The Book Comes First

There are certain events in life that have a way of refocusing your attention on the things that really matter.

On Monday night Marisol (aka Dr. M) walked way from a crash that could have been fatal (see the short description below). She is still shaken emotionally, but physically she was nearly unscratched. Everyone who witnessed the crash and it's aftermath, think it was a miracle that she survived. I think so as well.

The accident has also forced me to take inventory of all of my projects, especially Verge of LA. Up until this point, John and I have been scrambling to do our weekly updates, so we've been forced to put the completion of "The Book" on the back burner. The book has always been what is most important to me about this project, but I was letting everything else move to the top of the list.

On Monday, everything changed. We are now going to make the completion of the book our top priority. Which also means we'll be making very few updates to the website for the next month or so.

We have also decided to release just one book a year. It will be an annual of the best stories from the site. This will allow me the time to focus on my other writing projects including a script and a stalled novel.

In the meantime, there are still several pieces on the site for you to read, or you can just wait for the book. I know I can 't wait to hold it in my hands.

***

Here is a brief post about the accident that I wrote Monday night on my personal blog called The Wild Card Line:

"Our Lucky Day"

As Marisol flipped through the air three times, time itself slowed down and she saw her life pass before her eyes as she said the Our Father prayer to herself.

The news reports said it was a "Major Injury Accident" on the 710, one of the worlds most dangerous freeways with all of the semi-trucks coming from the ports of L.A. and Long Beach.

When one of the firemen saw the damage to her overturned car and Marisol's nearly uninjured condition, he said "This is your lucky day, you should buy a lottery ticket."

On the ride home, Marisol said it was a miracle and maybe we should buy a lottery ticket, I said "We don't need to, we already won."

(Image shot with Marisol's camera phone. Click on image to enlarge.)

Update: September 10, 2008

Verge of LA has been online for little over a month (see previous post) and we are already spreading around the globe. So far we have been read in 18 countries, 41 states and 207 cities. Obviously the highest concentration of viewers is from "The States," California and the greater Los Angeles area. But in terms of "average time on the site" Finland tops the list followed by Australia, Germany, Norway and The Netherlands. Who knew?

This week we continue to update our featured content, including a shot by Dr. M. and my Letters at Midnight.

Mostly I want to point you towards a video that I first learned about from my good friend John Herrmann's blog. John just turned 40 earlier this summer, which is a huge accomplishment since he has lived with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy almost his entire life. The video that John is helping to promote is a trailer for a film about a young guy named Darius who also has MS. As the name of the film implies, Darius Goes West in order to get his power wheelchair customized by the MTV show Pimp My Ride. Please check it out and help the cause if you are able.

Also, we set up a page to help you, help us promote Verge of LA by placing a button on your blog or site. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Until next week (or until I have something else to ramble about)...

Cheers,

--Lance
"Ringleader"


Photo: "John's Butterflies" shot with camera phone.

Verge (of Backstage) of LA

Almost a year ago, I started to form the idea for Verge of LA (VoLA). My piece, "Letters at Midnight" really breaks it all down, so I won't go crazy here, but here are a few missing pieces to the puzzle.

First off, I had been writing about LA based Podcasters for Podcast User Magazine for a year and it go me thinking about doing something that was LA based. A magazine to tell the rest of the story of my hometown, not just the glitter and gloss.

Also, I met MMA fighter and photographer Mac Danzig earlier this year. My original plan was to interview him and write a story to sell to another publication. But during the process of putting the story together, I realized I wanted to tell the story, the way I wanted to, not just what would sell. so that's how we got here. (A preview of exclusive story in "The Book" will be posted next Tuesday.)

Of course, it has been a "long and winding road" to bring VoLA out of the imagination and into the world. The original plan was to release "The Book" first and just have the website for "bonus" material. Deadlines passed and plans changed. We finally decided to lead with website, since we'd be able to get the material out sooner and keep it fresher.

Earlier today, John (in the UK) reminded me that the 8th was our month anniversary (we launched 08.08.08). It has been a crazy and hectic month, but it was the months of experimenting that really got here to this point.

By this time next month, we'll be finishing up "The Book" and we'll be making plans for the future. Please stay tuned...