How NOT to Write an Author Bio (Friday Fun)

I just finished the final edit on an article for the new CT Women publication. Hooray!

I was asked to write a 2-3 sentence bio to accompany the article. Anti-hooray.

It’s really not a big deal, but when I get asked this I start wondering…

…How do I avoid screwing this up?
…How do I avoid sounding pretentious, presumptuous, or pompous? 
…Simultaneously, how do I avoid undermining the authority of my argument or the value of my broader body of work?
…What would be helpful for people to know? 

Problem was that last night I had just finished a whole day sitting in a conference and my brain was too fried to answer these questions, or at least answer them with any modicum of seriousness. So I let my creativity flow, and thought you might enjoy seeing some first drafts.

Emily Capo Sauerman is a person. Sometimes she does stuff.

Emily Capo Sauerman is a writer, editor, photographer, videographer, designer, globe trekker, amateur chef, pumpkin carver, TV binger, tea snob, and a wannabe success story.

Emily Capo Sauerman is a writer and designer who lives in Nashville, TN and does not know why.

Emily Capo Sauerman saved her family from the wreckage of a sinking battleship. (Royal Tenenbaum, anyone?)

Emily Capo Sauerman is a work in progress. It’s bad form to judge works in progress.

Emily Capo Sauerman does not know who she is so stop asking.

Emily Capo Sauerman spends her time avoiding bananas, looking for freelance gigs, and planning world domination.

Emily Capo Sauerman hopes one day to feel comfortable in her own skin.

Emily Capo Sauerman would like to know who let the dogs out woof woof woof woof

Emily Capo Sauerman has written the definitive work on…oh wait, that’s the future and I’m not allowed to tell you.

 

30×30 COMPLETED!

I made it to 30, in more ways than one. Over the last several weeks I’ve been on a quest to make 30 things more or less from scratch with March 4, my 30th birthday, as the deadline.

CONQUERED!

I have linked to the remaining items below. See my first and second and third and fourth updates.

Here is the final list of things MADE, with the update number in parenthesis:

1. A Latte (0)
2. Peter’s music video (1)
3. A Shadow Puppet (3)
4. A Logo (4)
5. A Mosaic (1)
6. A Necklace (1)
7. A Peking Duck (3)
8. A Renaissance Feast (2)
9. My Renaissance Costume (2)
10. Josh’s Renaissance Costume (2)
11. A Tiered Cake (2)
12. A Swedish Meal (4)
13. A Baby Hat (4)
14. A Documentary on the Renaissance Party (Watch Below)
15. A Sculpture (4)
16. A Dog Toy Prototype (4)
17. A Food Story + Recipe for Josefin (3)
18. A Standing Souffle (1)
19. A Short Story
20. A Chalkboard (4)
21. An original Ukulele song, recorded (hear below)
22. A Musical Cover, recorded (hear below)
23. A Dog Collar (4)
24. A Comic Strip (4)
25. Kintsugi (4)
26. A Decision on a New Computer 
27. Cheesy Grits (4)
28. Semlör (Swedish Pastry) (4)
29. An Epic Poem
30. Creative Writing Portfolio

 

My musical cover…may God spare your ears…

My original song…may God spare your ears…though he might not because it is Psalm 139 set to music…

The Elizabethan Murder Mystery Documented:

30 by 30 Challenge: Make 30 new things by my birthday

So……I have 39 days left of my twenties. To put it diplomatically, I have mixed feelings about this.

As I wrestle with the “should haves” from the last decade, one wish is that I had spent more time making stuff. Growing up, when we asked our mom to buy us a treat of some kind, more often than not she would say, “We can make that.” This shaped all three of us siblings, even if many of those times we never made the thing we wanted to buy. Today, we all approach needs that arise with the question, “How might I make that?” It meant so much to my sister, in fact, that she tattooed “I can make that” on her wrist, a permanent reminder of her identity as a creator.

Making more things, I think, will be a goal of my thirties. I want to spend more time doing than just thinking about stuff I could do, more time creating than consuming.

