

Surging To Success:

The 25 Entrepreneurs, Authors, Entertainers, Innovators, And Straight-Up Nerds Who Are Following Their Passions And Finding Success

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States

The Surge

Surging To Success/The Surge – 1st ed.

Front Cover designed by: Kinsey Stewart

Edited by: Scott Bedgood

Published in United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Entertainers

- Guillermo Rodriguez, Colin Mochrie, Alexander Dinelaris, Titus Welliver, Lecrae

Chapter 2: Entrepreneurs

- Jeff Raider, Andy Forch, Tom Patterson, Jimmy Peña, Vinyl Me, Please

Chapter 3: Authors

- Sam Maggs, Pierce Brown, Jeff Pearlman, Will Leitch, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson

Chapter 4: Sports

- Seth Davis, Damian Lillard, Alexi Pappas, Mike Oz, Spencer Hall

Chapter 5: An Adventurer, A Tolkien Translator, And Three Other Exceptional Profiles

- Alastair Humphreys, David Salo, Trip Lee, TJ Regan, Rob Baker

Foreword

### Don't skip this.

I know you're tempted because you want to read about how Damian Lillard became the NBA's social media master, or how David Salo turned his childhood love of J.R.R. Tolkien into a job as a linguist expert on The Lord of the Rings movies, or you want to skip to the profile on Tom Patterson, the founder of Tommy John underwear, who has promised us a wedgie-free world in the near future. I get it. Believe me. I liked those stories when they were pitched and I liked them even more when our writers executed and delivered.

### If you've gotten this far, you've probably bought this book and either you're a longtime fan of The Surge or you're a future fan. Either way, let me take up about one more minute of your time for a quick primer on what we're about.

### From profiles with Oscar-winning screenwriters and New York Times Bestselling authors, to Q&As with the entrepreneurs behind products you use every day, we have spent the last year pulling back the curtain on success, ambition and finding happiness through your career. In short: surging to success.

### This book represents the best of our efforts. Read. Enjoy. Surge On.

### – The Surge Team

Chapter 1

Entertainers

Jimmy Kimmel Live Sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez

By Jon Finkel

Guillermo Rodriguez is the man.

He's the man who wrestled Matt Damon in a bit plugging The Bourne Ultimatum. He's the man who convinced Channing Tatum and Bryan Cranston to drink tequila on the red carpet of the Oscars. And he's the man who turned a parking lot job into a starring role on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

"The very first time they asked me to be on the show I said 'no'," Guillermo says. "One of the producers said that the writers were thinking of putting me on the show and I told them that I'd never been on TV and that I was very shy, but they told me to give it a try."

Eleven years later, Guillermo is still going strong with JKL, sharing screen time with Oscar winners, Emmy and Grammy winners, and covering everything from the NBA Finals to Austin's South By Southwest festival.

Prior to his big break with Kimmel, Guillermo was working two full-time jobs and a job on the weekends as well. One of the jobs was as a room server at a hotel from 6AM to 2PM and the other job was at a parking lot behind the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio.

Always be yourself

"The first time I was on the air I was very nervous," Guillermo says. "I talked to Uncle Frank and told him how I was feeling and he said that I should just be myself."

Uncle Frank was Kimmel's uncle and a beloved staple of the show. Early on in Guillermo's career, the two of them would star in skits together, most notably, 'Security Night Live', which was a spoof of Saturday Night Live's famous 'Weekend Update' segment.

"Uncle Frank said to just be natural," Guillermo says. "He said don't try to be funny. Don't try to act. Just be yourself, that's what Jimmy likes."

When Guillermo was plucked from the parking lot to be on the show, he says that some of his security-guard colleagues thought he was good, others were jealous, but everyone agreed that he was lucky.

"After the first skit I thought it was funny," he says. "I liked it, but I didn't ask for more. I just finished and they paid me and I went back to my security job. Then the writers came back and said that they were going to use me again. They gave me a script and everything."

It's ok to be nervous around Robert De Niro

It's been over a decade of red carpet interviews and bits with A-list celebrities for Guillermo, but he still gets the jitters when he interviews stars of a certain magnitude.

"Oh man, I still get nervous with the big people," he says. "Oh my God, one of the most nervous times was when I had to interview Robert De Niro. We were at his hotel waiting to do the interview and my hands were sweating and I was just like, oh man, it's De Niro from so many great movies. Finally, he got there and he talked to the director of the piece and then the director introduced us. Then, De Niro said, 'I know Guillermo and I'm familiar with his job.' I couldn't believe it."

Amazingly, De Niro didn't even ask to do a read-through with him of the prepared questions. The legendary Godfather II actor told him to just do his thing and he'd answer his own way. The bit was a huge success, and Guillermo says that while he usually follows the script he's given, when he has his own ideas, he just goes for it. So far, most of his ideas have worked.

If they don't, Guillermo says he's still happy because on a regular basis he gets to talk to the most beautiful women in the world. And sometimes, if duty calls, he gets to do much more than just interview them.

He's been kissed by Megan Fox, given a foot rub to Amy Adams on the red carpet of the Oscars, and he's had Taylor Swift stroke his mustache at the American Music Awards; all for laughs, of course.

"I get so excited," Guillermo says. "For example, when I go to the Emmy Awards or the Grammy Awards, all the women put on these nice dresses and look fancy. I saw them on TV and then I'm interviewing them. I love it."

Just go for it

Guillermo realizes how lucky he is to have been given the opportunity to star on a hit late night show and he says that he's grateful to Jimmy Kimmel for everything.

"Jimmy is the best," he says. "He's such a nice guy and we have so much fun here."

Still, Guillermo never forgets where he was just over a decade ago and he maintains the work ethic he had with his previous three jobs while doing the best he can at his one famous job.

"I pray that everything goes right," he says. "I was afraid at first, but someone told me to not be afraid and just go for it."

As for advice to other people who are given the opportunity of a lifetime, Guillermo keeps it simple:

"Believe in yourself, do your best and you can achieve your dreams."

Whose Line Is It Anyway? Star Colin Mochrie

By Scott Bedgood

Colin Mochrie can't remember what day it is. He's just touched down in his home town of Toronto on a Tuesday and he's got live shows in LA starting Thursday, before traveling to Michigan for shows, and then filming some more Whose Line Is It Anyway? episodes.

"I have people [who keep up with my schedule], I can remember nothing," says Mochrie about keeping up with it all.

As one of the world's funniest and most well-known improv comedy artists, Mochrie has made a career of going with the flow.

Staying Sharp

Whether it's starring in the British or American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? or touring with fellow improviser Brad Sherwood, or popping in to work on his craft with the young improv actors at Toronto Second City, Mochrie's life is based around making things up as he goes. But he knows he can't just rest on his laurels and rely on his vast experience, he has to constantly perform for audiences to stay at the top of his game.

"It really is like a muscle, if you don't use it, it gets flabby and you get tentative and scared and that can kill you," says Mochrie.

Once Mochrie discovered improv while studying theater in Toronto, he realized it was the perfect craft for him.

"I'm basically lazy, so I didn't have to learn anything, which was a big plus," says Mochrie. "But there's also something exciting about going in front of an audience and having nothing and using them and the people you are working with to come up with a show."

Mochrie was born in Scotland, but moved with his family to Canada when he was a child. He's widely known in the US as one of the stars of Whose Line Is It Anyway? but he has been in a number of films, TV shows, and countless commercials in Canada.

Whose Line? Returns

Mochrie, along with Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady, host Aisha Tyler, and other famous improvisors have recreated Whose Line? for the CW Network. The original show was canceled by ABC in 2003 after six years on the air. ABC Family continued to run episodes for years afterwards, keeping it in the public consciousness much longer after the network show was canceled.

The show returned on the CW Network in 2013 and will begin its third season on its new network on April 17, 2015. Mochrie says the only difficult thing about picking up the show again was figuring out how to make fun of host Aisha Tyler.

"We had Clive Anderson in the English version of the show who was balding and had no neck so it was easy to make fun of him, and we had Drew Carey in the US version who was overweight at the time, so that was fun," jokes Mochrie. "But with Aisha it is different because she is this beautiful woman who is a total nerd that's into video games, kind of like a dream girl. But we've found ways to insult her so that's good."

The show features celebrity guests that sometimes have little or no improv background, which makes for interesting shows. Mochrie says that some guests have been great, while others must have realized they made a mistake once they got on stage. But it's always in good fun and the shows are always entertaining.

Mochrie knows what it's like to bomb on stage though, as anyone who has performed in front of live audiences as much as he has would have experienced.

"The beauty of improv is that you always remember the horrible moments and you never remember the good ones," says Mochrie. "There are times where it just doesn't work. I like to blame the audience because I like to shift blame, but usually it's because of me. I wasn't listening or maybe I just didn't have it that night."

Benefits Beyond the Stage

Improv isn't just an exercise in being funny onstage, it's an exercise in listening to others and going along with what they say. Lessons that, Mochrie says, can benefit people off stage as much as on stage.

"Brad and I were hired by GE to teach their executives an improv class and it amazed me because every scene was negative and was stopped. They were saying 'no' to the person, they weren't going along with their ideas, they weren't listening because they had their set ideas of what they wanted to do," says Mochrie. "When they finally got it, it was amazing how everything just bloomed, the scenes came alive, they made sense and it was a good lesson."

Mochrie believes the real-life applications of improv have improved he and his wife's lives dramatically. They began employing the "Yes and.." principle of improv, where one always goes along with what is suggested, in their own lives.

"We've said 'yes' to things that previous times we would have been leery of and it's lead to these great adventures where we have met interesting people," says Mochrie.

Mochrie does couch the "Yes and..." principle by saying it must be within reason because it could go wrong. Anyone who has seen Yes Man with Jim Carrey knows that this idea could be great in many respects, and dangerous in others.

Going with the flow and listening to others and accepting their ideas has given Mochrie a lifetime's worth of memories and laughter, not to mention a flourishing career.

Oscar-Winning Screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris

By Erin Coughlin

While many people believe that screenwriters have to live in Los Angeles in order to have a successful career, New York native, Alexander Dinelaris and the rest of the Golden Globe and Oscar winning writing team of Birdman, prove that it is becoming easier for writers to develop and produce their original stories from locations all over the world.

After establishing a career in theater, Dinelaris decided to pursue his interest in writing. His work caught the attention of acclaimed director Alejandro González Inarritu (21 Grams, Babel), when his stage play, Still Life premiered at the MCC Theater off Broadway in 2009. Impressed with Dinelaris' writing, Inarritu then invited him to work on the early drafts of the hit film Biutiful, starring Oscar winner Javier Bardem. In the years following Biutiful's success, the award winning writer-director has called upon Dinelaris to collaborate on various new projects.

"Birdman started with Alejandro calling up Nico and myself, explaining that he had this idea about making a film in entirely one take. We were totally intrigued by it. He wanted to do something a little more lighter with a lighter tone," said Dinelaris.

Using Skype, Dinelaris was able to collaborate on the script with his writing partners Inarritu (Los Angeles), Nicolas Giacobone and Armando Bo, both of whom are based in Buenos Aires.

"Once we had some ideas, Nico would come to New York and we would hammer out a draft. Then he would go back to Buenos Aires. I think Skype has changed a lot. You can collaborate from a distance. It feels more personable, more creatively beneficial to be able to see somebody rather than just have a phone conversation," said Dinelaris.

Set during the days leading up to the opening night performance of his new play, famous actor and former film superhero Riggan Thomson struggles with his ego, career, and personal life.

"Theater is always live back stage, so there was a lot of room to roam and prowl with the camera. We could extend scenes with dialogue. It just seemed to be the perfect fit."

Despite the fact that former Batman star, Michael Keaton, comes across as the perfect fit for the role of Thomson, the screenwriters penned the script without having a particular actor in mind.

"We had a conversation about Michael (Keaton) and thought he was perfect for the role in that he had the tools necessary and a sense of humor. He's extremely likeable, so we knew he would have the audience's sympathy. Of course his tact and elegance with comedy was clear. We got really lucky."

Shot on location in NYC, the actors faced the unique challenge of filming scenes in a series of long takes, most ranging from between 10-12 minutes in length.

"Actors love to work with Alejandro because they know he brings the best out of them. We all did it out of the passion of making the film together. The cast was stellar from top to bottom."

The intricacies of the one-take camera method allowed the screenwriters the opportunity to maintain an important presence on set during filming.

"Because of the one take method, there were times where the camera needed a few extra seconds or we needed to brush in some extra dialogue. It was all about developing a sense of continuity. Basically, we had to be around all of the time. We rehearsed for three to four weeks with the camera. Not much of it was going to change because it was so dependent on the choreography. Sometimes we had to be there for a change or to do some quick line edits."

The passion they have dedicated toward the film has resulted in unforeseen raves from the critics and an enthusiastic, universal audience.

"It's been surreal. If you had told us six months ago that we would be this well-liked by the critics, (including winning The Gotham Award and 7 Golden Globe nominations), nobody would have believed that. We thought it was a quirky and personal film. It's very bizarre on the page."

Hot off of Birdman's success, Dinelaris is currently involved in developing three different projects for stage and screen. Along with the Birdman team, as co-creator and executive producer he is busy writing the first season of The One Percent, a new series for Starz starring Hilary Swank and Ed Helms. He is also collaborating with Gloria and Emilio Estefan on a new Broadway stage musical, On Your Feet.

Star of Amazon's Bosch, Actor Titus Welliver

By Scott Bedgood

Whether you realize it or not, you've seen Titus Welliver before. Maybe you saw him in Argo, or The Town, or Transformers 4. Maybe you saw him on TV in "Deadwood", or "Sons of Anarchy", or "NYPD Blue". He's one of the most prolific actors in Hollywood with almost 100 credits to his name, and now, at the age of 53, he's finally the star of a production.

Welliver is the titular character of the new Amazon Prime Instant Video series "Bosch" which is based on the series of 17 books by Michael Connelly. The pilot debuted last year and received enough acclaim that Amazon ordered the full series which is available online now.

