AUGUST

Monday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 8th: I’m accepting applications for The Writer Mama Scholarship for my Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff Class (which begins September 8th, details and register here). I’ll post the application info on Sunday the 1st and announce the recipient on Monday, August 9th.

Monday, August – December 2010: I’m launching my second round of three levels of Dream Teams with former students who want to get more of their writing published. Woo-hoo! Cannot wait! (Learn more here.)

Sunday, August 8th: I’m doing a workshop at the Willamette Writers Conference called “The Prosperous Writer.” I’m also critiquing manuscripts, signing books, participating in the silent auction, and catching up with and meeting former students. Yay!

Monday, August 9th – Sunday, August 15th: I’m accepting applications for a second Writer Mama Scholarship. This time for my Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform class (which begins September 8th, details and register here). I’ll post the application info on Sunday the 8th and announce the recipient on Monday, August 16th.

Monday, August 16th – Sunday, August 22nd: I will be away from my desk. When I come back I will be very tan. (At least as tan as a very pale person can get.)

SEPTEMBER

E-mail classes start on September 8th: I’m going into my fourth year of teaching Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff. I’m also teaching Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform. Both of my classes are newly updated and expanded! Abigail Green will also be teaching her popular class, Personal Essays That Get Published. (All the upcoming class info is here.)

Saturday, September 11th: I’m presenting a lunch workshop for Rose City Romance Writers at PCC Sylvania Campus from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Get Known Before The Book Deal, An Author Platform Checklist. Look forward to meeting everyone! (More info here.)

Sunday, September 19th: We’re launching season four of the Northwest Author Series with Nicole Rubel of Rotten Ralph fame at the Wilsonville Public Library at 3:30 p.m.. Her topic is Find Your Voice: Use It In A Children’s Book. (Details are over at the Northwest Author Series blog.)

Hope to work with you or connect with you through one of these upcoming classes or events!

In August 2005, I pitched a book concept at the Willamette Writer’s Conference and landed, eventually, my first book deal.

In March 2007, that book, Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids was released by Writer’s Digest Books.

I tell the beginning of the story of how I grew my writing career to the point where I was ready to do a thing as scary as standing up in front of a room full of people to propose a book in Writer Mama. (I even include the pitch I used.)

Then, I finish the story of what it’s like to write a first book proposal and write a first nonfiction book in my recently released (and first) e-book, Author Mama, How I Became A Published Author and How You Can Too (available in PDF now and coming soon to Kindle and POD).

But I want to reminisce a bit about Writer Mama. Because just like the seed becomes the sprout and grow and forms a bud which becomes a flower that eventually bears fruit, which is harvested, Writer Mama was the seed of an idea that has born infinite joy and possibilities for me as a writer and a teacher.

Of all of the things that I love most about my writing, teaching, and speaking career, my relationship with my students is the greatest source of happiness for me. You might think that my favorite part of being a teacher would be to look back on the people whom I have taught and bask in the glow of their successes. But that’s not really where it’s at for me. That’s not what really pumps me up.

For me, the biggest source of pride always goes back to the very beginning. To the point where a writer is basically unpublished, unfocused, and unsure how to get from not writing to getting paid and published. Saying it so briefly makes it sound like a piece of cake. But it’s not so easy that some specific guidance and support can’t help and speed up the process. And if it’s done in a foundational way, the work I do can (and often does) lead to the launching of a professional writing career for many mom writers.

The beginning part of the process, assisting in the launch, continues to be my most satisfying role. Although lately, I confess, another favorite part of the process has been helping writers become regularly published, after they’ve gotten published once or twice in my Dream Teams. Because once a writer mom has gotten published and gotten the hang of getting regularly published, she has lots of options in her future.

Writer Mama has been around for 39 months, with almost fifty reviews on Amazon, and new moms still discovering it every day. In the meantime, some of its original readers have gone on to grow their writing careers to the point where they have a book out or coming out or in the process of being pitched. They are building platforms, landing agents, and just basically producing their own careers, which makes me really happy.

I’m going into my fifth year of working with mom writers. Okay, sure, I love to get the e-mails saying that the first piece was published or that one piece has been published ten times now or that the student has decided to take their career to the next level or that the student just landed an agent or that the student created a class or got a book deal or any kind of good news. But I just love hearing from my students period. At the end of the day, my role is being helpful and helping mom writers find their momentum. It’s simply what I do.

