Today I have uploaded a day in the life vlog for you to the YouTube channel. I have been sick with a sinus cold of some sort for about a week, so I couldn’t really record. It is terrible trying to talk and breathe when your nose is sooo stuffy.
No, I do not think it is Covid. I don’t feel that bad-but I am staying home away from everyone just in case. I have been staying away from people in general all this while, which is another reason I do not think it is Covid. Of course, my hubby works, so there is that possibility that he might have come into contact. He is not sick however, so I really do not buy that either. No, really, I think it’s the same crud I get every winter. Sinuses. Ugh. I am treating as such anyway. My desire is to feel better soon. I have SO much to do.
Writing while sick and quarantining
This video has clips from our fun New Years Day of going to the beach, and I end it with some writing (me writing). It is not very informational, and I promise to get to that soon. It’s winter and it’s cold here in Florida, Yeah, I know. But it was 38 when I woke up this morning. That’s cold by anyone’s standards.
DO check back for new videos and podcasts coming soon. If you like this day in the life style of video I will be happy to make more!
Hey, everybody! I am back with another tarot for writers video. This time the cards were a little sneaky. The true meaning of the setting didn’t reveal itself until the end of the video. I hope you are enjoying these as much as I am making them!
If you are an older writer, just diving into the writing life, you may enjoy my other videos over on YouTube. Just search for Writer Groupie. I should come up.
This video was created using a smartphone and a tripod. If you are an over-fifty writer who would like to get started creating videos, drop a comment below. I will be happy to share what my setup is like-it is really simple.
I would love to get more tech-heavy, but I have to reach a few milestones first. First, I need 100 subscribers. That will get the Writer Groupie name in the URL. Having it that way will make finding the channel much easier.
Then it is on to monetization hopefully. We will see.
Why do we worry so much about how we are going to write a book? I recently saw a tweet from a youngster who was going to dive into book writing after being a fan fiction writer. He seemed genuinely concerned about this decision. So, while I am primarily speaking to an older demographic, youngsters, listen up and learn.
Here’s five (5) ways to write a book worry free
(1) Practice consistency – meaning do it every day like brushing your teeth or taking your vitamins. The more you write, the better you get and making it a priority and doing it every day will take a lot of worry about it away. Now, if you are like me and worry you won’t be able to do it every day, then pick a schedule for yourself that works. This is supposed to be fun, remember that. But if your weekly Mahjong game is going to get in the way and give you the blues then go around that rock in the road. You can just move the writing to another day or another hour. It is worth the feeling of being worry free.
(2) Plan the amount of time you have to write. The young folks will like this because they are SOOOO busy. But we older, wiser writers know that any time is a good time when it’s something that we love. So, anyway, pick out how many minutes or hours you want to contribute to your book. You can feasibly get anywhere from 500-1000 good words down in an hour. That’s 2-5 pages give or take.
(3) Have no plans. Yes, you heard right. If you try to PLAN the writing in advance then you may find a bit of worry. Like, “what if nobody reads this”? Or, “what if my kids read this”? Or “I’m not good at this”. That’s going WAAAY too far in advance. So, stop worrying and just enjoy this time you have to express your storytelling ability. It is okay to be writing a memoir. It’s okay to be writing Snow White from your perspective. Pretend that no one will ever read it but YOU and have some fun. And who knows? You may find that all the other worrisome thoughts fade away.
(4) Take a notebook everywhere. When you have downtime like sitting at the doctor’s office, write a few lines. At the DMV? Write something. Waiting for a plane, train, or bus? Yep. Time to write. This will stop that old excuse “I DON’T HAVE TIME”.
(5) Find your place. I have written in some pretty weird places but my fav place is in a car on a trip as a passenger. I can really focus in the quiet of a car, or with just a little radio playing. This might now work for you especially if you have a chatty driver. Having a fav place to write makes the experience so much more enjoyable. It will encourage writing.
Don’t worry about it. If all you have is an old beat up desk in a corner, that’s okay. Even if you just use your breakfast bar, it is fine. Just make it YOURS. Put a plant close by, put some tunes on your smartphone and get busy.
While this is not a complete list, it is a good start to kill that old worry-monster. Writing is FUN.
IF you want to see more of what Writer Groupie has to offer check out this interview:
This is the third installment of my tarot for writers experiment. So far so good. I really love doing these. I am going to try to come up with a way to record them where the viewer can see the cards easily. Right now, I have no way to record except my phone and the tripod I have is sort of “eh”- so excuse my simplistic way of production right now. Maybe if we grow the channel into something bigger, we can afford to do better things.
Christmas
It is Christmas week this week and I hope that you take some time to enjoy it. I know we are all at home all the time anyway, but there is just something special about this WEEK. Eat too much good food, sleep too much, watch too much Netflix, and just enjoy life in general. That is my wish for you!
Today I am reading for a story/book written in multiple POVs. There is a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker and all their fortunes await! I thank you for being my guest today!
Share this channel with your friends and let’s get people checking it out! Call it a CHRISTMAS present to me!
