I’m very pleased to report  the launch of Virtual Book Group–which has chosen my book, Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity as its featured summer read.

Virtual Book Group is an exciting new venture of digital marketing guru (and chief operating bookworm) Christina Inge.  Readers from all over the world can  to join for free to share their thoughts about selected books and related topics with one another and with authors, over time.

Inge said: “We created Virtual Book Group for people who love books, and love talking about them–whenever and wherever they are. 

“This summer, we’ll be reading Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity.  Based on interviews with women who entered male-dominated careers in the 1970s and 1980s, Boston author and reporter Anita M. Harris looks at the intergenerational patterns of women’s lives. She shows how the experiences of mothers and grandmothers influence career decisions, and traces the impact of rapid technological and social change on family structures, psyches, and gender roles. 

“As with all summer books, ours is full of great stories, riveting drama, and lessons learned. But it’s not a potboiler. It’s an eye-opening look at generations of women in the workforce that picks up where Lean In leaves off.” 

As the author, I’ll be chiming in for online and video chats through August–and, possibly, beyond.

It’s free to join–but you do need to REGISTER.
If you’d like to buy Broken Patterns,  It’s available at the Harvard Bookstore, on Amazon and Kindle...as well as  Kobo, Apple, Inktera,  Nook, Page Foundry and Scribd.   You can find more information, photos, readers’ comments and tell your own story at Brokenpatternsbook.com.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is an author and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning marketing and PR firm located in kendall Square, Cambridge.

On Friday, July 11, my friend Andrew Kreig spoke at the National Press Club in Washington about his new book Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters, which tackles intelligence agency influence on politics and the media.

Presidential Puppetry, is “a non-partisan exposé of the intelligence sector influence in the Obama administration’s second term,” he said.  Drawing from a century of history that includes the Romney and Bush family dynasties, it  argues that failures in news reporting will continue because both traditional and social media are heavily influenced by revenue sources little understood by the public, including most journalists and academics. Link to book preview video

In his talk, Kreig noted  that before the Washington Post was sold to Amazon CEO Jeffery Bezos last summer, the paper had, for many years, received just 4 percent of its revenue from circulation and 14-15 percent from advertising. Approximately 60 percent of Post revenue has come from an education subsidiary, Kaplan, which profits from lucrative but little-reported government relationships.

Similarly, Amazon.com, Bezos’ source of wealth, last fall obtained a $600 million contract to handle advanced computing needs for the CIA, Kreig said. The contract dwarfed the $250 million Bezos purchase price for the Post and further illustrates certain seldom-reported institutional ties between news-making agencies and news organizations.

In another example of close ties between government and the news media, Kreig noted that the president of CBS News is Andrew Rhodes. Rhodes brother, Ben, is Obama’s speechwriter, deputy national intelligence director and, as described by insider columnist David Ignatius in the July 11 Washington’s Post, “the closest thing he [Obama] has to a chief strategist.”

Earlier this month, Kreig pointed out, Ray McGovern, a CIA-analyst-turned peace activist, warned a separate audience at the Press Club that the mainstream media are suppressing vital news stories. According to McGovern, who spent 27 years as a CIA analyst with responsibility for daily briefings of two presidents, “Never has it been so bad in the 50 years I’ve been in this town” and “there’s one change that dwarfs all the others.”  What is that change? “We no longer have a free media,” McGovern said. “That’s big. It does not get any bigger than that.”

McGovern was first quoted in report published by the Justice Integrity Project, an organization Kreig founded in 2010 to probe courts, politics and media coverage (http://wwwow.ly/yT2Rw)

In Presidential Puppetry  Kreig documents how deep-pocketed corporations and other institutions have, for more than a century, shaped the public agenda with increasingly little scrutiny from watchdogs. The book draws on Kreig’s  two decades as an investigative reporter, lawyer and high-tech advocate based in Washington, DC.

