The Constant Outsider

     Dozens of craftspeople, including authors, will be displaying their works and talking about their crafts. It’s the 6^th year for this growing event and it’s a great and economical way to spend a beautiful fall day with the family. No admission charge!

Author Thomas M. Cirignano will be sharing a tent with the talented group “Authors Without Borders.” Several books, including “The Constant Outsider, Memoirs of a South Boston Mechanic” will be available to glance through. Come and talk with the authors, and share in the music and the great food!

This is a rain or shine event, located at the intersection of Rtes. 18 & 105. From Rte. 495, take exit 5, and head South on rte.18 for approx. 4 miles, and you’re there!

   While “The Constant Outsider” examines the years I spent living and working in South Boston and Dorchester, Massachusetts, during their most tumultuous decades in recent history, it does much more that that.

    It’s a revealing example of how environment, the influence of a few individuals, and the decisions a person makes, actually form who we end up being, and drastically effect the outcome of our life.

    Now to the reason for this post:

I am searching for a book club whose members are adventurous, and willing to go through a process similar to what I went through while writing my book. As I state in that memoir, I truly believe “each person is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.”

     I’m not suggesting that each club member will write an entire book, but at several points within “The Constant Outsider,” I included a few blank pages that are reserved for “Reader’s Notes.”  Those pages are there to be used by each reader to examine and document his or her own past. I ask that readers look back at the things that heavily impacted their lives.

    Everyone has had a person, or people in their pasts that have had great influence over the outcomes of their lives. I ask readers to write about those people, both good and bad, and to look back at the choices and decisions that changed the direction of their lives.

    I found the results of doing so to be very enlightening. I gained an understanding of why and how I became the person that I am. This is a worthwhile endeavor, and something I want to share with others.

    Whether or not the participants decide to share their results with anyone will be totally up to them. I chose to share my story with the world.

    If you know of a book club that might find this experiment interesting, please have them email me at ConstantOutsider@aol.com. I will see that any clubs wishing to give this a try will get a discount on their books. Also, I would love to sit in on the “Results Meeting” as club members who wish to, share their thoughts, insights, and experiences. I could either do that in person, or over the internet on Skype video.

    So, please spread the word to anyone belonging to a book club of adults. Mine is not a kid’s book.

To read excerpts and see if “The Constant Outsider, Memoirs of a South Boston Mechanic,” is a good fit for your club, use the “Search Inside” feature at the book’s www.Amazon.com  page, or click on “Read Excerpt” at my site, www.TheConstantOutsider.com. You may also preview segments at www.Books.Google.com

 Just search the title “The Constant Outsider” on those sites. Thanks, Tom C.