18 Comments
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Ray T Hernandez's avatar

Corita and Sarah Ruhl, the best!

Emily GreenPurpleFireDragon's avatar

I read volume 4 of American Elf and felt, this is like Doki Doki Literature Club (video game). I was somehow relieved to learn it was *that* Kochalka drew what his kids did that stuck with you.

Lynn Mason's avatar

I just put book #6 on hold at our local library. And, I love the horse drawing “progressions”!

Kevin Kelly's avatar

(FYI, It appears the link to Sarah Ruhl's book goes to John Holt.)

Austin Kleon's avatar

Thanks I fixed it!

Barb Cowles's avatar

A friend had to close down her pottery studio two years ago. She has been floundering. I sent her a copy of Keep Going last week. She thanked me for the book and I heard no more. Yesterday she texted me that over the weekend she began drawing again. Now I ain't sayin' it was your book, but maybe it was. Anyway, thank you for writing it.

Austin Kleon's avatar

That’s wonderful!

Ann Turkle's avatar

Such good, rich stuff. Thank you.

David Huyck's avatar

This line jumped out at me because of its connection to our karate practice:

“It is not so much a matter of technique as of spirit.”

When we train, day by day, week by week, month by month, we train to improve our technique. But on testing day, when candidates are testing for promotion, we encourage them to focus on big spirit! The weeks and months of technique practice will come through when the spirit is big!

The parallels between art and karate (art and life, life and karate, etc.) are many. I often quote your "curious idiot" phrase when I'm leading our classes - much like our "sho shin" or "beginner's mind" concept. We often refer to Shunryu Suzuki's quote: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

Austin Kleon's avatar

I tend to think if you have a creative mind you see everything as being connected to everything — everything in your life speaks to everything else (if you let it)

MK3's avatar

This is all so wonderful… these threads that turn into interesting welcomed rabbit holes! Thank you. Discover and learn so much from your posts. Excited for your book and my library is growing unexpectedly from all the wonderful recommendations. My friends are grateful as well. Such joy

Kristin Nicholas's avatar

Such a great post. I love the backstory to books from authors. So generous of you to share. Here’s to another successful launch. 🥂🚀

Austin Kleon's avatar

I’m trying to figure out the book talk for this book so it’s nice to hear that folks like the background story!!

Kristin Nicholas's avatar

The illustrations from Heidi’s Horse are so interesting. Thanks for it.

Kate's avatar

Moomin books are a warm hug.

Kimberly Hirsh's avatar

I love all of this! The thing that stands out for me most from reading Moomin is when Papa Moomin can't handle the responsibility of parenthood and Mama Moomin leaves Moomintroll to go care for Papa in his cave. Not great parenting, y'all! I love when the whole family goes to a hotel and can't figure out the revolving door. I have a video of my kid at the public library in Dun Loaghaire, Ireland, "playing Moomin" as he goes around and around in the revolving door. I keep thinking about getting the Moomin video games.

Austin Kleon's avatar

Knew there were tv shows but did NOT know there was a video game