The Scrawl

Joshua Griffin, the Senior High Pastor at Saddleback Church in sunny California, is running a contest this month at his blog, MoreThanDodgeball. I read Josh’s blog from time to time for ideas and philosophy on working with youth in a faith-based environment and when I saw a contest in which a youth group could potentially win five free sack chairs for their youth room, we just had to enter.

Your Friday Recommendation? Watch our new video! This is our second parody of “The Office” and we’ll probably do more this year. You can find episode one in two parts on my YouTube Channel. The only bummer about making these parodies of “The Office”? When I edit the videos and watch myself play Michael Scott, I’m not sure it’s acting!

Thanks for watching and have an excellent Labor Day Weekend,

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Today’s your last chance to enter the Scrawlers “Back to School” contest. Enter to win a copy of “On Writing” by Stephen King by 11:59pm CST. Full contest details are at Scrawlers.

Who will win?…

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If you like our “Back to School” free book contest, then you’ll love the rest of today’s post…

Philip Weiss*, a.k.a. “King Rat,” has scoured the Internet, found a slew of free book contests, and posted them at his blog, Rat’s Reading. I had no idea there are so many websites giving away books these days, but I’m glad to know now and we’re lucky King Rat is archiving them for us. He mentioned our contest and oh, and he’s running his own book giveaways, too.

Another great place to pick up free books is our oft-mentioned favorite virtual bookshelf, LibraryThing. They get early review copies from publishers and in turn pass them on to their registered users to read and hopefully review on their blogs and Amazon. It’s definitely a luck-of-the-draw situation as 350+ people will request one of the ten or so copies available. That said, I’ve picked up two (yeah, yeah, I need to review them here…) and it’s worth a shot.

* (According to Weiss’ bio, his nickname comes from the James Clavell novel, a piece of assigned reading in his high school days. I haven’t picked up any Clavell in a long time but man oh man, was Shogun one of my favorite books in middle school. I must have read that 1300-page spider-smacker a dozen times between 6th-8th grade. I could even speak the tiniest bit of Japanese that I picked up from that book. Well, perhaps not proper pronunciation but…)

Just a reminder that Scrawlers is running a “Back to School” contest for one lucky winner to receive a hardcover copy of “On Writing” by Stephen King. See this post or the Scrawlers contest page to learn how to enter and get the rules. Don’t miss your chance to win this inspirational memoir with practical advice on creative writing to gear you up for a season of good writing.

The contest ends at 11:59pm CST on August, 28, 2008.

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Today’s my first day teaching English at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN. I have three courses this semester, two composition and one English for academic purposes. That means I get to build on skills I’ve been using and honing the last two years plus diving into some new experiences and seeing what happens, too. On top of gaining overall teaching experience, the classes certainly are a resume builder, too – more teaching experience at a community college setting, teaching ESL students, and teaching online. So there’s definitely a challenge aspect here and more often than not, that’s an effective fuel for my creative fire.

Last week saw me busy putting finishing touches on syllabi, creating new lesson plans, and working on a manageable schedule to balance my new teaching duties with my current job at Excelsior UMC, not to mention speaking with Kelly so we have balance in our new marriage! I also did the whole meet-and-greet in the English department and paperwork pile in HR. People have been really welcoming and willing to help; I’m really getting a great teamwork vibe. It’s also nice to see familiar faces from my days at MSU – the super-cool Kris Bigalk and the super-awesome Kassie Duthie – and I’ve finally met MSU alumn, proven writer, and all-around nice guy, Thomas Maltman. There’s something to be said about working with colleagues who have a shared educational experience.

I’ll let you know how the first week goes, dear reader. Next week: the return of Your Monday Prompt and a few new surprises…

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It’s Friday and instead of me recommending something for you to read, I want you to recommend something to me. Use the comments to tell me about your summer reading list. What did you read for the first time? What did you re-read because you love a good story? I’d love to hear from you.

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We interrupt our infrequent blog posts about why we haven’t been blogging to bring you an official announcement for the “Back to School” Scrawlers Contest.

We’re giving away a hardcover copy of Stephen King’s “On Writing” to one lucky Scrawlers writer. One part memoir and one part meditation on craft, King delivers a well-written and inspirational book aimed at the young writer trying to rise above being a “merely competent” writer to become a good one. Readers will pick up King’s ideas on drafting, audience, generating story ideas, using life experience, and why reading is just as important as writing when improving one’s craft.

Scrawlers co-founder Nathan Melcher reads this book every summer right before the fall semester as an inspirational pep talk (the book literally becomes a “pep talk” when he listens to the audio version).

Using King’s book as encouragement has served him well and we hope to pass on that same possibility to you. This week at Scrawlers, enter for your chance to win “On Writing” by Stephen King.

