For some writers, the holiday season can be a hard time to write. It can leave you feeling a bit “un-writer-ish” in December.
That’s why I’ve gotten together with several other writers to create a “Christmas market” for you. This market collects courses and offers from us that are all aimed at helping writers like you get motivated, figure out what to write next, and improve their skills. There are over 30 courses, lessons, group coaching sessions available in this collection.
It’s a great Christmas collection!
And because you may have spent a lot of money on presents this year, we’ve kept the price of the market low.
Even though the price of all the offers in the collection would cost over $1,500, you can buy the entire market — every offer, just for your personal use — for $77. Wow.
Offers include:
Mastering Omniscient Narration
Scrappy Rough Draft: Finish Writing Your Book
YOUR Creative System Reset: 7 Days to Free Your Writing Flow
Sustainable Author Marketing Starter Kit
My Bradbury Trio: 12-Week Course
And many others!
This market is only available over the holiday period — so go fill your shopping trolley with all these amazing tools for writers.
Do you have a writer friend who is hard to buy presents for? If you upgrade your market pass to the more expensive option, you can ALSO gift a copy of the market collection to a single friend.
Just spend $98 instead of $77 and you’ll get both a copy for yourself AND one for a friend.
If we were having coffee I would tell you…today I am making chicken tortilla soup for Soup Sunday.
Breakfast this morning was tasty. We had to leave a bit later because Chris needed to call for our backcountry reservations for our August trip to the Quetico! It is always exciting to travel!
If we were having coffee, I would tell you… Chris and I were out and about on the first day of Spring. It is on the calendar only, the weather is no where near spring-like – it snowed that day. The weather has not been even at all this week. On Tuesday it was almost 80 degree F and then it was snowing and cold two days later. Luckily on my long run day (Friday) it was sunny even though it was cold. Yesterday there were flurries again. I guess that means I continue to make soup! LOL
We went to a lot of resale shops, went out to a lovely dinner at a brewery, I bought some notebooks and we received good news from the tax lady!
I found this ridiculous figurine of a unicorn in a ball gown. I didn’t buy it when Chris and I saw it on Thursday but I went back to get it the next day. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so it is my new writing icon! The photo of it is in the collage.
If we were having coffee I would tell you….I missed my Trio group this week! I am starting a new session on May 25th and there are spaces available but it is filling quickly! You can find the info here.
Here are some photos from this week:
If we were having coffee I would tell you…I attended the Shut Up and Write group again yesterday. There was a new mix of people. I gave myself a task list this time which worked better. I enjoyed my breakfast and they gave me the big cup for my black coffee [pictured above].
If we were having coffee I would tell you…the tiny writing experiments are coming April 1st! I will post them all month to celebrate National Poetry Month! The creativity exercises may or may not lead to a poem, but they will be fun!
If we were having coffee I would tell you…Chris’ daughter got engaged this past week! She came over with her fiance to tell us which was nice!
I got a new-to-me red chair for reading! [Chevy claims it for his own occasionally.] There has been lots of reading and lots of piled books around the house.
I went to dinner with my son this week which is always super fun.
I had my revision group meeting this week and we are experimenting with different revision techniques together so we can up our skill levels. It has been an interesting congealing of the group and it seems to be finding its way.
I would also tell you I am teaching my Unpublished to Published course starting on April 20th and you are invited! You can find the information here.
I would love to hear from you in the comments even if it is just to say HI or to ask a question!
I wish you a Happy Sunday full of delights! What is something delightful from your week?
A little more about me: Tammy L. Evans is a writer, teacher, and runner living in a tiny house on a peninsula with her husband and adventure cat. Her location device is her loud laugh. She is a reader for Reckon Review. She is the creator and host of the THE BRADBURY TRIO COURSE. Her poetry has been published in The Storyteller, FoxGlove Journal, Story Hall, Blue Insights, The Partnered Pen, and others. Her fiction has been published in Gone Lawn, South Florida Poetry Journal,Cabinets of Heed, Spelk, Five on the Fifth, Clover and White, Fiction Berlin Kitchen, and others.
If we were having coffee I would tell you…today I am making chili and cornbread for Soup Sunday! It is breakfast day with a threat of snow. I am a winter girl and I know it is still winter (until Thursday!) but I am done with snow. Once it gets over 70 degrees it is time for the snow to go away IMO.
The omelet was good today and the hashbrowns were ok. Nice big cups of coffee and ice water too. It is a lovely ritual. We went a little later, at my request, but I was still up early. Oh well…
If we were having coffee, I would tell you… Chris and I went to the Art Institute to see the new installation of Myth and Marble on Friday. It was a member preview event. We also attended a lecture featuring the exhibit curator, which was eye-opening and entertaining. It is always fun to hear someone speak about something they love so much.