I will be uploading a podcast very soon all about what this year has brought and what I hope to accomplish in 2021. If you like goal setting and all that, be sure to check it out. And if you have suggestions for future videos, please let me know. It is so hard to come up with new content! I am likely going to have to consult my guru, Pinterest. Yeah, you know. The one EVERYONE goes to for ideas? Yeah, that one. Anyway, don’t forget to like the videos, and if you haven’t subscribed, please do that!
For the channel, I still have not decided on how I want to present these videos, and I still haven’t decided how to title my blog post for them. So, excuse me while I am in the throes of new things. Maybe soon I will get thumbnails, banners, etc. all in order. Just another thing for 2021!
Anyway, here is the next video over on the YouTube channel called Tarot for Writers. This is the second one I have put up, and I have added cards to the video where you can click to go get another reading. This one is all about a multiple POV story. If that sounds like you, I hope this video helps you.
I am having a lot of fun doing these. I hope you are enjoying them. If you are, would you please go out and like and subscribe to the channel? I am going to do my best NOT to have a long period of no content. I don’t like it when that happens any more than you do, so believe me, we are on the same page.
This week, I will have TWO of the readings to go live (Christmas is coming!) and then I will upload once a week thereafter. Probably on Fridays, as that seems to be a good way to kick off my weekend.
If you have any desire to follow me around doing a vlog, let me know. I do go on daily walks and the bird life is fun to see. I wouldn’t mind doing vlogs, but it needs to be something my fans will watch.
So, there you have the latest on my channel. And you have the latest on my endeavors to entertain and astound you.
We are starting a new thing (TAROT for WRITERS) on the channel over at YouTube beginning today. It is a Goal, Motivation, and Conflict tarot card reading for all things writer. For example, you may need a muse-tweak for a villain. Or a sidekick character, or maybe even a setting. Likely we will be doing this once a week, as I am really enjoying it first of all, and I need content on my channel secondly.
If you have suggestions for something you would like to see on Writer Groupie, drop me a comment below. I am considering interviews again, as Zoom now has made video chatting very easy, and more people are getting into it.
What’s Coming to WRITER GROUPIE?
Writer Groupie will put out a call for interviews when that is something that I am ready to go back to.
There will be a podcast soon talking about end of year accomplishments and likely another one for new year goals. I hope you are ready to see and hear me because in 2021 I will definitely be AROUND. I will provide for you once again, blogs, videos, and podcasts. Thank you for being a fan and follower. This would be a very lonely time without you along for the ride. And I do have so many new things coming in 2021-I am pretty excited! Tarot for writers is only one of them.
This should be live on or around the 18th of December so… a very happy week of Christmas lies ahead!
Hope you are all ready for Santa Claus to come!
Check out the new vid here:
And while you are there, would you mind subscribing? I have to have 1000 subscribers before YouTube will give me any love. Thanks again!
If you want to see one of my interviews please go here:
Hey, everyone, welcome back to Writer Groupie. We are chatting with Janie Franz, author of the paranormal fantasy series starting with Ruins, this time, Ruins Legacy .
I hope you will listen to both of these great chats. They are linked (the two videos) in this one at YouTube. I am trying to create playlists there of dual/multiple interviews. If you like playlists, have a look on our Youtube channel and see what it looks like.
This time Janie and I have a good chat about the latest goings-on at Muse It Up Publishing, who is currently closed to subs, but you can bookmark the site anyway by going here: MuseItUpPublishing
And we also talk about her latest book, Ruins Legacy, which just came out in March.
Also, the audio in this chat is not as good as it needs to be…we were Skyping during a thunderstorm of epic proportions. Sorry about that!!!
You guys should try to glean all you can from our chat though, as Janie is very experienced at editing and writing, and she shares a lot of good info. Writers like me can learn a lot from her.
Who is now doing audio/video production for the show
When you can get on the show for YOUR episode!
A great new idea for you to get an audio clip of your book in front of OUR fans!
Things I still have to do:
Figure out how to get this stuff uploaded to YouTube once again
Ditto for iTunes
Get a format down so that you guys are familiar with how it goes
Not that having a format is all that important for the interview segments. You are totally fine to make it the “Mr or Mrs My Book and all about me” show. But if you have some other sites you frequent that you would like to see our show go up at, please do let me know. (I am going to check out Twitch soon)
But, enough of my jabber. The latest episode is below and I hope you enjoy it.
PODCAST LINK
The link below will take you to a podcast player. Or you can just click on the one at the bottom of this post. Alternatively, clicking on the iTunes icon below will magically take you to your iTunes player.
Thanks for Listening to WGP (Writer Groupie Podcast)! We appreciate your time!
Did you enjoy this episode?
If so, please do one (or all) of the following:
Leave a comment on this page or ask a question if you need us to elaborate on the topic. Use the social media buttons to share this episode with your friends, family, and contacts. Go over to iTunes or YouTube to leave a rating/review and to subscribe to the podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to check out WGP! And we look forward to providing you with more content in the next episode!
Subscribe to Writer Groupie Podcast on iTunes and YouTube by clicking on the images below:
Gerald Hausman chatted with me about his work and the writing life.
