Elsewhere and meanwhile

Here’s the thing: I am not Austin Kleon or Adam Kurz or David Moldawer or any of the other amazing creativity gurus out there. I don’t have a national publisher or daily calendar or speaking engagements or even a new book coming out. (Okay, maybe Lichtenbergianism for Kids soon. Ish.) I’m just this guy, you know, safely ensconced in his small Southern hometown for his entire life, who decided to write a book about the creative process and ways to defuse that threat.

You may imagine my shock therefore when in the past month I have been tagged by actual authors as having been helpful to them in their creative lives. I mean, can a spot on NPR be far behind?

So pardon me while I brag for a moment.

Jaymie Gill writes “How to Use Procrastination as a Creative Strategy,” a complete rundown of the Precepts. I appreciated hearing another writer explicate what each Precept meant to him.

Christa M. Miller writes “When Life Throws Curveballs,” and she sounds a great deal like me trying to deal with All The Things.

Both of those blogposts were from early last year; I found them after the next two authors actually tagged me or got in touch with me and I got curious enough to actually Google Lichtenbergianism to see how it was faring in the wild.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Nick Parker, who very kindly credited Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy with getting him over a creative slump to write his On Reading. You can read his reaction in his newsletter. He was interviewed last week by Tom McCallum — which I missed, something about an election going on around here — who also wrote about Lichtenbergianism.

On Reading is a tautly written little volume that I enjoyed immensely and which I will give a fuller report on soon. Ish.

Finally, just as 2020 ended, Jay Bushman tweeted that reading Lichtenbergianism in 2019 challenged his precepts about creativity, and as a result his 2020 was disgustingly productive. (When I commented that he would certainly be Censured at the Society’s Annual Meeting, he wore it with pride.)

Bushman is what the likes of you and me would call “accomplished.” I mean, I haven’t won an Emmy, have you? His new book, Novel Advice, is very cleverly written; I began it last night and am already highly entertained. Again, a review will be forthcoming soon. Ish.

So while I had an extremely unproductive 2020, it seems my little book helped others Be Best. I will now go and ponder the Impostor Syndrome and how it relates to my plans for world domination.