Hi ,

"The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” Carrie Jones

July is about celebrating freedom. It might be an event like Canada Day, or it may simply be a freedom from the daily grind, as you head out of town on vacation. There’s a concept in writing called “free writing,” where you pull out your pen and you let your brain take you wherever it wants to go. Many people use free writing as a way to journal and others use it as a way to let their subconscious sort out a plotting problem. You never know what might show up on the page if you let go of some tightly held control. But it takes courage. Courage that what you write may not be good. (Whatever that arbitrary definition of good means.) This month we encourage you to explore your creative freedom. Try something new. Give yourself permission to simply see what happens. 

Let go and see where your brain takes you! 

If you want some creative freedom jump starts we’ve got you covered. 

 Workshop Wednesdays/Events:

• July 3 Interiority with Eileen
• July 10 Intro to Amazon A+ content with Stephanie
• July 17 Open Question and Answer with Stephanie
• July 24 Open Question and Answer with Eileen
• July 31 SPECIAL EVENT! Guest author best selling Robyn Harding discussing her new release The Haters. Be sure to grab your copy of the book and get reading- we’ll be discussing the choices she made as a writer with the book, how she planned those twists and turns, and her journey as a writer. This is a rare chance to get a peek behind the curtains of how a bestseller is crafted. 

Plus we have another special event this month:

• July 22nd Submission Planning and Strategy with Mona Mehas
• And don’t forget all our regular events: Motivation and Accountability Mastermind Groups, Our 24/7 Sprint Room Genre Meet-up and Crafty Critique Club, and Book Marketing Meet Up.

Check out all our events here: https://creative-academy-for-writers.mn.co/events

Have You Seen? (Things we’re talking about) 

If you wondered if your computer search history might ever get you in trouble, wonder no further. The podcast Happily Never After tells the true story of a romance novelist who was charged with murdering her husband. https://wondery.com/shows/happily-never-after/

News You Can Use:

Did you know that Pro-Writing Aid (one of our favorite tools) has frequent free learning workshops on a range of writing topics and genres? They recently wrapped up Crime Writing Week, but most of the past workshops can be found on their website. https://prowritingaid.com/online-creative-writing-classes

And if you missed our latest workshops you can find them here: https://creative-academy-for-writers.mn.co/spaces/14219353/content

There will be a newsletter coming out soon detailing some of the changes you can expect here in the fall! Be sure to stay tuned. 

xo

Eileen and Stephanie