Susannah Conway

Out in the wild

susannah — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:43:40 +0000

[Photos by Emily, Gerri, Esme, Nancy, Suzie, Amy, Kathleen and Hannah]

It’s thrilling to see the book start reaching its new homes — and seeing my face pop up all over the place via the cover makes it feel like there’s a bit of me landing there too. Love it!

Kim wrote a really perceptive review of the book over here — thank you, Kim!

Instant Love: the trailer!

susannah — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:18:52 +0000

Never in my wildest dreams did I think my first book would actually be books, plural. I look at my two piles of author’s copies currently living on my sideboard and wonder did i really make that happen? And did I get any sleep while doing it?! (Answer: not very much.)

I’ve got a few things planned for This I Know (which has its first reviews on Amazon!) but today I want to get a bit misty eyed about Instant Love, the love letter to Polaroid/instant photography I co-wrote with my friends Jen Altman and Amanda Gilligan. I don’t even remember when the three of us first connected, but connect we did, through admiring each other’s photos on Flickr and leaving the occasional blog comment. When Jen emailed asking if we’d consider collaborating on a book about Polaroids there was only one possible answer. We bashed out a proposal and a sample chapter and sent it over to Chronicle Books, where we had the very good fortune to work with Bridget Watson Payne, Art books editor and all-round delightful chica.

When we wrote the book the three of us had never actually met in person (Jen and Amanda had spent an afternoon in Vancouver, but that was it). In fact we had just one Skype call and about 50,000 emails; it wasn’t until we led our Polaroid retreat in Marrakesh back in February that we finally got to hug each other in person. So the book is truly a testament to collaboration, communication, hard work and three photographers whose styles work so beautifully together.

The book is now out in the world and last I heard it’s already gone to a second printing, which is amazing! I love the thought that so many of you out there are dusting off your old Polaroid cameras and giving this medium a whirl. It can be frustrating at times, and requires a lot of patience and practice, but it is SO WORTH IT.

Because the logistics of doing a book tour together made our brains ache, we made a trailer for our book baby instead. Filmed by the ridiculously talented Ryan Marshall, we hope it gives you a taster of what the book is all about (click here to view it BIG — and please do share it if you like it :) x

Trailer credits:
Video by Ryan Marshall @ The Panic Room
Music: ‘Camera’ by Rabbit, www.saverabbit.com | Buy the song on iTunes

Something for the weekend

susannah — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:51:39 +0000

My book has been spotted in Barnes & Noble in the USA. This makes me irrepressibly happy — i’m in a real bookstore :)

Exploding flowers

Breaking news: girls hate PE (describes my experience of physical edication at school perfectly)

“Fail often and fail cheaply” From Seth: How to make money online

Currently reading: Alain de Botton’s new book

“I told you stupid things. Thanks for not listening.”

Have you seen Chris’s fabulous new book, The $100 Startup? My wee biz gets a mention

Loving Amanda Jane’s ‘My Better Half’ series

Maurice Sendak: On life, death and children’s lit

Rachel and her virtual journal

Bacon, egg & leek risotto | Orange blossom sesame cake | Lavender lemonade

9 productivity tricks for procrastinators

And finally, i was going to make a mixtape but have been hit with a virus so this post is not going to be finished now (i started it yesterday, before i was hit over the head with a cartoon mallet and now i can’t get off the sofa. Isn’t it nuts how fast these things take us out? Geez.)

Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy your health!!

Being two is awesome

susannah — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:13:27 +0000

His standout list of words/expressions, aged two years and one month:

Mah help? (help me)
Please mummy/please daddy/please shoo-she
Come on mummy
Cup o tee — he loves tea!
Pe-gin (penguin)
Pappy (nappy)
Nuh nites – going to bed/sleep
Icky yuck
Icky poo poo
I luzz you mummy
Eye luzz you (with sign gestures)
Come on!
Plap plap (clap clap)
One two free – said quickly
Chop chop
All day long – sung
App birth day to shoo
No no (Noah)
Gam-ma (grandma and grandad)
Si down (sit down)
Ready steady go
Exactly

Preparing to fly

susannah — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:38:46 +0000

I’m in such an in-between place at the moment. I sense enormous change coming down the wires, but it’s not here yet, and it’s all I can do not to set my house on fire. I’d love to be one of those authors who confidently promotes her book with a camera-worthy smile and a word-perfect elevator pitch, but the truth is I’m feeling extremely nervous. And exposed. Pre-ordered books have started to go out, and last week I had my first sleepless night, my heart racing despite my best attempts to calm down. I honestly hadn’t realised I was this nervous. I try to shrug it off, but it doesn’t work.

