This is going to be one of the final episodes of Authoring Onward. We have had a great run, but as both Joy and I are moving on to new adventures, it’s time to say goodbye for now. We will still have the archive of episodes up for the foreseeable future! A farewell episode is in the works.

About Emily:

Emily Jon Tobias is an American author and poet with her debut story collection, MONARCH, forthcoming by Black Lawrence Press on May 17, 2024.  She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in various literary journals and magazines.  Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California where she is at work on her debut novel and other projects.  She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon.

Emily’s website

See Joy’s editorial services and more.

Have a listen.

About Cynthia

Cynthia Newberry Martin’s (she/her/hers) first novel, Tidal Flats, won the Gold Medal in Literary Fiction at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards and the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Fiction. Her website features the How We Spend Our Days series, over a decade of essays by writers on their lives. She grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Columbus, Georgia, with her husband, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a little house by the water. Her third novel, The Art of Her Life, will be published in June of 2023.

Cynthia’s website

Get in touch

My editing and coaching services

Joy’s editing and coaching services

About Marjorie:

“I grew up in the North,” Marjorie says, “but I got here as fast as I could.”

Marjorie Hudson was born in a small town in Illinois and raised in Washington, D.C., where she graduated from American University with a degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies. After serving as features editor of National Parks Magazine, she moved to rural North Carolina, working as a freelance writer with a column interviewing nature photographers and publishing articles in Garden & Gun, American Land Forum, Wildlife in North Carolina, Our State Magazine, and North Carolina Literary Review. As copyediting chief for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, she encountered the work of contemporary Southern writers such as Jill McCorkle, Kaye Gibbons, and Clyde Edgerton for the first time. Inspired, she turned her hand to fiction writing, and her first story won a statewide award judged by Shannon Ravenel. She earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband, Sam, and feisty small terrier DJ, on a century farm in North Carolina, where she mentors writers and reads poetry to trees. 

Marjorie’s website

Get in touch:

My editorial services

Joy’s editorial services

About Cheryl:

After 12 years in the newspaper business, I got the teaching bug and became a middle-school language arts teacher. I then got a master’s degree in literacy and served my district as a literacy coach. Now I am a licensed Dyslexia Therapist.

While I have a fulfilling day job, writing is in my blood, and it’s about time I get something published (I’m no spring chicken). When I’m not working, I’m either reading or typing away, trying to create the perfect fiction piece for #NYCMidnight and other writing contests. My debut novel, Sitting on Top of the World (young-adult historical fiction) was published on June 15, 2021, but my publisher closed three weeks later. I have republished my book with a brand-new cover by author and illustrator Jamie Hitt, and some updates inside.

Since republishing, my book was given the amazing honor of winning first place in the YA category in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. It also won a First Horizon Award for debut authors and was shortlisted for the Grand Prize. I am now working on the sequel, Under the Pawpaw Trees, to be published in 2023.

Cheryl’s website

Wanna get in touch?

My editorial and coaching services

Joy’s editorial and coaching services

Also, this is the last episode of our autumn season. See you in early 2023!

About Michelle:

Michelle Nott is an author, poet, and freelance editor with articles and stories published in numerous online and print publications. Michelle is a member of SCBWI and CBI. Prior to a family move to Belgium, where they lived over a decade, she worked for a French company in the US and France, at an art gallery in NYC, and taught French (PreK – 12 and university levels).

Besides reading and writing, Michelle enjoys spending time with her family cooking, traveling, visiting art museums, taking long walks through the Belgian countryside, hiking along the Cornish coast and snow-shoeing in the French Alps. She currently resides in North Carolina.

Michelle’s poem INIS MEAIN earned an Honorable Mention from Writer’s Digest in their 80th Annual Competition. Michelle has authored two Early Readers: FREDDY, HOPPIE AND THE EYEGLASSES and DRAGON AMY’S FLAMES. Her debut Picture Book, TEDDY LET’S GO!, is available for now (Enchanted Lion Books, Fall 2022).

Get Teddy Let’s Go!

Awesome Announcements from Joy and Me

Joy has book coaching openings starting in late January.

I’ve got coaching and editing openings.

New Novella: Calamity at the Christmas Concert

Joy’s giveaway

New Writer Wellness Gift Pack on her site

Back Episodes on Planning

Doing some 2023 planning for your writing/publishing? Here are some episodes that may help!