Welliver talked with us about stepping into the role of an iconic character like Bosch, working in a new medium, and what it's like to finally get that starring role.

\- 1 -

SB: You've worked in basically every medium that one can work as an actor, from the stage to movies to television, what is the main difference between your prior experiences and working for an online streaming show?

TW: The major difference when working with a studio like Amazon studios, which is a totally independent entity unto itself, and a normal TV network, is that the success of a pilot on a normal TV network is predicated on a handful of executives at a network. The people at Amazon still ultimately make those decisions, but [streaming] empowers the people that are paying for Amazon Prime by putting the product out there and allowing the subscribers to view it and rate it and comment on it and share it.

We shoot Bosch very much like shooting a film. We have the luxury of doing things a bit more artistically with a larger scope. What we have done is shoot 10, one-hour movies. It's much more cinematic.

\- 2 -

SB: This is your first starring role, what's the biggest difference in your day-to-day work?

TW: The biggest difference is the hours that I work. I'm more or less in every single scene of the show. So I'm the first in and the last out of the workday. That being said, there's really strong writing, so although the show is called Bosch it's really an ensemble. It's a different kind of investment I suppose, because when you are a hired gun you are invested in the work you are doing, but in a different way. I find myself as a de facto producer or writer in that way.

However, I'm always invested in the work I'm doing no matter the role.

\- 3 -

SB: Bosch is an iconic character and one that people have strong feelings about, like what he looks like and who he is. Did you read all of the books before starting or did you try to make the character your own?

TW: There are deeply dedicated fans of the books and Michael creates these fantastic scenarios and challenges for Bosch to navigate. I had a short amount of time to prepare because I was in the process of filming Transformers 4 which took me all over the country and eventually to Hong Kong. I went to Connelly and asked him where I need to focus regarding the backstory. He gave me all the Bosch books and told me to read The City of Bones and Concrete Blonde and eventually we put in Echo Park as well. I've played a fair amount of cops in my career from all over: Boston, New York, LA. Reading the books really got me into the mind of Harry. It's also interpretive, and you can't please everybody. People are going to say Titus Welliver doesn't fit their idea of the character, but there has to be a level of ownership of the character on my part.

\- 4 -

SB: The cop-on-the-edge-of-the-law is not a new theme in TV or movies. But with Bosch there does seem to be something more going on, whether it's his past, his family, and his struggles with faith or a lack thereof. What do you feel makes Bosch unique and different than any other detective or cop on TV?

TW: He's a very flawed character. He's human. We see that he is fallible. We see this emotional, inner turmoil that he deals with. From the loss of his mother to the harsh upbringing he had as he came up through the system. It informs his sense of justice, as he is the advocate for the victim. He has a really strong moral compass, but Harry Bosch is a guy who doesn't suffer fools and has no time for bureaucracy and politics. He's not a guy who is crooked, but he also knows how the system works. And having been a soldier and a Special Forces operator, he's a deeply instinctual guy. He takes nothing for granted.

Michael Connelly summed it up for me one time when he told me, "Harry is the guy that walks into the dark alleyway in the rain with low visibility knowing that there's danger that lurks inside. But he's almost myopic in his pursuit of that."

\- 5 -

SB: What's the most important piece of advice you've gotten in your career? What advice would you give someone else?

TW: I had the privilege to study with the playwright David Mamet and one of the things he said was, "Always show up 15 minutes early and you'll never be 15 minutes late."

Also, know your lines because you can't act with a sheet of paper in your hand and operate with grace and respect. These are things that I think are extremely important.

A work ethic is the core of any type of success no matter what discipline you are in. One should always be a good scout and always be prepared. It's important to have focus and not be myopic in pursuit of something like acting. It's important to expand ones horizons. It's important to watch films, read poetry, listen to good music, and listen to speeches of great orators. These are all studies of the human condition because there's a large part of acting that has to do with observation.

My advice is that good acting is good listening, it's really about taking the attention off of yourself and putting it on the other person.

Grammy-Winning Rapper Lecrae

By Scott Bedgood

Bun B, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T.

Tim Keller, John Piper, Louie Giglio.

Bubba Watson, Justin Forsett, Steph Curry.

The first three: famous, critically-acclaimed rappers.

Keller, Piper, and Giglio? Well-known white pastors in their 50s and 60s.

Two-time Masters champion Watson, Baltimore Ravens running back Forsett, and newly-crowned NBA MVP Curry round out the group. The only thing connecting this seemingly-disparate group together is the influence of the rapper Lecrae.

Having the ear of everyone from world-famous rappers to pastors to athletes is why he is one of the most important and influential people in America.

I'm what happens when Outkast meets the writings of Moses

The views are opposing, but they correlate

And me and Christ don't match, but we coordinate

If Wu-Tang can spit five percent gems

I can talk about Him who died for my sins

I'm not a gospel rapper, not a holy roller

I'm just a product of grace, spreading hope to the hopeless – "Co-Sign"

Lecrae is a man between two worlds. But to say he's caught between those worlds would be wrong. He's positioned himself and his career exactly where he wants to be.

But it's a lonely place, for now. Lecrae was a wildly successful Christian rapper before pivoting his career to focus more on reaching the mainstream world of hip-hop and culture in general.

He's won two Grammy Awards for best Gospel Album and Contemporary Christian Song, but perhaps most importantly he was nominated for Best Rap Performance alongside Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem.

"I've learned to be comfortable where I'm at, I feel comfortable in my own skin," says Lecrae. "People trust where I'm coming from. I'm anxious for more people to exist in this space with me."

In 2015 he's performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Good Morning America. In the last few years he's also collaborated with Big K.R.I.T and put out two mixtapes with DJ Don Canon. The Texas native is in a position of unequaled influence in both the secular and Christian music worlds. But this foray into the world outside the Christian music bubble has left him his share of critics from both sides.

"If you influence 1,000 people, you're going to have 100 critics," says Lecrae. "Every leader that you esteem and admire has been critiqued extremely harshly. Look at Martin Luther King, they killed him."

You know the ones that never turned back

Martin Luther King got shot for it

That's priceless you can't earn that

Then tell me what do you think he died for?

A peace prize? A holiday?

So I can rap a whole bunch of weak lines

About how I'm a make my choppers spray? – "Sacrifice"

Lecrae is likely the only person in the world fielding phone calls from the Trill OG Bun B and hopping on a jet to Finland to play at a Christian festival. He's playing Free Press Summer Fest in Houston alongside the likes of R. Kelly, St. Vincent, and The Decemberists, but he's also likely rocked the stage at the church down the street from you with a bunch of middle and high school kids.

Situations like the racial tensions in Baltimore tend to elevate Lecrae's influence. As an African-American with the ear of the majority-white evangelical church population, he knows that he can affect great change with his words and actions.

But Lecrae isn't a politician; people actually listen to him.

"It's about the narrative. A lot of times people can't quite grasp a truth or perspective unless it's wrapped up in a story. For example if you watch Lord of the Rings which is about the heart and coveting, you appreciate the message in it because of how great the story is," says Lecrae. "If I just told you that our hearts are deceitful and you had qualms or issues with that statement, that's what would rise up first."

So dead beat daddy was taught to me way before my time

Now we extreme, buying fancy things like gold chains

Just pretty shackles, we still enslaved

Put 'em round your neck, cuz we still hangin – "Dirty Water"

Lecrae's narratives, like "Welcome to America" which he performed on Fallon, are striking pictures of modern society. He doesn't have a specific song about the events in Ferguson or Baltimore, but he is entering the studio soon and might have something up his sleeve.

"When we are talking about Baltimore or Ferguson I do better to construct a song or story or a talk around it where I can have a longer runway to explain things rather than giving a quick 140 character blurb on social media," explains Lecrae.

Lecrae never shies away from topics, and many record labels would balk at letting an artist explore the territory that he explores. But Lecrae doesn't have to worry about that, he started his record label Reach Records with Ben Washer in 2004. Add smart businessman to the list of superlatives one could use to describe Lecrae.

So I feel what's popping on the charts is popping body parts

And yeah, sometimes my music's for the church, I call it body art – "The Fever"

He's also the only artist to ever have a No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and the Gospel chart at the same time like he did in September 2014. That album, Anomaly, was the high point in a years-long journey that began with Lecrae's decision to reach further into the mainstream culture in order to influence it with his Christian message.

"Most of the time we spend our energy critiquing, condemning, or copying culture instead of creating culture. I felt burdened to create culture," says Lecrae. "I wanted to help people create categories for what culture could look like. There needs to be voices that bring clarity, sobriety, and hope. Those voices are usually trapped inside an Amen Corner and aren't heard by the larger society."

He compared it to the culture of eating organic food. The strong advocates for organic eating were often preaching to their own "Amen Corner" before several documentaries became popular and brought the message to the wider culture. Lecrae had grown tired of playing to his own Amen Corner and began branching out.

"I want to change the way people see the world. We all look at the world through a particular lens," says Lecrae. "When your worldview is transformed then your values and actions are transformed. A lot of people want to modify behavior. It's not really a change of heart. I want people to be different, not just do different things. We are broken people, but until we have repaired hearts we aren't changed."

Chapter 2

Entrepreneurs

Founder of Harry's Razors and Warby Parker Jeff Raider

By Scott Bedgood

Jeff Raider is the co-founder of Harry's, an online razor company that promises quality razors for much less than the larger companies charge.

Raider, along with Andy Katz-Mayfield, started the company with a simple promise: a great shave at a fair price.

He is also the co-founder of the extremely successful and popular glasses company Warby Parker. We talked to Raider about founding Harry's, where he sees the company in the future, and why he looks at the data every day.

\- 1 -

SB: Give me a brief history of starting Harry's. Why did you feel there was a need for another razor company and what did you want to do differently than your competitors?

JR: Harry's was born out of Andy's frustrating experience trying to buy razor blades. He needed to buy shaving supplies, so he went to the drug store, where he waited ten minutes for a sales clerk to unlock a glass case, and then paid $25 for four blades and a tube of shave cream. The products he was finally able to purchase were over-designed and poorly packaged. It was a poor customer experience, and he felt cheated. So Andy called me with the idea for Harry's and the conviction that "there has to be a better way." He asked if it would be possible to apply the learnings from Warby Parker to shaving. I immediately empathized and - after several sleepless nights where all I could do was think about razors - we realized we had to start this company. In March 2013, we launched on Harrys.com offering razors and shave cream.

\- 2 -

SB: Did you guys test a bunch of different razors on your own faces until you had the perfect one? If so, what was that process like?

JR: Andy and I tried every shaving product we could get our hands on -- for each product we reviewed the purchasing experience, the price and the quality. There was nothing on the market that satisfied all three of these areas for us. We also spent a lot of time talking to anyone and everyone (friends, family, colleagues) about their shaving habits, and product preferences.

\- 3 -

SB: You guys bought a German manufacturing plant to make your razor blades? Why was that necessary, how has it helped your business, and were there any other plants that could do what they do?

JR: Manufacturing razor blades is extremely complex and only a few factories in the world have the capabilities to produce high quality blades. Grinding steel is difficult and the process has been refined over centuries. Everything is custom built -- the machines, assembly, design. By owning the entire process (from grinding steal to sending packages to peoples doors) we can deliver people amazing products at a fraction of the price of the big guys \-- all the while improving their overall purchasing experience. We strive to deliver customers exactly what they want, from start to finish.

\- 4 -

SB: Where do you see the business in five years? Will it be a challenger to the massive brands like Gillette or will it always continue as an outsider (albeit, a hugely successful one) brand?

JR: We have a few things in our pipeline this year, including new products, that we can't wait to share. Ultimately, we're excited and humbled to be making products and creating a business that can really make a positive impact on the lives of our customers. We hope to continue to be able to improve the shaving experience for guys everywhere.

\- 5 -

SB: What is the best advice you've ever received? What advice would you give to a young entrepreneur trying to start a business?

JR: Stay focused, but be flexible. Look at the data every day, and figure out what's driving the business forward. Then set priorities around those things, and de-prioritize the things that distract you from accomplishing your core goals. At Warby Parker, we listened carefully to the data, which told us that retail stores were an increasingly successful area of the business. We invested in retail, and brick-and-mortar stores have now become a key pillar of Warby Parker's success. At Harry's, we've had tons of success building a direct business online, so we've decided to double-down and focus there.

Huckberry Co-Founder Andy Forch

By Scott Bedgood

Andy Forch and Richard Greiner started the lifestyle and apparel site Huckberry in their apartment in 2011. They wanted to focus on people like themselves, who are interested in the outdoors, but aren't extreme explorers.

They offer quality products for a short amount of time at a discount, everything from Fjällräven winter coats, to Gerber knives, to Throne watches, to Yeti coolers.

They've also built a fan base based on their interesting blog, their rugged yet accessible aesthetic, and their surprisingly enjoyable email newsletters. While most people's inboxes are flooded with sales emails promising you the moon, Huckberry's emails come with entertaining anecdotes and a straightforward, honest design. Because of this, their open and click rates for their emails are well above the industry baselines.

We talked to Forch (on the right in the picture above) about their adventures, how they choose products, and why they are proud of being a bootstrapped* start-up.

\- 1 -

SB: Why was it so important to the two of you to be bootstrapped and how has that affected the way you have grown the business?

AF: Before starting Huckberry, we read a lot of entrepreneurship books, blogs, and magazines, but the ones that most resonated with us were Signals vs. Noise and Tim Ferriss' The Four-Hour Workweek. At their core, both publications are advocates of the lean, agile start-up method, and are pretty much playbooks for bootstrapping.

We were lucky to launch a business that had positive working capital (our customers often pay us before we pay our suppliers), and had enough savings from our careers in Venture Capital, where bootstrapping was — and still is — a viable option for us.

As first time entrepreneurs, bootstrapping was pretty much the only option for launching Huckberry. Though we now have lots of inbound VC interest, we love the control that comes with bootstrapping as it allows us to focus on the long-game, which for us comes down to the 3 C's: commerce, content and community. If we were a VC-backed company, I think content and community would take a backseat to commerce for short-term gains.