Enter the Mega Maker Challenge.

The other day my friend Tony pointed me toward a podcast by designer Justin Jackson who is undergoing a challenge to make 100 new things in 2016. He is inviting his audience to take part, and it seemed fitting to ramp up to year (gasp!) 30 by likewise making a bunch of stuff. This makes a lot of sense to me because…

1. I feel best when I am doing creative work.
2. Because Todd Henry, author of the Accidental Creative, advocates for unnecessary creating, i.e. creating that is not required for an assignment, to ensure our passions are fed and playtime is incorporated into our routine.
3. Because I want to build a habit of making things regularly, and according to The Happiness Advantage author Shawn Achor, you need to do something for at least 21 days to build a habit.

With these reasons in mind, I am going to challenge myself to make 30 new things before turning 30. Below is my list with a few explanations. For the record, I reserve right to change list items, so long as I complete making 30 new things by March 4.

1. Latte (Already done! I’m not a big coffee drinker so this is a big deal. I made it with brown sugar, by the way, which was very yummy.)
2. (Finish making) Peter’s music video. My friend Peter McKeown, also known as Woodferd, and I have begun producing a second music video. See the first here.  
3. Shadow Puppet. I’ve wanted to make one since seeing a performance in Cambodia. I started one a while ago. I’m gonna finish it.
4. Story infographic. In my quest to understand Story, I want to create a graphic that illustrates the necessary components of a story arc. Plus I’ve always wanted to make an infographic.
5. Artsy map of Nashville. These already exist, but they leave all of Donelson and Southern Nashville out. For shame. We live in Southern Nashville on purpose, thank you very much.
6. Standing soufflé. Julia Child done me wrong. I can’t get a soufflé to stay poofy. I will prevail!
7. Short Story
8. Tiered Cake. Never made one. Always wanted to. Fortunately I have a renaissance party coming up soon that will need a cake, as well as a…
9. Renaissance Costume
10. Children’s book 
11. Food Prep video. Edible wants to begin experimenting with these. Game on! 
12. Photo Essay. This might be way harder than I want it to be, but we will see. Anyone have ideas for subject matter?
13. Recipe + Story for Josefin. My dear Swedish pen pal and I are going to start sending each other recipes with the stories behind them included. Maybe one day we will have enough material for a cookbook!
14. Swedish Meal. My dear Swedish Pen Pal gave us a Swedish cookbook for Christmas. We need to get cracking.
15. An Epic Poem. This will be epic mostly in style rather than length. Ideas for subject matter?
16. Side Table. I need more of these.
17. Song for ukulele. How hard could it be? 😉
18. Peking Duck. One of my favorite Chinese dishes.
19. Creative Writing Portfolio. Need to compile my best stuff in one place. Any nominations for past blog posts?
20. Logo. Never made one. Want to try.
21. UofC swag. Proud of my alma mater.
22. Continent Cutouts Photo Project. I painted our bedroom blue with the idea we could cut out shapes of the continents in wood and connect photos of the places we’ve been to their corresponding locations.
23. Lamp. Need more.
24. Wood carving. Might try to start a nativity scene.
25. A hat. 
26. Mocumentary
27. Comic Strip. Drawing scares me, especially when it comes to cartoonish styles. This will definitely stretch my comfort zone.
28. Kintsugi. This Japanese concept involves repairing broken items, usually pottery, in beautiful ways. I have a bowl I love and I want to give this a try.
29. Musical instrument 
30. Jewelry, preferably from some unusual raw materials.

Here goes! Wish me luck and join the challenge yourself!