About Julie:

Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of The Last Beekeeper and Waiting for the Night Song, named a Most Anticipated 2021 novel by CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, and others, and an Amazon Editor’s pick for Best Books of the Month. A Bread Loaf, Tin House, and GrubStreet Novel Incubator alum, Julie is a frequent speaker on the topic of Fiction in the Age of Climate Crisis at universities, conferences, libraries, and museums. Her writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Orion, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, and other publications. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find Julie digging in her garden, skiing, kayaking, or walking her dogs.

Awesome Announcements from Joy and Me

Joy has book coaching openings starting in late January.

I’ve got coaching and editing openings.

New Novella: Calamity at the Christmas Concert

Joy’s giveaway

New Writer Wellness Gift Pack Coming Next Week

Have a listen… and a laugh!

About Allen:

Allen’s Site

Allen’s TED talk

Ever hear of a “Jollytologist®”? Well meet the world’s one and only Allen Klein. Through his books and his presentations, Klein shows people worldwide how to deal with everything from traffic jams to tragedies.

Klein got into this unusual line of work after his wife died of a rare liver disease at the age of 34. He saw how humor helped her, and those around her, cope. He also saw how humor helped him get through that loss. He now teaches others how to find some in trying times. Those audiences include people in 48 states as well as Israel and Australia, and clients from IBM to the IRS.

Klein is an award-winning speaker and best-selling author. He is the recipient of a Toastmasters Communication and Leadership Award and a Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association. (Less than 800 of its 4,000 members have this honor.) Klein has authored, among other books, The Healing Power of Humor, Quotations to Cheer You Up, Up Words for Down Days, and The Courage to Laugh. The first book, The Healing Power of Humor, shows people how to use humor to deal with everyday trials and tribulations; the latter book, The Courage to Laugh, documents how people have used humor to triumph over tragedy.

Klein has a master’s degree in humor from St. Mary’s College in Minnesota (and that’s no joke!) And he is well suited to his subject. Years before becoming a “Jollytologist®”, Klein was nicknamed the “King of Whimsy” because he designed all the children shows at CBS television in New York City. Among those productions was one you probably remember the Captain Kangaroo show.

Although no longer working in the light-hearted world of children, Klein still believes that adults need to take a lesson from them and lighten up. To help adults do this, Klein is both the editor of The Mid-Month Mirth Memo e-zine, founder of International Mirth Month (every March), and past-president of the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor (www.aath.org).

Comedian Jerry Lewis has said that Klein is “a noble and vital force watching over the human condition.” And who would have thought that it would be a “Jollytologist®”?

Get in touch with us!

My editing and coaching services

Joy’s editing and coaching services

Reminder: We’ll be out next week for the holiday. Be back at you in two weeks!

About Valerie

Valerie Nieman is the author of five novels: In the Lonely Backwater, a YA/crossover thriller in the Southern gothic tradition, launched this spring from Regal House/Fitzroy Books.

An audiobook version is out for To the Bones, a cross-genre mystery first published in 2019. Kirkus says: “Evocative, intelligent prose conjures an anxious mood and strong sense of place while spotlighting the societal and environmental devastation wrought by the coal mining industry.”

Other novels are Blood Clay, a novel of the New South, which was honored with the Eric Hoffer Prize in General Fiction; Survivors, a novel about the Rust Belt of the 1970s, and her first book, Neena Gathering, reissued in 2012 as a classic in the post-apocalyptic genre. 

Nieman’s third poetry collection, Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, debuted with a reading at the Coney Island Museum and was a runner-up for the Brockman-Campbell Book Prize. Her second poetry collection, Hotel Worthy, appeared in 2015 from Press 53, and poems from that book were nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best Short Fictions of 2016, where the title poem was a finalist. She is also the author of Wake Wake Wake, and a collection of short stories, Fidelities.

She was a 2013-2014 North Carolina Arts Council poetry fellow, and has received an NEA creative writing fellowship as well as major grants in West Virginia and Kentucky. Her awards include the Greg Grummer, Nazim Hikmet, and Byron Herbert Reece poetry prizes.

