نسخه فارسی
نسخه فارسی

Communications of Hossein and Bill ((Reply to Hossein - January 21, 2023)

Communications of Hossein and Bill ((Reply to Hossein - January 21, 2023)

 January 21, 2023

Dear Hossein, 

Thank you for the news on your family. I am glad to hear that Amin, Ani, Shani and Zahra are all doing well. That is the case with my family as well. We are blessed to have such a foundation to support the life’s work we have chosen.  I agree that the scientific papers and our latest book project will complement each other, with the former providing a technical foundation to the work of Congress 60 and the latter providing invitation, information, and inspiration to those seeking recovery and seeking how to live a life in long-term recovery as well as offering guidance to those wishing to help those in their recovery journeys. I have crafted my selections from your writings that I am recommending for inclusion in the book with this distinction between those two audiences in mind. Do let me know if you agree on this focus for the book once you have reviewed my selections.  Now to the book itself. I have finished a second draft that includes my review of your papers, five of your books, selected interviews with you (including all that I have done), and a review of our email communications between 2009 and 2023. I am attaching that draft in hopes Ehsan can review this with you to get your feedback on the work done to date and to make sure what I have created for you meets your original vision for the book.  Here are some notes to consider as you review it. 

Size: I have formatted the book size at 5 inches times seven inches to gauge the length of the book in its current draft. The second draft is 140 pages in the 5 X 7 format. A 4 inches times 6 inches format would be about 260 pages in the current draft. My thought was to keep the final under 300 pages so that its size would be inviting and not too intimidating to the reader. The smaller size was to make this something of a meditational book that could be easily carried on one’s person. 

Selection process: In addition to the audiences noted above, I made these selections based on which excerpts would appeal most to an international audience. You may well consider different selections for the Farsi version of the book. You will have to let me know what you think about that after reviewing the draft. 

Topical Titles without Text: I reviewed 2-3 other books that offer guidance to people in recovery to identify any topics we might include in the book that were not addressed in the writings I have reviewed. My thought was that you could review the bold titles without the text in the draft and write a few sentence reflections on any of these topics that you think warrant inclusion in the book. Many of these touch on different aspects of worldview within the recovery process or would offer guidance on how best to manage certain issues within one’s recovery journey. And you are welcome to add any additional items to this list and contribute some new original writing that has not yet appeared in any of your books of papers. 

Continued Editing Process: I still need to review the draft a few more times to finalize my recommendations and to select the best quotes that address some of the topics, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of you in this process and want to make sure I am fulfilling your hopes for this book. I think we can continue to go back and forth in the coming months until we both have a product we feel will touch the minds and hearts of people all over the world. 

Note to Ehsan on Translation: Ehsan, after each recommended selection, I have tried to note its source so that you hopefully can go to that source and do a search to find the text in Farsi. I hope this will not be too difficult a process for you once we reach the stage of doing Farsi and English versions of the book.  Let me say again what a privilege it was to review all of your writings in such a concentrated time period. I spent 2-3 hours each morning in this review and found it a very meaningful and inspirational process.  I will sign off for now and await your feedback on this latest draft. 

Friends and Brothers Forever

Your Comments





0 Comments

No comments have been posted yet.