Sit & Write : Do you have a book a in you

by Claudine Wolk, posted on her substack

It Is Time... For You to Sit & Write Your Book

In this episode of Get Your Book Seen & Sold, Kate Brenton joins me to present an opportunity for authors and aspiring authors. Kate Brenton, author and inspired teacher has created the Sit & Write Master Class that starts October 1 (intake interviews in Sept). Kate and I explain the Master Class: who it is designed for, how it works, and why combining our unique skills will make the difference between being an aspiring writer or a published author.

If you have no interest in a class at this time, keep listening. Kate and I tell our publishing stories and how working together made a huge difference in successful publishing!

What is the Sit & Write Master Class?

It is a class "container" that runs from Oct to Jan. With commitment to the program, the aspiring writer could come away with a first draft of a book plus the marketing knowledge to give it the best chance to be seen & sold.

How does it work?

Community calls, video lessons, and one-on-one calls combined with the uniqueinsight of Kate (spiritual) and me (analytical) will provide both pieces of what is needed for your book to get written and seen. Kate provides the "tapping into the creative" side and I provide the book marketing / publishing industry side (like I do right here on my Substack!) to give aspiring authors what they need at the right time to achieve their publication goals.

How to get started?

Your process starts with an intake call with Kate Brenton to make sure of a good fit. The call is free. Once the connection is made, the Sit & Write Master Class begins Oct 1. The information to start with the intake call and pricing can be found on Kate's Site. You can also contact Kate directly with any questions at Kate@katebrenton.com.

Why Kate & I?

We are both published authors/teachers/mentors and we have been there and done it successfully. We both passionately desire to help aspiring authors to get their message/story out in the world and to give their book the best possible chance to be seen and sold.

I am so excited for this class, Substack readers/listeners! By joining Kate, my long-time goal of helping authors get their message out and their books seen & sold is fulfilled. For four years now I have interviewed experts who have wished to publish a book or they publish quickly (and not so successfully) simply because they didn't know the book marketing side of being a published author. We change that state of affairs with this class!

Sign up to Sit and Write Master Class before 9/15/22 and use the promo code YES for an early bird discount!

I totally get it.

"I totally get it." 

- one of my favorite things to hear

I've recently (again, like all of us) had to let go of something to make room for some things; things that I don't exactly know, but I know they are coming.

Poetic, but difficult in the day to day. 

Or rather, excruciating with out faith. 

Like you, it's not my first rodeo so we know the feeling when we are in alignment and when we are out. I feel very clear that I am in alignment, because I have been out. 

I once had a coach tell me that in my core-structure I am motivated by connection and meaning. "You actually are here to help people," she told me. 

"Yup," I said, that I knew.

So with all the letting go in a year of collective letting go, I thought to myself, "What else do I have to lose?"

Answer: Nothing

"What if I just went on resonance?" I asked myself

Answer: You've got nothing left to lose...

[Me sitting quietly]

Answer: So, yes.

From that choice, I have had a slew of phenomenal recent conversations, connections and further a-ha's. Just from saying yes, to something (there's that word again) that I have indeed already said yes to, but now at a deeper level from a depth of unknown versus the light of assuredness.

I noticed that when I was connecting on that impetus, when I would begin to explain why I was reaching out to someone or explaining that I had no agenda but resonance in...[insert topic] I heard this in response:

"I totally get it. I know what you mean."

Again and again and again, 

It was so easy that the mere feeling of clarity lit up the next steps.  The space of what had been taken left me with a choice: Change or Repeat.

I choose change. I choose to move from a knowing and make it grow to a resonance—just like you have done time and time again.

We all know this comes in seasons and cycles. We can anchor it in more each time around the spiral, and unabashedly celebrate it when it comes.

So, if you are in it: Yay.

If you aren't: keep going. Your turn is coming.

If you need a little Refresh, a place to talk it out and get clear on a path, project, or journey.  Let's chat. 

More soon,

Kate

More talk on Alignment here.

Pre-order the e-book of Rebirth here.

