Kristin Bair O'Keeffe: Writer. Mom. Teacher. Traveler.

8 Things I'm Thinking About Right This Very Second

A little something for everyone:

• If Vice President Joe Biden didn't say "this is a f'ing big deal" to President Obama, I'll say it for him. This healthcare thing is a f'ing big deal. Bravo! Standing ovation! Kudos! Cheers! It's about time.

•  Beyond The Margins -- This is my new favorite go-to online pub about writing. The writers are funny, passionate, experienced, and diverse. Check it out. (Lots of them are on Twitter!)

• Steve Almond's new book ROCK AND ROLL WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE (Random House, available April 13, 2010). Almond makes me laugh no matter what work of his I'm reading, so I'm looking forward to this one. (Great for all you music fanatics out there.)

• My hometown of Pittsburgh as a new literary Mecca. The New Yorker says so in "The Hills Are Alive."

• THIRSTY is featured on fREADO right now. See "The Story Behind the Book" on the fREADO home page. (This is a cool way to check out a new book.)

• Cool new ways publishers are marketing books: The Algonquin (hotel) in New York City is not only offering Kindles and Nooks to their guests (free of charge), but it has also formed a partnership with Harper Perennial. HP will provide new titles and classics to the hotel every month and will be hosting author signings & book events at the hotel. (I want to stay there!)

• David Foster Wallace's books (WRITTEN IN!) -- I am not alone. DFW used to write in his books...just like me. Love it.

• Christina Katz--a good friend, a spectacular writing colleague, and an amazing author/teacher/mom/person. Check out her current project, The Prosperous Writer. Sign up for her motivating, informative weekly newsletter.

What are you thinking about right now?

THIRSTY & Self-Promotion at the Shanghai International Literary Festival (ssshhh, secret revealed)

Last Saturday, March 7, I did a session at the Shanghai International Literary Festival about self-promotion and social networking for authors. It was a full house; I had a blast yakking about all the ways there are for writers to connect, share their work, learn about others' work, and open their writing worlds; and since the 7th, two audience members have friended me on Facebook and two others have made their maiden voyages on Twitter.

Success. People got it. Took my words to heart and reached out.

Now for the secret...one of the things I admitted during my session is that I've got a love/hate relationship with all this social networking and self-promotion stuff. 75% of the time, I love reaching out...chatting with readers and writers all over the world...sharing links to pertinent info (and links to irrelevant but fun info as well), and talking books. 25% of the time, I just want to be left alone in my 23rd floor apartment in Shanghai to write. I want to say, "Sssssshhhhh, I'm in writerhead" (or when I feel REALLY sick of it all, "PISS OFF!")...and then, yep, quietly face the page...alone.

Of course, I'm hesitant to admit this love/hate relationship out loud. We're really not supposed to. I'm pretty sure that's in a rule book somewhere.

But I've always hated rule books. And other people's rules. So there, I've said it. Out loud. Most of the time I love reaching out, but sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I feel completely smothered by all the contact.

What's the answer?

A small hut in Borneo? With no electricity and no Internet? 

Mmmmm, a lovely idea, but a tad unrealistic. (Besides...I know me. I'd get lonely and start saying things like, "Wow, I wish I could Twitter.")

So I've decided that balance is a more viable answer. I'm learning (slowly) how to manage my time on Twitter, Facebook, my blog, and the blogs of others. And I'm writing my own rulebook. Here's what I've got so far:

Rule #1: Admit when I'm burnt out & in need of a break.

Rule #2: When Rule #1 moves into play, take needed break (preferably before breakdown...break should not be ).

Rule #3: Do not turn on Internet when writing creative stuff--novel, memoir, etc.

Rule #4: Do not turn on Internet when writing creative stuff--novel, memoir, etc. (Some rules are worth repeating.)

Rule #5: Before shutting down at night, I must close all but seven tabs on Firefox (my blog, the THIRSTY website, Facebook, Twitter, Typepad, Constant Contact, and Google Reader). No more of this keeping 30 tabs open. Too much browsing. Too much reading. Too much, too much, too much.

Rule #6: Take 1 weekend day off every week. Completely. No work. No writing. No Tweeting. No Facebooking. In fact, except on special occasions, don't even turn on the computer. (This will be hard for me.)

