The Year in Review!

Kate gave birth to the royal baby, Miley showed us more than we cared to see, and thanks to all of you, my year rocked.

The Blog

Because you read and shared my posts, more people now subscribe to my blog. Hooray, thanks and please continue!   Your sharing is a HUGE help in building my online audience — a critical factor in capturing the attention of publishers and agents. Here are the blogs that you responded to the most:

• Remembering Eddie
• Sandra Bullock Gets Her Space Underwear Right
• Using the Tools at Hand

My apologies for the inconsistent postings toward the year’s end. A wise friend once said you can’t keep two pots on one burner, and it is sometimes hard for me to blog while rehearsing for the show and writing the memoir. In truth, it’s sometimes hard for me to remember to bathe, but since I live in the NH woods, no one really notices.

The Memoir

Thanks to those wonderful stars who donated to my sabbatical, I spent the first six months hunkered down writing a memoir. Make that learning how to write a memoir. Adapting the show from the stage to the page was a much trickier endeavor than I imagined. I thought I was going for a nice run that might have a hill or two when actually, I was climbing Mount Everest.

Now that my reality is in check, I’m making real progress – happily, my literary agent was extremely pleased with the first chapters I sent her. I am still hard at work on that project, which will be ready to sell to a publisher in several months (fingers crossed). Stay tuned for updates.

The Show: How to Draw a Nekkid Man

After taking a two-year hiatus from performing the show, I was selected as one of four playwrights to attend this summer’s amazing Lake George Theater Lab. While there, I worked with NYC director Mia Rovegno, who transformed the show and my performance. She’s now an essential part of my team.

As always, the show reaches very diverse audiences, a point that was driven home again this October in Nashville. On October 19, I performed the show for the faith community at Amy Grant’s “Tennessee Weekend.” On October 21, I performed at Vanderbilt University, a campus-wide event sponsored by their Women Gender Studies department, where I also helped facilitate a “Women In Humor” class. I’m very excited to perform and teach at more colleges in the upcoming year.

We’re ready to take the show to more venues in 2014 and you can help! Please tell your friends and colleagues about How to Draw a Nekkid Man. Word-of-mouth is essential to the show’s success. The show works in the most intimate settings – e.g., your living room – as well as public venues, e.g., a theater or a church. If you’re interested in booking the show, or have any questions, please feel free to email me.

The Stories

The Moth now hosts StorySLAMS in Boston and this past February, I won! The theme was Love Hurts, and I told the story about unknowingly moving across the street from my pesky practice husband’s girlfriend. Heartbreaking 20 years ago; hysterical now. In case you missed it, here’s the winning story:

Next, I compete in The Moth’s Boston GrandSLAM on January 24 at the Somerville Theater. In addition, I performed in December with The StoryCollider, a national storytelling collective dedicated to stories about science. This was my second time performing with this group – a real privilege.

The Need

I Will Be Good Productions still needs you! As I look forward to 2014, there are many opportunities on the horizon spawned by the success of last year. Touring to venues — while working hard on my memoir and coordinating storytelling appearances — requires a broad base of funding for marketing, travel and operating expenses. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to I Will Be Good Productions to help us continue bringing this story to more audiences – diverse audiences who are all hungry to be validated and inspired to use their creative voice.

Your donation is profoundly appreciated and incredibly helpful.

I Will Be Good Productions is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. The easiest way to donate is online — just click here. Contributions on behalf of I Will Be Good Productions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Thank you again for your amazing support and best wishes for a wonderful New Year!