Blisscraft Life With Christina Katz

Over the years, I have taught hundreds of writers, I have written thousands of words, and I have encouraged and inspired thousands of people, not all of them writers.

I can tell you what the worst days felt like and what the best days felt like.

The worst days were the days that I was fixated on the results of my efforts and trying to control those results.

And on the best days I was simply immersed in the joy of doing what I love and expressing who I am.

I have noticed that the results are always better on the days I am immersed in joy than on the days I am obsessed with trying to control the outcome.

If you are a writer and you want the key to professional happiness and professional satisfaction, look no further.

Give yourself an attitude adjustment, develop your skills, and focus on the next most important step for you.

That’s your job.

The secret sauce of a joyful writing career is being the best you can be, spreading that good stuff to others, and ignoring all the things that are not your job.

If you want to be happy in your writing career for just one day: put your cynicism down, turn off your mind, and just take the next step.

Dive into your latest current project and give it everything you’ve got.

Time will fly, stress will evaporate, results will accumulate, and the next thing you know magic will have happened.

You will have moved your writing career forward and enjoyed the process.

In this distracted, neurotic, cynical day and age THAT is a miracle every time it happens.

Every single writer I currently work with knows how to do this. They know how to focus, they know how to let go of the outcome, and they know how to enjoy the process of getting work done.

Do they forget sometimes that it’s supposed to be enjoyable?

Sure. Of course. Life is not going to just politely pause for you every time you snap your fingers.

But the more you tread the calm, sane path to success, the more clear the path becomes.

My students succeed at taming life so that it allows them to do what they love, too. There is no either-or.

Either-or is not necessary. Swap that “or” out for an “and.”

They succeed consistently. They break their own records. They keep calmly pushing themselves to accomplish the next goal.

I do the same things I teach my students day after day, week after week, month after month. I am not immune even though I have been doing this work for fifteen years.

So, if you want to write, embrace the process, be process-oriented, and enjoy the process.

There may be some disappointments along the way — since we can’t control outcomes — but as with everything else, suffering is optional.

If you love writing and you love your career, they will both love you back.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s get to work!

It’s selling, of course.

If I had to guesstimate, I would say 90% of writers don’t merely dislike selling, they hate it.

Often writers loathe selling simply because it’s unfamiliar.

Selling is so…capricious. So mysterious. So darned hard to get a handle on that it’s easier to just reject selling out of hand in order to ally ourselves with the more lofty aspects of writing like creativity, inspiration, and artfulness.

Ah, we like those words.

Yeah, we want more of that and less of that stuff that gets our hands dirty, like that disgusting salesy stuff.

Ew.

Ick.

Get it away from us.

We are way too good for selling. How dare you even associate us with that word.

Harumph.

Okay, okay, that’s enough. It’s time to get over your resistance to selling, writers.

You may think it sets you apart, but you know what? It doesn’t. Your resistance to selling is all too common.

So if you don’t want to be just another dime-a-dozen writer who gets all up in her ego about selling, take my 20-day Sell Your Writing freelance challenge.

You might even decide to step down off your selling high-horse and join the rest of us, who prosper by selling our words.

And if you are not on your high-horse about selling, great!

It will be that much easier to train you to be enthusiastic to get your words into print without any reluctance.

And for those of you who already sell, could you stand to sell even more? Then you should probably join us, too.

Selling is easy — it’s even fun — once you get out of your own way.

This brand new challenge begins Wednesday, October 1st and runs for 20 days.

I hope you can join us!

Two of my students are launching e-books this week and they are rock stars.

But they are rock stars who serve the world; not rock stars who expect the world to fawn all over them.

Today, real rock stars don’t just write music, play music, and tour the world playing in giant stadiums.

Real rock stars can do anything. They don’t merely only sing and perform. They are also authors.

Real rock stars care. They want to give back. They want to make the world a better place.

Rock stars create works that serve the world.

Do you know Christa Melnyk Hines? You should!