\- 2 -

SB: What is the process to choose the products that you offer in the Huckberry store? Do you two personally test each item?

AF: Choosing products is more of an art than a science. We seek new products through attending tradeshows, staying plugged into (seemingly) every blog on the planet, customer recommendations, and brand recommendations. We're looking for brand/products that: a) align with our mission of inspiring more active, adventurous, and stylish lives, and b) provide good value relative to competing products in the category.

\- 3 -

SB: Your email newsletters seem to be read and appreciated more than just about any email. I know I really love to read them, even if I don't like the products in that specific email. What is your approach and why do you think that they are so much more appreciated than an average email newsletter?

AF: When Richard and I worked in investment banking, one of our favorite emails to receive was Weekend Sherpa, a guide to outdoor adventures in Northern California. The newsletter would hit our inbox each Thursday and it was like Christmas morning when we received that thing.

With Huckberry, we wanted to create a similar newsletter — one that would inspire our readers with cool, new products and stories. That's the seed from which the Huckberry newsletter ultimately grew, and we still write as if we're writing to that old version of ourselves — locked up in a cubicle and yearning adventure.

\- 4 -

SB: Has running Huckberry given the two of you more of an opportunity to be adventuresome?

AF: Absolutely! We recently returned from a two week trip to New Zealand and Australia where we spelunked caves, skied volcanoes, fished crater lakes, spearfished [see picture below of Richard], surfed, hunted, camped, attended an Aussie Rules Football final, hiked and more. Our friends and brand partners at Bellroy — one of our favorite brands on the planet — hosted us. That's an adventure that would have never come about if we hadn't started Huckberry.

\- 5 -

SB: What is your advice to young people who are in a job that they may not feel passionate about but have another business idea they want to pursue? What do you feel the two of you did right, and what were some avoidable mistakes that you made?

AF: Get after it. Do it. But do it for the right reasons — because you genuinely believe in your mission and think that world needs your product/business. Know that when you launch, you wont know for years — YEARS! — whether you have a truly sustainable business or not. So you better be committed.

As far as what we did right, we were pretty lucky in that we ended up being great partners. We both came from a finance background so you'd think that we would have too much overlap in skillset and passion, but after a few months we learned that Rich naturally gravitated towards the business side while I gravitated toward the creative side.

Other things we did right included: moving quickly and decisively (by not worrying about problems that we didn't have), acting frugally (we worked out of apartments for the first 6 months and did every role in the company), and creatively (we didn't have money to spend on paid advertising so we built our membership by partnering with blogs on an affiliate basis).

### Tommy John Founder Tom Patterson

### By Scott Bedgood

### Tom Patterson had a problem.

### It's one that at the time was nameless, but it affected men the world over: Excess Fabric Gut.

### He was tired of undershirts that would come untucked inside of dress shirts and cause this strange bunching up around the bellybutton. So he decided to do something about it.

He founded Tommy John in 2008 in order to solve men's undergarment problems with a selection of quality undershirts, underwear, and socks.

### With celebrities such as Howard Stern swearing by their underwear, which is guaranteed not to cause wedgies, Patterson's company keeps growing.

### We talked with him about starting in an industry he knew nothing about and solving these age-old problems for men.

### \- 1 -

SB: Tell me about the early days of Tommy John, what was the reaction like from the first few people who tried your undershirts?

TP: When I created this shirt and I tried it on myself I wanted to see if this idea could work. I thought maybe this could be a business so I made more undershirts and sent them to friends of mine who wore suits and ties and undershirts. These were the guys who would say, "Tom, this is the dumbest idea I've ever heard, what's wrong with you?" But at the same time they said, "Dude, this is amazing if you ever make more of these let me know because I'll buy them."

### So I made 200 more shirts and started selling them to friends and I would give them one to give to their friends. When they would put the shirt on you could see the reaction on their face. They would have that "Aha!" moment where they would have the feeling that this was the product they've always been looking for but didn't realize it could actually exist.

### \- 2 -

SB: Have you had other businesses and did you have any experience in the garment business before starting Tommy John?

TP: Growing up I had lawn mowing businesses. I had a snow blowing business in the winter. I played three sports so I would go to football practice and mow lawns afterward. I've always worked and always wanted to start my own business, but I started working for companies out of college that I thought would give me the skill set to start my own business. I figured some idea would come to me at some point.

### I used to sell medical devices. I grew up in South Dakota where Hanes and Fruit of the Loom were considered designer underwear. There was this TV show called the "Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" and the whole premise of the show was that most inventors create products because they don't like what exists currently in the market and they think to themselves "Maybe there's a better way to make it." And I thought that there was a better way to make an undershirt, so I bought some fabric and I paid a tailor.

  * ### 3 –

  *

SB: So what was the event that caused you to decide that fixing men's undergarments was the thing you wanted to do?

TP: I wore a suit and tie everyday to hospitals doing presentations. I always wore undershirts and what happened was that a lot of my dress shirts that I would buy didn't really fit me that well so I would take them to a tailor and have the bagginess taken out. However, all of the undershirts on the market were baggy, boxy, they would shrink, they would turn yellow. So I got out of my car one day and my dress shirt was still tucked in but my undershirt was bunched up around my belly button. We call it EFG, Excess Fabric Gut, and I thought to myself, "Why the hell hasn't someone figured out how to make an undershirt that solves all of these problems?"

### \- 4 -

SB: How long were you involved with Tommy John before you decided to make it your full-time job?

TP: I was working in medical devices six months into starting Tommy John and the company I was working for began laying off some of the sales force. Selling Tommy John six months before that I was at a crossroads where I didn't have any kids, I wasn't married yet, I didn't own a home, so I decided to do everything you aren't supposed to do. I cashed in my 401k, I used my savings, I used my friends at American Express and Visa to finance starting the company and making packaging and building inventory. The reason I did that was that I didn't want to look back ten years from now and wonder why I didn't give 100% of my time instead of 10% of my time. Losing my job was the best thing that ever could have happened because it pushed me over and forced me to get into it.

### \- 5 -

SB: What was it like to be discussed on the Howard Stern show? Are you a big fan? Was it expected? What has business been like since then?

TP: I've been a huge Howard Stern fan since I was in junior high. We moved to New York four years ago and since I don't have a car I don't listen to the radio as much as I used to. But we were working with an agency and they sent our underwear to 20 different people in the media, athletes, celebrities, and radio hosts. I didn't even know Howard was on that list and he ended up talking about us. A friend called me and was like "Dude, Howard is talking about your product right now on Sirius Radio." And I was like, "Yeah right, I don't have time for jokes." But he ended up talking about it again and again and it was great. We saw great results sales-wise because he's a real straight shooter and he speaks the truth. He doesn't sugarcoat anything so the audience trusts him and because of that they were willing to try a product like ours. It gave us a great spike in sales. We like having people that are just passionate ambassadors of the product with no strings attached. We didn't pay Howard to do it and that's the best thing.

Fitness Expert and PrayFit Founder Jimmy Peña

By Scott Bedgood

When you lose the job you love, the one you've had for eleven years, the one that took you to Los Angeles, and the one that connected you with the biggest names in your industry, you're allowed to sulk for a few weeks.

But Jimmy Peña didn't sulk for one second.

Peña was let go from his dream job at Muscle & Fitness magazine on a Friday, but by the following Monday he started his dream career.

"Being let go was completely out of the blue, everyone knew that corporate was making changes, so there was something in the air," Peña recalls, "But I was ready. I wanted to do something bigger and better. I loved the industry, but it was more of a liberating day than anything."

That Monday, Peña started PrayFit, a company combining his Christian faith and his love of fitness.

"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV)

Peña didn't set out to become a fitness writer or to be involved in fitness at all. He attended Baylor University as a baseball player, moving to Waco from his native El Paso. Peña got injured and while he was in rehab his obsession with fitness began.

"I actually lost the edge for baseball. I poured myself into weightlifting, it was everything to me," Peña says.

Peña, however, didn't consider a career in fitness and after graduation got a job selling insurance. It's probably the only thing you'll hear Peña speak negatively about. He says he was terrible at selling insurance and he was miserable.

He felt God calling him into the fitness realm so he attended graduate school at the University of Texas at Tyler. His thesis was presented at the American Sports Medicine Conference, where he met people from Muscle & Fitness who liked his work.

This began a relationship that would continue until that fateful Friday in 2009. He began writing an article every month and ascended into some fitness leadership roles until he was called to Los Angeles in 2004 to take over as the worldwide training expert. This led to him consulting on fitness books being written by celebrities LL Cool J and Mario Lopez.

Despite the astonishingly quick success, Peña felt an emptiness inside of him. All of his thoughts came to a head one night when he saw Muscle & Fitness founder Joe Weider* coming down the hall.

"For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" James 4:14 (ESV)

One night Peña was in his office working late and he heard a noise down the hall. Out came Joe Weider, in his eighties, shuffling by with the use of a walker and the aid of a nurse. He went right by a bronze statue of himself in his bodybuilding prime – a stark contrast to his current state.

That's when it all clicked for Peña. Physical fitness won't last forever.

"I felt a strange hollowness and deadness in what I was doing," Peña says, "Seeing Joe that night was life changing. In fact, God inspired PrayFit in my heart right then."

PrayFit is a combination of physical fitness and spiritual health. Using exercises and daily devotionals, it's the perfect mix of Peña's two passions.

Although he would continue working for Muscle & Fitness for years after that night, he kept the PrayFit idea alive by discussing it with his wife and friends.

"I'm a Christian first and last. I'm a passionate follower cleverly disguised as a fitness expert," Pena says.

That's why when he parted ways with Muscle & Fitness, he knew exactly what to do.

"That Monday I just started writing devotions," he says. "A few weeks later I was traveling with Tyler Perry and he inspired me to package PrayFit into a devotional book."

Peña, as he says, has been very blessed to be connected with such influential celebrities like Tyler Perry.

"Mr. Perry was getting in shape for a movie and he was on the Tonight Show and was asked how he got in shape and he mentioned PrayFit. When he put us up on his shoulders like that, PrayFit really began to change people's lives."

This spawned some fitness DVDs and hundreds of speaking engagements for Peña, who says that traveling the country and speaking to people has actually changed his perception of the importance of fitness to God.

"I don't care who you are, what age you are, whether you are sick or healthy, fit or not, the Bible has something to say about your body," Peña insists, "To see pastors embrace their wives and commit to being healthier for their congregations is amazing."

Peña's eyes have also been opened to the incredible importance of faith as he has seen people who are unable to workout and be physically fit. It's happened in his own life as he developed a back condition that prevents him from doing many of the workouts that he used to be able to do.

"I want to help people from the inside out," Peña says, "My message has evolved as I've realized that faith is as much of a comfort to those who don't have their health as it is a motivator to those who do have their health."

As Peña got closer to fulfilling his vision for PrayFit, success became a natural byproduct.

"There's so much in me that I want to write, the money followed the passion that I started bleeding onto paper. We weren't thinking about monetizing it. I started pouring myself onto the paper and people started liking it."

And that's Peña's advice to anyone looking to make a career of something they love.

"Grab hold of your passions if you know in your heart that that is what you are called to do. For me, there's no end," Peña says.

So even if he is shuffling down the hall with the aid of a walker some day, Peña's spiritual health will still be intact.

* A NOTE ABOUT JOE WEIDER

Very few people can claim to have influenced as many lives as Joe did through his magazines, his supplements, his training equipment, and his big-hearted personality. – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Joe Weider is the founder of the Mr. Olympia and Ms. Olympia competitions, Muscle & Fitness, Men's Fitness, Flex, and Shape magazines, and thousands of fitness related products. If you're a bodybuilder, Joe Weider is the Man.

At the Muscle & Fitness offices there's a bronze bust of him in his prime, arms folded, muscles bulging. It puts Greek gods to shame.

Weider passed away in 2013 at the age of 92, because there might be something to this fitness thing.

### Vinyl Me, Please Founders Matt Fiedler and Tyler Barstow

### By Scott Bedgood

### Matt Fiedler and Tyler Barstow were a couple of music-obsessed twentysomethings in Chicago working for a startup when they came up with an idea. It wasn't necessarily a new idea as much as it was a repackaging of an old idea for a modern audience.

### They were looking for a record club to join to help build their personal record collections, but had trouble finding one. So, they started their own and what began at the beginning of 2013 as a record club with 12 people has turned into a large online community of vinyl aficionados.

For a fee of $23 a month, Vinyl Me, Please sends you their record of the month. Fiedler, Barstow and the three others that make up their staff pick out the records themselves. As the club has grown they've been able to offer limited-edition presses of the records, a huge deal in the record-collecting world. They feature small and large artists, including offering a limited edition mint green pressing of the most critically- acclaimed album of 2014, The War On Drugs Lost In The Dream last August.

### We talked with Matt and Tyler about their love of music and resurrecting the record club for a modern audience.

### \- 1-

SB: Tell me about starting the company... How have you been able to make a niche offering in a niche market a sustainable business?

TB: Matt and I were working at a different startup but spent a lot of our time in the office talking about music. At the same time we wanted to start getting into vinyl more than we had been. We started looking for vinyl clubs to help us with that. Vinyl Me, Please definitely started as a hobby that we just did on nights and weekends for at least the first year of the business. We launched with 12 customers and didn't have any advertising money or anything, but we grew to about 300 customers after a year.

MF: It really just started as an experiment. We didn't have too many high aspirations. We just thought that it would be cool if we did this thing and then we decided to do it. It's already surpassed all of our expectations of how big it could get.

TB: We want Vinyl Me, Please to be the kind of music club that people get super excited about. We spend a lot of time and energy thinking about ways we can do that. It's one thing to say to 500 people, but it's another to say that for 8,000 people. We want to make sure that every single person that joins Vinyl Me, Please has a really great experience with us. The difference between a really great experience with a product and just an OK experience is a fine line. That's something that as we have scaled it has required more time and attention.

### \- 2 -

SB: How did your fascination with vinyl start?