In the book, Kreig alleges that what he calls “puppet masters” wield enormous influence over intelligence agencies, elected officials, and both traditional and social media. For example, he describes a pattern whereby many prominent elected leaders secretly served as CIA or FBI informants before they entered politics, thereby establishing relationships unknown to the public.

Such allegations are endorsed by an array of experts (www.presidentialpuppetry.com), including McGovern and former CIA analyst and retired journalist John Kelly, who is a board member of the Justice Integrity Project (http://www.justice-integrity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=188&Itemid=153. Kelly is the last surviving reporter to have covered the 1960 JFK election victory party in Hyannis Port. He went on to work for CBS and NBC before becoming a CIA officer in Indochina during the Vietnam War era. In organizing and introducing last week’s dinner lecture, Kelly said the news media have become far too timid and institutionally compromised.

The “Puppetry” message is documented with 1,100 endnotes to help other researchers and reformers, Kreig said.  Its conclusion is that any reform must begin with an understanding of our hidden history. That is the theme of a 50-second preview video, entitled “Knowledge Empowers You.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KV8Mt2nV_A)

I knew Kreig when he reported  for the Cornell Daily Sun in the late 1960s.  He’s since worked in journalism, technology, and  law. His Boston background iincludes coverage of the Celtics in the 1980s and a clerkship with Boston-based federal judge Mark Wolf, who is best known for presiding over the Patriarca mob case and exposing the Whitey Bulger scandal(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_L._Wolf). Kreig holds law degrees from both Yale and the University of Chicago. From 2009 to 2011, he researched controversial Bush administration federal prosecutions as a Washington-based senior fellow for the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

Warren Croce preparing to hide artwork.

Belmont artist  Warren Croce,   , winner of the Cambridge Art Association‘s 2014 National Prize for Best Mixed Media Piece,  is promoting his work by hiding a piece each month in a Boston area business–and  offering residents clues to find the work–which finders may then keep.

Croce’s first “hunt” began in February; the third will start next week. Typical clues, available on Croce’  Facebook page  or via his newsletter ,  include maps of the general vicinity and a photo from inside the business where the art is hidden, according to a recent media release. The only “payment“  is to post on Croce’s Facebook page. 

In February, Croce gave away “Three Wise Monkeys: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, “ a series of acrylic monkey faces sprayed on board with newspaper clippings strategically pasted over their eyes, ears, and mouths, found at L‘Aroma Café in West Newton, MA. His second giveaway was a  triptych of face, found at the Bourbon Coffee in Cambridge. 

“I like giving art away,” Croce says. ” I love the joy people get from finding a piece of my artwork. Hey, you only get back from this life what you put into it.”

Trey Klein, who found the  piece at L’Aroma Cafe, said “This was a fun game and these pieces are awesome.”

Llan Levy, who found the piece at Bourbon Coffee in Porter Square,  called the hunt  “Food for the soul.”

Some “hunters”  have posted  photo series or chronological poem-like accounts of their searches on Croce’s Facebook page.

Croce’s winning Cambridge Art Associate piece, called “There is nothin’ like a dame,”  is comprised of twelve 1950‘s album covers glued onto board with a Madmen-esque figure painted over them in acrylic, pastel, and gel.  The exhibition runs until June 26. 

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is an author, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group,  an award-winning PR and marketing firm in Kendall Square.

Image for Life Science Innovation Day 2014

On Tuesday, June 3, the Massachusetts Life Science Center (MLSC) will host  its 7th Mass Life Sciences Innovation  Day at the Harvard Club on Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston. Billed on its Website as “the biggest day for life sciences startups and innovation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Mass Life Science Innovation Day is  “a high-energy, hands-on event” at which scientific leaders and business experts mingle with scientists, post-docs, professors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and venture capitalists.  

