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Newsblog updated on August
7, 2008.
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The
purpose of this weblog is to keep visitors informed about book signings,
speaking engagements, media interviews, reviews, and other events related
to My Second University. We hope that our readers will find this page
informative.
My Second University—Winner
of the 2006 Writers Notes Award, 2005 Observatorul Award, and iUniverse
Editor's Choice/Reader's Choice/Top Performer—is the perfect gift for the
book or history-lover. Enjoy free shipping
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Sixteen
Insightful Quotations: 1"All
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
George Orwell
2"Communism is little more than a political
religion; it is a rigid ideology, both cultic and irrational." Sam
Harris
3"It is in the nature of this judicial system that
one is condemned not only in innocence, but also in ignorance." Franz
Kafka
4"Communist incarceration is a summary of four
torments: hunger, cold, immobility, and solitude." Ion Eremia
5"It is always in someone’s best interest to promote
enemies, real or imagined."
Anonymous
6"We must remember always that accusation is not proof,
and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law." Edward Murrow
7"People should not be afraid of their governments;
governments should be afraid of their people." Alan Moore
8"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does
oppression. In both instances, there is twilight." William O. Douglas
9"If you want to kill a nation, suppress its memory." Milan Kundera
10"Remembering is the mind’s first step toward
understanding."
Toni Morrison
11"Going to where the silence is. That is the
responsibility: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken,
and beaten down by the powerful."
Amy Goodman
12"Words are the most effective weapons of death in man’s
arsenal. But they can also be powerful tools of life. They may be the only
ones." Paul Rusesabagina
13"Nothing presents more difficulties than writing an
objective account of a great event in which one has participated oneself."
Michael
Korda
14"Most of us have only a faint understanding of how
societies open up or close down, because this is not the kind of history
our educational system believes is important for us to know."
Naomi Wolf
15"The public and scholarly responses to the great
historical outrages of our times are not necessarily proportional either to
the number of victims or the quality of the suffering inflicted."
Paul
Hollander
16"The enlightening experience of studying history
changes us and our views, and consequently has a direct bearing upon the
way we fashion the future." Neal Wood
View
compelling Communist Prison Photographs © Dinu Lazar
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ↓ Please scroll
down for the news ↓. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(73) August 4,
2008: In Memoriam: Russian
writer and dissident Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn
has died at 89. After being sentenced in 1945 to eight years in
prison for criticizing Joseph Stalin, Solzhenitsyn revealed the entire apparatus of Soviet repression in The Gulag Archipelago. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1970, he was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, returning to Russia
twenty years later. […] “It is not because one may have read about
Solzhenitsyn’s gulags that My Second
University may be less poignant; quite the contrary,” notes the London Salisbury Review.
(72) May 15, 2008: Human Rights are a universally
agreed upon concept. People are born with basic freedoms, including life,
liberty, and justice. Mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948, by
joining Dan Dusleag and others at Bloggers
Unite For Human Rights in their effort to address human rights
challenges—such as
wrongful imprisonment.
(71) April
28, 2008: Monica Lovinescu, the Romanian dissident whose postwar broadcasts from
exile in Paris enraged the communist authorities, has died at 84—writes The Times. Said
Lovinescu in 2002: “We cannot consider a Nuremberg-style trial of Communism
simply because that involves winners and losers. Or, in this particular
instance, communism lost its own war: it simply imploded, not exploded. But
one should consider at least a moral prosecution. It is impossible to
contemplate the fact that torturers in Romania have not been yet morally
indicted.”
(70) April 14,
2008: Works Condemning
Totalitarianism is a book fair currently taking place in the Romanian
city of Deva. The event, hosted by the Dragan
Muntean Cultural Center, is sponsored by city officials, civic and
private organizations. My Second
University is among the books discussed, and Dan Dusleag among the
invited family members of victims of the Communist purge.
(69) January 8, 2008: The Indiana and Kentucky Men’s Brotherhood – Orleans Association
met in Huron, Indiana, and featured Dan Dusleag as its guest speaker. The
fifty people in attendance, representing over two dozen regional Baptist
churches, learned about life in Communist Romania prior to 1989. A book signing event for My Second University completed the program.