And when you create works that serve the world, the outcome is already destined for success. That’s how you become a rock star author.

As long as the world needs your type of service, you are going to be a busy rock star all day, every day for as long as you want to be busy.

This is called writing what the world needs.

If you want to write anything, not just a book, but anything, you need to think about what the world wants and needs and write that.

You may think, “I know what I want to write but I am not sure that the world wants it or needs it.”

Do you know Lara Krupicka? You should!

You might be right, but then again, you have to consider how to present your ideas and which audience you will target.

And remember, the world does not need old, worn-out ideas from twenty or thirty years ago.

No. Why would we? We have evolved so much in the past three decades.

We need your freshest and most helpful ideas. And we need them now.

Why in the world would you write anything else?

We have evolved. So authors need to write books for evolved minds.

Then make those books timeless and you will stay busy for a very long time.

Want to meet a couple of rock stars? I would love to introduce you to two people who do very important work in the world.

The first person is Christa Melnyk Hines and you can learn more about her at her website, ChristaMelnykHines.com.

The second person is Lara Krupicka and you can learn more about her at her website, LaraKrupicka.com.

This is the kind of face you don’t ever want to forget.

Today, I am excited to announce that Lara Krupicka is launching her new book, Bucket List Living For Moms, Become A More Adventurous Parent. LINK

Like me, you may be a bit of a bucket list skeptic. You may think, as I did, “Yes, bucket lists are nice and fun and all that, but I certainly don’t think that having a bucket list is going to change my life or anything like that.”

Then I started working with Lara Krupicka on her first bucket list living book, Family Bucket Lists, Bring More Fun, Adventure & Camaraderie Into Every Day. LINK

Lara has a good head on her shoulders and her heart is in the right place. Her books are not about spending your day on Pinterest competing with other moms to create the best Pinterest boards. These books are about examining the contents of your own heart and articulating what you find there — first to yourself and then to others in your family.

After Lara launched her first book on family buckets lists, I sat down with my own family, and put us all through the simple Q & A process that Lara created. In less than an hour, we created three colorful lists of all the things we longed to do, to see, to be, as well as a list of folks we wanted to meet.

I immediately gained a whole new appreciation of my husband and daughter as soon as I could see the world through the lens of their hopes and dreams.

Here we were, three people in one family, and you would think that we were oh, so much alike. But in reality, this family and any family is composed of unique individuals. And our individuality came shining through in each of our lists.

The story could end there. We could have used the book and gained appreciation for each other and then moved on. But nope. We decided to post our lists on the fridge. Then this summer, an opportunity came up for Samantha and I to realize one of the goals that was on both our lists — attending a Katy Perry concert.

The concert was Friday, and we got to spend the whole summer looking forward to the event and getting excited about going together. A bunch of my daughters’ friends from school and dance were at the concert with each other, but Samantha did not seem to mind going with her old mom at all.

The concert was unforgettable. I will never forget the incredible amount of creativity that Katy Perry exploded out into that stadium. I will never forget the way she was an electronic fountain of positivity and color and grace and humility and girlpower.

Attending the Katy Perry concert with my daughter was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. And I owe it all to working with the tools provided by Lara Krupicka for bucket list living.

You might think, bucket list living is no big deal. That’s it’s just a trend, a fad, a passing media fancy.

But you know what, you might be, as I was, underestimating the way the bucket list living might change your life for the better.

You might be missing out on ways to connect with the most important people in your life through the hopes and dreams that make them unique.

I will never forget seeing my daughter’s face at her very first concert. I will never forget rocking out with her to the opening song, to the songs in the middle, and to the finalé.

And I hope, when it comes to your personal and family bucket list dreams, you will too.

Head on over to Lara Krupicka’s website this week to register for a chance to win a Kindle, both of her books and a slew of other prizes.

Or better yet, buy both of her books right now, and start using her bucket list living exercises for yourself and for your family as soon as you can.

Learn more about Lara and all of her awesome offerings and resources at LaraKrupicka.com.