MF: My dad had a huge collection of vinyls, probably a couple of thousand records. It was right about the time that CD burners came out. I think he paid me a dollar per record if I would take the vinyl and convert it to a CD. That was my first experience with vinyl and listening to records. As I grew up I started getting more interested in vinyls. And when I graduated college (with a degree in Music Business and Entrepreneurship from Belmont University) and was moving into my own city I wanted to start collecting records. Obviously, I had everything I could ever want digitally, but I was longing for that tactile connection.

TB: I grew up obsessed with music. My grandfather is the dean of music at a university in upstate New York. So I grew up around music and it's something that was really important to my dad's side of the family. When I graduated college I kept trying to get any job in the music industry from my grandfather that I possibly could. As you can imagine, his connections were all in New York City and that's a very difficult place to get a job. I ended up just having this wish that someday I would be able to work in music but I had no clear idea of what that would be until we started Vinyl Me, Please.

### \- 3 -

SB: What has the feedback from artists been like?

TB: We first started being able to do custom prints last April and now every month our product is a limited-release. There are a couple of artists that we were able to jump up into the Billboard charts with our order. One of the records that we ran showed up above the Beatles reissues for the week in vinyl sales, which was kind of cool.

MF: It's always a huge deal for an artist to be able to make money on their work, especially in this day and age. We have heard a couple of success stories where an artist has been able to quit their job and do music full time, maybe not solely because of our order but our order helped them out greatly. That's the best news that we could hear out of any artist.

### \- 4 -

SB: What's the biggest mistake people make when beginning their vinyl collection?

TB: One of the cool things about vinyl is that it forces you to listen to the album the way the artist put it together. Unless you are already in the habit of listening to music that way, randomly buying stuff you don't know and listening to it, you could just be getting into vinyl and you have all these records that you don't really like and you give up on it. We encourage people to go buy albums that they already love or artists they already love. There is something about vinyl where it's a particular way of listening to music. Listening online is not bad at all, you just listen to music differently on vinyl. So we encourage people to stick with what they know at the beginning and then work your way out from there.

MF: People typically look for the cheapest setup that they can get, which will suffice in the short term because you'll be able to listen to records. But in the long term you will end up spending more money fixing those things. One thing people don't understand about vinyl is that your sound is very dependent upon your setup.

### \- 5 -

SB: So those are the problems with it, but what makes vinyl records so special and enduring?

MF: What I like most about vinyl is the experience of listening to records. There's nothing like putting a record down and dropping the needle. It's a unique experience. It feels good to sit down and listen to music. And it's kind of a trophy in some ways to have a big collection and to have stories behind particular records. It's almost like everybody's record collection is unique to them and is like a fingerprint. You can know a lot about a person by the records they've collected.

TB: It's like collecting anything, whether that's coins or stamps or vinyl, where you can get super into it. It's like golf where once you start playing it, it takes over your wallet. But I think it's a lot more fun than golf. Unlike a record store, it's also not fun to go into the iTunes store and buy stuff, that's more of a necessity. Vinyl is a lot more engaging.

### Favorite Vinyl Records Of All Time*

Tyler: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West

Matt: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco

Scott: Reflektor – Arcade Fire

### *Tyler wanted me to specifically say that this could change at any moment.
Chapter 3

Authors
Author of The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy Sam Maggs

By Lacy Cooke

Nerdy is the new cool, but it wasn't always that way.

Growing up, Sam Maggs didn't know any other girls who enjoyed comics and Stargate SG-1, so she kept her passion to herself. "I pretended to be cooler than I actually was," she says.

Yet at home, her parents were avid nerds who loved Indiana Jones and saw Star Wars: A New Hope in theaters 24 times.

"I was surrounded by comics, science fiction, and fantasy. So many characters in those genres are awesome women, like girls being knights in a Tamora Pierce book. They pushed the boundaries of diversity and representation, and I wasn't seeing that in other places. I latched onto those genres as a place to see and read about those women," she says.

Yet Sam didn't embrace her inner geek until her twenties. "It wasn't making me happy to pretend I didn't like the things I did," she says. "You get to a point in your life where you realize that if people don't like you for who you are, you can find people who do. I'd found so many awesome communities of geeky women online, and that was helpful in accepting being a big nerd."

Fandom wasn't simply Sam's passion; she decided to make it part of her career. She'd always wanted to write, yet after completing a Master's in literature, she felt burned out.

"I started working in film festivals and then I worked in publicity. About a year and a half after I graduated, I realized I really missed writing," she says.

Sam asked local comics and geek culture websites if they needed contributors, and started with one article a week.

"I wrote for free for eight months before I got my first paying job, and was fortunate to be able to do that on top of my day job. I was very active on social media and interacted directly with other writers. I got almost all my writing jobs through Twitter," she says.

Her literary agent found Sam on Twitter, and asked if she wanted to write a book.

"I said, whatever, sure, and thought it was ridiculous. Two months later, we had assembled a pitch. We only sent it to one publisher, and they responded in two weeks and gave me three months to write the book. It happened quickly and was really wild," says Sam. "The book was waiting to come out of me; it's all I had accumulated in my brain over the past 20 years."

 The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks is available now.

"A girl geek is someone who loves what she loves passionately and unapologetically, whether that's comics, video games, movies, or some obscure web comic you make a playlist for," Sam says.

For example, she recently discovered the video game Mass Effect. "About a month later, I decided I needed to get it tattooed on my body! I never thought I'd get that affected by a video game. It consumed my life and I cry about it all the time."

Although a large percent of those who attend conventions and consume geek culture are women, the percentage is much smaller on the creative side.

"On the whole, the nerd world is still seen as a boys club. Women are told that they're doing what they do just for attention, and some guys shove you down on the Internet. So go and meet good people. There are so many supportive communities online. Also, there's never been a better time to be a woman creator. Now, if you want to make a comic, you can just make a comic and put it on Tumblr," says Sam. "To be a feminist doesn't mean that you only support female characters made by female creators. Support men who create positive images of women or draw dudes who treat women well. We need everyone pushing equality forward."

Find more of Sam's writing at The Mary Sue, where she's an associate editor, or follow her on Twitter for the latest in geek culture.

Red Rising Author Pierce Brown

By Lacy Cooke

Every piece of literature is deeply shaped by the creator's personal history. Pierce Brown spent his childhood reading, digging for musket balls in his backyard, and imagining new adventures for his favorite Star Wars characters.

In college, Brown double majored in political science and economics, yet continued to read voraciously. After graduation, he worked a variety of jobs, such as an aide for a campaigning politician and a social media manager for a startup tech company, but he tried to write on the side. His first six novels were rejected.

Brown was ready to set aside his dreams of being a writer and "grow up." Before he started a new job, however, Brown went on a mountain climbing excursion with friends in the Cascade Range in Washington. He had been mulling over the Greek tragedy Antigone, where a sister buries her brother in defiance of an edict meant to strip him of the dignity of burial. As he climbed, a longing for less gravity and easier ascent set in. He was suddenly inspired to set a story on Mars, a planet with roughly one third of the gravitational pull of the Earth. He blended this exotic setting with emotions from the play, and his main character and world began to take shape.

Red Rising tells the story of Darrow, a mine worker in a futuristic society on Mars. Darrow, along with his friends and his family, work so that Mars can be terraformed for humanity. The novel is gripping in its exploration of human emotion and morality. While it could be easy for the characters to be overshadowed by stunning settings, the intimate relationships, difficult choices and terrible consequences make this book special.

"The story really does choose you," says Brown.

To create a believable world, he drew not only on his academic knowledge of history and politics, but on personal experiences. His family moved around multiple times for his mother's job, and Brown has lived in eight different states. His experiences gave him an outsider's perspective on societal structures.

"I pulled a lot from my childhood," says Brown.

In certain states, Brown watched as his parents were ostracized by rigid social strata. Although he made friends through school and sports, he grew angry as he watched his parents be snubbed. Brown himself faced bullies at some schools. Social exclusion is a prevalent theme in his novel.

The first draft for Red Rising was written in about two months. After editing and further world development, the novel was accepted, and with it came a contract for two more books, to complete Brown's planned trilogy. Universal Studios secured the movie rights in February.

When asked about his goals after the trilogy is finished, Brown says, "More. I want to do more. I want to reach more people, and write more books. I want to write worlds that I would enjoy reading."

He hopes to reach more people through his writing, and he'd like to write for film as well.

Life of a Writer

So how do writers begin with an idea, like a world with less gravity, and transform that into a well-received novel?

Brown now lives the life of a full-time writer. He wakes up around seven every day (earlier if he's visiting his parents in Seattle).

"There's something majestic about being the only person awake," Brown says.

He finds this feeling immensely conducive to writing. He cooks himself a hot breakfast, which is a carryover from his childhood, when his father cooked him breakfast every day. Then he reads for about an hour and a half to wake up his mind: anything from The Economist to poetry or history. Next he writes, from about 8:30 to 1:00 in the afternoon, at which point he breaks to eat lunch or work out. He writes for a few more hours in the afternoon before stopping for the day.

Like many great thinkers before him, he credits caffeine as key to his creative process, and says that one of the best presents his parents ever bought him was a Keurig coffeemaker. He describes coffee as "liquid courage for writers."

Brown says an initial "very simple delusion of grandeur" is crucial to beginning a new story. "I rely on that delusion in the beginning, and get most of the first draft done in one or two months," says Pierce. "I spent two or three days on the world, and then wrote the story."

The world of Red Rising was fleshed out further in subsequent edits, including research on gravity and terraforming that came from investigation at local libraries. To Brown, world building is almost an indulgence.

"My editors have to hold me back," he says.

Yet he knew that ultimately, the tone and theme of Red Rising were more important than the world.

Brown's creative process is insightful for new writers who want to peer into the daily schedule and habits of writers who have been successful. To new writers, he says, "Don't be afraid to fail. Have confidence that the story you tell is worth telling."

After that first draft, when the discovery and emotion have been captured, writers can determine more objectively if their story is fit for publication. "As writers, we're very good at coming up with excuses, but keep writing," Brown says.

Red Rising is categorized as science fiction, yet Brown doesn't want to stick with just one genre.

"As we progress as storytellers, we will create stories that transcend genres," Brown says.

There are elements of fantasy in his work, as well as characteristics of an epic. Ultimately, he believes stories will be written that are not limited to any specific genre, but that are "compilations of the soul."
New York Times Bestselling Author Jeff Pearlman

By Jon Finkel

FBI profilers aren't necessary to decode the personality traits and behavioral patterns that make up most successful sportswriters. The specific breed of journalist that Jeff Pearlman, the New York Times bestselling author of Showtime, The Bad Guys Won and Boys Will Be Boys, belongs to is one of the more prevalent strains of the sports scribe tribe. The telltale signs first appear at a young age in the form of a borderline maniacal sports book obsession.

The Beginning

"When I was a kid I'd go to the library and absorb all of the sports books," Pearlman says. "It got to the point where the librarian would call me and tell me when the new sports books came in. She wouldn't let anyone touch the books until I got them. I would read anything. I would eat these books up."

Pearlman grew up in Mahopac, New York, and the stories of big-time athletes in big-time cities opened his eyes up to a much larger, more colorful world.

"I'd read about guys like Dave Winfield and Rod Carew and I thought they were the coolest guys," he says. "It made me want to be a part of it. Every day I would read the sports section of the newspaper. We had this rule that you couldn't bring the newspaper into the bathroom, but since I was the only one who liked sports, I could."

The second phase of the creation of a sports writer happens when the young future star begins to obsess not only on the stories about athletes, but on the person writing them and their publications as well.

"Dave Anderson of The New York Times was the first byline that I knew," Pearlman says. "But I wanted to be Mike Freeman, who covered the Giants and Nets for The New York Times back then. I would study his articles. And I wouldn't just read Sports Illustrated; I would absorb it. I'd pay attention to the leads, the transitions, everything. When I was thirteen or fourteen I guaranteed my mom that I was going to write for Sports Illustrated. That was like my rallying cry."

Stage three in the sportswriter metamorphosis happens when the young writer actually begins to write, and, more importantly, people take notice. For Pearlman, this moment will be forever crystallized in an incident involving high school girls, short skirts and shouting.

"When I was a senior writing for my high school's paper, The Chieftan, I wrote a piece about how cheerleading wasn't really a sport," Pearlman says. "I was walking through the hallway after it came out and all of a sudden I was surrounded by cheerleaders yelling at me. I realized that they knew me from my writing."

Thus, the shouts of attractive teenage girls sealed Pearlman's fate. There was nothing else he wanted to do with this life.

The Training

Pearlman went to college at the University of Delaware, which he says wasn't exactly a journalism powerhouse. However, his idol, Mike Freeman, did attend that school, which made it worthwhile.

"Freeman was like the guy who made it from Delaware," Pearlman says. "He was my idol. He was my blueprint for how I wanted to write."

Following Delaware, Pearlman interned at the Nashville Tennessean, where he would eventually land his first job. Unfortunately, while he learned to write, he says that he needed a few lessons in humility.

"I was this little cocky guy who didn't know how to report," he says. "I was a total failure. They moved me to the pop music beat and I wasn't good at that. Also, I could not get errors out of my copy. I felt like because I was a good writer in college that I didn't have to take advice, but what happened was I kept on making mistakes."

Finally, an editor sat him down and put him on the cops beat to work on the fundamentals of reporting. Most cop stories focus mainly on the who, what, when, where and why, which forces you to cover the basics. For a young writer too in love with his own talents, it was the best thing to ever happen to him.

"That moment changed my career," Pearlman says.

What Pearlman ultimately learned was that there are millions of writers out there who can turn a phrase better than he can, but if they can't report, it's worthless. Also, an attitude of self-importance will not do you any good.

"I was the guy who would argue with someone about why they moved one of my commas around," he says. "I was so arrogant. When I look back on how I was I want to smack myself."

The Dream Job

After Pearlman's grand humbling, he put all of his energy into making good on the guarantee he made to his mother several years earlier. This came in the form of applying for jobs at Sports Illustrated over and over again. To this end, young writers can learn a few things about how to stand out from the crowd when trying to get a job at a place as well known and well-respected as SI.

