Holly Lisle's Blog

About Holly

There is no way to soften the blow of this and Mom never liked euphemisms, so I’m just going to speak plainly.

Mom died due to complications from cancer on the 27th of August. Yes, this was the cancer that she’d originally had that had gone into remission. She had been dealing with this for 2 years, but demanded it be kept private. A handful of folks knew, and that’s all. I know some of you have noticed her absence, but we promised we would not say anything. There were a few exceptions Matt deemed allowable due to difficult circumstances through Help Desk or messages, but otherwise we kept our promise to her.

That’s all I feel like saying on this part of the matter, other than these last two things: 1. she died at home with loved ones caring for her properly and 2. she had the aid of the some of the very best medical care for cancer available in the United States.

Let me get a few things out of the way now:
1. Lifetime Access to courses and purchases will remain. Whatever I have to do to make sure her customers always have what they bought, I will do.
2. The site may take some time for me to adjust to because, while she wanted me to one day take it over to her, she didn’t want to give up the reigns. I don’t blame her at all, ha.
3. The new course will still launch, but it might be several months still. We are picking up the pieces of a life surrounded by, and filled to the brim with, a woman who is no longer here. No one is doing this more than my dad/step-dad, and he will not be rushed through grief for a course launch.
4. There is a plan to release the Ohio novels. There is work to be done, we have no deadline, we will figure things out as we go.
5. Katharina Gerlach is taking over the Moon & Sun series, something Holly was very excited about. If you’re interested in the sequels, you can sign up here for updates..
6. Other things she had finished, like stories or The Wishbone Conspiracy (Cadence Drake) will be published as we work through what she had on her computer. There is no deadline.

The family is still reeling. To say my mother was special is a particular breed of understatement all it’s own.

Holly would have not wanted platitudes (she hated them with a passion) or condolences. However, none of you are just “usernames” to me. You’re all real people. You have feelings and many of you had a fondness, friendships or minor/multiple personal interactions with her. I refuse to negate your pain or say it doesn’t matter just because I am deep within my own. Your pain isn’t less important just because mine might be worse because I am (and always will be) her daughter. Your pain or sadness matters. We waited until now to say anything so that the family could grieve together without worries.

So, instead of writing those platitudes or condolences, I want to pitch an idea. If you have access to the HollysWritingClasses forum, fill this thread with the following:

* What her courses meant to or for you.
* What this forum meant to or for you.
* What her books meant to or for you.
* What SHE PERSONALLY meant to you.
* What her work on the podcast meant to or for you.
* Personal interactions with her that you found meaningful, cute, deep, silly, insightful, hilarious (honestly, she would love knowing she made people laugh probably as much as helped with their writing), heartwarming, etc.

Matt, (her husband/partner of 30 years, by the way) gave me great comfort by telling me this: she is everywhere. She within her kids, him, her books, courses, and all of the things she has made. I believe that no better example exists of just how “everywhere” my mom is, than a forum post with a shitload of responses from people all over the world telling us and everyone else what she meant to them.

The rest of the world might not know what it lost, but we do.

On Ohio, and the novels, and the new class

Just small news here. The new class is finished in first draft, and I’m now (and for the first time ever) doing the complete course bug-hunt and clean-up BEFORE I put the course on sale.

Yes, it will take longer. But it will also guarantee that the class will be less first-time-through splintery.

I’m still working on the Ohio novels every weekday. Read-throughs and clean-ups at the moment.

I bought a wood-burning kit to use so that I can make a real-world version of one of the magical artifacts in the novels. The kit finally arrived, so I can start putting that together.

So now, I’ll have a little fun making one of my main character’s best magical tools. (Well, in HER Ohio, it’s actually magical. In MY Ohio, it’s going to be cool, and attractive to look at, and possibly to some degree useful — but probably not to the degree my MC is finding it useful.)

And finally, I know it’s autumn (and heading hard toward winter) but I just wanted to show of Ohio’s state wildflower, the trillium. The hills are covered with them in spring, and it’s a gorgeous sight.

And about the New Secret Writing Course…

I discovered there were two essential lessons I left out.

So I wrote them.

And now THEY’RE done.

Now I’m contemplating some sort of bonus for the course, but in the meantime, I’m going to be setting up the new classroom with the lessons, and getting everything ready to make the course available to students.

The guitar-playing dogs are in one of the lessons, by the way.

