Almost done

I promise not to turn the blog into a video blog! The YouTube series based on The Perfect Girl and Strange Women is almost over. We have one more clip to go. I hope you can take the time to watch Part Three in the meantime.

Thanks for stopping by.

Questions I asked my sister

So, here are a few questions that I had for C.C. Adetula, the author of The Perfect Girl, The Prostitute, and Other Stories. It's Part II of a 3 or 4 part YouTube series. I hope I asked good questions!

As I mentioned in the previous post, there were several funny interruptions which I can now see that my sister managed to edit out. A huge bee flew into the room and we started screaming and running all over the place. Then, my brother-in-law (who was having a catnap right outside the room) suddenly woke up and wandered in. We finished the rest of the interview with him continuing his nap in the same room. I hope it's not too obvious. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment box.

Questions my sister asked me

My sister published a really interesting collection of short stories not too long ago, and has done a number of YouTube videos that involve her responding to questions that readers had for her about her book.

Her videos inspired me to ask her a question one day while we were talking about Strange Women: 'Hey, wouldn't it be interesting if you interviewed me?'

'Let's interview each other,' she said, without missing a beat.

I thought this was an even better idea. We agreed that we'd independently come up with 10 questions for each other and then do a YouTube interview. I came up with mine over several hours on a weekend, in between cooking and packing for a trip. She came up with hers in literally two minutes. It's amazing how God created us all so differently. (She writes fiction, by the way, and I've never really had the guts to try that genre).

We started out interviewing each other, and then realized the recorder wasn't even on (lol)! So, we started again. There were some interruptions, and then we realized we had no idea how to edit the recording. When we were done, we couldn't figure out how to get it to upload properly. It took about 3 days to finish doing so! Somehow, she managed to make something out of it.

I wondered if the questions we had for each other were along the lines of what others might want to ask - or if we'd totally missed the mark. You be the judge. There will eventually be a Google hang-out (or perhaps even more YouTube videos) which will involve responding to questions from actual readers.

In the meantime, here's Part I of the 'sister interview.'

Twists and turns

Somehow or another, this book will appear this year. We're getting closer, and this video is proof (sort of). Hope you enjoy it. If you do, let me know (so I can let my sister know - she did all the work!).

To give a teeny bit of background, my little sister's company is publishing the book. We haven't collaborated on a project in forever, so this is a fun learning experience for both of us. This video is sort of like Step One along this path. Join us on this journey!

Movin’ on

Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Accept it and move on.

I said this to myself (in a blog post) almost exactly a year ago. Today, I had to go back and read that blog post to find out if these words of wisdom are still applicable. I find that they are, even though I’m now applying them to a very different situation.

It’s been so long that I had to rummage through the blog to verify the dates, but as far back as February 8, 2014, I talked about how Strange Women (a book based on the rmj blog) was going to be released that same year. This came so close to happening (or, so I thought) that I could taste it. But as time went by and 2014 turned into 2015, I realized that, for a variety of complex reasons, it simply wasn’t going to happen – or, at least not in the way that I had originally envisioned it.

Despite the two different situations to which I’ve had to apply this nugget of wisdom (‘Sometimes things don’t go as planned …’), as I write this, it has occurred to me that the initial feelings are often the same when your plans don’t work out exactly how you thought they should/would. Whether it’s about the end of a marriage or of some other closely-held dream, the initial incomprehension, shock, and befuddlement are quite similar in character, if not in degree.

But, here’s what I’ve learned:

That’s life.

Deal with it.

Get over it.

Move on.

Despite the twists and turns, and although this new decision was brought about by an unanticipated turn of events, I’m brimming with excitement about the new direction I’m taking with publishing the book. There’s no way this new direction could’ve been paved without my deciding to simply ‘move on.’ Once I did, I began to see all sorts of possibilities. Actual details will be emerging in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, as painful as it is for me, I’ve finally started taking down a certain proportion of the blog content as it will be made available in the book.

Stay tuned.