Sojourn into Story, Part I: Chasing the Elusory Craft

As many people in the movie industry will tell you, “Story is King.” That’s nice. Thing is, telling a good story is no cakewalk, and those movie people prove that ALL THE TIME (CoughAvatarcough). True, some people seem particularly gifted for breaking down a sequence of events and describing them in an engaging way, and it appears so simple and effortless. But understanding specifically what they do and how it works can get extremely complex. To show this, ask a bunch of writers about their writing process, and I bet you every answer will be different and–more often than not–fluffy, incoherent, and useless. They will say things like, “Write what is in your heart,” or “Write every day and don’t care about how bad the product is.” Thanks a lot. Once I attended a conference where the emcee asked a musician how he wrote his lyrics and this was his response: “You know how when you wash dishes and the bubbles rise up from the sink and you know that if you look directly at the bubble it will pop so you just try to glance at it through the sides of your eyes? That’s where my lyrics come from.” This was, obviously, a ridiculous thing to say, but the musician is not alone in his feelings. I have met many artists who stand by the elusive, organic, and serendipitous nature of their creativity. They talk about it almost as something happening to them, rather than a process they control. To be sure, I experience this unexplainable inspiration myself regularly, but I also know that structure, format, and technique are critical concepts to hone. I also know that good stories have traits in common, and I want to find out what they are.

To this end, I’ve been researching Story for several years now, pursuing questions like, ‘What is story?’ and ‘What is the difference between a story and an anecdote?’ and ‘What are the elements of a GOOD story?’ among many others. I’ve read several books including Story, by Robert McKee (A highly technical breakdown of storytelling craft through the lens of screenplays) and Do Story: How to tell your story so the world listens, by Bobette Buster (A story consultant’s top ten techniques of storytelling). I attended a filmmakers’ workshop that promoted an 8 step process for telling real stories, usually in a documentary. This fall, I participated in a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) in creative fiction. Most recently, I attended a writers’ workshop on Magical Realism. Most importantly, I have also started to write my own stories. I have learned a lot. I still have a lot to learn.

Why should you care? Let’s put it this way: Imagine you have something you want to say, something to get off your chest. You want it to have impact, to mean something to people hearing it. You have three choices:

1. Describe your emotions
2. Argue
3. Tell a story

As to the first, let’s face it: people have only so much patience for others’ feelings. As for arguing, this only works when you have an audience willing to argue with you, which seems to happen less and less in our social media-crazed, soundbite-obsessed world. Interestingly, stories are the best way to show (instead of tell) emotion, and the best arguments are the ones that incorporate stories. We can conclude, therefore, this mantra: Master Stories, Master the World.

Learning how to tell good stories is a worthy quest. Please join with me as I chase this wily vixen of a subject, Story. This is Part I. Stay tuned for more in the upcoming weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Story Time!

I finally wrote a short story! Woo hoo!

This is a big deal for me for a number of reasons. To begin, I have been reading a lot over the last few years about what makes a story a story. If you think about it, the craft is incredibly complex, as are many processes that try to yield simple outcomes. I will be sharing more about my findings in the future. But as to writing my own stories, I had let my own over-analysis inhibit my creativity. I also carried some particularly hurtful negative feedback around with me for years before realizing I didn’t have to believe it. I decided I needed some structure if I wanted to get back into creative writing, so for the last few weeks I have been following along with a fiction writing MOOC (massive online open course). The prompt for the story below was ‘A lady gets on a bus with a dog in her purse; the dog is wearing a bow that matches the lady’s sweater.’

Enjoy! Happy Friday!

One Day on the CTA

A CTA bus is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

I clambered onto the bus at Clybourne and Armitage on my way to visit a friend who lived in a western neighborhood. I beeped my bus pass and made my way down the aisle, dodging a lady toting her groceries. I found a seat toward the back near a hipster girl in the requisite flannel, her head encased in grapefruit-sized headphones.

After realizing I had forgotten my own headphones, I let my gaze drift from the window to the other passengers. A yuppy father cooed to the baby strapped to his chest. Further up, a young African American woman with a textbook in her lap struggled to concentrate under the uncomfortably steady glare of the tall, hulking man sitting next to her. The man’s eyes looked out in different directions. He breathed heavily, his lips twitching as if he wanted to say something. The woman glanced up at him several times before making up her mind to change seats.