And definitely check out the Katy Perry concert if you get the chance!

Great news about my writing challenges, everyone!

The technology has become available to let me offer multiple challenges at the same time without completely losing my mind.

This was too much for me in the spring when I was creating, launching, and juggling so many writing and platform challenges at once that the day-to-day work became unmanageable.

It was so challenging that I had to take a break from offering some of my challenges this fall.

But over the summer, technological advances took place that now allow me to re-introduce as many challenges as you want me to offer.

Hooray! Because folks have already been asking me about new levels of freelance challenges to build on the three I already offer.

I can forward on new challenges once I have properly set up all of my past challenges, which include three freelance challenges and five 21 Moments challenges.

I’ve got all three freelance challenges already set up and going, and now I just need to tackle setting up 21 Moments.

My current thinking is to offer my three platform challenges elsewhere. Stay tuned for an announcement with this news, coming soon.

In the meantime, hip-hip-hooray for the return of 21 Moments!

Effective today, registration is now open for all of the challenges listed below, which will start landing in your inbox on October 1st!

Receive 21 excellent examples of great writing in your inbox daily for 21 days. Click on the badge to learn more and register:

 Receive 21 more excellent examples of great writing in your inbox daily for 21 days:

 Receive 21 more excellent examples of great writing in your inbox daily for 21 days:

Anyone who is looking to become a more facile and joyful parenting article writer should take my Article Writing Challenge.

Anyone who is looking to become a more thoughtful and skillful parenting essay writer should take my Essay Writing Challenge.

Anyone who is looking to become a more thoughtful rewriter and polisher of her own words should take my Grammar & Punctuation Challenge.

I am so excited to be going in the right direction again. Thank you, technology, for continuing to grow and evolve!

I should be able to offer levels four & five of 21 Moments for November.

Then I can focus on adding brand new challenges/levels in the New Year.

If  you are hoping for more levels of my freelance challenges, please spread the word about the challenges I already have.

Steady registrations this fall help insure more levels will be launched this winter.

Thanks for your support! I look forward to working with you on more writing, rewriting, and platform challenges!

Get your bundle of Writer Mama products here!

I have been waiting all summer for this!

I am very pleased to be able to offer a Writer Mama Back-To-Writing Bundle Of Booster Rockets to mom writers this month, and this month only.

The kids are back in school (or back to home school) and now mom can back on her writing horse. I’ve compiled a collection of my best resources to help mom get her writing groove back.

If you are just diving back in to your writing, mom, or just getting writing for the very first time, never fear. You are not alone.

We’ve all been there, at this pregnant pause, right after the kids go back to school, entertaining all the possible ways we could spend our newly free time.

Don’t wait and let this time get filled up with other commitments. Seize the opportunity to set aside some daily time to write.

This is the PERFECT time to get writing and stay writing all school year-long.

If my students can do it, you can do it, too. And then you can goof off next summer if you want.

I have a host of materials and classes here at my site to help mom writers with their writing goals. You can read about them all here.

And to celebrate back-to-school, I am offering a bundle of products created by me and sent to you directly from me:

• A signed paperback copy of Writer Mama, How To Raise Your Writing Career Alongside Your Kids* View
• A PDF copy of Write For Regional Parenting Publications For Fun & Profit View
• The Habits Of Successful Mom Writers Audio Download in MP3 View
• Three 8.5 x 11 inch home office posters specifically designed for mom writers in PDF:
  • Stay Home & Write View
  • Write For Love & MoneyView
  • Recipe For Writer Mama Success View

All this for more than half off the retail price for a total of only $19.99.

Right here at ChristinaKatz.com is the only place where you can buy this bundle. Digital products delivered through e-junkie. Media mail shipping for Writer Mama in the Continental US is included!

This offer is for September 2014 only. You can’t get an amazing discounted deal like this on all of these items anywhere else!

Buy now! And be sure to tell all your friends.

* Offer valid in the continental US only. Please allow 24 hours for item to be shipped. Media mail takes approximately 2-8 business days.

