Jonah Lisa Land

Saying Yes

I've got a new post up over at Unplugged Sunday today.  Go have a look and I'll be back to regular posting here next week.  It always takes longer than I expect to catch up after a trip.

Official Vibrator Expert, at your service

Stephen and I recently did an interview about the history of the vibrator with a reporter from the "venerated" New York Post because, you know, we're considered authorities on the subject now. 

The craziness surrounding this movie has already begun.  We were listed as a hot viral video on Salon, made it onto Perez Hilton and the trailer is edging close to 400,000 views on You Tube alone. It's earlier than I would have expected but then, people do love to have license to talk about vibrators and orgasms. It's like being able to say a dirty word in front of your parents when you were a kid because it was a lyric in a song you were singing along to on the radio.  

I have a strange feeling that something about this will appear in my obituary one day.

Now, how to turn my expert status into a side income stream.  

Jonah Lisa Dyer, co-writer of HYSTERIA, the feel-good movie of the year, is available for lectures and seminars and can guarantee a provocative presentation complete with visual aids for your group or club.

Rachel Maines, author of the book The Technology of Orgasm, is the real expert. And if, after seeing the trailer, you're curious to know more about the housewife's best friend, it's a...stimulating read.  

See?  The jokes just write themselves.

The HYSTERIA Trailer

In case you haven't seen it yet (it's on YouTube, Huffington Post and Deadline that I know of, and will soon be many many other places as well)....

Hysteria's North American Premiere

We got the news last week but today, it's official...

HYSTERIA

will premiere at 

The Toronto International Film Festival 

on September 15th!  

This is a very big deal, people.  It's the most prestigious festival in North America and we've landed a primo spot as one of the Gala Premieres.  Red carpet and all.

I'll post details on general release dates as they become known. Remember to follow HYSTERIA's Facebook page to stay up on the current news.  I'm sure there will be lots of tweeting and facebooking from Toronto if you want to enjoy the ride with us.  

We'll be driving the kids down to Texas to stay with my parents while Stephen and I cut loose and enjoy the world premiere of our first film to be produced.  

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please visit the My Movie page for more information and links about the film.

Slaying Dragons

All the nasty writing deadlines are dead at my feet!  

It was a rough few weeks but we've finished a new script to spec out (definition: write for free then try to sell), a treatment (definition: a 10-15 page outline for a movie idea written in prose form) for a big Hollywood production company that is interested in hiring us to write the script, did my Unplugged Sunday post for the month, finished reading a friend's manuscript (definition: unpublished novel), and wrote webcopy (definition: the written words on a site) for another friend's etsy shop.  

And now everything is out (definition: out in the world for potential acceptance or rejection), which makes for a free, but nervous, weekend.  

Such is the life of a writer.  Best to keep busy as we wait for news.  It's the perfect time to start on a new idea!

Writing Deadline

"I love deadlines.  

I especially love the whooshing sound they make

 as they go flying by."

-Douglas Adams.

Just wanted to stop by and tell you I'm sorry it's been a slow week in Jonah Lisa Land.  I've had a convergence of writing deadlines so the blog got the short end of the stick.  Deadlines are all about time-management and I didn't do a great job of it this week.  Next week it's all back to normal.  And in the meantime check out a few blogs you might not know about...

Chez Beeper Bebe

Checkout Girl

Noodlehead

Unplugged Sunday

I have some wonderful and exciting news to share about a fabulous project I get to be a part of. Stephen and I have been invited to be regular contributors to a new blog called Unplugged Sunday.  

Unplugged Sunday is the brainchild of Heather Bruggeman from Beauty that Moves, and her husband Adam. Sorry to make you an appendage there Adam, but until this new gig kicks off you're "Mr. Beauty that Moves" to us Mommy bloggers.  Not for long, though!  

And in case you don't know Heather or her blog, or her husband, she's the inspiration behind my versions of the Simple Earring Holder and Small Wall Quilt.  She is a maker of things so beautiful and simple that I am constantly saying, "Why didn't I think of that" when I read her posts.  

