yuvi zalkow

Too Hip for the Room: George Carlin

yuvi — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:10:18 +0000

So I’m still experimenting with different themes and styles and formats for my videos. Here is a posthumous interview with the great George Carlin. I’ve always wanted to know how he evolved into the great comedian that he became. So I asked him…

You can find a list of all my videos here. And you can subscribe to my second-rate blog either by email or RSS.

Time-Based Sex

yuvi — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:31:01 +0000

If you’ve ever wondered when I would go off the deep end and start talking about my sex life in a video, well, now you know:

… Sorry.

p.s. I made up the part about the alien mermaids… to protect the innocent (and the not-so-innocent).

You can find a list of all my videos here. And you can subscribe to my second-rate blog either by email or RSS.

The Failure of the Intended Story (with Thaisa Frank)

yuvi — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:27:13 +0000

This video is based on my interview for The Rumpus with the fabulous Thaisa Frank. She said a lot of incredible things about the writing process during our conversation, but there was one particular thing about the “failure of the intended story” that really knocked me out. Let me know what you think…

Ponies Are Magic

yuvi — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:52:54 +0000

This video covers my toddler’s obsession with My Little Pony.

To view all my videos, go to my main video page.

Consider subscribing to my second-rate blog either by email or RSS.

Obsessing (with Elizabeth McCracken)

yuvi — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:06:42 +0000

In this first episode, I (pretend to) talk with Elizabeth McCracken about the challenge of writing when you’re not obsessed with your project.

My New Video Series: The Scribbling Bucket

yuvi — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:36:38 +0000

So here it is. My new video series. Or at least this is the video teaser that gives you a feeling for what I intend to do. I anticipate publishing the first real episode later this month. Hope you dig it.

Happy New Year. Love, yuvi.

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Blog Hiatus

yuvi — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:42 +0000

Hey there. You might have noticed. I’ve been a little bit lame online. Even more than usual. Particularly on this blog.

So here’s the deal. (WARNING: What follows is an overly elaborate “it’s not you, it’s me” blog post.)

I need a little online down time. I’m a bit worn out, a bit disoriented, especially with my online identity. So I’m going to back off the blog and other online shtuff for a few months.

I have two goals during this hiatus:

get some momentum on the next draft of my next novel
come up with a new video-related project that I love

I know these goals are not measurable. I’m not yet committing to a completion date for my novel and I’m not committing to making some number of videos. The measuring comes later.

Right now, I need the goals to not be measurable. I need something soft and fluffy. Because I’m just looking to get more excited about these two areas. Something that I sort of lost amidst the publicity of book #1. The excitement is coming back already (in both areas), but I think a hiatus without guilt will help even more. (And this blog post somehow gives me some sort of guilt immunity… don’t ask why…. centuries of crooked guilt…)

In the meantime, I’ve cleaned up the video page on my website so you have easy access to all my videos.

And feel free to check in with me on Twitter or elsewhere. I’ll still respond to direct communication. (Probably!)

If I don’t come up for air in about three months, call the police.

Love, yuvi

Brave on the Page

yuvi — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:30:03 +0000

Have you heard of the Espresso Book Machine?

No?

Well I hadn’t either. Until my friend Laura Stanfill told me she was publishing a collection of interviews and essays on one of these things.

What I love about the this device is that it seems to embrace both the past and the future. A device that allows you to print a real-life, old-school, physical book. In one way, the machine looks like a relic from another era. But also, this machine is tapped in to an online database of books that can be printed on demand. Within minutes, you have a new, warm book in your hands.

Today, Laura’s book (BRAVE ON THE PAGE) is one of those magical books. It is a fabulous collection of voices and insights about writing, with a focus on Oregon writers. Eerily enough, I’m interviewed in there, and I say the word “shame” seven times in this interview. But there are some great writers in here. And the book is beautiful too.

Here is more information about the book launch (and related prizes).

And check it out at an Espresso Book Machine near you.

I’m a Failed Publicist (+ New Video)

yuvi — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:50:11 +0000

It’s been a tough month. A tough month with very little writing. A month of reading at bookstores around the west coast and doing interviews and doing a not-so-great job at publicizing the release of my novel. It is amazing how consuming even doing a bad job of publicizing a book can be. I can tell you that I’m not a natural at publicity. Follow my lame Facebook author page to get an idea. (I’m admittedly better at Twitter, but if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll learn more about my drinking and parenting problems than any book news.) Even though there have been plenty of moments this month when I want to hide in my attic and never confront humanity again, there have been some fabulous moments too, like when someone grabs me after a reading and says, “I made my husband read your book. He never reads fiction. But he loved this book… even the weird parts.” Those moments are worth a hundred hide-from-humanity moments (which gives you an idea of how many hide-from-humanity moments I’ve had lately)……

While I get my head on straight with how to proceed after this book tour, I wanted to share the video I used while on my book tour. I billed it as a “MAKING OF… VIDEO” for my book. It was my experiment at finding a fresh way to talk about a book while still keeping the audience entertained. It attempts to address one of the biggest questions I get about my book: What the hell is true and what is fiction? It also addresses another question I get a lot: How the hell did you piece this thing together? (I guess a lot of my questions have the word “hell” in them…)

Consider subscribing to my second-rate blog either by email or RSS. Or, to hell with my blog, just check out my book. Or, to hell with it all, never come back again.

This isn’t your mother’s neurotic Jew novel

yuvi — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 02:10:36 +0000

I’ve had trouble knowing how to talk about my novel, especially outside of my immediate literary community. The thing is that it’s a story that readers from many realms could enjoy (which is what I tell myself while quietly weeping at night thinking about that reviewer who hated my book). But there are caveats. Caveats that I honestly had no great way to talk through. Until Kristen Forbes did it for me. In this post on her blog, she shares how she talks to her mother about my book:

“Let me just warn you,” I said to my mom after she professed a desire to not only read Yuvi Zalkow’s book A BRILLIANT NOVEL IN THE WORKS, but also to attend his reading at Powell’s… And then I brushed on some of the more risque elements of the book, things like ass cutting and spanking.

“Okay,” my mom said, undeterred. I felt satisfied with this, because I’d given her a proper warning but I didn’t sway her against reading it. That’s what I’d like to do for you, too: give you a proper warning about the adult content but not to hit it so heavily that you no longer feel like giving the book a try.

It’s tricky to say, “Yes, my main character stands on the bathroom countertop and cuts his ass with a razor blade — but that’s not what the book is about…” I’m not trying to shock people. I just needed this character to work through what he was working through.

There are scenes involving razor blades, restraints and harnesses. These scenes serve a purpose and are not included for gratuitous entertainment. This is a character-driven novel and his predilections tell us a lot about our main character and his desires, as well as his shame.

So that’s that. I’ve got nothing to add. Just gratuitous Kristen quoting. And while I’m stealing. Here is how she lands:

This isn’t your mother’s neurotic Jew novel, but if your mother can get past the cutting and spanking, she’ll still fall in love. This is a terrifically tender and colossally clever and fully funny book.

Now if only I can bring Kristen along with me when I’m on the plane with that sweet seventy-six-year-old lady who says, “So what’s that cute book of yours about anyway?” (As it turns out, after I awkwardly described my book to the lady, she smiled and then pulled out her copy of 50 Shades of Grey. Shows what I know…

New video on September 15.

Consider subscribing to my second-rate blog either by email or RSS. Or, to hell with my blog, just check out my book. Or, to hell with it all, never visit my site again.