"I designed a cover letter to look like the front of a Sports Illustrated magazine," Pearlman says. "I wrote it as a fake letter from the editor, written in the future, about how, in 1996, they hired Jeff Pearlman and how great of a writer he has become. I think they liked that letter."

The second thing he did was pitch unique ideas to catch the eyes of the editors. In this case, Pearlman had applied for the NBA draft (he was not an NBA prospect and didn't play college basketball) and in talking to the editors at Sports Illustrated realized they could turn that first-person experience into a story, which he did for his first byline with the magazine.

From there, Pearlman went from fact-checker, to reporter, to writer/reporter to finally staff writer. He says his ascension to full-time staff scribe happened quickly because he was constantly pelting his editors with story ideas. By the time he was 26, he found himself in a moment that the 14-year-old Jeff Pearlman would have given anything to be a part of: He was summoned to a State of the Magazine meeting at SI headquarters and was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with literary giants.

"I was star struck because all of my heroes were really writers," he says. "Steve Rushin and Phil Taylor and Kelli Anderson and Michael Farber and Austin Murphy were all there. I felt kind of like Christian Laettner on the Dream Team. That was my moment where I thought it was insane. Only four years earlier I was working at my college newspaper."

The Books

While Pearlman had achieved his dream in his mid-20s, he had never really given thought to writing books.

"My goal was to just write for Sports Illustrated," he says. "After I had been there a while, another writer and friend, Jon Wertheim got a book deal to write about Venus Williams and the women's tennis tour. After that I thought maybe books weren't such a bad idea."

After meeting with a literary agent, Pearlman set out to write a book about the 1986 New York Mets, a team that won the World Series, but was also full of larger-than-life characters. The title, in fact, says it all: The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform--and Maybe the Best.

Pearlman would go on to write several more bestsellers, including Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty and Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.

He calls writing books a form of pleasure and pain. It feels good to write but it hurts and it's hard... and beginning is the hardest part.

"I like to print my interviews and research out," he says, "So when I start, I'll have a blank page and thousands of printed papers surrounding me. Fortunately, sports books have a pretty general flow to them that lends itself to book writing."

For writers looking to become authors of sports books, Pearlman says that you want to make sure that you start your book with a dramatic point.

"You want to use personal moments to tell the stories of the games," he says. "It's all about the personal stories. It's not about the season or the moment, it's about the guys who made those moments happen."

While Pearlman no longer writes for Sports Illustrated, he is writing daily and building his brand at www.JeffPearlman.com. Visit his site for all of his book information and be sure to check out The Quaz, a featured segment on his blog where he posts Q&As with fascinating people every week.

Author, Editor, Blogger, And Deadspin Founder Will Leitch

By Scott Bedgood

Will Leitch is best known as the founder of Deadspin, the incredibly influential Gawker sports blog started in 2005.

He left Deadspin in 2008 for New York Magazine where he is now a contributing editor. He's also a senior writer for Sports On Earth, and has contributed to The New York Times, Esquire, The Atlantic, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Parade, Glamour, The Nation, and writes movie reviews for Gawker. He's also written four books, God Save The Fan, Are We Winning?, The Catch, and Life As a Loser. Odds are good that you've read Leitch's work at some point, whether you realize it or not.

### Leitch, who still reads Deadspin everyday, loves how the current site operates, even if it is completely different from how he ran it.

### "When I ran it, it was kind of a niche site, but it needed to get bigger and do different things," says Leitch. "I think they are doing incredible work. There's obviously stuff that they do that I wouldn't do, but that doesn't mean I'm right. In fact, I'm pretty sure it means I'm wrong."

### For Part 1 of our Five to Thrive interview we discussed his career, founding Deadspin, and what it's like to operate in a media climate he helped create.

### \- 1 -

SB: So tell me about your background before Deadspin. Did you always want to be a sportswriter?

WL: I'd never actually written a blog before. I went to journalism school at the University of Illinois and wanted to be a movie critic like Roger Ebert who was my hero. I always wanted to be a film critic but when I got to college I started covering sports on the side. I realized that everybody who covered sports is miserable. They hate their life and more importantly, hate sports. So I was like, 'Well, I know I'm never doing that.' So, I didn't. I graduated in '97 and worked as a film critic for a while. I eventually moved to New York to try and make it as a writer. And for about five years I basically starved. I answered phones at a doctor's office for two years because I needed the internet access.

### My friends and I got really frustrated because we all moved to New York to make it as writers and nobody wanted our stuff. So we started our own website. It was a literary journalism site called The Black Table. It was four people, one of whom was AJ Daulerio, who took over for me as editor of Deadspin and then Gawker and then all that came with that. So that was our main project, we finally got tired of not getting any jobs so we started our own site. It was barely about sports, we only mentioned sports every few weeks. I wrote for it all the time. I wrote a column called 'Life of a Loser', which ended up being made into a compilation for a book. And nobody read it, but we got to do things our way which made us happier because we hated our day jobs.

### In 2005 a site called Gawker got started and it was all about New York media. They were desperate for things to link to so they linked to our stuff a lot. They saw my writing and liked it and asked me if I wanted a sponsorship for six months to run a gambling blog. I said, 'Actually, I hate gambling, but you guys should do a sports blog.' I based it on this idea that everybody I knew in sports was miserable and they didn't write about what sports were actually about. I wanted to write about sports the way people actually talked about sports. I wrote this long pitch memo and they said, 'You're cheap and nobody knows who you are so we can get rid of you and no one will care, so, sure here's six months, give it a shot!' That site became Deadspin which was launched in September 2005, and it got a lot bigger a lot faster than anyone anticipated.

### \- 2 -

SB: What were the early days of Deadspin like compared to what it is now? What led to your decision to move on from the site you created in 2008?

WL: It was just me, but now they have a huge staff of people and they go to the office and they get a conference room. When I was doing it, it was just me getting up in the morning and writing all day and then going to bed and getting up the next day and doing it again. To see what it's become, I'm honored but it's still a little bewildering. So I did that for about two and a half years and I enjoyed it, but one of the problems I have with media is that people reach a certain level and they only start talking to people that agree with them . I enjoyed doing the site but I felt like I was preaching to the choir in a sense. It was also about the time that people started monetizing this stuff, and I figured they were going to start making me do things I didn't want to do. So I got out and went to work for New York Magazine and I worked there for five years and I've written a number of books and for numerous publications. But I still feel like I'm doing the same thing I was doing when I was writing Deadspin, I'm just doing it in a different format. It's the same tone and the same style of writing.

### \- 3 -

SB: Deadspin was known for it's vibrant and hilarious community of commenters long before most major sites had a comments section. What made Deadspin's commenters so great, and how do you think that helped pave the way for bigger sites like ESPN to have comment sections?

WL: When Deadpsin launched, the word 'blog' was not allowed on ESPN. It was like a bad word in that world, so yeah I remember they opened up comments almost by accident on one SportsNation chat or something and I sent the Deadspin commenters there and it was like they all just got to play in the adult playbox and peed everywhere and it was hilarious!

### One of the keys to Deadspin's success was that I never wanted the site to be like 'Hi, I'm Will Leitch and I have an opinion, now respond to my opinion.' That's never been what the site was about. I'm an idiot just like everyone else, I make no major claims to know anything more or be an expert. It's stuff that's fun to talk about. I think one of the reasons that the comments section was awesome was because people were waiting for a site that was not stupid. But I also think I tried to foster this idea that this is all in fun and we are all doing this together. It's amazing to me that writers can't believe these terrible things that people say online. Of course, a lot of these things are stupid, but I spent 10 years writing stuff every single day that was read by no one that I was desperate for people to comment on. I was just writing for myself and trying new things and getting stuff out there for years and years before Deadspin launched and nobody ever read any of it.

### So the idea that now that I actually have readership, I find it amazing and an honor that anyone even cared enough to say anything. I remember for so long when nobody cared. It's amazing to me in this day and age how many people get so offended by what people say about them online. It's not real life and the idea that everybody hates you is not actually true. And secondly, this is good, it's actual interaction with people. This is actually a conversation that I wanted the site to be about from the beginning. I always loved the idea that what came above the comments section and what came below the comments section were different, but one was not better than the other. That's one of the reasons it turned out to be such a good comments section.

### \- 4 -

SB: There's a new push to eliminate comments sections from major websites as they have become overrun with trolls and as social media has made them irrelevant. How do you feel about that?

WL: It strikes me as a colossal waste of time. I understand why people are doing it. I used to run a movie site for Yahoo! And you could put a picture of a bunny and the 10th comment would be about how Obama was a socialist, the 20th comment would be about how Bush took down the World Trade Center, and the 40th comment would be "First!"

### Of course comment sections are ugly. I find it so weird that people have this notion that a bad comments section detracts from what people are commenting on. That's crazy. If you don't want to read the comments, then don't read them. I swear to God, you don't have to read them. You can go your entire life without reading comments if you don't want to, but the idea that you think it gets a little ugly down there or people are saying things that you don't agree with that you should shut them down, to me seems antithetical to the whole idea.

### \- 5 -

SB: Do you read the comments on your work now?

WL: I admit, I do not read the comments on my work anymore, not because I don't think people should be doing it or that there isn't value in what they say. Woody Allen has this saying about why he doesn't read critiques of his work, where he says 'You can't believe the nice stuff and not believe the bad stuff." For me, I have an idea of what I'm trying to say and everyday I write multiple pieces for a bunch of different places so I have a pretty good idea of how my voice works and what I'm trying to say. If I start thinking when I'm writing about what a commenter is going to say or about what they may say on Twitter, then I've already lost the battle.

### I don't read them but that's not because I think everybody is an idiot. I actually think it's great and even if 15 people are calling me an idiot, that's 15 more people than ever read anything I ever wrote.

### Worrying about how everyone is reacting to the work you're doing all the time is distracting from the work. It turns it into something that is different from the reason most people got into this to begin with.

### Leitch is known as a fairly centrist figure in a world that is very extreme on each side of an issue. Whether it's political, sports, or culture, you can trust that Leitch isn't just going along with the extreme crowd on either side.

### Here's our discussion about being organized, keeping things in perspective, and being ready when the opportunity arises.

\- 6 -

SB: How do you keep up with all of the different publications that you write for?

WL: I'm very very organized. A fundamental thing that nobody realizes that will get you far in life: Just be organized. And if you have a deadline, turn it in on time. The average person is busy as hell all the time and just wants someone to make their job easier. If you make life easier for people then they will want to keep working with you. I turn stuff in early and it's clean and the changes that they make are minimal and I'm not a diva about them and because of that I'm able to get a lot of opportunities. People want to work with me because I'm not a jerk, I trust my editors, and I turn stuff in on time. To quote Woody Allen again, "90% of life is showing up." I think I'm an OK writer and I've figured out my voice a little bit, but I'm not a genius. I have to hustle and make life easier for people.

\- 7 -

SB: The internet has turned into this world of extremes. It seems like every piece is either extreme to one side or the other. You tend to be one of the few centrist voices left. How do you remove yourself from the vitriol and extremes of the internet to be able to form your own opinions?

WL: One advantage that I have is that I don't spend a lot of time on Twitter. It's not because I don't like Twitter, I actually think it's great and has a lot of utility. But, I'm not on it all the time. Some people's entire news source is Twitter. Inevitably, you can't help but get caught up in the same thought process as everyone else and then everyone compares to each other. I try to remember that everyone in the world is trying and I think it's helped me get a perspective where I'm able to take a step back and think about where things land in a larger context.

### Part of that is an old newspaper mentality. The idea that something is a big story today and tomorrow is birdcage liner. We get caught up in the idea that the thing that is happening right now is the biggest, most important thing that will ever happen. And we tend to focus on that thing and everyone gets riled up and reacts to it so strongly. We literally have a hard time remembering things that happened a week ago.

\- 8 -

SB: What's it like being a centrist in a world of extremes?

WL: Everybody hates a centrist now. Everybody hates someone that doesn't take really strong stances on one side or the other. Both sides are wrong by definition. The extremes on every side of every issue are wrong because that's not actually how the world works. We convince ourselves that's the way it works because now we only talk to people on our extreme. But that is not actually the way things are. To me, the more important part of things is getting the emotional truth of things correct rather than having some big stance that people would sell in a headline.

### You have to not trust yourself in a lot of ways. Everybody has just decided that whatever view they have on something has to be right. I try to be as skeptical of my own views as I am of everybody elses.

\- 9 -

SB: One of the things that bothers me about the internet world, and especially Twitter, is that it seems like everyone is waiting to destroy you. For example, baseball player Torii Hunter just signed with the Minnesota Twins and in his press conference he said something about his dislike of Sabermetrics (advanced baseball stats). Immediately I had four or five people in my Twitter feed bringing up that years ago he also said something negative about homosexuality. To me, those things are so disconnected, but to Twitter they prove that he's some kind of monster. Personally, I've never watched Torii Hunter play because of his religious or political views, nor do I care about his views on Sabermetrics. I watch him because he's a great hitter and fielder.

WL: The idea that everything is constantly this referendum or this stance on something is wrong. We've turned the entire culture of people talking to each other into some sort of weird oppo-political research experiment, where if someone says something that you disagree with, you start looking to see what else they've done. It's so strange, because, of course, I disagree with you on a lot of things, we don't share a cerebral cortex! There's been this weird weaponization of disagreement that, while I understand why people find it cathartic, I try to fight against it whenever I can.

### We act like we know these people and we don't. That was the idea of Deadspin from the beginning, that we don't know these people. There was this hero worship where some were at the top of the mountaintop and others were just terrible and needed to be destroyed. We don't know anyone at all. We know our family and our loved ones. The idea that we know something about Torii Hunter because he has a problem with gays and said something about Sabermetrics is crazy. Listen, I disagree with him strongly on both points, but I don't think he's a monster. I'm sorry, I don't. I feel like sometimes that gets you in trouble.

