I’m sharing drinks and a plate of cheese/gravy/fries at the Mule with Marisa Mohi, who I have met before via Confluence but mainly know from her locally infamous Twitter account.
And now that I’m talking to her in person, I’ve got to ask: just how ruthless is she going to be in her upcoming Twitter roast at Confluence?
“Well, there are language limitations,” Marisa explains. “I’m not allowed to curse, really. Or I guess, I’m not allowed to curse the way I normally would.”
Apparently PG-13 cursing – things you wouldn’t want to hear a child say, but would laugh at if they did say – is fair game.
Anyway, I now know that pretty much every attendee and speaker at Confluence is on the “maybe” list.
What gives Marisa the chops to host a semi-scathing roast in a sea of people who are skilled at navigating the digital sphere?
Well, she’s been writing for The Lost Ogle and doing Monday Morning Tweets for a few years now.
If you haven’t heard of Monday Morning Tweets – it’s a weekly tradition run by the folks at TLO, and tweets from both the willing and the unwitting folks around OKC are fair game. It’s “the most trusted name in Monday Morning Tweets.” It’s a local roast that we all secretly fear – and want to be featured in. (No? Just me?)
Aside from people that do a great job of embarrassing themselves in public internet spaces, who’s her favorite follower on Twitter?
“I have a few favorites, but some of the best ones are…well, a lot of cops follow me. So one of my follower’s followers, a retired cop, saw me and started following me. His name is @the_daddyrabbit and his wife is @HuIIabaloo. They’re hilarious – they have this ongoing conversation with one another.”
And her least favorite followers? In short, the folks that make her feel like she has to censor herself.
Marisa curses not like a sailor, but like someone who knows how to wield swearwords like the useful tools they are. (Like the way the right blend of seasonings makes everything taste way better, but isn’t aggressive or completely inappropriate.) She claims that the line between her online persona (both on her blog and her twitter) and her IRL personality is virtually nonexistent – and I’m inclined to believe her, thanks to gems like this, taken from a blog post on “10 people you meet in creative writing class”:
Marisa has a job that I sort of understand, doing something I completely understand: writing, a lot. Before that, she was working for a local publishing company, ghostwriting memoirs and novels and all manner of non-fiction.
I ask her how she manages to go home and write even more after a long day of typing.
“It’s a different kind of brainpower,” she explains. “But my goal is to save enough to, at some point, just drop everything and write for the rest of my life.” She laughs. “But the more people I talk to, the more it seems like that’s impossible.”
For anyone who knows Marisa, though, her turning writing into a full-time gig probably seems more inevitable than impossible.
She’s well-read. (When I asked about her bookshelf, she rattled off a good list of brainy and fun reads.) And she stays on top of internet trends: “If you see something on Twitter and have to Google it to understand, you’re already old news.” She’s part of a 3-person writing group that meets often enough to be a thing. She dropped the phrase “the first novel I wrote” into our conversation.
Whether she’s doing it in long-form or 140 characters, Marisa is a person that can tell a story – and tell it with humor that lets you in on the joke instead of making you part of the joke.
For always entertaining and frequently snort-worthy reads, follow Marisa on Twitter at @GentleMarisa and visit her website, marisamohi.com.