After the lecture, we walked to the theater district and had linner (lunch/dinner) at The Dearborn across from Dailey Plaza. I was inspired to order cloth napkins like theirs for at home! St Patrick’s Day is a big deal in Chicago and we saw people wearing green and all the drink and food specials for the holiday.
We take the train into the city and the conductor held the train for 1 minute so we could make the 4:22pm back!! The morning train was on time which was surprising.
It was such a great day with beautiful weather. We walked around a bit after we ate.
I am attending another member preview at the end of the month for an artist date at the museum. I am looking forward to seeing Frida Kahlo’s art in person.
If we were having coffee I would tell you….I have a meeting with my Trio course people today! I am looking forward to being in conversation space with them. It has been such a wonderful 4 weeks! I am looking forward to the next session as well.
Here are some photos from this week:
If we were having coffee I would tell you…I attended a local Shut Up and Write event at a new-to-me coffee shop on Saturday. The group has a great vibe and they honor journaling and catching up on emails just as much as writing an essay or your novel. We write for 90 minutes and do an intention before and a check-in after. I plan to attend next week too! I am excited this group just may work. The food was awesome too. I don’t think I have eaten a more perfect biscuit than I have there.
If we were having coffee I would tell you…I held my full moon writing session yesterday. It was a small group but such fun! The April full moon is the pink moon! Details are coming soon about when the next session will be!
If we were having coffee I would tell you…my baby tomatoes are sprouting! I am already looking forward to that first tomato sandwich!
I would also tell you I am teaching my Unpublished to Published course starting on April 20th and you are invited! You can find the information here.
I would love to hear from you in the comments even if it is just to say HI or to ask a question!
I wish you a Happy Sunday full of delights! What is something delightful from your week?
On Sundays, I usually do my coffee share but today I invite you to a virtual dinner party!
Take a seat and start with our appetizers!
There is no set theme or attire for today’s dinner, but what would you wear? I love a good dress. Dresses are always comfortable and as a runner, they always fit (esp during marathon training).
If we were having appetizers I would tell you…we are eating stuffed mushrooms and homemade bread with herbed butter. There is a blueberry salt sprinkled on top of the butter! This was something I had in Iceland when I was there in February.
The signature cocktail for the evening is champagne! But if you would like something a little different I have cherry old fashioned as well! Or assorted sodas and waters.
As we all get acquainted I would like you to think about 2 truths and a lie about yourself. We will have to guess which one is the lie! Make it convincing and not too easy for us.
If we were having the salad course, I would tell you… I had a revision group meeting this week and it went well! I started the meeting with the question, “When you think of the word revision what comes to mind?”
Various answers ranged from “overwhelmed” to “vision again”. But this wasn’t the direction I was going for so I asked, “What is your process for revision?”
Silence.
Then I asked, when you sit down to revise something do you start reading and begin changing things or something else? What do you do when you sit down to revise?
Then we started talking about cutting stories up, putting sentences on each line and other techniques.
The bottom line? We all do not care for revision as a part of the writing process! So a new (temporary) plan is to revise together in real-time and then discuss. I am excited for this new process!
The tablescape is spring-like, even though we have a little time yet before it is official. I love these carrot candles though and I couldn’t resist.
The table is full of flowers and light green fabrics(including the napkins). I serve food on white plates so the food looks its best!
If we were having our main course I would tell you….we are having prosciutto-wrapped chicken with a pesto cream sauce and jasmine rice.
If we were having dinner I would tell you daylight savings time is still in effect. We sprung the clocks forward. Anyone who knows me is aware I abhor daylight savings time. It saves nothing. I thought maybe it was going away this year but once again it was a lie. (I am not surprised).
If we were having our dessert and coffee I would tell you we are having bunny cookies!
During dessert I would tell you April will be full of Tiny Writing Experiments on Substack! This is my new creativity challenge I am launching! There will be more access for paid subscribers but still free posts available!
I would also tell you our missing outside kitty was found! She was at the other house across the lake! How she got there we are not certain but there are a few theories….she may have crawled in the truck and was driven over there. She might have followed me on a run and got lost. But, she is alive and thriving and that is a relief.
I would love to know what you are reading! My friend Nancy recommended Building a Second Brain which has been amazing and eye-opening. I wish I had this book when I was teaching. There are a lot of note taking strategies I use already but what I am learning now is going to make me even more efficient!
If we were having dinner I would tell you…my son turned 22 this week. The last few years we have spent his birthday in DisneyWorld in Florida. We had dinner together last night! It was a good thing we were not in Disney this year due to some circumstances this week. He had a full week of birthday festivities with various family and friends since we were home.
If we were having dinner I would ask you…coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
Spring is officially here on the 20th but the transition from winter to spring is difficult for me. The weather is erratic and that is not fun to try to gauge when to run, what to wear, etc.
I would love to hear from you in the comments even if it is just to say HI!
