I am not sure what I am going to describe is or was a revelation. I might know when I am done writing this dispatch because writing involves problem solving. I have been feeling down for a long, long time about my inability to continue work on my book, Shelf Life, A book about an Overabundance of Books. And I have felt envious, as I’ve watched other writers get their work into print. I have, as a writer, often equated my name with failure.

Tonight, I had a quasi-revelation. I was reading a New York Times article entitled. Here the writer talks about the loss of a love of reading at the college level, noting that this corresponds with an overall drop in the literacy level nationwide. I read what he wrote and then got to thinking – the writing that I’ve been doing on the BLBP project is as important as the writing that I’ve had published.

I’ve been having to do a lot of writing just in the past few days. Okay. The history of the fundraising letter and associated documents. A BLBP board member shared an initial draft with the board. She’d taken the information from the website. This letter didn’t have a specific audience. It would not have gotten the desired result, which was to get readers to donate funds to the BLBP.

I soon realized that we needed to have two letters here, one would go to individual donors, and one would go to corporate donors. The tone in each was different. The one going to individual donors was far more chatty. As I wrote both, I got to envisioning my audience. And so the audience was a former teacher. And the audience of my corporate donor letter ended up a foundation executive director.

I shared these letters yesterday with those in attendance at the fundraising meeting. And I shared them today with Susan, who is a BLBP volunteer. She made some copy editing/revisionary suggestions. And tonight, Pete (again) read both letters and inserted a photo.

A short while ago, I sent both letters on. And Pete assisted me in filling out a corporate donor request form. I wrote an email to my former teacher and attached the individual donor letter. My message to her was, well, heartfelt.

I will now focus on sending emails to potential donors, with the attached letters.

Now, what I’m getting at here, is that in having done so much writing, I have become aware of the fact that it is process driven. And in being process driven, it takes time. I also am aware that others are unaware of this. There is, admittedly, a sense of self-satisfaction in my current mantra, which is, I can do this.

Next: 48. 2/17/25: President’s Day