Creating, And Living, A Life Of Beauty

Life is fleeting and precious.
What one thing of beauty, of mystery, will you create or experience today?

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Focus Of Heron Dance Going Forward

I’ve been going through notes this morning, separating out subjects and notes that are not related to creating beauty, experiencing beauty, living a life of beauty. My thinking is that power comes from focus and clarity. Send Heron Dance readers something every day that uplifts, that celebrates the beauty and mystery of life. And produce books that explore beauty and mystery in all of its multitude of manifestations. And create out of the most profoundly beautiful experiences of my life — the experiences, almost all of which were experienced in wild nature, that filled me with feelings of peace and harmony. And spend at least half a day a week sitting in the woods, generally by a backcountry lake or isolated stretch of river, meditating, thinking, writing journal notes and just appreciating the scene.

The Nurturing The Song Within Art Journal Hardcover

The printer tells me the books will ship today or tomorrow. It should get to the fulfillment house Thursday or Friday. They’ve promised to turn this around within 24 hours. Thank you to all who pre-ordered for your patience. It is greatly appreciated. I did everything I could to get your book(s) to you by April 1, but there were a series of unforeseen setbacks and printer probems.

The Nurturing The Song Within Art Journal Softcover

The softcover version — to be available on Amazon and through bookstores — is in the final file submission process. It is my hope to price it at $49 a copy, or about half the price of the hardcover. Everything about this edition is lower quality — the paper, the binding, the color rendition — but at least acceptable. Typical Amazon /trade press quality. It also will be available worldwide.

The Digital Planner Diary

I’ve looked at hundreds of digital planners, mostly on Etsy, and talked to a number of designers and software developers. A plan has emerged of a functional and beautiful planner. I hope to hire a designer today with a view to offering a planner for the rest of 2024, and then another in a few weeks time for 2025. It will have a section for appointments and priorities — 2 pages per day — and another section for art, journaling and random notes.

I’ll know more about what is possible tomorrow.

The Challenge of Heron Dance

With the Art Journal back from the printer, marketing will take on a new importance at Heron Dance. Our subscriber numbers and financial support have stagnated at a breakeven level. I noticed back when Heron Dance published a print journal that the publication did well whenever I paid attention to marketing, and put time and money into building the readership. Whenever I didn’t do that, Heron Dance didn’t do well. We were always either growing or shrinking.

The challenge now is to get the word out on multiple levels from press releases to asking readers to post book reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and their favorite platforms.

Said another way, the challenge is to make people who believe in the power of beauty, in creating a beautiful life, aware of the book. That’s our tribe.

Getting Back On A Regular E-Journal Publishing Schedule

Heron Dance needs to get back on a 4-6 times a week publishing schedule to thrive. Travel, the final modifications of the new books, the design of the digital planner have all stood in the way of that but it needs to become a priority. It is the preliminary work on the next book.

Sunday May 5, 2024

I’m mostly recovered after my trip north. I slept most of the day yesterday. The few days away from Heron Dance, though tiring from all the driving, hours of it in bumper-to-bumper traffic, were helpful in terms of getting perspective. What is Heron Dance about? I ask myself that all the time. It is about the the subject I know the most about — living a big, beautiful life — and the subject that most challenges me, that I most often fail at — taking time for downtime. Downtime is the source of our creativity, our wisdom, our internal power and clarity. That’s mine. You may have a completely different struggle.

At the center of all of our lives there exists a push and pull between what we’ve achieved and what we’d like to achieve, between who we are and who we want to be. There’s an inherent contradiction there. One we ever resolve? I hope so. Anyway, out of that contradiction in my own life, a lot gets done, some of it wonderful, some of it a disaster. I learned interviewing hundreds of people that the contradictions are where the juice lies, where the most interesting aspects of a human life hang out.

When I think of that struggle, my mind wanders to the quiet backcountry lakes that have played a role in my life. The lakes with one campsite. The lakes where deer or maybe moose wander into your camp in the pre-dawn darkness. The lakes where few go because it involves humping your stuff over considerable distances. The lakes where loons float by apparently oblivious to you. The lake where coyotes howl at night, and in Canada the northern lakes where wolves howl and moose bellow.

