Make Your Growth A Priority

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent email:

Eventually you will end up where you need to be, doing the right things, alongside the right people. Patience is the key. But remember that patience is not about waiting, it’s the ability to maintain a positive outlook while working hard for what you believe in…

Today, I want you to realize that there are literally thousands of people in the world who live their entire lives on default settings, never realizing they can customize everything. Don’t be one of them. Don’t settle for the default settings in life.

Dare to make edits and improvements. Dare to make your growth a priority.

The truth is, you won’t always be a priority to others, and that’s why you need to be a priority to yourself. Learn to respect yourself, take care of yourself, and become a reliable part of your own support system. Your needs matter. It’s time to start meeting them.

Don’t wait on others to choose you. Choose yourself today!

Seriously, it’s not your job to curb or contain yourself in order to become someone else’s idea of a worthwhile human being. You are amazingly worthwhile and capable right now. Not because other people think you are, but because you are in full control of the next step you take.

If you feel differently, or if you’ve been holding yourself back recently, realize that the real battle is in your mind. And your mind is under your control, not the other way around.

You may have been broken down by adversity or rejection or stress, but YOU are not broken. You are not stuck! So don’t let your mind, or anyone else, try to convince you otherwise.

Heal yourself, and grow beyond the default settings in life, by refusing to settle for the way things have been.

Choose to take up a lot of positive space in your own life starting today. Choose to give yourself permission to meet your own needs. Choose to honor your feelings and emotions. Choose to make self-care and personal growth top priorities!

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

Interview with Mariëlle S. Smith

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome writer and writing coach Mariëlle S. Smith. Today, Mariëlle shares her creative journey and new release, 365 Days of Gratitude Journal.

1. What was your inspiration for this book?

The true inspiration behind the 365 Days of Gratitude Journal series was having found a practice that really worked for me and wanting to share it with others so they could reap its benefits too. The inspiration behind this specific volume was wanting to create a more ‘feminine’ version, one that had a different kind of beauty than the more stylish and ‘clean’ first volume.

Basically, I wanted to create something that would make everyone, especially my mother, go ‘Ooooh, pretty!’

2. Describe your writing space.

I just moved six weeks ago and now I finally have a separate office again instead of having a giant desk taking up a too tiny corner of the bedroom!

Aside that desk, which is one of those desks that can adjust in height, I have a Deskbike to make sure I keep moving during the many hours I spend looking at my laptop screen. It’s like a stationary bike without a steering wheel, so that it fits under your desk and you can type as you cycle.

The room includes a built-in wardrobe, on which I’ve created a personalised Kanban board with rainbow-coloured washi tape, and I use the long wall as a place to stick my ideas when I’m plotting/figuring out my next book. Right now, it’s covered with index cards for my upcoming book, 99 Writing Prompts and Journal Exercises to Cultivate Courage and Kick Imposter Syndrome to the Curb. Since that takes up quite a bit of space, all my novel ideas have been relocated to the back of the door for now.

3. What is your favorite quote?

That’s a tough one, since collecting really good quotes is part of my job…

I’ll have to go with this one by Brené Brown, which is one of the first things I put up in my new office:

‘No matter what gets done and how much is done and how it’s done, I’m enough.’

The full quote is ‘No matter what gets done and how much is done and how it’s done, I’m enough and I’m worthy of belonging and love and joy’, but that’s the part that’s often quoted and the part I put up where I can see it when sitting at my desk.

4. Any advice for aspiring writers?

Write the story that’s in your heart.

It never hurts to understand the genre you’re writing in because it’ll help you tweak your story to fit the market and reader expectations better. However, I’ve coached too many writers who got so caught up in what others told them to write, they lost touch with why they started writing that story to begin with.

I’m all for learning from others because it’ll help you grow as a storyteller, but, in the end, once you’ve absorbed all that knowledge, you have to make it your own and trust your own vision.

It’s really about learning how to differentiate between the right and wrong kind of advice for you and your specific situation. And that can take a while. I still find myself leaning towards the wrong advice, but I’ve become much faster at recognising that something isn’t for me.

