Anna Lind Thomas, WE'LL LAUGH ABOUT THIS (SOMEDAY): Essays on Taking Life a Smidge Too Seriously
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[2:04]Anna Lynn Thomas is the author of We'll Laugh About This Someday, essays on taking life a smidge too seriously.
[2:10]Anna is a humor writer and popular online personality who founded the funny site,
[2:14]Haha's for who has.
[2:16]She spends her time writing for various media outlets and hosting her podcast It's Not That Serious,
[2:20]which is consistently ranked in the top 25 of the iTunes family section.
[2:24]She holds a bachelor's in advertising and a master's in communication studies and spent many years copywriting and creating campaigns and add departments before having children.
[2:32]Her story about a part went viral and catapulted her to fame or infamy.
[2:37]Anna and her husband Rob live in Nebraska with her two young daughters Lucy and Poppy and an English Bulldog named Bruno.
[2:43]You can learn more at Annalyn Thomas dot com.
[2:45]Welcome Anna.
[2:46]Thanks so much for coming on mom's.
[2:47]Don't have time to read books.
[2:49]We're discussing We'll Laugh About This Someday and all your other great stuff wonderful.
[2:56]Well, I'm so excited to be here and I'm really liking the look of your library back there.
[3:02]It is the way you've color coded is really amazing.
[3:07]I love it.
[3:07]So thank you.
[3:09]I appreciate it.
[3:10]Please tell us and ask what your book is about.
[3:14]So I'm a humor writer and I wrote We'll Laugh About This Someday.
[3:19]It's basically a collection.
[3:21]It's it's all awesome and the Erby David Sedaris where it's kind of a collection of essays,
[3:27]but it's not necessarily a memoir of things in my life that I took real serious.
[3:34]Things that humiliating things that have happened to me embarrassing, scary, hard difficult things that have happened to me that I look back now and I poke fun at it.
[3:44]I poke fun at the human experience of overreacting or the ridiculous ways that we can respond to life and and then kind of just letting the reader know that you know what I survived it and I made it and trying to just encourage people that just maybe we can just lighten up a little bit.
[4:02]I think this is a really heavy time.
[4:05]And so for sweating over the small stuff and the big stuff, you know, that's like a lot of sweating.
[4:11]So much sweating and then now like, you know, deodorant apparently gives us cancer.
[4:17]So, you know, another thing we have to worry about right.
[4:20]So I like to just say that any way that we can lighten up about life and not taking so seriously figure out the funny things that happen and find out and kind of
[4:32]of vet out what is, what is humorous, what is funny, what is interesting about the stuff we go through rather than falling apart.
[4:39]I think is kind of a better way to go through life.
[4:42]At least that's what I try to do.
[4:44]It's good in theory.
[4:45]I like the theory.
[4:46]Exactly.
[4:47]It depends what the thing is.
[4:51]That's right.
[4:52]That's right.
[4:53]That's absolutely right.
[4:54]So you kind of launched this humor part of your career with this one essay about this unpleasant stomach experience that you had.
[5:03]And I read the essay that you, because in the book you talk about the essay and how it had really catapulted you and gotten all these views.
[5:11]So I was like, well, I have to read this essay.
[5:12]So the essay was very funny and you're out in a date with the man who becomes your husband and you have this like terrible stomach problems.
[5:21]And anyway, you can't control it in the car.
[5:24]It becomes the thing from which you have to escape the, you know, and then not only that, but then he comes up to your apartment.
[5:31]And here's all sorts of noises in the bathroom and you're like really mortified about that.
[5:36]So tell me about this essay.
[5:39]Tell me about like how you and your husband who sounds so funny by the way, joke about what happened and how this sort of started you off on this whole thing.
[5:49]Well, you know, I think that, so I started, I started to build a platform to become a writer.
[5:55]And I made a commitment that every Thursday I was going to write a funny essay.
[6:00]And I didn't know what I was going to write.
[6:02]And I was talking to my mom was like, oh, I got to write something.
[6:05]And I was like, why don't you write about that one time where you've heard it in the car with Rob.
[6:09]And I'm not a real potty humor person.
[6:11]And so, of course, like the thing that goes viral and defines me ends up being potty humor, you know, I'm a little bit more expansive than that.
[6:21]But I think it's that it's so relatable.
[6:23]And so I just wrote the most horrifying thing that ever happened to me.