Nieman graduated from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte. A former professor and

Get in touch with us

Joy’s coaching and editing services

My coaching and editing services

About Susanne:

Susanne Dunlap is the author of twelve works of historical fiction for adults and teens, as well as an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Her love of historical fiction arose partly from her studies in music history at Yale University (PhD, 1999), partly from her lifelong interest in women in the arts as a pianist and non-profit performing arts executive. Her novel The Paris Affair won first place in its category in the CIBA Dante Rossetti awards for Young Adult Fiction. The Musician’s Daughter was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Bank Street Children’s Book of the Year, and was nominated for the Utah Book Award and the Missouri Gateway Reader’s Prize. In the Shadow of the Lamp was an Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award nominee. Susanne earned her BA and an MA (musicology) from Smith College, and lives in Biddeford, ME, with her little dog Betty.

Susanne’s website

Joy’s journal and Writer Wellness swag giveaway

Joy’s coaching and editing

My coaching and editing (just a few spots left in 2022)

We also chatted about PBPitch, the Twitter pitch event for picture book writers and illustrators, of which she is a founder. PBPitch has already happened for fall 2022, but be on the lookout for more pitching fun. This event happens several times a year.

About PJ:

PJ McIlvaine is a prolific and creative children’s author/screenwriter/writer/journalist.

PJ’s debut middle-grade supernatural historical mystery adventure VIOLET YORKE, GILDED GIRL: GHOSTS IN THE CLOSET (Darkstroke Books, April 2022) is about a poor little rich girl in NYC 1912 who sees ghosts.

PJ’s debut picture book LITTLE LENA AND THE BIG TABLE (June 2019, Big Belly Book Co.), with illustrations by Leila Nabih, is about a determined little girl tired of eating with her annoying cousins at the kid’s table, only to discover that the big table isn’t much better. She has another picture book, DRAGON ROAR (MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing, October 2021) artwork by Logan Rogers, about a lonely, sick dragon who has lost his mighty roar, and the brave village girl who helps him find it again.

PJ is also a co-host and founding member of #PBPitch, the premiere Twitter pitch party for picture book creators.

PJ has been published in numerous outlets including The New York Times and Newsday, and is a regular contributor for The Children’s Book Insider newsletter (paid firewall), writing about the path to publication and interviews with established and debut kid lit authors.

PJ lives on Eastern Long Island with her family and furbaby Luna.

PJ’s social media links:

PJ’s website: https://pjmacwriter.com

Twitter: @pjmcilvaine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pj.mcilvaine

Instagram: @pjmcilvaine

Contest Alert: Joy’s giving away a fitness journal and some Writer Wellness swag. Enter here for a chance to win!

Get in touch with us:

Connie’s editing and coaching services (currently a few spots left for 2022!)

Joy’s editing and coaching services

About Liz:

Liz Alterman lives in New Jersey with her husband and three sons. She spends most days repeatedly microwaving the same cup of coffee and looking up synonyms.

Get in touch with us:

Joy’s coaching and editing

My (Connie’s) editing services

About Kitty:

Kitty Felde is an award-winning journalist, podcaster, and writer of children’s mysteries set on Capitol Hill.

She is also host and executive producer of the Book Club for Kids podcast – named one of the top kidcasts in the world by The Times of London. The show has won the DC Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Humanities and the California Library Association Technology Award.

Her award-winning debut novel Welcome to Washington Fina Mendoza (Chesapeake Press, 2020) is the tale of the 10-year-old daughter of a member of Congress who solves mysteries on Capitol Hill, including the mystery of the Demon Cat. It has been adapted to an 8-part dramatic podcast The Fina Mendoza Mysteries, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc.

In Kitty’s latest Fina Mendoza mystery State of the Union,a mysterious bird poops on the president’s head during the State of the Union address. Can Fina outsmart the Secret Service, Capitol Police, and half of Capitol Hill and find that bird?

Kitty was named “Radio Journalist of the Year” three times in three years by the LA Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists. She hosted Southern California Public Radio KPCC’s afternoon talk show “Talk of the City” for nearly a decade and created the station’s Washington bureau, covering Capitol Hill. 

Kitty is also an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced worldwide. She co-founded LA’s Theatre of NOTE and led the playwriting program at the HOLA Youth Theatre in Los Angeles. She grew up in Compton, the eldest of seven children. She is married to writer Tad Daley.

PS. I’m now scheduling editing spots for November and December.

Go here to reach find Joy’s website with coaching, editing services and more!

Joy talks about why discussion guides matter–and not just for children’s and YA, what makes a good discussion question, and the inspiration behind her course. Have a listen!

And if this has convinced you it’s time to learn more about discussion guides, you can find Joy’s course here.