5. What are you working on next?

I’m in the middle of preparing a Kickstarter campaign for my new book, 99 Writing Prompts and Journal Exercises to Cultivate Courage and Kick Imposter Syndrome to the Curb, and its companion card deck, Cards for Creative Courage.

The book will include the 99 prompts and exercises from my 52 Weeks of Writing series that speak to dealing with our fears and our feelings of not-good-enoughness and that will help you develop a stronger author mindset.

Card for Creative Courage includes 52 inspiring messages that will help any creative person, whether they write, paint, quilt, bake, sing, to listen to their heart, not their fears, and choose courage every time.

This is the first card deck I’ve ever created and it’s going to be exclusive to Kickstarter, so I’m really curious to see how the campaign will go once it launches, which will be… somewhere in October if all goes according to plan.

Blurb

‘The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see.’ Mary Davis

*** Now available in black-and-white AND full colour! ***

Gratitude is not just about ATTITUDE.

Gratitude is about PRACTICE.

But how do you create a gratitude practice that sticks?

After the success of her first 365 Days of Gratitude Journal, writing coach Mariëlle S. Smith brings you Volume 2. Same journal but with an entirely different look!

After years of barely surviving her own emotional minefield, Mariëlle discovered the transformative power of practising gratitude. But, like no one else, she knows that cultivating an attitude of gratitude is easier said than done.

365 Days of Gratitude, Vol. 2 is an undated, guided journal. Complete with inspiring quotes, daily prompts, and recurring check-ins, it was designed to help you create a sustainable gratitude practice too.

Commit to the life-changing power of gratitude today and order your copy now!

Excerpt

Gratitude journaling brings me so much. It slows me down. It reminds me to take deep breaths in and out. It stops me from pushing myself too hard, too often. It brings me joy. Happiness. Appreciation. It reminds me of all I have going for me, no matter the kind of day it’s been.

It really has been the key I was looking and ready for when it showed up in my life.

But, even now, after years of practice, I have to consciously decide to do the work. That it came at the right time and with the structure I needed doesn’t mean I don’t get off track, especially when the going gets tough.

I used to become angry and utterly frustrated with myself when this happened, but now I simply sit myself down (read: force myself to take a break) and return to my practice. And because it’s such a simple, structured practice, it’s easier to pick up again than I often think.

Of course, some days or even weeks will be easier than others, but that’s another thing gratitude journaling has brought me. No matter how far I stray, I am grateful for having something to return to. For all the days I ignore my practice, I’m grateful for all the days I do pick up my journal and let the miracle that is life unfold in front of me.

Purchase Links

All purchase links can be found here.

Amazon | Deluxe Edition Amazon | Barnes & Noble Black-and-White Edition | Barnes & Noble Full Colour Edition

Author Bio and Links

Mariëlle S. Smith is a writer, writing coach, and editor. She lives in Cyprus, where she organises private writer’s retreats, is inspired 24/7, and feeds more stray cats than she can count.

Website | Facebook | Blog | Goodreads | Instagram | YouTube

Giveaway

Mariëlle S. Smith will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Mariëlle on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

When You Forget Why You Started

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

On Fridays, I receive Hope Clark’s newsletter, Funds for Writers. Here’s a thought-provoking essay from a recent email:

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” – British economist Charles Goodhart (Goodhart’s law)

This quote says that basically, when you set a goal, and you become hard focused in meeting that goal, you can easily forget what drove you to set the goal in the first place. The measure, so to speak, becomes the details in the goals instead of the original mission.

Metrics, for instance. When you set goals in terms of hours, dollars, sales, hits, reviews, and followers, and that’s what you get up in the morning to which to give your attention, you begin chasing the metrics. Your original goal turns murky.

In another instance, you may notice what’s popular and think, I can do that. That applies not just to books but also to short pieces, even journalism. You see what is getting attention, say on sites like Medium.com or popular blogs. Or in terms of books, you see the best-selling genres and shift gears to write those instead of what you originally started writing.