I’m pulling together my plans for the tour but most of the time I haven’t a clue what I’m doing, so I just make it up as i go along. I’ll be out of the country for a month and it would be great if I could just GET ON THE PLANE ALREADY because the anticipation is killing me. I’m excited to meet everyone on the tour, at the Creative Joy retreat, at the World Domination Summit… and I’m praying my visa comes through in time.

And then there’s the other stuff, the private stuff I don’t feel comfortable sharing here. And that’s a first for me, having spent the last six years spilling my guts all over the internet. Suffice it to say I’m very tempted to start an anonymous dating blog.

I’ve spent the last 3.5 years building my business and shaping my dreams. I postponed having a social life so I could sink deeper into writing the book. And now? Now I suddenly want to be as far away from my laptop as I can possibly be. I want to LIVE, out loud, out in the world. This has been building over the last six months or so and now I can’t push it back down.

I don’t want to push it back down.

I’ve out-grown this life, this flat, this city, and all the previous expectations I had and I’m craving the challenge of the new and unexplored. But right now it’s a waiting game, and it’s making me a little nuts.

So, yes, lots of change coming. Lots of new ways of being. Lots of plans. Lots of fears. Lots of discomfort.

And, luckily, lots of blind hope, too.

Something for the weekend

susannah — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:36:04 +0000

Haven’t been on the internet so much this week (which is a good thing) but the music never stops playing

Very funny… 28 Days Late made me cry with laughter (via Jo)

How Shakespeare changed everything

On a clear day you can see forever (via Hannah)

Bit obsessed with Ze Frank at the moment

Ditto dating blogs: one | two | three

There’s going to be a supermoon tonight

Things I’m afraid to tell you — lots of bloggers telling the truth = LOVE!

What would your bigness do?

Slowly unravel. from Photobird on 8tracks.

I want this world.

susannah — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:37:56 +0000

For Desire

Give me the strongest cheese, the one that stinks best;
and I want the good wine, the swirl in crystal
surrendering the bruised scent of blackberries,
or cherries, the rich spurt in the back
of the throat, the holding it there before swallowing.
Give me the lover who yanks open the door
of his house and presses me to the wall
in the dim hallway, and keeps me there until I’m drenched
and shaking, whose kisses arrive by the boatload
and begin their delicious diaspora
through the cities and small towns of my body.
To hell with the saints, with the martyrs
of my childhood meant to instruct me
in the power of endurance and faith,
to hell with the next world and its pallid angels
swooning and sighing like Victorian girls.
I want this world. I want to walk into
the ocean and feel it trying to drag me along
like I’m nothing but a broken bit of scratched glass,
and I want to resist it. I want to go
staggering and flailing my way
through the bars and back rooms,
through the gleaming hotels and weedy
lots of abandoned sunflowers and the parks
where dogs are let off their leashes
in spite of the signs, where they sniff each
other and roll together in the grass, I want to
lie down somewhere and suffer for love until
it nearly kills me, and then I want to get up again
and put on that little black dress and wait
for you, yes you, to come over here
and get down on your knees and tell me
just how fucking good I look.

~ Kim Addonizio

Shamelessly used without permission, but it had to be shared today. The sun came out and music played loud and I turned a page in my journal and found it again. One of my most favourite poems. And there are many.

Click here to listen to Addonizio reading her poem, What Do Women Want?

Go buy her books.