About Joy:

JOY E. HELD, AAS, BA, MFA is an author, editor, book coach, educator, and Yoga Alliance Registered yoga teacher. She teaches college English online and is a certified Journal to the Self facilitator. She has over 500 articles published in trade magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. She has published two historical fiction novels and one nonfiction book. Joy is a member of The Author’s Guild and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Recent awards include “Member of the Year 2020” from Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America and “Finalist/Nonfiction/Writing” Indie Book Awards 2021. She holds degrees in education, journalism, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She is the mother of two adult daughters and lives in West Virginia with her husband. Her hobbies include gardening and scrapbooking.

Her book coaching and editing

P.S. I’m filling up my own remaining editing slots for the fall, so now’s the time to book!

And I’ve got some awesome announcements!

First, former guest Joy E. Held is joining the podcast. She’s doing some work behind the scenes, but you’ll also hear her voice a bit more in future…including an episode happening very soon!

About Joy:

JOY E. HELD, AAS, BA, MFA is an author, editor, book coach, educator, and Yoga Alliance Registered yoga teacher. She teaches college English online and is a certified Journal to the Self facilitator. She has over 500 articles published in trade magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. She has published two historical fiction novels and one nonfiction book. Joy is a member of The Author’s Guild and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Recent awards include “Member of the Year 2020” from Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America and “Finalist/Nonfiction/Writing” Indie Book Awards 2021. She holds degrees in education, journalism, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She is the mother of two adult daughters and lives in West Virginia with her husband. Her hobbies include gardening and scrapbooking.

Next up: I’ve got another podcast in the works: Autistics in the Arts. I’ll be interviewing autistic folks working in all kinds of artsy fields: visual art, writing, music, dance, acting, crafts, and more! I want to connect to my fellow autistic artists, talk about the autistic experience and how that plays out working in a creative field, and show the world just how creative we can be. If this is you, I’m currently looking for more guests. Just fill out the form here.

Finally, if you’re looking for editing this fall, I still have a few spots open. Learn more here.

About Paul:

Paul was born and raised in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Paul and his wife, Lyn, met in college at Georgetown University and were married after Paul graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law. They moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1988 where Paul embarked on a thirty-year business career before retiring so he could write fiction. Paul and Lyn raised three children together in Phoenix but now call Charleston, South Carolina their home.

Paul’s Website

More announcements:

Check out our Midsummer Anthology Kickstarter (featuring flip-flop duologies of the books), launching soon!

Did you miss out on the Kidlit Creators 2.0 Superstack back in spring? It’s back for a limited time!

Need an edit or some coaching services, learn more and get on the schedule now.

Sooo much better than the wobbly folding table where I’ve done most of my work for the past three years. What a glamorous author life, right?

Today’s episode is about 7 things that didn’t work for me in my author business. That’s not to say none of these will work for you, but hopefully hearing this analysis will help you make the right choices for yourself.

And if you’re looking for a cozy beach read, don’t miss out! The Mysteries, Midsummer Sun, and Murders Anthology launches on Tuesday.

And as we emerge from the busyness that is the end of spring, it’s a great time to think about how summer will change our writing schedules.

So for this coming back episode, I reflect on how writers can use this changing season and the typically slower pace of summer to revisit their schedules and goals, so we can go into the second half of the year strong, building creative lives that fulfill us, not drain us.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Free mini-course: Find Your Writing Time

Write, Publish, Profit 5.0 SuperStack (grab it before it goes away on Tuesday!)

Mysteries Midsummer Sun, and Murders (a 21-author anthology)

Authoring Onward is a show about all things to do with the writing life, and you all know that two of the things I’m really passionate about are time management and parenting while writing. But more than that, I’m interested in how to do those things in a sustainable way, to create a creative life that’s both fulfilling and practical. This is a show about actionable tips for authors, and I haven’t thus far used this show to make responses to others’ opinion pieces or advice or to address another writer or content creator directly, but recently something came up on my Twitter feed that I couldn’t ignore.

It’s far from the first creative world controversy that has given me some strong opinions, and it isn’t the one most desperately in need of a response, but it hit at the right time, when I had the bandwidth to make such a response and it pushed all my parenting, writing, and time management buttons.

