Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends

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I've been a freelance reporter and an amateur photographer for years. I'm comfortable behind the scenes ~ doing the interview, writing the feature, holding the camera, the one in control shaping the story.  It's a nice little suit of armor. 

But today I strip the armor and do my first media interview about the short story collection How to Be a Man. It's nerve wracking, but of course I wouldn't have gotten into this biz had I not secretly craved being the center of attention as well.  Ah, that craven writer soul.

Wish me luck!  I hope I don't say something stupid!

Marketer v. Self

Well, as long as I’ve been confessing things. 

Marketing is what I do for a living, and I think I’m pretty good at it.  But if this last week has shown me anything it’s that when I turn that marketing lens onto myself, I get nigh on uncomfortable.

Marketer-self: “You know you have to do it.”

Self: “But I’m really not that interesting.”

Marketer-self: “You might not find yourself interesting, but believe it or not, being from Wyoming is kind of unusual in a global sort of way. And being raised on a ranch.”

Self: “No, really.  I’m not that interesting.”

Marketer-self: “Get over it. You’re a writer. Pretend. Not only that. You gotta.”

And so on. 

Putting Yourself Out There

One of the things I’ve realized through this blog and my writing is that, to be a public person, you have to share your life.  That is what people want from you.  They want to be let in.  They want to know how you spend your days and your triumphs and your failures and your good times and those times that make you blush to think about.  Sometimes they want to be uplifted, but sometimes they want to laugh at you.  It doesn’t really matter.  They want to be let in.

I guess I knew this on a visceral level, but I hadn’t realized the extent to which it is true.  It’s definitely true for TV celebrities, of course.  Reality TV.  We want to see all the intimate details of the latest star who’s famous for being famous.  We want to be let into their living rooms, their refrigerators, their bedrooms.  Certainly a human impulse.  I can imagine that the producers of reality television encourage them to reveal even more than they’re comfortable with.  And we the public want ever-increasing levels of intimacy.  And people are willing to give it, even at the sake of their dignity (sounding like an old fart here). 

But it’s also true of writers and artists.  You have to let people in in the same way if you become a celebrity, of course ~ and after all that’s one of the main reasons writers write and artists paint (see George Orwell’s “Why I Write”) ~ but you also have to let people in through your art.  By that I mean the best art often comes from that part of the artists that is painful, embarrassing, heart-wrenching.  You are transmuting the horrors and joys of your life into this aesthetic and emotional object, a journey for the viewer. 

People have a need for art, for writing, for an aesthetic rendering of their lives or someone else’s.  What we call the Touchy Feely Show (New Dimensions) was talking just today about that ~ about how narrative is not this idle thing but rather an ordering of our world that deeply impacts our lives.

And I guess, finally, what I was realizing is that being a public figure is a choice.  You have to put yourself out there.  You have to share.  Honesty and lived truth has to shine through your work because that’s how you reach people.  Which takes courage.

Bio BSing

Me, Age 4

I was already thinking about author bios when I came across this great piece in the Millions. Edan Lepucki is annoyed by all the extra jobs writers put in their bios and "favors academic and publication history over life and work experience" but then says "though one could argue–and do so convincingly–that that isn’t necessarily what matters most."

She says:

The truth is, every published writer has been faced with summing themselves up in just a few sentences. It’s not easy, and a bio isn’t a fixed thing–or at least not until you’re dead. Until then, it (hopefully) evolves with each new publication, each year lived. The decision of what to include and exclude persists throughout one’s career.

Bios are a sticky wicket.  I have a number of them for different occasions.

Here's my conservative formal bio, which most editors seem to prefer.

Tamara Linse was raised on a ranch in northern Wyoming. She received a bachelor’s and master’s in English from the University of Wyoming. Her work has been a runner-up for the Georgetown Review 2010 contest, a top-5 finalist for the 2009 Arts & Letters Prize, a top-3% finalist for Glimmer Train’s 2007 Fall Short Story Award for New Writers, and a semifinalist for Black Lawrence Press’s 2008 Hudson Prize for a book of short stories. Her stories have been or will be published in the Georgetown Review, South Dakota Review, Word Riot, and Talking River, among others. She regularly attends conferences such as Bread Loaf and Tin House and lives in Wyoming, where she is an editor for a foundation. 

Well, that's the one that goes on the website.  For submissions, I tailor this a little bit with insider info.

I was runner-up for the Georgetown Review 2010 contest, a top-5 finalist for the 2009 Arts & Letters Prize, a top-3% finalist for Glimmer Train’s 2007 Fall Short Story Award for New Writers, and a semifinalist for Black Lawrence Press’s 2008 Hudson Prize for a book of short stories.  I am published in literary magazines such as the Georgetown Review, South Dakota Review, Word Riot, and Talking River, among others.  I regularly attend conferences such as Bread Loaf and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop (where I was awarded a mentorship with Little, Brown editor Judy Clain).  I have an M.A. in English from the University of Wyoming, where I’ve taught writing. My literary agent is Rachel Stout of Dystel & Goderich, and I work as an editor for the University of Wyoming Foundation and as a freelance writer and editor. 

 But I don't prefer either of these.  Maybe it's because sometimes I feel like an outsider and my qualifications will never be good enough.  I resist the prestige angle.  So I urge editors to use this one.

Tamara Linse lives in Wyoming, where she writes short stories and novels. To support her writing habit, she also edits, freelances, and occasionally teaches. You can find her at tamaralinse.com.

Now, that's a little more interesting, but then I like to add an unusual and intriguing sentence right before the mention of the website.  I think that's what people are trying to do when they add the odd jobs they've worked.  Here are a few of mine. 

Tamara’s new book is about love, loss, recovery, and socks. Well, not socks exactly.

Having grown up on a ranch, Tamara appreciates indoor plumbing. 

Tamara lives in Wyoming with her husband Steve, who thought he was marrying a “normal person.” They enjoy puns and gardening. 

Tamara broke her collarbone when she was three, her leg when she was four, a horse when she was twelve, and her heart ever since.

In reality, I'm much more interested in the long version, what comes out in the writer's work and in essays ~ in long form.  The bio the length of a paragraph tells you almost nothing.

 

Now you know all my secrets. 

  

Pembroke Sinclair Reading at Second Story, Wed, Feb 22, at 7 p.m.

This is in Laramie, Wyoming.

Working a Table at a Convention

The last couple of days for my day job, I've been working a table at a grad fair.  You'd think it'd be mind-numbingly boring, but, you know, it wasn't.  It was long but not boring.  I'm inherently a people-person, and now that I have a few people skills, it's great just to talk with people!

But you know the greatest thing about this experience?  I thought a lot about ways to sell my book, when the time comes.  Lots of dos and don'ts of working a table.  It's the same things people like J.A. Konrath have been saying for a long time, but sitting there really drove it home. There was a great table over to the side that had the ROTC and AFROTC, and there were at least four people manning the table (three men and a woman) at all times and they looked like they were having fun and they had giveaways and they even walked around and introduced themselves.

So here's what I was thinking:

• Try to create a party at your table.
• Have cool giveaways. I was thinking of the cool cat pen you get from Hemingway's house in Key West. Also postcards of your books, book marks, any cool inexpensive toys you can think of, and so on.
• Have treats or cookies.
• Don't forget the kids - have stickers or something.
• Talk with people as much as possible!
• Have that quick pitch (one line about your book, the hook) handy, but don't necessarily lead with it.
• Have a contest where people can sign up, thereby collecting their names for your email list.  Or at least have a place for people to sign up.
• Have other calls to action.  Make sure your web address is on all handouts.
• Be positioned near the door to the right - where people will naturally go first and have the most energy.  If you can't be to the right, be to the left.
• Have lots of flair and stuff on your table.
• If you can swing t-shirts as giveaways, do it!
• Have your books there to sell.
• Have a cool artfully designed short story as a giveaway.
• Talk to the organization who's putting the event on for ideas.
• Have something that people can take to fill out and mail in to get their email addresses or a handsigned book.
• Stand.  If not in front of your booth, behind it.  Look approachable.  Do not hide behind a laptop or a book.  And don't bring a friend that will distract you. You're supposed to be talking to new people, not shutting everyone out by talking to your friend.  It's okay if there's a bunch of people and a party too.
• Take time to mingle yourself, if you can.
• It'd be cool to have a whole coordinated ad campaign with promo items and everything organized ahead of time. 
• A banner that hangs over the front of your table is nice too.
• See if you can schedule a reading or some other event at your table.

These were just a few of the thoughts that were running through my mind as I stood there and smiled and saw what other people were doing.

Community Supported Agriculture

What I’m Reading Today: I finished Michael Cunningham’s By Nightfall. It rocked my world! More on this tomorrow, after I have a chance to write a long thoughtful post about it.

My husband and I recently signed up for Grant Family Farms CSA. Grant Family Farms is in northern Colorado and is actually a number of farms and orchards grouped together, I think, or one that includes others in its sales. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This is what it is (from the USDA website):

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a new idea in farming, one that has been gaining momentum since its introduction to the United States from Europe in the mid-1980s. The CSA concept originated in the 1960s in Switzerland and Japan, where consumers interested in safe food and farmers seeking stable markets for their crops joined together in economic partnerships. … In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or "share-holders" of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production.

So, every Thursday afternoon, we go to our local organic foods store and pick up a box of goodies. We signed up for a veggie share, a fruit share, a bread share, and an egg share, and it’s all enough to fit in a big box. We get a dozen eggs (white, brown, and green Arikari) and a loaf of yummy artisan bread made from organic flour. Fruit shares are apples, pears, peaches, and plums (so far). Veg shares can include any or all of the following: potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, beets, daikon radishes, rutabaga, cauliflower, cucumbers, kale, collard greens, basil, cilantro, parsley, lettuce, spinach, Chinese cabbage, and more.

We get lots of variety but not huge amounts ~ enough for a recipe. Some of them may have blemishes, but their taste is out of this world! What vegetables and fruit are supposed to taste like! And the tomatoes! Oh god. They are so so good. So so good.

What’s more, all this variety is forcing us to be more adventurous in our cooking. I mean, we’ve always been adventurous, but, you know, you don’t always have the time to say, okay, new ingredient, let’s figure out a new recipe. Now we’re forced to, and it’s great fun. I’ve particularly loved a crustless greens pie, daikon radish cakes, and caprese pasta. This weekend, my husband made a chicken vegetable soup with leftover veg that was out of this world.

But what I really wanted to talk about with this post is the amazing job Grant Family Farms does with its internet communications and presence. Check out their website. You can very easily use a cart system to buy your shares or order meat. You can get all the info you need right there. And every week we get an email with what’s happening on the farm and suggested recipes. The farm has events, such as a come pick your Halloween pumpkin from the fields or come help bottle some wine and celebrate. They are very responsive and have the best possible customer service! I’ve never not been able to get ahold of them, even on the weekend they had a farm festival.

So it’s so inspiring to see age-old industries remaking and re-envisioning themselves, taking advantage of new tools to reach customers. Just like litmags and publishers are doing creative things with promotions and e-marketing.  I’m inspired for my own e-outreach efforts. Way to go, Grant Family Farms!

Questions of the Day: Have you come across innovative marketing campaigns and digital marketing techniques?