(68) December 31, 2007: Quaere verum:
“Western academic specialists have shown rather limited interest in a
better understanding of the vast scale of political violence committed by
Communist states—outrages that generally attracted much less attention than
the mass murders of the Nazis. Except for the work of Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, witnesses to these atrocities have often been treated with
indifference or skepticism, and at times outright hostility.”—Paul Hollander, Professor Emeritus of Sociology,
University of Massachusetts, and author, From
the Gulag to the Killing Fields:
Personal Accounts of Political Violence and Repression in Communist States.
(67) December 12, 2007: Photographs featured on this web site, taken by Dan Dusleag during
the 1989 Romanian Revolution and 1990 anti-Communist demonstrations, are
included in the scholarly volume Central and East European
Politics: From Communism to Democracy. The book is published this month by Rowman & Littlefield,
an academic press based in Maryland.
(66) November 11, 2007: The
presentation of My Second
University at Indiana University coincided with Dalai Lama’s visit to the campus. His Holiness fled
Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese communist rule.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, Dalai Lama has maintained that, “All suffering is caused by ignorance;
where ignorance is
master there is no possibility of peace.”
(65) October 1, 2007: Upcoming events: For an autographed copy of My Second University, visit the
silent auction at the Fall Festival on
Fairfax (October 13th,
11am-7pm). Also, Bloomington Rotary Club
members may join Dan Dusleag for a talk
about Communism and the events that inspired Stanciu Stroia's award winning
memoir, at the Indiana University Memorial Union, on October 25th
(12-1 pm).
(64) August 17, 2007: For an exhaustive index of
Romanian authors, please visit the Central
and Eastern European Online Library. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, the site includes a
succinct but pertinent biography of Stanciu Stroia.
(63) July 20, 2007: Dr. Stroia’s legacy lives on: The Ethics of Suffering and Survival:
Dr. Stanciu Stroia’s punishment and surveillance by Securitate is the
result of Cristina Anisescu’s recent research at the National Council for the Study of
Securitate Archives. The paper was
presented at the international symposium, Forms of Repression in
Communist Regimes held this week at the Sambata de Sus Monastery in
Transylvania, Romania.
(62) June 27, 2007: The Institute for the Investigation of
Communist Crimes in Romania is sponsoring the publication of My Second University in Romanian, two years after its release
in English. With the subject of arbitrary detention timelier than ever, Dr.
Stanciu Stroia’s notebooks went from decades of collecting dust to winning
two independent book awards, selling 700 copies, and being available at 250
libraries in five continents. In addition, this web site has been visited
by guests from 70 countries. […] People have asked if this project is
personal. It is—for millions in Romania
and throughout Eastern Europe. At this point in history, all one can hope
to accomplish is increased awareness.
My Second University is doing
that, one reader at a time.
(61) June 1, 2007: My
Second University’s existence has been noted in the spring 2007
newsletter of The Society for Romanian Studies—“the
premier professional organization for North American scholars concerned
with Romania.”
(60) May 21, 2007:
With support from Romania’s Ministry of Culture, Editura Argonaut has published a two-volume collection titled Anti-Communist Resistance: Scientific
Research and Historical Preservation (ISBN 973-109-016-9). Two articles by Dan Dusleag are included: The Importance of Educating the West on
the Established Historical Facts of the Red Holocaust, and Medical Consequences of Communist
Imprisonment as Documented in ‘My Second University’. The project—according
to its editors—“is a moral
duty towards our predecessors who fought and suffered for liberty, as well
as towards the generations to come.”
(59) May 14, 2007:
An editorial in Evenimentul Zilei
signed by Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu detailed the recent The Hour of Romania
international conference in Bloomington, Indiana. “My discussion with Dan
Dusleag”—he concludes—“proved once again that the process of condemnation
of Communism is highly justified from a human, political, and moral
perspective.”
(58) May 3, 2007: Mel Chin’s photographic art titled Jilava Prison Bed is displayed on the back cover of My Second University. It was
originally conceived for a 1982 Amnesty International exhibition calling
attention to the plight of political prisoners. If you believe that all
forms of torture, unjust imprisonment and execution—which continue to
plague our societies—should be abolished, support Amnesty International. Their motto reminds us, “The free must
remember the forgotten.”
(57) April 25,
2007: Romania’s Parliament has suspended President Traian Basescu,
whose decision to open the Securitate
archives and officially condemn Communism—among others—have made him the most popular politician in the country.