Frustration is a common feeling for moms who want to launch or grow writing careers.

And something I’ve been reminded of over the past five months is that frustration can be transformed into productivity.

But only if you are patient and only if you are paying close attention to your own process.

People often think that productivity has to do with superb organization or planning ahead or goal setting.

But it doesn’t.

It has little to do with all of those things and everything to do with accepting frustration and channeling it to accomplish the single next most important thing that needs to be done right now.

I am sure it is not news to you if you are reading this blog that creative people have a tendency to feel frustrated. To spin their wheels. To surf the web too much. To have draining or distracting “friends.” And to pine for something that they think is going to be magically bestowed upon them rather than earned.

And that’s why frustration is our friend.

Frustration burns in you when you see someone else succeed at something you wish you had succeeded at.

Frustration burns in you when you wonder why you should have to start at the beginning and work your way up when everyone else seems to just have opportunities handed to them.

Frustration burns in you when you finally do accomplish a goal only to find that the satisfaction is short-lived.

Frustration is our friend because we would be complacent without it.

We might become overly involved in other people’s concerns to distract ourselves from pursuing our own dreams.

We might be deathly afraid of being “selfish” enough to pursue our dreams because blindly following the status quo has been ingrained in us instead of the alternative…expressing our authentic selves.

For me, helping a student channel her inherent creativity in a prosperous way means helping her turn her frustration into productivity. It is not an easy feat but it can be accomplished. (I’ve been doing it for ten years.)

And when it happens, I feel like a matchmaker.

Not the kind of match-maker who introduces a person to someone else. But the kind of match-maker who introduces a person to a part of herself that she may not have previously been using. Perhaps a part of herself that was dormant, ignored or even feared.

I’ll be working with a new-to-me group of writers in two classes beginning September 8th.

And I will be training groups of former students in my Dream Teams starting in August and running through December.

And I cannot wait.

Bring me your frustrations and I will teach you to put them to work.

~ Photo by – Reuben -

I am often asked by writers if I can work with them.

I can! And I do. All the time.

The only caveat is that I work with writers in fairly specific ways. I work mostly with moms who want to write nonfiction. I work mostly with women. And I only work with writers who plan to succeed.

In fact, after years of steady work, one of my students landed an agent last week. Yahoo! Several of my former students have first books coming out this year. And I could not even count how many former students were published in June, I’m sure.

On top of all of this teaching work, I actually do my own work too (somehow). In fact, on Friday, I received an offer on a third book with Writer’s Digest that I am VERY excited about. (Won’t be able to reveal details about this book until everything is nailed down, though, so bear with me.)

So, now that I am swinging back into book-writing mode, I am thinking about how I will structure my time as carefully as possible so that I can write the best book possible.

This Fall, I am offering four classes, hosting two classes for Abby Green, working with three Dream Teams, and phone coaching former students (in my copious spare time).

Often folks want to work with me who have not taken classes with me before, which is challenging because I strongly prefer to work with former students. So, if you’d like to work with me, the best way to become a former student is sign up for one of the upcoming Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff classes. This helps me get to know you and it helps you get to know me, and then we can work together better. The skills you will learn and practice will come in handy in any nonfiction writing career and the September class will be completely updated.

So, if  you are ready to write this Fall and you would like to work with me, I would welcome the opportunity to work with you.

I offer classes that can stand alone or build on each other over time. The vast majority of students who have gone on to become authors have taken repeated classes with me over time. Others are just happy to learn how to earn money writing about topics they enjoy. Hope to work with you soon:

Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff

Personal Essays That Get Published (with Abigail Green)

Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform

Pitching Practice: Write Six Queries in Six Weeks

Dream Teams (Article Writing, Advanced Article Writing, and Platform Development)

As you may know, I always offer copious free and inexpensive opportunities to learn with me. You can read about them here. I am also the author of two traditionally published books and one e-book. Over the summer I will be adding more offerings with low-price tags. Subscribe to The Prosperous Writer e-zine in the upper right-hand corner to get and stay in the loop.

Here’s to our mutual success!