You are chasing success. You are trying to find the easier road, or at least the road someone else has cut out ahead of you.

My first mystery series is The Carolina Slade Mysteries. Many New York agents replied saying nobody wanted to read about an amateur sleuth like her, especially from the South, especially rural. Good writing, they said, but they didn’t like the protagonist enough nor her setting. I, however, loved her. I developed her, fleshed her out, and eventually I sold her, quickly learning that strong female mystery protagonists were my thing.

I’m so glad I didn’t detour and write about vampires.

Sign up to receive Hope Clark’s newsletter here.

Blurb Blitz: Home to Clare Harbor Box Set

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Jacie Middlemann. Today, Jacie shares her box set, Home to Clare Harbor.

Blurb

They started out as strangers…but didn’t stay that way for long…

A devoted granddaughter willing to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. Strangers who meet during the worst of conditions and become friends in the midst of chaos. Unexpected romance under the most unlikely circumstances. A puzzling mystery with its roots in historical events that took place centuries ago. And a storm that hides an ominous purpose that could change all their lives forever.

Sara knows before she walks into her grandparent’s home that her grandmother’s greatest fear will never be the storm or the threat it poses but instead the unknown that lays just beyond her front door. She knows too its cause and grieves that there is nothing she can do to change it.

Throughout the years of his career John has covered numerous battlefields including those that are a result of nature’s unyielding tempest. He fears this might be the worst one yet.

Mel didn’t expect to spend more than a few days in the large house where they’d taken refuge. She figured the storm would pass by and then they’d be off to their next assignment. The last thing she expected was David Payne.

Despite the fact that Lance was the bane of her teenage years, Tish knows that without the help of her father’s assistant, that the trip to North Carolina likely would have been a lot more challenging than it was. She’d been unequivocally terrified but his presence gave her strength she didn’t realize she had. She wasn’t certain how she felt about that…or him…or that he no longer irritated her the way he used to.

When Gary arrived at his family’s home in the mountains of North Carolina, he’s relieved that Sara and her grandparents along with their elderly friends are already there. But he is unable to take an easy breath until Tish finally arrives with Lance…and is not at all surprised at what he hears from Lance about their trip and the potential dangers they’d just barely been able to avoid.

He’s determined to do everything he can to keep their location safe…and unknown. Their knowledge, skills, and ingenuity are their greatest defense. For a time they would have to depend on themselves…it hadn’t take long to discover that the storm was never their greatest threat…but what is could change all their lives for the immediate future…or longer.

If you enjoy uplifting and heartfelt women’s fiction, young and older heroes and heroines filled with courage and compassion as they share joys and triumphs, and united they face and overcome tremendous challenges and tragedy, this book is for you.

Excerpt

“I’m so sorry, dear. I know I’m being foolish,” Maisie said quietly.

“No one could ever accuse you of being foolish, Grandma,” Sara said meaning every word. “We’re in a scary situation that none of us have ever been in before. You’d be far more foolish if you claimed it didn’t bother you.”

“It’s not just the storm,” Maisie admitted slowly but she kept her eyes steady on those of the young woman sitting next to her.

“Tell me, Grandma,” Sara asked softly. She knew sometimes if her grandmother was able to give voice to her fears it helped to diminish them.

Lord only knew that she’d talked with enough professionals to learn ways that could successfully help her grandmother to cope with the many fears that too often held her in their grip. She knew at the moment the primary one came from not being in familiar surroundings…not being in her own her home. Everything else was peripheral to that.

But at the moment there was little she could do to remedy the greatest of her fears.

“I won’t be able to go home, will I?”

The trembling voice that was filled with so much more than just fear broke Sara’s heart. She knew it was the exact same fear of so many others who were her grandmother’s age.

“Oh, Grandma.” She wrapped her arms around the frail shoulders that had once been so strong and sturdy. They had been her buffer against the world for so many years during her childhood and all the years after. She could do no less for her now.