(turns out this is really helpful for the book to get where it needs to go)

Thank you for your support! 

"You start dying slowly

If you do not change your life

When you are not satisfied with your job,

or with your love

If you do not wish what is safe for the uncertain,

If you do not go after a dream,

If you do not allow yourself,

at least once in your lifetime,

To run away from sensible advice..."

- Martha Medeiros

I hope your summer has been full with running away from the sensible and into the creative. I have. I sighed up for a watercolor (so excited) class that starts soon. I am reading a great story-teller author, Maggie O'Farrell thanks to a friend's referral, and I am taking a long hard look at what needs to be consolidated and potentized to reach the goals I am setting.

I have had a few similar conversations with a a few female friends, all leaders in their own right, about what we want...truly, clearly and plainly. 

It's interesting to watch the hedging and the languaging we all are moving through, and by all, I mean all, self included.

You know what that tells me? That tells me a big change is coming. When I have the same conversation intersections over multiple relationships, that means a fulcrum is forming. I bet you are feeling it too even if you cannot name it.

What are you pruning for a ripe harvest? And what will you be clearing the fields for for next year's harvest?

The largest help I can be in this co-creative process is to get out of the way, clear the system's habituated thoughts and think a. lot. bigger. 

I might even read Mederios's poem every Sunday night until I am certain that the doubt has been swept far enough away that—and I love this line—The Muse can walk across the threshold without sullying her gown. (Steven Pressfield, not in quotes because I am not going to look for the page citation, but you can).

Make way because change is here, it's gonna grow you. The only choice is your availability.

We have Sit & Write this upcoming Wednesday, 11 - 12pmEST  It's about boundaries and growth, necessary structures for radical change. Register in the link below. If you can’t make it, or missed the August one, we are holding them the first Wednesday of every month through December 2022.

More soon,

Kate

Some things never change

Some things never change.

Like how many times I've walked a dog to this very spot and cast the same prayers into the water. Thankfully, the Wisaahickon loved me too much to answer them all.

That wisdom comes with the learning repetition gives, some call it aging.

Talking with a deeply creative friend, who will be on Season 6, (subscribe) he reminded me that Our Path, some call it entrepreneurship, or non-traditional -- IS the traditional path.

Humans traditionally worked on the seson's cycles, powering to Harvest and Resting for the next Season.

I realize my entire life has run on the Educational Cycle of time. 46 years! Even when I was in corporate I still spiraled with the summer of play and the anchoring into the new in September.

Every astrologer (there have been 5) that looked at my chart said the same: Oh, you have the Teacher Archetype. That's what you're here to do.

So why would that change? Look at where it brought me? Here.

Only the form evolves as I align closer with the Essence.

Change is afoot (literally and figuratively) and I think for those in this circle that this change is calling on our Creativity, which is really our Divinity ---pulling Form from the Cosmos, the womb of possibility, saying I am here and this is the Life I created.

Have a beautiful day.

Kate

Did you know I have a podcast?

Check out the latest pre-season episode:

Shine

originally sent in newsletter August 2018

I am not known in my circle for my green thumb.

Although I love and need the nourishment of deep Nature, I am smack in the heart of the concrete jungle of Philadelphia, learning to be grateful for the small stretch of plantable dirt that we have in our backyard. Along with herb and medicinal plants, I bought my first sunflower seeds this summer, wanting to bring some color into my sonʻs world.

They popped through the dirt pretty quickly - the sunflowers; I thought. I had the same excitement and wonder from childhood, witnessing the sprout popping through: “It works!” Nature doesnʻt cease to amaze, even while we are too busy to see.

We went to visit family at the beach for a week, during which there was a huge windstorm back in Philadelphia. Of the three previously impressive stalks, one had broken, and one was bending. In my rash disappointment, I clipped the bending one off, and regretted it immediately. Only one remained.

I ran into the house – yes, ran – and started to explain to Corey (my partner) that there was a sunflower emergency and that I couldnʻt grow anything, and, and, and...

