Ami Maxine

Shop Small

Let me preface this post by saying that I fully understand that not everyone has the time and/or the means to do so – but this is my plea post about shopping small – if you can.

I’m a big proponent of shopping local whenever I can, partly because I like to know my money is helping the people in front of me rather than being divided up into pieces, most of which will sit in a bank account of the corporate owners rather than circulating within the community.

With the holidays coming up, I would encourage you to check into the local shops in your own communities. I’ve listed some of my favorites on the Shop Small tab on the toolbar above. If you are looking for handmade art, I highly recommend checking out work by Ashley Megal, NinjaGrl, the Wondermakers, and the 35:35 Makers Collective. If you are shopping for a book lover, but you don’t have a local bookshop, check out BookShop.org.

In the comments, please share your favorite local shop (including their website if you can!).

A Story A Day: Month Twelve

For this month, I chose (kind of) at random stories from the Friday Flash Fiction series by Tin House, the “the singular lovechild of an eclectic literary journal and a beautiful glossy magazine” that got its start in 1999. I say ‘kind of’ because I scrolled through their list and chose any story that I came across. (This is serving two purposes – I do need some new flash fiction stories for the fiction course I teach.) As with the previous eleven months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along!

“Sink Monkey” by Alyssa Proujansky
“Dance Dance Revolution” by Ben Jahn
“Hall of Hauntings” by Rebekah Berman
“As Close as We Dare” by Gwendolyn Paradice
“Swamps” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (translated by Ryan Choi)
“On August Eighteenth at Ten Thirty PM, Annie Otsuka Watched Her First Japanese Animated Film” by Elaine Hsieh Chou
“Conditions for Growing” by Beckie Dashiell
“Fantasy” by Tyler Meese
“Irreversible” by Mary Kate McGrath
“The Fourth Trimester” by Debbie Vance
“Origami” by Sabrina Helen Li
“L’Heure Bleue” by Susanne Lee
“Natural Order” by Elin Hawkinson
“Alien Hunters” by Dylan Brown
“A Brief Description of Mister Kuka” by Santian Vataj
“The Language of Space” by Danielle Stonehirsch (you’ll have to scroll down the page for this one)
“Predator Satiation” by Troy Farah
“The Salesman” by Emily Dezurick-Badran
“The Game” by Rachel Heng
“I’m Exaggerating” by Kate Wisel
“A Trip” by Claudia Ulloa Donoso (translated by Lily Meyer)
“from Fresh Fables for an Empty Stomach” by Pierre Bettencourt (translated by Edward Gauvin)
“Jean Wants” by Alyse Wexler
“Molting” by Sarah Marie Kosch
“Tacky Goblin” by T. Sean Steele
“Network” by Jake Rawdin
“Greetings From” by Melissa Amstutz
“For All of Human History” by Katie M. Flynn
“Jerry” by Miles Greaves
“Some Things About Typewriters” by Cindy Hunter Morgan
“He Was Trying to Say Something and He Couldn’t Get It Out” by Kaj Tanaka

Good Storytelling

It’s the Thanksgiving holiday, which means that I get a nice long weekend to…well, catch up on work. But also! Binge-watch (for the fourth…or fifth time?) what quickly became one of my most favorite shows: Ted Lasso.

I’m very much a character-driven storyteller and story consumer, so when everyone started talking about this show (a show about soccer), I ignored much of what they had to say. I’m not even sure what made me finally sit down and give it a shot – but I am so very glad that I did. This story, which, yes, is about soccer (I know, I know – football), is about so much more than that. This is by far the biggest storytelling head fake (a term I borrow from the late Rancy Pausch) I’ve ever experienced.

Between trainings and matches and jokes about how terrible Ted finds tea to be, we get to witness some really lovely character arcs for a number of these people. Some who discover who they really are. Other who reveal their true selves bit by bit – but somehow are always portrayed just as they have always been (with these new discoveries having us chime in with a “but of course!”). Some tackle mental health. Others try and figure out who they are when the one thing they’ve always identified as has been taken away. There are genuinely lovely friendships formed. And, yes, jokes.

I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t yet (though I’ll give all kinds of advance warnings in case the f-word is a trigger for you).

Social Media

I think the fact that I’m still typing away in blog format tells you all you need to know about my age and feelings on all of these new social media apps. I remember when TikTok first came around, and I said no – for the first time. Partly, I was too tired to deal with yet another social platform. But also – I’m an introvert who posts photos of her cats and niblings and books she’s read – never herself. So videos? No, thank you.

