Author: Christa Avampato

The short of it: Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day. The long of it: My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events. While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series. A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist. My company: I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media: • I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference; • I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable; • I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me. Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
creativity

Wonder: What the movie The Secret Life of Pets taught me about being human

Christa Avampato

If you want to know what my life with Phineas was like in New York City, watch the movie The Secret Life of Pets. Max, the main character, has Phineas’s personality to a tee (though the dachshund Buddy looks exactly like him!) Max even has separation anxiety when his mom, Katie, leaves for work every day just like Phin does. The movie takes place in our neighborhood on the Upper West Side. It shows some of our favorite areas of Central Park and the tiny apartments in beautiful buildings that we happily called home for years. There are a few scenes where Katie and Max are staring out at the skyline from their apartment, complete with the water towers I always loved so much. That was something Phineas and I often did, too. When Max describes his relationship with Katie, all I could do was hug Phineas and say, “That’s just like us, buddy!”

Looking at all of these nostalgic scenes made me realize that while we don’t remember every single moment of our lives, what we do remember is how all of our moments made us feel. I’m sad to say that I don’t remember every single moment with Phineas, in New York City or elsewhere. What I do know is that he has made all of my good moments great moments and he’s made all of the tough times more manageable. His love, devotion, and loyalty have been some of the greatest gifts of my life. I treasure all those walks, snuggles, naps, and playtimes, and I always will. The secret life of pets is that they are our best co-pilots.

creativity

Wonder: Harry Reid’s advice on how to spend our time

Christa Avampato

“Do the choices we make about how we spend our time keep us in touch with what we believe in, and what is real in our own lives?” ~Harry Reid, retiring Senator from Nevada

Today I read Senator Reid’s farewell published in the New York Times.Though most of his letter addresses the 100 Senators who will be in session come January 2017, this statement about how we spend our time applies to all of us. It’s something I am deeply considering as we round the corner on the new year. It’s something that will cause me to make some big changes in the coming year because ultimately how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Moments add up to hours to days to months to years. I don’t want to waste any of mine in any way—not for comfort, ease, or the sake of a paycheck. It has never been easier in the history of the world for us to do incredible things that help build a world that we’re proud to call home. And if I’m not spending my days aspiring to that, then I am wasting my time. So onward and upward with a full and purposeful heart.

(And one comment on Harry Reid’s letter: he will be leaving the Senate for the final time when this new administration flips and that departure seems tinged with a mixture of relief and grief that he’s going. He never envisioned Donald Trump as President, particularly since Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. (A new record!) I’m grateful for his service and admire his example of how to make a difficult system simpler, more efficient, and more effective. It’s not an easy thing to do, and he should be celebrated for his role in moving closer to a Washington that works.)

 

creativity

Wonder: Let your love be a resource for the world

Christa Avampato

“In one soul, your soul, there are resources for the world.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks to the disaster that is the DC metro, I walked 18 blocks in the pouring rain during rush hour yesterday. I was angry and feeling very sorry for myself when I walked by a man who was hungry and asked me for some change to get a slice of pizza. I gave myself a mental “snap out of it” and then I bought him some pizza. Wherever we are, there is good work to do. We don’t always see it. Sometimes we’re so caught up in our own inner dialogue that we miss the opportunity in front of us. I certainly was. The man thanked me for the pizza, and I thanked him for letting me help.

 

creativity

Wonder: It’s Time to Take a Pause

Christa Avampato

I have just one New Year’s Resolution for 2017: I’m going to hit pause for some amount of time on a daily basis. No social media, no devices, no to-do that must be done. Just being in the world for some amount of time every day and letting my mind sit in the quiet space of its own thoughts. In his new book, Thank You for Being Late, Tom Friedman says, “When you hit pause on a machine it stops. When you hit pause on a person, we start.” Tom Friedman is one of the writers and thinkers whom I admire most in the world. The pause is a gift; it’s where we bring together disparate ideas, where we figure out how we think and feel given everything we’ve seen, heard, and experienced.

2017 marks 10 years since I graduated from my MBA program at Darden. It’s been a decade of tremendous change for me, personally and professionally. In 2007, I never could have predicted how my life would change in these 10 years, or how the world would change in that time. And the rate of change is only accelerating. As much change as this decade has held for me, I’m sure the next decade will hold even more. To make the most of that change, to really understand and respond intelligently to what’s happening, the pause is necessary. And I’m very much looking forward to it.

creativity

Wonder: How writers can handle rejection

Christa Avampato

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

As a writer and an artist, I get rejected every day in one form or another because that’s what happens when you put your work out into the world every day. Critics are everywhere. I am still inspired to keep going because I create the work I want to read. I write the stories I most wanted to believe in, and that belief is a shield and a sword against any rejection. All artists in every medium need that belief.

