MFA Thesis Novel Launch Party Recap!

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MFA Thesis Novel was released last Tuesday (wooooooooo!), though for me, the real release day felt like last Saturday, when I held the novel launch party at Main Street BookEnds in my hometown of Warner, New Hampshire.

This was a BIG day for me—as in, I wanted it to be as big as I could make it.  It was also my second time doing a reading at BookEnds (the first was back in 2019 when I released Eikaiwa Bums), and because this reading was for an actual novel, I wanted it to be even better.

 

Preparing

I did a fair amount of promotion for the event beforehand: besides getting it up on the BookEnds website, I put up flyers around town, mentioned it in some blog posts, sent out a message on my email list, made a Facebook event, sent it to the town email newsletter, and Continue reading »

The MFA Thesis Novel Pre-Order is Done!!!

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MFA Thesis Novel launches TOMORROW (!!!) and I spent most of last week shipping out copies from the Special Pre-Order period.  I was no stranger to bulk mailings from the Art Swap days, but this was my first time tackling a mailing this big.

After the pre-order period I crunched some numbers and realized that with all the pre-orders, copies I’d need for future events, and probable future webstore purchases, it made sense to order 250 books and get an extra 10% bulk discount on top of the regular discount.

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Patience and the Long Game are REALLY Important for Creative Careers

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Whenever I hear the phrase “Be patient!” I think of The Empire Strikes Back when Yoda and Obi Wan are talking about Luke’s training:

Luke: We’re wasting our time!

Yoda: [looking away] I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience

Obi-Wan’s Voice: He will learn patience.

It’s crazy to think that these lines were written over forty years ago, when my parents’ generation was young, before the internet, Twitter, streaming television, or Amazon two-day delivery.  Instant gratification, it seems, has been a staple of youth for a long time—even in a galaxy far, far away.
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Does Getting Enough Sleep Every Night Help You Stay Focused?

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Yes, yes it does.

I’ve been back from Japan for nearly two months now (!), and I’ve been getting adjusted to my Self-Directed Work Schedule, where instead of having a Day Job, I plan my own time and work on my own projects at my own pace.  As of now, my main focus has been preparing for the release of MFA Thesis Novel, working on my freelance editing jobs with different clients, and getting back into a writing groove with my new novel, which has been unfortunately stalled for the past few months (. . .).

One of my big worries about not having the structure of a Day Job to guide me through the week was that working from home without external motivation would cause me to get distracted, start feeling like my work wasn’t taking me anywhere, or even get depressed.
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Novel Events: Come See My Online Readings in March and the MFA Thesis Novel Launch in April!

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It’s that time!  I’m kicking off an actual, for-serious book tour promoting MFA Thesis Novel (!), with events both online and in person!  This includes the actual novel launch party (!!!!!!) that’s sure to be an amazing time:

Interested in coming to see me?  Read on for the event descriptions, plus some info at the end about how I got involved with each one…. Continue reading »

Guest Post: Is Paid Work Legit and Unpaid Creative Work a Hobby?

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Ian here—Martha Engber is a writer and personal trainer whose books include Winter Light from Vine Leaves Press (2021 IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Young Adult Fiction), The Wind Thief, and Growing Great Characters From the Ground Up.  Martha and I met during the 2021 Vine Leaves Press online reading for the SMOL Small Press fair, and here she explains how her revelations during the COVID pandemic helped her balance her paid work with her largely unpaid creative work.

In December 2019 I was helping my sister babysit her new granddaughter in Houston, Texas when I received an email acceptance to publish my novel, Winter Light.

I allowed myself a full day of inner quiet to fully enjoy the achievement. At the same time, I’d already had two books published and understood that the moment I signed a contract, I’d spend the next eight months working hard to set up marketing for the book.

Once I signed the contract, the panic set in. I say panic because at the time I was working 45 high-energy hours a week as a fitness instructor and personal trainer at a corporation in Silicon Valley. Continue reading »

HUGE Thanks to Everyone Who’s Pre-Ordered MFA Thesis Novel So Far!!!!!!!!!11

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Update: The Special Limited Pre-Order for MFA Thesis Novel is over, but you can still order a signed copy and get a free bookmark! See my webstore for updated info.

Last week I posted to this blog about the Special Limited MFA Thesis Novel Signed Pre-Order and sent out a few social media posts.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect: if the pre-order went well, I’d be happy, but if it didn’t, I resolved not to be disappointed or angry.  As a way of not building up my hopes too much, I told myself that maybe people wanted to buy the novel somewhere else, or maybe they’d wait until it actually came out.

