administrative

What's up and what's gone down (Aug 2009)

arnoinrepose

A thus-far monthly but forever occasional round-up of what I've been up to and what I plan to be. For full credits and details, see July's entry.

Colleen of the future (places I'll be)

Colleen of the Past (stuff that went down)

  • New interview! Er, Twitterview. What can I say: it's a brave new world. Me and fabulous HOW magazine editrix Bryn Mooth mix it up on the Twitter about...the Twitter.
  • World Domination comes to Los Angeles! Haha, not really. But Chris Guillebeau did, and I helped to organize one of the funnest meetups ever for him and his considerable peeps. Follow him on Twitter and subscribe to the blog so you don't miss future meetups coming to an area near you. (I mean, dude travels!)
  • The Escape from Cubicle Nation Workshop in Chicago Can I say how awesome this was, working with my gal, Pamela Slim? Doubtful. Just do yourselves a favor and go to the one Pam is doing in New York on September 12 with our mutual friend, Jonathan Fields. I am jealous I cannot be there, too.
  • ...finally, I changed my tune. For the time being, anyway. Which is to say that I was so moved by Mark Silver's Heart of Money course, I am an affiliate for the first time ever. Only one product so far, and the only affiliate links you find here will be clearly marked. The above link takes you to a standalone post I created outlining my experiences with and love for the damned thing. And that's the only way I roll: no sidebar confetti for me. That's a promise.

Colleen of the Present (ongoing projects)

  • I asked for something! Specifically, for you to nominate one of my 2009 posts for acceptance to Creative Nonfiction. I assembled what I think are the best candidates, to save you time, but hey, whatever you want to nominate is fine by me! By August 31, though. And thank you!
  • The Virgo Guide to Marketing I'm just over halfway through a year-long project where I work on my marketing daily and blog about it weekly. People seem to dig it, as well as the podcasts I record weekly. Go figger.
  • communicatrix | focuses My monthly newsletter devoted to the all-important subject of increasing your unique fabulosity. One article per month (with actionable tips! and minimal bullsh*t!) about becoming a better communicator, plus the best few of the many cool things I stumble across in my travels. Plus a tiny drawing by moi. Free! (archives & sign-up)
  • Act Smart! is my monthly column about marketing for actors for LA Casting, but I swear, you'll find stuff in it that's useful, too. Browse the archives, here.
  • Internet flotsam And of course, I snark it up on Twitter, chit-chat on Facebook, post the odd video or quote to Tumblr, and bookmark the good stuff I find on my travels at StumbleUpon and delicious.

Please let me know if you find this kind of curation at all useful, and/or if there's a better way to handle it. Thanks!

xxx
c

Photo of Arno J. McScruff housed on Flickr, where I also occasionally stick pixels.

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A small favor, from you to me

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Twitter _ Alice Bradley_ Creative Nonfiction is loo ...

I had a long talk with an old friend of mine several months ago.

We knew each other back in college, when we both had our heads stuck pretty far up our asses. And then, over the years, we kind of lived on parallel tracks: getting into advertising, learning to be grownups, forming decent relationships, rekindling our secret interests in writing, getting published,

Oh, wait. He got published.

A short story, in a little literary magazine called Salamander. (It's good; you should buy it.)

As he said, he may or may not have been more talented than the other people in his writers' group, but he's the only one who submitted his stuff. And you know what? Like they used to say with the Lotto, ya gotta be in it to win it.

I am not ready to submit a poem to Salamander (yet). But when I read the tweet from the wildly talented Alice Bradley, whose writing* I adore about Creative Nonfiction looking for submissions from bloggers, I had two thoughts:

  1. Hey, I'm a blogger who writes a lot of creative nonfiction, the fancy new word for essays!
  2. Why bother? They'll never pick mine. (Wah wah. Sad trombone.)

This kind of crap has got to stop.

They might not pick mine, but you know what? They definitely won't pick mine if I don't submit something.

So here's what I've done: selected what I think are the best posts that fit the criteria for submission, written in 2009, and that will stand alone (e.g., not too insider-y, not part of a series, etc), and collected them here.

I would love for you to read one or two or however many and submit them yourself. Or read them and tell me in the comments which I should submit. Because hot damn on a stick, I am entering this contest. Yes, I am.

And if I enter and you enter on behalf of me, maybe I will have a better chance, so I am asking for that. Yes, I am.

And if you tweet about it or put it on the Facebook or tell your mom, maybe I will have an even better chance, so I'm asking for that, too.

YES, I AM.

I thank you for your time and attention. I thank you for being here, just reading this blog, because no matter what, you reading is a big part of what's kept me writing.

Now go forth and put yourself out there.

And me, too, if you would...

xxx
c

The deadline for nominations is August 31, 2009, but why tempt fate or failing memory? Vote now!

*And whose hi-larious site on motherhood she co-writes with the equally wildly talented and marvelous Eden Kennedy you should jump over and read immediately upon finishing this. Because I'm pretty indifferent to the topic and boy, howdy, I laughed my doomed, hateful, non-breeder ass off at this.


What's up and what's gone down (July 2009)

arnoinrepose

For a while now, I've been admiring the way other bloggers cope with the schizophrenic mess that is their digital wake, especially on those days when I'm really swirling around in mine.

