Behind-the-scenes book talk with a bestselling author and his unicorn. Join 6000+ readers of my 150 books as I share stories behind the stories, unbox the creative process, and lead a disobedient "artisan author" movement to treat readers like rockstars and make the book world suck less.
What creative kids and Las Vegas have in common (free stuff inside)
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Good morning! I've got three small things to share this week, so I figured I'd put them together in a single email. Finally: Something from me that's scannable! THING #1: Talking to creative kids about the hard parts of artistry, self-worth, and angstMost Fridays, I record a very fun podcast about writing and creativity -- a peek "inside the author's studio." It's called the One-Drink Book Club and is usually a paid benefit for members of my Substack. However, I decided to make the most recent episode free to everyone because I thought it could help some parents out there, especially if they have artistic/creative kids. In the episode, my co-host Emma (a romance author) talked about the angst, uncertainty, self-doubt, and general life issues unique to highly creative, highly sensitive kids, using our own teenagers (and almost twenty-somethings) as examples. I really liked the discussion, and plan to listen back to it myself the next time I have uncertainty or doubts ... about myself OR my kids.
THING #2: Meet me (and get signed books) at RAVE on November 15thI'll be attending the "Reader Author Vegas Event" (more commonly called RAVE) on November 15th, and I hope that those of you who either live near Las Vegas or love book conventions enough to travel will join me. RAVE actually kicks off November 14th with "an evening with director Kevin Smith," which I'm really looking forward to. Learn more about RAVE and get tickets here. RAVE is pretty interesting. Rather than buying books from me on-site and then having to schlep them all home, RAVE instead lets you PRE-BUY books so they'll be ready for you at my signing table in Vegas. They'll then ship the books to your home after we've met and I've signed them if you want them to, so you don't have to pack all those books in your luggage. If you're planning to attend RAVE, you can pre-order books for me to sign here. (NOTE, THOUGH: It's a lot of work to put all those books up for sale in yet another place, so I don't have all of them up yet. If there's something of mine that you want that's not listed at that link, just REPLY and let me know so that I can put it up there for you ... or you can just wait and order books later, AFTER I put more books up and then remind you about this in the coming months leading up to RAVE.) THING #3: A super cool (and highly effective) way to find books you'll enjoyThe team at a new website called Shepherd emailed me recently and asked me to participate on their platform. I really liked what they're about, so I said yes. I think you'd like to check it out. Shepherd is a little like Goodreads, but Shepherd's discovery mechanism -- though nowhere near as robust as Goodreads -- is far more sensible to me. They ask authors to pick one of their own books -- and then a handful of books they loved as readers -- that all share a common theme. They're the kind of uniting themes that are nearly impossible to search for ... but that are most likely to TRULY help you find a book you'll like. (The team also describes Shepherd as being "like wandering the aisles of your favorite bookstore." And I agree; it is like that.) It's easier to understand if you just click through to my lists. You'll see what I mean right away. Here are the Shepherd lists I've created:
And that's it for today! I hope you enjoy all of these goodies. Reply and let me know what you think (about any of it)! Happy reading (and RAVEing), |
Literary As F**k
Behind-the-scenes book talk with a bestselling author and his unicorn. Join 6000+ readers of my 150 books as I share stories behind the stories, unbox the creative process, and lead a disobedient "artisan author" movement to treat readers like rockstars and make the book world suck less.
There's a little flow chart thing that happened when you read the subject line of this email. As such: Option #1: If you've ever lived in (or regularly visited) Austin, Texas, chances are good that you read this email's subject and thought, "Oh, Johnny knows about Bob!" or possibly "Does he mean that Bob Schneider?" Option #2: If you're not an Austin regular, you probably said, "Who?" ... and that right there is the first way that I'm basically the Bob Schneider of authors. You're welcome?...
Last week, a friend asked me a question: If I could pick just one book for the world to remember me by, which would it be? After much hemming and hawing, I chose Unicorn Western. I love all of my books, but in a pinch I had to give UW the win. It's just so ... WEIRD and UNUSUAL and LIKE NOTHING ELSE. I like the idea of being known for something truly wacky -- something that manages to be bizarre and profound at the same time. The problem is, a lot of my readers haven't read Unicorn Western....
The struggle is real, folks. When I first heard that famous quote about long vs short letters and how long it takes to write each, I thought it was just someone being clever. Now, I think it’s truth. Writing books is easy for me. Writing short stories, on the other hand, is a real bitch. Last week, I finished a story in the Gore Point world called Moloch. (It’s actually the “a group of kids find a wounded soldier demon in a cave with disastrous results” prompt I offered in the same group of...