A Letter to My Mom: Honoring Mother’s Day and Finding One’s Writing Territory
Posted May 1, 2024
on:My love letter to my courageous mother is next to letters from Suze Orman, Dr. Phil McGraw, Melissa Rivers, will.i.am, Lisa Ling, Dr. Jennifer Arnold and many other amazing sons and daughters. In this third installment of the A Letter to My series…(following A Letter to My Dog and A Letter to My Cat), over sixty contributors share letters that chronicle the love, gratitude, silliness, fun and even conflict that define mother and child relationships. I am so honored to be part of this collection.
My writing teacher, Marjorie Hudson (author of Accidental Birds of the Carolinas) encourages students to ‘find their territory’, to explore the kinds of unique themes and challenges that only they can write about.
The relationship with my mother is definitely my territory. In 2013, I started exploring a snippet of my mother’s life which involved a great act of courage that changed the course of our lives. Since that time, I have continued thinking about the intersection of my life and hers. I am constantly surveying that rich and fertile ground. My mother is no longer living, so writing about her is one way that I can keep her memory alive.
When I saw the call for ‘A Letter to My Mom’, I decided to submit my very personal story. The editor and creator of the A Letter to My series, Lisa Erspamer and her team were amazing. They treated my narrative (and I assume all the others), with great care, respect and unabashed enthusiasm.
A Letter to My Mom is so inspiring and the layout of the book is beautiful. Each entry is accompanied by photos.
Decluttering is About Mindset-Not Just Stuff: Last Two Days to Sign up for Declutter Challenge for Creative People
Posted April 11, 2024
on:Hi creative peeps,
The response to my Declutter Challenge for Creative People has been phenomenal.
This is a reminder for the procrastinators (I see you!) and folks who meant to sign up but forgot—tomorrow is the last day to to sign up and receive two bonuses.
As I say in this video, decluttering is not just about moving things around. It’s about mindset. The process I have created stimulates inner wisdom and transformation. It’s about your future you, less overwhelm, and struggle. The link to the self-paced course is here.
In the video, I explore the concept of ‘backups’, irritants and perfectionism and how they relate going deeper into decluttering mindset work.
Course details here.
Hi creative peeps,
Since it’s spring, it’s a natural time to tackle decluttering. Did you know that I consider decluttering a transformational practice for creatives?
-Are you feeling stuck or stagnant in your creative life?
-Are the techniques you have relied on to expand your creative life not working (i.e. vision boards, affirmations, submitting your work)?
-Are you struggling with clutter?
Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination.
-Christine Scalise
I have created a self-paced declutter challenge course specifically for creatives. It’s based on Feng Shui (the Chinese art and philosophy of placement) and it’s not like any decluttering process you’ve done before. It tackles physical clutter and supports inner transformation. It recognizes the unique challenges that creatives can have with physical clutter and mental clutter (e.g. inner critics) and how they can reinforce each other. This declutter challenge is FUN and manageable. If you’ve got anywhere from 20-minutes to an hour a day for a few days this declutter challenge is for YOU!
Sign up by April 8 and you can join me on a live call and also have access to a bonus conversation with me and a therapist about the relationship between trauma and clutter. More details here.
Want to know more about how I approach this issue of creativity and decluttering? I’ve got three videos that explore the decluttering process, our resistance to it and why I’m so passionate about it as a practice for creatives.
The 5 Things You Say Over and Over Again that Stop You From Decluttering (and How to Overcome Them)!
5 More Things You Say Over and Over Again that Stop You From Decluttering (and How to Overcome Them)!
Shame, Fear and Anger and the Decluttering Process + Why I’m Passionate About Decluttering:
Ready to have a workspace that is welcoming, functional, and mirrors your highest intentions? Ready to be filled with energy and creative magic MOJO? Don’t miss out on this declutter challenge course
Submitting one’s work means being visible as a writer. So many creative writers struggle with issues of feeling worthy and deserving of a creative career they often don’t submit their work consistently and/or have a deep fear of rejection from industry professionals. In this video I share how I’ve worked on these issues for myself and on behalf of clients: ‘Cultivate Superpowers for Your Writing Life’. It’s about methods and mindset.
It was fun to make! At the end of the video, I share information about my successful online course Chart Your Path to Publication. There’s a flash sale on it through 12/31.
Edgar Allen Poe fans, my publisher Falstaff Books is putting together an anthology of stories inspired by EAP called ‘Nevermore’. I’ll have a new story in it with the title, “And They Will Rise from The Ocean”! They created a Kickstarter about a month ago to help launch it.
We’re about 3/4 of the way there for funding on Nevermore. If you like creepy stories written by people like Alexander G. R. Gideon, Jason Gilbert, John Hartness, Leslie Gould, Carol Gyzander, Nicole Givens Kurtz, ME and many more – please consider backing this project and/or sharing it with people in your community who might love this kind of work.
Your support will allow Falstaff Books to pay the authors $.05/word for their stories, significantly more than the $100 per story we are currently contracted for, and even more than that with stretch goals. In return for your preorder and support, you get mentioned in the book and can get rewards ranging from ebooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, or even your name in the book as a character.
AND for writers several AMAZING editors have rewards that will give you a critique of a query letter or manuscript for an unbelievable price.
Cool video and all details here: http://kck.st/42jY3BN
So if you love creepy stuff, and amazing books, you owe it to yourself to get on over to Kickstarter and back this awesome project! Feel free to share! TY!
Photo credit: Smithsonian Magazine