Hi Steve!

Thank you VERY much for your interest.

As I attempted to explain above, the SHORT (100 pp) book is very focused on mapping the development of how people have talked/discoursed about the subject of chanties, in notable works. It does not present my story of origins or whatever, rather it takes stock of others' ideas. Before someone makes another statement about what they believe to be the "origins," etc., I encourage them to undertake this study of how their sources of information were created and how the conceptual apparatus with which they interpret those sources came to be as it is. Yes, I have a completely different kind of book planned for the future, with stuff that I've been presenting at conferences etc for years now. But I find when I make direct claims in those contexts, my audience is not poised well to "hear" what I'm saying; the conversation isn't there yet. At the certain risk of making all this sound too grandiose and pompous: This is a a process. Shifts in thinking... in conventional wisdom... in "common knowledge"... entail a slow process of getting people to come around to an idea. I think steps have to be laid out gradually, or else you introduce an idea which at that moment falls on deaf ears and is forgotten.

Talk more later!
G