{"id":6442,"date":"2025-07-15T15:13:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/?p=6442"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:13:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:13:49","slug":"elly-was-interviewed-by-the-creative-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/elly-was-interviewed-by-the-creative-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Elly was interviewed by The Creative Independent!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n

Elly had a chance to sit down with one of our friends at Kickstarter, Oriana, and be interviewed for their blog, The Creative Independent.

They talked about Microcosm’s background as a publisher, how we got into using Kickstarter, balancing work and life, and more.

Here’s an excerpt. You can read the full interview at this link!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Between Microcosm<\/a>, Working Lit<\/a>, the podcast<\/a>, your own writing and editing, and presumably a smidge of life outside of publishing, you do so much. Can we start by talking about how you make time for it all?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago I went down this rabbit hole of reading interviews with women about how they make time for it all. And all these highly successful women (with the exception of Marie Kondo, who refuses to be rushed)\u2014all of them were just frantic. One of them literally said she would microwave everything for 2 minutes and 22 seconds, or 3 minutes and 33 seconds, so she could save time by not having to press multiple buttons. So anyway, I\u2019ve dedicated myself to never living that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My strategy used to be what many busy people do: they just pile on more things until you have no flexibility, so your time winds up managing itself. That was me for a while: I was just saying yes to everything. And I did get a lot done! But then I would just crash and burn. I refuse to live that way any longer. My philosophy now is about focusing on priorities rather than deadlines. If something does have a hard deadline, I will try to make that, but I\u2019m never going to be doing it, I hope, the night before in a panic. There\u2019s no worse feeling to me than that kind of pressure. Instead I\u2019m like, What are the most important things that I need to do? I\u2019m going to do those first, deadlines be darned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you include self-care, or some time for protecting your creative heart in there, or not so much?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do try<\/em> to do that. I succeed sometimes. I mean, I do protect my time off work very fiercely. I prioritize that over everything else because I\u2019ve burnt out so many times. But as far as my own creative work, that can very easily fall to the bottom of the pile if I\u2019m not careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like everything about your life, your creative practice, and your career have been geared toward leading a nontraditional life. How did you figure out how to create those paths outside of established systems?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s something I\u2019ve ever done intentionally. Those established systems just never seemed available to me. I was a weird kid. I dropped out of high school, and I\u2019ve kind of continued to say no thank you to systems that don\u2019t seem like they have a purpose or have my best interests or goals at heart. Me and my partner Joe Biel, who founded Microcosm\u2014we\u2019re both business and life partners\u2014we\u2019re on the same page about this. We look at things that we see most people doing and we\u2019re like, Would that work for us?<\/em> Sometimes really traditional things do<\/em> work for us\u2014owning a house seems kind of magical to be able to do. But other things, like getting married or having kids or owning a car\u2026 for us, what\u2019s the point? Other people might find great joy in all these things, but we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the full profile here.<\/a>
And you can find our current Kickstarter project, The Underground is Bigger than the Mainstream, here<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[11,15],"class_list":["post-6442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogifesto","category-in-the-news","tag-interviews","tag-meet-microcosm"],"my_excerpt":"\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

Elly had a chance to sit down with one of our friends at Kickstarter, Oriana, and be interviewed for their blog, The Creative Independent.

They talked about Microcosm's background as a publisher, how we got into using Kickstarter, balancing work and life, and more.

