Book Project Outline and Brainstorm

Following on my goal to spend at least one hour a week on this project, I've spent about 5 already tonight. Below is a sketch of  the project materials and an approach.

I also looked at FastPencil.com. It's a nice site, but I don't feel like it's necessary. Assembling text through this blog and comments will be OK so long as there is a good "Table of Contents" which links to Chapters or Sections. When all is said and done, we can use Blurb's BookSmart book creator software to produce coffee-table side landscape book.

Next Step:

I'm going to do is start an outline of Carola's life, in chronological order. This does not mean that the Chapter or Sections will will flow 100% from this list or that every detail will be included, but it will be important to assemble this chronology and understand the flow of her life from year to year. With more details, we'll have the best ability to narrate the important events and flow of her life.

Project Outline

Materials

• Numerous journals
• Including several that encompass time in Africa (Most of these are scanned now)
• Numerous letters from Africa (Most scanned)
• Tons of scanned images of paintings photographs, of course (Pretty much all scanned)
• Lots of scanned awards or letters of appreciation for her volunteer work in her communities (Some scanned)
• Lots of photographs in photo albums (Not many scanned)

Structure

• Watermark / Copyright each image and store a large version of it on Picasa or Flickr.
• Flickr has fantastic Set / Collection organization capabilities, and I've paid for unlimited space
  
• Create a corresponding blog post for each of these, but on CarolaLGoughArtMedia.blogspot.com
• This will not be a narrative blog. Instead:
• Posts tagged in chronological groups.
• They don't necessarily need to be sequential at least at first. Time stamps can be adjusted later if important discrepancies found
• This will allow people to post comments so we can gather information about each item as a collaborative discussion
• Begin assembling a chronology of Chapters (or Sections) of Carola's life, grouped into large grain "phases", such as:
• Childhood
• School age
• Teenage
• Courtship
• Marriage
• Children
• Life around the country
• Life in retirement as an artist
• Life in Africa
• Older age travels and art
  
• Use a post that links to the various media posts above for each period
• Conduct interviews of her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren (I am the eldest)
• To flesh out the text, there can be posts that serve as "chapters" or sections within chapters, using tags.
• This will allow them to have a life of their own while they're being revised and written and commented on by family members.
• Use Blurb's BookSmart desktop software to create the for-print table top book.