New Podcast: My monkey made me write this.

I had big plans for this week, clearing the decks so I could focus on doing some writing and drawing. Instead the monkey managed to help me find a million distractions.

He and I have been having a lot of discussion about why I need to force myself each week to A) make a podcast, B) make a newsletter and C) write a blog post about it as well. He insists that I need to be consistent about it or else I will disappoint my dozens of fans. I would rather be a bit flexible and play it as it comes but, as you can see (because you are reading this), he won.

To be honest, we could totally switch places. I could say it’s important to commit to this and see where it leads me and he would say, take it easy, it’s 80 degrees out, let’s go eat a Good Humor bar in the park. He loves moving the

I think he’s worried that with a fat block of free time, I might come up with something really nuts to do next.

In this week’s podcast, I talk with Todd Colby, the poet, artist, and former member of Drunken Boat. We’ll discuss the creative process and the role of discipline and preparation in keeping the monkey at bay. Todd is awesome, so’s his poetry and his art and his band rocked savagely hard.

Monkey of the Week: the Paranoid. It’s that voice that says: “They’re laughing and sneering, because no one likes you. Or trusts you. Or admires you. And they can’t wait to see you screw up.” What can we say in response?

Monkey Tale: Lenore has a revelation in the shower about who her monkey really is.

All the episodes of the Shut Your Monkey Podcast are on iTunes.
To hear them, you can can either:

• Subscribe directly from your podcast app by searching for ‘Shut Your Monkey’.
• Or you can click this link and it will take you to the iTunes page.
• Or you can visit monkeypodcast.com and listen to the episodes right in your browser.

• Do you have a meddling monkey?

  Tell me about it. I am collecting Monkey Tales, stories from all sorts of people about about the challenges the monkey brought them and how they dealt with them. Real stories, real moving. If you have a monkey tale you’d like to share, just visit my website and click the red tab on the right to record it. That would be great.