Summer Ale. They do have wine, but were out of the red variety. Knowing the rules of red with pork and other similar meats, Mary, not a big fan of beer, opted to be adventuresome on this visit.
I would recommend a trip to Little Dan's the next time you are in the vicinity of Monmouth/Winthrop. The barbecue is great, the prices reasonable and the area is worth exploring along the way.
Friday night, it was at teammate John Carriero's place for burgers, brats and beer, after our doubleheader was rained out. Last night, it was Mary and I stepping out and heading up the road to the Winthrop/Monmouth town line for some BBQ.
Granted, I had put in a full Saturday at that point and was ready to leave the crib and not have to cook. In the morning, I headed down to Portland to cover an all-star game for 14-year-old Babe Ruth players. The game took place at Haverty Field. This ballpark had been a staple of Twilight League baseball in the 1960's, when John Haverty had built it behind his stately home on Washington Avenue, for use by his Haverty Buick Wildcats, as well as other local teams. Over the years, the field has fallen into disuse and it wasn't maintained any longer for baseball. Frank Watson, local businessman and owner of Lender's Network, as well as an avid baseball fan, former Twilight player (and current sponsor and GM), and a great supporter of local baseball, bought Haverty's home and has been involved since April in restoring the field. His son's Babe Ruth team of 14-year-old all-stars are currently using the field. I was there to write an article for next weeks Forecaster on the league.
Speaking of The Forecaster, I had an article this week on a former Twilight League player, Leif Ekelund, now playing professionally in Arizona in the new professional, independent, Golden Baseball League. I enjoyed doing the article and I especially enjoyed beating the Portland Press Herald to the punch. Ekelund hails from Cape Elizabeth and his story is an interesting one. Here's a young man who headed to the west coast to go to grad school and he attends a two-day tryout camp and is offered a professional contract. Seems to me that it was an interesting feature, but then again, that would mean some of the hacks at the Press Herald might have to do a bit of work.
Came home, spent three hours mowing my lawn at the compound and then, after a quick shower, Mary and I were off to find Little Dan's BBQ. We weren't disappointed. It is literally at the town line on the right heading towards Augusta on Route 202. It's easy to drive by, if not for the smoking train sitting out front. Non-descript and working class to the core, the barbecue was worth driving for. I had my usual pulled pork plate and Mary had half-a-rack of ribs. Both were tasty, with sauces available on the table to add to your own liking and taste. I had the corn bread and potato salad for sides. The potato salad was tasty, with just the right mix of seasoning and mayonnaise. The corn bread was sweeter than most and very moist.
I washed it down with a couple of PBR's and Miss Mary had a Sam Adams Summer Ale. They do have wine, but were out of the red variety. Knowing the rules of red with pork and other similar meats, Mary, not a big fan of beer, opted to be adventuresome on this visit.
I would recommend a trip to Little Dan's the next time you are in the vicinity of Monmouth/Winthrop. The barbecue is great, the prices reasonable and the area is worth exploring along the way.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Summer reading program
I finally got my hands on Jim Kunstler's, The Long Emergency. It comes to me courtesy of the Maine State Library's, Books-By-Mail Program (there are advantages to living in a town without a library).
While only 110 pages into the 268 page book, here a just a few observations that JK makes about imperial America during its summer of Reality TV.
On cheap oil:
Above all, and most immediately, we face the end of the cheap fossil fuel era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as a benefit of modern life. All the necessities, comforts, luxuries, and miracles of our time--central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lighting, cheap clothing, recorded music, movies, supermarkets, power tools, hip replacement surgery, the national defense, you name it--owe their origins or continued existence in one way or another to cheap fossil fuel.
On suburban sprawl:
America finds itself nearing the end of the cheap-oil age having invested its national wealth in a living arrangement--suburban sprawl--that has no future. When media commentators cast about struggling to explain what has happened in our country economically, they uniformly overlook the colossal misinvestment that suburbia represents--a prodigious, unparalleled misallocation of resources.
It's amazing to me, in our land of bread and circuses, how uninformed and in stone-cold denial the everyday citizen is about oil and its unsustainability as the foundation of all that we know in the coming years. As Neil Postman wrote about extensively, Americans have an irrational belief in technology's ability to save us. As Kunstler notes, neither technology, nor the promise of alternative fuels will be able to save us from the long emergency.