So that's where I am. How about you and your relationship with all this stuff? Love? Hate? Some combo? And how do you manage it all? (suggestions welcome)

Shanghai International Literary Festival: Shameless Self-Promotion

Tomorrow (Sunday, March 7, 12:00) I'm giving a talk at the Shanghai International Literary Festival. If you're in Shanghai, come on down to M on the Bund...where all the cool, hip, smart, in-the-know readers/writers are hanging out.

Details?

Here ya go:

“Hi, My Name Is___”: Shameless Self-Promotion & The Art of Social Networking for Authors

Sunday, March 7 (12:00 - 1:00)

It used to be that an author could write a book, publish it, and then draw her curtains while a publicist promoted it to the reading world. Not so anymore. Today when an author gets a book contract, a publisher asks: Do you Twitter? Are you on Facebook? Do you have a newsletter? A website? A blog? How many hits do you get a month? And more. (Translation: How are you going to promote your book?) Come along for the ride as debut novelist & seasoned social media dame Kristin Bair O’Keeffe (Thirsty, Swallow Press, 2009) explores the art of shameless self-promotion and social networking…and shows you just how much fun it can be.

A Writer's Vacation: Can You Disconnect?

For the last eight days, I was in Borneo...breathing in this:

And sinking into that:

And taking in lots of this, too:

Now keep in mind that for weeks before we left Shanghai, I'd planned to work during our vacation. I'd planned to Tweet, Facebook, blog, continue to connect, and yep, even get some work done on the session I'm doing at the Shanghai Literary Festival this weekend.

But, alas, I forgot to take my travel adapter along, and believe it or not, the resort did not have an adapter that fit the three-pronged plug of my computer cord.

The result? I couldn't work.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??????????

Nope, I couldn't work.

This was, at first, panic-inducing. "What do you mean I can't work? I have to work." My stomach coiled up in knots.

But after a few days of this:

 

And that:

I realized how much I needed NOT to work. Since the launch of THIRSTY back in October, I've been moving at lightning speed. Brain in overdrive. Body in overdrive. Soul in overdrive.

I needed to disconnect, and I'm pretty sure the great gods of travel adapters knew this and conspired to leave me, truly, wireless.

What happened?

I quieted down inside. That idgy feeling in my belly of "I'm not doing enough to get the word out about THIRSTY" and "How do I get THIRSTY to more readers?" went away. I relaxed. I chilled out. I played. I got centered.

And then?

The same thing that always happens when I allow myself some breathing room happened: I started to write in my head.

Tra-la-la. I was writing in my head. Waking from gorgeous, wacky, wonderful dreams with full sentences and scenes. Staring at the ocean and learning something new about the characters in my second novel.

It was glorious.

Now that I'm back in Shanghai, I'm trying to hold onto that feeling. That tra-la-la-ing. And the wisdom of knowing that I when I push a little less, more happens.

Flow.

Project Kindle, Post #4 (...Getting Dangerously Close to Love)

Wow...I didn't know I could do THAT with my Kindle!!!! Watch out...I'm dangerously close to falling in love.

Women Rock Wednesday: Joyce Carol Oates, Author & (Now) Adventurer

In recent weeks, I've been struck by the fact that after almost 50 years of marriage, her husband's death, and an excruciating widowhood, author Joyce Carol Oates fell in love, remarried, and is now enjoying a new, much more adventurous life.

Why am I so struck by this?

Simple. I'm excited for her. I mean, here's one of the U.S.'s most talented, most prolific authors rediscovering the world at 71 (yep, she's 71 years old). How cool is that?

Whether by choice or necessity, Oates is out of her comfort zone...looking at the world and herself in new ways. What a great reminder to women that we're never too old or too set in our ways to forge new paths.

If you Twitter with me, you've probably seen me link to the January 15, 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal that elucidates Oates's transformation. Here's a bit:

Since then, she [Oates] says, her writing habits, hobbies and outlook on life have changed. She has started going on mountain hikes with Mr. Gross, who loves the outdoors. Last year, the newlyweds moved into a large two-story home filled with colorful contemporary paintings, mobile sculptures and Mr. Gross's photographs of African fauna and temples and palaces in Tibet. Ms. Oates, a confessed homebody who hasn't traveled widely overseas, said she plans to join her husband on some of his adventures.

Sure, some may ask, "Why does she need a man to rediscover the world? After 50 years with one husband, couldn't she have done some discovering on her own?"

