IWSG - Atomic Habits, Mountain of Authors, Rich Bennet Podcast, & More

It's time for the June Insecure Writer's Support Group!

Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG exists for writers to get together the first Wednesday of each month and discuss our insecurities while lending each other support and advice. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and sign up on the IWSG tab.

This month's co-hosts are Melissa Maygrove, Liza at Middle Passages, Olga Godim, and ME!

This month's optional question is: In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members?

Hm, I don't see anything that I feel IWSG should offer, but some things that I've seen people value in writing groups and at conferences are mentorships (a published member offers to mentor a newer writer), critiques, beta readers (different from critiques), editing, logline practice, and that sort of thing, so it depends on why and how far the IWSG is looking to expand. 

I think that out of all my suggestions, this group would do really well with mentorships. It feels like a lovely way to continue the IWSG, and speaks to the mission.

A few months ago I had a great chat with Rich Bennett at the podcast Conversations With Rich Bennett. You can check out the episode at the podcast website and various podcast apps. I may be on a future episode about autism, so I'll keep you updated! He's a great guy and is doing a lot of really interesting episodes, as well as various panels.

I've been reading Atomic Habits, by James Clear, recently. I was wary, and thought I might be having to figure out workarounds, but his processes are straight forward and pretty simple. Plus, there are items in there that I've long done already. I highly recommend it.

I'm still working through The Artist's Way, but I admit that there are a lot of things about it that don't work for me, as well as others that just feel like trying to fit in a bunch more work on top of what I've already got. I've been taking off my big deadline week each month, which has pushed it out a bit, but I'm still moving forward. The weekly artist dates are something I've had to put aside most weeks, because they were too much of an inconvenience, even though I completely understand the purpose of them. But the more time I spend on exercises, dates, tasks, and writing three pages per day, the less time I have to actually write something real, and I don't have that time to spare right now. Interestingly, it was Atomic Habits and a section on giving anything five minutes and doing what you can, rather than pushing to go beyond that, which is no way to create a habit, that made me realize that instead of spending half an hour or more forcing myself to journal for three pages, I will spend at least five minutes and write what I can. If I have more to say, I'll keep going, but I'm not forcing it anymore. And you know what? That one silly little thing has been a breakthrough in keeping me going. Journaling is not a thing I enjoy or am good at. I'd rather spend five minutes journaling and half an hour writing fiction!

On that note, I decided to go back to tracking short story submissions. It will be less consistent than before, but I'll update when there's something to update.

So...in May:

13 submissions

1 personal rejection where they told me about their next call and asked me to submit then

14 total stories currently on submission

On June 22, I'll be a showcase author at the PPLD's Mountain of Authors event from 12-4:30 PM. The keynote speaker is Adrian Miller. It's free to attend and there will be a ton of books for sale by various authors, including me!

Have you ever been a writing mentor or been mentored? What are your insecurities? Have you ever read Atomic Habits? Are there any similar books you'd recommend?

May you find your Muse.

A Quick Thank You, Square Warning, & Artist's Way Update

This week I wanted to post a thank you to the folks who hosted me for my book launch the last couple months, so I'm sharing some of their recent releases below. First, I'll do a quick update on The Artist's Way. 

I took last week off from following the book, because I had a jam-packed schedule with my book launch and several appointments, including one long one in Denver that had me heading up there an hour north directly after my launch party to stay in a hotel so I could get to the early morning appointment without dealing with the awful commuting traffic.

The launch party went well! My Square wouldn't work, so my husband ended up signing up really quick and handing me his phone to use with my apparatus. (This is where I warn you to sign into your Square account if you haven't since January, because earlier that day I'd found a notice in my account that I wasn't emailed about saying they needed some information from me and deposits would be paused until I gave it. I filled out all the information. It said I could use the Square as usual, but deposits wouldn't start up again until they'd evaluated the info. But when I got to the party, every card we tried was declined. I got the approval that same night from them. So go check your Square and make sure the same thing doesn't happen to you! Because it sucked!) But I got to see some friends and chat with folks. In fact, I was so nice and busy chatting with folks that I forgot to take any photos, and never got a bite of my food until I ran home to get my suitcase that night. The only picture I have is from the owner of Lebowski's Taproom, where I had the party. (And yes, it is themed after The Big Lebowski -- it's a new place, with a great laid-back atmosphere).

