Dan Milstein and Bonnie Duncan, a married couple, can’t help being creative. Dan is an actor/director/theater company founder/computer programmer. Bonnie is a dancer/puppeteer/costume designer/trapeze artist/arts educator. But those labels are too limiting because every time I hear from them they are cultivating new slashes. Most recently, they have become indie YouTube filmmakers. Their debut short is Killing Time, soon to become a cult classic, I’m sure. They’ve got two more in production and I’ll post those as soon as they’re ready.

Here’s the film. Following it are excerpts from my email Q&A with the filmmakers. Wait to read it until you’ve seen the film as it kind of gives away the plot. I apologize for the funky spacing below..some kind of Blogger glitch I can’t seem to fix.
Read more »

Recently, I did something strange. I called a fellow journalist for something we would normally talk about through email. It was so odd that I started the call with a caveat, “I don’t usually pick up the phone, but it seemed about time we had a conversation.” She and I typically communicate by email, my preferred mode of communication with just about everyone in my life. It keeps me productive. But lately I have been so saturated with email that I am starting to relish all those conversations that I long ago relegated to email.

Clearly, my phone call got that colleague (Eve Tahmincioglu) thinking because she blogged about it at her new small business blog at MSNBC.com, which is worth checking out even if it didn’t have something to do with ME!

Months ago, when my book first came out, Gery Deer, from Ohio, wrote me one of my first real “fan” letters. Here’s how he started his note:

I have been a ‘slash’ as you call it my entire life. I have always had multiple interests and had more than one ‘job’ or ‘business’ running at a time. I wanted to thank you for putting down into words what describes my lifestyle. I have always bumped heads with ‘normal’ people and folks who believe that your occupation is who and what you are – period. To them, I’ve always seemed like someone with NO focus since I was capable of many.

What I loved about his note is that he included links to various URLs that helped explain the different things he spends his time on: an entertainment and talent referral agency, a computer consultancy (“supposed to be the breadwinner but is falling behind”), his whip artistry studio, the family band, and his freelance writing. It was all nicely explained in his online bio describing him as a writer/speaker/entertainer/consultant.
Read more »

I had a brief appearance on CNBC this morning talking about the rise in workaholism. As my mom commented, my piece is so short that you can miss it if you blink. But it was great practice. You can watch it here.

Ironically, I left my Blackberry in a taxi on the morning I taped this segment. It wasn’t returned and I was Blackberry-less for about four days that week. Aside from the initial few hours of withdrawal, those were the best four days of the past year. The Blackberry wasn’t returned and I had insurance so I got a new one within a week. Wish I could tell you I stayed off the wagon.

** Afraid of missing new posts to the Heymarci Blog? Why not just get the blog delivered to you by email? Just enter your email address into the box at the right and you’re all set!

Businessweek has a pretty comprehensive online package about second careers this week. You can read the whole group of articles here. They cover the usual ground — networking, informational interviews, inspiring stories of successful changes. But if you’re in a rut you might get some ideas. Most of the stories include a photo slideshow, a nice touch (except when the photos look like stock photo art or mutual fund ads.)

I spent the past few days in San Jose at the O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference , a techie-meets-publishing idea extravaganza.

My dear friend, Sarah Milstein, is one of the conference chairs, and she and Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, opened the event with an amusing romp through publishing innovations from the beginning of recorded time. (Sumerian tablets were nifty, but not too portable.) One of the highlights of their talk was a hysterical video called “Medieval Tech Support,” which has been making its way around publishing offices for some time.

If you haven’t seen it, watch it here.

The video captures the tone of the conference perfectly: new technology has always been a little scary for users; over time, we adapt and see its value.

I got a chance to speak with Wired editor and “Long Tail” author Chris Anderson in a panel about how publishers and authors can be better partners on book promotion. Some of the subjects we hit upon included:

• how to reconcile what might appear to be the misaligned interests of publishers and authors (e.g. Chris’s interest is promoting the Chris Anderson brand, which now includes earning income from speaking as well as from selling books, whereas his publisher might be primarily focused on selling books.) Upon further discussion, it became clear that these interests might not be misaligned.