~ Photo by ElyceFeliz

WPSS gave me the confidence and motivation to write quickly and efficiently and not be held back by the possibility of rejection. Within two weeks of completing the class, I had three articles accepted for publication. I’d recommend this class to anyone.   ~ L. Wilde

Christina was the friendly guide who helped me navigate a new writing path. She set a brisk pace, and provided me with all of the tools, opportunities to practice, and encouragement I needed to keep me on course.   ~ J. Barber

I’ve been writing professionally for over a decade, and I still learned a ton from Christina and her course.   ~ J. Crowell

WPSS was exactly what I needed! Christina’s thorough instruction and skilled critique helped me accomplish all of my goals for the course. I improved my writing, learned about the industry, and developed saleable work. I sold my first article during week six, and another one the following week!   ~ M. Jacobson

I got much more out of this class than I could have anticipated or expected.  Not only did I learn techniques for breaking into magazine writing, but I also learned how to fit writing into my life with my toddler. The assignments were just enough to force me to carve out time without being overwhelming.  I will definitely be recommending this class to my mama writer friends. Thanks, Christina!   ~ S. Thompson

This course was just the scaffolding I needed. I had read a lot about publishing and I had begun making writing part of my daily routine, but this class gave me the guidance to know what to do next and how to do it. Now I have the confidence and experience to go out there and start getting published!   ~ S. Vanden Berg

The next session of Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff begins on Wednesday, May 12th. Learn more here.

It’s been three years since the release of my first book, Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Along Side Your Kids from Writer’s Digest Books. And it seems the “place” where writing and motherhood intersect is more popular than ever. I hope when you are considering what to give to mom this Sunday, you will consider a writer-mama-related gift for any mom who is writing-minded. (Read more here.)

I’m very proud to be a hard-working member of the writer mama community in real life and online. Over the past many years, I’ve been writing for publication, teaching other writers, speaking to writers at literary events, publishing high-quality content through my e-zines and blogs, offering scholarships, coaching and training advanced students, hosting book giveaways and live literary events, and befriending writers and authors far and wide.

Today, I work full time, but I started out unpublished and unknown just like all writers do. I worked my way up, clip after clip, book after book, one day at a time. And this is why I never get tired of receiving e-mails from my students saying that they just got their first clip, or they just broke into a market they’d been trying to crack for months, or they just got the book deal, or they heard from a reader that what they’d written really made a difference to them.

No matter how many e-mails like these I get, I still get a huge, “YES!” feeling from every single one. I still feel like what I do is important and worthwhile, and helps women to discover or recover their unique “voice.” I still say to my husband when he gets home from work, “Guess what?” and then I share the news.

My next round of classes for mom writers who want to get published begins on May 12th. Some students get published before the six weeks are up. Others get published and continue to publish after the class wraps up. Some go on to build a career that can support a nonfiction book deal. If you are interested in joining our ranks, please sign up now for classes I’m offering for beginning and intermediate students. I also host an extremely high quality essay-writing class with Abigail Green, whose students positively rave about how good her class is.

Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff: Finally, a writing workshop that fits into the busy lives of moms! This class focuses on getting you into print sooner, rather than later, and without pulling all-nighters or paying a fortune in babysitter fees. You will learn how to create short, easy-to-write articles—a skill that will make it easier to work your way up to longer, more time-consuming articles (like features and profiles) when you’re ready. You will try your pen at tips, fillers, short interviews, list articles, how-tos, and the short personal essays—all within six weeks. And you will learn to submit your work with a basic cover letter. More here…

Personal Essays That Get Published: It pays to get personal these days. Given the popularity of reality shows, blogs, and tell-all books, interest in everyday individuals’ experiences is at an all-time high. Writers are often told, “Write what you know.” What subject can you possibly know better than your own life? Whether you want to pen an introspective essay about your struggle with infertility, a first-person article about your travels in India, or a short humor piece about parenting, your life is a goldmine of rich material that all kinds of publications are pining for. More here…

Pitching Practice, Write Six Queries in Six Weeks: In this writing class, pitching is all you do. Over the course of six weeks, you crank out six queries, which is exactly the kind of practice you need if you want to get into the habit of landing better-paying assignments. After you write and send six queries, you will never again ask, “What makes a strong query?” You will have developed your own style into prototypes that you can use over and over to obtain future assignments. And finding your own rhythm, not someone else’s, is what effective query writing is about. More here…