Artist's Way Update: I'm in Week 6: Recovering a Sense of Abundance. This section is about questioning how you view money, considering "luxury" and self-pampering in small ways, and cutting out space for yourself. An assignment this week that I'm looking forward to is sending postcards to some friends. My artist date will be going out to find those postcards. If I'd realized what an easy week this one was for the tasks, I might not have skipped it? Okay, I probably still would have. While it's not covered in the lesson, I feel like the tasks are also helping to recover a sense of wonder, as two of the tasks are finding rocks and flowers; these tasks are labeled "Natural Abundance." It also calls for tracking your spending each day of the week to see what you're spending it on, and whether any of that spending is for things that make you happy or pamper you. So far, I've bought groceries and paid a couple medical bills, so, uh, I need to work on that, ha!

Okay, time for some books! Thank you so much to everyone to helped with the book launch!

iTunes

Amazon

B&N

Kobo

Scribd

Goodreads

Alex's Website

Universal Link

H.R. Sinclair's Website

Universal Link

Jonathan & Kristina's Website

Amazon

Sandra's Website

Universal Link

DeAnna's Website

Amazon

Patricia's Website

Amazon

Toi's Website

Amanda's Website

I hope you see a book you might like to check out!

Do you feel money stands in the way of your creativity? Do you pamper yourself ever? Did you get the same notice from Square?

May you find your Muse.

The Artist's Way Update & Patricia Josephine Lynne Book Launch

On a previous post I talked about doing The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. I had intended to update each week, but I only updated for two weeks. Then things got busy and I didn't get posts up. So I thought I'd do a quick update on weeks three through five.

Each week has a different general goal. Week 1 was Recovering a Sense of Safety and week 2 was Recovering a Sense of Identity.

Week 3 was Recovering a Sense of Power. The chapter spoke of anger, synchronicity, shame, growth, and dealing with criticism. One of the exercises involved some free association with childhood and things I'd do if I'd "lighten up" and "if it weren't too late." Childhood was a big theme, but so were habits and people in my life. An exercise that fell flat for me was to list five people I wish I'd met. When it comes right down to it, I can name people because I get the idea of it, but I'm not sure I'd actually want to meet them. An activity that stood out was one involving looking at my habits and then having to quantify what payoff I'm getting from the bad ones. These were basically my secret foes. I can tell you one is shutting off my brain and doom-scrolling Facebook. I'd like to regain that time for myself.

Week 4 was Recovering a Sense of Integrity. This chapter focused on making honest changes and seeking out my buried dreams. I was supposed to practice reading deprivation, but I can't fall asleep without reading first, and as an insomniac since I was twelve, I DO NOT mess with my nighttime routines that help me at least get some sleep. I did practice it during the day by not reading at any other time than bed time, but I think this exercise greatly overestimated how much reading time I usually get, considering the list of things the author felt I could do instead involved time I didn't have, such as painting a room, rewiring a lamp, and repotting plants. It's not reading that is keeping me from these exercises. Also, I felt this deprived a specific group of people more than others. Specifically, writers. And the book is about the ARTIST'S way, not the author's way, so why is it just readers/writers that have to give something meaningful up? I realize all manner of people read; I just think this lacked balance. I think a more effective exercise would have been to make a list of things that take up time and to choose one to give up that week. This would have been more fair.

My current week, number 5, is Recovering a Sense of Possibility.  This week is for me to look at my limits and open myself up to the universe. Something that stuck out to me and that I'd already been thinking about a lot with my work hours increasing well beyond where I'd wanted them to go was the following passage:

"An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing. Defending our right to such time takes courage, conviction, and resiliency." And "For an artist, withdrawal is necessary. Without it, the artist in us feels vexed, angry, out of sorts. If such deprivation continues, our artist becomes sullen, depressed, hostile. We eventually become like cornered animals, snarling at our family and friends [...]." Now, she was implying it was family and friends making the artist feel this way, but it's me. It's work and it's me. My family and friends give me plenty of space. 