Basescu has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the impeachment process is
politically motivated. While Romanians cast their vote in a referendum on
May 19, thousands have signed a Pro-Basescu Petition.
(56) April 15,
2007: Communist Prison Environment
and the Impact on Families was a symposium recently hosted by the Institute of Oral History
in Cluj, in collaboration with the Bucharest-based National
Council for the Study of Securitate Archives.
Rare documents from Stanciu Stroia’s file—including personal data and notes
from informers—were on display, alongside a copy of My Second University. Historian Gela Benchea and researcher
Cristina Anisescu were the event’s organizers.
(55) March 29,
2007: The Slavic Review, an interdisciplinary quarterly of Russian,
Eurasian, and East European studies published since 1941, has listed My Second University in its book
review section, “for the information of our readers.”
(54) March 5, 2007:
Dr. Stanciu Stroia spent one out of seven years of detention in
Transylvania’s medieval town Sibiu.
From political prison host to 2007
European Cultural Capital, the city underwent a remarkable
metamorphosis, and now is deservedly included
among the World's Top 50 Most
Attractive Cities by British daily The Guardian. Fifty years after the events depicted
in My Second University, Romania
is a prosperous member of the European Union and NATO. We should honor the
memory of those who contribuited to the demise of
Communism. We owe them today’s reality.
(53) February 28,
2007: Experts on Romania will attend the international
conference The Hour of Romania hosted by Indiana University on March 22-24.
Participants will focus on themes such as the role of the intellectual
elite in Political Dissent under
Communism. Professors Keith Hitchins and Vladimir
Tismaneanu—whose endorsements grace the back cover of My Second University—will be among the speakers.
(52) February 23,
2007: The Writers Notes Award—whose 2006 winner in the culture category is My second University—has been
renamed The Eric Hoffer Award.
Established at the start of the 21st century as a means of highlighting
salient writing—“a platform for and the champion of the independent
voice”—it now honors the memory of a great American philosopher.
(51) January 29,
2007: My Second University won
the iUniverse
Top Performer Award—“for
demonstrating that a good book
can reach its target audience and
generate sales and success for its author”—and is
now eligible for the Star
Program.
(50) January 17,
2007: My Second University is
competing for the Indie Excellence Awards
in the autobiography/memoir category. Open to small press titles, the
awards are sponsored by PubInsider.com,
and the winners will be announced at the Book Expo America Convention.
My Second University won two out
of six competitions it entered in the past.
(49) January 1,
2007: Romania’s acceptance into the European Union marks the
beginning, rather than the end, of a serious
analysis of the country’s Communist past. Forms of Repression in Communist Regimes, an international
symposium hosted by the city of Fagaras in July 5-7, 2007, emphasizes that
priority. Dan Dusleag is among the event’s invited speakers.
(48) December 31,
2006: According to the Writer’s
Digest, “My Second University
is a great source of knowledge and a unique contribution to history […]
Stroia’s passion is contagious, and his obvious expertise and familiarity
with the subject make this book a success.” (see Reviews).
(47) December 25,
2006: An extraordinary event marked the end of 2006: Romania’s President Traian Basescu
declared that the 1944-1989 Communist government was “illegitimate and
criminal,” and confessed his “admiration to the citizens who opposed it.”
His statement was based on the Tismaneanu Report produced by a study
group headed by University of Maryland professor Vladimir Tismaneanu. The
same professor called My Second
University “an utterly impressive prison memoir,” and concluded that
Romania has to join the European Union without the weight of its undeclared
Communist past.
(46) December 12,
2006: 18 months have passed
since My Second University was
sent to the printer, and the fight to keep Stanciu Stroia’s memory alive
continues. The trial of Communism cannot solely
consist of unmasking the guilty; it must
include the public recognition of its victims and adversaries. This has
never been more important, considering the troubling state of affairs in
post-Communist countries: Eastern Europe
Struggles to Purge Security Services.
(45)
October 25, 2006: In the name of all the victims of Communism, please
add your signature to the Appeal for the International Condemnation of
the Criminality and Illegitimacy of Communism. Launched by
Sorin Iliesiu in Romania, the document is addressed to the United Nations,
the Council of Europe, the Congress of the United States of America, and
the civil societies in all former communist countries.
