Video Games are Real

Tag: newsletter

  • Looks like Chuck Palahniuk fans are the target market for loving babies

    Looks like Chuck Palahniuk fans are the target market for loving babies

    Dipping into The Cult for donations, I love it

    I don’t talk much about my son on this blog. Mostly because I am disappointed in him. I mean, damn, he’s two…get a fucking job!

    I jest. But you know what isn’t funny? Premature birth (see what I did there? I zig and I zag).

    My son was born 6 weeks early, which in the grand scheme of premature births isn’t quite the devastation that many new parents suffer. Jameson is perfect now, despite his early birth, thanks in part to the medical advances encouraged by donations to the March of Dimes March for Babies organization.

    I try to keep my pleading posts to a minimum here at my blog, but this time of year brings out the beggar in me.

    My wife has set up her annual fundraising micro-site at the March for Babies website with the goal of raising a meager $300 for the March for Babies. Of course witnessing this tiny goal grow and develop beyond the arbitrary $300 target would be both heartwarming and fitting to the grand goal of seeing tiny things mature beyond their expectancy.

    Please, consider donating a few dollars over at my wife’s donation page. If not for the babies, do it for me; if she doesn’t meet her goal I’ll be the one to have to wipe away her tears (are those heartstrings about to snap yet?).

    Below, see proof that your money does great things. If it wasn’t for March of Dimes, I wouldn’t have this super cute Homework Cat kid (click here to read why we call Jameson a Homework Cat):

  • Talking the author performance with 4 other writers who know how to perform

    Talking the author performance with 4 other writers who know how to perform

    Fresh from our own live readings, me, Ben Tanzer (You Can Make Him Like You), Ryan W. Bradley (publisher, Artistically Declined Press), Nik Korpon (Stay God), and Brandon Tietz (Out of Touch) have a sit down at Bourbon in Washington DC to discuss the hows and whys of author performance.

    Performance is part of the author’s life. Many of us may prefer the romance of the hermit writer to the reality of the performing writing, but as the culture shifts to a system of ever-spilling minutia (Twitter) and increasingly fragmented media distribution channels (hundreds of TV channels, YouTube, Hulu, and on and on), the author is expected to play an active role in selling both his book and himself. Performance—live author readings—offers a unique opportunity to do both.

    Listen to the full discussion over at The Velvet Podcast. Or you can subscribe to The Velvet Podcast via Feedburner, Podcast Alley, or iTunes.

  • Tuesday’s Twitter follower spotlight: @amoyal

    Tuesday’s Twitter follower spotlight: @amoyal

    This week’s “Person you should Stalk 2.0: @amoyal. Why? Look at that Dick Tracy style hat. Just look at it!

    Bio:Brand engagement strategist for hire. Speaker/trainer. Love hugs, geosocial & interconnecting business, people & solutions for a sustainable, empowered society.

    Good tweets as of late:

    [blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/amoyal/status/40002675571556352″] [blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/amoyal/status/39971981352898560″] [blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/amoyal/status/39528822478999552″]
  • Live Reading TONIGHT (again). Free Beer (again).

    Live Reading TONIGHT (again). Free Beer (again).

    Saturday, March 5

    6:00pm – 10:00pm

    Method.

    1529 Grand Blvd.
    Kansas City, MO

  • Live reading, TONIGHT. Free Beer.

    Live reading, TONIGHT. Free Beer.

    Friday, March

    4 · 6:00pm – 11:00pm

    Slap n Tickle Gallery

    504 E. 18th St
    Kansas City, MO

  • Pre-orders for Stranger Will are now open. Be cool before being cool gets cool.

    Pre-orders for Stranger Will are now open. Be cool before being cool gets cool.

    Stranger Will is officially available for pre-order. What does that mean to you? Lots.

    1. You know that tingly, nether-region feeling you get when you’ve got amazing leftovers in your refrigerator ready for the next day’s lunch? You can have that feeling now with just a few mouse clicks.
    2. Feel like the hipster component of the upcoming Stranger Will Tour for Strange, like when you know the opening band’s catalog and will take every opportunity to tell fellow concert-goers how much better they are than the main band. In this convoluted comparison, the main band equates my inevitable super fame, and the opening band equates my current z-lister status.
    3. Your bookshelf will also get that item #1 feeling.
    4. Ef you Christmas in December! Try Christmas in March.
    5. Perhaps most important of all: Pre-orders will be personally inscribed. I try to make pre-orders special with all of my books (see video below, created to document the extra special Make Books Smell Like a Bar Bathroom promotion). With Stranger Will, I have some special things in mind, but I’ll keep them secret for now. Don’t worry though, Stranger Will probably won’t reek of smoke.

    Preorder Stranger Will here, in either hardback or paperback versions.

    About Stranger Will:

    William Lowson has less than two months until fatherhood – a state he abhors, existing in this world governed by the limit of a human lifespan. To birth is to ultimately kill. His admittedly pessimistic view comes as a result of his work as a Human Remains Removal Specialist – professionally cleaning the stains left from dead bodies.

    As his fiancée nears term William becomes increasingly desperate for a solution to, what he calls, “this fault of human ego.” His friend and mentor, Mrs. Rose, an elementary school principal, nurtures and sympathizes with his cynicism, blaming his dilemma on an imperfect world. But she has a plan around this impediment: a group of strangers-a devout collection of kindred minds who have dedicated their lives to cultivating a unique idea of perfection, and she wants William to join.

    But once he is in can he get out?

    In this novel of impending fatherhood, an idealistic teacher recruits a pliant protégé to join her group of Strangers – a devout collection of kindred minds who have dedicated their lives to cultivating a unique idea of perfection.

    But joining is easier than leaving.

    Preorder Stranger Will here, in either hardback or paperback versions.

  • The Velvet Podcast, interview with Jane Friedman, social media expert

    The Velvet Podcast, interview with Jane Friedman, social media expert

    Over the past few weeks, Jane Friedman and I have gotten to know each other almost entirely by way of Twitter. With online social media playing such an important role in our introduction and ultimate in-person meeting it made sense that we should take a few moments during the recent AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Projects) conference in Washington DC to discuss the role of social media in the author’s life.

    Jane’s passion for the world of e-media is evident. She is the former publisher and editorial director of Writer’s Digest, has spoken at 36 billion writing events since 2001 (give or take a few), and is known within the publishing industry as an innovator, cited by sources such as Publishers Weekly, GalleyCat, PBS online, and Mr. Media. Jane currently serves as a visiting professor of e-media at the University of Cincinnati, and is a contributing editor to Writer’s Digest.

    Playing the role of the tech-deficiant, Nik Korpon (Stay God) joins us for this hallway conversation (please, pardon the background noise).

    Head to The Velvet Podcast to hear the interview. While there, subscribe via Feedburner, Podcast Alley, or iTunes.