HOW TO ENTER:

1. 1. Post a new story with the tag “writing” at Scrawlers between August 21, 2008 and 11:59pm CST on August 28, 2008. You may post one eligible story per day for a potential of up to eight contest entries based on your story posts.

2. 2. Post a comment on another writer’s story that meets the above specifications between August 21, 2008 and 11:59pm CST on August 28, 2008. You earn one entry per comment – only one of your comments per story is eligible. The potential for comment-based contest entries depends on how many other writers post stories during the contest.

We’ll announce winners by Monday, September 1, 2008. Good luck and get writing!

Learn more and get contest rules here.

I’ve been fortunate enough to perform at my sixth, seventh, and eight improv festivals this summer: I co-headlined the San Francisco Improv Festival over July 24-26, co-headlined at the Santa Cruz Improv Festival on July 27, and recently wrapped up a great show at the Milwaukee Improv Festival on August 9. Keen-eyed readers will notice I performed at two festivals on one trip. That is officially a tour. I am a touring artist, folks.

“The Uncle Ukulele Show” is a solo musical improv show which means when it comes to rehearsal this can be both a blessing and a curse. Getting an ensemble together to rehearse can be difficult due to people’s individual schedules and commitment levels. But if you’re a regular reader of this blog you know how time management is one of my greatest struggles, and for me, getting oneself to rehearse can be an even greater challenge. Circumstances for all three of these festivals demanded I step up and practice hard and consistently.

For starters, the San Francisco Improv Festival (SFIF) and Santa Cruz Improv Festival (SCIF) both asked me to perform forty-five minute shows. This was the first time I was asked to perform a solo improv show over twenty minutes and doubling my performance time was a daunting task. Both shows also listed me as headliner as opposed to simply part of the show and this made me want to stand and deliver. As for the Milwaukee Sketch & Improv Festival (MKIF), I’m their first Minnesota performer and one of the few solo improv shows in their three-year history and it was important to me to make my appearance there a strong show.

In short, that meant I had to put aside a few projects (including this blog) and really focused on practice, practice, practice.

My show is broken up into a series of rotating segments all linked together by the character. That means I can pick and choose which song genres to try, which storytelling opportunities to use, etc. For SFIF and SCIF I ended up using most of my repertoire and trying some new stuff, too. Working up a longer list of segments than I’m used to delivering in a single show meant giving them all more attention while hopefully not spreading myself too thin. To end the suspense, all of the California shows went really well and I can say without hesitation the show I did at MSIF was the best solo show I’ve ever done.

So what does all of this mean to me? I feel like I have tangible evidence of my creative growth as an improviser, performer, and producer. Improviser, in that I really tried to play off the top of my intelligence and do something great. Performer, as I took my characterization to new heights. Producer, in that I really stepped up the content of my show and made my focus giving the audience a great show. The lesson here for successful creativity is that when one puts in the work, man can it really pay off.

This post is an overview of my preparation and performance. I owe all three of these festivals a separate blog post, and I hope to get those up soon. In the meantime, let’s get onto some photos…

All photos are credited to the delightful, helpful, amazing Clay Robeson, save the last which is credited to my wife, Kelly Melcher. Click the pick for a bigger, higher-resolution photo.

That's me on stage in front of the "M" inspired San Francisco Improv Festival banners.This is officially one of my favorite improv festivals.

Yes, I do puppet shows. I'm also available for birthdays and bar mitzvahs.

I'm one of those performers who enjoys interacting with the audience as much as possible, even to the point of jumping off stage and getting out into the seating area. This shot is from the second night of SFIF and though it was a small house, it was definitely a fun crowd.

From the first night of SFIF. This young woman was a joy to have on stage. I asked her to join me for a sing-a-long and taught her a chord on a second ukulele. Not only did she do well (and impress her boyfriend), she and I talked about her deciding she wants to learn how to play a ukulele now. Spread the uke love!

You'll notice my new Lanikai S-TEQ electric tenor ukulele in these shot. Much to my wife's chagrin, I decided the week of our wedding was the perfect time to shell out some green for a new ukulele... I nabbed it at a low price from Rob at The Ukulele Shop. Expect a review soon.

This young woman seemed shy at first as she came on stage during the second night of SFIF. But wow did she surprise me when she got so into the sing-a-long to the point that we were leaning on each other, back to back, playing and singing together. If you ask me, she went back into shy mode when the crowd cheered for her at the end of the song.

Kelly took this great shot of me ready to rock out at SCIF. One of my favorite parts of the show is when I hook my ukulele up to an amp because I can hear people in the crowd whisper, "No way!" People don't expect an electrified uke and it makes rockin' out in the show so fun.

Stay creative, people.

-nm