I have a new blog project. It’s called The Weeklings.
The concept is simple: a single post a day, every single day. The same seven writers writing every week, on the same respective day. I’m Tuesday.
The other six Weeklings are Elissa Schappell, Sean Beaudoin, Diana Spechler, Janet Steen, Alex Clark, and my co-editor, Jennifer Kabat. Please do check us out.
It’s suddenly April, and I have two events coming up:
SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2pm
Woodstock Writers Festival, Woodstock, NY
I’m thrilled to take part in this literary extravaganza. I’m on a panel called “The Serious Business of Being Funny,” with Shalom Auslander and Elisa Albert, at 2pm. If you’re around, please do check it out:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 8pm
How I Learned Series, New York, NY
This is Blaise Allysen Kearsley’s excellent reading series, at Happy Ending Lounge on the LES. The theme is “How I Learned It’s a Living,” and it’s about jobs. I’ll be reading a piece about the summer I worked at McDonald’s.
Given my son’s fascination with said city on the lake, I am particularly gratified to have such a glowing review in the Plain-Dealer:
“Olear takes a rifle-shot premise — stay-at-home dad with two challenging children, one of whom has Asperger’s syndrome — and manages to hit more than a dozen bull’s-eyes.”
Big thanks to Chris Rodell for the kind words.
In yet another example of the exquisite taste of residents of Southern California, Fathermucker appears at #15 on the Paperback Fiction bestseller list of the L.A. Times.
Watch your back, Grisham. I’m coming for you!
A big week of events, starting with the Pen Parentis Literary Salon in lower Manhattan — a few blocks from Occupy Wall Street, in fact — with the great Elissa Schappell (whose first name, I discovered, is pronounced like “a Lisa”), followed by an appearance on the Book Club Girl podcast, followed by the Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience at Book Soup in Los Angeles, along with Lenore Zion, Ben Loory, and Victoria Patterson, who read a piece about literary farts. Thanks to everyone who attended/listened. Continue reading
Nick Belardes shot and edited this video at Book Soup in West Hollywood on 11/11/11:
Fathermucker has been getting a lot of love lately:
I spend Seven Seconds in Heaven with Liz and Lisa at Chick Lit Is Not Dead.
In Rhode Island’s own Go Local Prov, I learned that two out of three Robins recommend Fathermucker for their readers who read books.
In Great Falls, Montana, Sara Habein writes me a Glorified Love Letter (but spares no love for Speidi).
I hear the sweet sounds of purring from The House of the Seven Tails, and 5 Minutes For Books gives me my 15 minutes of fame.
And I’m in the parenting section of the Chicago Fucking Tribune!
“Full Frontal,” as I’m sure you’re aware, is where they do the movie and book reviews. Here’s the cover of the magazine in question:
“Olear delivers a lively and keenly-observed portrait of twenty-first-century parenthood.” — Penthouse
To read the entire review, however, I’m afraid you’re going to have to purchase the magazine. For once, you won’t be lying when you claim you’re buying it for the articles.
So my friend Brad Listi, founding editor of The Nervous Breakdown and inveterate fan of Howard Stern, has, in his ample free time, launched an excellent new podcast called Other People With Brad Listi, in which he spends an hour-plus rapping with a writer.