It’s always a nerve-wracking experience putting a part of yourself out there and risking failure.  In my darker moments, I worried no one would be interested, or that people would be willing to Like a post but not actually order the book.  Worst of all was the fear that I’d come across as some sort of pestering MLM Ponzi-scheme jerk making money off of the people in his social network, like those people who get sucked into nutrition supplement scams.

As it turns out, I shouldn’t have worried. Continue reading »

Special MFA Thesis Novel Signed Pre-Order With Bookmark and Sticker!!!!

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Update: The Special Limited Pre-Order for MFA Thesis Novel is over, but you can still order a signed copy and get a free bookmark! See my webstore for updated info.

Many of you have been asking about the best way to get a signed copy of MFA Thesis Novel when it comes out on April 19th.  Others have been asking how to buy the novel in the way that gives me the largest amount of royalties.

Whelp, you can kill two birds with one stone during the Special Limited MFA Thesis Novel Pre-Order Period!

Order a copy of the novel through my webstore by clicking here, and not only will I sign it and write you a cool personalized message (if you want one), but you’ll also get some super-cool FREE swag, including…

  • A limited edition MFA Thesis Novel bookmark designed by Jessica Bell!
  • A 3″x2″ You Don’t Pay Me to Care sticker inspired by the But I Also Have a Day Job blog!
  • The satisfaction of knowing that more of your money went toward supporting me as a small-press indie writer and not toward Jeff Bezos sending billionaires into space! (Technically not swag, but still important!) Continue reading »

How MFA Thesis Novel Went From Word File to Actual Published Book

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Most people never consider how books get made.  We have that idealized image of the grizzled writer sitting at a typewriter then delivering a hearty stack of clean pages to the publisher, who waves a magic wand and PRESTO, out pops a cleanly printed book with cover and crisp inside pages.

Nowadays, that fantasy involves a Word file and email instead of a typewriter, but the disconnect between writing and bookmaking still seems to be there for a lot of writers.  Truth be told, I had no idea how much work and how many steps go into publishing a book, which is why it was cool to learn the process when my own novel got made into an actual hard-copy book (Spoiler: I’ll show pics at the end!).

Here’s a rundown of how that process went, how much work it took from me and the others at Vine Leaves Press, and where the novel stands now. Continue reading »

Reverse Culture Shock and Thoughts on Being Back in the US

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In case you didn’t know, reverse culture shock is definitely a thing.

I’ve been back in New Hampshire for just over a week after being delayed by a winter storm that swept through the Northeast the day of my flight.  Fortunately the good folks at Japan Airlines cancelled the flight two days in advance and put me on a new one leaving two days later, so I had plenty of time to assemble a backup plan.

Even more fortunate was that when I promptly emailed my contact at my company to let them know what happened, they let me stay in my company-leased apartment rent-free (!) for an extra two days.  (Moral of the story: Stay on good terms with the people in your company who can help you!)
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Writing and Candy Wrapper Fashion: An Interview with Timothy Schaffert

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Timothy Schaffert is the author of six novels: The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters (2002), The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God (2005), Devils in the Sugar Shop (2007), The Coffins of Little Hope (2012), The Swan Gondola (2014), and most recently, The Perfume Thief (2021), in addition to being a professor of creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  He’s also an illustrator whose candy wrapper fashion series (selections from which appear throughout this interview) appears regularly on his Instagram and Twitter.

I first met Timothy in 2014 when I took his graduate-level fiction workshop at UNL and attended the Omaha Lit Fest, which he founded in 2005, and directed until 2015.  More recently, his candy wrapper fashion drawings caught my attention, so we sat down over Zoom to talk about MFA fiction workshops, finding the time to write, and how exactly he gets those candy wrappers to stick to the page.

[Cover photo: Candy Wrapper Fashion #356: The Ladies of Beverly Hills 90210] Continue reading »

Last Post From Japan…

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I’ve lived in Japan for the last three and a half years.  And now it’s time to go home.

In a way it feels like I’ve already uprooted since I left Toyama back in August, along with the apartment, Day Job, and social circles I’d been cultivating for the previous three years.  My current stopover in Yokohama has felt like just that—a stopover to get some work experience, live in a big city, and enjoy Japan a little longer.

Don’t get me wrong—Yokohama life is great.  I have a decent apartment in a cool neighborhood, and I enjoy my job teaching English at Kanagawa University a lot, even if it can get pretty busy.  Being down in a more populated part of Japan has also helped me reconnect with people, as well as opened a few doors—last week I Continue reading »