If there is one book that I wish more people would read during the remainder of 2005, it would be this one. I'm not holding my breath, waiting for that to happen, however.
I've found that despite the label of pessimism and "profit of doom" that so many would lob the way of someone writing a book like Kunstler's, I find it invigorating and in line with much of what I've thought about and observed during the past five years or so.
True reality has a freeing quality missing from so much of the manufactured faux reality that permeates most of our waking moments.
While only 110 pages into the 268 page book, here a just a few observations that JK makes about imperial America during its summer of Reality TV.
On cheap oil:
Above all, and most immediately, we face the end of the cheap fossil fuel era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as a benefit of modern life. All the necessities, comforts, luxuries, and miracles of our time--central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lighting, cheap clothing, recorded music, movies, supermarkets, power tools, hip replacement surgery, the national defense, you name it--owe their origins or continued existence in one way or another to cheap fossil fuel.
On suburban sprawl:
America finds itself nearing the end of the cheap-oil age having invested its national wealth in a living arrangement--suburban sprawl--that has no future. When media commentators cast about struggling to explain what has happened in our country economically, they uniformly overlook the colossal misinvestment that suburbia represents--a prodigious, unparalleled misallocation of resources.
It's amazing to me, in our land of bread and circuses, how uninformed and in stone-cold denial the everyday citizen is about oil and its unsustainability as the foundation of all that we know in the coming years. As Neil Postman wrote about extensively, Americans have an irrational belief in technology's ability to save us. As Kunstler notes, neither technology, nor the promise of alternative fuels will be able to save us from the long emergency.
If there is one book that I wish more people would read during the remainder of 2005, it would be this one. I'm not holding my breath, waiting for that to happen, however.
I've found that despite the label of pessimism and "profit of doom" that so many would lob the way of someone writing a book like Kunstler's, I find it invigorating and in line with much of what I've thought about and observed during the past five years or so.
True reality has a freeing quality missing from so much of the manufactured faux reality that permeates most of our waking moments.
Monday, July 18, 2005
A random act of senseless sadness
Drummer Michael Dahlquist, longtime member of indie rock stalwarts, Silkworm, was killed (murdered) when a suicidal woman crashed her car into the car carrying Dahlquist and two other fellow musicians, in Chicago. As befitting a world without any justice, the crazy woman received only minor injuries.
For me, this has a bit of a personal connection because of the opportunity that I had back in 1995(?) to meet Dahlquist at one of Portland's great nightclubs from the past, Raoul's, on outer Forest Avenue. Silkworm was playing a Thursday night indie gig and I had headed into Portland for rock and $1.00 PBR's. The opening act, Engine Kid, were deafeningly loud and I had migrated to the steps outside to rest my eardrums. I met Dahlquist and Tim Midgett, Silkworm's guitar player. Truly nice guys, who were as much fans of rock, in addition to being talented musicians, we had a great conversation and went back inside for beers. I met bassist Andy Cohen and they invited me to their show the following night at the Port Hole, where they were playing. While I was unable to go, I just was struck by how down-to-earth and without pretensions all three were. It was always one of the characteristics that made me love the indie rock scene in general. For me, meeting the trio was special, as Silkworm's music has been a staple of my collection for over a decade. At the time I met them, I was totally in love with their L'ajre record. When I told them they were impressed and dedicated a song to "our fan Jim, one of the 10 people who owns L'ajre." Obviously, quite a few more own it than that, but the point is that they appreciated their fans.
My thoughts and sympathies go out to Michael's family and the other members of Silkworm, as well as the families of the other musicians, John Glick and Douglas Meis.
