Month: September 2020

2020 Savvy Writer Con (September 11 – 13, 2020)

Let’s face it publishing is more competitive than ever and we all need ACTIONABLE content!

Savvy Authors is presenting (FOR FREE!) three content-packed days filled with:

1) Mini-workshops and classes from some of our best instructors
2) Webinars with content that you can immediately use
3) And other great events such as access to our brand new CritPartner Matching program!

All designed to provide you with something you can use 
today to improve your craft, sharpen your business skills, slay those promo demons and MORE!

This is Important to Me

Comedians Sam Morril and Taylor Tomlinson are quarantined together in in LA. They also happen to be dating. Listen each week as Sam and Taylor do what any couple would do if they were stuck together in an apartment for weeks on end… show each other movies.

How I found it: As you might recall from this post, I recently became a fan (at least according to Insta) of Taylor Tomlinson. The first thing that the algorithm spit out was Self-Helpless podcast, which I continue to enjoy. This podcast was the second algorithm hit.

Why I love it: After listening to many episodes of Self-Helpless and watching Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix Special ‘Quarter-Life Crisis’ (highly recommend it, very funny), it’s really fun to see this side of her. Also, she has a tendency to pick movies that I already love. (Nothing like confirmation/affirmation bias, right.) Finally, I’m definitely enjoying discovering Sam Morril‘s comedy.

My favorite episode (so far): Singin’ In The Rain is one of my most favorite movies and I giggled all the way through the Ace Venture/Back To School episode. But honestly, the episode that I’m super grateful I listened to (and the one that has really stuck with me) is Chinatown.

In listening to this breakdown, I was reminded of two other stories:

Christopher Moore’s “Noir”

The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more.

“Raymond Chandler meets the SyFy Channel… Fans of noir film and fiction will find a lot to enjoy in this loving genre tribute, and those already familiar with Moore’s books will simply be in love.”

Library Journal (starred review)

Listening to Taylor and Sam discuss the look and feel of this film really reminded me of “Noir”. I’ve been a big fan of Christopher Moore since Lamb and his Shakespearean series, featuring the amazing Pocket, (Fool, Serpent of Venice and Shakespeare for Squirrels) got me through some dark days.

J.K. Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy”

When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is in shock. Seemingly an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with parents, wives at war with husbands, teachers at war with pupils…Pagford is not what it seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Taylor was quite entertainingly thrown by the ending of Chinatown. “The Casual Vacancy”‘s plot all came from the fact that the one person holding it all together dies. Everything else unravels from that one central point. Similarly, in Chinatown, everything spins around one character (and it’s not the character you think). I won’t be watching Chinatown because it doesn’t seem like my type of movie but, due to this episode of “This is Important to Me”, I will be adding some Raymond Chandler books to my reading list.

Related:

The Socials

You know, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

I do have a Twitter account. Truly I do.

But here’s the thing: Through no fault of my own*, (Honest. If I break something, I fess up to it. {Sometimes after the statute of limitations has expired but the truth gets revealed…….eventually. Anyway, this time, it seriously wasn’t me.}) the Twitter app on my phone stopped working. This was actually kind of a blessing because it was right around the time of the impeachment hearings and I wouldn’t have been able to keep myself out of that fracas.

And then…..I just never added it back onto my phone.

Yes, I know that I can access Twitter from my computer but it felt like more of a hassle than I wanted to take on, so I left it alone. (And as my world started to steadily slide into pure chaos, tweeting didn’t even rank in the Top 100 of my concerns.)

I also have an Instagram account.

That app does works on my phone (more’s the pity).

However, even before the pandemic and lockdowns, I struggled with what I wanted for the content for the Instagram profile. (I’m a bit shy, if you haven’t guessed.)

Being stuck inside for nearly 6 months has not (yet) helped in this regard. So the account is still locked/private and still has no content.

If When I get the manuscript written, I’ll make updating my social media profiles more of a priority.

Maybe.