Writing
The Sea We Know: Free Shipping
Friday April 16, 2010
Free Shipping from Lulu.com until May 1st with coupon code FREEMAIL305. Good for a copy or The Sea We Know or any other book that Lulu prints.
From Lulu’s email: "Use coupon code FREEMAIL305 at checkout and receive $3.99 towards your final shipping cost. This amount is the US mail cost for a single book order. Please note: there will be a shipping total listed on your order receipt. This coupon code will reduce your final order total by $3.99, which is the US mail cost for a single book."
Also, note that Lulu has changed the link to the book on their site. The old one seems to redirect okay, but it’s safer to use the new one. Other changes on Lulu have led me to move the free first-90-page-only preview of The Sea We Know to downloads. I have also added the latest errata sheet for those with older paperback copies to this new page. A more detailed, but boring, account of why all these changes can be found on the previous blog post.
The Sea We Know: New Links
Friday April 16, 2010
Sunday 9:52 PM PST More trouble, or at least sometimes. If you have trouble with the regular link to buy a copy of The Sea We Know, try from my Lulu storefront.
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Saturday 10:02 AM PST The new link to order a paperback copy of The Sea We Know seems to work now. The old link redirects to the new one, but it is safer to use the newer one. Lulu said it was in site maintenance mode, but obviously some of its inner workings have been changed.
I could never get the eBook first-90-page-only preview to work correctly again: It appeared that some of the settings had been corrupted and any attempts to repair would either get “Unrecoverable Errors” or it would seem to be fixed, but still not work. So it’s gone and the free preview is now only available from my site. Go to downloads where I have also added the errata sheet for those with older paperback copies.
I have updated the links around this site to the new place for the 90-page preview and the errata. When possible, please update yours if you have posted them anywhere. Again, sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused.
Below lies only updates from this misadventure.
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Friday 8:06 PM PST Now Lulu is saying the book in any format doesn’t exist anymore when I click on the link from this site or search for it on Lulu. The 90-page Preview from this site does work. Sorry for any inconvenience. Will try again tomorrow, as sometimes time takes care of these things.
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Friday 1:15 PM PST You can now download a free 90-page Preview directly from this site. This is the first 90 pages only of a 300 page book. Please let me know if there are any problems. Will still have to fix a few things on Lulu’s pages, but maybe having the download from here is for the best in the long run.
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Friday 12:46 PM PST The old link to the paperback copy works again. The link to the eBook 90-page preview still does not, and when I try to recreate the book on Lulu, I keep getting an “unrecoverable error.” It may be a while before I get this fix as I have to go out now.
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Lulu apparently is working on its site and there now seems to be a new link to order a copy of The Sea We Know. Also, the link to download a free 90-page preview has been having some problems: the old one stopped working and, as of this moment, I am not able to recreate a new one on Lulu. Will see if I can find out more later and get this functioning again.
Alexander Technique: Witnessing Our Life
Saturday April 10, 2010
small falls where the bears play. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
From an email1 to someone knowledgeable about the Alexander Technique, I wrote:
“If we notice without reacting—what I sometimes call ‘witnessing—things will eventually shift to more ease and balance on their own. Direction can be an essential part of that, but only as long as it is not turned into an imposition. To me, this is completely different from the good advice of not trying to correct based on (possibly) faulty kinesthetic perception. Instead, by noticing, we are giving the nervous system information it needs to readjust by itself. I don't believe that is End Gaining.”
A little more about some of these Alexander concepts as I understand them…
Our habits want to dominate everything we do. They are like an overly helpful person. When we try to practice the principles of the Alexander Technique, our habits will attempt to steal our practice and replacing it with a changeling of their own, that is, a counterfeit version of the Alexander Technique. Our good intentions are hijacked! The way to escape this deception is by having a clear sense of Alexander’s principle of Inhibition or “leaving yourself alone” as being primary. However, while leaving ourselves alone is indeed the essence of the Alexander Technique, that does not mean we should lock ourselves up in a small room fabricated from a limited understanding of this vital concept. We all wish shelter from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” but we will never find it in a fixed abode.