The bus stopped and did the pneumatic kneeling thing it does when letting on disabled passengers. Up stepped an itty bitty woman with bright white hair that swooshed just so around a leopard-print poof hat. I noticed I was not the only one eying her as she fussed through her voluminous purse digging for her bus pass. Her bracelets jangled loudly as she searched, and each time her round glasses slipped down her nose she pointed her face upward, sniffed, and slid the bridge of the glasses up her long nose with hyper extended fingers. To add to the spectacle, the fluffy face of a Pekingese popped out of the lady’s bag and began yapping. The animal wore a red bow on its head that matched the sweater on his back that matched the booties on his feet that matched the sweater worn by its mistress. At last, the woman located her pass, beeped it, and settled herself down in the seat the African American lady had just vacated, next to the man with the crazy eyes.

The woman seemed not to notice or care that she held a captivated audience. She was too busy speaking sweet nothings to the dog in her bag. She bounced the dog on her lap and stroked its head and fed it treats. “Oooo what a good little boy you are, yes you are, yes you are!” she gushed. Nearby, Mr. Crazy Eyes stared fixedly at her, his chest heaving and his face issuing a look of deepest disgust. She continued to praise the dog and produce treats for him to guzzle. “Oooo you make mummy so proud, yes you do, yes you do! My little baby boy, such a good boy, yes you are, yes you are!”

With every handful of treats she produced, Mr. Crazy Eyes fumed more vehemently. His body twitched and his lips spasmed liked he was practicing ventriloquism. The lady still took no notice. Then, out of her bag, she pulled a huge hunk of steak and held it up to the pup who swiftly sunk his teeth into the meat. This was too much for the man.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” yelled Mr. Crazy Eyes, getting to his feet and leaning over the lady and her dog. “HUH? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Feeding perfectly good steak to a dog when there are children dying of hunger on the streets of this very city! Ever think to look around you? Huh? Ever think there might be real children to care for? NOooooo! Of course not! You think this DOG is your child! You blithering old freak! You snobbish, dog-crazed piece of…Oh!”

He stopped his rant suddenly and looked up, his demeanor completely altered. He yanked on the stop wire. Hurrying to the back door he waited for the bus to come to a complete stop. He wore a serene expression, seemingly unaware of the stunned onlookers. Everyone on the bus watched him disembark and trot eagerly toward the building on the corner and go inside. As the bus pulled away, we could all read the sign on the building.

“West Side Shelter for Cats.”

The Hellish Life of a Writer, according to Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl

From a very young age I adored Roald Dahl. I devoured all of his books, several of them many times over. I befriended the BFG and Willy Wonka and abhorred the Trunchbull and the Twits. I loved the whimsey of all of the books (except The Witches…never read it…too scary) and appreciated how tangibly, and sometimes grotesquely, Dahl could describe a scene.

I recently reread Boy, Dahl’s childhood memoirs, remembering that I liked it when I was young. I wondered how I differently I would view it as an adult. My first impression was one of shock; most of the book describes in gruesome detail the school whippings Dahl and his friends endured. I had no memory of so much child abuse in that book. Dahl seems to be part of a club of authors, along with Lewis, Orwell and, I’m sure, many others, who never forgot the injustices of boarding school discipline. Apart from the descriptions of little boys’ striped bottoms, I am glad to have read Boy again. My second impression affirmed my liking of Roald Dahl in the first place. His pacing of storytelling is excellent. I got swept up in the flow and dearly wanted to hear the end of each of his anecdotes. His details are wonderful; I can see the whole scene in front of me from the twitching orange mustaches to the gnarled cracked knuckles of the dirty hand reaching into the candy jar. There is so much to emulate in Roald Dahl’s style.

