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Episode 383: Pete Croatto

It’s always nice when you can have a guest back on the show. We have many repeat offenders here at CNF Pod HQ. Because a writing career is so damn fluid, and a podcast conversation is just a snapshot in time, having a writer back on the show is a chance to talk about that glacial evolution.

And so Pete Croatto (@petecroatto) is back after nearly three years (it’s his third trip to the show) following the publication of his wonderful book From Hang Time to Prime Time. It’s a book about the birth of the modern NBA. It’s a must have for the basketball fan in your life. Is there anything better than unwrapping a hard-cover book on a gift-receiving holiday?

Pete is in the in-between stages. He is/was conflicted about what writing his first meant. Did it mean he would be invited to write the next one? No. Would it be some career-defining apotheosis? Hell, no. Rather, the book merely exists on the continuum on his career as a freelance writer of great sports journalism, but also think pieces on the media, and stuff for trade magazines and copy editing. Gone are the days where you can solely freelance longform journalism and have enough money to … let’s just say live.

So this was a great conversation about that post-book (specifically post-first-book time) and what that means. We talk about the book or various pieces being keys to open doors for ourselves, but also people arriving behind us. The book as business card, and the frustratingly slow nature of gradual improvement and mastery.

I really think you’ll dig it.

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Stay wild, CNFers!

Episode 382: Lucy Sexton and Joe Sexton

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By Brendan O’Meara

It’s that Atavistian time of the month and we’ve got a two-for-one, BOGO!, with Lucy Sexton, a documentary filmmaker, and Joe Sexton, a lifelong newspaperman and father to Lucy.

Lucy was working on a doc about the Iran hostage crisis when her father was taken hostage while reporting in Libya. What came out of it was “Held Together,” edited by Seyward Darby.

What’s all the more compelling is the dual authorship, not in the traditional co-bylined affairs that are uniform in nature with two names atop the story. This is two distinctly tuned instruments playing together in harmony.

How Not to Write a Book

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By Brendan O’Meara

Above is a picture of my daily word count.

Things are going great.

Usually after you have a discussion with your book editor, you have a clearer sense of what you’re doing. Energy. Gusto. I spoke with my editor on June 28. As you can tell, I haven’t written a word since. In fact, I’ve been sad. Like, I-can’t-face-the-day sad.

POV. POV. POV. POV. POV.

What’s my point of view in this biography? My whole concept — my instinct —was to just tell a good story with newer details from a longer lens. That’s not enough. Biographers must imbue the story with something that makes it wholly unique, looking askance at the central figure, even casting judgement. “As the biographer, you have your finger on the scale,” my very astute and downright brilliant editor told me.

I never knew creative block until this moment. I cannot crack this code of how to frame the book in a way that feels fresh and relevant. My interviews are falling flat because I’m running out of things to talk about. I don’t know how to bring fresh juice to these conversations. I thought building up certain “tent pole” moments would be exciting and great but … I don’t think so anymore.

I had a set of instincts going into this project and they’ve been cut off at the knees. And, at this writing, I have 8.5 to complete the reporting, the research, and the writing. As I wrote that sentence, my stomach dropped into my shoes.

Why am I writing this? What value-add is this for you? I can’t say there is any except a great lyric from Metallica’s “King Nothing”:

Careful what you wish,
You might regret it
Careful what you wish,
You just might get it

I have a pal who has told me just to explain it now and write it later. My interpretation is to merely get things down on paper and worry about the sheen later, worry about the connective tissue later. Don’t worry so much about meaning but write the islands. Write out of chronological order.

Ultimately, this the Pressfieldian “Resistance” surfacing from the subterranean bowels of the lizard brain.

A mantra of sorts has helped me: Slow and steady. Deliberate focus.

Slow is fast. Drip by drip.

Episode 381: Michael Finkel

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By Brendan O’Meara

Michael Finkel (@MikeFinkel) is here to talk about his new book The Art Thief: A True Story of Passion, Obsession, and a Monumental Crime Spree (Knopf). You could say this is a story of passion and obsession. It’s quite good.

