Dana Sitar's Blog, page 27

Reading “Becoming Edie” at Vin Club (Video)

Here’s another video of my live reading at The Vin Club in San Francisco. Here I’m readingBecoming Edie, the story of my discovery of comedy, beauty, my new life, and ultimately myself.

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Make Yourself the Villain

This post was originally part of The Hart Compound Blog Tour on the #AmWriting community blog.

In editing the stories for my recent release The Hart Compound, I struggled to figure out just how to make one particular story sing. It was tricky. I was trying to portray a particularly emotional time when I did some particularly shitty things, and I couldn’t quite get the right emotions to come out.

One brief line in this post about storytelling from Jeff Goins made me realize what I was doing wron...

One Piece of Advice for Making a Living Doing What You Love

A year ago, I quit my job, left home, and moved to California with no work and no house waiting for me. Now, I am making my living as a writer. And, I continue to hear the same thing from friends:

I wish I could do what you did.

For some reason, they don’t think they can. Anyone can, of course; there isn’t anything special about me other than I didit. But, I did finally realize one major thing that is keeping a lot of people from thinking that they could take the leap. They’re afraid of what th...

This Week in Words | Madison Comedy

From Madison:

Stefan and I landed in Wisconsin on Tuesday and have been typically overwhelmed by a Madison week — where the drinks are too cheap and we’ve been gone too long for anyone to think twice about buying yet another round, and the culture dictates that we accept the offer. I was smart this time, though: I worked ahead before we left California, so I sort of had the week off, technology and planning (read: WordPress and Hootsuite) virtually taking care of my work for me.

After making th...

Book Review | A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

This article was original written forSevenPonds.comand may not be re-published without permission.

Through his popular memoir,A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,San Francisco authorDave Eggerschronicles his experience raising his younger brother Toph after the family loses each of their parents to cancer. The book is, indeed, at times heartbreaking and staggering. Watching Dave and his older sister navigate their unexpected circumstances while maintaining much of the normal life of a co...

3 Free Indispensable Productivity Tools for Freelance Work

This is a guest post byKristie Lewisfrom Construction Management Degree. You can share comments and questions with her via email.

While freelancers don’t have to contend with bosses breathing down our necks on a daily basis, we do have to contend with our own, productivity-killing worst enemy — ourselves. And that’s one boss that you can’t get rid of, simply because this boss screaming at you to get your work done resides deep within your own conscie...

Interview | Author Julie Anne Lindsey

I am honored to welcome author Julie Anne Lindsey for her Death by Chocolateblog tour! I first discovered Julie through Twitter, where she is a favorite of authors for her bubbly personality and great resources, and I quickly became a fan ofMusings from the Slush Pile, where she blogs about the writer life. In addition to her most recent release, Julie is the author of theSeeds of Loveromance series, part of theSummer ShortsandMen in Uniform anthologies, a columnist for theGreat Canton Writer...

This Week in Words | Out of Office

I’m in the midst of moving this weekend (yay!), so I’m taking a few days off.

Monday, author Julie Anne Lindsey stops by for a Q&A as part of herDeath by Chocolate blog tour, and Tuesday I’ll feature the first guest post toby.dana.sitar:Kristie Lewis from ConstructionManagementDegree.orgwillshare some must-have tools for freelancers.

I’ll be settled back in Wisconsin and back on schedule next week!

In case you missed it, this week onby.dana.sitar:

Creating Opportunity Out of Desperation
26 Things...

Reading from The Hart Compound at Vin Club (Video)

San Francisco author Brixton Key invited me to join him and poets Michelle Murphy and Hollie Hardy for a reading at The Vin Club last week — my first live reading! I read two stories fromThe Hart Compoundand was so pleased with the response. It was so great to be able to talk to readers in person, to sell my book directly to people who had never heard of me but loved what they had just heard. It was a rewarding experience; now that I realized it isn’t too scary, I can’t wait to do it again!

He...

26 Things I’ve Learned So Far – The Wisdom of Gen Y

I turned 26 a few weeks ago, probably ripe child-bearing age, but I’m pretty well set on the no-kids path in life. I do, however, have four fruitful sisters, so I have an 8-year-old nephew, a 5-year-old niece, a newborn niece, and a mystery on the way from my newly wed little sister. As the black sheep of the bunch (if movies and T.V. have taught me anything), it’s my role to be a font of wisdom for the little tykes as they navigate their way through this crazy world.

Although my nieces and ne...