Chris Guillebeau, who has rightly taken off like a rocket ship in the past few months, does a monthly look back at his output to catch up those who might have missed stuff; Merlin Mann flirted briefly with the Monthly Pimp (spicy lad!) before deciding to strip down and focus his considerable brainpower on...well, some as-yet-unnamed mystery project that hopefully will be for sale or view in the future. Because I love pretty much everything that boy has produced so far, especially this. (Note: that last was a co-production.)

Rather than turn this into a dig-me parade, I will take my cue from Chris and Merlin and offer this up in the way of curation. I make and do a lot of stuff, more than anyone in her right mind would want to keep up with. So I'll comb through it upon occasion and serve it up here: a neat, edited compendium of what's up, what's coming up, and what's gone down in the previous month. Or month-ish.

You know me, right?

Colleen of the future (places I'll be)

  • The Monthly Los Angeles Biznik Meet-Up at Jerry's (Tonight, Wednesday, July 16, 5:30 - 8pm) Every four weeks, some of L.A.'s finest independent biz folk gather for cocktails, conversation and oversized plates of deli food. It's awesome, and it's free. (Well, not the drinks or the deli food.) Just register (free!) to become a member of Biznik, then sign up (also free!). Easy-peasy, Cousin Weezy!
  • The Escape from Cubicle Nation Workshop in Chicago (Friday, July 17) My friend, Pamela Slim, is one of the smartest, funniest, most generous people I've met in recent years. I totally joked about horning in on her all-day extravaganza of awesomeness, and she totally called my bluff. So somewhere during her day of brilliant advice, exercises and encouragement for anyone on either side of the cusp of entrepreneurship, I'll be doing a little song and dance on branding. Expect much merriment.
  • The Creative Freelancer Conference in San Diego (August 26 - 28) A fantastic, action/info/inspiration-packed 3 days with 200 of your peers. And just 200. Incredible. Read what I have to say about it here, then sign up immediately. $50 advance registration discount ends today!

Colleen of the Past (stuff that went down)

  • New interview! Here's why you expand your horizons and meet new people: one of them might be the incredible Valeria Maltoni, author of my new-favorite blog on marketing, Conversation Agent. After I left a note in her "About You" page (how's that for a great feature?), she asked if I'd consent to being interviewed. Would I!? Would I!? Yup, I would. Thanks, Valeria!
  • New interview! Speaking of interviewing, Tracy Pattin is one lady who knows her way around a microphone. A longtime voice-over talent, Tracy interviewed me in my capacity as former Shill for the Man for her popular Voice Registry Podcast.
  • New blog features! Regular readers will have noted that of late, Thursday has been devoted to poetry, and Friday to recommending cool, non-corporomegalopolic stuff. There's also a landing page of stuff I recommend and an Amazon aStore where you can buy stuff you were gonna buy anyway that makes me a little money so I can buy more stuff to read and review (book reviews are mostly happening on Tuesday now), and on my newsletter.

Colleen of the Present (ongoing projects)

  • The Virgo Guide to Marketing I'm just over halfway through a year-long project where I work on my marketing daily and blog about it weekly. People seem to dig it, as well as the podcasts I record weekly. Go figger.
  • communicatrix | focuses My monthly newsletter devoted to the all-important subject of increasing your unique fabulosity. One article per month (with actionable tips! and minimal bullsh*t!) about becoming a better communicator, plus the best few of the many cool things I stumble across in my travels. Plus a tiny drawing by moi. Free! (archives & sign-up)
  • Act Smart! is my monthly column about marketing for actors for LA Casting, but I swear, you'll find stuff in it that's useful, too. Browse the poorly-updated archives, here.
  • Internet flotsam And of course, I snark it up on Twitter, chit-chat on Facebook, post the odd video or quote to Tumblr, and bookmark the good stuff I find on my travels at StumbleUpon and delicious.

Please let me know if you find this kind of curation at all useful, and/or if there's a better way to handle it. Thanks!

xxx
c

Photo of Arno J. McScruff housed on Flickr, where I also occasionally stick pixels.

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The Whore of Babylon has some books she'd like you to buy

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wassuprockers_jonfeinstein

I read a lot of books. Not as many as I did when times were simpler and Internet access spottier, but still.

In my ongoing quest to (a) point all y'all toward the good stuff and (b) make some goddamn money, it occurred to me that I might neatly combine those two things with a page of links to reviews in all the various places I write them, along with affiliate links so that if you want to support me and my crazy habit of taking stuff in and writing about it, you could. Hence, this "Books! Books! Books!" page.

So we're clear, I buy a lot of books second-hand or check them out from the library. I also buy new at indie booksellers where I can, to support, and I hope you will, too. I <3 Powell's in Portland, Elliott Bay Booksellers (Seattle), and Vroman's, Chevalier's and Small World here in Los Angeles). I used to love Barbara's in Chicago, Scribner's in NYC...well, sadly, I could go on and on. QED, right?

But sometimes, it's easier to buy through Amazon: for gifts, for people in remote towns without good bookstores, for the 3 am shoppies. Also, for making me a few bucks (via affiliate links) which I then pump back into the economy. (Here's a direct link to my Amazon store, if you're a rural, gift-shopping, insomniac. Or also want to shop for SCD supplies.)

Short answer: buy when you can, where you can, as you can, to support authors. If you can support your local economy, too, awesome. But if you can only afford the library, there's no shame in that. Read away. It's what most writers probably want, when you get right down to it.

xxx
c

Book links on communicatrix-dot-com

Quick links to critical pages referenced in this post

Image by Jon Feinstein via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.