(44) October 15,
2006: A recent wave of convenient confessions by former Securitate
informers and collaborators engrossed Romania. This was not the result of spontaneous soul
searching and honest bravery, but was triggered by the public disclosure of
previously classified personal files. Stanciu Stroia reminded us that
people had a choice even during
the darkest hours of Communism. Right versus wrong were equally available
options. “There is something separating individuals,” he once wrote, “It is
called character.” Amen to that.
(43) October 5, 2006: Meet Dan Dusleag at the 5th
Annual Fall Festival on
Fairfax! (Saturday,
October 14, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.) Hosted by Bloomington’s All Saints
Orthodox Church, the event features book signings
by local authors […] My Second
University was also on display at the 60th edition of the Persimmon
Festival in Mitchell
(September 23-30).
(42) September 10, 2006: My
Second University sold 500 copies in the first 16 months since its independent publication, with part of the proceeds going to charity. This number represents one
new reader/owner per day, and is comparable to most English language
ISBN’s. It also secures the book’s place in the top percentiles of sales
among its publisher’s titles. In a world consumed by the consequences of
international terrorism, My Second University ensures that the
Communist crimes of recent decades are not entirely overlooked. Its lone
goal is to document and educate.
(41) August 14, 2006: The 6th
edition of the PERT International Symposium organized in Pitesti,
Romania, on September 22-24, 2006, will focus on The Pitesti Experiment: Re-education through Torture. Introduced in Romania’s Communist prisons in 1949, this
failed Soviet-era experiment consisted of physical and psychological
torture of political prisoners, followed by their coercion into torturing
fellow inmates. Dan Dusleag is among the presenters invited at the event.
(40) July
25, 2006: The U.S. National Library
of Medicine (the world's largest biomedical library),
the British Library of Political and Economic
Science (the world's largest social sciences
library), the University of Oxford Library
(used by scholars from around the globe), the United Nations Library (a centre of international research)—all have added My Second University to
their impressive collections. They join 250 public and academic
institutions in 32 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and 20 foreign countries
spread across all continents: Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, Lebanon, United Kingdom, Germany,
France, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and
Romania.
(39) July 15, 2006: Jacob Edwards Library of Southbridge, Massachusetts, home to a sizeable
Romanian-American community, has chosen Dan Dusleag as a guest speaker at
its Immigrant Heritage Celebrations in 2007, while the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York will present My Second University in an event
scheduled next year as well. Its director, Corina Suteu, considers the book
an "excellent and moving contribution to the history of Communism in
Romania."
(38) June 18, 2006: The
Sunday edition of Evenimentul Zilei published an editorial titled University Square
Generation, commemorating 16 years from the violent crackdown of
anti-Communist demonstrations in downtown Bucharest. Dan Dusleag was
pictured and quoted in the article as an active participant in the peaceful
1990 protests, aimed at rapid democratic reforms in post-Communist Romania.
(37) June 15, 2006: My Second University
has been suggested for the Eliot Rosewater Book
Award, and has entered
two more book competitions: the Writer's Digest Book
Awards, sponsored by the
world's leading magazine for writers, and the DIY Book Festival, celebrating the success of independent authors.
(36) May
30, 2006: In Memoriam: This month marked the death of Ion Gavrila-Ogoranu, leader of the armed Romanian anti-Communist resistance
in the 1950s, and author of compelling narratives detailing his exploits.
Sentenced to death in absentia,
Ogoranu eluded capture by the almighty Securitate, becoming a
political embarrassment and a living symbol of the nation’s struggle. He
praised Dr. Stanciu Stroia’s life in his works, and called the 2005
publication of My Second University “a historical necessity.”
Ogoranu was 83 years of age.
(35) May
1, 2006: The Negru Voda Cultural
Foundation has inaugurated
the Fagaras County Museum of Anti-Communist Resistance at Fagaras Castle, a former political prison in the 1950s, where Dr.
Stanciu Stroia was detained in 1957. Anyone wishing to make a contribution
to this project should contact Professor
Florentin Olteanu, the foundation's
president, or the Fagaras branch of Banc Post (Account # RO74
BPOS 0820 3323 443 USD01).
(34) April
15, 2006: In addition to being an Editor's Choice title, My Second
University attained the iUniverse
Reader's Choice
designation—"a recognition of both editorial excellence and sales
success!"