“This is one of the best opportunities to hear about trends affecting life sciences start-ups and to learn about new technologies that are ready for commercialization, ”  according to Abigail Barrow, Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center and the conference chair,  

A central question to be addressed at the event involves creativity, according to Barrow. That is, can researchers still be creative with the organizational and financial demands that are placed on research environments?  Do corporations and academics still have the courage to allow their teams to be really creative? If you want to do interesting and exciting science can you still get the funding? How does business and finance leadership view creativity?

“Our speakers and panelists will discuss the current battle to create innovation friendly environments and its impact on entrepreneurs and young researchers finding jobs.”

The morning session will feature a keynote address by Mark Levin, who will speak about how Third Rock, the  venture capital firm he founded,  invests in new companies.

 Brock Reeve, Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, will be the luncheon speaker.
Morning and afternoon breakout sessions featuring more than 40 speakers will cover scientific topics such as indication selection, experiment design and managing research programs as well as entrepreneurial topics including  “how to join the venture capital club,”  how to pitch your new idea, and “where to find money to fund your start-up.”

Some 30 early-stage companies and major research institutions will present posters and compete for prizes to be awarded at the close of the day by State Senator Karen Spilka.  The award-winners will be chosen by 20 Life Science CEOS and biotech leaders who will also attend a closing reception. The reception will include an Innovators Marketplace offering resources needed to commercialize an invention.

 More information on the program and registration is available on  the MLSC website at  –http://www.mattcenter.org/malsi-day-2014/home.html .

Here’s a link to the agenda and a complete list of speakers.
Conference fees range from $60 for students  to $550 for two marketplace exhibitors.

Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day was  developed by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Start-up Initiative (MALSI)–a platform organization that brings together all major public and private entities in the State that are committed to building the next generation of Massachusetts companies. MALSI’s mission is to ensure that Massachusetts maintains its lead as the #1 region in the world to start, nurture and grow life sciences companies.  MALSI partners include: Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, MassBio, Mass Medical Angels, TiE Boston, and several major universities and research hospitals.

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is an author, photographer  and communications consultant based ib Cambridge, MA. 

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA. 

Harvard Square First Parish Unitarian Church

For the first time since its founding nearly 400 years ago, one of the oldest churches in Cambridge is is opening its front doors to offer tours and a museum-quality exhibit to the  public. The First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist held its first open house  on May 21, 2014. A second open house will take place on Wednesday, May 28, from 11-2 pm.Historian and tour guide Vincent Dixon will speak at 12N and 1 pm

The Church was founded in 1636 by the Puritan settlers, the same year as the establishment of “Harvard Colledge” by the Bay Colony Legislature, according to Ernie Kirwan, the Church member who created the tour/exhibit project.  A site near the Church was selected to benefit students from the preaching of Minister Thomas Shepard.

The Church is committed to love, service, freedom, justice, and spiritual growth, according to its Website.  It draws on:

• Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
  

  Guides at 1st open house: First row: Hannah Stites, Top row: Carol Agate, Sam Berlin, Linda West, Vince Dixon

First Parish is located at 3 Church Street, on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Church Street  in Harvard Square.More information is available at www.firstparishcambridge.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M, Harris is an author and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. 
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and Marketing firm in Kendall Square, Cambridge. 

Authors Susan Coppack, Rick Wiggin, and Anita Harris; moderator Neil O’Hara. Photo by Katherine O’Hara. :

I was pleased to join Susan Coppack and Rick Wiggin on a panel about independent book publishing held at the Lincoln, MA Library on Wednesday, May 14, 2014.  All members of the Write Stuff, the Library’s writers group,  we’d each published a book in the past year–and had experienced both the excitement of having a book come out and the challenges of production and marketing. Link to video.

Susan told  the audience that she used a turnkey service from Book Baby to create and distribute her book, Fly Away Home: A Coming of Age Memoir, in electronic form. She said that had she realized how much time and effort it takes to market a book, she would have delayed publication by several months in order to reach her audience.  Fly Away Home describes her unusual childhood and adolescence as the daughter of disengaged parents, continuing through early adulthood until her mother’s death.  As described by moderator Neil O’Hara, who organized the panel: “At  25,000 words, the book is too long for a magazine but too short to interest traditional publishers, an example of how technology has opened up a new market for works of intermediate length, called “e-singles” in industry parlance. “Selling at “$1.99 on a multitude of electronic platforms, Coppack said she’s not in it for the money. Rather, she hopes to build an audience in order to engage in discussion with her readers.