But the most impactful take-away from this second reading comes from a passage at the end of Boy in which Dahl takes a sudden tangent from his story to bemoan the life of a writer:

“The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze… a person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” (BOY, 171-172)

According to Dahl, the writer lifestyle does not sound very nice. As with any creative profession, the task of creating on cue weighs very heavily on the writer. It demands focus and drive and persistence. There is no structure, as with other professions, on which a writer can rely. He or she must create it alone. They risk the alienating consequences of going to imaginary places during the work day. But, is it just me, or is there an undertone of grim satisfaction? There is something enticing about this description. At least for me, he fails to warn me away from writing as a profession. I feel, instead, a (masochistic?) attraction to what he says. Being drained doesn’t scare me if it means I created a new world or lived through the lens of a new character. As a creative, I already live in a world of fear–fear of disappointing myself and others, fear of coming up short–this is nothing new to me. Am I such a fool? Absolute freedom. I’ll take that. Thank you, Mr. Dahl.

I’m in Edible! (and I’m INedible!)

I’m published in Edible Nashville Magazine! The September/October issue, now sweeping the city off its culinary feet, has TWO articles by yours truly. I’m so pleased!

Edible, a national magazine, is published locally in more than 80 different cities around the country. While each city follows a similar focus on its respective local food scene, each publication has its own flavor, and I am very pleased to be a part of the Nashville team. The editor regularly shares a goal for the magazine which I fully support: Get more people cooking. The magazine seeks to increase curiosity about food and where it comes from, and not just among the elites and the foodies, but for anyone who wants to try something new. The magazine strikes a balance between trendy and accessible, high quality and affordable, and does so while always looking beautiful. Since last January when it started, each issue has enticed readers with stories about farmers, chefs, and events, along with intriguing recipes and delectable photography. If you are local, go find a copy! If you live elsewhere, here is a digital version for you to peruse.

As to my articles, I could not have been happier with the subject matter. The first, titled The Home Cook, is a new column in Edible that features a Nashvillian in his or her own kitchen perfecting his or her own recipe of a favorite dish. My assignment for this issue was to divine the ultimate zucchini bread recipe. To do this, I researched many different recipes and baked three very different samples for friends and family to try. From these guinea pigs I collected feedback on what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they expect out of their zucchini bread. Read the article to see what I learned and to get the recipe for Emily’s Ultimate Zucchini bread.

In some ways, I am even more pleased with my second second article. I was assigned to cover a local farmers market to give it some hype. The story that I got was more than I could have hoped for. I learned that this farmers market got started by just three people wanting to help their community back in 2009. Their group, Hip Donelson, is now going on 20,000 followers and their market welcomes more than 3,500 people a week. As if this story wasn’t nifty enough, one of the gentlemen I interviewed stopped short and ran off to go join a flashmob in the middle of the market. I called the article Radishes and Renaissance. Enjoy!

Photo Friday: Along the Coast of Maine, Part II

This is Part II of a series. See Part I. Part III coming next week!

I have wanted to go to Maine for a very long time. People who have been there get this dreamy, far away-look in their eye when Maine is called to memory, so I knew there had to be something to it. I was not disappointed. On this very productive trip I crossed off a bucket list destination, hit two new states (Maine and New Hampshire), and collected another national park.

Here are some more photos of the journey. I last left you when we arrived at Acadia National Park.

See this rock face? We climbed it. Beehive Mountain. There were steel ladder rungs bolted into the side of the rocks making it, I won’t say easy, but easier to scramble up.

We were enveloped by clouds at the top and could only just make out Sand Point.

Sand Point when the clouds cleared.

Amphitheater Bridge, crossing a stream in style. Way to keep it classy, Mr. Rockefeller. 

View from the Jordan Pond house, where we had a fantastic lunch and sampled the famed popovers.

A surprise waterfall.

Nature!

Mosses!

Beside Still Waters.

The sun came out!

DIY Chopped

Chopped, Food Network

My husband and I first saw the Food Network show Chopped shortly after getting married. We were vegging in a hotel room, flipping channels, when we came across the show in all its intense, creative, culinary glory. We both sat bolt upright and said, “We must do this!” A few weeks later found us in our neighborhood grocery store, each armed with our own shopping basket, ready to befuddle the other.