Stephen and I have embraced the Unplugged Sunday lifestyle (on & off) for a while now.  I first wrote about it in a post called Internet Free Sunday back in late 2008.  We kept it up for a good long time and found that it got easier to do the longer we did it.  We also found that we grew to actually need it.  We all longed for the pace we had created on Sundays and Stephen and I even discussed the possibility of adding another Internet Free day mid-week.  Never happened though, and then we feel completely off the wagon last year during the lead up to the film.  Once back from overseas, we started to feel the need to slow down and unplug again and have been (albeit sporadically) giving it a go again.  

Unplugged Sunday goes live this Wednesday TOMORROW but I wanted to give my readers an early heads up and get everyone chomping at the bit.  You can get a feel for what to expect on the new blog by reading this post by Heather.  

Tomorrow morning I'll post a blog launch reminder and a shiny, new Unplugged Sunday button will magically appear in my sidebar.  

They have assembled a very cool, diverse group of writers and once a month "Mr. Jonah Lisa Land" and I will be sharing our experiences as we turn off, tune in, and opt out of news, internet, email, TV, online chess, movies and Angry Birds once a week.  

Spring Cleaning

Well, on the blog anyway.  The house is another story.  

Welcome back to anyone who hung around during my, um...sabbatical.  Writing daily is really a habit.  A habit I got out of on the long trip overseas for the film and a habit I am trying to get back into.  Bare with me while I'm learning to juggle again.

So, the blog. New name, new banner, new layout, I'll soon be mapping to a new domain, but have no fear, you will find all the same fabulous content:  Crazy shit my kids say, humorous observations on small town life, half-assed homesteading, recipes you can make with kids hanging on your legs, massive rationalizations, underdeveloped theories on parenting, and the occasional peek inside the life of an almost famous (hopefully) screenwriter.

You'll notice I've put up a navigation bar under the banner, too.  That's where you'll find the archives, and how to subscribe (if you've long since purged me from your feed reader!) and how to contact me.  I'm not doing any ads for now but who knows what the future will bring.  There's also a page in the nav bar for all the various series I've done (Cheap & Easy, Comfort Foods, Organic on a Budget, etc), my Amazon Bookstore and a page with info about my movie, Hysteria.  

I'm sure I will get around to posting about the trip but I'll just tell you now that it was wonderful, hard and long and we were all really glad to get back home and settle into our good, old, boring routine.

So have a look around, refamiliarize yourself with some of the old Toby Show favorites (in the side bar) and if it reminds you of why you checked in here first thing every morning (well, you know, after Dooce and SouleMama) then resubscribe to the new and improved Jonah Lisa Land.  

It's spring in the mountains, so it's sure to be a good time for all (and I promise future posts won't have nearly as many parentheticals).

Verbing

"I verb every day."
Huck, age 3

He overheard me and Stephen talking about his rather large vocabulary and chimed in with that little gem.  It's so perfectly Huck.  Of course, he has no idea what a verb is but he's right.  He does verb every day.

I wish I verbed half as much as he does.  I don't verb enough! 

I mean yes, read and blog are verbs too but I'm just feeling like they aren't the right verbs.  In fact, I feel like they are keeping me from other verbs that are more important to me at the moment.  Verbs like walk, run, create, dance, make, play, visit, sew, explore, clean, laugh, connect, rejuvenate, snuggle.

So, I'm taking a little time off from my blog, and yours.  Not long.  One, maybe two weeks.  Don't go anywhere, while I'm off exploring other verbs I'll be keeping up with the Sheriff's Log every Wednesday and may even pepper in a few odds and ends, here and there.  But for the next little bit I'm giving myself permission to NOT blog every day.  A wee little blogcation where I come back to my blog all carefree and tan (okay, okaay, so I'm a pasty red-head and I've never had a tan in my life but you get the metaphor, right?)

I'll be back full-time soon but right now the weather is gorgeous and I've just got too much verbing to do!

8 Ball

See this?  I'm behind it.


Been having trouble keeping up with the blog the last several days on this trip.  Fortunately, it's because we've been spending a ton of wonderful time hanging out with family.  It's been great and it's where I need and want to be at the moment.  I'll get back on track next week when we get back on the road.  Until then, here are a couple of blogs I'm liking right now...

Urban Organica

The Magnifying Glass

Tiny Happy