"When tears come, I breathe deeply and rest. I know I am swimming in a hallowed stream where many have gone before. I am not alone, crazy, or having a nervous breakdown. My heart is at work, my soul is awake." ~ Mary Margaret Funk.
This summer of great big, juicy changes continues unabated. I am definitely in the midst of 'building my wings on the way down' as Ray Bradbury once said, admonishing writers to take the ultimate risk, and leap into their creative lives. I am filling out loan paperwork and booking movers and writing blogs and cleaning out my files. I am submitting essays and making plans and reading old journals and napping with my dog and cats.
I am conscious that I will remember this summer as the summer that everything - everything - changed.
Most of all, I will remember that I changed. I will remember I finally truly became myself. I inhabited myself for the first time.
Free creative wisdom, heartfelt life-hacks, and spiritual epiphanies...
My online magazine, Song Sparrow, premiered on June 15. The second issue will be coming out later this week. You can check it out and sign up for my list on the Work With Me tab on the right side of blog page. Scroll down to see it.
The premier issue linked to a few classic Wonderland posts, one piece published on Rebelle Society, and one on Be You Media Group. In addition, there were some summer reading recommendations, a writing prompt, and a little blurb about Scrivener, a fab writing tool that I love, love, love. If you'd like to see the first issue, send me a little note at [email protected] and I will send you the link.
Each month I will be sharing free creative wisdom, heartfelt life-hacks, and spiritual epiphanies with my mailing list. If you are interested in my upcoming publications, book projects, and online workshops with me, sign up. If you want to work with me on a book project or a book proposal, sign up. If you are interested in branding, editing, or advice on publishing, sign up!
For July I will focus on pieces about breakthrough. So much has changed my head is spinning. I want to share some of what I've learned through trial and error. Maybe my journey won't teach you a thing. Then again, maybe it will.
Other changes and coming attractions?
Wonderland Writing Workshops
Find and free your voice as a writer:
Writing as a Spiritual Practice, The Healing Balm of Words, and Writing to Change the World will be available online sometime late this fall. I'd planned to have them ready to roll out in September, but life (and moving) have intervened and pushed back those plans. Here are a few details about the courses if you are interested.
You can email me directly at [email protected] to be put on the list for the courses. Put 'Wonderland Writing Workshops' in the subject heading, so if it goes to my spam folder, I will know it is from a writer wanting to work with me.
As soon as I am ready, I will then email you the link to sign up, pay, and get started.
- All of my intensive online courses will last four weeks. There's a beginning, intermediate, and advanced version of each one. Prior to releasing registration for each one, I will be offering a free webinar to introduce the materials, so watch the website and my Facebook & Google+ pages for a chance to sit in on those. There are TEN SPOTS in each course. Early birds will get a 20% discount on courses as will folks who purchase a series of courses (beginning, intermediate, advanced) upfront. I will offer each level once or twice per year, depending on interest.
- Cost? $500.00 per course. That's just $17 per day for writing prompts, assignments, an e-workbook, a one hour intensive via Skype or Google+ with me ($150 of the course cost), four 1-hour live Google hangouts (one per week), and a private Google page to network with your peers. Courses will also include Wonder-swag and other freebies. In the past, a month-long intensive writing course with me cost $1500. I am charging one-third of that rate because I want to make these workshops accessible worldwide for a reasonable price. I specialize in helping each writer I work with, access and release their own, unique voice on the page. I have 14 years experience as a college-level creative writing teacher and 25 years experience as a freelance writer. I've been editing writing projects for more than 40 years and writing about spiritual topics for nearly 30.
My approach as a teacher is to assist you in opening the door to your inner life so you can find out what's swimming there. What silver, squirming bit of beauty is waiting to be reeled in?
There's a certain kind of magic that happens in these exchanges that is hard to explain, but they happen every single time I work closely with creative writing students. Perhaps because of my empathic nature, I recognize a writer's essence and essential nature. Perhaps it is just a gift I possess that cannot be quantified. Several of my former students are writing blurbs on their experiences with me. I will share those, and the means to get on the list for these courses, on a regular basis, until they are ready to go live.
More on this in January of 2016.Destination Writing Retreats - Summer of 2016, Santa Fe, NM
I will be working with the incomparable Marie Milligan of http://www.wildwomendo.co.uk/, to create a delicious, wild, soulful retreat that will offer participants a chance to 'let it rip' in terms of launching a creative, satisfying business, or writing a book, or simply finding a way into the most tender part of life.
Pricing and details are still being worked out, but watch for your chance to join us in my soon-to-be new hometown of Santa Fe, NM. There is no place in the world like Santa Fe. It is a feast for the heart and the eyes and the spirit.
In the meantime, I hope that you too are taking leaps of faith, and finding your wings. More soon.
xx
S
© 2015 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
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