Creative Connections

Writing may seem like a solitary pursuit, to do it well you need to be connected to other creatives. My dear friend, Diana Glyer, literally wrote the book on how connected creatives make each other’s work better by their loving, yet exhortatory collaboration.

For Fool’s Luck, I partnered with several people who made my work better because of their input. One of those people is a very talented friend of mine, Jarret Lemaster. I knew him as a singer and actor, and when it came to securing a narrator for the audiobook version of Fool’s Luck, I quickly learned of his prowess in this arena as well. There was no question in my mind who the right person was to bring Myles Bradford and his friends (and enemies) to life.

When I talked about the audiobook with my friends, many suggested I should have narrated the work myself. While very generous of them, I explained narration was not my strong suit and we wanted the best person at each stage of the project. It reminded me of the scene in the 1992 film Wayne’s World where legendary actor Charlton Heston steps in for a lesser-known actor and turns a small scene into an Oscar-worthy clip.

In a similar way, I might be a decent writer, but I am fairly average at reading my work out loud. If you don’t believe me, listen to the 17-second clip that it took a me about a dozen tries to get it just right (the high quality of the book trailer overall lifts up my performance above what it would be on its own). Then, compare it to Jarret’s narrative brilliance.

This is why I firmly believe creatives should never be threatened by others whose work elevates their own. Let’s work together to make each other better, shall we?

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