I’ve talked a lot about living the writing life while parenting on this show, and I’ve written a short book, Writing Without Childcare, on that very topic. I’ve had plenty more thoughts on the topic since its publication—and I’ve also lived through a pandemic and watched my kids age into different stages—so eventually I’ll update and issue a new version, but I still stand by the essentials. And this book is free as an eBook, if you’d like to learn more after what I share today. Just remember to take what works for you and toss the rest.

So here’s what’s got me so riled up, a recent letter to Slate’s Care and Feeding column, a parenting advice column. (Find the letter in question at the bottom of the page.) The letter itself is fine. In fact, it’s all too relatable. The advice given by Care and Feeding… well, you’ll see.

Here’s the gist.

A visual artist, using the pseudonym Uncreative Parenting, feels their days are so busy with caring for a baby, plus the need to keep up the house while the baby sleeps, that they have almost no time for creativity, and when they do, they feel like their brain is mush and they have nothing left to give to their creative endeavors. Their husband frequently works on remote sites for months at a time, so they are on their own.

But they know they need a creative outlet.

The brief response, framed as “tough love,” has drawn a lot of criticism on social media. To summarize, the columnist tells Uncreative Parenting to find a way, to sacrifice sleep, to let their house get messy, and to find a nanny or get a friend or family member to watch the baby in order to “follow your dreams.” The columnist tells Uncreative Parenting that millions of parents are productive in side hustles. Some more choice quotes: “ All I’m hearing is a bunch of excuses.” “If they can do it, why can’t you?” “Are you window shopping on your dreams or are you ready to do whatever it takes to achieve them? Best-selling author Brendon Burchard said it best: ‘Mediocrity begins the precise moment you swap the love for a challenge with the love of comfort.’”

Yikes.

I trust that y’all listening have the compassion to cringe at this advice, just as I did, however the advice may have been intended. And it truly may have been intended kindly. But it wasn’t delivered very kindly, and rather than tough love, I think a lot of this is unhelpful at best, dangerous at worst. And I’m going to break it down.

First, the opening. Almost the first sentence: “All I’m hearing is a bunch of excuses.”

This person has taken the time—a precious portion of their extremely limited time—to write to this column. They’re not simply venting their frustrations—though if that were all they were doing, it would be understandable. No, they want real solutions. Advice. And this language casts the writer as disingenuous and/or gaslights them. This line says, “Your problems aren’t real.” If you came to someone for advice, told them your problem, and then were told  that you don’t really have a problem or that you don’t really want to solve it, would you absorb anything that came after that very well? I know I wouldn’t.

And the fact is that parenting young kids is HARD. It is hard when you have a partner with you, participating equally all the time. Uncreative Parenting’s partner isn’t there for very long stretches. They have to be utterly exhausted. Don’t tell them they need more hustle. They are hustling as hard as a person can.

Furthermore, the side hustle thing: Nowhere did this person indicate that they were trying to earn money at this point, only that they wanted—no, needed a creative outlet. And I get that big time. I’ve been there. After Hurricane Harvey, when my family was stranded in a new city, no relatives, no friends, in a crummy apartment with electricity issues and only mattresses and pillows on the floor, the days stretched on endlessly as I cared for a two-year-old and a four-month-old in that drab, gray place, with no rest until my husband came home from work. And at least he came home from work every day! Like Uncreative Parenting, my creative work had slipped away. I had barely a moment to myself, and my brain was mush too. And a piece of my soul was missing because I wasn’t creating. That’s not about side hustle. Uncreative Parenting is in survival mode. And a simple creative outlet is about mental and emotional survival, not career success.

In survival mode, having a creative business is almost impossible, and I wish I’d let myself take an intentional pause in my writing career much earlier than I did back when I was in survival mode myself. It would have saved me so much frustration to take that pressure off myself. It sounds to me like Uncreative Parenting has already had the wisdom to do that. They say, “How does a parent maintain a creative hobby?” not a creative business, and state that they were anticipating a big downturn in creative output while caring for a baby. So let’s give them some practical advice on how to do what they are actually trying to do.

First, for me, what helped was lowering the bar. A ton. So low that I’d practically trip over it. Naptime was golden. Especially when I was lucky enough to get both kiddos napping at once. So even though my brain felt like mush, I started incredibly small, writing or drawing for just five minutes. Then I could scroll my phone, stop thinking, and disconnect from the world for a little bit, enjoy the precious quiet.