### The idea that someone holding a viewpoint that's different than yours tells you something profound about them is not how we actually operate in our life. Actual, non-online life, people don't actually do that. We see people all the time in our daily lives that we disagree with. It happens constantly, It happens when you go to the grocery store. We are not doing this constant judging and bastardization of people with viewpoints different than ours in normal life.

### Everything is more complicated than we could ever possibly imagine. The idea that you could somehow capture a human soul in a tweet when you couldn't capture a human soul in a 90-volume encyclopedia just shows that the format gives the illusion that we understand something and we just don't.

\- 10 -

SB: Right, and continuing the baseball thing: There are nine guys on the field and I would say none of them totally agree on everything and it doesn't affect the way they play or the way they interact with each other.

WL: I think people actually know that. Maybe I'm being naïve. Deep down in their hearts people know that, which is why they don't act like that in the real world. It's why you don't see people constantly running up to people and calling them A-holes. People paint it as a courage thing, but I don't think so. If someone walked around the world speaking the things they are saying online we would think they are a psychopath or a murderer. In the real world we recognize the banality of normalcy. We know the person we are buying our sandwich from, or the person next to us at a ballgame, or the parent of one of my kid's friends has views about certain things that I personally find abhorrent, but we don't actually get in fights with those people because that's not actually how the world works. For me, I try to bring the real world to online interaction, which is not always the easiest thing to do, but I feel like it's important.

\- 11 -

SB: What's the biggest factor to keeping that in perspective for you?

WL: I started writing online in 1997. When I was writing online there weren't that many people online and this internet thing was this amazing place where you could write what you wanted. I remember life without an email address. When I got my first email address you had to go to an internet café and you would write to your friends across the country like you were writing a letter from the front in a war. And you would respond to a person a week later. I feel like that helps my perspective a little bit because I remember when there weren't that many people writing online and that it was a gift and it would change your life in this very positive way.

\- 12 -

SB: You've made a career out of writing and specifically out of your opinions in writing. What's your main advice for someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

WL: You have to make sure you want to do it. When AJ and I started The Black Table, each of us had jobs that we did not enjoy. We had to make a decision to commit to this. We said, 'If we turn out to be 40 (like that was 90 years away) and are failures are we going to keep doing this?' And we said, 'Yeah!'

### You have to really make the decision to do it no matter what. It's how you end up answering phones at the doctor's office when you're nearly 30, because you want to write. I was so committed to it that I wrote a bunch on the side, I wrote when no one was reading me, and that made me a better writer. It helped get my name out there, and I figured out my own voice. It's basically muscle memory now. I figured out what I was good at and I figured out what I liked and what my voice was, so that when opportunity did arise, and it took a while, I was ready.

### It wasn't just me who moved to New York to try to make it was a writer in 2000. A ton of us did it, and some of us washed out because they only kind of wanted to do it, or decided they didn't want to fight for it. Some people said, 'Screw it, I'm going to Law School.' And that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that.

### You don't know when the opportunity is going to come, if ever. It's work done in private, it's work done alone, and it's work that you have to be your own worst critic. I think that's the key for any field. You have to know what you want to do, and you have to know that you're good at it.

The World of Ice And Fire Authors Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson

By Lacy Cooke

Meet Elio García and Linda Antonsson. They run Westeros.org, the largest fan site for George R.R. Martin's groundbreaking series A Song of Ice and Fire. They can tell you the difference between Aegon The Unworthy and Aegon The Unlikely, or name all the bannermen of House Stark. Martin has claimed they know the world better than he does and asked them to help him write The World of Ice and Fire, which provided the backstory for many characters, houses, and faraway lands.

"George at heart is a fan," says Elio. "He's been a fan all his life, of comics, fantasy, and sci-fi. He loves maps of Middle Earth and books about Dune. He also loves when artists interpret the world he's created. As a fan, he wanted to create a big beautiful coffee table book, filled with art and details about his world."

Elio and Linda have been fans of the series since A Game of Thrones was released. They met online in 1995 in an early multi-user game centered on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Linda had recently discovered Martin's series, and encouraged Elio to read it.

"I was a bit of a prude," says Elio. "Tolkien was the only fantasy I'd read, and it has very high language and high morals. I thought that's how all fantasy should be. I finally said, Okay, I'll try it, and I loved it. George wrote a compelling setting with real people and a lot of shades of gray."

In 1999, Elio moved to Sweden to be with Linda after they got engaged, and they decided to create their own online game based on Martin's world once they obtained permission.

"We started by making a website as a resource for players with details about the setting and heraldry to show Martin we were serious. We found his email in a forum where he posted about football, and shared the link. He was interested in the heraldry we'd done. We're not artists; we used clip art and Photoshop to create shields and banners, but he loved that."

As their connection with Martin developed, so did their relationship with the fan community. Westeros.org soon became the go-to online destination for information about the series.

"It became a resource for us and fellow fans, George's editors, and George himself," says Elio.

In 2004, as Elio traveled back to the United States to visit family, he realized that he was close to Santa Fe. He called Linda on a pay phone to see if she could arrange a meeting with Martin.

"George dropped all his plans and arranged for us to meet at his home for dinner," says Elio. "At the dinner, he mentioned that he had publishers after him for a book similar to The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. He said he needed help and asked if Linda and I would like to write it." They officially signed a contract two years later.

"Diehard fans have asked us, did you just make all this up and George signed the check?" says Elio. "He was actually much more involved than we expected. We thought he'd correct errors and make notes to fill in the gaps. But when an idea gets into his head, he starts writing. He wrote like a madman."

Originally the contract was for a 50,000 word book. The finished product, however, is closer to 180,000 words.

"George would send us 6,000 words here; 5,000 words there. He would write through the day, do a quick polish at night, and send it to us. Since there's an eight hour time difference, we'd get up at 4 AM to see if George sent anything," says Elio.

Few fans can say they've actively contributed to their favorite fictional universe. "Sometimes we would speculate and mark it for George to look over. Some things he liked, and it's amazing that he used things we wrote. That's just cool. There are little bits of us in The World of Ice and Fire that are canon now," says Elio. "Sometimes we can't believe even now that we had this opportunity."
Chapter 4

Sports Writers, Athletes, and Filmmakers

### Sports Journalist And College Basketball Expert Seth Davis

### By Jon Finkel

### Seth Davis defines the modern day multi-platform sports journalist. He's a writer for Sports Illustrated, a best-selling author, an in-studio analyst for CBS Sports, and he's built a powerful brand on Twitter. His newest platform, however, as the host of The Seth Davis Show on CampusInsiders.com, might be the most personal.

### "This is one of the most exciting ventures of my life," Davis says. "Obviously I'm a college basketball writer, but I've covered everything from track meets to swim meets to little league. When I agreed to work with Campus Insiders they were just starting up and they got my creative juices flowing. I wanted to branch out from my wheelhouse and they're giving me the chance to do that."

### The format of the show is simple, involving Davis and a guest and a few cameras. Making it work is a bit more complicated.

### Getting A Fast Start

### "When we started, the idea was to just book some interviews and hire a camera crew and get going," he says. "We thought, 'Let's get some shows in the tank and figure out what we're going to do next'."

### Davis' first interview was with Oklahoma Sooners' head football coach Bob Stoops.

### "We talked to Coach Stoops in the off season and he was pretty relaxed," Davis says. "We talked about the development of his life and the twists and turns he's been through. It was a great conversation."

### That show aired over a year and a half ago and Davis has been riding that wave ever since. In fact, as we spoke he was in the car, headed to Starkville, Mississippi to interview Mississippi State Head Football Coach Dan Mullen and his star quarterback Dak Prescott.

### "I book most of the guests for the show myself," Davis says. "And the biggest challenge is getting high quality guests."

### Success Across All Media

### For a guy who cut his teeth in the world of print features and columns, Davis says that the preparation for interviews is very much the same.

### "I spend hours preparing for each interview," he says. "If I was going to do a feature story on someone I would try to find everything I could to read about them. I'd talk to a bunch of different people so that I'd have good information for a good story. The TV interviews aren't that different."

### What is different is that Davis isn't just one writer in a magazine or an analyst sharing the stage with Clark Kellogg or any of his other CBS Sports colleagues. This format relies on Davis letting his personality shine through and his ability to build a comfortable rapport with his guests. He has to do all of this while also making sure he's asking questions that will connect with the fans of the show.

### Never Stop Improving

### For this last part, Davis has been honing his fan connection through Twitter for the last five years, amassing almost 200,000 followers by branding weekly Q&As, being funny and creating clever hashtags.

### "I always think of different ways to get my brand out there," he says. "I don't like to use that term when I'm talking about myself, but with social media you can own it a little more. I've been fortunate enough to build up a big following on Twitter and I've been able to engage followers by showing my personality. That's what makes social media so cool."

### But when it comes to his motto for the show, Davis's goal is to have smart conversation with interesting people. And he doesn't want to limit himself to just sports figures, although his favorite interview to date is with legendary Dodgers' broadcaster Vin Scully. A few of his dream guests include Howard Stern and Bruce Springsteen.

### "To me, Howard is the best interviewer who ever lived," Davis says. "As for me, I look for areas that I think other people might hesitate to get into. I just want to find topics that are interesting. We have no limit. I'd like to interview movie stars, politicians, comedians and other newscasters and broadcasters."

### With big named guests like John Calipari, Rick Pitino and Landon Donovan in the books, Davis is well on his way.

NBA And Social Media Star Damian Lillard

By Jon Finkel

Portland Trailblazers superstar point guard Damian Lillard has mastered the art of the crossover. His warp speed, left-right dribble mesmerizes defenders and his whip smart social media posts ignite his followers. In fact, Lillard's on-court dominance is so well-matched by his online influence that he recently received the NBA's Social Media MVP Award over mega-stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul.

"The main thing I keep in mind is that I have to be myself," Lillard says of his social media use. "Fans really appreciate it because they get to see me as a person and not just as an athlete. A lot of guys have used social media as a way to just have a lot of followers and to let their fans know what they're up to. I think what separates me is that my fans have actually gotten to know me."

One of the ways Lillard has torn down the normal walls between superstars and their fandom is by sharing his love of music in the form of a massively successful social media idea called #4BarFriday.

If you aren't one of Lillard's 2.3 million Facebook fans or one of his over one million combined followers on Twitter and Instagram, then you don't know that #4BarFriday is a weekly Instagram freestyle rap challenge, where anyone can submit their best 4 bar verse in 15 seconds or less every Friday.

"I came up with four bar Friday in my room one day when I was writing down ideas in my notebook," he says. "Someone told me that you could post a fifteen-second video to Instagram and I knew that fifteen seconds was the perfect time for four bars. I've been writing rhymes for a long time and shared the idea with some people I work with. I knew it was a bright idea and that we could grow it."

#4BarFriday now has its own online community, with over 37,000 fans on Instagram alone. Each week Lillard and his crew watch the submissions and pick the best four to be featured on the home page of the challenge at www.4BarFriday.com.

But having brilliant ideas is only part of what makes Lillard so appealing on social media. He also values his role as someone that young kids look up to and posts inspirational messages, along with answering fans questions directly.

"I think anytime you write something that's real, fans respond," he says. "So many people on Twitter are looking for something to relate to. A lot of times I write about things that people can relate to and they appreciate my stance on things. One of the most important things to me is giving kids something to look up to."

That "realness" is not only attractive to fans, but to major brands as well, including Adidas, who recently signed Lillard to a near record-breaking shoe deal, placing him as one of the faces of their company.

"The way you use social media can impact a lot of things," Lillard says. "I'm really effective at getting my message out and Adidas really appreciated that. It was an opportunity to advance the brand and we're excited."

As for advice on how to build your own brand with social media, Lillard keeps it simple:

"I wouldn't recommend a specific thing to talk about," he says, "Share stories and things that are original to you. When you're writing about things that are real, people are attracted to that."

Follow Damian Lillard on Twitter at @Dame_Lillard, Facebook or Instagram

Olympic Hopeful And Filmmaker Alexi Pappas

By Lacy Cooke

Alexi Pappas is an Oregon Track Club Elite runner, finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, and 2016 Olympic hopeful, but even as her running career picks up speed, she pursues her passion for filmmaking.

Her running journey began in middle school, but halted when high school coaches wanted to her to quit soccer, student government, and theater. While studying creative writing and poetry at Dartmouth, Alexi discovered a new love for running.

"Because I had that time away, I found the sport with new eyes and enjoyed it more than when I was younger," she says.

She also discovered filmmaking through her boyfriend, Jeremy Teicher. "Poetry felt like making a dollhouse in my bedroom. Only a few people saw my poems. Filmmaking is more like building a snowman: it's outside your house and you might need your neighbors to help you make it," says Alexi. "Filmmaking is a way to interact with the world more and collaborate."

Alexi and Jeremy adapted his student documentary into a film titled Tall as the Baobab Tree, the story of one girl's plan to save her sister from an arranged marriage in Senegal. It was the featured movie for the NYC Human Rights Watch Film Festival and a favorite at international film festivals.

"We were blending fiction with reality. Writing the script was interesting because it was coming from a place of truth, but we were also writing the story of two sisters growing up in a specific place," says Alexi.

Their second movie, Tracktown, also deals with a specific place: Eugene, Oregon; home to Nike and hippies.

"I moved to Eugene to run with a team that could use me the most. I remember calling Jeremy in New York and telling him that there was this place nicknamed Track Town, and it's like Disneyland for runners. That was the start of our inspiration. At the same time, there's also a hippie culture apart from running. Nike started here, but Eugene is probably more famous for its barefoot side. We really wanted to capture both sides," says Alexi.

Tracktown stars Alexi as the main character, Plumb Marigold, as she faces the Olympic Trials while searching for personal happiness. Rachel Dratch of SNL and Andy Buckley of The Office play her parents.

Alexi and Jeremy hope to premier at a film festival and then release Tracktown for a wider audience. Meanwhile, Alexi also works toward the 2016 Olympics.