The exercises this week had to do with wishes and writing letters to myself from different ages (80 and 8). 

I haven't figured out my artist's date for this week, but for dates I've so far gone for a hike with a camera (it was a double date!), taken myself out to a smoothie cafe to relax with a book while having a smoothie and a matcha latte, lying out in the grass in my front yard and reading a book, and things like that. My goal has been more downtime than more involved dates. I have ideas for more involved dates in the next few weeks, though. It comes down to finding time to do it.

Now for some news! Patricia Josephine Lynne has a new book of micro shorts out. 

A Quick Test 

A Quick Tale #4 

Aliens 

Outer Space 

Experiments 

These mysteries fascinate our minds. Explore the unknown in this exciting collection of tales. Each story is told in exactly 200 words and designed to stimulate your brain no matter how busy your day is. 

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE. 

BUY at Amazon 

AUTHOR BIO: If you asked Patricia J.L. to describe herself, she’d tell you, “Too creative for my own good.” A paranormal and fantasy junkee, she loves to craft fantasy and paranormal stories about vampires, mermaids, angels, demons, zombies, and other mythical creatures. Aliens might even appear in her stories. No matter what mythical beast you crave. Patricia J.L. has a fantasy for every imagination. 

Patricia J.L. official started writing in 2012. She was bored and since she was always day dreaming fantastic stories, she thought, “Why not write them down and share them with people?” She's still deciding if that was a mistake or not. Since then, she has finished a dozen stories and has no plans to stop. 

When she’s not lost writing in fantasy worlds, she relaxes with knitting, drawing and art, and jigsaw puzzles. And of course, good paranormal fantasy books. Patricia J.L. currently lives with her husband in Upper Michigan. One day, they both hope to have enough pets to resemble a petting zoo. (Until then, can she pet your cat or dog?) 

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If you did The Artist's Way, were there exercises, chapters, or pieces that stood out for you? How about ones you were resistant to? What were your favorite types of artist dates?

May you find your Muse.

Week Two of The Artist's Way

This is week two of the twelve-week Artist's Way process. Each week we're supposed to have an artist date with ourselves. This doesn't have to involve anything having to do with writing, though I hope I squeeze that in at some point. Last week my date consisted of me just sitting and reading for an hour without it being before bed (since I read nightly before bed to unwind, but it is often the only time I get any reading in).

This week we had to write down a list of things we missed doing. My list was mostly minor things that I simply don't have the time for anymore, but I chose two from it I haven't been doing often enough for other reasons to do for my artist's date this week: walks and photography.

I have been getting some walks in here and there, but I miss the daily walks I used to take. A combination of medical issues has made it much harder to achieve, as has limited time due to work and other responsibilities. I've been trying to push past the issues to take some short walks with a knee brace I got to help with arthritis in my knee. The most I've gotten done in one week is three. While it's not perfect, I think that three isn't too shabby. But that was only one week. I'd like to get to consistently getting in three walks a week and a monthly hike. It would do me a lot of good. 

In terms of photography, I find that I struggle with that before I struggle with writing. It takes a certain mindset to walk around and look at my surroundings with that joyful, creative eye it requires to see those images I want to photograph. I love nature photography, and would like to get back to doing it. So I set out on today's walk in my neighborhood with the determination to seek out photo opportunities. They aren't great, but it felt good to spy things I wanted to photograph. What I really need is a hike in a new place with things to discover, but I wasn't up for that today.

Buds popping out on the first day of spring

The blue, blue sky

The back of the stop sign no one pays attention to

Three signs in a row (the stop sign in back is harder to see)

Someone's cute lawn ornaments

Last year's dried berries still clustered on a tree, along with old, brown leaves

Trying to capture the fuzzy buds, but it was too windy and the phone camera kept focusing on everything but them

Peeling bark

Tree with character

Two of the roots are crossed at the base, looking like a creature with its legs crossed

Just an odd-shaped tree

The skellies in my yard clinging to the last bits of snow from last week's blizzard

The snow on the ground probably makes it look cold, but it was a balmy day. In fact, it was so warm I had on a tank top and sweatpants, and I deeply regretted the sweatpants. Short would have been better. It's supposed to be warm all week, and then we'll see what next week brings. It's my daughter's spring break, and we probably get snow about 90% of the time for the kids' spring breaks. We're probably due one more at least mild snow before it hangs up for the winter. Possibly more.

