Tia Silverthorne Bach's Blog, page 109

Four Steps to Meeting Monthly to "Just" Write

In May, I participated in WordCount's Blogathon blog challenge hosted by Michelle Rafter. This was my first blog challenge, and I learned so much and met so many wonderful people. One of them was Liz Sheffield who I am honored to have guest posting today about a wonderful idea: Women Write Night. Thanks, Liz!
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A little over a year ago I started thinking of ways that I could regularly connect with other writers. I kept meeting women writers – at my day job, at my son's school – and many of us talked about not having time to write. Like me, I hoped they might be interested in meeting once a month just to write. I say "just" because I wasn't interested in a critique group, or in reading my work out loud. As the mother of two young sons, what I wanted was a few guaranteed hours each month that I could dedicate to writing.

[image error] What came out of those ponderings is Women Write Night, a group I started in June 2010. We met at a local neighborhood community space I'd reserved; the first meeting had about ten people – I was thrilled! Six months after we began meeting, I heard Natalie Goldberg speak and learned that this idea is similar to her idea of the writer's practice where one doesn't lift the pen from the page. In her workshops she has timed sessions where everyone sits and…writes, nothing else. Yes! Not only did Women Write Night feel like a productive, helpful evening – I now felt even better because we were doing something a renowned writing instructor recommends.
Women Write Night celebrated its one-year anniversary last month with a party at my house – appetizers, drinks and readings by three of our members. We realized that when we all show up once a month to write, we don't know what anyone is writing. This party was the perfect chance to hear the amazing words of some of our fellow members.
Below are four steps I took to start Women Write Night. If you're inspired, I hope you'll use them to start your own group!
Get focused: know why you want to bring a group together. Without that focus, you may end up with a group that doesn't provide for you what you hoped. Is this a group for "just" writing or will you be sharing your work and asking for input?
Generate interest: Check in with other local writers you know and see if they'd be interested in joining you each month to write. Once you have three or four other people committed to your idea, you'll be sure to have at least one other person to write with you each month. (There is nothing worse than planning a gathering and having no one show up.)
Grab a nearby location: Search around for some free locations where you can meet. Libraries often have meeting rooms, maybe there's a café with a room you can reserve if everyone buys a coffee? Or, if you have space in your home, pull up chairs around the dining room table. Be sure to have enough outlets wherever you land – in our group of more than a dozen writers, I am one of two people using pen and paper. Everyone else brings a laptop.
Go virtual: A few months in advance, I send out an Evite to the same list of writers with information about when and where we'll be meeting. I'm always sure to remind people to invite others who may be interested. The Evite format helps me easily track the number of attendees as well as update the group quickly in the event of a cancellation or change.
Be glad and write: Congratulate yourself for starting a group, write like crazy that first meeting and most of all: be glad! You've given yourself and other writers a true gift and it's going to be great.
If you have questions or start a group, please let me know. I'd love to hear how this process works for other writers.
Liz Sheffield is a freelance writer focused on topics related to parenting, health and wellness. She lives with her husband and two sons in a suburb of Seattle. Liz blogs at Motherlogue .

Challenge Happy: A Round of Words in 80 Days

Challenges motivate me. Mom and I spent many years working on Depression Cookies. From the idea spark to publication was ten years. We want to write a sequel in one year while keeping our blog momentum going. No small task. It's summer!

Yesterday, I spoke about a community of writers. Just last Friday I participated in Novel Publicity's Karmic-Liking Friday. Through this I met fellow writer, Yves Brown McCalin who yesterday posted about the A Round of Words in 80 Days challenge. The stars aligned! And again I have my writing community to thank.

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The concept of ROW80 is for participants to focus on their writing. The challenge happens four times a year with slight breaks in between. This is Session Three, which officially started July 4th. The challenge: choose a measurable goal (not just I'm going to write more often) and commit to it for the 80-day session. There are twice-a-week checkins on Wednesdays and Sundays where you will update the progress on your goal to the website and/or #ROW80 on Twitter. For more details, please visit http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/about/.

My Goals for the Eighty-Day Challenge:

* 750 words a day on my WIP (six days a week, even diets allow for a cheat day or life's insanity), otherwise known under the working title of Depression Cookies II.

* Blog 4-5 times per week on Depression Cookies and a minimum of 3 books reviewed per month on Mom in Love with Fiction. The Ultimate Blog Challenge will continue to motivate me to post frequently in July!

* Read two books (in the 80 days) on Writing.

I'm excited to begin this challenge, and I'll update here how it's going. If only there was a challenge for keeping my house cleaned, kids happy, husband happy, etc. I'd be set.

What part of your life is in need of a Challenge?

Tub-Full Tuesdays: A Community of Writers

For those new to the blog, we celebrate what fills our tub on Tub-Full Tuesdays. My daughter's Kindergarten teacher taught her students that they have buckets. Happy, fun, and kind events fill our buckets while sad, mean, and discouraging events empty them. Thanks to this picture of my girls, we write about feelings and achievements which fill our tubs.

