For Creative People Who Have to Keep the Bills Paid
Every time you create something, it makes a positive change.
Every time you share a new idea with at least one person, that creates a positive change too.
And every conversation, every group gathering, every hangout, every project, report, blog post, tweet, journal entry, game, cooked meal, video chat, jigsaw puzzle, and inspirational meme makes a positive change too, because you’ve created something that didn’t exist before.
Now, think about this: Continue reading
Haley Alt is a dystopian YA author whose three novels have sold more than 10,000 copies on Amazon under the name H. Alt. (The first half of her fourth novel, Godless, is available for free on Wattpad.) She recently moved back to the States after almost eight years in Japan, where she taught English, worked at a travel agency, and promoted sightseeing and did English translation for the town of Tateyama in Toyama. I met her through my work on the TRAM art and culture zine, and sat down with her at a Starbucks in the suburbs of Toyama City, where we talked about religion, her upcoming move back to America, how scary it is when people actually read your work, and how Tom Cruise helped her sell a lot of eBooks. Continue reading
I talk a LOT about work on this blog, so to switch things up I’ll be talking about some non-work stuff that impacts the work stuff in different ways. In this ongoing series I’ll go in-depth about some distinctly non-work stuff I do to enrich my life and de-stress—things that put me in better shape for when it’s time to sit down and do the work stuff again.
Let’s get one thing straight: I love Bob Ross.
I used to watch The Joy of Painting as a kid on weekend afternoons, when I’d flip through the channels and always catch episodes at the halfway point. (As a result, I don’t recall ever seeing Bob Ross actually paint a sky.) I was fascinated by Bob’s soft, gentle voice, and his amazing landscapes: the sharp mountains cutting into the sky, the puffy evergreen trees, the reflective lakes, the multicolored rocks, and even his red-roofed shacks. Continue reading
If you’re like me, you’ve been spending a lot more time at home lately, which is both a good and a bad thing.
It’s bad because we’re missing out on a lot of cool stuff, including events, vacations, hangouts with friends, and even the simple pleasures of being in public spaces like restaurants, coffee shops, or (for me) the town library. Being cooped up inside for too long can also have some pretty nasty effects on our mental health, and that’s not cool either.
On the flip side, more time at home is good because it gives you a lot more of that precious commodity known as Time. Even if you’re working from home and telecommuting keeps you just as busy, you’re still eliminating your actual commuting time, which adds up fast. So that should mean that Continue reading
It depresses me to think that one day I might look at my life, brush some imaginary dust off my hands, heave an enormous sigh, and announce, “Whelp, this is all there is! There’s nowhere else I can go, so I might as well keep things exactly the way they are!”
It depresses me even more to think that this could happen while I’m still in my thirties.
I hate the idea of slowing down, smothering your self-development, and ceasing to take on new challenges. I also hate the idea of complacently, Continue reading
Miranda Reeder writes and draws visual novels (kind of like graphic novels, except you play them on the computer) under the name Minyan and the label Harlevin, where she has over 1,400 followers on Itch.io. Her VNs include Arena Circus, The Pretenders Guild, Mnemonic Devices, and Lilith Hall, and her current project with Fablesoft Studios, Twisted: A Dark Fairytale, raised over $2,300 on Kickstarter in October 2019.
I first met Miranda in Toyama, Japan, where she spent three years in the JET program teaching English. After leaving Japan she returned to Ohio to pursue a master’s in Japanese translation at Kent State University, and over winter break we talked via Skype about staying motivated, balancing creativity with Day Job work, and sharing her passion with her family. Continue reading
It helps me a lot to sit down and write about my current projects and creative goals (as opposed to just thinking about them), as well as what kind of progress I’m making toward them. This is a lot more helpful than keeping them in my head, where they swim around in the nebulous stormcloud that is my creative work life so I can’t see them with the proper perspective.