Writer Mamas, Come and Celebrate Your Proudest Moments! I’ll be hosting the Writer Mama/Author Mama Proudest Moments Celebration on May 14th. If you still haven’t sent your proudest moment in, you still can, I’ll extend the deadline through Friday, May 7th at midnight. Details: Submit the proudest moment of your writing career thus far to me by May 7, 2010 at midnight April 30, 2010. I will then compile them and post them on the party date, which is Friday, May 14, 2010. Keep your “moment” to 200-400 words, single-spaced, put it in a Microsoft Word document, and e-mail it to my new e-mail address (“katzchristina at comcast dot net”), which you should add to your address book, if you haven’t already because I have a new address. More here…

Join the Conversation: If you have not yet signed up for The Prosperous Writer, I encourage you to join the conversation. Each week I write about one of the 52 qualities of prosperous writers and encourage readers to respond with their own thoughts in their blogs. We have explored some compelling topics already but past issues are not archived, so you must subscribe to receive them. Just add your e-mail address to the “subscribe” field in the upper-right hand corner of this page to join us!

Thank you so much, moms, for all of your support over the past many years. I hope to continue to help moms work their way up to the status of “writing professional” for a long, long time to come.

This month, I am attending three conferences in three different states (and none of them are my state) and hosting my author series the only weekend I’m in town.

Of course, I don’t want to miss a single moment! But at the same time, book-ending all of this with travel is challenging. When I have to be away from home, it’s not easy on the family. And when I’m this busy, it’s not easy to keep up with my regular schedule.

But that’s okay because each week this month is like a cornucopia of great things going on! Here’s what’s coming up that you won’t want to miss:

The Writer Mama Scholarship for the May 12th Class: Come back Monday for the info you need to apply for a full scholarship to my upcoming Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff class.

The Writer Mama/Author Mama Proudest Moments Celebration: Some of your proudest moments are starting to trickle in. Don’t forget to send yours!

The ASJA Conference: I am attending the ASJA Conference in New York City and will appear on a panel on social networking hosted by Kathy Sena on Saturday, April 24th. Please say hello if you are there.

Submit Your Author Mama Feedback by April 23rd: If you have not yet had a chance to purchase and read Author Mama, How I Became A Published Author & How You Can Too, there is still time to participate in making the final version as great as it can be. Everyone who participates will receive the alpha version in PDF for free upon publication in May. Interested? Here’s the whole scoop.

Work With Me: Registration is now open for the May 12th Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff class and the August – December Dream Teams. I look forward to working with fresh groups of new and former students! Also beginning May 12th, Abigail Green is teaching Personal Essays That Get Published.

In the meantime, I’m taking the weekend off to rest, host the Northwest Author Series, and enjoy celebrating my husband’s birthday with his parents, who are here visiting from Colorado.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I mentioned a month or so ago that I’ve entered my fourth year teaching Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff, a class I developed especially for writer mamas.

You can read what recent students have said about the class here and here.

Please e-mail me at “writer mama at earthlink dot net” if you have any questions concerning the upcoming Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff class.

Students who take the class are then eligible to sign up for the WPSS Dream Team. However, you must complete the coursework in order to be eligible to sign up for the Dream Team.

I will open up registration for the next WPSS Dream Team, which will take place from August through December, on March 1st for former students. Registration will remain open until the group is full. If there is enough demand for two teams, I will create a second team.

Former students who have been working on building up clips, please note that Pitching Practice begins May 12th. There is also another round of WPSS that begins May 12th.

Hope to work with you in a class or a dream team soon!

This Sunday, January 24th, I am hosting the Northwest Author Series. Our guest this month is children’s author Amber Keyser, who will speak on How To Use a Critique Group.

There’s even going to be a demo! Amber is bringing some members of her critique group, Viva Scriva, and they are going to show us how they critique each other’s work. So if you are a member of a writing group or you wish to start a writing group or if you are just curious about how writing groups work, this is the workshop for you!

I’ll even be giving away extra door prizes from my generous publisher. In addition to our usual one-year-subscriptions to WritersMarket.com and Writer’s Digest magazine, I have two copies of Becky Levine’s new book, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide from Writer’s Digest Books. [Amazon link]

You can read all about the Northwest Author Series at our blog. Don’t forget to sign up for our e-mail reminders, if you live nearby!

And, on Sunday, January 31st, I’m hosting a three-hour Power-Up Your Platform For the Internet Age workshop. If you’ve always wanted to work with others on your platform-building or refocusing, this experiential workshop is your chance to get on-the-spot feedback on your ideas. I hope you will join us!

You can learn all about it right here. Holler if you need questions answered.

Next week is going to be tons of fun. I can’t wait!