Rick Wiggin is the author of Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783,a history of the revolutionary war focusing on the military service of Lincoln residents during the conflict, including profiles of the 256 documented combatants. The Lincoln Historical Society published Wiggin’s book in hardback and paperback. Wiggin described a painstaking editing process for which he is now grateful, a highly successful launch party that attracted some 300 people last July 4, and hundreds of sales there and at various historic sites on the East Coast. At some 1500 pages, the book sells for $30. Rick advised thinking carefully about whether to choose digital or offset printing. Digital  printing eliminates many of the mechanical steps required for offset printing such as making films and color proofs and thus offers quicker turnaround time and lower costs for very small print runs. Offset printing,  he suggests, can offer higher image and print quality and costs less as quantity increases.

Last but not least, I described the incredible number of steps involved in publishing Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity, which tells the stories of generations of American  professional women. Originally published by Wayne University Press, it had gone out of print.   I  purchased back the rights, updated the book and published the new edition in both e-book and paperback formats through Cambridge Common Press, my own publishing imprint. I used Amazon.com’s publishing arm “CreateSpace” and Kindle.  Broken Patterns is now available on Amazon.com and Kindle, and in the Harvard Book store, in Cambridge.

I’ll write more about the publishing and the marketing processes in future blogs. For now, suffice it to say that all of us feel a bit overwhelmed by the  time, energy, strategy and skill  it takes to write, publish and market a book.

If you want to know exactly what we said, here’s a link to a video of our presentation.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is the author of Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity and Managing Director of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

Governor Deval Patrick spoke yesterday at the Cambridge Innovation Center–emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurs to the Commonwealth’s economy and crediting them with being instrumental in the advent of late-night MBTA service.  Patrick was introduced by Carlos Martinez-Velam Executive Director of the Venture Cafe Foundation. 

—Anita M. Harris

–New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning pr and marketing firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Cambridge, MA. 

Featuring authors Susan Coppack, Anita Harris and Rick Wiggin 

Lincoln, MA–The Lincoln Public Library is pleased to present “Book Publishing On Your Own,” a panel discussion hosted by the library’s writer’s group, “The Write Stuff” and featuring three group members who have published books in the past year.

The discussion will be held on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 from 7-8:30 PM in the Tarbell Room at the Lincoln Public Library, 3 Bedford Road, Lincoln, MA.  

Authors Susan Coppock, Anita Harris and Rick Wiggin of the Write Stuff will describe their experiences in publishing and marketing their books, which will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served.

About the authors
Susan Coppock is the author of Fly Away Home: A Coming of Age Memoir, which describes her unusual childhood and adolescence as the daughter of disengaged parents, continuing through early adulthood until her mother’s death. Susan used a turnkey service from Book Baby to create and distribute her book in electronic form. At 25,000 words, the book is too long for a magazine but too short to interest traditional publishers, an example of how technology has opened up a new market for works of intermediate length called e-singles in industry parlance.

Anita Harris is the author of Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity, a book first published by Wayne University Press, about the changing role of women in society over time. The original book was out of print, so Anita purchased back the rights, updated the book and published the new edition in both e-book and paperback formats through Cambridge Common Press, her own publishing imprint.

Rick Wiggin is the author of Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783,a history of the revolutionary war focusing on the military service of Lincoln residents during the conflict, including profiles of the 256 documented combatants. The Lincoln Historical Society published Rick’s book in hardback and paperback; it is not available in e-book format.

Directions and parking: http://www.lincolnpl.org/index.php/how-do-i/get-to-library

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New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.