Happiness Sprinkles & Book Club ZOOM Link
+ Tom messes with ChatGPT
Hello, Protagonists! In this post, you’ll find:
🥳 Happiness Sprinkles (my favorites/things worth smiling about this month)
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight - what you’ve been reading and writing
📚 July Book Club ZOOM Link
🥳 Happiness Sprinkles: Things Worth Smiling About in July
Here are a few delights that I enjoyed in the past month. I hope they make you smile, too!
The serendipity of art: I loved this interview with Terry Border, which talks about how he accidentally discovered his artistic calling after he’d failed as a different kind of artist.
Take my money, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright! I just saw this trailer for a new movie, which follows the lives of the inhabitants of a single house through generations. I have mixed feelings about how fast technology is moving, but the use of it here to show Tom Hanks and Robin Wright as they age from young couple to old is so heart-melting, I can’t object!
ChatGPT Pasta: Speaking of technology, my husband Tom asked ChatGPT to make fun of itself, and it’s pretty freaking good at it:
Tom: Write a commercial for pasta sauce as if you are a terrible AI bot.
ChatGPT: Are you hungry? Eat Pasta Sauce! It’s red and wet. Put it on noodles. Or don’t. I’m not your mom. Pasta Sauce has tomatoes. Probably. Buy now or later. Your choice. Pasta Sauce: For Food.
Novelist Gabrielle Zevin on Enjoying Failure: The mega-successful author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was on my favorite podcast, talking about the long arc of a career, growing better as an artist, and learning to love failure.
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight—You’re the Hero of the Story!
Every month, I feature a few books or essays that you have loved or written. If you’re looking for something to read, check out these recommendations from your fellow subscribers:
Mesa Fama was published in The New York Times’ Tiny Love Stories section! Congrats, Mesa! Read her story “Accidental Thief” here.
Kristin Fellows shares how she has had to shift her definitions of success, in moving from a career in documentary filmmaking to writing. Her lovely piece is here.
Want to share something that you’ve recently read or written?
Just reply to this email or drop a comment below with a 1-2 sentence description. I can’t wait to hear from you!
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📚 Book Club ZOOM Link
Feel free to come even if you haven’t read the book. (Just be prepared for spoilers.)
Book:
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Time:
Sunday, July 21, 2024 @ 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT
Book Discussion (30-45 minutes)—What makes this book tick? We’ll talk about things like whether the plot worked and if not, why not? Where was the pacing great and where did the tension dip, and why? And why do some people love Character A but others hate him, while Character B is universally adored?
Bonus Writers’ Chat (30-45 minutes)—After the book discussion, we’ll have an optional hangout to share what we’re working on, ask each other for advice on writer’s block, finding a literary agent, doing book publicity, etc.
To prevent Zoom-bombing from not-nice people, the Zoom link is below the paywall.*
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