There has been some talk within ICV about me starting, and running a blog for them. I am excited about the idea as it would be yet another way for me to help in the fight, and spread the word about what we are trying to accomplish. It would also be a great way to share the stories of the victims.
A week or so ago, I made a decision to write a book. I started writing about the different crimes that take place. I want to cover as much as possible. Things ranging from theft and sexual assault, to murder and overboard passengers. I also wanted to give readers a list of things they could do to help protect themselves from each of these things. Further, I wanted to write about the things that are being done both for and against the passage of safety laws that cruise lines would have to follow, and who it is that is doing the fighting in both directions. I wanted to explain the number of heart breaking cover-ups, and the lack of accountability by both the cruise lines and the FBI.
Once I made the decision to do this it was easy. I have never had words spill from my fingers with such speed and determination. It was as if the book had already been written and memorized, and all I had to do was put it somewhere to be seen. In less than a week I have almost finished the bulk of it. I still need to do some researching of numbers, and get some form of written permission from victims to use their stories before adding them, but I could easily have this thing ready to print in 2 months. Here is the problem. I am no longer sure I want to print it. I started thinking yesterday as I read through what is already there that it might do just as much good broken into smaller parts and posted as a series of blogs when I start the one for ICV.
So now I am stuck with a decision to make. Book or Blog? Right now I am leaning more and more towards putting it into the blog. I want to do as much good as possible with the tools that I have. I thought about doing both, but if I put it in the blog, I will need permission from ICV to put it into a book, as entering it might be giving them the rights to it. We have not discussed these types of details yet so I am unclear on that. Then again, that might not be a bad thing either. I could do both and put the money into the ICV account to help with the fight, as it can be very expensive.
Please feel free to share with me your thoughts on this. All I want to do is help in this fight any way that I can. The blog would be a great way for us to reach more people, and the book could do the same. I guess I just need to keep going until I know for sure that there will be a blog. I can always make that decision then.
UPDATE: I would also like to add that this post is referring only to certain content. The writing I have done for my book only, not whether or not I want to do the Blog for ICV. No matter what I do with this work, I still intend to run a new blog for and about them. There are still details to be worked out as to the type of content they do and do not want.