New Year, New Adventures

Hi there!

preparing for the long journey ... loving every moment

It’s hard to believe it is 2012 — but it sure is! I’ve been spending a lot thinking about A Forest of Stories and the importance I find in balancing structure with creativity. Because I am committed to creating an abundance of resources, products, and truths for our adventures into the new year, it’s important for me to bring some sense of schedule to this space and to the stories here. With this in mind, I’ve created a blogging schedule that will focus on the most important areas I’d like to bring to A Forest of Stories in the next months and year.

Money Mondays

I’m in the process of changing my money story. It’s not an easy process {I’m the first to admit it}. Several of you have asked {via twitter, facebook, and blog comments} for resources, advice, or other information regarding this experience. Because it is my intention to be transparent about this journey, and because being honest about my struggles shows others out there that we are not alone, I am dedicating Mondays to posting about money. This might be a review of a product or resource, it might be a money story update, or it might be something else {I can’t be too rigid — it’s the thing that got me in this trouble}. Regardless, Mondays are for money.

Truth-Telling Tuesdays

After a fabulous conversation with Tanya Geisler one day, I really crystallized the parts of my teaching work that critically important to me. One of the major things is truth-telling. In that way of telling the truth of our hearts, of our experiences, in this world. The truths we hold locked away, the ones buried deep in our hearts. Tuesdays are for navigating this process of truth-telling, for exploring the stories we carry and for sharing ideas and techniques to make this truth-telling process come alive. Tuesday posts will include excerpts from my notebook, writing prompts, ideas and suggestions for re-examining your stories, and other tools of the writing craft.

Warrior Women Wednesdays

You might remember a series of interviews I conducted last Spring/Summer/Autumn. I’m excited to say that, after a brief {but much needed hiatus}, I am resurrecting the Warrior Women Interviews. For the month of January, I’ll be running some of my favorites of the previous interviews in this series and, beginning on February 1, will feature brand-new interviews with some of the fiercest and strongest women I encounter on the web. Want to be featured in the series, or have a suggestion for a great woman to interview? Please drop me an email with names and contact information, and I will definitely follow up on the leads! What is important to me is that we share the work and brilliance of other women in their journeys, and this is a great way to get out your work, share someone who has been influential to you, or just learn more about some you’ve always wanted to meet!

Fun-Filled Fridays

I confess: By the time Friday rolls around, I am usually SO ready for the weekend. I want to read exciting, humorous, silly, or beautiful blog posts. Inspired by Amanda Blake Soule’s {this moment} project, I’ll be posting a photograph {and perhaps a snippet of poem} to the blog on Fridays. I may also include a round-up of my favorite things from the week, but those posts are more likely to be included in regular weekday blogging. This is a chance for me to share a snippet of my world with you, in a personal way, {mostly} without words.

Strategy Sundays

One of the reasons I studied writing in college was because I wanted to work in the publishing industry: As an editor. Because that process of refinement, of excavation {see Truth-Telling Tuesdays, above}, is so core to my work, so central to my own process and to the process I guide other women through, I wanted to create a space to share that aspect of my work. Strategy Sundays is this space. Unlike the Tuesday posts, which will include aspects of creative nonfiction and poetry {written by my} and the prompts, the techniques, used to create them, Strategy Sundays are bigger, broader, and more diverse. Sunday posts will include things like writing contest/publication opportunities, tips on how to refine your manuscript, brilliance collected from other writers in the world, and other non-prompt writing exercises. I want to get into the meat of the writing experience OUTSIDE the actual process of putting pen to page. The other meat, so to speak. Sunday posts will be an attempt to share some of the wisdom and sage advice I’ve gathered from nearly ten years as a writer, editor, and published author.

Whew! That’s a LOT of new stuff!

In all, I’m crazy excited to begin this new chapter in A Forest of Stories and to share with all of you the essence of the work being created here, to gather and cherish our wisdom, our ideas, our uniquity. And support one another on this great, cacophonous adventure we call life.

The new schedule begins TODAY! with an re-release of the Warrior Women interview I did with Vivienne McMaster. Today is the final day to register for her workshop EMERGE {co-taught with Liz Lamoreux and Jenna McGuiggan}. I hope you enjoy this interview, and consider signing up for EMERGE!