With the recent unrest over at the birdie app, though, I’ve opted to go about and claim my username on a few other platforms (including TikTok…) so that I can make sure everything continues to match. In one instance (looking at you Mastodon), it was such a struggle just to sign up that I almost threw in the towel completely. CounterSocial? Hive? I’m sure dozens of others still out there…? It’s all too much, isn’t it?

Especially when I get irrationally irritated by the ones that don’t have any web-based options, purely apps. I’m officially old. If the blog didn’t tip you off, the want of a full keyboard and a large screen surely should. (*shakes fist in ‘get off my lawn’*)

So why do it? Why bother? Because I’ve come to really enjoy the writing community on Twitter, and I want to make sure I can join them if the birdie officials flees the nest. How are you all doing with these new social media apps? If you want to come find me, I’m @ByAmiMaxine (on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, CounterSocial, and Hive) (with the addition of @writing.exchange for Mastodon). Goodness…ten years ago, most of that last sentence would be complete gibberish…

First Drafts

I think this is a tweet all writers need to see:

Sometimes when I feel bad about a first draft I like to think about this behind-the-scenes sketch of the facehugger from Alien pic.twitter.com/5fVckkpmmV
— Stephanie King (@stephstephking) July 27, 2022

Meet Lucy’s (Adopted) Family

When writing Wherever Would I Be, it was really important to me that Lucy’s adopted family be loving and as trauma-free as an adopted family could be. This family was to be a safe haven for these children.

Lucy’s father, Luca, was a foster child himself, bounced around from home to terrible home before he was finally adopted by Grandma Fran (who is named for my own adopted grandmother – a woman who showed me SO MUCH love and support, especially in times when others told me not to expect her to). In the story, Grandma Fran believed that kids needed to be kids – and in order to do that, they needed love, safety, and support. And that is exactly what she gave to Luca. Because of this, it’s always been Luca’s wish to pay that forward. Luca is a social worker; his wife, Donna, is a professor at the University of Chicago (where the two met as students). Together, they create a big, beautiful family.

Along with Lucy, four other children have joined this family before we get to page one of the story. Lucy is the first adopted – but not the oldest. Her first sibling is an older brother (Terrence). For a while, it’s just the two of them, and they are kindred spirits. Three years before the story begins, the family adopts a set of five-year-old fraternal twins (Samuel and Marie). And then a year before the story begins, the fifth child is adopted at age seven (Ciro) – so when the story starts, he is still feeling his way into this world, learning to trust it.

Ciro laughing at the penguin sneezing.
Image, Unsplash, Duangphorn Wiriya

Unlike Lucy, all of her siblings know their birth families and the situations from which they were adopted. Because of their previous experiences (abuse, trauma, neglect), Lucy can’t help but wonder if it is indeed best that she doesn’t know where she comes from. (But, of course, she can’t help but be curious.)

Hummingbirds

I once had the extreme privilege of co-directing a study abroad to Costa Rica in 2015 (I had to look up the date, and my jaw fell at the realization this trip was that long ago!). I had always wanted to do a study abroad, but I didn’t have the money or the time in my undergrad schedule to do it. So when my colleague recommended I apply for the open position, I jumped at it. – and I am so very glad I did. My time in Costa Rica was so lovely. The people were so kind. The food (and fresh fruit juice) was beyond delicious. The students I was helping to oversee aided in some really important growth for myself. (I say that with a chuckle.)

And the country was ridiculously beautiful.

Costa Rica is where I learned to love coffee after thirty-two years of despising it. (Apparently, I just don’t like crappy coffee.)

Costa Rica is where I had the most delicious handful of chocolate that I ever had in my entire life.

And Costa Rica is where I held a hummingbird for the first time.

As a kid, I believed the myth that these birds never stopped moving unless they were sleeping. But then I saw one land on the hand of a young gentleman nearby – and I had to give it try. Sure enough, this little birdie took the opportunity to rest its wings while eating – which was also the moment I learned about the hummingbirds’ incredibly long little tongues.

One of the students saw me do this and came over to the feeder wanting to give it a try. She held her hand up, as still as could be, and when one of the hummingbirds landed on her, she exclaimed, “I’m a Disney Princess!”

Recently, a friend of mine shared this video on Facebook, which got me reminiscing. These are such interesting little creatures – and these shots of them are spectacular. I recommend checking out this video from National Geographic Magazine:

A Story a Day: Month Eleven

For this month, I chose (kind of) at random stories from Granta (I ended up needing to purchase a subscription to finish reading Month Three, so thought I’d use them again), the literary quarterly from Cambridge University. I say ‘kind of’ because I scrolled through their list and chose any story that I came across – but skipped over the excerpts because I wanted stand-alone stories. As with the previous ten months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along!