"As a professional runner, our main season is late spring, so the fall is boring and hard, but you have to trust the process as you're building this deep strength. We shot the film in September and then spent many dark fall hours editing and it felt very similar," she says. "There's a discipline to running and filmmaking. You've got to show up to practice just like to show up to write or make a movie."

Alexi utilizes support from the running community and the film community to propel her to be a source of positive energy for young runners.

"I try to do everything with purpose and a sense of amusement and joy. Running is always going to hurt. You can go into a shell and feel sorry for yourself or you can carry it with you and keep going. In running or filmmaking, you have to see the process as a sport rather than a sacrifice. Yes, it hurts, it's hard, but it is a choice and I have joy in the choice that I've made."

Yahoo! Sports Blogger Mike Oz

By Scott Bedgood

By the time he hit five-years-old, Mike Osegueda loved baseball. By the time he was fourteen, he knew he wanted to be a sportswriter. By the time he was eighteen, he thought his career was over.

"I walked into the school newspaper the day before classes even started and said I wanted to write for them," Osegueda recalls of his arrival on the campus of San Jose State University. "It was kind of bold in retrospect. But they told me 'no' and listed all of these requirements that I would need."

Osegueda was bummed out and for a time gave up on the idea of writing about sports for a living. But two years later, at the suggestion of his advisor, he walked back into the newspaper office and gave it another shot.

"They were like, 'want to go to a baseball game?'" Osegueda says. "Of course, I said 'yes'. And after that I was on the staff."

Build A Solid Foundation

Osegueda worked his way up the editorial ladder and when he graduated college in 2002, he was immediately offered a job with The Fresno Bee – but not as a sports writer.

"They wanted me to be their pop culture and entertainment reporter," Osegueda says. "I took the job because it was a good paper. I sort of gave up on sports at that point."

For a decade, Osegueda was a star reporter at the Fresno Bee, building a name for himself in the Fresno community by starting a pop culture blog, organizing and hosting local events, and hosting a weekly radio show on a local rock station (the one job he still does). He won several awards for his efforts. Sports writing, it seemed, was in his past.

However, fate would intervene in the form of Jeff Passan, a well-respected baseball writer at Yahoo! Sports, who Osegueda had gotten to know during his time in Fresno.

"I did a story on [former San Francisco Giants pitcher] Barry Zito when he was with the Fresno AAA team in which I said he should stay in Fresno for his whole career and be a legend," Osegueda recalls, "I said he would be the mayor of Fresno by the end."

Passan suggested Osegueda for a job to Kevin Kaduk, who is the editor of the popular baseball blog, Big League Stew on Yahoo! Sports.

Osegueda went through the application and interview process and was offered the job. But after ten successful years with the Fresno Bee, the decision to leave was not easy. Reaching his dream of writing about baseball would mean giving up quite a bit of what he had achieved in the previous ten years.

Trust Your Gut

"It was tough to take the Big League Stew job," Osegueda says, "I was pretty community-centered in Fresno and people asked me if I wanted to give all of that up to talk only about baseball."

In the end, his love for America's pastime won out, and since February of 2013, he has built a large, loyal following of baseball lovers on one of the largest websites on the internet.

"Mike Oz", as Osegueda is known on his blog, specializes in both light-hearted and serious stories. He's just as likely to break news or write a straight feature on Albert Pujols reaching several baseball milestones in one game as he is to highlight a group of Milwaukee Brewers fans who showed up to a game dressed in full uniform.

In addition to watching enough baseball to make Bob Costas jealous, Osegueda scrolls Twitter constantly, reads newspapers, surfs Reddit, peruses blogs, and makes use of a large number of bookmarks to find the best stories for his readers.

"My boss likes to say, 'You're not going to win the internet everyday.' So, you just have to do what feels right," Osegueda says. "The pillar of a good blog is to have series' and regular features," Osegueda says, "You have to let your personality shine through a bit so people get to know you. You can't be a carbon copy of everyone else."

Balancing The Blogging Life

While working from home and writing about what you love certainly has its benefits, there is one thing Osegueda craves at the end of a week spent largely in his house with his wife, kids, and dog: adult conversation.

"Sometimes it's nice to talk to people in real life on the weekends," Osegueda jokes, "I can go a whole week without talking to another adult who isn't my wife."

He is also conscious not to burn his household out on baseball, often switching the TV over to Nick Jr. so his kids don't end up resenting the game he loves.

"I don't want to bombard my family with baseball so my son associates baseball with daddy ignoring him," he says, laughing. "I want him to grow up liking baseball, too."

But as Osegueda points out, this is a problem he's happy to handle.

"I ended up where I was trying to be, when I wasn't trying to be there. No matter what it is, there are way worse things that I could be doing for a living," Osegueda says.

Every Day Should Be Saturday Founder Spencer Hall

By Scott Bedgood

Spencer Hall is a successful blogger and one of the most fascinating people to follow on Twitter (@edsbs) because of his irreverent takes and comedic observations about life and his favorite sport: college football.

For almost a decade he has been running Every Day Should be Saturday, a college football blog he started with a friend. Since he sold EDSBS to SB Nation in 2009, he has been the Editorial Director of sbnation.com.

For our latest Five to Thrive, we got a chance to speak with Spencer about his favorite things (his blog and college football), his least favorite things (Kenny Chesney and Florida State), and almost everything in between.

\- 1 -

SB: How did you start Every Day Should Be Saturday and why has it been so successful?

SH: Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. I started Every Day Should Be Saturday when I was in a heap of underemployment. I was not sure what I wanted to do, but I wanted a change. Writing in a structured sense never appealed to me. When I was bored I would try to find a place on the Internet that wrote about the things I was interested in. There wasn't anything so I decided to do it myself.

Fortunately in 2005 there were all sorts of prefabricated sites where you could just start writing. A friend and I started EDSBS as an anti-boredom exercise. But now it's all gotten out of hand. We hit at the right time and eventually we sold to SB Nation in 2009 and I've been there ever since.

\- 2 -

SB: When you started the site it was you and a friend with little responsibility, but now you are the Editorial Director at a large company. You also have a family now. How have these changes affected the way you work? Also, does having children alter your perspective of how you see the college athletes you write about?

SH: My job has definitely changed because I work with people now. I have to delegate a lot more and I get to decide who is going to be saying what. I feel a little more parental and I do more supervising and editing. Now, I work from home in Atlanta but periodically I go to the main offices in Washington DC.

Being a parent has definitely changed my perspective. It affects everything. It changes how you view the people you are writing about. You are more sympathetic in some things, but in others you are way less sympathetic. It shifts your likes and dislikes.

I am far more sympathetic to the difficulties of being that young and that broke. I tend to see my own child out there. As I get older I also have more sympathy on college kids who make a mistake. I almost wish they were paid because money sanitizes the relationship.

\- 3 -

SB: What is it about College Football that you love so much?

SH: For college football I enjoy seeing the game played differently with differing levels of talent. In the NFL the degree of play is almost airtight because everyone is a professional. It kind of takes the possibility out of the game. That's why I hated watching Alabama when they were so great recently. Nothing unexpected and fun ever happened there. I like that college players aren't totally professional.

I also enjoy the diversity of College Football too. The people at each school are ritualistic. They have their own communities that are unique to that school. With the exception of a few places, you don't get that with the NFL. College Football is the antithesis of the NFL in that most NFL stadiums are just large commercial buildings in giant concrete parking lots.

\- 4 -

SB: You guys have a lot of inside jokes* that have become running series, what's it like when these jokes get acknowledged by the people involved?

SH: It's very fun to see something you made up get loose into the world. Like when  Cam Newton saw himself in Breaking Madden and said "you guys would do that to me" that was fun. Name drops are fun, but it depends on who is doing the name dropping.

Steve Spurrier Heisman Trophy Winner, former Florida Head Coach, current South Carolina Head Coach] would never acknowledge us because he doesn't know what the internet is. You would have to explain like 8 things to him before you explained [ Hating A** Spurrier. He pretty much knows about golf. Coaches are pretty simple beyond football.

  * 5 –

SB: Let's talk about some other things you love or love to hate:

You often say that country artist Kenny Chesney is a bandwagon fan of multiple different college football teams. That said, what's your favorite Kenny Chesney album?

-My favorite Chesney album is Floridays, which is a Jimmy Buffet album that he stole wholesale. Chesney is just Jimmy Buffet performed by a bald tiny man in a hat. Actually, no, if I did have to pick a Chesney album I'll pick All I Want For Christmas is a Real Good Tan because that title is amazing.

What you would say to Chesney if you met him?

-I'd honestly probably be really nice to him.

You're a Florida alumni and a die-hard Gator fan, so if your kids don't go to UF, what would be the worst place for them to go?

-Florida State is the school that would burn me the most. I honestly wouldn't pay for it. Also if they wanted to go to Auburn, that would be an issue. My brother went there and I just wouldn't want my kids going to a place where they will get to talk about beating us by a field goal.

*Examples include running jokes about former  Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace, South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, and a weekly segment called Breaking Madden.
Chapter 5

An Adventurer, A Tolkien Translator, And Three Other Exceptional Profiles

Adventurer and Author Alastair Humphreys

By Scott Bedgood

Alastair Humphreys has felt the butterflies in his stomach.

He felt them when he hopped on his bike as he walked out of his home in England. He felt them as he looked at the Kaveri River in India. He felt them when he got in a rowboat and pushed out into the Atlantic.

But the butterflies never stopped him.

"The reward is not the end"

Humphreys is one of the world's foremost adventurers. He has ridden  his bike all the way around the world. It took him over four years.

He's  walked the length of the Kaveri River in India, a distance of over 500 miles. And  he's rowed across the Atlantic Ocean.

He's done numerous other unthinkably difficult and dangerous adventures, but he says he still gets nervous before every a trip.

"I remember at the start line of the India walk, I was amazed at how nervous I was. I was doubting my ability to walk the close to 600 miles along a river across India," Humphreys says, "I remember being surprised because I had already spent four years cycling around the world. But still I was feeling all of those same doubts and worries I had on day one of the bike trip. Every journey I do, it's the beginning part that I find really hard. Once I get going the doubts begin to dissipate."

In 2012 Humphreys was awarded the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. Oddly enough, it wasn't for any of the large adventures that he was awarded. It was for a yearlong effort doing and promoting his idea of "Microadventures", trips that are usually shorter than a day that he designed for even the least adventurous person to attempt.

"Normal Person"

Despite these superhuman feats, Humphreys constantly insists that he is just a "normal" person with normal athletic skill. He would never even consider himself a cyclist.

"I don't even like riding a bike that much. To me a bike is just a tool for travel," Humphreys says, "Anyone can do the trips that I've done, the difference is that they don't positively choose to make it happen."

Humphreys is motivated mostly by his own stubbornness and a gnawing fear of regrets.

"I'm quite stubborn and persistent. I'm also quite terrified of my life ending and me being full of regrets," Humphreys says, "So that helps drive me on to think 'If I want to do this then I better get on and do it.'"

Inspired Greatness

Humphreys may be motivated by this fear, but he's inspired by adventure books. His favorites are As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee, Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.

He has written six of his own books and made one film,  Into the Empty Quarter (about his trek through the Empty Quarter Desert in the Arabian Peninsula). Never one to set low expectations, his goal is to eventually write one "great" book.

"By great book, I'm thinking Steinbeck, Hemingway, and Shakespeare all crying at my genius," Humphreys jokes, "It's good to set big goals."

Humphreys began his bike journey after graduating from college. He didn't have a real plan for his life so he decided to just go for it. He never could have imagined that being adventurous for a living was a possibility.

His advice for people in a similar situation is predictably bold.

"All I've done is do what I love doing and I've done it with a lot of passion, imagination and hard work," Humphreys says, "I'd urge people to just try whatever it is they want to do, whether that's a big journey or starting some small business. Setting out on your own path is not a death sentence. If it doesn't work out, you can go get a job."

Having traveled all over the world, Humphreys has seen the extremes of the human condition, from abject poverty to the relative wealth of most of the Western World. He says that those in the UK and US have a huge advantage that should be appreciated.

"Any graduate in Britain or America is incredibly lucky in knowing that that are probably not going to starve to death. If all of my plans or ideas fail, I could get a haircut and go to McDonald's and someone would give me a job," Humphreys says, "So it's not a life or death thing. Although, on the other hand it is a life or death thing because it's your life and if you don't [take risks], eventually you'll be dead."

Tolkien Translator David Salo

By Lacy Cooke

We remember J.R.R. Tolkien as the creator of The Lord of the Rings. We don't often think of him as the creator of complex languages. Yet as a linguist, languages were Tolkien's primary interest, and he used his work on the world of Middle Earth to develop his personal theories of language.

While fascinating, most of us wouldn't turn that knowledge into a fruitful career. David Salo did, and his path to becoming one of the most renowned Tolkien language experts in the world has a lot to teach those who are embarking on their own unique career paths.

As a young boy, David Salo wished he could understand the bits of foreign languages he discovered while reading. When Salo was about eight,  The Silmarillion was released. This new work gave more clues to the languages hinted at in Tolkien's original trilogy, and Salo and his friends tried to puzzle out the meanings of the new words they discovered.

Salo pursued linguistics in college, and his primary focus is the ancient Indo-European dialect Tocharian, which was spoken in the Middle Ages. Yet he still felt he had "unfinished business" with Tolkien.

As he studied Welsh for his linguistics degree, he noticed that there were similarities between the evolution of Welsh and of Tolkien's Elvish language, Sindarin. These were hardly new discoveries, Salo notes, yet as he uncovered them himself, they piqued his curiosity.

Around that time, Salo was involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism, a society dedicated to recreating medieval cultures. The Society provided medieval names for members while they engaged in role playing games, and some members asked if Elvish names were acceptable. The Society said they would consider it if someone could write up a set of basic rules for the Elvish languages.

Salo decided to give it a try, and journeyed to the library. There, he found The Lost Road and Other Writings, edited by Christopher Tolkien, which contains etymologies and words in Quenya and Noldorin, from which Sindarin derives. Salo never did write up a rule set for the Society, but he quickly found that there was a market for Elvish translators. A Middle Earth role playing game system asked him to review their source book, and Salo rewrote over half of the book.