(33)
April 9, 2006: Listen to Radio Romania International for today's weekend magazine—the Sunday Studio.
An interview with Dan Dusleag conducted by the head of the English service,
Ioana Masariu, is airing as part of the Romanians Around the World series.
The conversation took place at the American Embassy in Bucharest during an
author event covered by Rompres, the Bucharest
Daily News, and The Diplomat.
(32)
March 31, 2006: My Second University is the Winner of the 2006 Writers Notes Award in the Culture Category (titles demonstrating the human
or world experience.) "Each year, small publishers release
extraordinary books to little or no attention. With entries from academic
presses, self-published authors, highly unique and short print runs, these
awards are sponsored by the Writers Notes Magazine, and recognize excellence in independent
publishing."
According to the editors, “My Second University endured
rigorous judging and surpassed dozens of titles within its category. It was
determined to be unique, worthy, and well produced in all aspects of
writing and publishing.”
(31)
March 29, 2006: The American Cultural
Center in Bucharest,
Romania, was the host of an author event with Dan Dusleag. Cultural Affairs
Officer Kathy Kavalec and Mihai Moroiu, Director of the Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission were the coordinators, while Radu Surdulescu,
Professor of American Studies at the University of Bucharest reviewed My
Second University. Fulbright alumni, U.S. Embassy members, former
political detainees, historians, business people, publishers and press
representatives were among the 60 participants. American film
director Francis Ford Coppola had been the speaker a week prior.
(30)
March 26, 2006: The recently inaugurated Ecumenical Center at the 17th
century Brancoveanu—Sambata de Sus Monastery in Transylvania was the venue for the international
symposium Anti-Communist
Resistance: Scientific Research and Historical Preservation on March 23-26. The modern conference hall
accommodated 50 speakers (including Dan Dusleag) from 5 countries (Romania,
U.S.A., Germany, Italy, and Hungary) and 160 guests. The original abstracts
will be published in a separate volume.
(29)
March 1, 2006: The spring 2006 issue of The Salisbury Review contains another accolade for My Second University
titled An Unbreakable Spirit. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Margaret
Thatcher and Václav Havel are famous past contributors to "the best
contemporary British journal of conservative thought," which provides
"a stimulating read for those whose intellectual needs are not
satisfied by the increasing trivia and shallow content of the mainstream
press."
(28)
February 28, 2006: Our 1-year-old site continues to rank 1st
out of 12 million options for keywords "Communist prisons" on Google, Yahoo and MSN—responsible for 90% of all internet searches—as well
as AOL, A9 Amazon and AltaVista. According to the engines, "superior
ranking is the result of fresh, relevant content, and high link
popularity."
(27)
January 25, 2006: The Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights body, held
parliamentary hearings on The Need for International Condemnation of the
Crimes of Communism. "If we fail to do this, an illusion of
nostalgia might set in the minds of younger generations; this would be a
huge setback to our endeavors to strengthen liberal democracy and to reject
all concepts of authoritarian regimes." The authors of My Second
University applaud this overdue stand!
(26)
January 14, 2006: My Second University is the Winner of the 2005 Observatorul Award, selected from 50 finalists! The award was presented
in Toronto during festivities organized by Observatorul, a Romanian Canadian Digest with wide distribution in
North America. Managing Editor Dumitru Popescu moderated the event, while
Romania’s Consul Nicanor Teculescu and Pan-flute Maestro Gheorghe Zamfir
were among the 300 guests in attendance.
(25)
December 31, 2005: In Memoriam: Lena Constante, the
award-winning author of The Silent Escape:
Three Thousand Days in Romanian Prisons, and Father Zosim Oancea, author of The
Prisons of an Orthodox Priest, passed away in 2005 virtually unnoticed,
at the age of 96 and 93, respectively. Among the first to endorse My
Second University, their courage and moral rectitude in the face of
Communism was remarkable.
(24)
December 21, 2005: 375,000 new English-language titles are published every
year (source: Books In Print). My Second University has to compete for
readers’ attention with this formidable figure. Regrettably, only a handful
of books deal with the subject of Communist imprisonment. In seven months, My
Second University has sold 400 copies, a number close to the industry
average—93% of all ISBN’s sell fewer than 1,000 units (source: Nielsen BookScan).