I try to be honest about my progress and setbacks on this blog because I don’t want to fall into a trap of pretending that I’m doing a kick-ass job if that’s not really the case. Pretending you’re doing better than you are is pretty unhelpful because 1) It alienates you from other people you can’t be open with, and 2) It hinders you from actually improving the way you organize your time because you’re living out a kind of fantasy where everything’s going just peachy.
Anyway, enough with the intro: here’s what I’m working on RIGHT NOW: Continue reading
When I was in the fifth grade my best friend and I recorded five double-sided cassette tapes worth of radio shows in my bedroom. I had my own boom box (which was pretty much the coolest shit ever back then) with a six dollar Radio Shack microphone, and the two of us made jokes, ridiculous skits, and character impersonations we improvised on the fly. I’ve still got them in a box somewhere as a time capsule of my earliest creative work.
Unlike the stories and comics I used to make as a kid, though, the radio shows were significant in that they were my first time making creative work with another person, as opposed to working alone. That shit matters—a lot. Continue reading
Combatting Life’s Challenges Through Learned Helplnessness: A User’s Guide is the third zine I’ve put together for the Erochikan collection, and it’s now available in my webstore. This 18 page guide shows readers the many advantages to giving up on your aspirations and finding complacency with your current, mediocre life. It’s illustrated with a selection of superficially appealing stock photos to help you visualize the surface-level happiness that awaits you!
For those of you not in the know, the Erochikan Zine project is something I started a few years ago for the now on-hiatus Art Swaps. I had fun making them and people really liked them, so when I opened my webstore I printed some more copies and started selling them along with my Eikaiwa Bums chapbook, where they got even more positive responses. (BTW, thanks to everyone who bought copies, either online, or at my reading back in August—you’re all awesome.)
The name Erochikan comes from the ero in erotic and the Japanese word chikan, a pervert who gropes women on crowded subways. The fictitious company Continue reading
Two weeks ago I was at a work party with a lot of my Japanese coworkers and some of the higher-ups. As with most Japanese work parties, this one involved a fair amount of drinking, which meant that everyone felt more relaxed, which in turn meant they could have more open and honest conversations.
One of these conversations was with an older coworker who’s not quite my boss, exactly, but is definitely my superior. He asked me about my goals and general life purpose, and as one thing led to another I ended up telling him about my novel writing and showing him this photo of Eikaiwa Bums for sale in an actual bookstore, which interested and excited him in a way that felt genuine.
I wouldn’t have told him these things if I didn’t trust him (at least to some extent), and while he clearly responded positively to my quest, he also seemed confused Continue reading
This post is going to split some hairs.
Near the end of my time in grad school I got an academic paper on James Welch’s novel Fools Crow published in a literary journal, which was a first for me and a super big deal. It also seemed worth celebrating to some extent, so I wrote a quick blurb (“Ian Rogers’s paper, Language as Immersion: The Blackfoot Mode of Experience in James Welch’s Fools Crow, was published in…” etc.) to send to the English department newsletter, then didn’t think much about it.
I remember missing that month’s newsletter amidst a pile of other emails, but I knew it had come out when people started stopping me after class, in the hallway, and even sending me messages to congratulate me on my paper. It felt pretty good (not going to lie here), but after a while I started realizing that Continue reading
The pictures don’t lie—that’s my chapbook short story, Eikaiwa Bums, on the shelf with the other authors at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, New Hampshire. The shelf price is a mere $3.00, with proceeds supporting both the author and a super-cool independent bookstore that’s been a staple of my hometown for over twenty years.
Here’s the coolest part—on Sunday, August 18th I’ll be at BookEnds giving an in-person reading and talking about what it’s really like to live and work in Japan. The reading is totally FREE and will also be a good chance to catch up with me while I’m back in the States for summer break. Watch for more updates closer to August…
It honestly feels pretty incredible to have something I wrote for sale in an actual bookstore and to have earned a place (albeit a very small one) among the writing community in my home state. More than that, though, Continue reading