First, a big thank you to everybody who wished The Juggling Writer a happy birthday yesterday. I almost broke my 50-day social media break and replied to somebody on Twitter.

I found out that Dubé Juggling Equipment wished The Juggling Writer a happy birthday on their Twitter feed.

Forgive the Geek Drool

Some people get excited when writers they like mention them online. I get all geeky when a juggling prop manufacturer I’ve loved since the late 80s mentions me.

Dubé props were the first real juggling props I ever owned. I don’t know if there was ever something shipped to me that I was more excited to open. I think it would take a box of books I wrote to arrive at my door to top that rush of being a lonely juggling geek in a small town suddenly feeling like a real juggler because I finally had decent props.

Dubé props were the props that were there when I finally got up the courage to street perform. They are the props I’ve dropped more than any other. (Although the props in the photo with this entry are Todd Smith clubs.) They were the props that brought my wife and I together almost 20 years ago. (We met at a comic book company we both worked for, but it took juggling to really bring us together. In fact, the first gift I ever bought for my wife was a 4 inch blue Dubé stage ball for contact juggling. Almost 20 years later, just seeing that ball in the prop bag when we juggle is a reminder of where we’ve been.)

So yeah, I was a happy geek when I found out Dubé Juggling wished The Juggling Writer a happy birthday!

Another Pleasant Surprise

I was also surprised to see The Juggling Writer linked to a Huffington Post entry about writers and their former jobs.

With an exception or two, I don’t get political on The Juggling Writer, but The Huffington Post is a daily read for me. (So if you’ve ever wondered, now you know where I lean politically.) Granted, I gravitate toward the books section on the site, but it’s a site I visit regularly. So when I noticed The Juggling Writer linked in the “Around the Web” section at the bottom of this entry, I was pleasantly surprised.

So a big thanks to Andrew Losowsky for the mention!

And now for some random writer stuff…

The VlogBrothers

The Internet is a funny thing. You stumble upon things in passing and then a year or so later, it clicks: “Oh, yeah! I remember this!”

Last weekend I found myself watching the VlogBrothers’ YouTube Channel for…well, probably hours.

As I waded through videos, it all seemed familiar. And then I remembered that over the past year or so, I had seen a VlogBrothers’ videos here and there, but I never really spent time watching all they had out there.

That’s changed.

As you can see in the embedded video above, there’s good advice about how to become a writer. And there’s also stuff that is beyond stupid. (If you’ve checked out Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors, you know I have no aversion to stupid humor; in fact, I revel in it!) In addition to all that, it’s a great example of running with your own personality, sharing useful bits of information, and mentioning what you’re up to without sounding like a desperate salesman.

A New Fave Writing Blog

I also stumbled upon 2GirlsonaBench.com recently.

I really love the way things are laid out in a screenplay format, and again: I love how their personalities come through. I don’t mind blogs that are sometimes just people telling others what they’re up to, but even if I were, I have to think that I’d still like the writing style of this blog. And since I’m one of those people who likes seeing food photos people post online, the snack photos just add to it all. (Fizzy beverages and popcorn are good on road trips!)

But more than that, I just like friendship — and the friendship the 2 Girls on a Bench have is nice to see.

I know it’s easy to wander online and see a lot of negativity. But there’s also a lot of good, happy stuff out there if you know where to look. This blog is proof.

Weekend Plans

Anybody have exciting plans for the weekend? For me, it’s just writing and hanging out (and maybe some of that technical writing stuff I do to pay the bills).

I hope everybody has a great weekend, and feel free to share links you like in the comments section below.

I’ve been told by some people–including readers of The Juggling Writer–that I should let people know what I’m doing and have out there a little more often. So…while I typically don’t say, “Hey, this is what I have out there to buy, listen to, or sign up for,” today I’m saying, “Hey, this is what I have out there to buy, listen to, or sign up for!” And I figured while I did that for me, I’d share what some friends are up to as well…

My Stuff

Ebooks – It started with a few short stories as a test and moved on to a novel. Want to read a short story about a goofy bulldog that eats everything it sees? Look no further. Ever wonder what would happen if you drank the juice from a Magic 8-Ball? Your answer is right here! Or maybe you want a story about an FBI agent on the verge of retiring and racing to solve a case that’s haunted him for years…maybe something with an old-timey circus? Got that covered, too!

Or maybe, just maybe…you’re thinking, “It’s been a busy, hot summer and I didn’t get to take that vacation I wanted. You know what would be cool–taking a road trip without leaving my home for less than the cost of a gallon of gas. If only someone decided to write a humorous coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross country in a possessed station wagon!”

