[WC.TC] Fwd: Dharma Blanket Newsletter and Call for Submissions

[WCTC]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Dharma Blanket" <dharmablanket at gmail.com>
> Date: June 9, 2008 12:56:50 PM PDT
> To: dharmablanket at gmail.com
> Subject: Dharma Blanket Newsletter and Call for Submissions
>
> Howdy!
>
> Welcome to the Dharma Blanket!!!
>
> It has been a while since i have sent out a newsletter, but so much  
> is going on now i have to send out a heads up.
>
> Mama Val and i are now starting a monster of a business that is  
> going to cover a huge variety of areas of...well, everything,  
> really! To start things off we have launched some websites from  
> which we are basing our operations. These websites are  
> mamavalsventures.com, santacruzwhere.com, and, we have  
> dharmablanket.com! We have so much happening with these that my  
> head is swimming with the big dogs...or something like that.
>
> At any rate, what i am sending now is a call for submissions for  
> writings for immediate publication. All the info about this  
> particular project is in the following copy of the call.
>
> Mama and i hope this strikes your interest, but if it doesn't,  
> there are many more projects we are rolling out that may. I (we)  
> will keep you updated with all developments and opportunities,  
> including an avenue for Santa Cruz artists and artisans (etc.) to  
> sell their wares to the world, and several real job  
> opportunities!!! (We hired a sales rep this morning!)
>
> Needless to say, i have a ton of work to do, so i am going to get  
> to it.
>
> Oh, yeah...before i go, i would like to say...
> "Check out A Course In Miracles, it is the BOMB!!!"
>
> Love you all!
> B.A.Swami Jesudas
> ********************************************************************
>
> Welcome to Mama Val's Ventures!
>
> SmartAss Spirituality, serving the edification and entertainment  
> needs of the spiritually disenfranchised.
>
> SAS' first project is a line of 40-page eBooklets--hopefully 13 of  
> them, and hopefully debuting 13 June--for the new Amazon Kindle and  
> every other channel we can think of. (As to that 13: we're not  
> superstitious, but we can't resist being cute.) So we're putting  
> out this call to our fellow Nouveaux Rishis* for your words of  
> wisdom. The time has come! If I was silly enough to doubt it, I was  
> easily reassured by my fortune cookie at lunch the other day. It  
> said: "Investigate new possibilities with friends. Now is the time!"
>
> Lest you find 13 June an insane goal, Baba has been able to break  
> down the time factor for you as follows. We will be accepting  
> submissions continuously until further notice.
>
>
> Figuring on a 40-hour work week, if you can write just ONE word a  
> minute you will have this project (~10,000 words) done in one month!I
> If you can write 30 words every 5 minutes you will finish in just  
> over 27 hours!
> If you can write 50 words every 5 minutes you will be done in just  
> over 16 hours!
> OR, if you are insane like Mama, you can do 50 words every minute  
> and you will complete the project in 3 1/3 hours! Or less!
> Guidelines for Manuscripts
>
> Tone is fresh, conversational, humorous, upbeat, positive, playful,  
> as if you were talking to your best friend in your best mood,  
> cracking jokes in a natural and spontaneous way. It doesn't need to  
> be comedy per se.
> Topics can include literally anything generally considered  
> spiritual, but topics with a spiritual approach to practical  
> matters are good, too...The Zen of [blank], but pls don't call it  
> that, as the label has become so worn out.
> We don't need you to agree with our "theology," or even know  
> anything about it--it's essentially A Course in Miracles  
> principles--or to be enlightened in any noticeable way, but we do  
> need for your work to be useful in helping bring about a paradigm  
> shift. (Humor, word plays, metaphor/allegory, poetry and the other  
> arts, all route information through the right brain, making for a  
> fuller, more substantial communication...and work around the left  
> brain's knee-jerk tendency to intellectualize every experience.)
> We particularly like works that are channeled by Spirit. If you  
> feel as if "something's trying to come through," just put the pen  
> on the paper or your fingers on the keys and let it flow.
> We are here to empower you and help you say what you have to say.  
> You don't need to worry about spelling, grammar and such--we done  
> learnt all that stuff real good, and can fix that durn thang for  
> you right as rain. Potential "helpfulness" is the prime criterion  
> for the material, which means us being able to package it for the  
> marketplace. We admire virtuosity, but we still need to be able to  
> take it to the streets.
>
> Works in Process
>
> The Goddess' Guide for Guys: How to Make New Friends, Keep the Old,  
> Get Laid More Often, and Succeed More Happily in Life in General
> Sex and the Siddhis
> Mama's Simple Sanskrit Lexicon
> So You Want to Be an Atheist!