Next week's my book release! I'm sure the time is going to pass quickly.

Wendigo Nights Universal Purchase Link 

(Choose your preferred market for e-book and paperback!)

If you had to make a list of three items you miss, what would it be? What's stopping you from choosing one to make a point of doing this week?

May you find your Muse.

Getting Crafty - The Artist's Way & Updated Book Tour

It used to be I was frequently surrounded by writers. There was constant interaction when I ran local writing events. Once I stepped down from that I was busy enough with other things that I didn't notice the gap. Of course, COVID was at its societal peak when I stopped running those events, so there were other things to pay attention to. Now, other than on here and social media, I rarely interact with writers in that sort of creative sense, and I realized I'm missing it, though not quite enough to engage in the community I used to volunteer for (last time I went back to engage as an attendee, I got dragged back in).

Instead, I've been reading craft books. Typically, I sit on my front porch with my breakfast smoothie and whichever craft book I'm reading. Only on sunny days, of which we've had a surprising amount lately. We've got a solid snowstorm heading our way this morning, so it will be at least a few days before one nice enough to sit on the front porch again comes along (March is our snowiest month here in Colorado). 

No worries, though. My current craft book is The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. After the introduction, there's not a ton of reading to do, but there are activities that take up the space of a week. I'm only in the first week now. The A #1 requirement at this point is to do "morning pages." These are handwritten (a must), three pages, and are about whatever comes to mind. I've seen the premise done differently elsewhere, but it might have been inspired by this book since it's been around awhile. 

The first day, the morning pages didn't take long at all. The second day, I dragged a bit, so it took longer. Yesterday went more smoothly. I'm writing this post before going to bed, so "today's" pages aren't written yet. I have a meeting first thing, followed by another meeting. Then I'll be getting ready for a livestreamed podcast episode on which I'll be a guest (Minddog TV, 8 PM ET). It should be fun! But that leaves my morning pages up in the air. I've decided not to stress about the pages tomorrow. As long as they get done when I'm able, it doesn't matter if I did them first thing.

I'm trying to go into this craft book and its exercises with an open mind, with the intention of doing all the exercises. The introduction says that if you don't want to do them all, you should do the ones you're resisting the most, because those are likely the ones you need the most. In this first chapter, I didn't have a problem with any of them. I believe this is a 12-week process, so we'll see what happens!

BOOK TOUR

My book tour is going on right now. Below is the current schedule:

March 4 - Patricia J.L.'s blog Twisting the Myths: I write about the background of Wendigo in Michigan Isn't Safe From the Wendigo

March 6 - Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog: I write about my favorite childhood myths in movie form in Childhood Magic

March 8 - Roland Yeoman's blog: I write about Sasquatch in A Sasquatch by Any Other Name *this one hasn't shown up yet

March 13 - Anna at Elements of Emaginette, where she'll be writing about her favorite mythological character

March 15 - Jonathan and Kristina will be writing about their favorite mythological creature(s)

March 15 - Sandra Cox at Sandra's Place: I write Three Character Foodie Facts with Selina Moonstone

March 15 - Nate at Habitual Hobbit: It's More Fun to Believe

March 15 - DeAnna Knippling at Wonderland Press: I write about Ogopogo and the Muck Monster

March 18 - Steven Arellano Rose at Far Out Fantastic with a Q&A

March 20 - Toi Thomas at The Toibox of Words

March 25 - Jennifer Lane at Jennifer Lane Books

And in April, Mary at Dimensions in Fiction

Thank you to the following people who shared out in other ways: HR Sinclair, Amanda Casey, and Natalie Aguirre.

Have you ever read The Artist's Way? Did you do all the exercises? Do you still do your morning pages? Were there any exercises you weren't willing to do?

May you find your Muse.