So, I’d tell this person to lower their bar as much as they possibly can. Try to make art for five minutes every weekday. If that’s too much, try four minutes, or three or two or even one. And I’d tell them to know that even that tiny amount will feel hard. Then after what feels like a really long time, when that tiny amount doesn’t feel so hard anymore, bump it up a teensy, tinsy bit at a time. Don’t get swept away with notions that you’ll bump it up to lofty heights, creating for hours at a time every day. Even thirty minutes a day will take a really long time to get to. And some days you’ll backslide. You’ll slip back down to five minutes. Or nothing at all. That’s okay. Just get back on the horse the next weekday.

But let’s tackle the actionable tips that the columnist did include. First, they recommend sacrificing sleep.

Do not do this. You need sleep. NEED it. Sometimes the creative frustration may make you feel like you need art more than you need sleep, but that is not true. You must sleep to live. You must live to care for your child. You must live to make more art. Sleep, everyone. Please, sleep.

There is a dangerous myth that artists must suffer for their art. But artists who suffer and create great work do so despite their suffering, not because of it. You are far more likely to create a masterpiece when you are healthy, well rested, and not overly stressed.

So sleep.

Next, how about the suggestion to let the house get messy? Well, I know I’ve had these same frustrations and feelings of impossibility while the house was already a giant wreck! Many parents in survival mode have already let a lot of housework go because they cannot keep up the way they once did. I’m going to guess that the writer has probably not been desperately scrubbing their kitchen cabinets instead of making art and was just waiting for someone to give them permission to let that slide. I doubt there are many artists who would choose folding clothes over creating.

And also, even in a super messy house, there is a certain amount of housework that must happen. Clothes have to get washed. Eventually, you have to do dishes to still have plates to eat off of. And Uncreative Parenting’s husband is away for months on end. They have to do it all!

Let’s tackle the other suggestion, hiring a nanny or getting a family or friend to help with the baby. This is the most practical solution Care and Feeding presented, but it isn’t feasible for everyone. We don’t know whether Uncreative Parenting has family or friends nearby or the resources to hire a nanny, even for a small amount of time per week. If they do, I recommend it as an investment in their emotional health. I’ve said it many times: creating without childcare is the hardest possible way to work. As soon as a drop-in daycare opened and I could take my babies there just for a few hours once a week, the fog seemed to clear. I had time to create and to breathe and to be human. And all of our lives improved.

Finally, I’ll address this quote: “Are you window shopping on your dreams or are you ready to do whatever it takes to achieve them? Best-selling author Brendon Burchard said it best:

‘Mediocrity begins the precise moment you swap the love for a challenge with the love of comfort.’”

There is nothing about being a parent of young kids, especially a solo parent, that is comfortable. There is love. There is meaning. There is joy. There is coping. But there is not comfort.

Now, I don’t want to judge intent here. The advice given in this column, problematic as it may be, I will assume was given in a spirit of helpfulness. And even the aggressive tone may have been intended kindly.

Because here is some actual tough love of my own: This won’t be easy. And a response full of sunshine and rainbows and toxic positivity won’t do Uncreative Parenting any good. They need honesty. And honestly, even five minutes a day of creative activity will be hard.

But the problems that Uncreative Parenting is facing, problems that millions of parents face, problems that people in many kinds of non-parenting survival mode situations face, those problems are real. And stating them out loud isn’t making excuses.

That’s my two cents, but what’s yours? If you’ve got actual advice you’d give to creative folks in survival mode, whether parenting-related or not, please comment below. We could all use more tips to find what works for us.

Understanding your why is just one of the things I cover in my brand new course: Stellar Self Publishing for Picture Books.

And you can get it as part of a HUGE bundle of kidlit resources in the KidLit Creators 2.0 SuperStack. Over $2000 worth of resources for a teeny-tiny fraction of the price! Grab it before it goes away.

Not interested in kidlit? Let me know in the comments what kind of courses you would like to see down the road.

And in the case of housework, it is literal mess!

Grab The Messy Author Planner 2022 or the undated version.

Get your book edited.

Today’s tips episode is about what to do when you’re writing along on one project and a shiny new story idea comes up, tempting you to cheat on your current manuscript. What do you do with these ideas? Are they an indication you should jump ship on your current project? How do you keep your writing commitments while not losing the power of a new, inspiring idea?

Next week is back to the regular schedule, with two separate episodes, one for each podcast.

P.S. Now scheduling editing clients for April 20th and onward.

