Filtered Through Time Book Signing

Come and celebrate the release of Filtered Through Time, a brand new collection of Civil War-related poetry, fiction and photography, this afternoon!  Amy will be among the 50 featured authors at the event, as well as her photographer/poet friends Randy Foster and Robert McCurley.

Sunday, Sept. 30th, from 2 to 5 p.m.
Williamson County Public Library
1314 Columbia Ave.
Franklin, TN  37064

Meet the authors, get your book signed, and save $5 off the listed price!

Seth Godin:

Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong.  If you start, you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right.  But if you don't start, you never get a chance.

Poke the Box, p. 57

Doug Gross:

So, our phones are brutally efficient at addressing an ancient desire.  But is that always a good thing?  At Oxford, England's Social Issues Research Centre, researchers fear it is not.  In their view, by filling almost every second of down time by peering at our phones we are missing out on the creative and potentially rewarding ways we've dealt with boredom in days past.

"Information overload from all quarters means that there can often be very little time for personal thought, reflection, or even just 'zoning out,'" researchers there wrote.  "With a mobile (phone) that is constantly switched on and a plethora of entertainments available to distract the naked eye, it is understandable that some people find it difficult to actually get bored in that particular fidgety, introspective kind of way."

"Have smartphones killed boredom (and is that good)?"

Tim Kreider:

On the best ordinary days of my life, I write in the morning, go for a long bike ride and run errands in the afternoon, and in the evening I see friends, read or watch a movie. This, it seems to me, is a sane and pleasant pace for a day.

"The 'Busy' Trap"

Frank Schaeffer:

So whether you're an atheist or not, the issue of who's going to hell or not matters because there are a lot of folks on this planet – many of them extraordinarily well-armed – from born-again American military personnel to Muslim fanatics, who seriously believe that God smiles upon them when they send their enemies to hell.

"Different Takes: Should we abandon idea of hell? – My Faith: The dangerous effects of believing in hell"

Bill Cunningham:

If you don't take money [for your art], they can't tell you what to do.

Rita Mae Brown:

Once you start lumping people into groups, you rob them of their individuality.  It's easier to kill them if they're blacks or gays or Germans or Muslims.  But if instead of groups you are looking at individuals from those groups, William Raspberry or Ellen DeGeneres or Steffi Graf or Salman Rushdie, then those categories fade away.  You're faced with a complicated human being, like you in some ways and not like you in others.  The fun is finding one another out.

Rita Will, p. 474

Marion Dane Bauer:

I have learned that being honest with myself and others, even and especially when that honesty comes hard, is its own reward.

The Letter Q, p. 235

Austin Kleon:

... I put every really nice e-mail I get in a special folder.  (Nasty e-mails get deleted immediately.)  When those dark days roll around and I need a boost, I open that folder and read through a couple e-mails.  Then I get back to work.  Try it: Instead of keeping a rejection file, keep a praise file.  Use it sparingly -- don't get lost in past glory -- but keep it around for when you need the lift.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 115

Seth Godin:

How did you end up with this job?  Almost any time I ask someone that question, they answer with, "well, it's a funny story."  And it's not usually a funny story.  Instead, it's a story that juxtaposes a few unlikely breaks with unadorned initiative.  People get good gigs because they stand up.

Poke the Box, p. 51

Randall Kenan:

Do not waste a minute fretting over how they look upon you.  You have the power to define yourself -- remember that power; take that control.  It's like a superpower, really, to be whom you want to be, to do what you want to do, to fly where you want to fly.

The Letter Q, p. 242

Rita Mae Brown:

The difference between the Republican and Democratic Parties is the difference between syphilis and gonorrhea, a statement I am particularly fond of reading when I give speeches.

Rita Will, p. 69

Austin Kleon:

The worst thing a day job does is take time away from you, but it makes up for that by giving you a daily routine in which you can schedule a regular time for your creative pursuits.  Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 124

Benoit Denizet-Lewis:

Always remember: The more homophobic someone is, the more likely it is that they hate themselves.

The Letter Q, p. 198

Frank Schaeffer:

No one knows anything about the Big Questions, and what we "know" about our minuscule place in the universe, and even of our own lives, is spectacularly limited.  In other words, humility is in order, or, as the biblical writer of First Corinthians puts it: "And if anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know."

Patience With God, p. 8-9

Seth Godin:

One reason organizations get stuck is that they stick with their "A" players so long that they lose their bench.  In a world that's changing, a team with no bench strength and a rigid outlook on the game will always end up losing.

Poke the Box, p. 49

Howard Cruse:

... any artist's creativity rises to new levels of power when it's rooted in honesty.

The Letter Q, p. 169

Rita Mae Brown:

Book tours are like boot camp but with little sleep and less food.

Rita Will, p. 361

Austin Kleon:

Once you put your work into the world, you have no control over the way people will react to it.  Ironically, really good work often appears to be effortless.  People will say, "Why didn't I think of that?"  They won't see the years of toil and sweat that went into it.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 112

Jewelle Gomez:

First, the bad news: The mainstream publishing world will always marginalize you because it thinks no one cares what women of color have to say.  Now, the good news: If you care passionately about what we have to say, you'll love to write no matter how marginalized you might be, and you won't be alone out there on the margins.

The Letter Q, p. 146-147

Seth Godin:

Please stop waiting for a map.  We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them.

Poke the Box, p. 34

Rita Mae Brown:

My friends are all smarter than I am.  That may be the smartest thing about me: I surround myself with people who are above me and then I try to catch up.

Rita Will, p. 471

Paula Gilovich:

A couple things you should know.  All people up close are insane.  All lives are bizarre ... That said, however you can do it, earn the freedom to live exactly how you want, and let part of that living be purely of your own invention.  Nothing you've ever seen before.

The Letter Q, p. 225

Austin Kleon:

The trouble with creative work: Sometimes by the time people catch on to what's valuable about what you do, you're either a) bored to death with it, or b) dead.  You can't go looking for validation from external sources.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 112

Seth Godin:

If you hide your spark, bury your ideas, keep your questions and notions from the team, you have hurt them as badly as if you had stolen a laptop and fenced it on eBay.

Poke the Box, p. 64

Nick Burd:

When you realize that someone doesn't like you, don't dwell on it.  You do not need everyone to like you.  Anyone who feels they need to be liked by everyone most likely doesn't realize how exhausting this would be if it were to actually happen.  Be thankful that there are those who want to ignore you.  There is only one you.  Charge admission.

The Letter Q, p. 212

Hugh MacLeod:

The best way to be successful, in this hypercompetitive world of ours, is to find something you REALLY love doing and then kick ass at it. 

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 2

Rita Mae Brown:

Reading or going to the theater allows me to spend time with the best minds of many generations.

Rita Will, p. 431

Doug Wright:

Don't merely accept the fact that you were born gay; treasure it.  You have a proud legacy: Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Tchaikovsky, Gertrude Stein, Walt Whitman, Alan Turing, James Baldwin, Willa Cather, and Tennessee Williams, just to name a few.

The Letter Q, p. 41