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Just for You, Our Muses

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Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and/or Mother’s Day.

If you read the A to Z series in April, you might have caught the news that I’ve spend much of the last year training to become a life coach specializing in creativity, the creative process, and writers. YOU are the inspiration for that endeavor. This community not only gave me the courage, you gave me the vision for how I can give back and share all I’ve learned over a lifetime of creativity.

Because I feel so blessed to be part of the Muse community, I wanted to share with you a couple of opportunities before anyone else sees them. In fact, I’m not offering these anywhere else, though you are free to share them.

The first is that, now that training is complete, I need to amass 100 coaching hours for my first certification rank with the International Coach Federation. Though I’m well on my way, I discovered I could “give away” 30 of those hours. This is first for the Muse community and then for anyone you know that might be interested: up to ten sessions of coaching on subjects of your choosing, m. The best thing about coaching is that it serves YOU, not the coach. If you are interested in becoming a pro bono client (or know someone who is), please email me at robynalruecoaching [at] gmail.com. Preference goes first to this community and then to the people we know.

The second is that International Coach Week begins May 15th. In honor of ICW, and again for the Muse community, all coaching is 50% off if booked through midnight on May 21st. For a description and more information, I’ve set up a page here for reference.

In addition to individual coaching, I also offer group coaching, with the enhanced opportunity for peer-to-peer learning. I’m only running one “program” at this time, which is Habit Builder 45, designed to help you establish new habits for a lifetime. Again, click here for more information.

I am so honored to be of service to a community that has been so supportive. I’ll be writing posts here with what I’ve learned that is both of general benefit and specifically of benefit to writers. I’ve got a whole year of post ideas backed up between my ears!

If you have any questions at all about coaching or anything in this post, please do not hesitate to ask them in the comments below or privately at robynlaruecoaching [at] gmail.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen…

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…Please be upstanding for the Presidential Muse’s speech.

Ladies and Gentlemen

RLR:

My fellow muses. I am speaking to you now at the dawn of a new year, a great year — 2016. This is the year we will work hard to accomplish our goals. This is the year we will push ourselves to meet our deadlines. This is the year we will write.

We all have different experiences of the last twelve months. Some of you will have achieved greatness, and long may that continue. Many of us encountered difficulties, and to you I say that things will change.

With that, I am proud to unveil the latest weapon in anti-procrastination. They’ve been designed by our crack team of experts to suit your word tracking needs. My fellow muses, I give to you The Sarcastic Muse Writing Trackers…

TSM 2016 Writing Tracker – Single Sheet

TSM 2016 Writing Tracker – Month per Sheet

Thank you all and have a happy and productive 2016.

Translation:

To celebrate the beginning of 2016, we invite you to download our free writing tracker in two formats. Take a look at both and use the one that best suits your needs.

TSM 2016 Writing Tracker – Single Sheet

TSM 2016 Writing Tracker – Month per Sheet

Stay tuned, folks. We’re bbaaaaccccckkkk!

Indie ReCon and the Self Publishing Summit

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indierecon logo Summit logo final cropped

Two weeks ago I attended the Indie ReCon online. If you are interested in publishing, I highly encourage you to bookmark indierecon.org or get on the mailing list for next year’s ReCon.

The event is a nice mix of video and post and included such indie powerhouses as Belle Andre & Barbara Freethy, Joanna Penn, H.M. Ward, many others. There were also several Twitter Q & A sessions using the #indierecon hashtag.

I believe everything is still available at the indierecon.org website. Registration allowed attendees to enter for prizes and I won two: Indie and Proud by Christine Fonseca and a year’s subscription to the Bublish dashboard, which I’m really looking forward to exploring.

Topics ranged from marketing to income to a wonderful Thirteen Reasons You are Not as Successful as You Should Be.

The Self-Publishing Summit was also ongoing in April, with another set of video interviews put together by John Tighe, author of Crush it With Kindle.  Most of the videos are available on his YouTube channel.

The best part about these free, online events is that you are not required to attend live. Both of them provided emails to alert you to a beginning session or provide you with the link for the playback. I did attend as many as I could in case I had questions for the guests, but watched just as many on playback.

If you aren’t sure you are interested in publishing (writing is a calling. Authorship is very much a business), it’s worth your time to check some of the presentations and educate yourself on what is involved. If you know already that you want to publish, you’ll find information for both beginners and those already on the path along with a nice mix of practical tips and strategy.

I’ll put up another announcement next year when registration opens for those who are interested. In the meantime, check out the contents of these events at IndieRecon.org and Self Publishing Summit.

 

Did you attend either event? What was your biggest takeaway?

TSM’s Weekly Recommendations: Art Contests, Blog Articles, and Podcasts

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TSM Recommends: Podcasts for WritersIn addition to the normal blog posts and videos that I normally mention in TSM’s Weekly Recommendations, I figured I’d also throw in a bonus announcement. Fantasy Scroll Magazine is hosting a cover art contest and it pays. Artists can win up to $700! You can find more information HERE.

Two articles by Janice Hardy:

This first one looks at the pros and cons of hiring a copy editor for your novel and whether its possible to do it yourself:
http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/01/red-ink-in-trenches-copyeditors.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+janicehardy%2FPUtE+%28Fiction+University%29

This second article looks at how to set your goals for your author business plan:
http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/01/creating-author-business-plan-setting.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+janicehardy%2FPUtE+%28Fiction+University%29

Patrick Ross writes about using extended metaphors in your writing in part one of his extended metaphor series:
https://artistsroad.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/using-extended-metaphors-in-your-writing-part-one/

Charlotte Dixon discusses writer self-care in this first part of her Guide to the Care and Tending of Writers:
http://www.wordstrumpet.com/2015/01/a-guide-to-the-care-and-tending-of-writers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WordStrumpet+%28Word+Strumpet%29

Jann Alexander discusses how to start writing when you suddenly want to do anything but write. I know we’ve all been there:
http://austindetails.me/2015/02/02/how-to-start/?utm_content=buffer15c1c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

A podcast on finding the right editor for your novel:

Marcy McKay’s Creative Monsters 10-Day Writing Challenge

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Creative Monsters 10-Day Challenge

Photo Used with Permission

On Friday I mentioned that Marcy McKay over at Mudpie Writing is holding a 10-Day Writing Challenge. Whelp, guys, it starts tomorrow. And it’s FREE! So if you’re one of those people who battles perfectionism, self-doubt, procrastination, and other forms of writing fears, then this is the challenge for you.

Here are the details according to her site:

“The purpose of this Challenge is to give you valuable information about writing fears, direct access to me to answer specific questions, as well as to get to know other writers.

It will be FUN, INFORMATIVE , INTERACTIVE and NO PRESSURE!”

You can get more information at her site: http://mudpiewriting.com/creative-monsters-details/
Or you can sign up here: http://forms.aweber.com/form/36/1198015036.htm

If you want to learn more about Marcy, then you can probably check any post on the Sarcastic Muse and read one of her lovely comments. But if you want more detailed information, then you can learn more about her HERE.

So there you go guys: Go sign up! You won’t regret it.