NOLA UPDATE

My fellow Common Groundlings:

I wanted to give you an update on how the Gut Check anthology is coming along.

Last month I sent out a call to contribute to every Common Ground volunteer I had an email address for. In addition to the contacts I gathered during my time in New Orleans, I picked up a handful of other addresses from a number of you. All told, I had about 55 names at my disposal.

While I would’ve loved a 100% response rate, I was grateful that nearly half of you responded with encouraging words and enthusiastic vows to contribute to the project.

As of today, I’ve received submissions from 13 of you. The list of contributors includes:

—Tufts Alexi
—Missouri Peter
—Knoxville Quinten
—UCLA Pooja
—North Carolina Josh
—Miami Thom
—Portland Rob
—Memphis Julia
—Tufts Jonathan
—Minnesota Robert
—Massachusetts Johanna
—SoCal Jackson
—Tufts Neel

Plus, I’ve got commitments to contribute from another 13 people, including:

—Austin Thom
—Arizona Jeremy
—Chicago Jess
—Chicago Ryan
—Krystle Ramos
—Marin Doug
—New York Zeke
—Princeton Matt
—Massachusetts Stephanie
—St. Louis Nick
—St. Louis Cherie
—Texas Jesse
—Chicago Gio

In addition to these contributors, I’ve written a few pieces myself. I’ve transcribed a fascinating chat I had with Wendell, a Lower 9th resident who shared his Katrina story with me. I’ve transcribed an inspiring speech Malik gave to an incoming group of volunteers. And I’m including a number of conversations I have on video for a section I’m calling “Random Acts of Conversation.” (I found it fascinating how no matter where you were, there always seemed to be the imminent possibility that an interesting conversation—often with a stranger—might break out. Luckily I recorded many such conversations.)

Now for the latest developments…

When I originally contacted most of you I told you I needed your contributions by today, August 22nd, as I intended to have the book designed, edited and off to the printer as close to Aug. 29th as possible. (Since the 29th is, as I'm sure you already know, the 2-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.)

Well, there’s been a slight change of plans.

Last week I found out about a Common Ground group on Facebook that consists of over 400 former volunteers. Which means I’ve now got access to EIGHT times more potential contributors than I had when I started this process.

So instead of having 25-30 people contributing, I’m hoping I can rally 100 or more current and former Common Ground volunteers to chime in with their perspective.

Thanks to this new discovery, I’ve decided to push everything back a month. (But no more than a month!)

Consequently, I’m now hoping to have all the contributions in by September 13th September 21st. Which should give me ample time to design and edit the book in time to send it off to the printer by the end of September.

On August 29th I will be sending out a mass email to the 500+ names in my address book pimping our soon-to-be-published anthology. After reading the submissions I’ve received thus far I’m absolutely convinced that we’ll be producing a book that we can all be proud of.

So if you were on the fence, here’s your chance to dive in. And for those of you who vowed to contribute but haven’t gotten around to writing down your thoughts yet, you now have another 3 weeks to pull it off.

If you’re still having trouble focusing on what exactly to write about, I strongly suggest you simply go here and answer some of the questions I’ve posed.

And if you want to find out more details about what I have in mind for this project you can read my initial call for contributions here.

Thanks for your time. You will NOT be sorry you took the time to do this. Write on!

In solidarity,

Bob

POSTPONED PAUL

A WEEK AGO I WAS ALL SET TO SEND OUT THE BIG mass email. The one I intend to get to everyone in my address book. The email announcing the 1st of my 13 Collaborations. "Tall Paul Gets Cool is written. The photos have been shot and selected. The characters have been finalized. The prices from the printer have been procurred."

The plan was to announce the arrival of the book on August 1. On the 13th we were gonna post the 1st 13 pages of our new book, while also taking an avalanche of book orders. This was a schedule and pace that both Ernie and I were comfortable with. We were confident we'd pull the whole thing off as scheduled.

Then I got the news last week. While on his way to work Monday Ernie was hit by a woman who ran a red light. His car was totalled. And Ernie, while relatively okay compared to the woman who hit him, had his back and knee jacked up.

He feels like shit. And he's got to find a new car, pronto

So Tall Paul Gets Cool has been put off a month or 2. Which means the 1st of my 13 Collaborations will be Gut Check, the anthology of words from and about the residents of New Orleans and the volunteers who showed up at Common Ground in the 9th Ward to help them out.

We're trying to get that one done and to the printer by August 29...the 2-year anniversary of Katrina.

Until then...