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Not all books are WIKI Books ... but I for one am trying.

 

With 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, I am constantly disappointed that conventional media and the entertainment sector often fail to capture what we have learned over the years of social and community change. In particular, I am a firm believer that the reason many of our collective efforts at finding solutions to various community challenges do not work is because we have no models (including no heroes and heroines) who live, love, breath and act on the ideals of peace and justice.

 

As such, I have set about doing two things:

 

The following is a collection of books that I am either working on or contributed to that strive to achieve these goals. I have noted which are available (and where), as well as added a link or two to a page with an overview of what the project is about.

 

If you can, please take a moment to review these materials. Any purchase you make helps affirm that these projects are on track and may actually help me get them to the attention of traditional publishers and movie moguls.

 

Thanks, at least, for taking a few minutes to review my work.

 

Allan

 

FICTION / ENTERTAINMENT

(Four books so far!)

 

Balance of Empowerment INSTALLMENT ONE

 

BalanceEmpowerment Installment ONE is an introduction to the characters and plot of this exciting geopolitical thriller that involves the President of the United States making a gamble on using community activists to defuse a threat of worldwide biochemical war. The active link above allows you to see a sample of the introductory pages and a listing an summary of the main characters, some of whom make their way into the other adventures below.

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Balance of Empowerment INSTALLMENT TWO

 

BalanceEmpowerment. Installment TWO will continue where Installment ONE ended and bring this adventure to a close. I do not yet have available a summary of the story, nor a continuation listing of the characters. However, I hope to have these posted in the very near future. Once this section is completed, I also expect to release the entire book in a single copy so that (if you prefer) you can read the story without interruption. I would prefer to do this now, but the economics of using this empowerment publishing strategy doesn't allow for this yet.

 

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AdvoCasterONE

 

An Advocacy-In-Action Novel

Continuing the adventures and some of the charcaters first introduced in the Balance of Empowerment series.

 

This story is a continuation of some of the characters who emerged from Balance of Empowerment, except this time they find that all is not right with a series of webcasting (or podcasting) transmissions that are mysteriously organizing groups around the world. While most of the world's business and political leaders are watching the profits role in from this new consumer tool, we soon learn that even terrorist organizations have been learning about the power and potential of encouraging their follower via simple and effective technology.

 

I hope to use this book as a way of showcasing some of the webcasting resources that are already developing but that, as of this time, remain unfocused on their value as a network resource for peace and justice.

 

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AdvoCasterTWO

Another Advocacy-In-Action Novel

 

Continuing the adventures and some of the charcaters first introduced in the Balance of Empowerment series.

 

In AdvoCasterONE, the terrorist organizers seem to have the upper hand here as technology advocates struggle to coordinate their own potential and learn from mistakes of the past. But the game begins to change as the key players on many fronts understand that the threat here is much bigger than they first imagined. And they decide that there just might be a way to continue building on the network of community groups around the globe whose interests lie in how well the world's superpowers understand the circumstances and the potential these everyday heroes and heroines possess.

 

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POLICY/COMMENTARY

 

The following books are books that I am completing at this time or have contributed to in the past that have a focus on providing a viewpoint or sense of community, cultural or political commentary. They are at least partially based on facts, as opposed to the novels above, which are just "reality-based fiction."

 

 

Benjamin Do Nada & Franklin Carlos Genoroso

In Celebration of Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday and the words and wisdom of Silence Dogood.

 

Benjamin Franklin began his professional publishing by writing a series of letters from a fictional character called Silence Dogood. He chose the name and the substance to both educate and inform his readers about contemporary community and policy issues, as well as to poke fun at the condition of women. His writings in this format were considered highly instrumental in inspiring many toward the concepts of freedom, democracy and liberty that ultimately set him on his revolutionary and inventive paths.

 

With January 2006 being the time of celebration of his birth, it seemed reasonable to wonder how his style might be conveyed in characters that capture more the realities of our times. These writings mirror his Silence Dogood letters, but using two new people, Benjamin Do Nada and Franklin Carlos Genoroso. While these characters are not meant to be representative of all the groups of people who remain disempowered today, I hope they give a flavor of how one great man's wit and wisdom might still do us all some good today!

 

The DoNadaGenoroso books should be available at Lulu Publishing in the near future.

 

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When Love Lasts Forever

Male Couples Celebrating Long-term Relationships.

 

I was a contributing author to this anthology ( LoveForever ) of articles written by ordinary gay men. The goal was to showcase the realities of our relationships. It was, apparently, quite a challenge for Merle Yost, in part because major publishers were not so interested in the material unless it contained articles about the lives of celebrities. But Merle's goal was different.

 

I contributed a piece about my partner, Stephen Corpus. I wrote the story after his death because of the feelings and pain I was experiencing, and because of my belief that our 11 year relationship story was much different than the type of story normally told (at the time, 1999) about gay male relationship. It obviously also included very strong elements about HIV, something that the other stories did not necessarily focus on as part of the love relationship.

 

The book is apparently still available at both Wal-Mart and Amazon.com. Please clink on the link provided above for a sample of this piece and additional ordering information for the book. The books was produced and distributed by The Pilgrim Press.

 

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Young Enough To Matter

Workshops & Learning About Youth Engagement in Public Policy.

 

Young Enough is owned by the California Coalition for Youth. It was produced with funding provided by the California Wellness Foundation as part of a teen pregnancy prevention project.

 

The book's contents were prepared and written by one of my staff persons, Jill Peters. The work draws on workshop ideas and recommendations from a great variety of sources. The California Coalition for Youth built on these ideas and set up a series of ways for users of this manual to further expand upon the techniques, part of what I eventually labeled as an effort for people to Make Their Own Advocacy Tools.

 

My job was to edit this book, design the cover and otherwise develop some of the marketing and distribution efforts. I left the agency before these efforts were fully utilized, and I believe they have stopped at this point. Nevertheless, if you are interested in the book, please contact CCY for details.

 

My posting of this material is simply to demonstrate my work efforts, not to make any claims on the content, ideas or authorship of this piece. Please see the other samples for my direct writing.

 

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OTHER WRITINGS AND CREATIVITY

 

Other locations that you might want to check out for further writing and creative samples on other sites. Or you can see my overall qualifications at:

 

My RESUME