Hello friends—
So it took a week and a half—not sure if that’s short, long, or just right—but I’m back to feeling normal and in the groove.
I even got back to my long-form blog! It once again features my pizza evangelist buddy Harrison Bryan. Check it out here: HARRISON’S BOOKSHELF.
This past Tuesday, July 9, Ibis Books author Dan Landon stopped in at the iconic Drama Book Shop in New York City as part of his book launch tour for his newly released FROM THE BACK OF THE HOUSE: Memoir of a Broadway Theatre Manager. He tells me he signed like 60 copies. Awesome.
The q&a was led by his friend and Tony Award-winning Broadway legend Priscilla Fernandez. How cool is that??
Also present were theatre and film stalwart Paul V. Ames and our very own Jonathan Demar, who is Executive Producer of CLOWNS LIKE ME. (Seriously. Jonathan seems to know everyone.)
Dan’s book launch tour will continue through New York and New Jersey before he has an event down here in Sarasota on August 15. I’ll make sure y’all know about it.
Came across this wonderful quote by the amazing 13th-century Persian poet Rumi…
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
I slapped that up on my whiteboard so fast. My take is: you don’t have to know everything about HOW to do the thing before you start DOING THE THING. The longer you wait to start, the more you over-analyze, the less you’ll create.
My goodness I am so incredibly guilty of this—which publishing platform? which website provider? which email address? which headshot? which story to write next? JUST GO. Embrace your bewilderment as opportunity to do it YOUR way as opposed to the mythical one-and-only RIGHT way. Learn by doing. You can always edit, curate, adjust later.
Yesterday was the first meeting of my Bite-Sized Fiction class at ACE. Felt great to be back jamming in a classroom with eager students! It’s full, but I’ve still got some slots open in my upcoming Micro-Memoir class starting August 22.
And finally, in the following winter session, I’ll be offering Playwriting!! I’ll let you know as soon as that opens. Would love to see some familiar faces there. :)
Next week, on Tuesday, July 16, BACK IN BLACK drops! You might remember this anthology of mystery and thriller short stories from the Music and Murder Mystery Series getting discussed in my podcast interview with USA Today bestselling author Don Bruns.
I’ve read the first two collections, HOTEL CALIFORNIA and THRILLER, and oh yeah. They are well worth your time! Perfect summer reading.
You can refresh yourself with Don’s podcast episode below, and check out the short story anthologies with any of the titles above (I linked ‘em for ya!).
And one more podcast, only in this one, I’m the guest alongside my CLOWNS LIKE ME partner-in-crime Scott Ehrenpreis. We sat down with (well, zoomed in with) host Andrew Cortes for an episode of the Stage Whisper podcast. We talk about creating the show, getting it to New York, and the impact it’s had, both on us and on audiences.
Click the cover below and give us a listen!
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, and I’ll see you Monday with a brand new Page&Stage Podcast episode.
Jason “Bewildered” Cannon