Idk how this app works anymore
But here's an update + tips for the Booked and Busy!
People,
Yoyoyoyo! It’s been a minute, and for good reason: this season/semester/scenario we’ve been collectively living through has been Bananas! & not in the fun Gwen Stefani way!
Moving on: if you’ve been expecting a newsletter (or email) (or text) from KB Brookins: STAY IN LINE! I’ve been doing at least 10 things at once for months. I wanna tell you all about them, and share some reflections on *balance*. But first, updates.
My debut memoir Pretty came out on May 28, 2024. The reception of it has been GREAT, and I’ve met so many cool readers and colleagues this fall!
To the people that booked me & the people that showed up to the events & the bookstores & libraries that have carried my book baby #3 & the people that read Pretty: THANK YOU! Without you, none of this is worth it.
PS: I hear that this acclaimed multigenre memoir about transness, masculinity, and race is the perfect gift for the holidays. <3
I have a free workshop tomorrow with Sarabande Books called MAMA LET’S PRAISE! Especially in these times, it’s important that we find things in our lives to celebrate, so come celebrate with me by writing some poems! Register here.
I’m currently one of the judges for two Texas Institute of Letters awards: the Burdine Johnson Award for Best Book of Poetry and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best First Book of Poetry. If you’re a Texas writer who’s had a book come out in the last calendar year: submit! They’ve also got awards open in fiction, nonfiction, YA, scholarly work, and short story. Gimme something good to read this winter break.
I’m guest editing Beestung magazine’s February 2025 issue. If you’re a nonbinary, genderqueer, or two-spirit writer (or visual artist!): send me work! I haven’t edited for a litmag in a while bc I’ve been too busy :[ so I’m glad to be at it again :]
I had an interview come out last week with one of my favorite magazines: The Offing! Thanks a bunch to Shlagha Borah for her insightful questions. Read the whole thing here.
In August, Texas DPS quietly revoked the ability to change your gender marker on state ID’s. I was PISSED, so I wrote about my personal experience changing mine and why it’s important to offer this to trans Texans with Them. Read it here.
I made it to the second round of Austin Film Festival’s screenwriting competition in the TV drama category! Excited to keep working on my TV writing chops. Screenwriting managers: get @ me :]
Now that I’ve cliff-notes’d my last few months, let’s talk.
***
As one can gather from reading this newsletter thus far, I’m busy. Contrary to what Instagram may show you, It’s not always fun, and it’s not always things I want to be doing. In between dynamic book tour stops and having pieces published, I’ve been teaching, going to school, applying & interviewing for jobs, taking gigs to care for a sick parent, mourning the loss of my dad, maintaining relationships, serving on the City of Austin LGBTQ Quality of Life commission, reading applications for the inaugural Austin Poet Laureate, trying to write new work, trying to keep up with current events, and trying to care for myself physically and mentally. YEESH.
Many folk reading this letter, like me, are juggling numerous things while also doing the task of creativity. I’ve been asked a million times in recent months “How do you find the time?”, so I’ve got a few pointers for having multiple irons in the fire that may be useful to you.
GET IN THERAPY. As a person with severe ADHD and anxiety, I must admit: the whole “being a creative” thing is hard! People expect a lot of me, and I expect a lot of myself. Regardless of that, my executive functioning skills are trash! Instead of trying to navigate that pressure alone, I’ve found that regular mental hygene keeps me off the literal edge of a cliff. If therapy’s not your jam, at least keep a journal or schedule yap seshes with trusted friends — ideally friends who understand your plight.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS KEY. At the beginning of the week (usually on Mondays), I sit down and ask myself what absolutely needs to be done this week. I then write down the task, the deadline associated with it, how long it’ll approximately take me to finish the task, and any small steps that I need to take in order to finish the task. For example, “submitting to the film festival” is big & scary; “submitting to the film festival —> step 1: taking all the typos out of my script for 1 hour, step 2: scrubbing my name from the script for 15 minutes” is better. For my ADhd girlies: plan 30 minutes more than you think you need. This is so if you start procrastinating or getting off task, you haven’t completely messed your whole day up.
DON’T FORGET TO PLAN LIFE STUFF. Despite the fact that you’re a Prolific Writer, you still have to do laundry. And eat dinner. And travel to & from places. Put that time in your calendar, too (I’m speaking from experience, y’all!)
USE THE WEBSITES & APPS. These days, there’s a doohickey for everything. My favorites are google calendar, pomofocus, and Freedom. The latter costs money but eh — what doesn’t? If you’re less hardheaded than me, then try whatever Screen Time thing is automatically uploaded to your phone instead of Freedom.
MAKE TIME FOR GENIUS. I am very envious of the people who can do stuff like write a publishable poem or essay or screenplay in 1 hour. For me, it takes writing it, letting it sit, rewriting it, worrying that I’ve messed it all up, reading it out loud to edit it for grammar/punctuation, then worrying that it’s actually Bad Art (what even is that), then relinquishing control and submitting it. So — at least 8 hours per piece. Also, tbh, 80% of what I write is hogwash and will never see the light of day (unless I die and someone decides to cancel me via publishing all of my journal entries). I say all of this to say: plan MULTIPLE writing sessions for a piece when possible. Also, don’t be so hard on yourself when you come out of the other end of an artmaking sesh without a “finished product”. You can’t really make creating something you like (which is magic) happen on command. We don’t write or paint or sing well because we want to. Creativity requires patience. Repetition. Failure and the tenacity to try again. It’s the trying, I think, that is the most creative. Make time for the trying that leads to genius.
BE OK WITH SAYING NO. This is one I’m still learning, y’all. If you can’t make time for it, then don’t make time for it. You actually feel worse when you say yes and you don’t wanna do it; you also feel worse when you say yes and strain yourself to make it work. Being Booked And Busy doing everything but creating is sometimes a disguise, sometimes an erroneous way you’re quantifying your worth, sometimes a distraction from the hard heart work that is creating. So say no and be ok with it. The farther you get in this capitalist game, the more you have to say no (I’ve said no to something at least once a week since my book came out!); most people understand, and the people that don’t wouldn’t have been good to work with anyway.
I say all this to say: please don’t let your schedule drown you of your humanity. Please don’t let the things outside of creating outweigh the fact that you are creating. I’m joining you from a cooling-down Texas; it’s 49 degrees and I’ve just bought Samara Joy tickets and I will clear out my email and finish this newsletter and create something today. I hope that you will, too.
Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease,
KB
It is not an app IT IS A WEBSITE KB hahahahah (ok i am OLD!) but anyhow = it works!!!