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These days, many of us write as part of our daily life or to build our business and some of you amazing humans want to write to fulfill a dream -- the dream of claiming your ideas and stories and sharing them. You’re so lucky to be drawn (or forced) into writing...

I’ve been leading retreats including writing retreats for nearly 30 years. I even wrote a book about how to create your own retreats, The Woman’s Retreat Book--in fact, that was the book that got me on Oprah.😏 Why do I believe in retreats so much? Because the shape of...

I promised you another fantabulous resource round-up post -- this time it’s books and TV shows I've loved recently. Hopefully something new to feed your brain. (Amazon links are offered for ease of research as well as Bookshop.) BOOKS Deborah Levy’s Real Estate...

You’ve no doubt read the quip for the late novelist, Howard Fast: “Plumbers don’t have plumber’s block. A page a day is a book a year.” With all respect to the dead, that quote makes me furious. It’s utterly useless advice for writer’s block. Plumbing and writing both...

I haven’t done a resource roundup in forever so here you go. The theme of this round up are products and apps and newsletters that make my life easier or my business better. Next week: books and TV shows I’ve been loving. Tell me which ones you end up using that work...

After 22 years of coaching women who have always wanted to write but are afraid to start, I distilled what I've seen helps into 6 permissions that I hereby grant you with a flourish and a one-of-kind T-shirt that says, "I'm a writer and I'm writing." 1 Permission to...

When a creative woman sits down to make her work, she may be distracted by a low internal rumble, like an old fridge on the fritz, that sputters, "You don't know enough.Go do more research.Get another degree.Ask someone for their opinion.Only then you can write or...

Harry Crews was a famous southern writer--if he was alive now, he would be a toxic masculinity cliche-- but in 1980, to his students at the University of Florida, he was the writer we aspired to be, if not the drunk or fashion icon (how you can sport a mullet and a...

In August of 2020, Jill Daniels of Happy Women Dinners asked me to moderate an online book club with Sue Monk Kidd exploring her novel The Book of Longings. I calmly said yes while jumping around my studio like my puppy Willa. Because like millions of readers, I love...

I did a stupid thing the other day - god knows what possessed me. I mean, I know what Seth Godin says in The Practice is the truth: “Most criticism shared in the internet age is useless, or worse, harmful. It’s useless because it often personalizes the criticism to be...

This is our last Creative Sunbeam. The previous Creative Sunbeams live here. I love writing prompts, writing meditations, creating immersive online retreats, and using all kinds of techniques to get my writing student’s creativity flowing. And I’ve also seen how...

This is day 4 of a 5-day series. The rest of the Creative Sunbeams are here. Could it be true, lovely person, that you are never stuck in your writing? I found myself saying that last year to my Write Now group and I had to pause and ask myself if that was just me...

This is day 3 of a 5-day series. The rest of the Creative Sunbeams are here. CREATIVE SUNBEAM #3 When you find yourself thinking this while writing Great! But I bet you don’t. Mostly we are cruel to ourselves when we create, expecting whatever comes out to be better...

This is day 2 of a 5-day series on how to delight in your writing. Creative Sunbeam #1 is here. CREATIVE SUNBEAM #2 When you find yourself thinking this while writing Try this instead: Set positive expectations for your next writing session. When you do so, your...

Brava / Bravo for being alive - another day is yours to savor. I know the world may feel dim and troubled and yet your creative life can still glow with delight and attention. In fact, it’s never more important than when the world is troubled to tend your own creative...

Multi-tasking screws me up. It does you, too. If you feel like you’ve lost the ability to focus, that you simply can’t settle down and get absorbed in your creative work or even a conversation with a dear friend, it’s not you, it’s multi-tasking. Multitasking lowers...

Any time hustle and bustle, memories or grief, the suffering you read about in the news or know is happening next door, or even a sheet pan of overcooked cookies winds you up, do this: Breathe in… pause... sip in a little more. Pause. Sigh LOUDLY. Simple but it works....

December is a month that invites us to delight in its magic and connection while bringing with it ambivalence, perhaps stress, and often, grief. I miss my parents. I miss living near my kids. I miss my sister. When things are hectic or hard, our brains are habituated...

We all get the message each year that the holidays are supposed to be a joyful, celebratory, most wonderful time of the year. We see the ads, the holiday movie snippets, the happy posts on social. My wish for you is that this is true. That the holidays are wonderful...

Not liking your creative work is as common as being hungry and as fixable as getting a snack. But us creatives forget this when we're in the middle of an "I suck" marathon. We can grind to a halt for weeks, months, or years.  But it need not be that way. Here’s...