Joe Flood

Check out my article, Reel Lessons in Marketing on FlackRabbit. It was inspired by my experience working for the DC Shorts Film Festival. I’ve been involved with this annual event for several years and have done almost everything – I’ve judged screenplays and films, taken pictures, sold t-shirts, moderated discussions and, of course, attended numerous parties. With my front row seat at this festival, I’ve learned a lot about marketing – lessons for anyone promoting an event, product or cause.

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Every last page of my award-winning screenplay, Mount Pleasant, is now available online. This script won the Film DC Screenplay Competition. It is a feature-length script, inspired by true events, about gentrification and urban politics in Washington, DC.

Read the whole thing.

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I wrote a little piece on making your blog look good on the iPhone for FlackRabbit, my friend Margie Newman’s blog. FlackRabbit is filled with useful thoughts on social media and PR. She’s a communications professional who really gets the web – there’s not many of them out there.

Technically, I’m not in PR. But I’ve worked long enough in web strategy and communications to have strong feelings on the subject.

Look for more articles on FlackRabbit in the coming months!

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Transformer kicked off 2010 by inviting DC based artists Jessica Cebra and Zach Storm to transform their project space into a snow globe winter wonderland. Incorporating painting, drawing, and collage to create a whimsical, winter-themed environment, this unique collaboration featured a live ballet performance choreographed by Washington Ballet Director Septime Webre.

I also wrote about this cool event for the Pink Line Project.

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Kerry Skarbakka, Window, 2009. C-Print. 50 X 60 in.

Check out my Pink Line Project review of Kerry Skarbakka, The Struggle to Right Oneself: A Survey. The photos really have a dark humor to them that I really enjoyed. They’re big prints of absurd scenes – like a man in a suit leaping through fire – that tell a story, of people surviving unexpected catastrophe.

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Check out the great cover that my friend Dave Newman designed.  I love it!

So, what’s going on with my book, Murder in Ocean Hall?  In this murder mystery, a famous explorer is killed in Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  Suspects are many and it’s up to a cynical DC detective to solve the case.  The book was inspired by the three years I spent working for the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.  Nobody was murdered while I worked there but a lot of the science and the background in the book comes from my time with NOAA.

I’m represented by a literary agent and we’ve been following the traditional publishing route. However, the book publishing world, upended by recession and technological change, is in turmoil so it’s very difficult for a new author to get a book deal.

My contract with my agent ends March 1.

After then, Plan B goes into effect – I’ll publish the book through Lulu (using the awesome cover above) and sell print and e-copies online.

One way or another, Murder in Ocean Hall will be published.

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It’s the end of the year, and the end of a decade. What were my favorite projects of 2009? What did I have the most fun working on?

Murder in Ocean Hall

I can’t help myself, I like to write fiction. People have asked me how I could leave my job and then spend countless hours alone, in a coffee shop, writing a novel. I’ve offered advice on setting a schedule and being committed, but the truth is that writing a book is a huge sacrifice and something that you must really, really want to do. And something that you must enjoy doing more then anything else. [Read more →]

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I’ve done another interview for the Pink Line Project, this time with Julianne Brienza, Executive Director of the Capital Fringe Festival.

I met Julianne several years ago, when Fringe was just starting out. It’s amazing and inspiring to see how far she’s come. Fringe is definitely something that way too serious DC needs. As she describes in the interview, Washington is very much a city on the rise in terms of the arts.

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I’m going to be writing for the Pink Line Project.  What’s Pink Line?  Describing itself as “a catalyst for the culturally curious”, the site is a guide to DC’s art and cultural scene.  If you’re looking to attend fun art parties in Washington, and learn more about the arts, it’s a great site to check out.

From watching rollergirls arm-wrestle to dodging skateboarders at a photo exhibit, I’ve enjoyed the Pink Line events immensely.  It’s an unexpected side of stuffy Washington that’s much more interesting than some boring Capitol Hill cocktail party. [Read more →]

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With the advent of the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader and the growing acceptance of e-books among readers and writers, it’s safe to say that we’ve reached what I’d call the Disintermediation Moment. This is the time when industries collapse, driven by changes in consumer behavior and expectations. Technology offers new solutions, eagerly adopted by ordinary people, but resisted by middlemen and gatekeepers who want to retain their status, control and income. [Read more →]

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