Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 406

24 thoughts from my weekend at Booktopia

Elysha and I spent the weekend in Vermont at Booktopia, a weekend retreat for listeners of Books on the Nightstand that brings readers and authors together in a unique experience.

It’s our favorite weekend of the year.

Here are some thoughts from the weekend.

1. It is impossible to predict where the idea for an author’s novel first originated. Don’t even try.

2. Writers of historical fiction are well aware (who knew?) that they can just write straight fiction and avoid all that annoying, time consuming research, yet they choose to do otherwise. I admire and respect them, but I still don’t get it.

3. Women swoon at the sound of a good accent. I wish I had a good accent.

4. I do not have a good accent. Even when I had a Boston accent, I did not have a good accent.

5. Even though I was recently told that my voice is “sensuous and sultry,” this is clearly not true. Even if it was true, it doesn’t matter if your wife doesn’t think so.

6. Any compliment that I receive in life is predicated on my wife’s agreement. If she thinks it’s bunk, it’s bunk. 

7. I am not the only person to despise Ethan Frome. Not by a longshot.

8. There once were thousands (not an exaggeration) of readers, scattered around the globe (not an exaggeration), unaware of one another. Then one day two people decided to make something that did not previously exist, and in that act of creation, thousands of lifelong friendships were born. Quiet, introverted, oftentimes solitary people found other quiet, introverted, solitary people, and suddenly they were no longer alone in their love of books. Authors met readers from around the world and established lifelong friendships that had nothing to do with their writing and everything to do with their mutual love of reading. Proof positive that world can change with a simple, audacious act of creation.

9. Sadly, the people who engage in these acts of audacious creation that change the world are the ones who are most likely to dismiss their achievement or criticize their results. Heroes rarely celebrate. They never celebrate themselves (except for Walt Whitman). That is why they are heroes.

10. It’s often the tiny, forgotten moments, noticed by those special people with clear eyes and lasting memories, that can mean the most when retold.

11. Social media allows strangers to get to know you in real, meaningful ways that you can’t begin to understand until you see these people face-to-face. It is endearing and saves a lot of time, but it can be occasionally creepy, too.  

12. If your social media photo does not actually resemble you in real life, it’s not my fault if I fail to recognize you.

13. Readers make the fastest of friends. If you want more friends, read more. 

14. Authors are quick to befriend other authors, regardless of age, sex, geography or genre. We crave the companionship of fellow writers because we spend so much time in the company of a bunch of uncooperative characters and no one else. 

15. As much as someone may love my writing, they will probably love my wife and children more. I am almost okay with this.

16. Not really.

17. Authenticity is the key to an author talk.

18. The Brits have great words like daft, nicked and knackered that I wish I could use on a regular basis without my wife thinking that I’m an idiot.

19. I am incapable of the levels of genuine forgiveness that so many memoirists seem to possess. I may lack maturity. Or I may have simply encountered more despicable people in my life than most.

20. I am capable of being incredibly sad about the loss of my mother and indescribably joyous over the mother that my children have in the exact same moment. That is far too many feelings for me for one moment.

21. You should never do a Google image search on “chastity belts” or “naked yoga” while in a restaurant. Probably not ever.

22. It’s in the company of friends that I’m often reminded that I’m most proud of the relationship I have with my wife. Sometimes I forget and begin to believe that I take the greatest pride in my books or my storytelling or my teaching or even my kids. Those are all great and I am proud of them all, but my marriage tops the list.

23. Of all the miraculous and beautiful sentences that I have heard authors read this weekend, my favorite sentence came from my mother-in-law, who is taking care of our children while we are away. She hasn’t spent much time alone with our 22 month-old son yet, and not knowing what to expect, was admittedly trepidatious about a weekend with him. On Saturday afternoon, she texted me: “Charlie is crawling his way into my heart.” Favorite sentence of the weekend.

24. I hate saying goodbye. I much prefer the Irish goodbye. My wife prefers the “spend more time saying goodbye than we actually spent together this weekend” goodbye. 

My boy and me

My sister has been organizing our childhood photos. Sadly, there aren’t that many. There are probably more photos of my children on my phone than exist from my entire boyhood.

She stumbled upon this one and sent it to me along with a photo of my son, noting that we look almost exactly alike when I was his age.

