my (semi-animated, semi-authorized) book launch event, now on YouTube!
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my (semi-animated, semi-authorized) book launch event, now on YouTube!

Did you know that I foolishly went around from bookstore to bookstore with all my crazy A/V equipment in order to show animated videos and presentations alongside my book readings? Yep, it cost me a lot in therapy visits and chiropractic visits, but it was also really fun to mix up the book reading event with some of my bad drawings and animation gimmicks. If you didn't get a chance to see this stuff at a bookstore, then you're (arguably) in luck, because, here it is!

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a few more ways to spot a yuvi in the wild before he goes into hiding in his attic…
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a few more ways to spot a yuvi in the wild before he goes into hiding in his attic…

If you know me at all, it’s probably obvious at this point that I’m an introvert. Mostly, I prefer to hide in my attic, and only communicate with the world through YouTube, Zoom, or some other well-bounded digital method. But I do have this exhibitionist streak alongside the introvertedness. It’s a complicated cocktail of angst and delight, but I do love to chat with actual humans in actual bookstores about actual books.

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Most People Don’t Give a Shit About Your Thing (video)
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Most People Don’t Give a Shit About Your Thing (video)

This latest video talks through the mindset shift that I’ve taken on this year (for all my creative pursuits). I knew that I didn’t want to be too disappointed by any activities related to my new book. There are just too many factors to consider with a book release, and many of them are out of my control. As much as possible, I wanted to savor the good stuff without having unrealistic expectations. I also didn’t want to ever feel gross with how I share or promote anything. So I boiled down the mindset to “most people don’t give a shit.” Think of it like a second-rate, neurotic version of Buddhist ideas related to unmet expectations and the problems with a “wanting mind”… or something like that.

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some honest and chaotic thoughts about creativity and book launch week (with A LOT of pictures)
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some honest and chaotic thoughts about creativity and book launch week (with A LOT of pictures)

So I did a reading at historic Powell's Books on Tuesday — the day of my book launch. But I also decided to use the days leading up to the book launch to push out all kinds of crazy creative things. I’m not positive that I can come to a grand conclusion about what this all means. But I’ll try, and at the very least, I can meander us through a picture-filled story that involves books and apps and social media and videos and music and essays and podcasts, and then I can land us (in the final postscript) inside a messy gazpacho filled with guilt and passion and triumph. Who wouldn’t want to go on that kind of adventure!?!?!? 🎢🛼🚌

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Book Launch Day!
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Book Launch Day!

🤯😵‍💫 OK. Holy shit. My book is officially out the door today! I ONLY CRY WITH EMOTICONS with Red Hen Press. I can't believe the day has arrived. I can't tell you how many people I should thank for this. It takes a community to write a book as far as I can tell. Thank you to all the dear people. For more info about the book, check out my book page. (And the latest episode of the Neurotic Tornado 😫🌪 podcast covers stage fright, book launch nerves, and a bizarre peeing nightmare. We also invite Jackie Shannon Hollis to talk about her public speaking experience with her memoir, This Particular Happiness out with Forest Avenue Press.)

#️⃣🔢 In the meantime, here are some crazy statistics about writing I ONLY CRY WITH EMOTICONS for you to ponder:

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Publishing Purgatory & Pants
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Publishing Purgatory & Pants

I've lost my focus. I have a book coming out in two months and I have no idea where to put my attention. It feels like I'm doing nothing and everything at once. I’m working on too many things but don’t know which things are the most important.

So let me list out the pieces of my messy month and see if I can come out the other side with some insight that could be useful for anyone, regardless of what kind of month you've had…

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miscellaneous thoughts about my insecurities with publishing things
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miscellaneous thoughts about my insecurities with publishing things

A few months ago, I posted about how I missed blogging. I wrote it as if blogging was dead, as if I wasn't writing those words on MY OWN BLOG... It wasn't until I got some feedback (thank you, Betsy! 😜) along the lines of, "so... why not keep blogging!?" that I realized there's nothing stopping me from posting things in just the way I once loved to do.... Nothing stopping me, except for me. But ME is a pretty difficult force to overcome. I’m so nervous about saying something the wrong way, or someone reading it the wrong way, or regretting something I say… 😱 To the point where I freeze up at the keyboard when I’m writing something specifically meant for a blog or for social media. It all feels a lot scarier and more complicated these days…

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acknowledgments (video)
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acknowledgments (video)

So I thought it would be amusing to create a video where I make fun of myself attempting to write the acknowledgments for my book. But in the process of making fun of myself, I mistakenly stumbled into a sincere desire to stop and appreciate the things that allow me to be creative. So here's a video that's a mish mash of all those feelings…

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the blog post that is boringly about this blog
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the blog post that is boringly about this blog

If you're not reading this blog post right now then my migration from WordPress to Squarespace has failed. Oh, wait, I think I'm doing this backwards. I should've warned you earlier. Oh, wait, I actually shouldn't have warned you at all, because I know for a fact that you're reading this right now. What I should have done was warn the people who were left behind! …I'm clearly not doing this blog thing right.

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a story about mistakenly writing (and publishing) a novel as a way to take a break from writing another novel
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a story about mistakenly writing (and publishing) a novel as a way to take a break from writing another novel

I recently got news that my book (my second novel!) is going to be published by Red Hen Press. I’m totally excited to work with such a great press—I've been following them for a long time, and most recently I loved reading Sugar Land by Tammy Lynne Stoner. But this isn't about me awkwardly showing off about my book and this press, at least not yet. Today I want to look at the process of actually writing a book in the middle of a busy life with family, a day job, side projects, whining, and chronic pain. When a book goes out in the world and you're holding it (or its digital equivalent) in your hands, it's easy to think that writing the book was just this one coherent thing the author had to do, but writing a book is chaotic and confusing and has to somehow fit inside a busy, messy life. And I enjoy (for some reason) analyzing how to jam a writing process into this life. I don't have a magic formula, but I have a process (sorta), and thought it would be fun(ish) to talk about it.

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