Did you know my website has a shopping cart?

If you put something into your cart in error, no worries. You can take your time, look around, and select books, workbooks, writing and platform challenges, classes, and dream teams until you are ready to check out. Then, to view or alter the contents of your shopping cart, click the button below.

If you would like to improve the way you think about brainstorming parenting articles, structure pieces that are more likely to sell, and come up with many ideas that are sure to dazzle editors, then you need to register for The Christina Katz Article Writing Challenge.

In this daily challenge, I will share 20 of my successful parenting articles and explain what makes them work, while encouraging you to come up with your own ideas in your own formats, so you can better serve editors with your desire to write.

Christina Katz is a true coach. Not only does she teach, she trains. To me, that means she is willing to serve and invest in her students without being threatened by sharing her methods. She wants her students to succeed. The Article Writing Challenge helped tighten the mechanics of article writing and simultaneously produced creativity and inspiration. ~ Kathy Moulton

Christina’s Article Writing Challenge was an energizing way to help me amp up my article idea machine. Better yet, it motivated me to capture those ideas floating around in my head and get them down on paper before they were lost forever. And, that means I’m one step closer to getting them sold! ~ Christa Melnyk Hines

This challenge provided a much-needed energy boost for me. I was feeling stuck for ideas, and getting too focused on a few, but after reading the samples and completing the exercises, I have a list of ideas that I can turn into articles I know will sell. This was a perfect challenge to jump-start my spring writing, and get me back in the Regional Parenting Publication swing. I’m so excited to get writing now that I have a lot of different ideas and structures to play with. ~ Beth Fornauf

For me, the class got my creative juices to overflow. While completing the exercises I had so many ideas that I had to keep a separate pad of paper for future article ideas. I came a way with 3x as many articles as days in the challenge. I can’t wait to get started writing them.
because of the different types of articles my new article ideas will open me up to writing for new and different publications, which will provide significant  growth in my writing and audience  ~ Maureen Schuster

If you’d like a folder full of ideas and 20 new articles outlined in that many days, take Christina’s Article Writing Challenge. ~ Lisa Seplak

Register now for The Christina Katz Article Writing Challenge.

Breaking Reviews From The Telluride Film Festival For Cheryl Strayed’s Memoir-turned-movie, Wild

Technically it’s Reese Witherspoon’s adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild.

But let’s not be too picky. There would be no Wild, The Movie, without Cheryl Strayed’s book coming first.

But have no doubts that I love you, Reese Witherspoon, for making this book into a movie. ‘Cuz I do.

And I want to see you guys both crush it, and make it to the Oscars!

So I’m posting what I consider the best reviews from The Telluride 2014 Film Festival here.

Yes, yes, the reviewers get to be the judges.

But guess what? We then, get to judge the reviews.

You know me, always doing my part!

Champion More Production Companies Like Reese Witherspoon’s

What would going to the movies be like for women and girls if we had more female producers like Reese Witherspoon?

“But about three years ago, when my producing partner and I started our company, we had a purpose: We wanted to bring forward more female characters in film and have more interesting, dynamic parts for women. There’s a clarity to our work, which is great.” @RWitherspoon

Read the interview at Vulture.com:

http://www.vulture.com/2014/08/how-wild-saved-a-reese-witherspoon.html?mid=twitter_vulture

The Best Of The Wild Reviews From Telluride

Here’s the first one I found after the premiere and it’s a winner!

Deadline Hollywood review of Wild by Pete Hammond

“What better place to premiere a movie about a woman walking through the wilderness than Telluride? This film is about me, which is very strange. But when I was writing the book, one of the things I thought all along the way was that it really isn’t about me. I always wanted to write a story about this journey that was about all of us. And I am just so honored by the film that Jean -Marc made because it really does honor that vision.” ~ Cheryl Strayed via @deadlinepete

http://deadline.com/2014/08/wild-world-premiere-reese-witherspoon-movie-telluride-film-festival-826952/

This one was first, as far as I could tell. Go, Pete!

