Like my last book, Zanjan, Human Rights was years in the making. It includes a history of human rights from pre-civilization to the present day; a look at the relationship between human rights and contemporary issues like security and development; explanations of how human rights are protected (and why they’re not); and predictions about where the field is headed. It also contains just about every controversial human rights-related issue I could find, and I found a lot.

Here’s the table of contents:

Part One: Identity
1. Human Reality and Rights
2. The Oneness of Humankind
3. Human Purpose
4. A History of Human Rights: From Empires to Nation-States
5. A History of Human Rights: To the Universal Declaration
6. Alternative Views of Human Rights
7. Unity in Diversity

Part Two: Society
8. Identity and Society
9. Rights and Government
10. A Global Civilization
11. The Twin International Covenants
12. Minority Rights
13. Rights and Development
14. Rights and Security
15. The Rule of Law

Part Three: Rights and Responsibilities
16. Creating a New Society
17. Promoting Human Rights
18. Education and Empowerment
19. Future Rights
20. Freedom and Will

Sign up above for the mailing list if you want to be alerted when the book comes out.

The longer answer is, as an editor and a former record label owner, I’m familiar with what it takes to get art polished, packaged, distributed, promoted and sold.  On one hand, this should make it easier for me to do all of that on my own if I wanted to — after all, I’ve done it, or overseen the process, for a lot of other people.  But what the experience has really taught me is how many steps are involved, and how much more smoothly they are all likely to go when other professionals are able to contribute their specific skills.  That’s why my next book will still be with a traditional publisher, as were the three which preceded it (not counting my e-books and anthology contributions, which also had publishers).

Yesterday I received a list from my editor of what my publisher is getting ready to do for my human rights manuscript.  Keep in mind that this is all after the editor has already edited the entire manuscript and handed it back to the publisher:

I am now sending the whole book to [the publisher's manager/director], who will do the typesetting over the next couple of weeks. At the same time I am sending the book to the academic review panel…. I am also sending the book to the others you asked to review it…

Once the book is typeset, you will receive a pdf file for you to proofread…. The book will go to other proofreaders as well…. At the same time, I will do an index… Once I have the proofs back from [the manager] a second time, I will make sure she has entered all the corrections, send back more corrections and she will send a third set. We go on like this between us until all the corrections are made and the index is proofed.

Simultaneously with me sending the book to [the manager], she alerts our cover designer… We will let you see the proposed cover.

Once we have the cover designed, it will go on the website.

And that’s why books that go through my publishers are better than books I would release myself.

Technology makes self-publishing easier and more cost-effective every day.  There are several things I’ve thought of self-publishing, and I have no doubt that eventually I’ll find a project where that seems to make the most sense.  But in the meantime, I appreciate my publishers.

It’s easy to sit back and bask in the satisfaction of another project done, but “easy” and “embarrassing yet entertaining” are two different things. So I’ll take the more embarrassing but hopefully more entertaining route of sharing a sample list of all the titles I considered (more and less seriously) and then rejected before coming up with the title my publisher will actually be using. (That title will be posted here as soon as I see the cover mockup and know for sure it’s a done deal.)

Here they are, grouped by theme.

Two Thousand Years of Human Rights
Human Rights: Past, Present and Future

Understanding Human Rights
Human Rights: Understanding Our Inherent Nobility

Equality and Human Rights
Human Rights and Potential

Hman Rights: Needs U

Rights, Responsibility and Society
Human Rights: Identity, Society and Responsibilities
Human Rights and Responsibilities
Human Rights, Roles and Responsibilities

• The Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity: Want to know who the entrepreneurs are and what industries they’re in?  This guide lets you explore all that and more.
• STATS America: Provides workforce information for states and counties nationwide, but also provides data on demographics, income and more.
• U.S. Census Bureau Local Employment Dynamics: Get detailed information on education, jobs and more for localities around the country.
• On the Map: More employment data for locations throughout the United States, plotted on a map and including info like commuting distances.

The only thing better than eating the ice cream was watching it being made.  I thought the liquid nitrogen was pretty cool as it turned into a cold mist that filled the space around the ice cream bowls.  (The last time I had played with liquid nitrogen was in the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at the peak of Mauna Kea.)  But that was even before I saw the Sweet Freeze proprietor, Faith, use a blowtorch to keep the ice cream from freezing to sides of the metal bowl.

Fire, liquid nitrogen, ice cream.  So far, so good, right?  But it got even better: ice cream, liquid nitrogen, fire, and surrounded by robots.

For instance: here’s the Great Wall.  Pretty awesome, right?

But you know what would make it more awesome?  If China took the Great Wall, and then added a roller coaster.  And they did that:

And here’s the Bahamas.  You know what might be nice in the Bahamas?  How about a yacht?

But these people didn’t stop with a yacht.  For them, that was only the starting point.  They took an already serviceable yacht, and they added a water slide:

Back to China: here’s a chef making noodles.  Pretty entertaining.