********The box set is on sale for $0.99********

Author Bio and Links

Jacie Middlemann lives in Texas with her husband and a couple of cats who believe they rule…and sometimes they do.

When she’s not watching classic sitcoms or working on a needlework project for one of her kids, she loves to read women’s fiction and sometimes a good mystery suspense.

Amazon | Goodreads | Amazon Buy Link

Giveaway

Jacie Middlemann will be awarding a $50 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Jacie on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

Stories Don’t Die Easily

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In A Year of Writing Dangerously, author and teacher Barbara Abercrombie shares anecdotes, insights, and solutions. Here’s one of my favorite stories:

Let’s say you’re growing tomatoes. Some of you will keep a very tidy garden, and you’ll secure your plants on poles with little wire twists, feed and water your tomatoes regularly, and be alert for pests who want to eat them. Finally, one warm summer day, you’ll harvest some delicious tomatoes.

Others of you will not be so tidy, and things might get out of control. Maybe your vines will creep where they’re not supposed to, the poles will collapse, a few evil green worms will appear and scare the daylights out of you, and you’ll have a tomato jungle on your hands. But tomato plants are hardy, and one warm summer day, you’ll harvest some delicious tomatoes.

This is not unlike writing stories. Stories don’t die easily, and we all go about writing them in our own way.

Source: A Year of Writing Dangerously, p.220

When It’s Time to Dig Deeper

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In a recent post on the Writer Unboxed blog, author Jan O’Hara shared the following advice:

When we put a story out in the world, we are competing for attention with intrinsically compulsive media in a boundless landscape of fiction.

We are also competing with our own readers’ sophisticated imaginations. Readers understand story structure, if only at an intuitive level. They perceive the value of high stakes. They thirst for deep themes. And we must respect their skills and strive to be at our best, else our story will be overlooked for superior fan art.

Whether in outlining or in revision, at some point we must ask ourselves the following:

Do our characters want something meaningful?

On the path to their goals, do they face true opposition?

Will there be significant consequences if they fail?

If we can’t honestly say yes to the above, it’s time to dig deeper, using whatever tools best speak to our inner craftsperson, whether that means books or conferences, critique partners or beta readers, editors and agents—or all the above.

This is what it means to respect our audience. This is what it means to grow our skills. This is where our gratifying challenge lies—if we’ll but accept it.

Source: Writer Unboxed

Honoring Olivia Newton-John

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

A pop culture icon and activist for environmental and animal rights, Olivia Newton-John bravely shared her three-decade battle with cancer.

Olivia was born in England and emigrated to Australia as a child. She achieved early success in music competitions and sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She shot to global fame when she was cast as Sandy in the musical Grease.

After receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer, Olivia became a leading advocate for cancer research. In addition to promoting plant-based treatments and spearheading fundraising walks, she created the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

Her philanthropic efforts were recognized by Queen Elizabeth in 2020.

Dame Olivia Newton-John passed away yesterday at the age of 73.

My favorite quotations from Olivia Newton-John:

I believe love is what makes the world go round. No matter how old or young, love is why we are here. It is the very essence of one’s being.

I love that quiet time when nobody’s up and the animals are all happy to see me.

I do have high standards, but I don’t expect anything from anyone that I don’t expect from myself.

We wake up and are grateful for the day. Not taking away from the pain, because the pain will be there. But you live on.

I look at my cancer journey as a gift: It made me slow down and realize the important things in life and taught me to not sweat the small stuff.

My biggest mistake was my best lesson…you don’t learn anything when everything is going perfectly.

My memories are inside me – they’re not things or a place – I can take them anywhere.

To ‘be loved’ is the most basic of human needs. Like a flower, it waters the human soul. But ‘to love’ is a true blessing.

Cancer got me over unimportant fears, like getting old.

Once you face fear, nothing is ever as hard as you think.

My favorite song

Interview with Janie Emaus

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome Wild Rose Press author Janie Emaus. Today, Janie shares her creative journey and new release, The Time Traveling Matchmaker.

What was your inspiration for this book?