You struggle and sweat to get there, and then, in the silence, in the solitude, you sit by the lake and think. In the dark of night sleep comes deep.

Why do I find setting aside time for that downtime so difficult? I know it makes my life and work more powerful. I meditated on that yesterday. The answer I got back was unsatisfactory — because you always think that you haven’t accomplished enough. And the reason you don’t accomplish more is because your efforts don’t have the power of downtime behind them.

Friday, May 3, 2024

I’m back home in Vermont. There’s a woodthrush singing outside my window. Ada was ecstatic to be home last night, get her belly rubbed by Sally and reconnect with the cats. She spent part of the night in Sally’s bed upstairs, and part in mine burrowed under the covers. It is great to be home.

Major new project

This morning my thoughts are very much preoccupied by a new project — the creation of a digital creativity planner diary. Ideally it would be interactive with Google Calendar and Apple Calendar. It would have a different painting for each day of the year (I’ve got to paint more!), an inspirational quote on the creative process, and room for journaling notes, appointments, attitude and mental health checkin, ongoing projects, objectives, major questions and opportunities. It would be a source of inspiration, planning and inner thoughts for creative insiders. Heron Dance would offer it on a subscription basis. There would be a community forum for subscribers to exchange suggestions, thoughts on the creativity planner and on any Heron Dance subject, perhaps on Facebook.

It would also be a place to post new paintings for the preview of supporters before they are offered to the general readership of Heron Dance.

Marketing

I’ve got to get the marketing organized for the new book. Press release, Amazon paid search, maybe Facebook and Google paid search. Substack. The new book, Nurturing The Song Within, gives Heron Dance something unique to market. Heron Dance needs new supporters, new readers. I’ve retained an advisor for four one-hour weekly consultations — Julie Schoerke of Books Forward — who is an expert in book releases. These art journals, and the calendar mentioned above, are the future of Heron Dance.

Delivery Date, Nurturing The Song Within

The printer now says May 13th. That’s a disappointment though only ten days away. I began working with this printer, Superior Packaging, April 20 on the representation that they were running a week or two out. Some of that delay was due to our own struggles to get the files to meet their specifications, but that may have absorbed a week. I guess when you add 7 days to April 20, then another 14 per their estimate, May 13 is not that far out. We’ll get them in the mail within a day or two of receipt.

Heron Dance Content

The next stage — read and select the most thought-provoking thoughts from three hundred memoirs, autobiographies and published journals of creatives. I’ve probably read three hundred or more of these over the last thirty years. It is time to double my reservoir of creative thoughts.

Thought Of The Day: Mental Health

It is so easy, when you have a lot of projects underway and tend to operate at the limits of your energy, to have things go wrong, to have people not meet their commitments through incompetence, normal friction that all life encounters, through dishonesty or laziness. The key is how one reacts to that. If you let it get you into a downward spiral, everything in life starts to take on a frustrated, negative tone. The last few days of packing to leave Myrtle Beach, get the bare minimum of work done, and the drive through bumper-to-bumper traffic in Washington and Baltimore, definitely got me down. A good night’s sleep though and the world looks much more wonderful and opportunity-filled.

My thought: write every day in my journal about my mental health. How would I rate it today? How would I rate my positivity, my happiness? Am I a good person to be around, to do business with? Am I looking for the good in life, in opportunities, in others, or am I mired in fatigue and negative thoughts? How would I rate my energy reserve today?

Wednesday, May 1, 2023

I’m on my north somewhere south of Richmond VA. I saw Sy Safransky last evening, the founder of the Sun Magazine. He lives in a strikingly beautiful but modest-sized home outsider of Chapel Hill, NC. He’s dealing with Alzhiemher’s and these meetings are profound. He’s very cogent and aware as he confronts an uncertain future, and contemplates his intellectual past.

