Hi Reader, Looking back over the summit interviews I've done over the years, it's interesting how many of the authors, when I asked what got them across the finish line, said something like, "I had to call the book done. My publisher was waiting for it." Someone was waiting for the book, and that's what got it finished. You've probably heard me and others talk about how a book takes a village. Beta readers who can tell you whether they're hearing what you're trying to say. A coach who helps...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Three goat kids left for their new farm this week, and the milk keeps coming! 10 quarts a day. We're freezing most of it while setting up the business that will connect all this milk with people who can use it, and while building infrastructure for the intentional family we're growing. This means we're in motion from first light until the afternoon heat makes rest mandatory. In between, the time I spend on calls with clients and working on my book in the Writing Studio feels like a...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, I went quiet for a bit. A cold knocked me flat, and the newsletter waited while I slept through most of the sniffles. I'm back on my feet now, and eager to get back into things. While I was lying around sniffling, I got the joyful news from not one but two of my clients who have had traditional publishers offer them contracts for their books. Yay! I won't share the names of the two authors yet. The details are still being worked out. I can offer big congratulations to Mick Kubiak...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Mick Kubiak's Inner Housekeeping: A Beginner's Guide to Advanced Meditation is out on Kindle this week! The print edition is coming soon. You may remember Mick from my March summit. She's a psychotherapist, writer, and host of the Designed to Be Awake podcast. Here's a moment from her summit session: Inner Housekeeping is a three-week daily practice, five minutes at a time, drawing from Zen, Tibetan, and energy healing traditions Mick guides clients to use in her therapy practice....
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, There's a thing I find myself saying so often in coaching calls and workshops that it's starting to feel like everyone in my world has heard it. So when it came time to write the chapter about it for my book, I almost left the whole thing out. What's the point, I thought, they already know. You have your own version of this. You've watched it click for the person across from you a hundred times. After all those repetitions, you just want to move past it and get to the parts that...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, You may remember Linda Ann Westman from one of my past summits, a retired chiropractor with joy that seems to come right up through her shoes. Author Linda Ann Westman Today her book Come Home to Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Creating a Joy-Filled Life Through Self-Love is out on Kindle, with the print edition following Monday. When Linda first approached me, she had fifty pages that wouldn't go any further. She told me she has trouble with the executive-functioning part of writing....
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, I've missed writing to you these last couple weeks or so! The Open Spiral website is getting a full rebuild, and much of my sit-at-the-computer time has been going toward that. In case I haven't told you, Open Spiral is my publishing imprint. When ghostwriting clients first started asking me to help them publish their books, I felt honored that they would entrust me with this. I interviewed other ghostwriters who help with publishing, took courses, joined IBPA, and learned how to...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, As you may remember, our neighbor James Standhope gave us our first goat, OD. That was three and a half years ago. Our herd has grown since then, and we've given some of OD's kids to neighbors who also wanted living lawnmowers that produce milk. Patrick, Precious, and Barry When it was time for this year's crop of kids, born in March, to receive their vaccinations, hoof trimming, and other routine veterinary care, James came over to our farm to help. Then we all loaded into our...
over 2 years ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Honestly, writing a book is terrifying! You're presenting a version of yourself in a very public and permanent way that you will soon leave in the past as you continue to grow. It's like time-stamping yourself. 😱 I was working with a client who actually stopped the project because, in her words, "My wisdom is still coming in." My heart broke a little when she said that. I wonder how many other soul-driven books are not being written because the authors are waiting for more wisdom...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read