Blogging from the heart

susannah — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:21:32 +0000

An email arrived in my inbox this morning that made my heart burst open. As I’m opening registration for the summer session of Blogging from the Heart this Saturday I thought some of you might like to know more about the course and what to expect, so here’s what Gina had to say about the spring session (reproduced, unedited, with her permission :)

Hello Susannah

Thank you for my experience of Blogging from the Heart. There are a lot of reasons I didn’t start, and then, didn’t continue, blogging ages and ages ago. Through the course, I’ve started accepting that it’s completely fine that I’m not a magic foodie blogger or fashion blogger or make-stuff-out-of-wire blogger. I’m just me, and my online space should be a celebration of exactly that. Besides, sometimes I love clothes AND food, so, you know, WHATEVER!

Looking back through the lessons, some of which shrieked at me immediately and some of which I put aside for later, I’m struck by how neatly you mentioned so many different aspects of blogging – the spirit, the techniques, the content. There’s more than enough in there to get started and going, whether one is a newbie or just a scaredie :)

But two things in particular really stood out. The first was your gentle presence through the course. You came across as a facilitator and big sister and friend rather than as Master Guru And Expert. You’re so far from being intimidating or condescending or hand-holding and I’m sure it is this that draws people to your courses and what encourages us to share and learn and make our own discoveries. Somehow, you strike a great balance between being there, and letting the class hold each other without too much interference.

The second, and I know others have already commented on this, is the community you helped create among the class members. Let’s not kid, no matter how much we may tell ourselves that we’re blogging just for us and don’t need or want another soul to read our words, often we actually do. It’s lonely, very lonely, starting out. And so being part of a group of strangers who willingly take the time to visit our little spaces, and read our words and leave thoughtful comments, is so valuable. It’s warming and encouraging and humbling.

If all that was long and rambling, here’s the essence – I loved it, can’t think of any constructive changes, do it again. And again. On that last point, I’m a little jealous I won’t be able to see all the great blogs your new class members have!

Love
Gina x

Proud writer at www.carrymyheart.com

Some Creative Joy for the weekend

susannah — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:07:25 +0000

It’s a special SFTW this week — the Creative Joy edition! We asked some of our favourite people to give us their take on creative joy and what it means/brings to their lives…

Christine Mason Miller’s creative joy loves this moment, plenty of water, quiet and laughter

Justine Musk: “creative joy is an arrow that points us to meaning.”

Janet Goldstein created an inquiry for finding your creative joy that will make your brain and heart buzz

Jeffrey Davis reminds us to embrace our inner goofy with love

Lisa Rough noticed the unexpected simplicity of creative joy

Chris Zydel opens your heart with an invocation of color

Tanya Geisler reminds us that we were born to create

Jamie Ridler feeds creative joy by following her own rhythm

Ronna Detrick tells a story about creativity in the darkness

Darrah Parker finds creative joy in unlikely places

Samantha Reynolds wrote a poem on the power of creativity

Heather Plett on how to create joy

Julie Daley asks will you let yourself open to orgasmic creativity?

Kyeli Smith made a video!

Lianne Raymond gave us an equation: deep rest + wild play = creative joy

Marney Makridakis suggests making a joyful clock

Eric Klein asks are you on fire for creative joy?

Amanda Oaks finds poetry in everything

Bridget Pilloud shared some tips on creative joy from her dog Olive

Liz Lamoreux explored creating space for joy

Lisa Sonora Beam looks at what supports (and gets in the way of) her creative joy

Andrea Scher on learning to turn on the faucet

Marianne Elliott talks about the joy of service

Jen Louden explores regaining your creative joy

Something for you!

And finally, there are still spaces on the Creative Joy retreat in June, so if you’re feeling the pull to join please do come — it’s going to be magic! In the meantime, we wanted to bring some creative joy to YOU, right now, so we’ve put together the Creative Joy Workbook — you can download it right HERE. Print it out, scribble in it, share with whoever you think needs it. There’s journalling space inside, and lots of questions, prompts and invites to help you dig into your own creative joy (and thanks to Jo for the joyful design!)

Hot tip: I recommend answering the questions in the workbook while listening to this week’s mixtape :)

Creative Joy. from Photobird on 8tracks.

On the shelf

susannah — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:21:43 +0000

Really fun to find Instant Love in my local Waterstones yesterday — we’re in good company!