Things For LifePrints Readers To Do While I'm Out Of Pocket

Later this week I'll be one of the attendees at the sold out Las Vegas Writer's Conference. This awesome weekend is coordinated by the Henderson Writer's Group. I'm also presenting a session on Thursday afternoon about how to get the most out of a conference and sitting on a panel called "The author/agent relationship" on Friday. This is a first for me and to step from the shadows to be on the fringe of the faculty is exciting and scary to say the least.

So this is the last new post for the week. I have so much to do to prepare for presenting, volunteering and pitching a new project that LifePrints is going silent for a few days.

To keep you going, here are a some of my favorite ideas for passing the time:

Read a good book- I recommend Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama, American Gods by Neal Gaiman, WAKE by Lisa McMann, and Writer's Block volume I and II (a collection of stories by Vegas Valley Authors). I have short stories in both volumes. Volume II was released yesterday and will make its debut at the conference.

Watch an amazing movie - Try Waitress or Juno. Those are my latest favorites. For heavier fare, try Blood Diamond, Body of War or Redacted. Or something in the middle, A Mighty Heart or The Pursuit of Happyness.

Check out a good blog - There are many listed in my sidebars and they are all worthy of your support.

Or turn off the computer and spend time with someone you love or doing a good deed for a stranger. Better yet, if you extend yourself in kindness over the next few days, let me know and I will post the details of your good deed.

Have a great week and I'll see you on Monday!

Michael C. Flanigan - Real Artists Create Their Own Paths

Today, Kevin Goodman is my guest blogger. He has an important story to tell about the exceptional life of Michael C. Flanigan, poet and artist. We hope you enjoy it. Kevin has graciously decided that this shall be a Creative Commons Article, in hopes that you will repost it and spread the word to inspire others to over come the odds and make their own opportunities for success.
After reading this story you’ll be inspired to put the worst behind you and reach for your dreams. Michael C Flanigan has plenty to complain about but instead he is inspired. This abused orphan and ninth grade dropout became an author, a college teacher, and peer to some of the twentieth century’s greatest poets.

Michael was orphaned at the age of nine. His father killed his mother and then committed suicide. He probably would have been murdered too if he hadn’t sensed something wrong and ran away that day. Young Michael went to live with his grandparents on their rural family farm. He credits his grandfather’s simple ethics and unconditional love as being his salvation. Hardships at the farm and memories of a violent past eventually drove Michael into a breakdown. Michael left school in the ninth grade and spent three years in the state mental institution.

Despite the setbacks, he was an avid learner and spent his free time reading the classics, writing poetry, drawing, and painting. Determined to become a professional poet, the self-educated Flanigan ran away to New York City at the tender age of 17.

By 1965 Michael migrated to Buffalo where he managed to befriend and turn mentor the late Charles Olson (father of the Black Mountain Poets).Michael read at poetry events with the likes of Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, David Landrey, and Stanley Kubrick to name a few.

In 1967 Michael started his own publishing company and by 1969 he had published several books. In 1969 Michael became a faculty member at Buffalo State as artist in residence. Not titled a professor per se but he did earn the faculty merit award in 1970 and remained artist in residence until 1972.

Michael considers his career peak to be when Stanley Kubrick nominated his book ‘Scrapbooks’ for the Pulitzer. Michael recounts “Stanley said they wouldn’t give it to me, ‘but someday you might win’”. Michael say’s “That Stanley Kubrick considering me a great poet was the greatest honor. Well; aside from being accepted by Charles {Olson} as a student.”

From 1972 until the mid-nineties Michael conducted poetry workshops at over a dozen universities in the US and Canada and nearly a thousand junior high and high schools. Michael retired with his wife into rural Indiana near the campus of Indiana University in 1996. While his nine books are all currently out of print he is working with his agent to bring back the collected volumes along with his new and never before published poems and the biography of his unlikely life.