I’m a sucker for a happy ending. After hearing several news stories about missing people, I thought what if they weren’t being held against their will or in danger. What if they had been picked up by the Time Traveling Matchmakers and were living with their soul mate in a different time? And thus, The Time Traveling Matchmakers organization was founded.

What’s the best part of being an author? The worst

I love it when readers enjoy my books, blogs and essays. I don’t like the marketing and promotion part that is necessary so those readers know about my books.

Describe your writing space.

My office is “organized chaos! I write on a laptop which sits on an old desk. I’m surrounded by books and lots of photos. There is also a guest bed and a piano in the room, leaving a small path that leads to my desk. And when my characters join me, it gets very crowded. But it’s my favorite room in our house.

Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?

I love walking and swimming. Not only do they release the endorphins, but stories come to me while I’m doing laps or throwing a ball to my crazy lab.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Perseverance. I sold my first book, Latkes for Santa Claus, after twenty years of trying. I gathered hundreds of rejections, but never lost faith in my story or myself. Shortly after that sale, I sold The Time Traveling Matchmaker. Also, join a critique group, read, and don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t feel like writing every day.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on a women’s fiction book. Here is a short blurb. An aging rock star searching for an heir. Three women hiding from the past. A young girl searching for her identity. And the biographer with the power to write their futures. Will his quest be destructive or lead them back to The Notes Between Them?

As I said above, I’m going to persevere until I get this book into the world. My first husband was a drummer and I’ve always wanted to delve into that world.

Blurb

In The Time Traveling Matchmaker, love takes on a new meaning when soul mates are brought together through time and space.

Like every goal-oriented twenty-something, Jessica Singleton, an aspiring filmmaker, is obsessed with finding her future as quickly as possible. What she doesn’t know is that the future is obsessed with finding her, too. Renn Porter, an agent with Time Traveling Matchmaker’s Inc, blasts back in time – and into her life- in order to transport Jessica to the soul mate who has paid for this service…in the future. But things turn dangerous when it’s revealed that Renn has been sent after his own soul mate.

Caught between two times, Jessica and Renn must struggle to stay alive. Falling in love is the biggest risk either of them has ever taken – because, as they are destined to learn, the very existence of Time Traveling Matchmakers, Inc. rests in Jessica’s hands.

Excerpt

Ever was a word that didn’t do well alone. It goes much better with happily and after. The way my life used to be. The way I thought it never would be again after David, and then along came Renn. And the world opened up, even better than before.

His lips. His touch. His eyes. His voice. There wasn’t room in my mind for thoughts of anything else.

It didn’t matter that he claimed he came from the future. Maybe he did. So many things in this world defy logic. Especially love.

Please, God, bring him back to me.

My stomach growled. I opened the fridge again and picked up the healthiest looking apple, one without any bruises.

The apple tasted sour. I spit the skin into my hand and tossed the whole thing in the trash. The fabric in my pocket grew warm.

“Jessica.”

I spun around. Renn leaned against the wall, his trench coat open to expose a silky blue shirt. His lemony scent drifted into the room.

“It’s you,” I said, stating the obvious and feeling foolish for doing so.

His smile filled me with lightness.

“It’s me,” he said, as if he’d just returned from the store. In fact, he held a bag of donuts.

Donuts! He vanishes out of the bathroom and materializes out of thin air the next day with donuts?

A second later, the bag fell to the ground, and I was in his arms, kissing him. Putting the ever back into my life.

Buy Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

Author Bio and Links

Janie Emaus believes when the world is falling apart, we’re just one laugh away from putting it together again. The Time Traveling Matchmaker is her debut adult novel. She is also the author of the blended holiday picture books, Latkes for Santa Claus, and the forthcoming Matzo Balls & Easter Eggs. Her essays, stories and articles have been published in numerous magazines, anthologies, and websites. In 2016 she won an honorary mention in the Erma Bombeck Writing competition.

Facebook | Twitter | Website | Instagram | Blog

Giveaway

Janie Emaus will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Janie on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.