[6:27]And then it keeps rolling like it's not just it happens, but then then more bad things keep happening where he follows me unintentionally into my apartment, you know, because I forgot something in his car.
[6:38]So, yeah, I'm so I wrote about it.
[6:41]And I had very few followers at the time.
[6:44]And someone who happened to have a fairly good sized audience shared it.
[6:49]And I went insanely viral, shockingly viral.
[6:53]In fact, it just is going viral right now. Someone else posted it.
[6:57]So it tends to like go through like once three times a year.
[7:02]It'll just go viral again when people like to go back and go and laugh at it again.
[7:06]And I guess it's just one of those stories where people people have told me that they thought they were going to pass out.
[7:12]They lost, they cried.
[7:14]They were weeping.
[7:15]People thought something was wrong with them.
[7:16]They were wheezing.
[7:17]So it hits a particular funny bone, I think.
[7:20]And I think in a way it's also relatable where I think a lot of us have a story of something really embarrassing happening to us.
[7:27]And so I'm really glad that this really embarrassing thing that happened to me that was just so mortifying ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.
[7:36]One of the funniest things ever happened to me, right.
[7:38]And so that's kind of the theme and the premise of the book is that sometimes the things that we think are the worst thing ever can really be one of the funniest things ever.
[7:48]So anyway, so you decided to take me back how this whole thing got started.
[7:54]You decided to be build a platform to become a writer.
[7:57]You started doing these essays.
[7:59]This one went viral.
[8:00]Had you wanted to write before then?
[8:02]Like, did you always know you were really funny?
[8:04]What, what, you know, how did this start?
[8:06]And then how did you get to hear?
[8:08]So that's a really great question.
[8:11]When I was a little girl, I wrote a short story in I think maybe the fifth grader sixth grade.
[8:17]And my teacher brought me up to the desk and she said,
[8:20]Anna, this is really, really good.
[8:23]And that was all I needed.
[8:24]I was off to the races.
[8:25]I was like, well, I'm going to be a published author.
[8:27]I walked home.
[8:28]And my mom's a writer too.
[8:29]And so that part was a part of our family.
[8:31]But I walked home.
[8:32]My mom's at the sink.
[8:33]And I was like, well,
[8:34]I'm going to be a published author someday.
[8:36]And she, I remember her turning off the tap.
[8:38]And she was like, really, you are.
[8:41]And I was like, yeah, but I bet everybody feels that way.
[8:45]And I remember very clearly, she said, no, honey,
[8:48]I think actually very few people feel that way.
[8:51]And so I held onto that for a long time,
[8:54]but life goes on.
[8:55]I loved all of my English classes.
[8:57]I was going to go to college for English.
[8:59]And then I was afraid if I didn't get published,
[9:01]I would have to be a teacher and I didn't want to be a teacher.
[9:04]So I went to advertising and really went through an identity crisis
[9:07]because I hated it.
[9:09]I hated working in advertising.
[9:11]I hated ad copy.
[9:13]And so I had been an RA and I actually went to work as a resident director
[9:18]at Chico State University in Northern California.
[9:21]So you're basically live and you work on campus.
[9:24]And I was, that was such a fulfilling job for me,
[9:28]being able to help and counsel students that I decided to go to counseling.
[9:32]I got my master's degree.
[9:33]And remember working on my thesis, barely sleeping.
[9:37]And the director, one of the directors of our department said,
[9:40]have you ever thought about just like,
[9:42]I don't know, just being a comedian.
[9:44]And I was like, what?
[9:46]I am writing a thesis that is going to change lives.
[9:49]And then I was like, go down to the open mic night and just give this all away.
[9:53]But then it, that really triggered me because I was like,
[9:56]you know what?
[9:57]I have always wanted to be a writer though.
[9:59]And I hear.
[10:00]my writer. And at the time, personal blogs were blowing up. Everybody had one. Everybody was writing,
[10:06]and I noticed that these women were getting a lot of attention for their blogs. And I remember
[10:11]reading them and like, I can talk about this. I can do a daily diary. I mean, this ain't hard,
[10:18]right? And so that's when I started. I thought I'd go a step further, and I created this funny
[10:23]website for women, hosper who has fact, then I did e-cards that would get shared all the time.