Now, Salo had experience in Tolkien translation, and as he began to hear that a Lord of the Rings film might be created, he decided to take a "wild shot in the dark". Salo had never worked on a movie. He heard rumors that the filmmakers had contracted someone else. Yet he decided to pursue his idea, and wrote a letter detailing his experience. A friend of his had connections and provided an address, and Salo sent off his letter.

To his surprise, he was chosen!

David Salo's work wasn't done after he was selected to assist on Peter Jackson's films. As Salo received lines to translate, he realized that Tolkien had not left enough material behind to satisfy the needs of the filmmakers.

Remember when Gandalf utters the tongue of Sauron at the Council in Rivendell? Well, Tolkien only left enough material for less than one page of Black Speech. Or how about the Dwarvish chants rolling in the background as the Fellowship flees across the bridge of Khazad-dûm? Tolkien only wrote what amounts to a page and a half of Khuzdul, the Dwarvish dialect.

Salo realized his role had to shift from someone who represented Tolkien's ideas to someone who invented new words and languages based on Tolkien's clues. He utilized sounds and patterns from the original works so that the new words blended seamlessly into the tale.

Salo worked to keep his languages consistent, yet languages are a "mix of order and chaos," according to Salo. He waded through the complexities of Tolkien's fragments as he developed new words.

Salo was willing to take his original role and redefine it to remain true to Tolkien's work, and the filmmakers, he says, continually told him to do what he needed to do to give the movie an authentic tone. Even though Salo recognized the limits on his own creativity, he still advanced Tolkien's languages to a revolutionary new point. His work has continued for Jackson's current Hobbit trilogy.

Salo hopes the movies will act as a starting point for people to delve deeper into Tolkien's works, and be inspired to create their own languages, for the process of doing so "takes them on an amazing adventure" as they learn about how different people across the world communicate ideas. His story inspires us to persist with our goals even when we encounter obstacles.

Surprisingly, Salo's favorite work of Tolkien's has nearly nothing to do with linguistics. It's a short story called Smith of Wootton Major, the story of a young man who is given the ability to travel between Earth and Faёry. Salo says it holds the "sense of wonder, longing, and sadness that I've always felt optimizes Tolkien's outlook."

As Salo has explored the world of Middle Earth through Tolkien's languages, he has felt privileged to walk through Tolkien's mind, and by doing so, bits of Faёry have become real.

Rapper, Pastor, Author Trip Lee

By Scott Bedgood

Trip Lee is a rapper, pastor, author, and public speaker signed to Reach Records whose fifth album, Rise, dropped last week and rose up to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes hip-hop chart.

The release of Rise came as a welcome surprise to many fans who heard rumors of Trip's retirement after his last album The Good Life, released in 2012. He recently revealed that he has been struggling with chronic fatigue disorder that can exhaust him so heavily that he physically can't get out of bed.

Couple that with the stresses of touring, pastoring at his home church in Washington D.C., and being a father to two young children, it's no wonder Trip, 26, needed to take some time off.

But instead of only releasing a new album, Trip also wrote a book entitled Rise that will be released in January 2015. From almost retiring to cranking out an album and a book, Trip has a lot he could be bragging about. We talk to him about his comeback, his new album, his influences, and why he only brags on Jesus.

\- 1 -

SB: There tends to be a divide between the 'secular' and 'Christian' music scenes, but you have said many times that you are a rapper who is a Christian, not a 'Christian rapper.' So, what are some 'secular' albums that have had a major influence on you and your music?

TL: Jay Z's The Blueprint was one of the albums that made me want to be lyrical and make people think with my music. There's so much content in it that I would disagree with, but artistically what he was able to do with the production of it made it feel like one piece. It's a classic album, I love that record.

Stevie Wonder has so many records that I love. I feel like he really captures and speaks to people's emotions well. One of my favorites would be Fulfillingness' First Finale.

John Mayer's Continuum record is one that I've listened to a lot and learned from a lot in terms of songwriting. These are all albums where I love every song. That really influences how I do a record because I want people to love every single song, I want them to fit together well, and I want the theme to tie together.

As far as current albums go, Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d City, is a classic hip-hop record. One of the things I like about it, even though I disagree with some of his conclusions, is that he is really exploring a lot of stuff about God and religion. You really get to hear his perspective on things and his story and what he's wrestled through. The production is great, he's an incredible MC, and he's a great storyteller. That's one of the recent albums that I've loved that has influenced me.

\- 2 -

SB: It's been a few years since your last album, and there was a lot of talk of your possible retirement. When did you decide that you could start on a new album and how did you have time to write a book along with it?

TL: I stepped away so I could give time to pastoral ministry at my church. I found it was impossible to be engaged and be gone a lot. It was hard to walk with people and be on the road so much. But then I started to see that I had a little bit of extra time in my pastoral schedule to work on another record. And it was burdening me, I've been doing this since I was a little kid, so I was going to write stuff regardless. So I thought 'Man if I'm writing stuff and I do have a little bit of extra time, I wonder if I could do a record. What if I started really really slow to sort of chip away at it.' And that's what I did, I worked a lot slower so it took me a little bit over a year to make this new record.

\- 3 -

SB: For this album you worked exclusively with Gawvi who produced "Nuthin" on Lecrae's recent Billboard No. 1 album Anomaly. What was it like working with just one other guy and do you prefer it to the other ways you have recorded in the past?

TL: It was very different, man. In the past I would think of a certain kind of beat and I would reach out to a specific producer. It's almost like contracting certain guys for certain songs. In this case, me and him made the entire album together. We pushed each other and we were in the studio together a lot. He has a drive that I love in producers where he just wants to do new stuff and switch it up. It was an incredible process and we are already talking about the possibilities of doing another together. I liked it 100 times better [than the other way of working.]

A lot of classic albums have been made with just one producer, like Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones with Thriller or Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. There's a good history of artists working with one producer, especially within hip-hop.

\- 4 -

SB: This is your fifth album, you've been making records for almost a decade now. How do you determine whether an album is successful for you and has that changed over time?

TL: That used to be a lot easier answer when we were really small. When we were really small I was just like 'Yeah I want people's lives to be impacted and I don't care who gets it.'

As stuff grows, people care about numbers. It used to be a different world when we were smaller. That's a good question that I've asked myself a lot on weeks like this when I've got so much going on. You do want a lot of people to grab that album because that means the art you put a lot of work into, a lot of people get to enjoy it and get to be encouraged by it. The main way I think about it is whether I've been faithful in what God has called me to do in making good art.

\- 5 -

SB: You've focused a lot on the idea of bragging throughout your career. Your website is called Built to Brag and one of your most popular songs is "Brag on My Lord", why is that an idea that you focus on?

TL: I'm a rapper, that's what rappers do. Bragging and boasting is big in hip-hop. That's one thing that we all do by nature, we want to point to ourselves and we want people to see how amazing we are. I want to switch people's attention to think about how all of life is us being created for the sake of bragging on God. We were created for God's glory. God made us to point out how great he is. So instead of saying 'Look at me, look at the stuff I can do, aren't I great?', every single moment is given to us to do the same thing for God's glory. Like, 'Look at what God has done, look at what God is like, look at what God has revealed and look at how amazing he is.' I want to use my words, my ministry to do that myself and to encourage other people to do it as well.

Filmmaker TJ Regan

By Jon Finkel

TJ Regan didn't leave film school with an offer sheet from three-time NBA Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson to direct, produce, and edit a reality series chronicling his life. He didn't sign a first-look deal with a big talent agency and he definitely didn't have a crew with cutting-edge equipment in place to start making movies.

No, Regan had none of that. But you could argue that what he had – a camera, relentless ambition, and vision – were really the only things he needed to be successful.

You Can't Be Afraid To Ask For What You Want

"I got my start by doing rap videos for free," Regan says. "I did it just to get my name out there. Guys weren't coming after me though. I didn't know anyone so I started tweeting artists who weren't big yet and asking them if I could do their videos."

Essentially, he was cold calling 21st century-style.

"I eventually heard back from rapper Big Sean and I went to his show with my camera and started filming. He liked what I did and then I tweeted to Wiz Khalifa and I shot a video for him," Regan says.

Attack Your Career From All Angles

While Regan had his sights set on breaking into the music-video world, he was also a sports fan and through social media and some friends, he heard that then-University of Washington basketball star Isaiah Thomas, a junior in college at the time (now a member of the NBA's Boston Celtics), wanted to make a movie about his life.

"Isaiah heard about me doing rap stuff and we met right before he entered the 2011 NBA draft," Regan says. "He said he was going to Las Vegas to get ready for the draft so I met him there and I just started staying with him. We filmed for a month and we kept filming and became very good friends. After a few months I put up a trailer for our movie."

The trailer became a de facto business card for Regan and within two days, NBA-star Nate Robinson contacted him and said he loved the trailer and wanted Regan to do something similar with him.

Never Hesitate When Opportunity Knocks

"Even though I originally wanted to do music videos, I soon realized that I could do the same concept in the sports world," Regan says.

"Basketball players are into fashion, they're popular, they're compelling, they have great highlights and people hadn't really started filming things the way I was going to yet."

After Regan was contacted by Robinson, he didn't wait to set up a formal meeting. Rather, he took the initiative and made sure they met sooner rather than later.

"I heard that Nate was going to Hoopfest, a basketball event in Spokane, Washington, so I just drove to Spokane and searched through about 100,000 people until I found him. I just showed up with my 5D camera, introduced myself and I started shooting. We really hit it off and he invited me to meet up with him the next day," Regan says.

After several days of hanging out and gathering footage, Regan edited a trailer together and showed it to Robinson, who loved it.

"Nate was launching his website at that time and when he saw the trailer he said he wanted to do a running series instead of a movie, so we gave it the same name as the site, State of Nate," Regan says.

Trust Your Ability

Regan and Robinson are currently in the middle of season three of State of Nate. The eighth episode premiered this week and it opens up with one of the scariest moments of any professional athlete's career: ACL surgery.

In order for the series to work, Robinson had to open up his entire life to Regan and they had to build a solid foundation of trust.

"When you spend so much time with someone filming like this, you become part of each other's family," Regan says. "That's a good thing and a bad thing. You're mixing friendship with business, but I'm grinding with him and he's grinding with me. If he falls then I fall and we have that trust."

Believe In Your Vision

Episodes of State of Nate usually last twenty minutes and are shot, edited, and produced by Regan.

"Almost all of the time it's just me and my camera," he says. "The hardest thing is not having a script. I have one camera and one mic and I'm not capturing sound everywhere. It's a real run-and-gun style. When you do it like this, your camera has to be a character."

Regan makes mental notes as he films about where the story for each episode should go and then he dives into his editing when he has a clear ending for each story arc.

His tips for other filmmakers who want to do the same thing are very clear.

"No matter what you're filming, you want to capture the atmosphere," he says. "You don't want to just stick on the person you're filming. You want to capture the scene and the space and fill it up. You need to establish your shot and go deep into the content. Then when your subject shows up you get the perfect context. And look at everything through your own eyes first, meaning: Trust your gut."

Custom Guitar Builder Rob Baker

By Scott Bedgood

If one of the coolest moments of your life involves a guitar shaped like a Slurpee and the House of Blues, you know you've chosen an interesting hobby.

For Rob Baker, a custom guitar maker from Richardson, Texas, the above scenario actually included 13 Slurpee shaped guitars and the band Bowling for Soup, a Denton, Texas-based band with a Grammy-nominated 2003 hit "Girl All the Bad Guys Want".

"The lead singer playing the Slurpee guitar onstage was a really cool moment for me," Baker says.

It was another confirmation that the hobby Baker picked up eleven years ago was paying off. Baker got his first taste of custom guitar making after buying a cheap guitar off Ebay only to find out that it looked nothing like the guitar in the picture.

"It was a decent guitar that needed work, so I figured out that I could completely refinish it," Baker says, "I learned how to sunburst and spray lacquer. Then I realized I could build a whole guitar myself."

This realization led to an obsession for Baker, who began building all kinds of guitars, from cigar box to hollowbody to acoustic. He started the company HiTone Guitars, where he claims there is no design he won't try.

He's built everything from AK-47 shaped guitars, to the Slurpee guitars, to an open revolver with removable "bullets". No matter the shape or design, Baker makes sure each instrument is still musically functional.

"I don't build anything that can't be played on a stage," Baker says, "I took the AK-47 guitars to guitar festivals and I had everyone from speed metal guys to normal rock guys playing it and everyone was satisfied with it."

Not all of Baker's guitars have a novelty feel to them, sometimes they are more highbrow art like the Mondrian style guitar he built for the Wildflower Art & Music Festival in Richardson.

"I'm always challenged to come up with a concept that makes it a beautiful art piece," Baker says, "Most people don't do fret boards like I do. For the Mondrian guitar I pieced together different types of wood to create different squares."

As successful as Baker's guitars have become, it still isn't his full-time job. He maintains a "normal" job, and hand builds his guitars when he gets home in his garage. After looking at a computer screen all day, he enjoys being able to work with his hands away from screens.

His advice for anyone who is looking to pick up a new hobby like guitar making is to find your passion and start with realistic goals.

"Start off with something you know you can achieve," Baker says, "It may take you a couple years to get through an instrument, but that's ok as long as you keep at it."

Baker's favorite part of building guitars is stringing them up for the first time to see how they sound. He enjoys building hollowbody and semi-hollowbody guitars more than others because of the unique craftsmanship that goes into creating them.

"When you string it up for the first time and you breathe life into this instrument, you don't ever know what it's going to sound like until that moment," Baker says, "It's like the birth of a child when you hear that first scream. It's beautiful. It may only be beautiful to you, but it's amazing."

Baker donates many of his custom guitars to charity, and is willing to discuss any design. Check out his website to see more designs and get pricing on each type of guitar.

He also helped start the Dallas-based guitar building club Guys Building Guitars that you can check out for more information on how to build your own guitars.
