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“I kinda hate it when people say writing is fun.” — Jack Rodolico, author The Atavist original “The Blue Book Burglar“
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“This has to be meaningful to you. It has to be a story that won’t leave you alone, a story that you’re willing to rearrange your calendar for.” — Masha Hamilton, whose piece for The Atavist is titled “I’ve Gone to Look for America.”
Hey CNFers, it’s CNF Pod, and it’s the Atavistian time of the month so consider heading to magazine.atavist.com to subscribe. I did. I don’t get handouts or kickbacks.
Yeah.
I am in route to Idaho at this very moment. Got two things in Ketchum, two things in Boise. I have too many books. I’m on the hook for more than a $1,000 worth of Front Runners. I’m so screwed.
OK, this is the show where I — if I’d just shut the fuck up — talk to tellers of true tales about the true tales they tell. Today we have Masha Hamilton, a journalist, a novelist, a fan of the show, a fan of Pitch Club. You’ll want to visit mashahamilton.com to learn more about her wide-ranging career covering the world. She’s the author of five novels and trying to sell her sixth. She was at one point the director of communications and public diplomacy at the US embassy in Kabul.
Her story for the Atavist is about her driving the entire length of I-95 with her photographer son Cheney, and stopping at just about every rest stop to speak with strangers about how they feel about our country. “Conversations and revelations about an ailing nation along Interstate 95.” Man, those Atavist editors sure can write the hell out of a dek.
And guess who’s back!? Seyward Darby! Do your best Kermit the Frog dance. Very nice to hear her and this piece challenged Seyward in ways I didn’t see coming: Meaning, she didn’t share Masha’s optimism … or hope. Seyward, for lack of a better word, disagreed with it, so there was an interesting tension she brought to the edit.
As for Masha Hamilton, this piece really illustrates the things we carry, that politics isn’t a monolith. We talk about a lot of great stuff like:
Rate, review, do it up.
Pilates
Awesome, thanks to Masha, Seyward, and you. Visit magazine.atavist.com to read Masha’s story and be sure you’re newlettered up with my Rage Against the Algorithm newsletter and Pitch Club, welcometopitchclub.substack.com.
Not a terribly long parting shot, but figured I’d riff on the Florence Festival of Books, which was a fun time, tabling The Front Runner. I’d say most of the authors at this event were self-published. Not all, but a good chunk, so there was an little crackle in the air when a few authors approached me and asked if I was self-published. I said, no, it was an imprint of HarperCollins, to which the eyebrows raised and they kinda looked at you in disbelief. And the tone they take stinks of their years of frustration of trying to find an agent and not, of trying to land a Big 5 deal, and not.
And I understand deeply that frustration, I do. Truly.
I was approached by a guy whose wife, tabled her self-pubbed titles. And he went down the line of questioning with me. Do you have an agent? Did you self-publish? Yes. No. There was a lot of judgement in the air. And I don’t judge and begrudge the indie publishing scene. It’s pretty punk rock, but to do it well takes significant personal investment. I’ve seen any number of self-published things and there are typos all over the place and it feels unfinished; it feels hasty. I imagine there were some great indie authors there and some can lock into an audience and make a living, be fulfilled, not be beholden to gate keepers.
I sold my books for $15 apiece. As many of you know, it retails for $32.99. I only sold 12 books, so there was no way I was selling anything at full price so I figured it was best to take a loss than to sell zero copies.
I forgot what it was like to sell books. The spiel. I did this a lot with Six Weeks in Saratoga, it was odd doing it for The Front Runner. You soon get used to it.
Then Ruby McConnell and I had a fruitful discussion and Q&A sitting on the edge of the stage for the dozen or so people who stuck around. Ruby talked about radical incrementalism as it pertained to a literary career and I loved that notion of the small, done repeatedly, over geologic time, leads to something seismic.
I had fun, and I’d do it again.
The Hidden Life of Life with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Allison Fallon — Find Your Voice
The ‘Supremely Tiny Acts’ of Sonya Huber
Katya Cengal and Finding Enough ‘There’ There for The Atavist
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“Writing is so easily not done.” — Robert Weintraub
Continue reading “Episode 487: Robert Weintraub and the ‘American Hindenburg’”
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Personal News and/or Shoutouts for Pals
Hey CNFers, The Front Runner is officially out. I like to think I don’t ask for much, but now is the time buy a copy or three and, if you read it, you know the drill, need ratings and reviews. I won’t read them because I don’t want to be driven insane, but that’s the world we live in: ratings and reviews. Your call to action to support the book, me, and ye ol’ CNF Pod. If you’re still on the fence, and why would you be, there’s an excerpt of the book over at Lit Hub. Dig it.
Saturday, August 16, 6-8 p.m. ET, I’m the featured author for this event. It’s free!
I also started what’s proving to be a pretty popular venture called Pitch Club. It’s at welcometopitchclub.substack.com and I have a writer audio annotate a pitch. It’s tactical and it’s practical. It’s going to help you get where you want to go.
