February 20, 2009

The Book

Well, I've sent off the page proofs for Reasonable and Holy: Engaging Same-Sexuality and so I hope the production department will keep to schedule and the book will be off press by late March / early April. In the meantime, I'm starting a second blog, also called "Reasonable and Holy" to the end of continuing the conversation begun in the book, and also as a way to offer additional resources that the book didn't end up including (such as, I hope, a complete index and index of sources). These may be more useful and practical in electronic form in any case.

The book itself s intended in part as a fulfillment of the “Listening Process” mandated by Lambeth 1998.1.10, and as a response and rebuttal to the familiar arguments raised against the morality of faithful, life-long, monogamous same-sex relationships.

Should any interesting conversations develop over there, I'll flag them here. And vice versa.

In the meantime, I'm busy with getting ready for the beginning of Lent and my parish's Annual Meeting on March 1 (this was once thought a good idea for avoiding blizzards; it doesn't work so well for avoiding Lent!).

Tobias

18 comments:

  1. I, for two, is too!

    Tobias, can you think of a way of "signing" copies of your book for those of us too far away who have ordered ours from Amazon etc.?
    I admit to being star-struck, but I also count you as a friend and would be thrilled if there was a way of having "my" book personalised..... vanity, vanity, one day it will be the end of me!

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  2. Congratulations, Tobias!

    What "Listening Process"? It never happened in my territory.

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  3. That is brilliant! Great news Tobias.

    Good wishes and prayers for all that you have coming up.

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  4. OK, I tried to order. We'll see what happens ;=)

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  5. Hooray! I'm looking forward to reading the book, Tobias.

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  6. Tobias, I've actually had your book on my Amazon wish list for several days. Like Erika, I'd love a "signed" copy. Maybe you could post a "booksigning" signature on your blog that we could copy-and-paste to a mailing label!

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  7. Well, when it comes to autographs... I have a copy of a book by W. R. Huntington, one of my real heros, and in the front I found a loose slip of paper, printed "With the compliments of the author" -- not attached to the book.

    Then there was the time (from my theatrical past) when I was in a production of a musical version of a collection of Edward Gorey stories (called, "Gorey Stories" in case of any doubt). For opening night, Mr Gorey presented each cast member with a copy of the show's poster -- not signed, but accompanied by a small slip of very nice paper with his autograph on it.

    So some such little slips of paper might be a real possibility, and may even be a tradition!

    I'm reminded of another episode from my theater days. There were a number of true "autograph hounds" who haunted the stage doors of Broadway theaters, equipped with pens and a pack of 3x5 index cards. One guy I remember in particular would accost all of the actors leaving the theater, "Ah you famous? Ah you famous?" Most learned soon enough to say, No, and move on, after the first six or seven such inquiries. Somewhere there is probably a stash of such index cards with my name on them! As it is, I once saw a program from Gorey Stories on Ebay -- autographed by the cast.

    Eheu, fugaces...

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  8. A friend of mine once asked an opera singer for his autograph. When the man refused, my friend said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I mistook your for someone famous."

    I have Diana Barrymore's autograph in her book on an index card. Interesting idea, Tobias. I hope to get one of those from you too.

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  9. Well, you could email personalised "autographs" using a scanned signature.... but I wouldn't keep it loose, I'd stick it firmly into the book:-)

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  10. Tobias, the famous star of Broadway morphs into Tobias, the famous author.

    Well, I want one, too.

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  11. (sigh)... and we all knew you when you were only halfway famous! I have got my pre-order in! Congratulations on completing this last arduous step.

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  12. Many, many congratulations, Tobias! I'm delighted for you, and to have your thoughts on the subject at greater length,and in more tangible form. (What can I say? I'm an old-media guy!)

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  13. Back in the days of publishing on papr, whenever we published a scientific journal article, we would receive a large number of offprints or reprints.

    Once people heard about the paper, they would send a postcard, requesting a copy so they could read the whole thing. This was especially important for colleagues behind the iron curtain whose university libraries often had very small numbers of subscriptions so had no access to the paper, or copy machines!

    The postcards were preprinted in several languages to frame the request "Dear Dr, please send a copy of your paper _________ ". The coolest one I ever got was printed in English, French, German and Latin, from Prague. (Several of my lab mates did not recognize the fourth language, thus proving that many scientists are woefully illeducated).

    If we were lucky, the sender would put a very nice stamp on the card as a thank you (I used to ahve a great collection) and we would pop the reprint into an envelope to send off to their lab.

    The British labs used to have a nice set of pasteboard cards that they attached to their reprints when they sent them out. These looked like a large business card that said, "With compliments" and the name and affiliation of the sender. Sometimes the author would sign the card.

    i think Tobias should get a bunch of "with compliments" cards printed up and he can sign and mail them to us to stick in the pages of the book that we buy online.

    IT

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  14. Dear IT,
    An excellent suggestion, though I think "In friendship and with thanks" would be better than "With the compliments of..." since I'm not in the position to provide copies myself!

    I received the final pdf yesterday with all corrections made, and the book should (I am told) head off to production next week!

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  15. Such good news. I shall be ordering too.

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  16. I look forward to it. Have already recommended it, based only the articles from the blog, to some folks.

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