That doesn’t actually need to get better.  You get a show, and then you get noodles.  But they’ve made it just a tiny bit more entertaining by using a face-based restaurant safety rating system (the example below comes from a different restaurant than shown above):

Yes, no matter how cool things are, sometimes they surprise you by getting a little bit cooler.

A photograph of Dr. Ho in the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum

Between 1933 and 1941, when the rest of the world was closed to them, about 30,000 Jews escaped Nazi Europe for Shanghai.

The United States and Britain repeatedly failed to open their borders to Jews fleeing the continent. In Mexico and Chile, the number of Jewish immigrants was severely restricted. The British and Americans suggested that Jews settle in Angola, but the plan was ultimately abandoned for fear of offending the Portuguese.

Yet for thousands of Jews, China provided a refuge. The main reason was the conscience of one man: Dr. Feng Shan Ho, the Consul General from China to Vienna, Austria in the pivotal years of 1938-1940. Dr. Ho provided Jews in occupied Austria the documentation they needed to leave: visas that provided a proof of destination, in this case China.

Below, a Jewish tour group from Europe views the Zhoushan Road settlement where many of the refugees were settled:

One of the many artistic tributes in the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum’s Exhibition Hall to China’s role as a refuge:

The Shanghai Jewish Chronicle, a newspaper published by the refugee community:

One of the passports that brought the refugees to China:

A famous quote from Elie Wiesel, in English and Chinese:

The Studio 9 book release celebration for Zanjan, in Wilmette, Illinois on November 19, drew 60 people from several states.  Artist C. Aaron Kreader spoke and answered questions, and the event ended with demo tables for his new fantasy card game Villagers & Villains.

My first book talk for Zanjan came two weeks later on December 2 in Boston. I was introduced by award-winning author Patricia Tomarelli, who also arranged the event:

A cake frosted to look like the cover (shown above) was donated by Samantha, a Boston-area baker.  In fact, I received an enormous amount of support from the community in Boston, including from Masoud, who added Zanjan to the Comic Book Database, and Sana, who has started a Zanjan book group and drew a picture of me during the talk:

And of course I signed a lot of books.

A Beijing Ring Road

Last week in Beijing, I felt the pollution in my lungs every time I stepped outside.  The pedestrians and bicyclists who passed me often wore medical masks.

They aren’t the only ones concerned: on November 16, for example, the China Daily newspaper reported on climate changes that are “inflicting great losses on China’s agricultural production,” including by facilitating the spread of insects, and leading to rising sea levels along China’s coasts (80 millimeters over the last three decades).  China is counting on “green industries” to add 10.58 million Chinese jobs by 2015, and has just shut down 155 coal-fired boilers in two central Beijing districts where pollution prevents some residents from opening their windows for several months each year.

But what I find most interesting is how people’s frustration with the pollution that is accompanying China’s rapid industrial growth is pushing the government to adopt more responsive political mechanisms.  The Communist Party legitimizes its rule through stability and economic growth, and both are threatened if people are protesting the destruction of their crops or drinking water in the streets because they don’t think their political leaders will listen to their spoken complaints.  (For more on this idea, I recommend Susan L. Shirk’s China: Fragile Superpower.)

That’s the reason I give for the fact that the central government’s environmental protection campaigns are no longer going to judge themselves solely on whether they are meeting government-set targets.  From now on, they are also going to take public opinion into account, if a new proposal from the Ministry of Environmental Protection takes effect.

Smokestacks in the Chinese countryside

It turns out, however, that the Chinese government isn’t the only entity which Chinese citizens are pushing to be more responsive.  American enterprises are on that list as well.  Apple happens to be near the top, because it has consistently ducked local questions about the heavy metal sludge, toxic gases, and other pollutants released by its suppliers.  Local organizations, however, think change is possible.  This month Apple finally met with delegates from five Chinese organizations that have released a report on its supply chain.  “We appreciate the large step Apple took away from dodging its duty and toward attaching importance to this issue,” Feng Yongfeng, the Beijing-based founder of one of the organizations, is quoted as saying.  Said the executive director of another of the groups: “[W]e hope the company will play a role in world leadership and assume its social responsibilities.”

Those are the types of words we’re used to hearing from Americans.  It seems that as China’s economy (and the threats to it) starts to rival ours, so does its people’s expectations.

A stone in the gardens of the Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian

Sahar Sattarzadeh speaking at the Domestic Violence Awareness Month Briefing

Yesterday I was in Arlington for the annual Institute of Medicine meeting; today I was back in DC and listening to five women talk about how faith communities can respond to domestic violence.  Addressing the local level, Ambreen Ahmed, from FAITH Social Services, spoke about her organization’s work to provide humanitarian aid to needy individuals and families living Northern Virginia.  FAITH is a Muslim-led organization that serves people of all backgrounds.

Speaking to the national level, Loribeth Weinstein, of Jewish Women International, discussed her organization’s commitment to ending domestic violence and appealed for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

The other speakers were Rev. Dr. Susan Newman, of All Souls Church, and Sahar Sattarzadeh, representing the Interfaith Community Against Domestic Violence.  The briefing was moderated by Rev. Anne Marie Hunter, of the Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership for Domestic Violence.