networking – Gerry Mooney Illustrating Dickens

The Inimitable Dickens Universe!

Before I write about the privelege of attending this event, I want to thank ALL MY FRIENDS (and a few strangers!) for supporting my gofundme campaign, which allowed me to attend the Dickens Universe at all.

The Dickens Project has been doing this incredible, week-long event at UC Santa Cruz for 46 years, so they’re certainly good at it! The Dickens Universe so far surpassed anything I anticipated that I am still gathering my thoughts, but I wanted to put something down before it faded, like some fantastic dream.

First of all, and most of all, everyone I met and talked to was an absolute delight. In a crowd of about 250 attendees, ages ranged from…actually, age seems a silly delimiter in this context, to be honest! What made everyone instant best friends was a deep, abiding and humble admiration for the work of Charles Dickens.

The Dickens Universe Heats Up!

First I would like to thank those of you who have contributed to my GoFundMe campaign. I’ve already begun making lists, and buying paper, supplies and equipment for this adventure, and the lists keep growing!

I know folks have reservations about contributing money online, and maybe some folks just dislike GoFundMe and their ilk, and I understand. I would like you to know that if you want to help me in this endeavor, I can also accept money through the following methods, which don’t take a fee out of the donations.

The Dickens Universe

I’m sure this title sounds like the place I commute to for work every day, but it is in fact a very real thing!

The University of California, Santa Cruz, has this week-long annual event called The Dickens Universe that I heard about, and it sounds like a fun, immersive adventure, chock-a-block with Victorian events, games, dances, and general Dickensian foofaraw.

Initially I approached them to ask about being a speaker there, in case they hadn’t filled out their schedule. I had so much fun in London last October at Dickens Day that I thought it would be like that only a whole lot better (or longer anyway!).

My London Video

When I was prepping my last blog post about my London adventures, I was a little leery of posting (or announcing) a 20-minute video because I thought most folks would just click away from it! Although it was included in my previous post, it was at the very bottom and I soft-pedaled it in my email. After some time to think about it, though, I decided that it was worth sharing and watching in all its glory.

There were two folks shooting video of my presentation, and although the one that live-streamed on FB had some technical problems for the first two minutes, I was able to cut the two versions together so well that it’s like I was using a two-camera setup.

London? Definitely MAYBE!

It’s been pretty hectic around here, planning my trip to London to speak at Dickens Day at the University of London. My sweet wife Vicki is currently on hospice care due to her strokes, and her sister who was planning to come from Charlotte to take care of her, went and broke her arm about two weeks ago. Planning for home health aides was a process, but ultimately we worked it out and Vicki will have good care while I’m gone.

In London I’ll be speaking in some detail as to how I arrive at and design the linoleum cut illustrations I’ve completed for BLEAK HOUSE. I’ve selected ten out of the forty completed pieces that are in the published book. The audience will be international and made up mostly of academics and Dickens experts. I have no idea at all of the number of attendees expected.

I’ll also be meeting up with several of the fifteen speakers at a pub the night before, which should go a long way toward feeling at ease on the day of the event.

I’ve been making lists and working on my speaking notes. I’ve rehearsed it a few times before friendly audiences (mostly Vicki but had some other folks stop by for a listen), been making packing lists, got my passport and visa, downloaded the American Airlines app to keep track of my flights, emailing with the event organizers, and a few other things probably!

What comes next is news as it happens, but as of last night (Tuesday) the Republican-authorized shutdown of the federal government has now affected the reliability of air travel in the U.S., with a spreading sick-out of air traffic controllers.

At this exact moment I am proceeding as if the trip will actually happen. I’m packing, making arrangements with the home health aides, and mining my world-traveling friends for travel trips, as I haven’t been out of the country since the 80s.

All these preparations have sort of taken over my life lately and social media seems more and more distant, however I do hope to do some live-streaming of my trip. Stay tuned to my Facebook page and send me a friend request if we aren’t already!

My Journey to Speak on BLEAK HOUSE at Dickens Day 2025

Every year the University of London hosts “Dickens Day”, a prestigious event that features speakers on a chosen topic of interest to fans and students of Charles Dickens. It was exciting to see that this year, the topic is “Dickens and Art”, and in a flash it seemed all my efforts were suddenly coming into focus and timed perfectly for the stage my project is currently at.

Of course I could say I’m speaking at the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, but come on, “The Dickens Society” just sounds cooler!

Scamming an Artist – Part 3: Dude! The FBI!

I know many of you have been following this story, especially those who have come close to being victims themselves until they tickled the google and ended up right here at this blog. One of my new correspondents, Tom Hanlon, went the extra mile and actually made a complaint to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and also, as of this writing, has made a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov .

FBI seal against a blue background with rays, representing the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Below is the FBI report in full, except for redacting some of Tom’s personal info. I won’t put links in here for the two earlier posts because they’re linked in the official report.

Distribution beyond Amazon

Things always appear easier before you actually do them. It appeared that using the “Expanded Distribution” option for a book published on Amazon would make BLEAK HOUSE more widely available, and it did, sort of.

I’ve been operating under the belief that I could do book signings in Barnes & Noble stores. There are two in Tulsa, and of course there are other, smaller bookstores in most of the bigger small towns in the region. As it turns out, I could indeed have book signings in these B&N stores, as long as I was in the correct distribution channels that would allow these stores to order my book. If they can’t get the book on their shelves, there’s no reason for them to host the event. No matter how nicely you ask, there’s no way around this logic.

Which leads to the obvious question: WHAT are “correct distribution channels”?