If you haven’t seen the show, here is how it works: four chefs are given four mystery ingredients with which they need to create a dish. There are three timed rounds–appetizer, entree, and dessert–and one chef is eliminated (chopped) after each round, leaving one victor at the end. Competitors can use anything they find in the pantry to create their dish, but they must include all four ingredients and impress the judges with their creativity, execution, and presentation. I highly recommend the show, even if you aren’t an avid cook. The show focuses on the creative process, and it is easy to get hooked.

In our DIY version, we pick out four mystery ingredients for each other, with one of us assigned to an entree and the other to dessert. Anything goes in terms of ingredients, though the choice is tempered by knowing I have to eat this too. We don’t have a time limit because that would be neither practical nor fun. We go to the store and split up to look for the mystery ingredients. We reconvene and present the other with our devious choices. We then split up again, collecting anything we think we might need that we don’t already have in our fridge or pantry. Once at home, we get to work.

I’m gonna brag a little now, so be warned: Josh once had me make dessert with dates, yogurt, raspberrry sauce, and CACTUS. Read: dessert with cactus. What would you do? I made whoopie pies! I whipped up a cactus mousse filling swirled with raspberry sauce and sandwiched it between two date cookies made with yogurt. I am still really proud of that one.

I am also proud of our most recent Chopped challenge. This time, my friend Jill came to visit and surprised us with four Chopped ingredients as a gift. We went to the store and got other mystery ingredients for us all to play with. Josh was assigned the appetizer, I had the entree, and Jill had the dessert. Here is what we did:

JOSH’S APPETIZER
Mystery ingredients: purple string beans, mizuna (Japanese Mustard greens, Spanish Chorizo, and goat cheese.
Result: Chorizo papusa with a purple bean relish and a goat cheese crema. 

MY ENTREE
Mystery ingredients: Lamb steak, parsnips, pickled ginger, and blood orange juice
Result: Stir fried blood orange lamb with snow peas and parsnips two ways (french fried and candied ginger parsnip chips)

JILL’S DESSERT
Mystery Ingredients: coconut flakes, toasted marshmallow-flavored hot cocoa mix, fortune cookies, and canned goat milk.
Result: Individual flan pies with a coconut cookie crust and topped with a chocolate ganache

Latest Video: Leaven Bread by Rain for Roots

How would you like to film people baking bread, making art, and playing with adorable children?

Um, Heck YES!

You know, this freelance thing might be hard, but sometimes a super fun project falls right in your lap, and you find yourself suppressing your giggles because you are shaking the camera.

A few months ago I was asked to do this video for a music group called Rain for Roots featuring Sandra McCracken, Flo Paris, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Bowser and Alice Smith. They produced an album called, “The Kingdom of Heaven is Like This,” which musically illustrates biblical parables for kids. They have been producing videos in different styles to give visuals as the kids follow along with the music. I had the privilege to produce the video for the song, “Leaven Bread,” and film two families baking bread together. Here is the final project:

For the sake of this creativity blog, here a few comments about the storyboards I did for this project:

1) Storyboards give confidence. Normally for my video projects, I create an outline with the shots I want to get, but I also leave a good bit open to day-of serendipity. This time around I did complete storyboards. Once these were approved by the client, I not only had a complete list of shots I needed to collect, but I also had more confidence that I was on the right track in terms of the client’s vision for the project. The storyboards created a mid-point check in so that both the client and I could feel comfortable about the filming plan.

2) Storyboards give context to the “Talent.” I brought the storyboards to the shoot and, boy, was I glad I did. Not only did we have six young kids who all wanted to know what was going on, but one of the mothers had limited English, so communication could have been very difficult. The pictures proved invaluable in explaining to this mother what I was going to be doing in her house. It also got the kids really excited to see the story they were about to act out.

3) Storyboards keep you on track. So, Kids move. A lot. It’s distracting. Another reason I was happy I did the storyboards was because there were six kids running around a tiny kitchen during the shoot. I could only catch so much in the moment, and I had a linear story to tell. Having the complete storyboards with me helped me film nonlinearly while making sure I didn’t forget anything.