Dana Sitar's Blog, page 28

Creating Opportunity Out of Desperation

One week (and a few hours) from today, I’ll be on a flight from San Francisco to Madison, Wisconsin. Stefan and I are spending the summer in the Midwest, moving our base of operations to — drum roll! — my parents’ basement.

If clichés are any indication of reality, every proper artist spends some portion of her adult life living in her parents’ basement. Maybe most do it earlier on.The decision was difficult to make for a moment, heavy with the stigma of “going back” after trying to cut it in...

This Week in Words | Flying High

A week of firsts, learning new things, and kicking ass (and taking names). Monday night, I got on stage for my first comedy open micfor CoPro.It was terrible, but awesome that I did it, which is about as much as you can expect from the experience. Wednesday night I got up at Ladies’ Night at the Brainwash for my second open mic. It was twice as good, which is still really bad, but I’m enjoying the learning experience — and ecstatic about the developing story.

Thursday night, I was on stage aga...

My First Comedy Open Mic

True to my word, I got on stage this week. Three times, in fact: two comedy open mics and a reading of The Hart Compound at Vin Club in San Francisco. The reading was incredible – I’ll share the video and details next week! The open mics were, eh, what they should be. The first time, everyone has assured me, is terrible for everyone, so I was right on par.

This was not only my first comedy open mic; it was pretty much my first performanceever.The closest I’ve come was the toast I gave at my si...

First Run of The Hart Compound Has Just Arrived!

I’m adding a quick extra post today to share this exciting Author Moment. The first run of The Hart Compound has just been delivered to my house! Although the print book is available for Print on Demand through TheBookPatch, I ordered this tiny 10-book run for my reading tomorrow night at The Vin Club in San Francisco.

Can’t tell you how exciting it is anticipating handing one of these babies over to an intrigued reader tomorrow night!

If you’re in the Bay Area, come by tomorrow for one of thes...

The Workstyles of Leslie Knope and Liz Lemon

I am dedicated to — er, in love with — a select few T.V. shows, mostly sitcoms. My current favorites are NBC’s Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock. I was a late convert to both, but I fell in love with each on first sight. (I watched the first 60 episodes of 30 Rock in one weekend. I shouldn’t admit that publicly.) While both shows are brilliant for a myriad of reasons, what really pulls me in is the strong, quirky female lead of each show. Another thing I shouldn’t admit publicly: I think I wat...

Running the Numbers

This post originally appeared at Fighting Monkey Press for the Hart Compound Blog Tour.

As quickly as I discovered them, I realized that I do not support those follow-me-I’ll-follow-you-back cabals that exist among authors online.

The idea behind them is fine: we’re all independent authors, and we need the support of like-minded folks. However, from what I’ve seen, these groups don’t add much support; they just add numbers.

With the availability of analytics tools online, numbers have become the...

This Week in Words | Disconnected

My mind has been completely stressing all week, because I’ve been plagued with technical difficulties for… too many days. My mini-laptop stopped picking up a wireless internet signal at the beginning of the week, so I had to move out of my comfortable, productive workspace and into the living room, where I could connect through ethernet. A few days ago, I switched from my Windows XP to the eeebuntu (Linux) operating system, which allows my computer to run much faster and smoother — but, someh...

What We Set Out to Prove — Another Excerpt from The Hart Compound

“This city is not progressive by any means, and I don’t think it should be able to be called progressive.” – Nick Hart, Primary Election Day speech, February 2011

February 2011 - Attempting to be a part of “the Media” gives me perspective on the rest of this beast we call journalism, but not the sympathetic perspective you might imagine. It makes me more mad at the bullshit I read, if only because I am paying attention now.

Working in the midst of the news that is being covered, I see that it i...

How Dabbling Can Put You on The Right Career Path

(or, Why I'm a Big Fat Quitter and Not Ashamed to Say It)

A recent guest post by Emilie Wapnick on Life After College touts the benefits of being a quitter – what a relief!

Wapnick writes about the misplaced stigma of quitting in our culture and suggests that some people – she calls them "multipotentialites" – are better suited to bounce from role to role, rather than settle into one deep-rutted role for life. She suggests that there's no need to feel like a failure for giving up; it's okay to ...

Where You Can Find More Self-Publishing Resources … and Comedy Journalism

Spring is my unrivaled favorite time of year. Even in California, where the rebirth and transformation of the world is far more subtle than the stark shift in Wisconsin from a cold, snowy winter to a sunny, green spring, I still feel renewed with this season.

While the turning of the calendar year set my mind in motion for new projects and big ideas, spring wakes me up, prompts me to reflect on my progress, and forces me to re-evaluate my plan and re-distribute my efforts.

I have come a long...