SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• Why I paused my current urban fantasy series to revive my YouTube channel
• Where to find my new nonfiction book
• Which new audiobook of mine just entered production
• Questions from a listener about my childhood

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to episode 12 of the podcast.

Writing News

I’ve paused my Sound Mage Sonata series for a little while because I’ve decided to bring back my YouTube channel, Author Level Up. I’ll talk more about that in next month’s writing life episode, but I decided to bring the channel back because it was very successful for me with a large amount of subscribers continuously asking me for content.

So at the moment I’ve written about 50,000 words in video scripts, and I’ve upgraded my video gear with a new DSLR camera, lights, and programs to help me take the channel to the next level. I plan to create a business around it. More on that in the coming weeks.

So while I haven’t written much fiction, I have been writing quite a bit.

Also, the audiobook for Old Evil, Book 2 of my Last Dragon Lord series, is underway!

And finally, my newest writing book, Be a Writing Machine, is now available wide, so you can buy it at Barnes & Noble, Apple, or wherever you buy your books. You can find it at www.michaellaronn.com/beawritingmachine.

Marketing News

It’s been a quiet marketing month for me. But April was pretty busy. I’ve been focusing mainly on behind-the-scenes changes.

For example, I just wrapped up a complete rebrand of all my books, concluding with my Android X series. You can view the new covers at www.michaellaronn.com/androidx.

All my covers now have my name at the top in big letters. It’s a branding play for me.

Now, every book I write will have consistent branding. It will teach my readers to expect a certain look for my books. That’s really powerful and exciting for me, because I can now start to do some different marketing things that I haven’t in the past.

Listener Questions

Let’s move on to some listener questions.

My biggest fan, Oswald, is back this week with some new questions!

[CUE ROBOTIC MUSIC]

Oswald McChipperson asks:

“One time, another robot dared me to remove all my bolts to see how long I could last. What’s the craziest dare you ever took?”

I love this question, because actually, I took dares a lot as a kid.

Most kids did cool dares. Mine were dorky.

There are a couple that stand out for me. The first dare was in second grade, when a friend dared me to eat a pickle sandwich. I took one of those giant dill pickles that come in jars, and slapped it between two slices of white bread. It was awful. I didn’t even get halfway through. Yuck.

Time for the next question.

Geez, Oswald, I think you’re being too hard on yourself. You strike me as a nice guy. I wouldn’t call you completely emotionless.

To answer your question, I had a lot of crushes when I was elementary school. None of them ended well for me.

The one I remember most was a girl in my first grade class.

She paid zero attention to me, so I tried to do things to get her to notice me.

I became a boy scout. I thought a uniform might help. Nope.

I went to a boy scout camp, and at the camp, there was a sandbox where they taught us how people mined for gold during the gold rush. There were lumps of pyrite hidden in the sand. I’ll never forget their sparkle, and how coarse they were in my hand. I came home from camp with a bucket of pyrite.

I remember sticking some pyrite rocks in my pocket and walking three blocks over to the townhouse where she lived. I was so nervous. It was a quiet, windy day, and as I walked through the tree-filled corridor that led to her street, balancing myself on railroad ties, my heart was beating really fast.

I was going to give her the pyrite and declare my love for this girl. I was only in first grade, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I knocked on the door.

She wasn’t home.

Turns out she moved away, and I never saw her again.

Yeah. Like I said, didn’t work out so well for me.

While we’re on embarrassing stories, let me tell you another one. In high school, there was a girl that I really liked—she was beautiful, and again, paid zero attention to me. I honestly don’t know if she knew I existed. She sat two seats ahead of me on the bus every day for two years.

One day, I mustered up the courage to write her a Christmas card. I thought if I did that, then it would open the door to talk to her. Then maybe we could get to know each other and I could ask her to prom down the road.

So on the final day of school before winter vacation, I get on the bus and I’ve got the card. I’m in a puffy winter coat with a stocking cap, and I’m sweating through them.

As we get off the bus, I hand her the card.

I had planned to say “Merry Christmas.”

But instead, I hand her the card and run away.

Get this: the next day, she’s sitting in front of me, talking to one of her girlfriends. And she’s holding the card.

She says in a snotty tone, “If someone was going to give me a Christmas card, it would be nice if I actually knew who they were. A real man would have stopped and talked to me.”

Then she slipped the card in her purse and never looked at me again for the rest of the time we rode the bus together.

Yikes.

I was kind of glad I didn’t get to know her. I guess in my infatuation of her, I failed to judge her character.

Oh well. You live and you learn.

Anyway, thanks for your questions again, Oswald. It’s always a pleasure.

[OSWALD SAYS “You're welcome.”]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Love yourself. It is important to stay positive because beauty comes from the inside out. – Jenn Proske.”

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