Dear Friend,
When I sat down to write this letter, I first googled Jamie Oliver to get my facts straight about what I recently learned from him, and apparently, there is a lot to be learned from Jamie Oliver, both Dos and Don’ts-slash-Mustn’t-Evers. I’m focusing on one of the Dos.
Continue readingVitality Stories
My Mom Said So
My mom read Tiger Drive last week. Now, for those of you who have been following me for a while, you know that my eighty-two year-old mom has had it in her bonnet that Tiger Drive’s a memoir rather than fiction. A lot of the confusion is my fault. After all, I did grow up on Tiger Drive in Carson City, Nevada (the book takes place in Corbett City, Nevada). And my family and novel share archetypal characters:
Archetypes behave in anticipated ways. This is why a woman in Kansas who is abused by her husband “totally gets” the emotions and choices of an abused woman in California. An alcoholic in Nevada will understand an alcoholic in Texas. We humans act more alike than not.
My novel was causing enough angst for my mom that I didn’t tell her when Tiger Drive was published and available on the World Wide Web.
But like most moms, she found out anyway.
She called me and said her Amazon orders weren’t shipping, and she couldn’t figure out why (this happens quite often). I’m a bit of a custodian for her accounts, so I logged in to see what was happening, assuming her gift card balance was insufficient. I was right. But when I looked at her pending orders, expecting to see the usual suspects of powder coffee creamer, assorted candy, and potato chips, I knew I was in trouble. The pending order was the hardcover copy of Tiger Drive.
Vitality Stories
credit to Peanuts
I Am Editing
Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to say I’m head down and editing Tiger Drive. I am so frigging close to finishing this edit; I can hardly stand myself. And I mean that in a good way.
I’ve learned a lot over the past 3.5 years of my writing life, but my favorite advice came indirectly from Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. She said, “Nothing is more exhausting than the task not started.” Continue reading
Vitality Stories
You Win Some, You Tattoo Some
And the winner is…
Two weeks ago, I shared my perspective on tattoos and how I was having a tattoo drawn for a character, WJ Sloan, in Tiger Drive. Like many tattoos are intended to be, the tattoo has special meaning to the character and having it extracted from my imagination and put on paper (or in this case, digital format) has made me appreciate this complex character even more, and as someone who has no plans to ever get a tattoo, I now also appreciate the work that goes into a tattoo. Continue reading
Vitality Stories
I’m Opening A Gate
A journey awaits
Dan Blank’s Be the Gateway: A Practical Guide to Sharing Your Creative Work and Engaging an Audience was released on Tuesday. I’ve had the honor of being a part of Dan’s launch team and have read a few drafts of this book. My one-word review: Amazing.
Book Description:
Many people feel the drive to do creative work, but get overwhelmed by the process of connecting with an audience. They follow “best practices” in marketing that never seem to pan out, don’t produce results, and make them feel lost and oftentimes, frustrated. Be the Gateway offers a powerful way to have an impact.If you want to share your voice and inspire people with your writing, art, craft, or creative idea, you have to be the gateway for them. Instead of throwing “products” out into the marketplace, you open them up to a new way of looking at the world, of knowing themselves, and connecting with others. You unlock new experiences for them — not just through what you create, but through the unique way in which you share it with the world.
Too often we think about the creative process as being separate from the marketing process. Instead, view them as the same. Replace the inclination to “promote” with the desire to share and engage. How and why you create is a story — and is the best asset you can use to truly engage people. Be the Gateway shows you how to use that gift with joy and confidence.
I’m a Dan Fan. I met Dan in his online course, “Get Read,” in October 2014 and it’s entirely his fault, I mean his credit, that I started a website. I was so hesitant to start a website. What would I write about? Who cares what I have to say? I would feel so exposed. Dan gave me this advice, Continue reading
Vitality Stories
Are You Listening To Me?
Are you a Knower or a Listener?
Several years ago I was having a water cooler discussion with a man at work. He said, “I’m trying to become a listener.”
I asked, “You mean a better listener?”
“No, a Listener,” he said.
He then explained Continue reading
Vitality Stories
Author Carlen Maddux
An Influential Journey
A Path Revealed
During my drive across the country, I read an advance reader’s copy of Carlen Maddux’s A Path Revealed: How Hope, Love and Joy Found Us Deep in a Maze Called Alzheimer’s.
Carlen’s wife, Martha, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease when she was only fifty years old. Fifty years old! I’m 45, almost 46, and I always thought Alzheimer’s was for the elderly, not someone turning fifty. Continue reading
Vitality Stories
Guess What I Found?
A happy ending
Can you believe it? A month after moving to Ithaca, New York, and sending multiple emails followed up by calls, I got the good news that the moving company had my missing-in-action, gigantic sectional sofa. Continue reading
Vitality Stories
It Helps To Have A Sense Of Humor
Laughter is the best policy
I’ve learned a few things about moving over the past four years. I know that anything can get lost during a move, even a four-piece gigantic sectional sofa, and I can tell you the worst part of moving isn’t packing and unpacking, it’s going to the DMV and getting a new driver’s license and vehicle registration. Continue reading
