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Tetris, Tom Sawyer and Banishing the Sunday Scaries
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Some people come into your life through a certain unexplained providence. Helping you, encouraging you and having a good laugh along the way. Tom Grundy has been one of those guys for me. Even as a Man United fan... Ahem. I stumbled across his work via a guest post written for Paul Millerd (author of The Pathless Path) that hooked me in from the very first sentence. Tom has an intriguing story… After taking two years away from a career in corporate banking—with a proper Claude Talador style escape—he went back ‘inside’. By choice. To exactly the same role! "How do I want to work?" Not how should I work. That spirit runs gleefully through his new guide, How To Work Your Way (linked below). It's a succinct synthesis on the topic, combining a truly original smorgasbord of ideas such as Tom Sawyer's fence painting con, good enough jobs, work as a game of Tetris, finding the others and following in his and Paul’s footsteps—banishing the Sunday Blues for good. This desire to escape the corporate script sits at the heart of my Monkey State trilogy too. Finding someone exploring that territory with this much originality, lightness and humour, has been a blessing so I wanted to share his work with you today. Who knows, you may also become addicted to his daily newsletter like me too. He's a bit of a magician copywriter at heart, pulling inbox rabbits out of the hat with impressive regularity. Reading it has deepened my thinking, broadened my Hussleton horizons and (full disclosure) led to a few book orders when he’s done a shoutout for the series. Thanks again, Tom. The guide is free. The emails are free. Dip in and out as you please. He values your time with zero fluff. And like I said, a regular sprinkling of magic. It might be the permission slip you didn't know you needed... Grab your copy here and let me or Tom know your thoughts > https://howtoworkyourway.com/ Hang Comfy, P.S. If you’ve already fully escaped or retired from the formal workplace, you still may find insights when applied to your personal projects. My favourite line from the guide is probably a play on the old Shakespeare quote, “DIY is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so”. Although, for those who know me well, I might continue to take the Tom Sawyer approach here! |
Jim Roberts - Newsletter
Sign up to instantly get your free copy of "The 11 Best Stories of the Last 101 Years - According to Jim", plus receive behind the vines content from The Monkey State book trilogy.
A reader messaged me on Instagram this week to say they cried when they got to Karo's death in The Monkey State. This caught me off guard. When you're writing a novel, you're so focused on making the story work. You're thinking about scenes, dialogue, pacing and all the moving parts. It's easy to forget that readers aren't consuming it like that. They meet characters. Spend time with them. Start to care about them, maybe. It's an odd feeling when someone has such an emotional reaction to a...
Some ideas find you in fun places. Early on in the writing of Book 1, I was visiting my sister and now brother-in-law in Glastonbury. A strange spiritual home of sorts due to its epic musical festival. It was before they had the boys (my two wonderful nephews!) and I found myself alone in a coffee shop, nursing a latte and letting my mind wander. Later that same day I climbed the Tor, ideas brewing, and somewhere between the coffee and the climb, something found its way into the mythology of...
No, I'm not plotting another sequel. No, I've not replaced Claude. No, Tia hasn't had a baby. Today, I wanted to shout out another author with their own monkey. A charming one too. Serena Choo is back with The Dancing Monkey and Living The Way of Zen. I wrote about the original a few moons ago and was delighted to see an email from her recently mentioning a new book ready to launch. I've already devoured the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) and am now reading it again on Kindle Unlimited at a more...