“If you’re going to have a narrative story that works, it helps to have somebody who is irrationally fixated on a goal that allows them to do traditional protagonist operations in a way that that gives you a lot to work with as a writer.” — Matthew Wolfe
Continue reading “Episode 482: Matthew Wolfe and the Grammar of Delight”Become a Patron!
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever!
Hey CNFers, The Front Runner is officially out. I like to think I don’t ask for much, but now is the time buy a copy or three and, if you read it, you know the drill, need ratings and reviews. I won’t read them because I don’t want to be driven insane, but that’s the world we live in: ratings and reviews. Your call to action to support the book, me, and ye ol’ CNF Pod. If you’re still on the fence, and why would you be, there’s an excerpt of the book over at Lit Hub. Dig it.
Next two events are July 17 at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle at 7 p.m. and July 27 at Gratitude Brewing for a live taping of the podcast, 1 p.m.
I also started what’s proving to be a pretty popular venture called Pitch Club. It’s at welcometopitchclub.substack.com and I have a writer audio annotate a pitch. It’s tactical and it’s practical. It’s going to help you get where you want to go.
“If nothing else, it says a lot about chasing a story even when you don’t have an assignment, because Dave had reported this entire thing before he even pitched it to us.” — Jonah Ogles, lead editor of “Conversations with a Hit Man.”
Continue reading “Episode 477: David Howard and the Search for Stories He Believes In”Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever!
A mostly accurate transcript for Ep. 4711
“I can’t imagine if somebody asked me to share these really vulnerable things and didn’t acknowledge that it’s a gift that that person is giving, and it’s not a gift to the writer. It’s a gift to everybody who will read it.” — Cassidy Randall, from Ep. 471
Continue reading “Episode 471: The Cassidy Randall Residency at CNF Pod Continues!”Friday, May 2, 2025
Become a Patron!Hey CNFers, it’s the Atavistian time of the month, so there are some saucy details about this month’s story titled “All That Glitters: His alleged victims say he bribed New York Police Department officials, stole millions in diamonds, and persuaded Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Kim Kardahsian to shill for scam cryptocurrency. So why is Jona Rechnitz still free?“
This gives us a chance to speak with Miranda Green, (@randi_green) an investigative reporter, about this piece.
Continue reading “Episode 465: Miranda Green Searches for the Harm”Friday, April 4, 2025
Become a Patron!Nick Davidson, @nickgdavidson on IG, a freelance journalist, says, “We usually think of hunting stories and looking for ideas, but I feel like it’s the other way around: stories hunt the storyteller, and I’m just prey.”
I love that sentiment.
Nick is on the show to talk about his piece for The Atavist Magazine titled “The Balloon that Fell From the Sky.” It’s a remarkable and tragic story of a gas balloon race where one of the teams was shot out of the sky by a Belarusian helicopter. It’s a gripping story that Nick spent the better part of three years reporting and writing.
Continue reading “Episode 461: For Nick Davidson, Stories Hunt the Storyteller”Friday, Feb. 28, 2025
Promotional support is brought to you by the Power of Narrative Conference, celebrating its 26th year on the last weekend of March 28 and 29. 300-400 journalists from around the world are coming. Keynote speakers Susan Orlean, Connie Schultz, Dan Zak and Connie Chung will deliver the knowledge. Listeners of this podcast can get 15% off your enrollment fee by using the code CNF15. To learn more visit combeyond.bu.edu … and use that CNF15 code.
Become a Patron!Two pods in one day? It happened! Allegra Rosenberg (@tchotchke.bsky.social) is here to talk about her Atavist story “From Antarctica with Love“: Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed journey to the South Pole captivated the world. But hidden with the legend was a story that has never been told—a love affair between two of the crew who survived.
Allegra’s work has appeared in WIRED, National Geographic, Slate, and The Atlantic. She writes about tech, fandom, media, AI, history, science, music and, of course, polar exploration.
Continue reading “Episode 454: Allegra Rosenberg’s Tale of Love on Ice for The Atavist”Promotional support is brought to you by the Power of Narrative Conference, celebrating its 26th year on the last weekend of March 28 and 29. 300-400 journalists from around the world are coming. Keynote speakers Susan Orlean, Connie Schultz, Dan Zak and Connie Chung will deliver the knowledge. Listeners of this podcast can get 15% off your enrollment fee by using the code CNF15. To learn more visit combeyond.bu.edu … and use that CNF15 code.
Become a Patron!It’s that Atavistian time of the month and this month’s story is heavy and chronicles what is likely, probably, a genocide in Tigray, Ethiopia … the hospital was overrun with victims. The medical staff risked everything to treat the wounded and believe the world ignored a genocide.
Drew Philp (@drewphilp.bsky.social) is the journalist behind “There Will Be No Mercy,” and we talk about how he pitched this as ER only in an Ethiopian hospital as that population endured unthinkable indignities. And this isn’t a historical piece. This happened within the last five years. Yeah. It’s a courageous piece of reporting, but even more courageous of the people at the heart of the story who literally are risking their lives to have this story told.
Continue reading “Episode 449: Drew Philp Wants to Make Spanakopita Out of Spinach News”