I wish you a Happy Sunday full of delights! What is something delightful from your week?
Rain was forecast all day so I was “writing puttering” . It was one of those days where you are constantly busy but if someone asked you to list what you did, you would have trouble articulating most of the work. I did snippets of writing, but no full pieces. I read and wrote responses to those words. I read a lot of poetry.
There was a 2 hour lull in the rain so that was the time for the run. There were rivers and streams where there are not supposed to be. Houses in the neighborhood had moats. It also aligned with the time I needed to fold the bread in some oil and heat up the oven.
During the bread intermission I did what I needed to do and felt like I wanted to run more so that is what I did! It felt amazing and I got some decent miles in.
Today there is rain again and a wind advisory later. We will see what adventures the weather brings today.
Have you ever written 6-word stories/memoirs? This is an exercise I have used with students who are children and adults. They can be more difficult than they seem, but always fun.
Proud mom of 22 year old.
Raindrops fall delaying my morning run.
Reading my own words transports me.
Reading and writing are still connected.
It is a great exercise to keep in your pocket for poetry month in April. You can string the 6 Word lines together for a poem for an individual or pull lines from students for a class poem.
In a writing community I belong to there is a weekly check-in meeting on Mondays. It is a casual meeting with a revolving attendance which centers around three questions.
What are you celebrating?
What are your challenges/obstacles?
Where do you need help?
In the past, I have used Todd Henry’s questions for reflection: (1) What are you working on right now? (2) Is there anything we can help you with? (3) What’s inspiring you right now?
I like the inspiration question in particular.
The question about the help is often the one skipped in the tone of, “I don’t think there is anything I specifically need help with this week.” Occasionally, someone will ask for an actionable help task – an individual check-in on a specific day, a time to work together silently, a courtesy read – which I always appreciate. Help is often offered unsolicited or in the way of storied parallel problems.
With everything, asking for help takes practice. As many of us in a teaching profession, we are used to taking care of a lot of things on our own. In my personal experience, I have asked for help and not received it (from people that you would have expected to help me.)
A story I tell myself is that asking for help will take longer. I am at the point where I am asking myself the question, “Is that really true?” when faced with what I perceive as facts.
Help often comes in the form of a life-giving conversation which is the way I prefer it. Often when I need help or am struggling I retreat and cancel the meeting or don’t show up. I am always willing to help someone else who asks.
I just need more practice being the one who asks for help I guess.
f we were having coffee I would tell you…today I am making cabbage soup for Soup Sunday! It is also breakfast day! We went to our regular place, but the regular waitress was not there. She had gone home sick sadly. We did see some people yell at the hostess unnecessarily though. Why people think they can bring outside food into a restaurant is beyond me.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you… I listened to Emily P Freeman’s podcast The Next Right Thing and learned about the book, The Magic of Knowing What You Want by Tracey Gee. It talks about how to answer the question, “What do you want?” It can be a hard one! Harder than you think it should be because of all the conditioning we are exposed to. It is a great read so far. One of the activities Tracey invites you to do is write a list of 100 desires. (Emily highlights this exercise as well.)
If we were having coffee I would tell you….I have a meeting with my Trio course people today! I am looking forward to being in some conversation space with them. I was able to spend some time this week walking, running, at the library and at my favorite cafe. I have been doing a lot of reflecting in my notebook and working on my writing!
Here are some photos from this week:
If we were having coffee I would tell you…Chris and I had a lovely date day this week! We went to our cafe and walked to the used bookstore. We tried to walk to the thrift shop but it was closed. We were able to get some errands done too. It was a beautiful day.
If we were having coffee I would tell you…I went to dinner with my son this week which is always fun. Our conversation is always enjoyable. It was last minute this week but it worked out well.
If we were having coffee I would tell you…my brother-in-law signed up for a series of pottery classes. He is an expert-level artisan but hadn’t thrown a piece of pottery in almost 30 years! We went out to eat after his first class to celebrate.
I would love to hear from you in the comments even if it is just to say HI!
I wish you a Happy Sunday full of delights! What is something delightful from your week?
I wasn’t sure I was going to join the challenge this year. Last year I received an email stating that I was not allowed to use my Substack as a link for the challenge. Unless it is March, this WordPress account doesn’t get much traffic for blog posts even for my most popular Sunday Coffee Shares which is why I changed platforms for the bulk of my writing.
But ultimately, this community is important to me and I enjoy seeing the familiar names and blogs and catching up on some of what has happened with these teacher writers.
This Saturday Morning
Snow on the ground when it was 60 degrees yesterday
A sleepy cat smashing himself into the corner of the couch
A purple journal with an Iceland sticker purchased less than a month ago
A pottery mug that holds my daily elixer
Writing feedback comments I did this morning swirling in my head
The anticipation of 10 degree real feel outside for my run…soon
Tammy Evans Writer 