The second review I found had too many spoilers for folks who have not read the book and was kind of begrudging, so I’m not posting it here.

To that reviewer I would simply say, “A bunch of spoilers does not a good review make.”

In other words, “Go ahead and give away all of the best parts of the movie, why dontcha?”

The Hollywood Reporter review of Wild by Stephen Farber gets third place in timing, but is still a really well-written review.

“The profound precariousness of all her life’s journeys is what makes her hard-won victory so stirring.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wild-telluride-review-729047

Thank you, Stephen!

HitFix.com review of Wild by Gregory Ellwood.

“Witherspoon is so good many will argue this is the best performance of her career.” @HitFixGregory

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/review-reese-witherspoon-goes-for-it-all-in-wild

Awesome review. Thanks, Gregory!

Here’s the fifth review I found by Tim Gray at Variety.

As one industry vet said, “The man next to me was copiously sobbing. But you know what’s going to make this film a hit: women.” @timgray_variety

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/telluride-wild-premieres-to-oscar-buzz-for-reese-witherspoon-1201294361/

Another Variety review by Justin Chang

“…a ruggedly beautiful and emotionally resonant saga of perseverance and self-discovery that represents a fine addition to the recent bumper crop of bigscreen survival stories.” @JustinCChang

http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/telluride-film-review-reese-witherspoon-in-wild-1201294437/

Sadly, I did not think the first review I found by a woman writer was worth reading so it is not include here. It was more a recap of the early hours of the festival with the review of Wild tacked on in a rather non-energetic manner. I noted that this review appeared in a blog of the publication that ran the other review that I thought was not worth reading.

Are there really no headlining female movie reviewers? But if so, this is just sick and wrong and systematic of a studio system that is not serving women viewers.

Eric D. Snider of Complex gives Wild four and a half stars

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/08/wild-review

Without being anything like a screed or manifesto, Wild comes across as an empowering, emotional tale about a woman taking control of her downward-spiraling life. Many of her experiences are unique to womanhood, and some may only apply to Cheryl Strayed specifically. But there’s also a universality to it, a sense that anyone, male or female, could find inspiration in Cheryl’s it’s-the-journey-not-the-destination story. 

Is Wild, the movie only going to please women, as some have said. Well, I don’t know. An awful lot of these positive reviews are from men. And then there are brand new fans like this one…

More to come! Keep refreshing this page to see more as the days wear on.

Wild Resources:

Wild’s Wikipedia Page (film): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_%28film%29

Wild’s Wikipedia Page (memoir): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild:_From_Lost_to_Found_on_the_Pacific_Crest_Trail

Cheryl Strayed’s Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheryl_Strayed

Cheryl Strayed’s Website: http://www.cherylstrayed.com/

Cheryl Strayed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CherylStrayed

An awesome interview with Cheryl Strayed with Manjula Martin in Jane Friedman & Manjula Martin’s magazine for writers, Scratch Magazine

Purchase Wild on Amazon

My freelance challenges, which have been so helpful to so many of my former students, begin again on Monday!

You do not have to be a former student to benefit. I can tell you who would appreciate them…

Anyone who is looking to become a more facile and joyful parenting article writer should take my Article Writing Challenge.

Anyone who is looking to become a more thoughtful rewriter and polisher of their own words should take my Grammar & Punctuation Challenge.

Anyone who is looking to become a more thoughtful parenting essay writer should take my Essay Writing Challenge.

You can learn more about all of the challenges and register here or by clicking on the badges above.

The two things folks appreciate most about these challenges are:

How easy they are to fit into a busy day — because you get one e-mail assignment a day.

How inexpensive the challenges are — because you get 20 days of learning from a veteran freelancer for only $20.

It’s back to school time for the kids, and it’s also back to school time for writer moms. You’ll benefit greatly from these little booster rockets in your inbox every day. So what are you waiting for? Register now for the Freelance Writing Challenge that sounds right for you!

Hope you can join us!