If you’re struggling now to get your work out into the world or dealing with rejection on any level, keep these words from Theodore Roosevelt close to your heart. They help me keep my head up and my fingers tapping on the keys.

creativity

Wonder: Time for 2017 planning

Christa Avampato

I use December to take stock of my life and to make plans for 2017. Already, I can see some exciting changes and opportunities on the horizon. It will take work and planning to bring them to life, and luckily those actions are in my control. Now’s the time.

creativity

Wonder: Write one word at a time

Christa Avampato

“There’s only one way to write a book: one word at a time.” ~R. Edward Freeman

It took me two years to write my book, Where the Light Enters. Books have a long life, in their creation and, hopefully, in the hearts and minds of readers. Two years can feel like a long time to work on one single project. Even at my most frustrated times, I was determined to push through and finish. During that process, I often thought about my professor, mentor, and friend, Ed Freeman, the author of many books that have influenced how I see the world and my role in it, as a writer and as a business person. In every moment, all I had to do was write the next word. That mantra helped me keep going.

You might be in the middle of a project now. Maybe you’ve been working on it for a long time. Maybe you feel like you’re spinning in circle, going nowhere fast. These are the times that require more attention, not less. These are times when we must double down, not run away. I know it’s tempting to chase the next new thing. I know the exhilaration born of a new start and a blank page. Don’t quit now. Don’t throw in the towel. Resist the urge to run. Sit. Breathe. And see what happens. Let your drive to tell a story as honestly and clearly as possible be greater than your fear of falling short. Just take it one word as a time.

creativity

Wonder: Check out my Lit to Lens podcast interview about my YA novel, Where the Light Enters

Christa Avampato

So excited to share this podcast episode that I did with the Lit to Lens podcast team about my book, Where the Light Enters.

“Podcast Season 1, Episode 4 – SPECIAL EDITION: Interview with author Christa Avampato”

Hello there LTLiens,

This post is a bit late, but exciting nonetheless. In case you aren’t up to date, about a month ago we interviewed the author Christa Avampato about her debut novel Where the Light Enters.

The novel is about a young teenage girl, who goes by the name Emerson Page, living in New York city on a mission to find out who killed her mother. The young adult genre novel covers everything from magical libraries, the power of manipulating light, to the struggles of growing up without a mother.

In the interview Christa covers everything from how she became such an avid writer, who inspires her, to what it’s like trying to get your first novel published and pushed out to the real world.

Take a moment to listen to Christa tell her exciting story.

Listen here, or subscribe to us on iTunes.

L2L

*We will provide updates to this post once more good news is heard…fingers crossed!

Source: Podcast Season 1, Episode 4 – SPECIAL EDITION: Interview with author Christa Avampato

creativity

Wonder: The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests

Christa Avampato

We forget that Jon Stewart’s time at The Daily Show wasn’t all wine and roses. Personally, I didn’t become a fan until after those first bumpy years so I never knew that it was anything but the societal lightning rod it now is.

I didn’t know Jon Stewart had failed so badly in his early years. I didn’t know that if The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had failed, then he likely would have never been heard from again. I didn’t know any of that when I began the book and in the first handful of pages, on page one actually, he lays all of that out in no uncertain terms.

And that’s why he’s so loved by so many—for his raw honesty, his bravery, his unapologetic, educated opinions, for his desire to be as intelligent as he is funny, for his integrity, and for his uncompromising optimism heavily influenced by his deep knowledge of history. This book, told from Jon Stewart’s perspective and the perspectives of the show’s writer, actors, and producers, is a reminder to all of us that we have all lived through dark days—as individuals and as a society.

It’s the perfect time for this message as we head into what could be another sad and fearful chapter in our nation’s news and government. I miss Jon Stewart’s voice in the national conversation. I didn’t even realize how much I missed him until I read this book. Reading this book was like visiting an old friend: I’m so glad to hear from him and after 444 pages, I am also sad, again, to see him go.

creativity

Wonder: Turning a story into a piece of art

Christa Avampato

I’ve been working on a paper collage – my largest piece yet – that depicts the story of my book, Where the Light Enters. I spent yesterday immersed in tiny bits of colorful paper while binge watching This Is Us. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our writing is to make it visual for ourselves and for the world to see. Now when I’m busily writing, editing, and revising Emerson’s story, this collage will be there pushing me forward.

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