He listened and quietly slipped away. He returned with a stake, tape and a broom handle.

“A broom handle?”

“Yes, a broom, handle."

“A broom handle?” I repeated.

“Listen, if that sunflower goes down – you will go down too, and that canʻt happen.”

I was surprised by his words, mostly because he was right. I had been exceptionally invested in the sunflower, checking Her daily, watering Her, talking about Her, peeking in on Her at night.

Honestly, I figured it would fail. I think that is why I broke that stalk off.

After the broom handle operation, all I could do was wait.

A less windy rain storm came. Where the wind had broken Her one stalk, She now had two flowerheads sprouting. The broom-handle-fortified stalk now had a tightly fisted, fractaled head full of promise and vibrancy.

I was mesmerized, and waited now with hopeful anticipation. I talked to Her, sharing our expectation for and with Her.
​
On a Sunday morning, She did it.
She opened.

She was the most radiant sunflower I had ever seen.
I told Her so. I marveled at her determination, her allowance of her genetic and divine brilliance.

We continued to water Her and talk to Her. Aaron and I inspected her petals and watched as She would turn ever so slightly to better face the sun.

One day, on her center sat a honeybee. In the midst of the city, in a small row of dirt, surrounded by concrete, weathering a storm that took all others down, She fed another.

"Follow diligently the Way in your own heart, but make no display of it to the world. Keep behind, and you shall be put in front; keep out, and you shall be kept in. (S)He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. (S)He that bends shall be made straight. (S)He that is empty shall be filled. (S)He that is worn out shall be renewed." –Lao-Tzu

I was awestruck.
She looked right at me and shared one word: Shine.

If She could do it, I thought, so can I.
And so can you.


Shine On friend.
Itʻs what you are here for.
Kate

Hacks to slim down your to-do list

First, if you are wondering: Is this blog new?

Nope.

• My first blog was and still is here.

• And then I had been writing here.

• Then I was writing on a page on this website you are standing on right now. But it got messy. So I started writing here (and still am twice a week).

  It would be peculiar at this point for a writer not to have some sort of blog, am I right? But it is confusing for said writers to have there writing all over the place though—am I right?

I looked down at my to-do list and I saw that I was everywhere. I was traversing universes and it was time to pause and draw back to center, as I like to say. I had to stop out-pouring all my energy, on all the things—things I could, but there was no return. Nothing was coming back.

Why? Because I wasn't asking. I was just outpouring. So here are my hacks for you friend. The blog is just a metaphor for the scattering that is all too common in our everyday expectation of being everything to everyone all the time.

Time Saving Hacks

1. Look at your to-do list. Really look at it and if you are chock full and your needs are not getting met pick 3 things to put on hold for 3 months. What? You say. You can’t? Well every little list is taking up space in your brain and your body and you need to clean house is you are reading this blogpost, so start with the most obvious and go from there.

   • Tell the people affiliated with the three things that you are not doing them. Do not create a long story. Throw your guilt into your trashcan or composter and don’t do it. Let it go. Don’t do the thing.

   • Here’s a sample: “Hello, Joel. I have paused all production on my podcast for three months to make space for my xxx. I will be in touch in 3 months to reschedule.”

2. Don’t immediately fill the space. A funny thing happened when I sent basically the same message I slyly used a template for you. It happened after my nervousness settled down. It happened after I reminded myself of my top 3 selected priorities (yes, do that too. It will help you hold your ground when things start to pull you off center) and let everything else go, and then I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I let things go. And I meditated more and started to remember what space felt like in my body and that is the biggest hack of them all: space and breath = calm

3. Calmness is your superpower. it is. Calmness gets you into your parasympathetic brain which is where solutions arise. It is where possibilities and creativity are waiting for their shot. It is the opposite terrain of burn through and push on.

I call this hack being human. Be deeply authentically human. Release your limits so you can remember that you are limitless. Sign up for the newsletter to stay in touch with these vibes that remind you you are worth it.

Be well,

Kate