Our daughter, Clara, thought that they were both pictures of Charlie and asked why Charlie was wearing “that weird, red hat.”   

 

So much for Mommy and Daddy…

Elysha and I are in Vermont for our yearly Booktopia retreat. 

Do you think our children miss us at all?

If no one believes your lie, what’s the point?

North Korean reports that dictator Kim Jong-un has been “reelected” with 100 percent of the vote. Kim also won every single vote in his district on Mount Paekdu with 100 percent turnout.

I understand the value of propaganda, but wouldn’t it make more sense to have your propaganda sound believable?

Or at least mildly plausible?

I don’t get it. What’s the value of making a claim that no one believes?

My novels are ruining geometry class and destroying readers. The unexpected benefits of publishing a book.

This week I have heard from readers in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Mexico and Portugal.

I also heard from a teenager in Ohio who convinced her geometry teacher to read Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend and then managed to turn her math class into an English class for a day.

I love that.

I feel so fortunate to live in a time when readers around the world can reach out to me. Responding to readers takes time, but it’s worth every minute.

My favorite bit of reader communication came from a Portuguese reader who tweeted this (translated via Google Translate):

You destroyed me with your book. I’m not well.

I didn’t know what to say, so I apologized and hoped he felt better soon.

Upcoming speaking gigs

In the event you would like to hear me blather on and on, the following are some of my upcoming speaking events:

April 16: Moth StorySLAM at Housing Works in NYC (no guarantee that I will take the stage). Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 7:30.

April 17: World Book Night in Attleboro, MA

April 26: Literary Death Match at The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT
This event is part of the Mark Twain Writer’s Weekend. The show begins at 7:00 PM.

April 27: Mark Twain House Third Annual Writer’s Weekend: I’ll be conducting a workshop as part of the weekend activities entitled A Sneak Peek into the Publishing World. The workshop begins at 1:00. Tickets available here.

A description of my workshop:

The publishing industry is oftentimes a mysterious and impenetrable realm. The road that a book follows from the writer’s mind to the shelves of a bookstore can be confusing, nebulous and uncertain. In this workshop, author Matthew Dicks will discuss the path that a book travels from the first words written on the page to its first appearance in a bookshop. Including in the workshop will be the sale of the book, the author-ediMay 8: tor relationship, the complexities of publicity and marketing, the finances of publishing and much more. 

May 8: Author talk at the Plainville Public Library in Plainville, CT. The talk begins at 6:00.

May 17: Speak Up at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 8:00. Tickets available soon.

May 31: Speak Up fundraising storytelling event at Sedgwick Middle School in West Hartford, CT. Stories begin at 7:00.

The proceeds from this event will support a team of middle school students who won a national literature competition and are heading to London this summer to compete in an international literature competition. Three of the four students on the team are my former students, making this fundraiser mean all the more to me. The theme of the night is School Stories.

Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.ticketpeak.com/smskidslit

Intelligent disobedience

If a guide dog judges that a command is unsafe, it will refuse the command. This is called “intelligent disobedience.”

I like this.

I have been known to be disobedient from time to time. Next time I’m called out for it, I’m going to argue that I was merely exercising “intelligent disobedience.”

See where that takes me.

 

A good life

How do I break the news to him that it may never get any better than this?

Early morning warriors (or lunatics)

I wake up between 4:00 and 5:00 every day and am writing shortly thereafter.

This morning I was out of bed at 4:10. 

My brother texts me every morning around 5:00. He wakes up a little earlier than that to get ready for work. He’s typically in his office (by choice) by 6:00. 

This morning his text arrived at 4:55.

I just learned today that my sister wakes up at 4:30 and writes until about noon. Sometimes later. She writes researched-based content for companies that are attempting to improve their SEO by increasing their online presence.

This morning she emailed me at 5:49. 

Three siblings who rarely see each other, all awake before 5:00 AM and working.

It must be genetic. Right?

Cheerios and a tower

When I was a little boy, I would spend my mornings eating Wheaties and Corn Flakes and reading and re-reading the cereal boxes.

Eventually I graduated to the newspaper, the encyclopedia (A-M only), the Bible and any other reading material that I could get my hands on.   

This looks like a much better way to pass the time eating cereal.