1 slightly edited for clarity
2 “Witness” is derived from the Old English of “wit” meaning “the seat of consciousness.”
Alexander Technique: An Aspect of Breath
Tuesday April 06, 2010
on the way to sassoferrato. italian alps. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
On the way to Sassoferrato to present the Alexander Technique on the last Guitar Craft course, I began writing an article entitled The World in a Single Breath. I’ve just called it “done,” and I have added it to this site. I will eventually add a link, but for now you can get to it by clicking here. I hope to also write something about this significant course later.
Alexander Technique: Notes on a Performance
Friday February 19, 2010
mary beth listening to recording after the performance. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
In a post a while back, I mentioned that I had had a little insight into an important aspect of the Alexander Technique, and that I would write about it later. The moment is at hand, but first, a little background:
Anyone who has had Alexander lessons learns that our anticipation of something we are about to do, especially if it is challenging, can distort our performance and thus adversely affect the outcome. Probably everyone has had some experience of this. The importance of means, rather than only ends, is central to the Alexander Technique. If we are to become free of old habits that limit what is possible for us, we must shift our attention away from obsessing on the results we so much desire. Instead, we need to first bring our attention to what happens to us as we try to achieve those results.
One aim of the Alexander Technique is to be liberated from the tyranny of habitual reactions. Even a small shift in this direction will leave us more free to act out of response to whatever unique moment we find ourselves in, that is, the true present reality.
My insight came during a recording of a reading I was doing from my novel, The Sea We Know, while accompanied by three members of the House Circle on guitars. The specific challenge was to do it in one take and, regardless of how it went, post the result as a podcast for anyone to hear. This was done to create something like the conditions of a live performance.
The music began, and I started to speak. After a few paragraphs, I misspoke one of the characters names by somehow combining two names into one. When it registered, part of my attention stayed at the point where I had made the error. It was as if part of me had jumped off a train and was left behind. Suddenly, I was less in the present, which meant that I had less attention for what I was doing right now!
This is another wrinkle on what I wrote above. Not only will the reactive anticipation of something we are about to do distract us from performing well, but it seems that dwelling on a mistake made in performance can be just as treacherous. In the first case, our concerns cause us to trip out of the present over the door sill of the future. In the latter, having turned our back on the present, we lag at the door to dwell in the past.
What a waste it was because, of course, I could not change what had happened. Yet I did have the opportunity to redeem it. I let go of the mistake and brought everything I had back to the matter at hand. Instead of spiraling down, I felt myself slide back into “now.” It is not so much something I saw for the first time, but more something I saw anew as if for the first time. It became fresh again.
Almost any performance can be redeemed. How that redemption plays out may not always go the way we think it should, but it will almost certainly be exactly what is best for us in that most unique of all moments, the present.
Commitment
Wednesday February 10, 2010
Nothing new, perhaps, yet I clearly saw this: A real commitment is unconditional. No loopholes, no circumstances that allow you to take it back. If there were any conditions lurking in the shadows when you made it, then it never was a real commitment. Or (a little sliver of light) won’t be until you let those conditionals go without reservation. The point is that this is where the real power of commitment lies. Because a commitment is unconditional, just the act of saying “Yes!” to one begins to free us from the bindings of our own conditioning. A commitment loosens the constraints we live under, and sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Commitment lifts you up to another world.
As an afterthought, many of us often feel weighed down by our various obligations. If, in the sense I have outlined above, we committed to our obligations, what might follow? If that time is ever to come for us, like the old rover, are we ready to go “off to die with Odin?”
iphone photo: frank m sheldon. outside freemont abbey, jan. 2010
The Sea We Know - Updated
Wednesday February 03, 2010
opps. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
I have updated the prepublication edition of my novel, The Sea We Know, and both the print version and the free downloadable first 90 pages eBook now include all known typo and other corrections. Other changes:
- Some edits that came out of the script for the podcast have been incorporated.