My response?

Who gives a hoot? Whatever leads us to new places in both our interior worlds and the exterior one is worth the ride. If it's love, great. If it's tacos, great. If it's some crazy urge to scale the highest mountain in the world, great.

Bravo to Oates. Enjoy.

Extra Tidbit for Writers: Oates has just finished writing a 400-page memoir that deals with her husband's death (February 2008). From what I read, this was not an easy book for her to write, and she says (which I love and agree with wholeheartedly), "It's very clear to me now—as I'd always supposed—that we can't really choose what we write about in any passionate way: the material chooses us."

Project Kindle, Post #3: Infatuation

Spent lots of time this week hanging out with my Kindle in Shanghai. We went to a meeting on the Bund, had tea at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, cuddled in bed, and lots more. People are talking and the tabloids are asking, "Are you becoming a couple?"

Not quite yet, but...

Welcome to PROJECT KINDLE

Happy New Year! Right now in Shanghai, it is 11:59 a.m. on January 1, 2010.

Cool. A new year. A new decade.

As promised, I'm going to be announcing a few changes to my blog...and the first is the introduction of PROJECT KINDLE.

What is PROJECT KINDLE?

Good question. This video should answer all your questions. Come on...join me. This is going to be fun!

Kindle: Fire It Up!

Today I got a Kindle. It was delivered to me by a wonderful elf (a fellow American expat who bought it for me in the U.S. and hand-carried it all the way to Shanghai). As you can imagine, I am wildly grateful because while we do have a number of bookstores that carry books in English, the books are not necessarily the ones I want to read.

So…

Minutes after my friend the elf handed me my new toy and went home to nurse her jet lag, I met another friend for coffee. “I got my Kindle!” I said.

This friend (who had been away for a month or so) was confused. For a long time, I had been vehemently anti-Kindle (well, not really anti-Kindle, but anti-reading device). “A Kindle? I thought you hated those things,” she said.

“I did,” I said, “but I’ve changed my mind.”

Then I started to think about why. After all, I’m a writer and a voracious reader. I love books. I love paper. I love bookstores. I love libraries (to see just how much, click “Because of a Book”). In fact, an important part of my writing process happens while I’m reading. Believe it or not, I actually write IN books…my own stuff in books...hardback and paperback…whenever I get inspired by what I’m reading. (Shock…horror…I know…but I write all over my books. In the margins. Between sections. On the title page. On the covers. Heck, I write right over text if I’m on a roll.) Without the ability to write by hand while I read, what will happen to my writing process?

Great question.

And how will I “browse” for new books…the way I do at a library or in a bookstore?

Another great question

AND...if I have such concerns, why am I suddenly so gung-ho about my Kindle?

Because…

1. The publishing world is changing and I’m choosing to change with it. While I love books and hope they stick around for a long, long time, I have big doubts. Besides, I’m good at change (heck, I got married and moved to China in fewer than six weeks)...change is my middle name.
2. I want to give reading devices a chance. Sure, they are in their Jurassic Period, and sure, they are guaranteed to change a great deal in the coming years (probably in the coming months), but so what? It’s cool to be starting out with an (somewhat) early version of a device that will inevitably alter how we take in stories. (And how we write them…)
3. Since moving to China, I haven’t done a whole lot of traditional bookstore browsing…and I’ve been fine. I choose most of the books I read via referrals from my husband’s cousin Mary in Ireland, Twitter, friends, Goodreads, various email newsletters from publishers, and other sources.
4. I’m desperate for books in China.
5. I believe words have possibilities we still know nothing about, and if we limit ourselves to a traditional book, we’ll never discover those possibilities. I’m an explorer. I want to explore.
6. I’m just gosh-darn curious.

So as we enter 2010, picture me here in Shanghai, powering up my Kindle, deciding which book I’ll download first. And second. And third. And 1,336th.

And guess what?

I’m not the only one talking about this. Seth Godin (the Godfather of What Comes Next) and The Christian Science Monitor are talking, too. See what they have to say.

Guest Blogging at "Beth Fish Reads" Today!

I'm in Pennsylvania today! Well, physically, I'm still in Shanghai, but I'm guest blogging at "Beth Fish Reads" as part of the PA edition of the Literary Road Trip. Pretty cool, huh?

My post?

Writing and Creating the Geography of a Novel

Check it out.