[10:29]But then once the art story kind of blew up, I worked more to having the website identify as me rather
[10:36]than a brand so that I could get the agent and then the book deal. But after I went viral,
[10:41]I got a lot of attention, a lot of attention for it. And I really thought that was going to be
[10:45]yet. I was going to get an agent. I was going to get a book deal. And I didn't. And I really had to work at it
[10:52]for probably a decade. And looking back at it now, I am so glad because I know a lot of people
[10:59]are going viral now or they're TikTok or they're this or that, and they're getting these quick
[11:03]book deals because they're monopolizing on the attention, but then they fizzle out.
[11:07]I'm so glad that that didn't happen to me. I wasn't ready. I wasn't a good enough writer yet.
[11:12]I didn't have the persistence. I didn't have the discipline yet. And so it all happened in its
[11:16]due time. And so I spent probably 10 years grinding and working on becoming a writer. And then
[11:23]when it was time and when I felt like I was ready, I queried my agent. And we got a book deal
[11:28]short shortly after that. So it all came in its due time. I know a lot of writers, especially in
[11:33]this time, really think it goes quickly. And sometimes it doesn't. You know, you go with the pace
[11:39]that you're ready at. And so it took me a while. And I got here and I'm so glad I'm so glad that I did.
[11:45]So when you spent the eight to 10 years doing all the things you needed to do to be a writer,
[11:49]what did that include? So it really worked on my platform. And I think this fizzles a lot of
[11:54]people out because if you're writing fiction, you don't need as much of a platform as if you're
[11:59]writing nonfiction, but I needed an audience and needed to prove to a publisher that I could sell to
[12:03]somebody. And so I just worked. I wrote newsletter essays. I would write posts. I would write
[12:11]blog posts. But mostly I was just really practicing in my craft and then giving it out to people
[12:17]as much as possible. And so nurturing this audience who knows me, who's known me since the
[12:22]art story or they've known me since the hothas per hoo. I mean, I have some people who are like,
[12:26]I'm an OG. I used to share your e-cards, you know, so I have people who've been around for a long
[12:30]time. But really it was just spent getting becoming a better writer, reading as many books as
[12:36]possible. And then so that I could become a better writer. And nurturing my audience, those are
[12:43]the things that I focused on is just building that. And being as present as I can so that I wouldn't
[12:48]be forgotten. I suppose. Interesting. No, it is. One of these things about publishing today is
[12:54]meeting a platform. This happened to me. I wanted to write this book four years ago now. And I was
[13:00]like, okay, I want to write this book of essays. And my agent's like, yeah, I mean, I know.
[13:07]I wasn't on social media. I didn't have anything. You have to figure out your way. And it's really
[13:14]hard. And it's also very demoralizing because you're like, well, why should I have to be good
[13:19]at this if I'm good at that? Really? I have to be good at writing. And I have to be good at
[13:23]marketing. Can I just be a writer? I don't know. I can't tell you how many pity
[13:30]cuts I was on. And I was just, I was just, I felt so sorry for myself. And I was like, I can't
[13:35]believe that I have to like, tip-talk now or do this or do that. Like, this isn't my lane. And then I
[13:41]started to be jealous of like the writers like David Sedaris who made it big before social media. So
[13:46]really all he has to do is have an assistant like throw out dates. And that's all that he has to do.
[13:51]But you know, as as in bitter as I got, it also gives you a great opportunity. And I think that
[13:59]a lot of people get very deflated at that part where it's like, okay, I really want to be a writer,
[14:04]but that that part of like throwing out your jewels to swine, you know, nobody cares, nobody's
[14:12]reading. And it's your best. And the only thing that I can tell you is that I just did the work.
[14:19]I just did the writing. And I kept going and going and going. And you know, I remember I it took me a
[14:25]long time to go viral again. And then Lena Dunham shared something randomly. I don't even know
[14:30]where she found it. And so then that hit and then that popped. And so you never know what's going to
[14:35]happen. I wrote for some other publications, babble.com, stuff like that. And I just kept putting
[14:42]myself out there. And you've just got to believe that as you become a better writer, people will
[14:49]find you and to not make it about your ego. You know, you really got to wrestle with your ego a lot
[14:54]on social media. And so if you can just pull away from the ego, put yourself out there, keep doing
[14:59]the work. I really believe stuff will happen for you. And so did you go back to your mom at some
[15:06]point? Did you have like a recreation moment at the sink where you when you were like holding
[15:11]the book? Was there some sort of full circle moment like in the TV movie version of this?
