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!
How do you promote a thing when the world is collapsing around you?
Oh. I hope you weren't expecting me to answer that question. This isn't one of those "smart advice" or “good insight” blog posts. 💡 This is more of a I-don't-know-the-answer-and-I-have-no-idea-what-the-hell-I’m-doing-and-I'm-trying-to-write-my-way-through-it situations. 😱🤯
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!?!?!? 🎢🛼🚌
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:
Gatekeepers & Creativity (video)
My novel is coming out in just a few weeks! And I’m thrilled to be publishing the book with a great press like Red Hen Press. At the same time, it’s been on my mind that—right now—we have this ability to share our creative work with an audience in so many different ways, some ways involve gatekeepers, and some don’t. And so of course I made a video about that.
every draft has a purpose (video)
So here’s an approach to working through each draft that has been helpful to me. I’m not sure if it’s helpful to others or if it’s obvious or something else… All I know is that it was tiring to change my shirt so many times in order to demonstrate each draft in this video…
you should consider quitting (video)
Oh! I forgot to tell you that, a few weeks ago, I made a video about quitting... Or, not really quitting, but how I think about quitting... Or maybe it's more about whether it's worth quitting… Or maybe… You know what? Just watch the damn video.
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…
a multi-creative in the attic (video)
I've always struggled with being monogamous when it comes to my creative outlets. I've been writing for most of my adult life, but I also dabble with YouTube videos and making apps and making music (sort of) and various other activities. I used to focus on the downsides to working on so many different pursuits (and there are plenty of downsides!), but this video is about me accepting (and maybe kinda sorta embracing) this quality. (I also do about 12 seconds of research and find out that there's already a name for this quality. But since I don't like the name, I made up a new name…)
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.
Why Scrivener? (video)
So I made this short video called "Why Scrivener?"... Why did I make Why Scrivener? I've been tutoring people on how to use Scrivener for many years now. I find that it is effective to first show people what it can do and make sure that it addresses something they are struggling with. As much as I love Scrivener, it's not the right tool for every writer or for every writing project. I run through this shpiel enough times in an average month that I thought I'd make a short video where I make the case for Scrivener (and get to say some dirty words in the process). Let me know what you think!
S2-23: Writing About Loved Ones (podcast)
In this podcast episode, I visit with Jackie and Bill again. We discuss what it is like to write about the people we love, and how it affects them. Jackie is currently working on a (second) memoir and I’ve written lots of autobiographical-sounding fiction (along with a few essays). So apparently we can easily bullshit about this subject for over an hour. (I edited it down to 65 minutes.) It was again great to have Bill's perspective so he could chime in on how it felt to be written ABOUT, even in cases that weren’t necessarily flattering. Give it a listen...
Creative Sprints (failvid-17)
In this Failed Writer video, I talk about how I chip away at my creative projects. I'm definitely no model for success — every week I consider dumping my novel — but I still manage to keep doing creative projects every week. So here is my tactic, sort of...
Taking Risks (failvid-15)
The idea of taking a risk has been on my mind lately. In particular, I've been thinking about those risks people take that don't necessarily end with a fabulous success story. So here's a video about it.
vid004: The index card treatment
In this video, I get to focus on Kate's perspective on the index card treatment, which is how she lays out index cards to outline her novel. It not only can help with plotting a story, but with detecting patterns in your book. Kate also came up with a fabulous metaphor about a risk with the index card treatment — a metaphor that required all of my bad animation skills. She says many more things that I didn't get a chance to animate, so check out the full one-hour audio conversation for more of her insights. Enjoy!
tctpod-season1-02: The second big thing (with Scott Sparling)
In this podcast episode, I talk with Scott Sparling about the challenges of writing the second book. We talk about bringing a work-in-progress into your heart when it wasn't born in the heart. We talk about the egomaniacalness of comparing your work to the Beatles. We discuss the pros and cons of having a deadline for your writing project. We discuss bad book sales, writing in tree houses, stones on the beach, delusions of grandeur, depression, tenacity, stubbornness, and masturbating while writing. Enjoy! ...
17.5% less sucky
[blog post] The week that John Gruber and Merlin Mann linked to my video tribute of their SXSW conversation, I started (temporarily) getting 8,000 hits a day on my website. As opposed to the previous 50 hits a day. I don’t count these things too closely, but it was a shocking change. Why am I telling you this? Well, because numbers are tricky...