For me, this has a bit of a personal connection because of the opportunity that I had back in 1995(?) to meet Dahlquist at one of Portland's great nightclubs from the past, Raoul's, on outer Forest Avenue. Silkworm was playing a Thursday night indie gig and I had headed into Portland for rock and $1.00 PBR's. The opening act, Engine Kid, were deafeningly loud and I had migrated to the steps outside to rest my eardrums. I met Dahlquist and Tim Midgett, Silkworm's guitar player. Truly nice guys, who were as much fans of rock, in addition to being talented musicians, we had a great conversation and went back inside for beers. I met bassist Andy Cohen and they invited me to their show the following night at the Port Hole, where they were playing. While I was unable to go, I just was struck by how down-to-earth and without pretensions all three were. It was always one of the characteristics that made me love the indie rock scene in general. For me, meeting the trio was special, as Silkworm's music has been a staple of my collection for over a decade. At the time I met them, I was totally in love with their L'ajre record. When I told them they were impressed and dedicated a song to "our fan Jim, one of the 10 people who owns L'ajre." Obviously, quite a few more own it than that, but the point is that they appreciated their fans.
My thoughts and sympathies go out to Michael's family and the other members of Silkworm, as well as the families of the other musicians, John Glick and Douglas Meis.
A kind word
Writing is basically a solitary activity. It only involves others when you choose to release your writing via traditional avenues (books, articles in newspapers and magazines, newsletters, zines), or via electronic means (blogs, websites, online forums).
Once released to the public, unless you are read by the masses in the NY Times, or have a blog that's nationally known, you don't get alot of feedback. I'm very fortunate that I have some devoted readers and some of them post regularly. I am grateful for these people.
With the pending pre-release of When Towns Had Teams, I got a particularly nice response from a reader who has been reading my articles at MainelyKids.com and has come over to the blog(s). She apparently saw my post regarding the book and had this to offer:
"I've watched your writing mature for some time now. I first read your articles at MainelyKids and while I had some disagreement with you, you kindly answered my concerns. You were the first writer to ever do that.
I've read most of the articles that you've written and I'm really interested in your book about town team baseball. I'm not a big baseball fan, but I think it will be interesting to read about the period in Maine's history that you seem to be focusing on.
As someone who loves Maine and is concerned about some of the changes I see in my small town, I'm anxious to see what it was about towns in the past that made them special. Maybe I'll learn something I can use in some of my current issues in my town." Roz
These comments mean alot, as this reader (who is an educator) really took issue with some of my points about education in one of my articles for MainelyKids.com. Rather than ignore her points, I emailed her and we had a spirited back-and-forth. While she never entirely came over to my point of view, she respected my points (as I did hers) and apparently, not alot of writers engage those who offer thoughtful critiques of their work.
Just this morning, I opened my email and found that I have received my first official online order (I had my first mailorder, Friday). This is exciting and I'm really getting anxious to get my manuscript to the printer and get my book back to begin shipping.
Despite the craziness of the past couple of months, I'm starting to see momentum begin to build and it's so encouraging.
Once released to the public, unless you are read by the masses in the NY Times, or have a blog that's nationally known, you don't get alot of feedback. I'm very fortunate that I have some devoted readers and some of them post regularly. I am grateful for these people.
With the pending pre-release of When Towns Had Teams, I got a particularly nice response from a reader who has been reading my articles at MainelyKids.com and has come over to the blog(s). She apparently saw my post regarding the book and had this to offer:
"I've watched your writing mature for some time now. I first read your articles at MainelyKids and while I had some disagreement with you, you kindly answered my concerns. You were the first writer to ever do that.
I've read most of the articles that you've written and I'm really interested in your book about town team baseball. I'm not a big baseball fan, but I think it will be interesting to read about the period in Maine's history that you seem to be focusing on.
As someone who loves Maine and is concerned about some of the changes I see in my small town, I'm anxious to see what it was about towns in the past that made them special. Maybe I'll learn something I can use in some of my current issues in my town." Roz
These comments mean alot, as this reader (who is an educator) really took issue with some of my points about education in one of my articles for MainelyKids.com. Rather than ignore her points, I emailed her and we had a spirited back-and-forth. While she never entirely came over to my point of view, she respected my points (as I did hers) and apparently, not alot of writers engage those who offer thoughtful critiques of their work.
Just this morning, I opened my email and found that I have received my first official online order (I had my first mailorder, Friday). This is exciting and I'm really getting anxious to get my manuscript to the printer and get my book back to begin shipping.
Despite the craziness of the past couple of months, I'm starting to see momentum begin to build and it's so encouraging.
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