Gerald Hausman is the author of more than 70 books. His live storytelling has been praised by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, History Channel, and the Bank Street College of Education. He and his wife have received numerous awards in the field of children’s literature.
“As a writer I have often been called a scribe. This is because in the gathering of oral tales, I have always tried to get the story right. To capture the flavor, the region and the moral as the original storyteller gave it to me. The NYT Book Review called my collection of American Indian stories, Tunkashila ‘an eloquent tribute to the first great storytellers of America.'”
In addition to his 22 years of story gathering and telling in New Mexico, Gerald also spent 13 summers on the island of Jamaica where he ran an informal writing school with his wife, Lorry. Together they collected Anansi stories, stories from and about the Kebra Nagast, and traditional West Indian ghost stories.
“I remember when History Channel filmed tales from my book “Duppy Talk”. My best friend Roy was not an actor, but because of his handsome face he was cast as the man who was enchanted by a mermaid. When I saw him on film, I asked Roy how he was able to do the underwater scene and keep that look of astonishment when he saw the made-up mermaid smiling on the river bank. He told me, ‘That look on my face comes from the fact I can’t swim. I was very scared.'”
Gerald teaches writing workshops in various parts of the United States and is most recently the author of “The American Storybag” — 40 years of story gathering on and off the road. He lives on a barrier island in Florida.
Links to books (click on cover to be magically transported to purchase)
GUNS
Video Link
In this episode with Gerald Hausman, we discuss:
SHOW NOTES
We learn where Gerald started creating his stories and how his mother was instrumental in his idea development for stories
Why Gerald writes
What Gerald did when he quit writing for two years and how it brought him back to the writing of stories
We learn a bit about sun signs and moon signs and what that means for writers and creatives
Insider details about the Guns anthology that Gerald edited (mostly collected the stories from the interesting authors) and contributed to, and how some of the most famous characters in classic stories had ancestors and historians contribute to this book
Gerald reads to us from GUNS (Billy the Kid)
We get a great insider look at guns and how a spiritual life to a gun is a part of this anthology
How asking the right questions can get a book created
How listening to the answer to the questions can also bring about the story
We talk about audiobooks and how it impressed Gerald with its resonance
AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!!!!
AUDIO ONLY LINK
Listen to my writing news info, personal update, and the AUDIO ONLY version of the interview here:
Thanks for Listening to WGP (Writer Groupie Podcast)! We appreciate your time!
Did you enjoy this episode?
If so, please do one (or all) of the following:
Leave a comment on this page or ask a question if you need us to elaborate on the topic. Use the social media buttons to share this episode with your friends, family, and contacts. Go over to iTunes or YouTube to leave a rating/review and to subscribe to the podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to check out WGP! And we look forward to providingyou with more content in the next episode!
Subscribe to Writer Groupie Podcast on iTunes and YouTube by clicking on the images below:
This week we welcome Janie Franz, the new acquisitions editor for MuseItUp Publishing. Janie is an accomplished author in her own right.
JANIE’S BIO Janie Franz comes from a long line of liars and storytellers with roots deep in east Tennessee. Her work is honed by the frigid winters of the Northern Plains and the high desert and mountains of New Mexico and influenced by her degree in anthropology. She is an author, a professional speaker, and reviewer. Previously, she ran her own online music publication (Refrain Magazine) and was an agent/publicist for a groove/funk band, a radio announcer, and a yoga/relaxation instructor. She is the author of eleven novels (fantasy, thriller, and contemporary), a freelance writing manual, and co-author of two wedding how-to books. “Refrain,” the second book of The Lost Song trilogy, was a Top 10 Finisher, Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, 2013 Preditors & Editors Reader Poll.
Links to books (click on cover to be magically transported to purchase)
Video Link
In this episode with Janie Franz, we discuss:
SHOW NOTES
Janie tells us about her new “hat” as an acquisitions editor
We learn about what MuseItUp Publishing is looking for and when someone can submit
Insider info about the New Adult or NA category
Details about what an acquisitions editor does
We talk about the Muse It Up Conference and other cons Janie attends and speaks at
What the main thrust of MuseItUp Publishing is and what they offer authors
Info about cover art and distribution at MIU, including foreign translations
Details about author participation in promotions and marketing their work in today’s industry
Janie’s thoughts about Imaginarium, the con we both attend in Louisville, KY
Discussion about pitch sessions and how they are handled at a con (there are differences!) and why you should develop a good elevator pitch
AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!!!!
AUDIO ONLY LINK
Listen to my writing news info, personal update, and the AUDIO ONLY version of the interview here:
Thanks for Listening to WGP (Writer Groupie Podcast)! We appreciate your time!
Did you enjoy this episode?
If so, please do one (or all) of the following:
Leave a comment on this page or ask a question if you need us to elaborate on the topic. Use the social media buttons to share this episode with your friends, family, and contacts. Go over to iTunes or YouTube to leave a rating/review and to subscribe to the podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to check out WGP! And we look forward to providingyou with more content in the next episode!
Subscribe to Writer Groupie Podcast on iTunes and YouTube by clicking on the images below:
