​
​Friday Inspiration 556

BEFORE WE GET INTO THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER: I have been working for the past few months to create an online writing course about getting published, and it’s almost ready. It’s called “Demystifying Publication,” and registration for it will be October 9-18 (or until it fills up). My How To Tell One Story online writing course will also open for registration October 9-18 (or until it fills up). If you’d like to register early for either or both of those courses, here’s a link to sign up for the waitlist, and then you’ll get a registration link in your email on October 8th. ​

(more information about Demystifying Publication is on this page, and more information about How To Tell One Story is on this page)

—

I suppose this is kind of old news since it happened last weekend, but it’s still putting a lump in my throat almost a week later: Justin Verlander’s daughter comes to escort him off the field after he throws the last pitch of his 21-year career, and a real human/parent moment ensues (video)

I don’t know how exactly to set this up, but it’s a very short story on the r/frozenpizzareviews subreddit, and I could not be happier for this person, who was in the freezer aisle when, they write, “a man asked me a question I’ve been waiting my entire life to hear: ‘What frozen pizzas are good these days?’ Finally, I could share with someone the wealth of knowledge I’ve been accumulating, pie after pie, over the past 30 years.”

Author and Nerd Fitness founder Steve Kamb and I have never met in person, but I’ve been following him and his work for a few years now, thinking, “If that guy lived where I lived, I would try to convince him to be my friend.” I guess asking him if I could interview him on My Favorite Things is the best I can do for now, and I had a blast listening to him talk about music, the Redwall book series, Bo Burnham's burrito ballad, The Rehearsal, movies about Anthony Bourdain, and also a video game called Outer Wilds—which was such a great endorsement of a gaming experience that I am tempted to try it, even as a person who has not played video games for decades (and was never very good at them back then).

​I read about this on Kottke.org and thought Wow, that is a good idea to literally cut a paperback of Lonesome Dove into smaller sections so you don’t have to tote around such a behemoth of a book. (I believe climbers have been ripping books in half to split up between partners on long expeditions for years, but this looks a lot nicer).

Maybe a warning if you click the link to this brilliant 10-second video at work or in another sensitive situation: This guy says the f-word several times. Sorry, that’s not what I was going to warn you about—I was going to warn you that you absolutely have to watch it with the sound on or it’s not going to be nearly as funny.

This satire piece, “If customers reviewed restaurants like readers review books,” had me laughing because I’ve read some negative reviews of my books that were quite similar in logic to some of these, but also had me going, wow, yeah, the way we review and write about books is kind of wild when you think about it.

I could go on and on about how much I love Mike Monteiro's newsletter, and this week's was no exception, in which he starts talking about a boombox he was coveting (a man after my own heart), but then turns it into a story about community, and an essay asking if the ultra-rich are actually happy: "We are currently suffering through a time where the people who seemingly have the most, are not only the most unhappy, but also the cruelest. And their cruelty is most pointedly directed at the people who seemingly have the least. Which means that the question 'Is it possible to be happy while having almost everything?' needs to be considered as well. Or, to ask it another way, 'why are these rich motherf--kers not happy?' Is it necessary to be miserable while desiring everything?"

I decided to make a short YouTube video from yesterday’s post, 10 Things I Learned From Interviewing 40 Dads, and I sort of YouTube-ified the title to “I Interviewed 40 Dads. Here Are 10 Things I Learned”. If you watch it, please comment what your favorite toy is in the video (I needed some sort of visual trick so I borrowed a bunch of Jay’s stuff).

--