- The first page and a half has been slightly revised.
- Along with that, the character formerly known as “Gottschaulk” is now called “Gilyard.”
- “Book I” and “Book II” have been dropped from the cover, title page, and headers.
- Some new additions to the Acknowledgement section have been added.
You can check this out in the free ebook preview of the first 90 pages. For those with older copies, the latest errata are always downloadable from here.
Podcast of The Sea We Know
Tuesday February 02, 2010
the players: igor, greg, and mary beth at around midnight. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
Three guitar players from the House Circle, which is part of Seattle Circle, recently took on the challenge to record podcasts and post them publicly. Part of the reason to do this was to create a situation that would generate some of the same energy of a live performance. Really? Well, you see, the challenge comes from limiting the recording to one take and one take only. They get one chance to get it right, and after it is recorded, that take is then posted in a public place for anyone with an Internet connection to hear.
I have been working as an Alexander teacher with the House Circle lately, and since I had something to do with this challenge idea, I suppose it was only fair to give me the chance to place myself under the same conditions. To that end, late this last Sunday night, I was recorded reading a short piece from my novel, The Sea We Know with the three player providing the rest of the soundtrack. They requested something with action and danger. We settled on the scene where a news helicopter, after getting too close to some migrating gray whales, crashes amongst them. I learned much about writing during the rehearsals and much about where the Alexander Technique could apply while doing a reading, but more on that in future posts. For now, you can listen to the ten minute podcast here.
highly mobile recording studio and script. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
The Well Known Hook
Tuesday January 26, 2010
Today’s post comes from something I wrote in an email thread concerning the challenges a musician faces to be truly responsive in the moment, especially concerning improvisation. This all came out of a class that was part of the preparations for Tuning The Air’s upcoming season. I was presenting the Alexander Technique in the first hour, followed by two more hours from that day’s music instructors, Bob and Bill. A more detailed account of this can be found on Curt Golden’s blog.
I wrote, with a few edits:
…my take, though it is hardly original: in an attempt to make our local world safe, we want it to be fixed and reliable. Some things we can make (reasonably) reliable and thus predictable. For example, we might hang a key on the same hook so we will know where to find it. Or we might gain a reliable degree of proficiency in a skill so it is there when we need it. Hard not to see great survival value in this strategy. However, most things in our lives lie beyond our control and rather than understanding that and thus gain the ability to perceive their true nature, we fall back to attempting to make them safe. We hang the key on a well known hook when instead the key, in that moment, needs to be unlocking a door.
As a writer, I admit to being rather pleased that, “well known hook” and “key” fit in with the theme of barriers to creative musical improvisation.
final meeting, raft island guitar craft course, october 2009. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
I wrote, with a few edits:
…my take, though it is hardly original: in an attempt to make our local world safe, we want it to be fixed and reliable. Some things we can make (reasonably) reliable and thus predictable. For example, we might hang a key on the same hook so we will know where to find it. Or we might gain a reliable degree of proficiency in a skill so it is there when we need it. Hard not to see great survival value in this strategy. However, most things in our lives lie beyond our control and rather than understanding that and thus gain the ability to perceive their true nature, we fall back to attempting to make them safe. We hang the key on a well known hook when instead the key, in that moment, needs to be unlocking a door.
As a writer, I admit to being rather pleased that, “well known hook” and “key” fit in with the theme of barriers to creative musical improvisation.
final meeting, raft island guitar craft course, october 2009. iphone photo: frank m sheldon
The Sea We Know, Corrections
Sunday January 10, 2010
UPDATE: the errata sheet can now be downloaded by anyone from here.