It’s called Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors, and it can be yours for just $2.99.

(These ebooks are available on Barnesandnoble.com, too. If you’ve read anything you liked above, consider taking a moment to review it where they’re available or on your blog. I’m pretty friendly, too, and open to interviews.)

Newsletter – Maybe you like The Juggling Writer so much that you think, “I’d like a little something extra each month. Why doesn’t Christopher have a newsletter or something?”

I do, and signing up is easy.

And if you want a sneak peek at what the newsletter is like before signing up, check this out to see what you’re missing. (You can view past newsletters there, too.)

Podcast – Don’t want to buy Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors or put the effort into reading it? Maybe you’re thinking, “Hey, Chris–sounds groovy, but I like having my books read to me. (Preferably by the author.) And while $2.99 for an ebook is more than a fair price, I still like FREE!”

Well, you’re in luck!

* * *

So there–I did it! A [somewhat] shameless plug!

Now that that’s over, check out some of these cool people below!

Friends and Online Acquaintances

Writers:

Mark Hosack – Super dad and all around nice guy. If you like over-the-top noir, check out the trailer below (NSFW)…and if it’s your thing, buy the movie.

Mark Finn – I have quite a few friends named Mark. When this Mark isn’t busy running the first theater in Texas to show 3D movies or serving as Toastmaster at ArmadilloCon this weekend, he writes things (particularly about Conan the Barbarian creator, Robert E. Howard). A badass among badasses!

William Mize – William Mize started writing paranormal detective stories before paranormal detective stories were cool. Check out his books here and here.

Rick Klaw – Rick bought the first thing I ever wrote with the hope of publication. His essays on being a geek are here, and he recently contributed to Jeff VanderMeer’s beautiful Steampunk Bible.

Shawn Kupfer – I first became aware of Shawn’s writing when his book, 47 Echo, was mentioned on The Nerdist blog’s Writers You Might Like feature. Then, oddly enough, he not only moved to Texas, but he ended up working for the same company I work for…in the same department…on the same project! He’s one of the hardest working writers I know. I’m about to go to bed, but Shawn…the safe bet is he still has a couple more hours in him tonight…

Erik Lundy – Eric Lundy is a redneck Renaissance Man! When he’s not doing stand up comedy about growing up in Arkansas and Missouri (check the NSFW link below), he writes and draws things. If you’re in the mood for some FREE crime fiction all collected and ready to read, check this out. Erik’s currently busy celebrating National Sandwich Month.

Artists:

John Picacio – I met John almost 20 years ago at a comic book convention. He is, by far, one of the kindest people you can hope to meet–and it’s no wonder why he’s won a World Fantasy Award and been nominated for the Hugo numerous times. (If he can finally win a Hugo next year in his hometown of San Antonio, that would be the coolest!)

Check out John’s blog for some incredible art–and there are few better ways to track the days of 2012 than by using this calendar! (Cover art right below.)

John Lucas – Joltin’ Johnny Lucas pencils and slings ink all over comic book pages. If everybody worked as hard as John we’d have world peace–because we’d all be too busy doing what we love to fight and do stupid things!

Shane Campos – If you like clean lines and color, you’ll dig Shane’s art. Coming up through the Texas independent comic book scene, Shane’s moved on to hip, commercial art you can even wear.

Ivan Chan – Ivan began finger painting a handful of years ago as a way to relax. While I prefer dogs to cats, Ivan’s enlightened cat art is great stuff!

Martin Thomas – Maybe you’ve always wondered who painted that famous image of Spider-Man? Maybe you’ve wondered, “What’s that guy up to, now? Damn, I even think it would be cool to hear what he sounds like!” Check out Martin’s animation on the only movie review site you need, Spill.com. (He voices Leon.)

Brian Denham – Best known for a run on Iron Man, Brian Denham’s another hard-working comic book artist living in Texas. While his site hasn’t been updated lately, if you follow him on Twitter you’ll get plenty of first looks at what he’s up to.

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Whew! I planned to mention other friends (musicians and other talented people), but this is getting long and it’s getting late. I’ll finish the big list up soon, but I definitely wanted to mention a few regulars around here…

Friends of The Juggling Writer:

C.M. Stewart – While The Juggling Writer may not get tons of traffic, I’m cool with that because I’ve met some cool people–like CM Stewart–through this blog.  Her recent review of my ebook, Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors surprised even me with her observations, and I wrote the damn thing!

