Trey Willis's Blog, page 3

Impostor Esteem

I find the idea of theimpostor syndromeendlessly interesting. Many of us have this horrible habit of minimizing our own achievements. We attribute our accomplishments to luck instead of work. We assume that others have an inaccurate and inflated opinion of us. We feel that we have somehow tricked our way into our current situation and that one day we will be found out and it will all be taken away from us.

I’ve experienced quite a bit of this in my own life. I was one of the youngest people i...

Ron Swanson, American Hero.

Parks and Recreation is gone, and even though the last season wasn’t stellar, I continue to be deeply saddened by it’s absence. In my daily life, I strive to be like Ron Swanson whenever possible. I rarely hit the mark, though, usually landing somewhere between Andy and Tom. I seem to come closer to achieving my goalwhilst rocking a sweet, sweet ‘stache, but I’ll admit that’s probably some sort of mustachioed placebo effect.

I want to write about Ron Swanson because he is the anti-snowflake.

...

Targaryen Hubris

Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, etc. etc. etc., blah blah blah.

I’ve had a bone to pick with Daenerys since she began her conquest of Slaver’s Bay a couple of seasons (or a few books) ago. At first, her story was pretty interesting– aKhaleesi traveling the Red Waste raising her dragons and trying to find a way to survive. I was intrigued because I didn’t know quite what was going to happen. She was making loyal friends, but also...

Accents and Assumptions

This post was originally intended as a guest post elsewhere.That fell through, so here is something I wrote that has nothing to do with self-esteem:

The South has been my home for all thirty of my years. Although I find myself longing for a change of scenery now and again, I have no real intentions of living anywhere else. I was born here, and with any luck, I will die here. My ashes will be spread on the fields where I was raised, and I will become a part of my home.

I’m a native North Carol...

I Take Parenting Advice from Louis C.K. and so Should You.

Louis C.K. is one of my favorite funny people and is quickly becoming my parenting role model. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporterhe talks about parenting, among other things. About his daughters, he says:

I talk to them about work, and I hope they both have shitty minimum wage retail jobs when they’re old enough. I really try to be aware of not letting them grow up weird or spoiled, which is easier to do here than it is in L.A. My 13-year-old daughter leaves the house at 7:15 e...

Jeff Winger is a Snowflake

I’ve only recently started watching Community. My wife and I gave it a shot after it was recommended to us by a friend, and have plowed through the first fourseasons in short order. I regret not getting to know the Greendale gang sooner, but at least catching up provides us with ample opportunities for sedentary evenings of dinner on the couch and binge watching.

Troy and Abed’s relationship is my favorite characteron the show, and as much as I’d like to talk about them, I will be focusing on...

How to Launch Your New Book: Everything I Know

Trey Willis:

Amusing, true, and far less misanthropic and cynical than my own efforts to address this subject.

Originally posted on Infinitefreetime.com:

(I���m going to be presenting these as Unquestionable Rules that Must be Followed. ��Argue with me anyway. ��Sometimes I���m very strident and wrong at the same time, especially if I think a general tone of Absolute Authority is funnier. ��I am scheduling��this to pop while I���m on the road, so feel free to yell at me in comments.)

So!

You have...

Airline Esteem

I generally try not to fly during the holidays. In fact, I generally try to do as little as possible during the holidays. This plan very rarely works out for me, since all of our family lives out of town. This is especially true now that we have a child who needs to meet extended family and be paraded about like she’s the pope or something.

This means that I found myself in an airport this holiday season along with just about everyone else in the world, cramming myself and my family into sever...

Self-published entitlement

After publishing, I decided it would��be a good idea to join the community of several websites catering to self-published authors. It seemed like a good idea to network with other authors, seek advice and support, glean wisdom from more experienced authors, and potentially help each other market our works.

What I found surprising was the relative lack of community I found within these communities. They largely serve the same purpose as a cluttered bulletin board in some dingy third-rate��Engli...

How Kevin Smith Failed into Esteem

My long and unwavering love of Kevin Smith has been well documented by essentially everyone that I have come into contact with. I happened upon Mallrats in high school and decided that my life needed more of these Jay and Silent Bob characters. I immediately went out and bought a copy of Clerks, and from there, it was head first down the rabbit hole, finding and collecting anything to which Kevin Smith had attached his name.

As a freshman in college, I decided that studying for a Biology exam...