• techniques for partnering and sharing innovative ideas with other authors and in the greater publishing community (what I am starting to call “Author School”).
• the need for all writers to become adept at self-promotion (for which we were properly challenged when an audience member questioned the wisdom of applying this same standard to fiction writers.)

It was a provocative discussion, the kind that left me with as many questions as answers.

Chris also talked about his latest slash, Booktour.com, a site he’s founded along with Adam Goldstein (who I coincidentally profiled in my book way back when Adam was a mere high school student/author/software developer) and Kevin Smokler (author/founder of Virtual Book Tour) where authors can list their upcoming events and potential audience members can search for events in their areas. Booktour would have been a godsend for me these past few months, but I plan to use it going forward for all my events. If you’re an author doing events, get there pronto. The site is still in Beta mode. I believe the official launch is next week.

Below is a small writeup about the panel on Mediabistro’s GalleyCat:

Tools of Change: Chris Anderson Will Take Your Call

Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson teamed up with NYT online career columnist Marci Alboher for a Tools of Change panel on getting more out of marketing with authors, and opened with a whammy: “All authors are underserved by the book industry,” he said of current marketing and publicity efforts. For the next half hour or so, the two discussed ways to change that situation, including building up an author’s “word-of-mouth in the permalink world” and giving authors the tools to become their own best marketers. “We need to destigmatize small success,” Anderson said, referrign to the disappointment some writers still feel when their book gets mentioned on a blog rather than in a newspaper’s book review section. And we need to look to the long term; “if an author is the best expert I can find for a topic in my column,” Alboher said, “I don’t care if the book’s three years old.”

In response to a query from the audience, Anderson made a bold promise, which he said when I introduced myself afterwards I can pass on to you: He’s willing to do a free conference call with any publisher who wants to discuss these marketing issues and bring their authors into the conversation. “As long as I don’t have to get on a plane,” he quipped.

I’ve just spent a few days in Denver, where I’m happy to report that the low humidity does wonders for those of us prone to the hair frizzies. In other news, Denver was also home to a some very slash-receptive audiences and even a spot on local tv, so that’s always nice.

Here’s the link to my appearance on the Denver morning news.
http://www.9news.com/life/programming/shows/mornings/article.aspx?storyid=71943
(I’m told this will expire in 30 days so please watch soon!)

On Wednesday, Carol Ross, a career coach who specializes in Boundary Crossers, interviewed me for the Northwestern University Alumni Club. Carol’s work is very innovative and she has an excellent blog worth a visit. And last night, I organized a salon called “The Secret Lives of Writers” through the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, which is hosting a great two-week LitFest. If you’re anywhere near Denver and interested in writing, get yourself over to the Lighthouse site and sign up for some workshops and panels. More information on that here.

The New York Law Journal covered my book today in this article, “Lawyers Find Bliss in Pursuing Alternate Careers” (not sure if the registration will let you in, but if it doesn’t, I’ll see if I can post it to my website.) This is shaping up to a pretty perfect Friday! I’m now turning off the computer and getting ready for a walk in Washington park with my old friend Jen before hopping on the plane.

** Carol Ross also blogged about her interview with me. You can read it here.

My book has been out for a few months now and I’ve had several chances to experience playing the media subject instead of the interviewer. I’ve learned a lot from it. Still, each time I do an interview and then read the article, I brace myself to see what the reporter got wrong — or more often, chose to emphasize out of all the words we exchanged. What’s more, it’s always fascinating to see a story that’s told when you know — from being there — that there was much more to the story.

Last week I traveled to Philadelphia for a book event at a very unusual book club. The host, Amy, selects the books and often she invites the authors to appear for a discussion, either by phone or in person. For my book, I offered to bring in a few of the local book subjects since I had three inspiring slashes who lived nearby. Amy agreed and allowed me to lead a panel discussion about the book with Jamie Donegan – theater producer/landscape designer, Debbie Epstein Henry – lawyer/work-life expert/mother, and Joe Van Blunk — longshoreman/documentary filmmaker/dad.