And once this thing goes on sale, I am looking desperately forward to getting back to the Ohio novels, and getting those out into the world, too.

HollysWritingClasses.com Member Updates

The Secret Writing Class is finished… except for bonus course…

Yesterday I finished the final lesson on the new writing course.

So I’m taking today off, and relaxing. I’ll be thinking about the bonus course. I have several ideas, and I’ll be digging through the HollysWritingClasses.com forum for additional ideas.

I have a specific topic — Big Course… Bonus Brainstorming — and if you’re a member (membership is free), just log into the forum and let me know what’s on you wish list for a short course you’d like to get as the bonus for the NEW class when it goes live — something that would help YOU.

If you’re not a member yet, you get a free class when you join, and there is NO membership fee EVER.

You can buy classes, or you can just use the free one, and hang out in the forums and write fiction, and talk about writing fiction.

HollysWritingClasses.com Member Updates

Finished through Lesson 20 on the new Secret Writing Class today

Lesson AND worksheet — took a couple of days on this one, but this was one of those strange sideways-thinking lessons that lets you get at parts of your story that are going to be unexpected and exciting for readers, and that will give you fresh perspectives soon your characters and world.

Like what I got. Now on to other things.

Like watching the enormous Hurricane Idalia, which is coming ashore right where we have family living (and family in the hospital). AND one of my kids living in the after-path.

I didn’t have any idea this thing was even out there. A few years in Ohio, and it becomes really easy to stop watching the weather. You forget.

You shouldn’t… BUT YOU DO.

Just 6 more lessons to build on the new Secret Writing Course

Today went really, really well. Finished the lesson (did most of it yesterday), and built out the worksheet today.

I’ll be working light the rest of the week, because my best friend from high school is going to be in town for her reunion (she was a year ahead of me).

So I’ll be sort of around, but probably not a lot.

I’ll get back to the last six lessons of the class after her visit.

And then start considering possible bonus classes.

If you want to be invited to the class, the sign-up to be notified when the class goes LIVE is linked below. The actual URL starts with winning-innovator and a wacky letter-number combo, but it is a real and secure sign-up link provided by Convert Kit.

It’s just kinda fugly.

LET ME KNOW ABOUT THE CLASS WHEN IT GOES LIVE: https://winning-innovator-5948.ck.page/89150d4b07

The Money-Grubbing Asshat from Berkeley

I do email first thing, and then last thing.

And this morning, my first goddamn email was a notice from the Berkeley Humane Society telling me that August is National Make-A-Will Month, and offering me their Personal Estate Planning Kit so I could leave them all my money when I die.

Shitbags.

This is pure spam — nothing I requested, nothing I signed up for. And Berkeley is hell and gone from Ohio, which is where my interests lie. (Well, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina, because I have kids.)

Whatever happened to “Think Globally, Act Locally?”

I guess if your job is “Professional Beggar,” you get to pretend everybody is your neighbor. Eh, Jeffrey?

NEW SECRET BIG COURSE: Lesson 15 is Started. And finished.

Sat down. Wrote. I knew what I wanted, I knew what I needed…

And I love it when a plan comes together.

Damn!

Granted, I’m out of bed at 6 AM, and hauling ass for five straight hours on just this one thing, so this project is NOT coming together out of magic and fairy dust.

This is butt in chair, hands on the keyboard, don’t-get-up-to-get-a-drink-or-go-to-the-bathroom work.

It’s focused, it’s intense, and when I’m done, I can feel the tired. Seriously.

But I LOVE what I got. I think writers are going to really enjoy the process in these lessons.

Now, however..?

Nap.

And LESSON 14 is finished!

This one was tough, requiring a lot of thought on my part… but it should be a pretty simple lesson for writers to get the hang of.

So tomorrow I’ll start on Lesson 15, which from the subject matter I’m betting is going to be a whole lotta fun, not just to write, but to take.

Onward!

HollysWritingClasses.com Member Updates

Secret Course Lesson 13 now done, worksheet has to wait until tomorrow

This particular lesson was tougher to break down into pieces — so it took me from 6 AM until just now just to lay out the lesson, and then write it out.

So now I have to stop, but I’ll come back in tomorrow, and do a read-through, and from that, figure out some ways to break the necessary tasks into simple worksheet steps.

Just cannot do anymore today.

1892 words for the day, one long writing session… BUT one lesson written from brainstorming through lesson start to lesson finish (excluding worksheets).

That counts as a good day.