Category: general
If you’re a writer who has lost a manuscript due to your computer crashing, here are two online options to protect your work. For a few years, I’ve been using Google docs to organize manuscript… read more »
Interlude
From today’s The Writer’s Almanac, an excerpt from “Midwest” by Stephen Dunn:
The church
always was smaller
than the grain elevator,
though we pretended otherwise.
As a child, the largest structures I ever saw included farm silos and grain elevators. They were the closest thing to a cathedral the Heartland has to offer a child.
Renovated Main Street
A couple of years ago the main street was ripped up and busy with construction trucks and earth movers. Now it’s quite lovely on a quiet August morning.
A couple of years ago the main street was ripped up and busy with construction trucks and earth movers. Now it’s quite lovely on a quiet August… read more »
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) offers advice to authors seeking to work with indie books stores: Know the Marketplace Know Who And How To Contact Know the Terms read more »
Rework is a really smart business book written by the crew from 37signals. If you haven’t checked it out, you must. In the meantime, Gnat Gnat has done a nice job of summarizing the highlights in this downloadable cheat sheet (pdf).
And the key words are:
…revenue from sources beyond the traditional core streams of ad sales and circulation…
Link: New York Times Offers IPhone, IPad App Platform to Other Publishers
It’s… read more »
Remember that sketch I was working on last Monday? Here’s the final illustration. Looks like it is scheduled to be published in an ad in a magazine — street date August 14th.
Learn what your social media specialist should know
In a recent podcast workshop, a social media strategist said, “Just because you build it doesn’t mean anyone will hear it.” Today I spent the morning writing a report on podcasting with that thought in mind. Here’s a summarized, abridged version of Erik Deckers’s list of questions to ask your social media expert:
- Does your social media consultant avoid using Twitter?
- Who are your social media followers?
- Do you have a social media strategy?
Keep in mind that social media isn’t a cheap promotional tool. It’s a conversation.
I love these lines from Rachel Zucker’s poem:
With my minutes, I chip away at the idiom, an unmarked pebble in a fast current.
Link: “After Baby After Baby” by Rachel Zucker
In a recent podcast workshop, a social media strategist said, “Just because you build it doesn’t mean anyone will hear it.” Today I spent the morning writing a report on podcasting with that thought… read more »
The most important difference is that when you’re reading something you wrote, you know what’s going on because you know how your mind works. But when reading a piece by someone else, you may be confused by the other person’s logic or thinking process and consequently find yourself unable to…
This takes me back almost a decade. But this morning I had to scan an illustration. The only machine in the office with a scanner is an old beige… read more »
Is 7:45 a.m. too early to be working on an illustration? I’m working on an illustrated advertisement. It’s more of a proposal for an… read more »
Bonhoeffer Biographer on Bonhoeffer
Trent Gilliss, senior editorA listener from Greenwich, Connecticut (who asked to go unnamed) picked up on Shane Claiborne’s reference to a German Protestant theologian who participated in a failed attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler during World War II:
“And Dietrich Bonhoeffer who has been a good teacher for us on community, he says, ‘The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.’ And I think that that’s something that’s held us together is not just to fall in love with a movement or a revolution, but to try to live in radical ways and in simple ways.”
The listener recommended we interview Eric Metaxas, whose biography Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is currently on The New York Times bestseller list. Well, we did produce a show in 2003 on this great figure called “Ethics and the Will of God: The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer” and probably won’t be doing another show on him anytime soon.
But, this speech by Metaxas at a Socrates in the City lecture on April 9, 2010, the 65th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death, serves as a great introduction to Bonhoeffer’s life. Heads up: the introduction is humorous but long; if you want to cut to the grist of the talk, start at the 14-minute mark.
(Source: http://vimeo.com/)
When I think of symphonic metal bands with female vocalists, two bands immediately come to mind. The Dutch band Epica lead by Simone Simons. read more »
If you’re stuck in a traditional media organization where executives thing Twitter is something birds do or look blankly at you when you suggest posting videos to Vimeo, then check out … read more »
How to improve your social media agenda
If you’re stuck in a traditional media organization where executives thing Twitter is something birds do or look blankly at you when you suggest posting videos to Vimeo, then check out Mashable’s tips list.
1. Share Content
2. Curate Conversations
3. Engage Audiences
4. Promote Your Presence
5. Customize the Experience
6. Track Everything
You’ll find links to all sorts of social media tools and resources.
Coffeehouse Junkie Podcast – Episode 15
This episode features an audio version of the three most viewed blog posts of the last week, including:
- Writing Tips from C.S. Lewis. Link
- 30 poems in 30 days. Link
- Mechanical, thoughtless and unengaged: a Facebook story. Link
The most read story from the archives:
- An interview with River District artist Eva Scruggs. Link
For questions or comments about the podcast, email me at coffeehousejunkie[at]gmail[dot]com.
Coffeehouse Junkie 