[15:16]There wasn't. And now I'm really sad because I feel like that would have been amazing,
[15:21]but I bring it up to her all the time. And I honestly brought it up to her all the time,
[15:25]crying when the book deal wasn't happening. And I just remember crying to her, I can't,
[15:31]I mean, how much longer do I have to go and do this and struggle? And you know, but deep down,
[15:40]deep, deep down, I knew it was going to happen. And I think belief takes us a lot further than
[15:44]talent. Talent needs to be there for sure. But if you don't believe that it's going to happen
[15:50]for you, then you'll quit because writing is really hard. It's painful. I mean, I think people
[15:55]think that I'm just like laughing hysterically all day. I mean, you know this just type in a way.
[15:59]I mean, sometimes I got to like write a paragraph and like do stretches. And just like
[16:06]writing can be difficult. And if you don't believe that you have what it takes and that, you know,
[16:11]I just have this belief. I'm just going to keep going until it happens. And I think that that's
[16:16]one of the biggest reasons I got there. I think as someone who has had a lot of rejection,
[16:20]too. And you know, every time, you know, sometimes I would be so discouraged by
[16:26]something not working out that I would say to myself, like, well, that's it. I'm just not going to
[16:29]write anymore. Like forget it. You know, but it turns out like I need to do this. Regardless of who
[16:35]it's for like, I can't just not do it. Yeah. Even if it's something as simple as an Instagram post
[16:41]or, you know, it doesn't have to be a novel, right? But there's something about people who
[16:46]deep down our writers because writing is how we make sense of the world, right? That exactly.
[16:53]It's hard to stop because you need it. Yes. It's how I make sense of stress. It's how I make
[16:59]sense of trauma. It's how I make sense of of everything around me, my relationships, how I
[17:05]make sense of interactions that bother me. It's therapeutic for me to make fun of certain things
[17:11]in my life. And I want to be clear, too. Like, I'm not talking about like making fun of grief.
[17:16]Okay. Grief. No, no, of course, you know, but making foot, but teasing out those things that I want
[17:22]to just freak out about and poking fun at it and investigating it. And when I do that and when I see
[17:29]myself as a story, I have such a, I have more, I have such a better feeling about my life. When I
[17:37]feel like I am actively living out the best story ever told, I see all of my rejections and my
[17:45]dramas as a part of this story, a really interesting part of this story. And I'm going to overcome
[17:50]it. You know, like, what would the heroine do? She keeps fighting, you know? And so when I
[17:55]perceive my own life as a story and then write about it on top of it, it's such a beautiful way
[18:01]for me to navigate life in a way that I can really respect it and honor it too. So.
[18:06]And so then when did you start your podcast and how did that all get off? Well, I started my,
[18:10]I started my podcast because everybody kind of needed a podcast, but I thought I'd be pretty good
[18:15]at it. And so I actually started it with humor writers who's in a Lewis for a while and we did
[18:21]a lot about parenting. It's gone through a lot of ebbs and flows because we got, I got tired of
[18:27]like making fun of parenting. There's so much more to me than being a parent. And I had really
[18:32]pigeonholed myself in the motherhood space. And so it's really ebb and float. It's gone from like,
[18:39]you know, life coaching, esque with a funny slant to more spiritual stuff, to me just reading my
[18:48]essays and making people laugh again. So I'm kind of doing a big loop and coming back to my writing
[18:54]and the humor and the funny stories of my life now. I've kind of zig zagged, which is another thing
[18:59]too. You're perfectly allowed to change your mind and zig zag, however you want. You don't have
[19:03]to be pigeonholed into anything. And so I just did this walking series where I go through the book
[19:10]we'll laugh about this someday. And it was, it was amazing because I love listening while I walk.
[19:15]So I strategically made my podcast in this last walking series for people who are going on
[19:20]a walk. So if you're a walker and you want to be there to laugh hysterically while you go on a
[19:24]it's not that serious. My podcast go there and you'll see the latest series. And your new book is
[19:31]I'm not ready for this. Everybody just calm down and give me a minute coming out in the day of 2022.
[19:36]Tell me about that. So I'm not ready for this is basically a collection of essays of like
[19:42]everything I'm not ready for. And I'm literally not ready for everything. I mean, I wasn't
[19:47]ready for like parenting. I was I'm not I'm never ready to go sleeveless when it's summertime. It's
[19:51]like it's always takes me by shot. But I can't expose these to the world. I'm never I'm never
[19:58]ready for anything.