(23)
December 14, 2005: The medical community has taken notice of My Second
University! The latest issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association, “promoting the science
and art of medicine and the betterment of the public health,” has informed
its readers about the book’s publication.
(22)
December 7, 2005: The international symposium, Anti-Communist
Resistance: Scientific Research and Historical Preservation will feature Dan Dusleag as a guest speaker. "The
Importance of Educating the West about the Red Holocaust", and
"Medical Consequences of Communist Imprisonment" are the two
topics of his presentation. Hosted in Fagaras, Romania, by the Negru
Voda Cultural Foundation, the Fagaras County Museum, the Cluj
Mozaic Cultural Association, and the Bucharest University of Arts,
this March 2006 convention aims to "recover the memory" in the
face of indifference, denial and amnesia.
(21)
December 1, 2005: Join Dan Dusleag for a book signing (and informal
discussion on arbitrary detention) at the Boxcar Books and Community Center in Bloomington (Saturday, December 17, 7-9 p.m.).
Together with the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, this
non-profit organization provides books on topics such as social justice,
and sends literature free of charge to prisoners in the Midwest.
(20)
November 27, 2005: My Second University is now available at the Memorial of the Victims of Communism in Sighet, Romania. The proceeds from the sale of the
books donated by Dan Dusleag will serve the museum, and one of Dr. Stroia’s
handwritten manuscripts will become a part of its collection. Initiated in
1992, the Sighet Memorial was designated by the Council of Europe as one of the main memorial sites of the continent,
alongside the Auschwitz Museum and the Peace Memorial in Normandy.
(19)
November 19, 2005: In celebration of Thanksgiving, Dan Dusleag
will autograph copies of My Second University at The Book Loft
in Nashville! (Saturday, November 26, 2-4 p.m.)
(18)
November 15, 2005: The Centre for Romanian
Studies , a London-based
organization “aiming to educate people in the U.K. and other western
countries about the Romanian culture, history, current affairs and
politics,” has published a wonderful review of My Second University
under the title “Medical Care during Dictatorship.” Aside from the Reviewers' testimonials, find out what Readers are saying about the book, as it reached the highest
Amazon.com Sales Rank to date: 25,076!
(17)
October 30, 2005: My Second University has been submitted for the American
Book Awards. Established in 1978 by the California-based Before
Columbus Foundation “to acknowledge the multicultural diversity of
American writing,” this year’s awards will be presented in May 2006 at the American Booksellers Association Convention in Washington, D.C. The book has also been
entered for the Writers Notes Book Awards, “recognizing excellence
in independent publishing.”
(16)
October 9, 2005: Former anti-Communist partisan Ion Gavrila-Ogoranu,
survivor of a fierce Securitate manhunt in the 1950s and 1960s, was
interviewed today on Romanian National
Television. The author of Pine
Trees Break, They Do Not Bend praised Dr. Stroia’s memoir and the
publication of My Second University (see Accolades).
(15)
October 1, 2005: Join Dan Dusleag at the 4th Annual Fall Festival on
Fairfax! (Saturday,
October 15, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.). Hosted by Bloomington’s All Saints Orthodox Church, the event includes book signings by local authors in
addition to live music, ethnic foods, children’s activities, raffle prizes
and a silent auction.
(14)
September 24, 2005: Marketing My Second University in the
U.S., Canada, U.K. and Romania entailed:
• 3 radio interviews; 20 magazine and newspaper articles; 32 book signings
and speaking engagements; 250 bookstore and library displays; hundreds of
flyers and bookmarks; thousands of online listings; a targeted postal and e-mail
promotion, and:
• this dedicated web site, ranked #1 on Google, MSN and Yahoo for keywords
“Communist Prisons,” and visited by guests from 69 countries (including Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden,
Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Ireland, Wales, Holland, Belgium,
Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Malta, Monaco,
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Moldova, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia,
Croatia, Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico,
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Israel, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, United
Arab Emirates, Nepal, Nigeria, Benin, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Senegal,
Togo, Guam, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan,
Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and
Philippines!)
• Sources: Webmaster, WebStat ©, StatCounter ©, and Trafic.Ro ©
(updated monthly).