Driving, thinking about the focus of Heron Dance and how to best describe it. I was at a social gathering a few days ago attended by art patrons. As I was leaving I was asked about my new book. I described it as an exploration of the inner work that underlies creative work. That seemed to capture the group’s imagination. I’m going to go with it. It offers more creative latitude than does just my own approach to my own work — the internal and profound peace I find in wild nature, although that can be a big part of my exploration of the overall subject.

I finished a couple of loon paintings yesterday. I’m finally back in the groove of painting.

Monday, April 28th, 2024

I leave Myrtle Beach early tomorrow headed north for the summer. I leave a little worn out from two or three months of day and night work on the new book, but full of ideas for the future of Heron Dance — ideas having mostly to do with an exploration of the deep peace I find in wild nature, and the inspiration that provides my creative work.

And I leave with a new book done, finished, about to be printed. Maybe printed today. I’ve poured everything I have into that book. It is the most beautiful and deepest book in terms of meaningful content I’ve done, but a little scattered in terms of the territory it covers. It is not a focused work. It is more random thoughts from a variety of creative outsiders on the creative process and in particular on the inner work that underlies their (and to a lesser extent my) creative work.

The next stage of Heron Dance will be more about my own processes and search for peace out of which to create. It will be more about the beauty and mystery of wild nature, of backcountry lakes and wild rivers. Will I be able to stick to that subject? Or will I branch out again in new directions when a new idea captures my imagination? Focus would be good for Heron Dance but I’m not sure I’m capable of it.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Painting

My main objective for the day is to spend a few hours painting, which I was able to find time to do last night. I’m working on a series of loon paintings for a reader who is involved with a loon conservation nonprofit.

The Nurturing Art E-Journal

During the night tonight I plan to publish a post for tomorrow. Something to do with the quiet core out of which we can best create art and create our lives.

The Next Nurturing Art Journal (Print)

Work has begun on Book Two. I’m working with Velin (see below) and look forward to a smoother process with the lessons of Book One now under our belt.

The Nurturing Art Journal Book One Hardcover

All proofs were approved late yesterday. Printing is the next step! I’ll keep this page updated when I get a timetable.

The Nurturing Art Journal Book One Softcover

This is to be printed by IngramSpark and offered on Amazon. The proof copy was received Thursday of this week. We’re replacing four pages. The new version should be available on Amazon early next week. The softcover edition will be less expensive than the hardcover, and the quality substantially lower. Standard Amazon quality — certainly acceptable but not a work of craftsmanship like the hardcover. It will be available worldwide while the hardcover will be available just in the United States.

The Nurturing Diary Planner

I’m focused for now on creating a digital planner for the entire year that will also incorporate my art. I’m talking to potential partners to help me with this.

Forum For Our Zoom Group

Participants in our weekly Zoom meeting have asked if we can set up a forum where we can communicate with each other and exchange ideas. I’ve looked into a variety of platforms and decided on Slack. I’ve hired someone to set it up. She’ll talk to us tomorrow evening and show us how to use it. It will be linked with our Zoom account.

Friday, April 26, 2024

Going forward, these will be much shorter. As the first though, there’s a bunch of things to cover.

The Art Journal

I received the hardcopy proofs yesterday. It is a surprisingly beautiful book. In terms of print quality, all the images were adequate, most were very good, a few were exceptional. It was interesting that the printer sent the proofs to me overnight without me asking. That’s very rare. Every other printer I’ve ever dealt with, and I’ve dealt with ten or twenty, and spent well over a million dollars over the years on printing, sends them only on request and often reluctantly and at substantial extra expense. This printer, Superior Packaging (I know, a strange name for a book printer) included them in the price and sent them without me asking. That’s quality.

On the other hand, despite repeated attempts, they couldn’t get the measurements of the dust jacket right. It is simple math. That’s amateurville.

I’m dealing with a great guy there — Paul Parisi — a guy my age who sold his company to Superior. I get on his nerves sometimes I think but he’s taking good care of us.