Debbie Henry invited Jan Von Bergen, a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, and we had no idea whether she’d find the idea interesting enough to cover. Thankfully, she did. She showed up, along with a photographer, and wrote a vivid account of the evening.

The Phenomenon of Slash Careers

If you were there, you’d know that Jane, the reporter, rather kindly left out some of the events details. Moments after finishing the panel discussion and Q&A, I started feeling light-headed and queasy. I thought I was going to pass out (something I have a tendency to do) and quickly excused myself to the powder room. You don’t need to know the rest, but it wasn’t pretty. After that episode, I’m told I emerged looking fairly “peaked.” And just about then, Jane came at me with some of her most thoughtful, challenging questions. “Isn’t slashing really a positive spin on the fact that we have a health insurance crisis and people are taking many jobs to get by?” I was in no shape to answer Jane’s smart questions and I pretty much lied down on the sofa while she talked to Joe, the longshoreman, whom she had wanted to meet for years. She could tell from my white face that I wasn’t just evading.

I knew she had a few days to file the story so I called her when I got back to New York the next day and told her I’d be happy to talk further. Thankfully, she listened.

When I first started writing, I had an inordinate number of mentors. One of them, Tamara Loomis, was about a year ahead of me on the law-to-journalist train and I thought I would never catch up. Tamara treated me as a peer from the start, made time for all my silly questions, and inspired me by the way she quickly became a professional, and then by the ways she continued to reinvent herself — first as a legal reporter for The New York Law Journal, then as a freelancer/new mom. But now I think she’s found her calling, as a snarky, smarty pants daily columnist/blogger for Cookie Magazine, the hippest of the parenting pubs. Even if you’re not a mom, you’ll agree that First Feeding is good stuff.

So, in honor of Mother’s Day, I give you Tamara!

This morning I had my Tuesday morning radio visit with Karen Salmansohn on her terrific show, The Be Happy Dammit Hour, on Sirius Satellite radio’s, Lime Channel 114.

We talked about the hows to introduce people – a subject I think about often. Meeting people is both part of my personality and part of my job as a journalist. But lately, as I’ve been promoting the book, I’m meeting even more people than usual. And many of those are people that friends and colleagues have told me I “need” to meet. These conversations start off much the same. There’s a conversation — or an email — in which Person X tells me I need to meet Person Y.

From there, it goes down a few paths — and here’s where I could use the help of a flow chart designer or some tool in addition to words (That’s a slash I haven’t mastered yet, so you’re stuck with mere words. Should a design-oriented reader care to illustrate this for me, I’d be more than happy to post it!)

Path #1 — Person X then writes a lovely email to Person Y raving about me before I’ve even had a chance to ask how to proceed, ensuring that person Y is receptive to my contact when it arrives. This delightful behind-the-scenes maneuver can also happen through phone calls or in-person meetings. X might copy me on the email (open or blind) or forward it after the fact, whichever her style.

Path #2 — Person X suggests that I contact person Y myself using Person X’s name — the old “referred by X” method. This has mixed results and usually means that Person X doesn’t know person Y all that well or is kind of luke warm about me. It can also mean that Person X is overextended and swamped. Or a bad networker.

Path #3 — This is my current favorite. In this version, Person X doesn’t even bother to tell me the wonderful, generous introduction she’s making on my behalf. She just does it. Then suddenly, like a tulip in spring, person Y contacts me or shows up in some way, eager to make my acquaintence. Someone recently did something in this category for me and it made me realize that this method far outdelivers any other.

That said, there are plenty of times when I resort to paths #1 and #2 myself. And plenty of times when those are enough.

Oh, I guess I left out Path #4 — That’s the one where Person X tells you they want you to meet someone and never does anything about it. Never sends you Person Y’s contact details. Never mentions it again. Acts like it never happened. Lots of things could be going on here. Most of them are bad.

I have a feeling I might amend these over time, especially after if I get some comments. So please, comment.