Blisscraft Life With Christina Katz

If you are wondering how other writers seem to be able to accomplish cool stuff, I can tell you.

It’s because they set and work steadily towards their goals.

Often goal-setting approaches, are dry, dull, or over-the-top, but I approach goals by putting personal satisfaction first.

So you never have to spend a single moment working towards goals to please others or just to look good.

You can spend all your energy working towards goals that bring you joy.

People in the extended writing community can be super-intense. I should know. I’ve been a part of it for a long time.

But there is another path to reaching your goal and carving out a distinct sense of success that makes you feel proud from your head to your toes.

What do I know that other coaches don’t?

Find out by joining my monthly Writing Accountability Dream Team for only $10 a month.

You will set your top five goals each month and work steadily towards them, until it time to set five more and work towards them.

I will send you a 15-minute monthly video pep talk that will motivate you and help you stay focused, while also helping you cut yourself some slack.

Because your writing career isn’t a race. It’s a journey towards impressing yourself.

At least that’s the way it should be. That’s the way everything should be.

Join us! It’s only $10 a month when you subscribe here.

The last day to sign up for September is August 28th. Don’t miss this chance to kick the back-to-school year off right.

Hope to work with you!

This recipe is really good for fall because you can double or triple the sauce and put the extra in the freezer for another day. I usually freeze the extra sauce in Ziploc freezer bags. Then this makes a super-quick weeknight supper because all you have to do is thaw the sauce and boil pasta.

Rigatoni with Spiced Meat Sauce

12 oz Rigatoni or other short pasta
1 lb ground beef
1 med onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed, minced, or grated
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, obviously)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar (and who are we kidding– any old vinegar will do here)

Cook pasta and set aside.
Brown meat. Add onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is tender.
Stir in tomato paste, cinnamon, and cayenne. Cook 2 minutes.
Add 1 1/2 cups water and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Stir in vinegar and season again with salt and pepper if needed.
Toss with pasta and serve with salad.

Lela Davidson is an award-winning author and essayist (Blacklisted from the PTA and Who Peed on My Yoga Mat?), a freelance journalist and commentator for NBC News/TODAY Moms, and has been a regular contributor to iVillage and Huffington Post. Lela speaks nationally on motherhood, marriage, media, marketing, and the challenges of being over-40 in a Botox world. Her humorous, inspirational essays are featured in family and parenting magazines throughout North America and in Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms. Her book marketing advice has been featured in Writer’s Digest. Lela returned to corporate life in 2013 to launch a brand publishing, content and commerce division at an ecommerce startup. She is currently Vice President Media & Entertainment for lifestyle brand, Country Outfitter.

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This past week we took in three barn kittens, who are about three months old.

I have had a happy feeling ever since, all week long.

First of all, the kitten are so stinkin’ cute. Secondly, they make the house feel more full and alive.

The house was getting emptier and emptier since the passing of our babies Buddha and Mercury last year and the year before.

Devo, our third older cat, is also slowing down considerably. He’s sixteen now, and I think the inevitability of his passing finally got me ready to consider taking in a kitten.

The more his passing seemed like it could happen any day, the more I was like, “Okay, I’m ready for a kitten.”

And then the willingness to take in one kitten turned into the willingness to take in three, who all happen to be litter mates.

Our family started out as just me and Jason, and our three cats from the get-go. So maybe that’s why it feels so normal to have at least three cats. And why I was feeling so out of balance every time we lost a little member of our family.

This is going to be a bit of an adjustment, as we get these little guys acclimated and adjusted to life Chez Katz.

I’m happy to report that the kittens are starting to settle in and I think all the animals will be roaming freely throughout the house soon.

Here’s a Pinterest Page I pulled together about writers and their cats. And here’s an article I had published recently about cats as pets, Here, Kitty-Kitty!

All this and more! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer ezine, for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere.

One of my posters, 36 Reasons To Write, is trending globally. Click on the image to check out this and other printables for home office, dorm room or classroom.

*** BACK TO SCHOOL SALE! ***

PURCHASE TWO POSTERS FROM MY ETSY SHOP AND GET ONE FOR FREE!

During the month of August 2015, purchase two posters at the regular price and then send me a message or email with your choice of a third poster, and I will send it to you within 24 hours for absolutely FREE!

This sale was popular last year, and it only happens once a year, so I hope you will take advantage of it.

Start shopping Words Glorious Words downloadable posters today.

Just be sure to place your order in my Etsy shop by August 31st to claim you free poster.

Happy Back-to-school!

I think this essay by Mindy Kaling is one of the most brilliant things I have read in a long time. I am sharing the punchline here in case busy women like myself don’t have time to read the whole essay.

But don’t read the conclusion here if you have three minutes to read the whole piece, which you can do here.

Mindy Kaling’s Guide To Killer Confidence

The good news is that, as a country, we are all about telling girls to be confident. It’s our new national pastime. Every day I see Twitter posts, Instagram campaigns, and hashtags that say things like “We Will!” or “Girls Can!” or “Me Must, I Too!” on them. I think widespread, online displays of female self-confidence are good for people, especially men, to see. I just sometimes get the sneaking suspicion that corporations are co-opting “girl confidence” language to rally girls into buying body wash. Be careful.