Here's an excerpt. You can read the full interview at this link!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Between Microcosm<\/a>, Working Lit<\/a>, the podcast<\/a>, your own writing and editing, and presumably a smidge of life outside of publishing, you do so much. Can we start by talking about how you make time for it all?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago I went down this rabbit hole of reading interviews with women about how they make time for it all. And all these highly successful women (with the exception of Marie Kondo, who refuses to be rushed)\u2014all of them were just frantic. One of them literally said she would microwave everything for 2 minutes and 22 seconds, or 3 minutes and 33 seconds, so she could save time by not having to press multiple buttons. So anyway, I\u2019ve dedicated myself to never living that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My strategy used to be what many busy people do: they just pile on more things until you have no flexibility, so your time winds up managing itself. That was me for a while: I was just saying yes to everything. And I did get a lot done! But then I would just crash and burn. I refuse to live that way any longer. My philosophy now is about focusing on priorities rather than deadlines. If something does have a hard deadline, I will try to make that, but I\u2019m never going to be doing it, I hope, the night before in a panic. There\u2019s no worse feeling to me than that kind of pressure. Instead I\u2019m like, What are the most important things that I need to do? I\u2019m going to do those first, deadlines be darned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you include self-care, or some time for protecting your creative heart in there, or not so much?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do try<\/em> to do that. I succeed sometimes. I mean, I do protect my time off work very fiercely. I prioritize that over everything else because I\u2019ve burnt out so many times. But as far as my own creative work, that can very easily fall to the bottom of the pile if I\u2019m not careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like everything about your life, your creative practice, and your career have been geared toward leading a nontraditional life. How did you figure out how to create those paths outside of established systems?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s something I\u2019ve ever done intentionally. Those established systems just never seemed available to me. I was a weird kid. I dropped out of high school, and I\u2019ve kind of continued to say no thank you to systems that don\u2019t seem like they have a purpose or have my best interests or goals at heart. Me and my partner Joe Biel, who founded Microcosm\u2014we\u2019re both business and life partners\u2014we\u2019re on the same page about this. We look at things that we see most people doing and we\u2019re like, Would that work for us?<\/em> Sometimes really traditional things do<\/em> work for us\u2014owning a house seems kind of magical to be able to do. But other things, like getting married or having kids or owning a car\u2026 for us, what\u2019s the point? Other people might find great joy in all these things, but we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the full profile here.<\/a>
And you can find our current Kickstarter project, The Underground is Bigger than the Mainstream, here<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","my_excerpt_rendered":"

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n

Elly had a chance to sit down with one of our friends at Kickstarter, Oriana, and be interviewed for their blog, The Creative Independent.

They talked about Microcosm’s background as a publisher, how we got into using Kickstarter, balancing work and life, and more.

Here’s an excerpt. You can read the full interview at this link!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Between Microcosm<\/a>, Working Lit<\/a>, the podcast<\/a>, your own writing and editing, and presumably a smidge of life outside of publishing, you do so much. Can we start by talking about how you make time for it all?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago I went down this rabbit hole of reading interviews with women about how they make time for it all. And all these highly successful women (with the exception of Marie Kondo, who refuses to be rushed)\u2014all of them were just frantic. One of them literally said she would microwave everything for 2 minutes and 22 seconds, or 3 minutes and 33 seconds, so she could save time by not having to press multiple buttons. So anyway, I\u2019ve dedicated myself to never living that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My strategy used to be what many busy people do: they just pile on more things until you have no flexibility, so your time winds up managing itself. That was me for a while: I was just saying yes to everything. And I did get a lot done! But then I would just crash and burn. I refuse to live that way any longer. My philosophy now is about focusing on priorities rather than deadlines. If something does have a hard deadline, I will try to make that, but I\u2019m never going to be doing it, I hope, the night before in a panic. There\u2019s no worse feeling to me than that kind of pressure. Instead I\u2019m like, What are the most important things that I need to do? I\u2019m going to do those first, deadlines be darned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you include self-care, or some time for protecting your creative heart in there, or not so much?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do try<\/em> to do that. I succeed sometimes. I mean, I do protect my time off work very fiercely. I prioritize that over everything else because I\u2019ve burnt out so many times. But as far as my own creative work, that can very easily fall to the bottom of the pile if I\u2019m not careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like everything about your life, your creative practice, and your career have been geared toward leading a nontraditional life. How did you figure out how to create those paths outside of established systems?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s something I\u2019ve ever done intentionally. Those established systems just never seemed available to me. I was a weird kid. I dropped out of high school, and I\u2019ve kind of continued to say no thank you to systems that don\u2019t seem like they have a purpose or have my best interests or goals at heart. Me and my partner Joe Biel, who founded Microcosm\u2014we\u2019re both business and life partners\u2014we\u2019re on the same page about this. We look at things that we see most people doing and we\u2019re like, Would that work for us?<\/em> Sometimes really traditional things do<\/em> work for us\u2014owning a house seems kind of magical to be able to do. But other things, like getting married or having kids or owning a car\u2026 for us, what\u2019s the point? Other people might find great joy in all these things, but we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the full profile here.<\/a>
And you can find our current Kickstarter project, The Underground is Bigger than the Mainstream, here<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6442"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6448,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6442\/revisions\/6448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}