Each year I try to work with a college student who has an interest in writing. They help me manage some of my workload, research, and proof my work. C.M. (Chris) Humphries helped me last year, and this year he has a book out — Excluded. Congrats Chris! I asked Chris to write a post addressed to college creative writing students and share what he learned on his path to publishing his first book.
All These Stories & No One to Tell Them To
While I was still an undergraduate student, I never knew what to do with my writing. I cannot even guess at how many writing courses I took, whether under my telecommunications major or my creative writing minor. No matter which…
Harper, 3, was supposed to be in bed sleeping, instead she was up singing We Are Young by Fun. I recorded her on my phone and added some photos. (note: I probably think my kids are cuter than you do. That’s okay.)
I live in Muncie, Indiana. I don’t have to be here. I choose to be here.
My wife Annie stopped working 10-months ago after the birth of our second child. That’s when it dawned on us: we could live anywhere. I could do my job from Key West, California, or Colorado. We had a brief discussion about where we want to live and the result surprised us both: we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
On more than one occasion I’ve had someone in Muncie who I was meeting for the first time say, “Dude, why are you here?” I’m not sure how to take this.
Attending the lecture will earn you 1 CPE credit, and, if you stick around until the end, I’ll hook you up with the never-before seen preface to the new edition of Where Am I Wearing?
Here are the rest of the details…
Common Threads: Searching for Community in a Globalized World
I was the first author I ever knew. I’m also the first person I’ve met who got sprayed by a skunk, shot himself in the leg with his BB gun, and put a sweater defuzzer to his tongue (ouch!).
I did not grow up in a community of writers or artists. I grew up in a community of farmers, and then non-writer college students, and then SCUBA divers. I have never talked craft over a cup of caffeinated anything.
Because of all of this, or perhaps in spite of all of this, I am the writer I am today. I’m not saying I’m a fantabulous writer, but I tell stories that allow me to do…
Since 2005 Boo has visited a slum near Mumbai and documents life there in the book. The Times review ends with this passage:
Another thing that makes her uncomfortable is policy wonkery, and by design “Beautiful Forevers,” a book as depressing as it is memorable, has no summing-up chapter full of recommendations. “I respect the division of labor,” she said. “My job is to lay it out clearly, not to give my policy prescriptions.” She added: “Very little journalism is world changing. But if change is to happen, it will…
Yesterday I got a nice note from a publisher in Germany wishing me a happy 33rd birthday. He called 33 a repdigit. He told me that the translation of “repdigit” in Germany is hilarious. I’ll have to take his word for it.
Anyhow, he got me thinking about repdigits.
11
I was carefree. I spent my days pounding the pavement of our basketball court, driving a Go-Kart around the dirt track in our field, and playing TECMO Bowl (the first awesome football video game.)
22
Oh my God! Oh my God! I’m almost an adult! Or am I an adult? I think 22 has to be the scariest age in which you aren’t worried about…
Before he was Dr. Seuss, Theodor Geisel was stuck on a ship returning to the States from Europe listening to the thump thump thump of the engine. Inspired by the rhythm, he wrote his first children’s book: And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street.
The rejection of Dr. Seuss
He pitched the book and was rejected 27 times before a chance encounter with a friend who had just landed an editing job. Geisel told his friend about his book, about the rejection, and told him he was fed up and about to destroy the book. The friend read it and Dr. Seuss was born.
In 2011 our house flooded, we became a stay-at-home family, I wrote a post about TOMS shoes that got me called a lot of names, I tracked down Amilcar, and my next project was announced.But I won’t remember 2011 for any of these things. I’ll forever remember 2011 for this one…
The inspiration of Dr. Seuss