> Are We There Yet?: A Guide to Enlightenment for the Bored and the Busy
> How to Submit
>
> Two ways:
>
> Send a finished manuscript--I bet many of you already have  
> something that would qualify. You can send MS Word, HTML, PDF,  
> OpenOffice or even paste plain text into an email message...we an  
> handle most popular formats.
> Send us a *quick* query and we'll give you some quick feedback  
> before you start writing.
> In any case, send it to submissions at mamavalsventures.com or  
> mama.val.promise at gmail.com.
>
> What Happens Next
>
> If we like your manuscript, here's how we'll proceed:
>
> Either we'll send you an offer to publish immediately, or outline a  
> plan for bringing the material up to our standards. Our cut will be  
> a percentage of the booklet's gross receipts, which in Amazon's  
> case is 35% of online sales. MVV's percentage will be bigger or  
> smaller depending on how much additional editing/coaching,  
> production and promotional assistance we've extended.
> You sign the contract and send it back. If we're really hip, we'll  
> have figured out how to do all of that by email. If not, we'll have  
> to resort to more traditional modalities.
> You email us the manuscript within the agreed-upon timeframe.
> We post it to Amazon within a couple of days to a couple of weeks,  
> depending on the volume of submissions.
> The percentages may sound small, but when you're dealing with  
> numbers the size of Amazon's----you can correctly conclude that  
> even humble success in Amazon's context will yield a very large  
> chunk of change.
>
> What Happens After That
>
> So there's your book on Amazon. Anyone who searches on keywords  
> associated with your book will find it. And if they know what's  
> good for them, they'll buy it. :-)
>
> Amazon pays monthly starting 2 months after publication, and will  
> automatically deposit receipts into MVV's bank account early each  
> month. MVV in turn will send proceeds to authors within a few days.  
> Both MVV and Amazon are still working their kinks out.
>
> And that's about it! We're about to test the Amazon Kindle  
> technology with Baba's first book, The Shocking Truth about  
> Forgiveness (not really an SAS title, but a great read nonetheless.  
> Check it out on Amazon next-week-ish.
>
> Contact Information
>
> Our new web site: mamavalsventures.com. Don't bother going there  
> quite yet, but by next week, it should be good to go with the  
> basics. If you need to talk to us--myself or Baba--on the phone,  
> please email ahead and schedule a time.
>
> PASS IT ON
>
> Please distribute this Call for Submissions far and wide--as I  
> said, we're casting a wide net. We will be doing a 2nd round of  
> this email when we collect the rest of the addresses we're meaning  
> to send to.
>
> We look forward to working with you at this exciting time!
>
> Warmly,
>
> Mama Val Promise and Jesudas Baba
>
> *Nouveaux Rishis are today's new visionaries, showing up in a whole  
> new way for a whole new planetary situation. The old rishis were  
> the ancient Indian teachers who handed down the Vedas 5,000+ years  
> ago.
>
> The term is also a play on the French phrase nouveaux riches,  
> designating people previously poor who've suddenly come into large  
> quantities of money. On one hand, they don't know how to manage it  
> very well and make all kinds of naive boo-boos in their spending  
> that the financially mature wouldn't make. On the other hand,  
> though, they bring a breath of fresh air and vitality to business- 
> as-usual, and have been responsible for all kinds of innovations  
> that probably never would've happened if they knew better.
>
> Similarly, the nouveaux rishis among us have suddenly come into the  
> wealth of spiritual traditions and practices that had been  
> previously barred from them on account of membership, geography,  
> technology and all the usual limitations of life-as-we-know-it.  
> Many traditions have prophesied that at the "end times"--a whole  
> 'nother big subject, obviously!--what had been hidden would be  
> revealed, and that our sons and daughters would prophesy, our young  
> men would see visions, and our old men would dream dreams, to  
> paraphrase Acts 2:17.
>
> How to Tell if You Might Be a Nouveau Rishi
>
> You have a persistent sense of the presence of the divine,  
> "something more," "something beyond," regardless of not being able  
> to find suitable rational explanations.
> You have a very clear--though not necessarily definable!--inner  
> sense of direction.
> You have the Self-referentiality to go with it--the buck stops  
> here! You don't need the experts to show you the way.
> The Way shows you the Way.
> You have a consistent compulsion to share what you know to help  
> others.
> You have a fascinating patchwork quilt of spiritual practices and  
> folklore that you've picked up along the way.
> People have a tendency to tell you their troubles and ask your advice.
> Mama Val's Ventures
>
> Webmaster and information: Jesudas Baba
>
> baba at mamavalsventures.com.
>
>
>

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