[image error] My girls and my inspiration
for Tub-Full Tuesdays I'm so proud to be part of the writing community. When our novel was first published, I was scared to talk with other writers. Would I be accepted? Would other writers look down on a self-published author?

Thanks to wonderful experiences with the Maryland Writers' Association, Michelle Rafter's Blogathon, LinkedIn, Novel Publicity, and other groups I can honestly say I've found writers to be an inclusive, sharing group.

I plan to use this blog as a way to give back to my writing community. The more I learn about this industry, the more I want to share. Writers helping writers, what could be better? If only middle-schoolers knew the benefits of inclusion and sharing knowledge (can you tell I'm terrified to send my first girl to middle school this fall?).
[image error] Royalty free image Dreamstime.com
Case in point: the Ultimate Blog Challenge is free and hosts Michele and Michelle give tips and blog post ideas. Today's email contained 170 ideas for post topics. 170!

It is only Day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and I've already found some inspirational blogs. Not all are about the publishing industry, but all bloggers are writers. As I get to know more of my fellow challenge bloggers, I will share their links and wonderful tips here (with due credit, of course).

If you've been wanting to increase your blog's traffic or just write better blog copy, there's still time to join the Ultimate Blog Challenge at http://ultimateblogchallenge.com/.

"Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success."  ~Henry Ford

Happy Independence Day and an Exciting Time for Independents

Today we honor our country's birthday; we celebrate the day we became a sovereign nation, independent and free. I can only imagine the excitement mixed with trepidation the founding fathers were feeling as they signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Although this marked the realization of a dream, it also meant we were on our own. The work was really just beginning.

[image error] This is also an exciting time for independent publishers and authors. I recently came across a June 6, 2011 Forbes article by Alan Rinzler titled Good Day Sunshine for Writers. In it, Mr. Rinzler discusses how quickly the publishing industry is changing and what a great time it is to be a writer, "especially for those in the vanguard: the self-publishing writers at the cutting edge of the brave new turbulent world of literary art and commerce."

He also debunks the negative sterotypes that have plagued indpendently published and self-published books for far too long. None of this means just anyone should self-publish. Writers need to take on the awesome responsibility of writing well and creating a story people want to read. Publishing rubbish hurts everyone, writer and reader alike. It's a time to embrace changes with excitement but also caution.

So here's to our nation and to all the hard-working writers out there. I feel honored to be an American and a writer.

A Lesson Learned from a Child

I've learned many things from my children, although I don't always admit it to them. Recently, I learned one from my 3-year-old niece. Dear sweet Allyson, although my sister might argue with my classification, recently gave up her pacifier. My sister orchestrated a grand hand over to Mickey Mouse during a spring visit to Disney World.

A month ago, I called my mother and heard Allyson's heartbreaking whine in the background. When I asked what was wrong, Mom put Allyson on the phone. "I miss my pacie. Mickey has it. Can you call him and ask for it back?"

Funny how different my Aunt response is from my Mom response. "I will contact him immediately and see what I can do." I then called my sister and said, "Give that child her pacifier back." Okay, I didn't really do that, but I wanted to. The poor child sounded pitiful and all she wanted was her pacifier.

Don't we all have something in our lives we are just not ready to give up? It's a pacifier at three; a glass of wine every night in our thirties. For me, it's the serial comma recently abolished by Oxford (there's a great post: Don't Kill the Oxford Comma!). But, I digress.

I concocted a plan with my sister. I went to Michaels and bought a necklace, several pacifier charms, and multiple beads. I made a bracelet with pacifiers dangling and her name spelled out as well as a necklace with a single blue pacifier (her favorite one was blue) hanging from it. I sent these to her with a letter from Mickey explaining how her pacifier was making a big difference to a small child who needed it, and how he was so impressed with her. (I might have also mentioned how her Aunt Tia contacted him!)

Indulge me as I share the picture of her reaction:

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She might not know how her Aunt Tia nearly lost her eyesight putting together that bracelet, but I hope she always knows how much I love her. If only we could all have a "Mickey" to help us through those things we fight giving up. Sometimes it just takes some encouragement and ingenuity to make the medicine go down.

Comma Queen, might you sprinkle some dust and make me forget about serial commas. Or, better yet, sprinkle some dust over the Oxford people so they might make a rule and stick to it.

A Taste of July Offerings: A Little Something for Everyone

To keep you coming back for more, we wanted to give our readers and Ultimate Blog Challenge fellow bloggers a sneak peak of the topics we plan to cover in July.

[image error] Balanced Mix from PublicDomainPictures.Net* HARO: Help a Reporter Out

* Gravatar: The importance of a consistent online representation.

* Guest Posts: We have four planned for sure, maybe more.

* 100 posts: We will celebreate this milestone in July with a look back and forward.

* Books We've Put Down: Discussion of books we didn't bother to finish.

* Writing Pieces
... and Much More
These are just a few of our planned topics. We often post about things that inspire us, so we don't plan all of our posts. As you'll see this month, we are inspired by things we read and write but also by our mother-daughter relationships (I am the oldest of three girls, have three girls, and our family has seven grand-daughters).

And don't forget, we have a giveaway in July. We will give away a special prize to the person who comments the most on our blog during the month of July. So visit often and comment often!