Paul Lamb – Paul Lamb has a blog that, for some reason, I love reading in the morning.  There’s something very relaxing about his views of writing that I always look forward to reading.  Especially in the morning. A great way to begin a day.

Lisa Eckstein – Lisa Eckstein does a great job discussing her experiences as a writer, while always making time to highlight other writers and writing information at the end of each blog post! It’s like a 3 for 1 deal…for FREE!

M.E. Anders – M.E. Anders divides her blog with a weekly writer interview, a discussion focused on her past, and a book, podcast, or movie review. I’m glad my 50-day social media break posts have inspired her to think about the way she uses social media.

Anthony Wendell – Anthony Wendell’s Redshift blog features his poetry. He once lucked into going to a Stephen King lecture that was crashed by John Irving. Oh, how I envy Anthony Wendell!

Tammy Raabe Rao – Tammy Raabe Rao is a designer and photographer in the Boston area. When she’s not taking photos of circus performers (including jugglers!), she devotes her time to animal rescue programs (particularly guinea pigs).

Cynthia Griffith – Cynthia Griffith is a historical costumer and a very patient person (she married me, after all). She’s also a mighty fine artist and juggler, too! (One of Cynthia’s recent costumes in the video below.)

And Now…Your Turn!

Anything you want to plug? Don’t be shy–mention it in the comments!

While it’s been in the 100s all week, summer has officially arrived in Texas (and the rest of the northern hemisphere). In honor of the start of summer road trip season, I’m releasing the first novel I ever wrote, Hell Comes With Wood Paneled Doors, as an ebook.

Right now, it’s available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

If you haven’t heard me talk about Hell Comes With Wood Paneled Doors and you wonder what it’s about…it’s a humorous coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross country in a possessed station wagon. You can learn more about the book here.

So head over to Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com and take a summer road trip for less than the cost of one gallon of gasoline!

Links for the week:

Some good stuff about writing to be found out there this week, beginning with Nathan Bransford’s post: Do You Suffer from One of these Writing Maladies? It’s worth reading for the Old Spice Guy Effect/Excessive Rug-Pulling section at the end.

The gem of the week: Marcus Sakey’s, How to Ensure 75% of Agents Will Request Your Material. If you’re working on a query letter for a novel, it’s definitely worth checking out!

In a time when some say the book tour should be replaced by blog tours and other online ways of getting your work seen, novelist Alix Strauss came up with an interesting idea for a book tour: holding appearances in hotels. Granted, a hotel plays an important role in Strauss’ latest novel, but it still shows that tours can work if you think a little different about where you hold appearances.

The best reason for sticking with writing you’ll read this week.

My friend, Erik, is writing a novella. I asked him what it was about and he told me he’s using an old screenplay as the basis for the novella. My first novel, which I’m planning to podcast soon, was a screenplay before it was a book. My favorite link this week was Chuck Wendig’s Hate Outlining? Start with a Screenplay.

And I stumbled upon this oldie but goodie again this week: About that Book Advance…

I hope everybody had a great week of writing; if not, here’s to next week!

Before tackling the first adult novel I remember reading, John Irving’s The World According to Garp (Modern Library) (affiliate link), the first adult fiction of any kind I remember reading was James Thurber’s short stories,  “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” and “The Catbird Seat.”

I read them because they were available, and they were short.

Also in the bookcase was a collection of John Cheever short stories. I didn’t read them all, but I wanted to read the books my mom, sister, and stepfather read that were in the bookcases in our house. The shorter introduction to more serious fiction was the perfect segue to bigger things (which consisted of John Irving, Stephen King, Richard Adams, and Robert Pirsig at the time).

I love reading short stories, and I love writing them.

I recently saw Cal Morgan of Fifty-Two Stories (among many other things), speak at the Writers’ League of Texas Agents Conference. Since then, I’ve been catching up on short stories on the site.

Some of my other favorite places for very short writing (some of which aren’t short stories, but still…they tell a story, sometimes, better than something much longer):

@veryshortstory – One of my favorite writers online.

@hellobigfoot – Not necessarily stories, but Bigfoot’s Twitter feed puts some funny stories in my head!

Six Sentences Blog – Stories told in six sentences.

Unhappy Hipsters Blog – You may not agree with me, but one of the best writers online!

Ballard Street – Some of Amerongen’s strips say so much with so little.