[20:00]And I think that none of us really ever are, but when we get pushed anyway and we push ourselves
[20:07]or we get pushed into situations that we're not ready for, we really find out what we're made of
[20:12]and we find out that we can do it. And sometimes it's the best training ground for the things we
[20:16]need to do. So it's another really funny story. Of course, I add more poignant things into my
[20:22]books. It's not just all like, you know, an SNL skit, but it's really stories of my life where I'm
[20:28]situations where I'm not ready and how I've gotten through them. So yeah, I'm excited about that one. I
[20:33]think it's my editor adores book one, but she says that book two, she loves it and things
[20:40]is even funnier than book one. So I'm really excited for that one to launch. Amazing. And so what
[20:45]are you reading right now? So I am avid David Sedaris reader. In fact, I go to him whenever I have writer's
[20:54]block, just to kind of get his clean his cleanliness, that's a weird word, but he's so clean.
[21:02]And so sometimes when I'm stuck, I talk too much. I have too many words. So I love to go to him.
[21:07]Just enjoy that book. Right now, I'm reading the best of me by David Sedaris. He has some
[21:12]diaries that have come out. His diaries aren't my favorite. I just have to be honest.
[21:16]But so I'm reading the best of me. That's the biggest one on my shelf right now.
[21:22]He was on my podcast, David Sedaris job. And then he wrote me a postcard and I framed it.
[21:26]Hold on. I'm getting, oh, that might make me weep. Hold on. I'm showing it to you.
[21:33]Hold on. Tricky on a podcast, but this is this is this little postcard that he mailed me after.
[21:40]It says, dares that be. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me the other day. As you can tell,
[21:45]I hadn't done an interview in a while. God, I talked a lot sincerely. David Stairs.
[21:49]I love him. Zippy. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So I'm a big fan of his as well.
[22:01]He's the literal best. I just, I can't get enough of them and I reread everything. He's my
[22:06]favorite. So what else? Anything else we should be on the lookout for? We should go find you,
[22:12]follow you, all that good stuff. Okay. Well, so I've wanted my book. I've been giving my book away
[22:17]as much as possible, because I want people who really need a good laugh. I want them to get
[22:22]this book. And so, you know, forgive my domain, but this is, I'm just, you know, it's the game.
[22:28]But if you just go to freefunnybook.com, I'm giving my book away for free plus a lot of bonuses.
[22:36]Wow. I don't want to do. You can get it signed. If you want to, I only one person, please,
[22:42]or I'll go bankrupt or something. But if you, if you want to get like a bundle for Christmas,
[22:47]I'm finding that a lot of people are buying multiple copies from me at all. My book signings are
[22:52]getting like six to 10 because it's a really fun gift to give. And so you can do that as well.
[22:58]So it's just freefunnybook.com. That is the one place. First, you can go to annalintomas.com.
[23:03]But freefunnybook.com is where I'm hosting the free book giveaway. So if you would like to get a
[23:08]a copy for free with a, but there's also a chapter in there that is hysterical that got cut.
[23:14]I'm giving that essay away for free as well. It's called the marital drawer. Okay. That's all I'm going to say is when you're moving.
[23:21]And my mom was helping us unpack. And she accidentally opened up the marital drawer. It is hysterical. It is so hilarious.
[23:29]And so I've added that. I'm just giving away a bunch of stuff for free because I wanted many people to get this in their hands as possible.
[23:34]And so, and if you read it, please reach out to me. You can find me very easily if you google annalintomas on Facebook or Instagram message me. Let me know how you like the book.
[23:44]And I respond. There's also, I have a phone number in the back of the book. Okay. And if you text it, I will text you back. So I have got a lot of text.
[23:54]I know I check them and I text you back because it delights me to know that someone has read my book. So amazing. That's really creative. I love it.
[24:03]Amazing. Well, thank you. Anna, thanks for coming on momstone time to read books and chatting about what we all should laugh about someday.
[24:10]It has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today and talk about my beloved little baby book.
[24:18]You're so welcome.
[24:20]Take care.
[24:22]Have a great day.
[24:24]Thanks for listening to this episode of momstone have time to read books.
[24:28]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zebi Owens and at momstone have time to read books.
[24:33]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on zoom every other week.
[24:40]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing. And thank you to morning moon productions for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.