“Abandonment” by Ralf Webb
“Dogs of Summer” by Andrea Abreu (Translated by Julia Sanches)
“Bridge Over the Yallahs River” by Diana McCaulay
“Scream Queen” by Julia Armfield
“Welcome to the New World” by Jessi Jezewska Stevens
“The Nightwatch” by Mary Rokonadravu
“We Had to Remove This Post” by Hanna Bervoets (Translated by Emma Rault)
“Acts of Service” by Lillian Fishman
“Ghosts” by Adam Foulds
“National Dress” by Rebecca Sollom
“An English Opening” by Maxim Osipov (Translated by Alex Fleming)
“Staying In” by Lieke Marsman (Translated by Sophie Collins)
“The Rub” by William Hawkins
“The Kingdom of Sand” by Andrew Holleran
“How It Works” by David Hayden
“Borromean Rings” by Andrea Chapela (Translated by Kelsi Vanada)
“Two Nameless Women” by Cristina Rivera Garza (Translated by Sarah Booker)
“Small Girl Laundry” by Adachioma Ezeano
“Signal” by Zakia Uddin
“A Stiff Flame From the Neck” by Kathryn Scanlan
“Oldladyvoice” by Elisa Victoria (Translated by Charlotte Whittle)
“Just the Plague” by Ludmila Ulitskaya (Translated by Polly Gannon)
“A Place I’d Go To” by Kathryn Scanlan
“One Muggy Spring, Thanks, Dot and Secretly Try” by Diane Williams
“Ruins in Reverse” by Carlos Fonseca (Translated by Megan McDowell)
“Unbury Our Dead with Song” by Mũkoma Wa Ngũgĩ
“Travellers Inside the Marquee” by Eudris Planche Savón (Translated by Margaret Jull Costa)
“Uninhabitants” by Gonzalo Baz (Translated by Christina MacSweeney)
“Capsule” by Mateo García Elizondo (Translated by Robin Myers)
“Kingdoms” by Miluska Benavides (Translated by Katherine Silver)

My New Reading Lamp

Can I get real nerdy with y’all for a moment? ‘Cause I just got a new reading lamp, and I’m more excited about it than I probably should be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I remember when I went from living on campuses with my partner (who was a hall director, and therefore had to live on) to owning my own house – and suddenly having to buy lightbulbs for the first time in almost a decade. Bulbs had changed – and suddenly there were just SO many options. It was overwhelming.

Cut to me buying a lamp for the first time in eight years. [facepalm] Not only can I now control the brightness, I can control the color – from white to yellow?? As someone with light-sensitive headaches, this is a game changer. Lamps have come a long way, y’all. (Yeah, I realize I’m late to the game. Just let me nerd out a bit. ;-P )

Do you ever get really nerdy over things like this? What’s your nerdy thing?

Cover Design

Probably the thing that worries me most about self-publishing my second book is the cover. Not in the “will people love it” sense – but in the “what if I can’t get it to look how I want” sense, in the “what if I royally mess up the dimensions” sense.

I know – I know there are folks that you can pay to create covers for you (and that a LOT of places recommend not creating your own covers for various reasons). I get that. But I also know a lot of folks don’t have the money to pay for such work (if they are at the cover stage, they’ve probably already paid a chunk of money for editing). So I thought I’d share a couple resources that I’ve come across that are incredibly helpful. These resources are more about the particulars (like dimensions) of the cover rather than the design of it.

The first thing I would recommend is getting a Canva account if you haven’t already. You don’t need a pro account in order to design within Canva, though if you intend to use their images, you will be limited without it. If you are planning to use an image you own the rights to (either you have created it yourself or you have paid someone to create it), then no need to pay for the pro version. (If you are an author with social media and don’t already have a Canva account, trust me – it can be your new best friend. So easy, even without the paid version, to create posts for things like Instagram or Facebook; you can also create flyers and bookmarks – the Canva world is your oyster.)

The first resource is How to Create a Book Cover Using Canva. This will walk you through step by step, including signing up for Canva. So if you are worried because you’re a beginner, there’s no need. They’ve got you here.

The most important piece of information you will need in order to create your cover will be how many pages your book will be. (This means that you will have already had to format it.) Once you have that, you can hop over to How large should my cover be? After a few clicks for your specifications, click calculate – this will let you know how large the spine needs to be.

If you’re not at the stage where you know how many pages/how big to make the spine, I’d still recommend playing around in Canva, getting to know the program. Maybe even create a cover you’d like to have. You can then workshop it. Then, once you do have the size of the spine, you’re ready to go.