So, if that girl from the panel is reading this, I would like to say to her: Hi, it’s Mindy Kaling. I’m sorry I let you down. The thing is, I’m in my mid-thirties and I was wearing my Spanx for fourteen hours straight. You’ll understand when you’re older. Here’s how I think you can get your confidence back, kid:

Work hard, know your shit, show your shit, and then feel entitled. Listen to no one except the two smartest and kindest adults you know, and that doesn’t always mean your parents. If you do that, you will be fine. Now, excuse me, I need to lie down and watch Sheldon.

I think Kaling strikes a strong chord here. As the mother of a daughter, this really resonates with me.

I work hard, too. I have for years. And I have found that hard work, within reason, pretty much pays off every time.

But if I hover over my daughter, then she becomes less confident. And if I don’t offer her my expectations for navigating the world, then it’s up to her to figure everything out by herself, and that’s not good either. She can come to her own conclusion based on her own experiences, but I plan on being there for her, every day until she does not need me any more.

More than anything, I think it’s important for mothers to realize that growing up today is not the same as it was growing up in the seventies or the eighties.

My daughter is growing up in a different, more enlightened world than the one I grew up in. She is more thoughtful and aware than I was at her age. And thank goodness for that.

What do you think of this essay, folks? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Writers often have to write out of season.

In other words, we are often writing about fall in the spring. Or we are writing about winter in the summer.

Even if you are writing in the same season that you are writing about, sometimes it’s difficult to get your head in the seasonal game.

After all, seasons contain distinct weather, holidays, objects and more!

Well, now you have an edge, writers, because I have created Writing Prompts For Autumn Stories.

This workbook is a follow-up to my workbook Writing Prompts For Summer Stories.

And you guessed it, I’ll be rolling out Writing Prompts For Winter Stories and Writing Prompts For Spring Stories soon!

If you write regular seasonal pieces, these short, PDF workbooks will help you come up with fresh ideas and save you tons of research time.

And if you write essays or fiction, you will love the way these workbooks can help you grasp the entirety of a season in only a few minutes of reading time.

So what are you waiting for, writers?

Awaken your autumn sensibilities, just in time for the season, with Writing Prompts For August Stories.

Learn More & Order Here

All this and more! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer ezine, for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere.

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All this and more! Please subscribe to The Prosperous Writer Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Writer ezine, for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere.

Pasta salad is such a great thing to make in the summer because even on the hottest days you can cook the pasta in the cool of the morning and let it chill, add a few ingredients, and have something that tastes awesome by dinner time.

This pasta salad was inspired by our last visit to Trader Joe’s, where they were sampling something similar that they had made.

Jason and I decided to put our own twist on it and our version came out so tasty. And you can get all of these ingredients at TJs if you also shop there.

Share your pasta salad tricks in the comments if you have any up your sleeves. I’d love more ideas.

Greek Pasta Salad

Two boxes of tri-color Rotini pasta
One container of feta cheese crumbles
One jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
One can of artichoke hearts, chopped
One can of sliced black olives or slice your own Kalamata olives (take out the pits)
Thinly sliced red, orange, and yellow baby peppers
Sliced purple onion
One bottle of feta salad dressing
Salt and pepper to taste

I used one and half boxes of pasta, so the salad would have enough flavor, but if you go with both boxes just add in a little extra vinaigrette dressing to punch up the flavor. Basically, there are no set amounts for the rest of the ingredients, except the feta dressing. You will need the whole bottle. I only use about half of the sun-dried tomatoes. Otherwise, use however much of each you prefer. Makes a great side dish to BBQ meats.

Anyone who journals or writes regularly can attest that when we write, we conjure.

Conjure means to effect, produce, bring, by or as by magic.

Writing is a powerful tool that can be used for self-illumination, self-affirmation, and self-expression.

A person who does not express herself, offers a void for others and the world at large to respond to.

And it’s hard to respond to a void.

Often in our society, girls and women especially have been taught to be seen and not heard or to be “good listeners” and to be good shepherds of others needs and feelings.

How convenient it is for those in power for the women of the world to learn to be passive rather than active agents of expression and change.

This model has grown outdated, and it is no longer functional for the girls and women of the world to simply participate in man’s creation.

We need to co-create a more just, democratic, productive world, where every individual’s voice, both male and female, is expressed, heard and acknowledged.

And this means nobody gets to be a bystander. We don’t get to sit on the sidelines and watch or simply be a witness.

If you are a woman, who has not figured out what she has to say, it’s time to start having a frank conversation, at least with yourself.

Don’t look backwards for support, because you won’t like find the support in your past.

Look to a future where mothers and daughters are empowered, vocal, and involved in the day-to-day co-creation of the world.

Women and girls are not just supporters. We are players in a better, fairer future world.

And we need to act this way starting today. Communicating regularly, honestly, and openly with ourselves is the path to joyful self-expression.

That’s the kind of self-expression we get to have when we stop existing to please others and start existing to please ourselves.

If we feel frustrated about any of this, we can scrutinize our past commitments. Sometimes we are complicit to our own vow of silence without realizing it.

If you have made any unspoken agreements, create a ritual that helps you break those agreements.

No is asking you to shut up, girlfriends. No one is requiring you to keep your mouth shut. And the only person who can rescue the silenced princess is you.

Did you make any agreements in your childhood that you would like to break now? If you tend to keep quiet, the promise you made to do so probably goes way, way back.

See if you can weed it out, and move forward with a commitment to be more honest with yourself and others.

It takes time to practice self-expression when we have been complicit for so long. If you have abandoned yourself, why not begin again today?

The world will thank you for it.