UPDATE: 2010-01-17 - fixed broken link to errata sheet, and the new beginning is now included.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Added all the correction found by MB and JT in the print-on-demand editions I produced in the last part of 2009 and uploaded to Lulu.com. Some of this also involved rewriting a few paragraphs, a hazardous thing to do as, in the course of fixing perceived problems with the text, one can unwittingly introduced new ones not to mention new typos.
Also, on the advice of MB, I changed the name of a minor character, Gottschaulk. I came up with Gilyard. One of the problems was that his name was the first word in the book, which the reader found too jarring, but the name itself started to seem a little too much in the mouth. I decided to redo the first two pages and it seems much better to me, or at least it does now. The challenge, of course, is to get the reader immediately into the story, but not so immediately that they become so lost that they don’t want to bother to find out more. Ideally, there is enough to allow the reader to come into the story and let it create itself in their mind, but not so much that they do not wonder and want to know more. In a word, they need to care.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
if you want to read the new beginning, you can download a free preview copy of the first 90 pages only here.
UPDATE: 2010-01-17 - fixed broken link to errata sheet, and the new beginning is now included.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Added all the correction found by MB and JT in the print-on-demand editions I produced in the last part of 2009 and uploaded to Lulu.com. Some of this also involved rewriting a few paragraphs, a hazardous thing to do as, in the course of fixing perceived problems with the text, one can unwittingly introduced new ones not to mention new typos.
Also, on the advice of MB, I changed the name of a minor character, Gottschaulk. I came up with Gilyard. One of the problems was that his name was the first word in the book, which the reader found too jarring, but the name itself started to seem a little too much in the mouth. I decided to redo the first two pages and it seems much better to me, or at least it does now. The challenge, of course, is to get the reader immediately into the story, but not so immediately that they become so lost that they don’t want to bother to find out more. Ideally, there is enough to allow the reader to come into the story and let it create itself in their mind, but not so much that they do not wonder and want to know more. In a word, they need to care.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
if you want to read the new beginning, you can download a free preview copy of the first 90 pages only here.
Blog to Facebook
Tuesday January 05, 2010
Not completely happy with the automatic feed of this blog to my Facebook account, so I am discontinuing it for now. Among other reasons:
For now, I will go back to adding links on Facebook posts manually, although maybe not for all posts. Not this one, for instance.
- A link I added in a blog post that worked fine on the blog, did not work on the version automatically created for Facebook. It seemed to add a folder in the path that should not have been there. Not sure whether that was RapidWeaver’s fault or Facebook’s but, again, the link was okay on the blog itself. RapidWeaver, by the way, is what I use to build and maintain my site, and it’s a great solution if you are Mac-based.
- Once Facebook’s version of the blog entry posts, it is not possible to edit. As I am maintaining the blog internally, I can easily do that on the blog itself, but it doesn’t update on the Facebook version. I finally ended up making a redirect page in a folder with the same name as the bad link to get the Facebook version’s of the link to work, but that is not a very satisfying solution.
- The blog itself was showing up as a Note on Facebook without any of the sidebar links people would see if they went to the blog. I don’t fault Facebook on this, and although having it this way might make it easier for someone on Facebook to find the entries, I’m not sure yet if this is for the best overall.
- The Facebook’s version of blog entries are not displaying well on Facebook’s iPhone app! One of their toolbars hovers on top of the content, which would seem to be an issue with Facebook, not RapidWeaver. Also, an image was half-hanging outside the frame of the app with no way to resize it down to see the whole image. As more and more people are now accessing content through so-called smart phones, this is the final deal killer.
For now, I will go back to adding links on Facebook posts manually, although maybe not for all posts. Not this one, for instance.
Loaner Program
Monday January 04, 2010
I now have a loaner program for the prepublication version of the novel I wrote, The Sea We Know. Briefly, send me a request, and I will mail or hand you a paperback copy. When you’re done, mail or hand it on to the next person who would like to read it. Details here.
EDIT: This program is no longer available.
image creation: frank m sheldon
EDIT: This program is no longer available.
image creation: frank m sheldon