We have had some great feedback on this so far, I am feeling a lot more encouraged. I guess the next step is to wait and see how PA feels about using thier site here to organize this and what part they would be interested in playing in it.
The feedback is extremely important because we are the readers, we know what we would like to see in print. Logisticaly this could be a nightmare but it doesn't have to be. We will have to put it together in steps, the most important step I feel is the vision of what we would like this book to accomplish. We have the skill and experience here to produce a real masterpiece, one that will hopefully be looked at for generations to come. We may have more than one book worth writing. How well we are able to pull together and then buckle down will determine our success.
My suggestion would be that we run it similar to a bow of the month contest, but instead of selectiong one contestant we select maybe 12. Each prospective author will write a short essay on what he would like to write about and PA members vote, I would suggest we have at least 5 or 6 alternate writers as well in case for some reason it doesn't come together for someone. Once the authors are selected by voting they could come together in a private web site and select the editors, photo editors, advisers etc. Amoungst themselves they would select a committee of maybe 4 or 5 who would make the final decisions on what went into print. The committee would not neccessarily have to be authors. I would think that one year would be a very reasonable time limit to have something ready for print, hopefully a bit sooner.
I know we can make this happen!