If there's a special topic you'd like to see us post about, leave your suggestion in the comments. We love inspiration!

Friday Feature: My Favorite Thing I Read this Week and Why

We are excited to start the Ultimate Blog Challenge today! 31 posts in July. We will continue our two theme days: Tub-Full Tuesdays and Friday Feature. Fridays feature our favorite thing we read this week and why. For those of you new to the blog, my mom and I both post on this blog as it follows our mother-daughter journey through life and writing.

Last week we visited some out of town friends at the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. As I downloaded the pictures yesterday, I came across my favorite read this week: a quote I saw in the museum.

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This quote was printed on the wall, and I took a picture. I liked the words and wanted to ponder them later at home, not while herding six kids under 11 through the museum. Of course I forgot about the quote until I saw the pictures.

I don't like to say anything is impossible. I'm not a quitter. That's not to say I don't shy away from overwhelming tasks. Sometimes I do. I need to work on that. But I must say my dream of writing a book became a hope and then a reality. Now we are embarking on the sequel.

When my first kid was born, I was excited and slightly apprehensive of the unknown (especially labor). With the second child, I had so much more anxiety because I KNEW how hard labor and newborns were. I also had a sense of calm because I knew how to be a mother (or thought I did!). A second novel feels like baby #2. I know how much work is involved this time, but I've learned a lot. The hardest part is pulling the trigger!

I look forward to meeting new blogger friends through this challenge! As an incentive to come by and comment, we will give away a special prize to the person who comments most during the month of July.

What is the impossible dream you hope will be a reality soon?

A Month in Posts: From Anne Frank to Dolly Parton

Our posts this month have been varied, a perfect representation of two female writers. Please visit our Blog Archive on the right side of the home page to check out anything you missed this month.

My favorite this month:
* WSJ Article Suggests Darkness in YA Literature: I Say Parents are the Light: a Wall Street Journal article suggested YA literature was becoming too dark and kids were reading material they shouldn't. My opinion on parental involvement in what their kids are reading/doing is featured in this post.

Our top two posts this month (according to Google Analytics' pages visits):
* The Delicate Balancing Act of Life: a post about learning the art of balance and featuring a clip from our Lifetime talk show appearance.

* Tub-Full Tuesdays: The Anchor of Friendship: Mom's post about the rewards of friendship. We love our Tub-Full Tuesdays!
Starting tomorrow we will be participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and back to posting daily (although we posted 25 times in June, not bad!). We look forward to learning more ways to make this blog a must-visit site for our readers.

Never Lead With a Dead Dog

I wanted to share a piece from Mom today. Enjoy!!
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Angela Beach SilverthorneRevised, June 2011
Often I writeas if a deaddog were sitting beneath my desk. [image error]
Trite material,mundane words,redundant usage–writing anythingbut what the guidelines sayand rejection notices describeas killers.
I seek to reunitewith the ministerof magic, originsbeyond–feel quillpushing, pumpingdeep within the mazes of originality.
Often I write of dying ducks and flaming cats justbecause I can–ashortcut evokingemotional responseson the cheap end of desperation.
Tomorrow I will write the masterwork on bicycles–a story so splendidthat you will setit to music for itsbrilliance, eloquence,puffy pink glow.

Tub-Full Tuesdays: Lessons from a Letter

Last time I was home Mom thrust two boxes at me. They were full of old letters and mementos from my childhood. It was time for them to come to my house after years of taking up space in Mom and Dad's attic. I found a lot of letters from friends, family, and my boyfriend (later husband). One particular letter was bittersweet. It was from a dear friend in high school. We moved from North Carolina to Kentucky with six weeks left of my junior year of high school. Leaving her was one of the hardest things I've ever done. She suffered from Anorexia, and she passed away not long after high school. I miss her every day. [image error] She gave me this goodbye card just before I moved. We both cried. I remember the moment so well, but I had forgotten the words. The card read, "Goodbyes are never easy, and this one is especially hard−because I'm saying it to you."Her words: Never have I met anyone quite like you! I'm going to miss you so much! I know this really doesn't have to be goodbye because I know friends like us will always be together and close to each other in thought and by heart. You mean so much to me, but I know you will find someone special to share yourself with in Kentucky! You are so beautiful that no one could turn you away. Remember everyone is afraid of changes, and I'll always be here for you if this change becomes even harder to bear!Remember, don't work too hard because life is too short to worry your life away. You will do well no matter what in my eyes!I love you.With everything she was going through, she was worried about me. She taught me so much about friendship and pain. She used to tell me I was the only one she could talk to, and I struggled to understand why she couldn't see her own worth.But her letter filled my tub and reminded me how short life is. We shouldn't spend it in a constant state of worry or fearing change. And I did find someone very special in Kentucky, my husband of sixteen years. Without the move, we would have never met.Also, thanks to this letter and the many I found from my mother, I decided to start a new tradition in my house. Now each of my girls has a small mailbox outside their door. I will put a letter in when they need encouragement or just to know I love them. I hope they will save them, and some day they will find it at just the right time. When was the last time you found words of encouragement from an unexpected place?