AUGUST - So many events to get your writing sizzling!
Jul 28, 2022 5:31 pm
Hello ,
“The month of August had turned into a griddle where the days just lay there and sizzled.” ~Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Lives of Bees
As a kid, summer seemed to last forever. Long days filled with melting popsicles, itchy mosquito bites, and laying in front of a fan, trying to cool down.
Bonus points for those of us who remember speaking directly into a whirling fan so that it would make your voice sound robotic. Ah ... the times before cable TV!
Time seemed to stretch out and one day blurred into another. There were endless games with friends, long bike rides, and time spent fishing sand out of swimsuits.
Of course, the truth is that time doesn’t change. Summer lasts the same amount of time if you're ten or sixty. What changes is our perception of time. (And the size of our to-do lists.)
The question is how do you use the time you have?
We want to encourage you to get your sizzle on for your writing project with the remaining weeks of summer. Take some of these long days to fall in love all over again with your manuscript. Take time to play with words. Enjoy this time.
And we have several things to help you have fun with these weeks of August. All 100% mosquito free!
Highlights from July
You still haven's missed this first one!
Behind CSI: Mythbusting Forensics in Movies and TV
Coming up on Saturday, July 30th, join Melissa Kreikemeier as she discusses what TV/movies get wrong about forensic science and how you can get the details right in your manuscript.
If you’ve ever wondered how you can help to ensure your mystery or thriller is accurate (or had a random interest and just wanted to learn more) this is the session for you.
12-week year—summer school edition
If you missed the “12-Week Year” event last weekend, you can get just as much value from the replay. This one was focused on a shorter period—just the rest of the summer, 6 weeks.
Crystal talked about resilience and how to power that up in ourselves and our writing.
Coming up in August
Authors read from new books!
Join us as we celebrate five Creative Academy members' new releases by having them read from their books and answer questions from us.
This is a public event, so if you have friends who are writing but not (yet) members of The Creative Academy, this is a great way to introduce them to our family.
All the details are on this snazzy page on our website! Share far and wide, friends. Let's have a crowd to cheer on these authors!
The Kindlepreneur will be among us!
Dave Chesson, the brains behind Publisher Rocket and a suite of fantastic tools for authors, will be joining us to deliver a special course on using keywords.
In this course you will learn how to:
- Improve your books discoverability on Amazon
- Find profitable keywords
- Use your keywords in the most effective manner
- Understand how Amazon uses keywords to show your book
- Use a proven process to select bestselling categories
- Unlock the hidden categories that most authors and publishers don't know about
- Increase the number of categories your book shows up for
This course will be hosted in the Kindlepreneuriverse 😛... not our regular Zoom room. Join us on August 30th at 10am Pacific.
Your drop-in Q&A (with Steph Candiago)
Tue 9—Drop-in Q&A with guest, Kathleen of BookBrush
Mon 15—Drop in Q&A Indie Publishing
Tue 23—Drop-in Q&A Publishing Tools & Tech
Mon 29—Drop in Q&A Indie Publishing
Your author biz (with Crystal Hunt)
Wed 3—Author Biz & Marketing Mastermind
Wed 10—Working with beta readers to improve craft
Wed 17—Expert Q & A:
Wed 24—Just One Thing: Tracking progress
Your story craft (with Eileen Cook)
Wed 3—Happy Hour: Make the reader care about your characters (this month's focus for the Crafty Critique Club)
Wed 10—Happy Hour: Character fears
Wed 17—Happy Hour: Characters in action (Eileen & Tracy)
Wed 24—Happy Hour: coming up with your learning plan
Wed 31—Happy Hour: Blue pencil and story storm
Your hot seat (with Donna Barker & members)
Tue 2—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Janee)
Thu 4—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind
Tue 9—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Lynette)
Thu 11—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind
Tue 16—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Janee)
Thu 18—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind
Tue 23—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Lynette)
Thu 25—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind
Tue 30—Motivation & Accountability Mastermind (facilitated by Janee)
Genre meet-ups & open mics
If you're new around these parts and haven't found all your genre peers yet, find your people by joining the communities that match your interests!
See all the communities you can join right here:
And then meet up with them at these events.
Wed 3—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)
Wed 10—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)
Wed 17—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)
Wed 24—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)
Wed 31—Children's & Middle Grade Writers Hangout (with Janee)
Sun 7—Memoir Community Meet Up & Open Mic (with Vig)
Sun 21—Memoir Community Meet Up & Open Mic (with Vig)
Tue 9—Historical Fiction Meet Up (with Jenny)
Tue 23—Historical Fiction Meet Up (with Jenny)
Thu 18—Young Adult fiction Writers Meeting (with Bonnie J)
Sat 20—Romance Writers Rendezvous (with Crystal)
Sat 27—Mystery Thriller Meet Up (with Eileen)
Writing sprints
The writing room is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are several times every day when you can be pretty sure to find at least one other person in the room to keep you company. No matter where you are in the world, we’ve got you covered! Check out all the times here:
We'd love to see you in one of our events this coming month.
It's PBS time!
Did you know that The Creative Academy for Writers has been delivering weekly workshops, office hours, and special events for writers since 2017?
And, that we launched writing sprint rooms long before they became common—back in the summer of 2019, when it felt strange to meet in a Zoom room to keep each other quiet company as we worked on our stories!
For our first three years, we were a subscription-based membership. Monthly members paid $29 and annual members got a great deal at $259.
And then ... March 2020 smacked the world. We wanted to continue to be of service to as many writers as possible while everyone figured our their new realities, so The Creative Academy moved to a "pay what you can" membership model.
This has allowed us to serve close to 2,000 members—which is fantastic! What's less ideal is the fact that our expenses continue to rise, but the vast majority of our members join and stay without ever making a contribution.
We get it. It's smart to test the waters, and see if there's value before you pay what you can. And, that once you're here, you're here! Who thinks about paying for something you've already got?
That's why we're reminding you that The Creative Academy for Writers is not a free membership, we're a pay what you can membership community.
Our request: have a look at your budget for attending writer's conferences and taking workshops and buying craft books. And then, please allocate some of that budget to this community.
You can choose to make a small monthly contribution or support the community with a more significant annual membership. Any amount helps with the bills that come with managing such a robust community.
We're so glad you're here.
xoxo
Donna, Crystal, Eileen and Stephanie