(13)
September 1, 2005: Several book-promoting events are scheduled for this
month: a book discussion and reading at the Cum Libris Book Club in
Bedford, celebrating 69 years of existence (Friday, September 16); a
presentation titled "Growing Up In Communism" at the Bedford Public Library (Sunday,
September 18, 1:30 p.m.); and a book signing at the Persimmon Festival in Mitchell, a 59 year old tradition (Friday,
September 23, 4-8 p.m.).
(12)
August 20, 2005: Publishing My Second University has not gone
unnoticed in Romania, as positive reviews in Romania Literara
("Dr. Stanciu Stroia's Testimony"), Dosarele Istoriei
("A Survivor of the Communist Repression"), Ziua de Cluj
("A Doctor's Memory of the Romanian Gulag"), and Buna Ziua
Fagaras ("The Anti-Communist Resistance is Known Across the
Ocean") attest (see Reviews and Romanian Press). With several Romanian publishers showing great
interest, the book is currently being translated, and a release date for
the Romanian edition has been set for the fall of 2007.
(11)
August 13, 2005: Dan Dusleag resumed his book-signing tour with a stop at The
Book Loft in Nashville. Tourists visiting this picturesque town nestled in
the rolling hills of Southern Indiana, picked a handful of copies of My
Second University (see Photos).
(10)
August 10, 2005: Here are some interesting Numbers:
• 300 = copies of My Second University sold in the first three
months since publication—an honorable feat for an independently published
book solely promoted by one of its authors.
• 43,995 = Amazon.com Sales Rank for July 8, 2005 (out of 4 million books
in print).
• 250 = U.S. and international booksellers and libraries actively stocking
the book (updated monthly).
• 2 = charitable organizations a portion of the proceeds will be donated to
(Cacova Orthodox Church and the Romanian Association of Former
Political Detainees).
(9) July
27, 2005: Are you looking for a great book and need a few suggestions?
Check these handpicked favorites at Amazon's Listmania! To make this site more informative and
user-friendly, we need your feedback! Please send your suggestions to My2ndUniversity@aol.com.
(8) July
16, 2005: The Bedford Bible
Book Store was the site of another successful
book signing. A total of 49 copies of My Second University were
placed in readers’ hands during today's event and in the days leading up to
it (see Photos).
(7) July
9, 2005: Two photographs featured on this web site and
taken by Dan Dusleag during the 1989 Romanian Revolution and 1990
University Square demonstrations, are included in a forthcoming book from Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, an academic press based in Maryland. The volume—Central
and East-European Politics since 1989—contains a chapter on Romania
written by John Gledhill from Georgetown University Department of Government, and will be widely used as
an undergraduate textbook.
(6) July
4, 2005: A book promotion trip to Toronto, Canada, led to
My Second University being sold at several area locations, including
the University of Toronto
Bookstore - Downtown
Campus, and a presentation at Cenaclul Observatorul, the quarterly book fair organized by Toronto’s
Romanian community.
(5) June
23, 2005: Following a recent talk at the Business Exchange Club in
Bedford, Dan Dusleag became a guest speaker at the Rotary International Club as well. The
members of this "service association of business and professional
leaders who conduct humanitarian projects" attended today's
presentation on My Second University with flattering interest.
(4) June
20, 2005: Visit Anatolia Restaurant in Bloomington, the only place where you will find
autographed copies of My Second University! Locally owned and
operated, Anatolia serves the finest Mediterranean and Turkish delights.
Just mention this web site and you will receive 10% off your bill.
(3) June
16, 2005: Dan Dusleag has just completed an exciting interview with Will
Murphy, news director at WFIU, an Indiana
University-based National Public Radio affiliate. Listen to excerpts from
their one-hour-long conversation about My Second University, to be
aired during Saturday Feature (date to be announced).
(2) June
11, 2005: Howard's Bookstore in downtown Bloomington hosted the
first in a series of book signings for My Second University. As a
measure of the event's success, all 25 available copies found a reader
within two hours! Historical artifacts were on display, refreshments were
served, and a portion of the proceeds were donated to charitable
organizations. The event was announced in a Herald Times feature article, “A Grandfather’s Story.”
(1) May
30, 2005: My Second University—awarded the iUniverse Editor's Choice—was first published on May 10, 2005. Autographed copies have been
available through our Catalog
ever since.
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