Michael is an accomplished journalist and best selling author of The Stranger in the Woods and True Story.

His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic.

Episode 380: Wudan Yan

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By Brendan O’Meara

Wudan Yan returns, this time to talk about The Vice of Spice for Undark. You can find her @wudanyan on Twitter and Instagram. Look it up, friend.

She’s also the co-host of The Writer’s Co-op Podcast with Jenni Gritters as well as a fact checker for books and podcasts and other stuff.

She had the piece coming out. She wanted to talk about it. I was like, sure, sounds good. Here we are.

In this episode we chat about her lack of a 3 a.m. (or 3 p.m.) voice, the valorization of over-reporting, efficient interviewing, and suspiciously golden turmeric.

Episode 379: Alison Mariella Desir

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By Brendan O’Meara

Alison Mariella Desir (@alisonmdesir) is a runner, activist, and author of Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn’t Built for Us (Portfolio).

A couple months ago I recommended Running While Black not only as a great read, but an important read. It gets into uncomfortable territory, but that’s what we need, it’s what we want, if we’re serious about inclusion, equity, diversity.

We start our conversation talking about procrastination and how running is part of Alison’s writing practice.

Episode 378: Steven Moore

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By Brendan O’Meara

Look who came back! It’s Steven Moore! He’s the author of The Distance from Slaughter County: Lessons from Flyover Country (UNC Press). Growing up in Iowa and spending the last several years on the west coast — many in Oregon — Steven toggles between when it meant to grow up in the midwest and the view from afar.

His essays range from riffs on the sitcom “Home Improvement,” Blockbuster Video, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, and political coverage of a state that had voted for Obama, then flipped, you know, the other way.

Steven also is the author of The Longer We Were There: A Memoir of a Part-Time Soldier, which won the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction.

In this episode we talk about:

Episode 377: Carlos Barragan

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By Brendan O’Meara

Always nice to reach that Atavistian time of the month and this month has a great piece that combines the personal and the journalistic, “The Romance Scammer on My Sofa.”

These scammers, Yahoo Boys, as they’re called, spam people — the lonelier the better — in an effort to steal money. They’re based largely out of Lagos, Nigeria and there’s a great chance one of these Yahoo Boys has knocked on your door in one way or another.

They prey on the vulnerable, the lonely, and, for a short time, victimized Carlos’ mother, which led him on something of a manhunt to find the scammer, but what he found was a greater understanding of his mom.

Carlos is a journalist and student at the Columbia School of Journalism. You can find him on Twitter @CarolosBarraganT, and I hope you’ll head to magazine.atavist.com to read his piece and potentially subscribe. And, no, I don’t get any kickbacks, CNFer.

Episode 376: John Vaillant

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By Brendan O’Meara

John Vaillant is here, CNFErs, to talk about Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (Knopf). It’s an incredible feat of writing, reporting, and research and takes us to the devastating 2016 wildfire that tore through Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada.

John is the author a The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed, and The Jaguar’s Children.

You can find him on Twitter @johnvaillant and in this conversation he notes how Twitter actually helped him (what?!), and we also dig into interviewing for scene, not treating interviewing as an extraction industry, but more renewable, and fire, lots of fire.

Episode 375: Hattie Fletcher and Stephen Knezovich

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By Brendan O’Meara

Got a two-for-one deal here, CNFers. It’s Hattie Fletcher and Stephen Knezovich, two of the brilliant minds behind Short Reads, a weekly email missive of flash nonfiction.

They are formerly of Creative Nonfiction Magazine until a failure in leadership forced Hattie, Stephen, and a handful of others to leave the magazine. What came of that experience is Short Reads.

So in this episode we talk about email marketing, building an email list, writing short nonfiction vs. long nonfiction. It’s a concentrated dose of goodness.

Stephen also is an accomplished collage artists, so be sure to check out his website to get a sense of what his work is about. Collage is the bomb.