This week’s roundup:

Blog/News Finds

I got my writing start with comic books. I am fascinated by the marriage of words and pictures, and believe writers can learn so much about writing by looking at artists and listening to their take on things.

I liked this short interview with Maurice Sandak.

[Along the lines of writers getting good advice from artists, if you've never read Chuck Jones's Chuck Amuck, it's one of my favorite books about writing...even though it's not about writing, but animation.]

Writers can also do well to listen to what works for musicians. This post by Amanda Palmer should get any writer thinking differently about ways to promote their work.

I devoted this week’s blog entries to writing criticism. Like it or not, sometimes harsh news is the best news. I loved this Editorial Ass blog post about the weeks leading up to a book’s publication.

Joe Konrath was nice enough to share some Kindle sales numbers with readers. (I found this through lee Goldberg’s A Writer’s Life blog.)

And finally, a New York Times piece about the Wal-Mart/Amazon book price war and what it could mean to the industry. One thing’s for sure, publishing’s changing. It’s a scary and exciting time to be writing!

The week’s favorite links.

Blog Finds

I know people who loathe Twitter. They say it’s annoying; they say they just don’t get it.

I think many of these people view it as a quicker replacement for Facebook and shy away. For me, Facebook is where I keep in touch with people I actually know. Twitter is where I share bits of information with like-minded people.

I also make Twitter work for me.

I follow people who seek out and share writing information so that when I come home from my day job, I can check my “Writing” filter on TweetDeck and quickly find writing news that interests me. In a matter of minutes, I’m handed more writing related news than I’d find on my own in hours.

Twitter is a great place for writers. I loved Jane Friedman’s Twitter for Writers blog post.

Even better than that was Jane’s Secrets to Publishing Success. Easily one of the best one-stop sources for publishing advice and thoughts out there.

Whether writers like it or not, the industry is changing. I liked Maria Schneider’s Editor Unleashed blog post about Giving Yourself Permission. While the logical thing for me right now would be getting back to articles and nothing but articles, I’m writing what I want to write, and I’m writing it for myself. I’ve given myself permission, and in doing so, I’m working toward a goal that’s generated new ideas for getting things out there that it will help any writing I do.

Also from Editor Unleashed this week was Lisa Abeyta’s guest post about Life After Magazines. Focusing regionally with non-fiction and doing things totally on your own with blogs and iPhone apps — if nothing else — gives you control in a time when magazines and newspapers seem to be spiraling out of control.

A couple other blog posts I loved this week: TravelersNotebook –  Thoughts on Plot by Famous Writers and Newtonville Books’ Questionnaires with Writers.

Twitter Finds

While it’s not always writing related, I love the way @eriklundy set up his Twitter feed and Web site to work together. A writer and stand up comedian in LA, Erik’s tweets pique curiosity and the links to his Web site are short and funny.

If you’re a comic book geek, follow writer @billwillingham on Twitter.

My favorite Tweet of the Week: @jasonpinter: “Last month in my twenties. Time to go on that month-long bender. Let’s start with a fifth of…ooh, lots of neat open houses this weekend!”

Currently Reading

Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slowness

I recently posted about the Free Library of Philadelphia having to close many branches and end most of its programs.

Good news!

The Free Library of Philadelphia received a flood of support. Here’s a thank you from library president and director, Siobhan Reardon.

There has been a lot of talk about electronic media taking over print. I think it’s great that a library (print) with such history was saved, in large part, by the efforts of the online community (electronic).

A $100,000 book advance sounds nice, doesn’t it?

That sounds like enough money to quit your day job, spend a few hours writing each day, and then using the remainder of your time talking about creative things — with creative friends — over coffee or tea the rest of the day.

Right?

Wrong…

I recently read an article in the New York Times about book advances. In the article, it mentions that Dave Eggers received a $100,000 advance that put just $39,567.68 in his pocket.

If it takes several years to write and sell your own work of staggering genius, when you break that sum down over three years, it’s a nice supplemental income, but not enough to support most people.

The average book advance is much less than $100,000, leaving most writers with enough money for Web hosting and supplies, maybe attending a writer’s conference, and a nice, celebratory meal.

Most writers have a day job for a reason.

The trick is to find happiness and order in juggling your day job with writing regularly and enjoying life.

Odds are the $100,000 advance will never come your way.

But if you’re realistic about it from the start and find a good balance along the way, you’re more likely to write on a regular basis and increase your chances of finally making it.

Granted, he works with a couple co-authors, but even still–17 books in 3 years is a lot of work, even for a fulltime writer like James Patterson.