February 2022 Newsletter | Julie Vick

Hello,

This month we drove up to the mountains for a ski trip and I am happy to report that taking kids skiing was less of a hot mess than it used to be. I mean, it's still kind of a hot mess because there is a lot of schlepping and some complaining and one kid had to come down the mountain to trade in snowboard boots after we had just gone up it, but it was like maybe only 20% hot mess compared to 80% hot mess on some previous trips. So what I'm saying is take kids skiing! It will only be a 20-80% chance of a hot mess.

This month I've got a Q&A with Aileen Weintraub whose new book comes out next month, some funny book recs, and even more skiing jokes!

Books, humor, and other distractions:

broti gupta @BrotiGupta Skiing is nuts. There’s an easier way to get down from there February 12th 2022 5,039 Retweets 99,250 Likes

• Funny show rec: Abbott Elementary. It's like The Office, but focused on the teachers at a Philadelphia public school.
• Funny books: The Thurber Prize for American Humor announced semi-finalists and I know one of the authors (Shannon Reed). I recommend checking out her book and I'm looking forward to reading the others.
• Funny audiobook for kids. Some of my kids' most-listened to audiobooks are Jeff Kinney's books. They regularly keep them entertained when we are at home or say, stuck in five hours of traffic in a snowstorm driving to a ski resort. We own some but also often check out others from the library. Checking out audiobooks from the library is magic!
• Short humor: This librarian humor piece made me laugh and had great specifics. Highly recommend.

Q&A with Aileen Weintraub

This month I talked to Aileen Weintraub, author of Knocked Down: A High-Risk Memoir that comes out on March 1st.

What is your book’s origin story?

After becoming pregnant, I had been placed on bed rest for five months due to Monster fibroids. It changed my life. It took away my autonomy, ended my career, and affected my marriage. When my son was five, I still hadn't really processed the trauma, so I began to write.

I knew so many other women had experienced bed rest, and I wanted them to know they weren't alone. It took ten years to write this book. I wrote on the school pickup line, I wrote while waiting at the doctor's office, and even in the bathtub. But I wanted my story to have light and space in the world, so I just kept at it until I had a solid draft.

What role does humor play in your life and/or writing?

My dad had a great sense of humor and I think he passed it on to me. It's very often how we connected and how as a family we got through some pretty tough times growing up. When a review of my book came out in Hadassah magazine they called me a humorist. I was so honored. Humor serves a very important purpose in my writing. My book is about a serious life-threatening topic, everything that can go wrong does, but even through the grief and tears, there are pockets of joy. We have to tap into those moments as much as possible. I use humor to connect with my readers and to provide levity during difficult situations.

In the book, there is a scene at my father's funeral, probably the saddest day of my life, and my mother loses her keys. We all look toward the grave to see if we're going to have to start digging. It sounds horrifying, but looking back, it's pretty funny. My father would have had a good laugh over it.

What is something you can recommend to readers that makes you laugh?

I love watching funny movies from the eighties and nineties with my son. Anything with Owen Wilson or Will Smith is always a good choice. I'm also loving Offspring on Netflix right now, which is more of a dramedy.

When I'm really down and need to cheer myself up my secret weapon is googling Texts Gone Wrong. I don't know why, but reading autocorrect fails cracks me up every time.

Thanks, Aileen! Read more about Aileen and her book here.

Writing-related roundup:

• Looking to write book reviews or interviews? Here is a recent market list.
• I know some writers who are stepping away from social media or certain channels recently, so I found this article about taking a break for a year interesting.
• I've wondered how useful blurbs are for books in the past, so I enjoyed this piece on the subject.
• I thought this Author's Guild webinar about book marketing had a lot of helpful info in it. Also, I'm in an author book marketing group that Dana Kaye, one of the panelists, runs and also got a lot of good tips from her book Your Book, Your Brand.

Request: On a different note, I'm thinking of hiring someone for a basic Wordpress website redesign. Do you know someone who might have experience working with writers' sites that will cost less than a kajillion dollars? Feel free to hit reply and let me know.

And since the Olympics have been on and this is turning into a bit of a ski-themed newsletter, please enjoy this (obviously extremely popular) old Tweet of mine as a sign-off. See you next month!

Julie Vick @vickjulie I mean, I’ve skied backwards too — it just hasn’t been intentional. #slopestyle February 18th 2018 1 Retweets 15 Likes

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