Wait, so what is Long Overdue?
We prefer to talk about your stories, but since this is our first official newsletter, we'll take a second to share who we are and how things evolved in 2019.
The short version: Long Overdue empowers people to record meaningful stories. Right now, our focus is primarily on turning these stories into books, whether that's a memoir, biography, novel, book of poetry, or pretty much any other genre.
For more info, check out these articles below:
Our "Stories" Project
Let's say you want to write a book or you're looking to record your parents/grandparents' stories. Where do you even begin? It seems like this massive project to tackle.
Sitting down with a blank computer screen is intimidating. And if you're interviewing a parent or grandparent, you want to be part of that experience, not hunched over the laptop, rapidly typing notes.
To help out, we have a list of story prompts that you can access to get the story ideas rolling. From there, just turn on your phone's voice recorder and start having a conversation. When you're finished, send the audio to us and we'll transcribe it into a Word Doc or Google Doc. This way the challenge goes from a daunting, "How do I write this big 100-200+ page book," to the simple, "When do I tell my next story?"
Coming Soon - We're turning our story prompts into a physical deck of cards. Should be ready by March of 2020.
"Atlas" by Michele Popadich
Questions like: "What was a defining moment in your life?" or "Tell me about your childhood." are so big, it can be hard to know where to start writing a story.
Instead, try starting with something smaller. Here's a great example from local Chicago author Michele Popadich. Michele started with something simple - the atlas her family had in her dad's minivan - and from there the story branches out with memories about growing up, time with family, travel, college, and job decisions. She compares those old trips with the wandering atlas vs. today with the cold precision of a GPS.
Last-minute Christmas gifts
Need a last-minute gift for Christmas? Check out our list of storytelling gift ideas over on LinkedIn.
Shoutout to Chicago options on the list like the birthday book from the Chicago Tribune, celebrity shoutouts from Cameo, or an adventurous vacation from Lost Travel Company.
We joined the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
We officially joined the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce in November and will have upcoming writer events at Lakeview locations like BottlesUp! and Third Space.
Long Overdue is run by five people who love Chicago. Chris and Ashley live in Lakeview East. Keith lives in Wheaton. Omar grew up in Humboldt Park and recently moved out to the Oakland/San Francisco area. Kimberly lived in Chicago for years before moving to Raleigh. While a lot of our events will happen in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, stay tuned for meetups in Omar and Kimberly's neck of the woods + maybe a few summer events in the sweet sweet writer's paradise of Traverse City, Michigan.
Facebook is still a thing, right?
No Twitter. No Instagram. No TikTok.
We're keeping it simple with our social media approach. Just a Facebook page, a monthly newsletter, and a few posts on LinkedIn.
Crash, our unofficial Chief Marketing Officer and Team Dog, has recently taken over the keyboard, sharing stories from his care-free days in Chicago.
Long Overdue Books - Titles from 2019
Our finished books include:
"Cecil the Centipede," which is a children's book from the first-time author David Ovitt (lives in Florida). This ended up being a really cool project, 30 years in the making. More details to come in our January newsletter.
"Strawberry Moon," a coming of age thriller from Joy M. Lilley over in England
"Don't Be That Guy: Career advice from 30 Years Down the Road" by David Warden here in Illinois.
The "Tackle the Library" series of books from Jon Oldham in Michigan.
And "Here or There" from Long Overdue's Co-Founder, Chris O'Brien
Whew. It was secretly a busy year. And we're dreaming big for Year 2. I know this is crazy ambitious, but we would love to report back in December of 2020 with 100 total titles.
What if it's not ready yet? - The book doesn't have to be perfect or finalized. Authors can publish one chapter at a time in our "Seeking Publisher" and "Seeking Editor" sections. This way you can build an audience while pursuing the traditional, hybrid, or self-publishing paths.
And, if you're stuck, or maybe you don't have an initial idea for a book, feel free to use one of ours in the "Please, Take These Ideas" section.
The New Logo
Ah, the old logo. It served us well. Got us through those early days when all ya need is a $10 logo from Fiverr.
But we decided to work with a professional artist in Chicago to design the new one. We're thinking we'll keep this one for a while.
Join us in Lakeview at Friar Tuck's followed by Galway Bay for a farewell party to the old logo. At the moment, this logo farewell party is not a real event, but if there is any sort of momentum, we will totally do it.
Newsletter Schedule and Staying in Touch
Moving forward, we'll be releasing our newsletter the first Tuesday of every month, so January's will go out on January 7th.
You can subscribe here on the site (should be a sidebar to your right) or just send a note over to library@longoverduestories.com. And if you have a book in mind or want to begin turning family stories into a book, we'd love to hear from you.
And yeah, we're gonna be one of those people and end this by saying, "Hey, see ya next year!"
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