I replaced two of the two-page spreads overnight. Minor image problems but it won’t slow the project down so I took advantage of the opportunity. I’m hoping it reaches the press early next week. Printing and binding should be pretty fast.

This is my first book in ten years. The major lessons I learned this time around:

• Pay a premium for a good printer who is organized and focused on quality and has good customer support. Mixam, the first company I was working with, is a total disaster and slowed the project down by weeks with their incompetence. Mixam offers Smyth Sewn binding, the absolute highest quality binding available, and important for my books because they will layflat and not loose strips of my art in the gutter. I got sucked in by that. Superior also offers Smyth Sewn though at considerably higher cost. My first sign of trouble with Mixam was disorganized customer support who gave me half answers and sometimes deliberately false answers. By then I’d already paid for the job. Ultimately I threatened to sue them and they gave me my money back.

• Pay a premium for a good graphic designer. In the past I’ve done my own design and it worked fine. This time though the print-on-demand digital processes that have evolved over the last ten years are more sophisticated and easy to get wrong. I’m working with Velin in Bulgaria. Headstrong and difficult at times but a good guy to have on my side. He compliments my weaknesses in the area of detail management.

The Diary Planner

It came back from the printer — Papergraphics in Merrimack, NH — about three weeks ago. Great people to deal with and they did a great job. To save money on postage and fulfillment, I was planning on shipping the planner with the Art Journal — most orders are for both — but with the continual delays on the Art Journal, I had the diaries sent out Tuesday of this past week at an added cost of several hundred dollars.

There are seveal problems with these diary planners though. They are expensive to produce and ship — so much so they barely breakeven. And that’s at a price way higher than anything comparable sold on Amazon. And my planner is quarterly, so to get all four quarters costs about $200 a year. The problem is all the full color art in them, and the resulting printing cost.

I’ll explore an ebook version in the next couple of days. I’m talking to a woman in Indonesia who’s done several ebook planners.

The Daily Emails That Are No Longer Daily

I hope to get back on a more frequent schedule soon. For months I did these six or seven times a week. But even working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, the publication of these two books has absorbed all my time. Important things are not getting done as a result. The daily ejournals, my income taxes, painting, reading.

And with all of the stress related to these books, I’ve been drinking way too much. I cut it in half yesterday, and had a much better night sleep. Will cut it in another half today and should get down to zero over the weekend. Don’t work so hard. Meditate instead of drink.

The General Direction Of Heron Dance

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the central message of Heron Dance. Overall, the objective is to create beautiful books out of the most profound experiences of my life and out of related interviews and reading. Almost all of those experiences relate to two subjects: time in wild nature, mostly alone, and friendship.

Thinking this over, led me to go back and review my collected quotes on Taoism, and the poetry of Taoist hermits living in the remote mountains of China. A central concept in Taoism and in their poetry is the notion of the power of water, its softness but ability to wear down rocks and even mountains, and the notion of muddy water becoming clear through settling. Expressed simply, Taoism is about finding inner peace through relaxing the mind and letting it settle. Quiet mind — to find it you need to sacrifice some distracting but common things, some desires for trivial things, some ego things.

Over the last week, thinking about the times of deep peace I’ve experienced in wild nature has led to plan an experiment with Heron Dance. I’ll start taking a video camera — a GoPro or something like that — into the woods; I’ll sit by a lake or river, and read a poem or excerpt from a Nurturing The Song Within e-journal post. Maybe once a week. And posting it on YouTube and for Heron Dance subscribers. Maybe I’ll include in those videos short sections on me painting.

Weekly Zoom Meetings

Participants have asked if we can set up a forum where we can communicate with each other and exchange ideas. I’ve looked into a variety of platforms. The one that makes the most sense to me so far is Slack, which can be combined with Zoom although I’m not yet sure how. I’ll try to look into this more, and implement it if it seems like a good idea, before Sunday’s next Zoom meeting at 7pm. More here.

Next Week

Tuesday morning I head back to Vermont for the summer. I’ll be traveling for 2 or 3 days so won’t be publishing and responses to emails will be sporatic.