Here’s one for my fellow activists, authors, artists and so on. When you’re asked to write a bio for an upcoming talk, conference, radio appearance, or whatever you do, are you like, cool, easy peasy, or does it send you into existential agony?
I guess I am sort of a hybrid of both. I keep different versions of a mini bio on my website, but every time I read it for a new thing, I think oh geez this sounds so stupid, I hate this obnoxious person, I need to write a new bio and thus I go into the existential agony part. Like in some of the worst moments, it almost seems easier to just quit being a writer or call off the speaking gig lol.  Maybe go underground/offline/witless protection program and find a job at some diner out in the middle of the desert, if I was only any damn good at waiting tables. 
Like when people who are afraid of spiders see a spider and yell “OH NO NO NO!! BURN DOWN THE HOUSE!” — I’m like that when it comes to preparing any kind of encapsulated bio writeup thing, “Burn down the entire #%$+# house I am not a writer I am not an environmentalist there’s nothing to see here la la la.”
But then I do eventually end up writing the bio or whatever. Last night I actually googled author bio for inspiration, and I found a pretty good website which I will share with you in case you might find it useful too. She offers a lot of good tips that are common sense but it’s still helpful seeing them written out by another person who seems like an actual credible author unlike how I myself feel in those existential moments.
Well, I got it done, so I might as well share it here with you. Get the most out of it. Here is my bio and visual stuff for the FRESH Book Festival in February. As I often say, I consider the FRESH Book Festival the best books festival in the cosmic universe, and of course in no way am I biased just because I love Daytona Beach and the whole community that I consider my ministry.
FRESH bio – jenny nazak
Jenny Nazak is a community activist, public speaker, and the author of DEEP GREEN book and blog. She has turned her urban house and yard into a low-footprint living laboratory, and often posts on social media about her “Doomer Home Ec” experiments with solar cooking and other low-tech sustainable practices. Jenny has a BA in English Literature from the College of William and Mary, an associate’s degree in graphic design from Northern Virginia Community College, and a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Permaculture Institute (US). She has lived and traveled all over, and loves all different places and cultures, but fell in love with Daytona Beach and chose this city as her adopted hometown. She enjoys the beach, incessant reading, and taking long walks around the city. During her rambles, she likes to get on Facebook Live and talk about walkability, desirable density, and other aspects of creating sustainable urban environments. She will try almost anything to get people motivated to take care of the planet that is our only home. To raise concern about the consequences of extreme heat, she once stood up at City Commission with slices of burnt toast clipped to her person and waved a large cardboard cutout of a flaming thermometer. And she has been known to do standup comedy about biospheric collapse. She’s working on a humorous existential novel in which the main character is a failed environmentalist. She is a life member of NAACP, Sierra Club, Tri Delta fraternity, and Veterans for Peace.
You can see my official author photo, and current book image, right here on my deep green page on Facebook.