Michael many incarnations include a neglected, humiliated, and abused child, an orphan, a survivor, a mental patient, a self- educated entrepreneur, a college teacher, and an artist. Michael doesn’t believe he is special or great and credits his successes with being determined and open.

“I went all the way to Buffalo New York and I harassed Americas greatest poet (referring to Charles Olson) until he critiqued my work. When I couldn’t find a publisher for my first book I started my own publishing house. When my residency with the university expired, I created a traveling workshop and sold my program to the schools. You got to go after the best artist you can find, they have an obligation to teach and critique, you’ll earn a valuable reference," Flanigan says.

Michael offers this profound advice, "If you’re an artist and you’re determined, you’ll make a career. Real artists don’t give up they make a path for themselves when it’s not given to them.”

Michael is an inspiration to artist and writers, to those who have been abused, suffered mental illness, and those who have educated themselves but lack the ‘credentials’. Help Michael demonstrate the worth of his story by sharing this article with your friends. By forwarding and sharing this article you’ll not only be sharing inside news before it hits the wires you’ll be helping Michael demonstrate the value of his story to potential publishers.

Kevin D Goodman
SDMC/Artist Agent
The article is Creative Commons - Please share it as you see fit.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation - 1 Billion Dollars To Solve Big Problems

The quickest way to change the world is to change yourself and care for those around you. Another way is to see the big picture and use your influence and money to tackle problems, that to the average American, seem incomprehensible.

Peter G. Peterson, self-made billionaire, son of a Greek immigrant, wants to provide a means to solve challenges in the U.S. economy - not by throwing money at them, that's too easy and also futile. In February, he announced the launch of his foundation and asked David M. Walker, former Comptroller General for the United States, to buy into his concept.

The concept - to target undeniable, unsustainable, and politically untouchable long term threats to our nation's future. He sees the main threats to be a gluttonous Social Security System, unprecedented trade deficits, ballooning Healthcare costs, selfish energy consumption, dangerous gaps in our educational system, and the threat of nuclear/biological warfare.

He believes that these monumental challenges require sacrifice on the part of all Americans from the fat cats all the way down the ladder. We can all do our part. The rich will have to pay more taxes, the government will have to spend less, everyone will have to save more. "I'm not sure if we remember how to give up something for the long-term general good. Nor do we hear calls for sacrifice from our leaders. Our lawmakers are enablers, either joining us in the state of denial or trying to anesthetize us. But if we can learn to face the future realistically, everyone will benefit from a more robust, sustainable economy," he says.

Peterson thinks that real change will start with young people. By reaching out to places like new media forms, bloggers, YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace, the foundation will support the production of films to educate people about the perils America faces. He envisions youth summits and maybe an AAYP (American Association of Young People) who will counter the lobby of AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) to ensure that decisions made are balanced and good for future generations.

He wants to re energize the business community that seems to be MIA when it comes to the larger challenges the world faces. They think in terms of immediate bottom line profit, instead of long term sustainability of business and life. The Peterson Foundation's first grants were awarded to The Concord Coalition for the Fiscal Wake-up Tour and Sam Nunn’s Nuclear Threat Initiative (in partnership with Warren Buffett).

Peterson believes the nation’s political leadership has fallen prey to short-term thinking and lacks the courage to clearly spell out the difficulties, contributing to a state of denial. “If Americans are told the truth, and if they feel the required sacrifices for our common future are fairly shared, I have enormous faith that they will respond with a commitment to identify and implement the right solutions,” Mr. Peterson said.

I'm hoping that more organizations like The Peterson Foundation will begin to appear across the landscape of political and social ideas. Then we will truly have a coalition for large scale change. The foundation claims that soon it will be expanding to include work for policy advocates, field educators, and digital media professionals in order to mobilize key constituencies and develop programs to support its cause.

A final quote from Mr. Peterson, " I know that the odds of success are daunting. Yet given what is at state and what I owe this remarkable country, I, and we, have no alternative but to try."