Discussing and Remembering Dewey

[Maw Books]

It is a sad week within the book blogging community. Dewey from Hidden Side of a Leaf passed away this past week. To say that she leaves behind a huge void is a understatement. Not only was she a prolific reader, reviewer and blogger but she was also the founder and organizer of Weekly Geeks, the Bookworms Carnival, and the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. And I'm sure I'm unaware of many others. We have all been influenced by her amazing energy, creative juices and bringing the community together. She was a wonderful friend. Florinda at The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness perhaps summed everything up best on this well thought out post. She already has a list of bloggers willing to help.

There has been a lot of discussion on many blogs and twitter about how to cope with that loss.

Some of that discussion has included:

1 - How to best express our condolences to Dewey's family. Many of us have her address in which to send cards/packages. It's been mentioned to donate money/books to her local library, donate money to have her family plant a tree in her name, gather all the online tributes to make sure that Dewey's family doesn't miss them all, send flowers, etc.

2. - How to best carry on the amazing community building events that Dewey started. Many have already expressed interest in taking up some of these projects, includes challenges, Weekly Geeks, the 24 Hour Read-a-thon (this has gotten so big, it probably should have a dedicated blog), secret santa (with Nymeth), and the Bookworms Carnival. Dewey already had a lot of help on many of these projects so I'm sure many feel more prepared than others to step up to the plate.

3 - Raych from Books I Done Read has asked for a RIP button to place on our blogs.

4 - Keeping Dewey's husband in the loop. He mentioned that he would like to either see Dewey's blog continue or just let it rest. Either way, I think he should be in the know how.

So what now? Let's figure it out! Ideas, like to help, etc? I thought that we should get a discussion going in just one place, so it's not spread out among everybody. This certainly doesn't make me the "moderator" here. I just want to be able to talk amongst ourselves. What have I missed?

And if you're reading this discussion that get the word out and direct traffic over here. I'll set up another discussion to list links of our remembrance posts.

[Maw Books]

I think the only group that needs to be created is Weekly Geeks. Read-a-thon is taken care of. Carnival can be headed up by Jessica, Jackie, and Renay. I don't think it's needs more than that. I left another comment not on a thread with a "call at as I see it" meaning what I made sense of from this discussion.

[Terri]

The groups are a good idea, though they are a bit cumbersome on Yahoo. I don't know an alternative though. I say go ahead and set them up.

I like the moment of silence for WG. And realistically, trying to get something going during this month would be challenging for a lot of people. But we can certainly be talking about it in groups. Thanks Ali.

[Becky]

I think Yahoo groups are a good idea. If you are looking for an alternative though, google groups are good as well. And they seem a tad bit more user friendly. But I'd be interested in a group no matter where it's home is.

[Nymeth]

I was hoping Athena would be willing to continue the Graphic Novels challenge. I thought of her because I think she worked with Dewey on it quite closely, and she's in charge of the challenge blog. So maybe we should ask her. But whoever does it, I'd love to see it continue.

[Literary Escapism]

Becky is going to have a Weekly Geeks for this Saturday as a tribute to Dewey, so we'll have a WG27, it's the ones after that that are still up in the air.

There are already a couple of us who have contacted Dewey's husband about keeping the Bookworms carnival going and I know she had a lot of work done, but not posted. So before we do anything with that, we should get everything Dewey had from her husband first. Obviously, we won't be able to do that for awhile, but like Ali said, we're set for a couple of months. Plus, I can't remember who, but someone else has already started a new page for the Bookworms Carnival. But again, I don't know if that person is working with Dewey's husband.

[Becky]

I'll be doing a round-up of posts for WG 27 on my site if folks want to stop by and leave them on Saturday's post. I'll try to stay on the look out as well to make sure that I find them all.

As far as future WG's are concerned. I'm happy to be part of a team to work on the project if I am needed. Emphasis on 'if' I don't want to assume that I will be needed or wanted. I think it needs its own blog and a team of folks working together--like a yahoo group. I read that suggestion somewhere in these pages and thought it was a good idea.

[Literary Escapism]

What about it's own Blogger page? That way the posts are there, you don't have to join the group in order to participate and we can still use the Mr. Linky?

[Florinda]

My interpretation of a couple of points:

I think actual WG posts would still be on the participants' blogs, but WG would have its own blog where the topic and links to all the responses (either using Mr Linky or just in the comments) would be posted - kind of like Booking Through Thursday and Friday Fill-ins do.

I think the talk about a Yahoo or Ning group for WG isn't so much for the responses as for the team members to be able to collect and work out ideas and such.

What do y'all think?

[WordLily]

Florinda said: "I think the talk about a Yahoo or Ning group for WG isn't so much for the responses as for the team members to be able to collect and work out ideas and such."

Yes, this also how I understood what had been said about Yahoo group, Ning group, whatever.

[Maw Books]

From reading the comments here, this is how I've seen it play out. Leave Dewey's blog as is and create three separate blogs for each of the following, lead by these individuals:

Read-a-thon:
Trish, Hannah, and Nymeth

Bookworms Carnival:
Jessica, Jackie, and Renay

Weekly Geeks:
Lots of names on this one. Just need somebody to step up and take charge, say they'll set up the group for people to join and set up the blog. Will be multi-author. Who wants to take the lead and go with it?

Reading Challenge:
I would like to coordinate a reading challenge in Dewey's name for 2009.

Becky is doing a Weekly Geeks for this week.

These groups can assume responsibility and communicate with each other. I don't believe that there has been communication with Dewey's husband yet because we were still figuring out who wanted to do what. I didn't want to bother him with these details right away. But it now looks like there is some information to pass on. I am sending him a link of all of the Dewey inspired posts.

Grab a button, put in on your blog, send a card, email, express sympathies. Donate in Dewey's name to her local library, Reading is Fundamental, or another charity.

I think we've nailed a lot of the details down here, so thank you!

[Florinda]

I've still got that list of names, which includes e-mails and blog URLs...some of them have posted in this discussion, but not all.

When Yahoo groups and/or separate blogs are set up for Read-a-Thon, Weekly Geeks, and Bookworms Carnival, could the leads please post that info and URLs here, so I can contact these folks and make sure they know where to go next?

Thanks, everyone!

[Maw Books]

Sounds like many of those names were interested in Weekly Geeks? Yes, no? The next Read-a-thon will be in April and I know that Trish, Nymeth and Hannah have agreed that they will coordinate and discuss after the new year. So nothing on that for a while. I'm sure they will post when ready. Jessica, Jackie, and Renay will need to talk to each other. Instead of a Yahoo group for Weekly Geeks, is it possible to just create that group here on Book Blogs Ning? Just thinking out loud.