I have discovered over the years that when I need time to process, my mind will shut down, making it nearly impossible to continue ongoing projects. It makes sense that this last month is one of those times because over the last year, I have received an abundance if valuable input for my writing.
—I’ve worked with a fabulous book coach, Erin Lindsay McCabe, one of many at Author Accelerator on two manuscripts.
—After getting less than ideal responses to my beginning queries to agents (form letter refusals), I signed up for another Author Accelerator tool, the Polish Your Pitch, and received some invaluable although somewhat disheartening feedback from seasoned coach, Julie Artz, on my Young Adult Novel, Rose Glass Horse. (I have to admit her advice is right on.)
—In September, I attended the Find Your Book, Find Your Mojo writers’ retreat in Winters Harbor Maine with Jennie Nash and team to work on restructuring my memoir Dance While the Fire Burns which has been resting in the drawer for a couple of years since I’ve been writing YA. What a fabulous event! Again, I received tons of ideas and supports giving me a strong sense of how to proceed.
—In October and November, I worked diligently on my webpage, merging two prior identities that were formed because I hadn’t been able to acquire my name’s URL. It’s been an experience learning WordPress and Elementor (a great text editor app) that will continue to require further work and education. Along with website, I sent two newsletters and began preparing a third, refreshing my Adobe Photoshop skills and adding a movie edited in the iMovie app (which also requires learning and relearning some production skills).