Hello, writers!

Why yes, I did indeed fall off the face of the earth for a while. A… long while. 

You signed up to hear from me about the Monster Novel Structure Workbook, writing craft, and other writing-related goodness. I promised you an email every two weeks, but after the loss of my mother in late 2020 I had to put the newsletter on hiatus. My mom was incredibly important to me, and it has taken a long while to feel anything like normal again. You can read about her, my unflagging alpha reader and typo-spotter, in this archived newsletter.

So, what have I been up to? Grieving, largely. Thinking about what’s really important to me going forward. Rediscovering my creative energy, and how to get excited about it again. I’ve been slowly getting momentum on some projects, both fiction and nonfiction. A follow-up to the MNSW is brewing, focused on how I use the tools now, some 4 years later, and how I’m applying it to series and serials. 

I’ve also had to learn some difficult lessons about the weight of my own expectations for myself. So I’m being extremely cautious about what I commit to going forward. 

What’s happening with this newsletter?

It’s resuming, with less frequency. For 2022 I’m doing quarterly mailings, meaning the next will be October and late December/early January. I’ll decide in the new year if I want to revise that. My intention is to pick up frequency as I’m able to handle it–and as I have things to say. 

My newsletters should always be useful for you, or at least interesting. I have a list of over 60 topics about writing, craft, software and apps, publishing, reader culture, media and its impact, work/life balance, alternative ways of thinking and working, and the ways all these things impact one another. So stay tuned if you want to hear my thoughts on everything from how I use the Monster now, to Monty Python and Britcoms generally, to kids reading things they’re ‘not ready for’, to building a sustainable writing career in the face of… the garbage fire that is the world these days. 

Also... 

You deserve cookies!

Thank you for hanging in there with this dormant list! You deserve a really great thank you goodie, which I hope to have ready for October. 

To tide you over, I can offer some new simple Scrivener Folder Icons that I made for my own purposes. 

And here are the previous goodies in case you missed them:

• NEW: Scrivener Folder Icons (How to use)
• Write a Novel Curriculum
• Monster Guide to Pacing Excerpt
• MNSW Downloads for Purchasers (100% discount code is in the book)

WriteOnCon 2022 tickets on sale now!

Con weekend is July 15-17, 2022

WriteOnCon is a totally virtual writing conference with live events, video, audio, and text-based resources and events. The emphasis is on kidlit but there are LOTS of age category-neutral topics covered–and at these prices, why not?

Admission to this year’s con starts at $10. Full archive access for 30 days is $15. 

Register for WriteOnCon 2022

https://www.writeoncon.org/register/

Disclosure: I’m involved in a more limited capacity this year, but I’ve been the web developer since 2018. I love this con a lot, and I am always impressed by the quality of the content.  

So that’s everything I wanted to touch base about today. The next newsletter will go out in October, hopefully with meatier content on the blog and a goodie for your writing life. But if it’s only one of those, or neither, that’s going to have to be okay, too. Sometimes life throws you for a loop, and it takes a long while to find your feet again. I’m taking it one day at a time.

What's something that hit you hard in the last few years?

The relentless grind of work? A personal tragedy? Something good but life-changing, like a move or new relationship or birth? A world-wide pandemic? A daunting political situation? Your creative energy up and vanishing? I hear ya. Hit reply and tell me how you’re coping–or if you fear you’re not coping well enough. On hard days it helps to share, listen, and be heard.

It feels good to be sending one of these again. I hope you’ll stick around to see what my next chapter looks like. 

Take good care of yourselves,