About Edward:

Edward Di Gangi was adopted at birth in New York City. An only child, he made no effort to explore his heredity until, at age 67, a visit to a cemetery where members of his adoptive mother’s family were buried stirred his interest.
​
Over the past three years, through extensive archival research and DNA testing, Ed has peeled back the layers of his once unknown family.

Set in the 1940s, as America emerged from the Great Depression and went to war,  Ed’s book, The Gift Best Given, recounts the search for his family and tells the story of a young woman’s courage as she overcame obstacles to achieve her dreams. 

Ed and his wife, Linda, live in Hillsborough, North Carolina.  Their son, James and his fiancee, Renee, live in nearby Durham.

Ed’s site

P.S. Looking for an editor. I’ve got some openings in April onward.

That’s what cozy mystery author ACF Bookens has done. Of course, she’s not writing them the same month they are published–there’s editing, formatting, etc. to be done–but she’s maintained a book-a-month pace for an impressive stretch of time.

In a pandemic. With a small kiddo.

This week, I sat down to talk with her about rapid release as a strategy, how authors might decide whether it’s right for them, how different each writer’s process is, and more. Have a listen!

About Andi/ACF:

ACF Bookens is a lover of small towns, charming but imperfect people, and animals of all sorts but especially plump cats and loyal pooches. The St. Marin’s Cozy Mystery Series and the Stitches In Crime Series are her first of what she hopes will be many cozy series.

Her website

P.S.: I’m now booking editing and proofreading for April onward.

Missed last night’s webinar? Hop over here and watch the recording. But it will coming down on March 10, when it will only be available as part of Pub Club.

Pub Club

I’m hosting four weeks of affordable group coaching for first-time and early career authors on how to self publish successfully. Learn more here: bookechoes.teachable.com/p/pub-club-first-cohort

I go over his book’s sales page from cover to description to categories. I hope you all learn a little something about presenting and selling books.

If this is a format that you find helpful, please let me know in the comments and it can be a regular part of the rotation.

P.S. Don’t forget my Jump the First Hurdle of Self Publishing webinar is happening on March 3, at 7 p.m. Eastern. (And there will be a replay for those who register.)

Landis Wade is a recovering trial lawyer, dog and sports lover, host of Charlotte Readers Podcast, speaker, teacher, moderator, fly-fisherman and author of books and stories whose third book—The Christmas Redemption— won the Holiday category of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. He won the 2016 North Carolina State Bar short story contest for The Deliberation and received awards for his non-fiction pieces, The Cape Fear Debacle and First Dance. His short work also has appeared in Writersdigest.com, The Charlotte Observer, News and Observer, Flying South, Fiction on the Web and in anthologies by Pamlico Writers’ Group, High Country Writers and the Daniel Boone Footsteps Personal Story Publishing Project. Follow Landis on his Facebook Page.

Preorder Deadly Declarations

P.S. My webinar is coming up on March 3rd, 7 p.m. Eastern. Avoid rookie self pub mistakes. Join us live or catch the replay.

Listen to find out why if you aren’t yet a household name, you don’t want to copy them.

And for more on the rookie self pub mistakes I’ve seen in my time (and a few I’ve made myself), join my webinar on March 3rd! And, yes, there will be a replay, so sign up to get that.

Finally, I’ve taken the plunge into TikTok. If you’re on there or want to join in, I’d love to hear from you.

The good news is that this is normal. It happens to all of us. It’s also something we can chip away at with time, patience, and a little help from our writer buddies.

We had a wonderful chat about the importance of character development, finding inspiration for characters, creating nonhuman characters, and so much more. Have a listen!

About Carrie:

Carrie is the author of 9 books while also contributing a regular column for Psychology Today, also called “Shifting Forward: A Wanderer’s Musings.” Carrie was named the North Carolina Piedmont Laureate for Short Fiction in 2014 and her short stories have won more than 25 awards. She has been named a finalist in Glimmer Train competitions six times, was a finalist in the Doris Betts Fiction Contest and received an honorable mention in the National Literary Awards. Find out more at https://www.cjanework.com/

P.S. Need an edit? I’ve got openings. Book now before spots are filled.

About e’Layne:

e’Layne Kelley is a prolific artist and writer who has founded four art galleries… plus so much more. To learn more and read about her forthcoming book, visit her site: http://elaynekelley.com/

Book an Edit

Need an edit? I’ve still got a few spots open in upcoming weeks.