Hello and Welcome! Since I’ve recently had more subscribers on here, I wanted to let you know of one of my projects going forward. So, mixed in with my painting and selling those, I’m back to helping folks with their writing projects. With that in mind, here you go…!

Have you started a novel or a memoir and it’s just lingering, you don’t know what to do with it? Or have you finished a first draft and are ready to do a close edit and send it out? Needing help? 

Well, creativity thrives in community, right? And I host a small intimate cohort of writers and creators on Skool. Here’s what a couple of members wrote recently in the chat there. 

KIM “Thanks, Sarah! Helpful comments. That will speed the revision a lot to know where to focus, where to trim. I tend to leave out important things–on the first draft, at least!”

TREY “The concept of seasons and their relationship to creativity is something I’ve never thought about before. Upon reflection, fall seems to be when I dig into writing the most. It’ll be interesting to pay attention to this relationship between seasons and creativity.”

So I’m writing this today to show you that you can finish your project and on your own terms. Let’s develop and hone your individual voice and style, build characters and landscapes, play with tension and release, add elements and expand your vocabulary (not just the words but the craft and skills), and consider the range of options for structure within novels and hybrid memoirs. In the Get Creative Community, I post questions and assignments to spark your curiousity about what you do and why. They build upon each other or you can drop in and out – which is what most members do. 

But it’s not just the actual writing that’s at stake here, we want to build a place for you in the literary world. We do that by expanding your resources, sharing book suggestions and websites, and we’ll find ways to develop a literary career as you see fit. Let’s find publications of all kinds that are suited to your own goals and writing projects. We’ll find the right communities to join in person and online, create a working list of presses and journals to approach, brainstorm how to keep going. Results are less clear-cut than working simply with an editor and tend to be more incremental with your confidence in your own writing skills building over time.

When I was finding my own writing path, I didn’t have role models offering validation or permission to tell stories in my own way. Now I can offer you just that. In-depth, one on one collaborative development of your work, I’d like to help you. We’ll make it affordable for you so think more about what you are looking for in a mentor, coach and editor. 

There are a few membership options, free to start with upgrades if you want more personal help such as…

• An organic conversation with your questions and needs comes first.
• Brainstorming together with your goals in mind.
• Practical advice.
• Reading suggestions
• Literary communities to join
• Residencies, classes, courses, retreats, we’ll find ones you are drawn to
• Global (overarching) feedback as well as local (specifics of word choice, grammar etc) feedback
• Performance-driven, a sense of accountability.
• Developmental editorial work on a specific manuscript.
• Craft and technique articles. We’ll develop skills and discover new ones for you.
• Productive and positive suggestions for specific projects, letters, pitches, etc.
• Resources/ websites/ information sharing.
• Focused on your self-development as a writer and in life.
• Discuss your personal situation, challenges, and strengths.
• Conversations shaped to your changing needs and goals.
• Sharing my professional and life experiences and resources.
• Brainstorming your weekly/monthly goals and tasks.

WHY ME?

I have a Bachelors in Literature and Languages, a Masters degree in Writing and Publishing, as well as years working as a freelance writer, editor, and publisher. I am the author of Stay, G’Dog, Hidden, When No One’s Looking, Lucky Shot, and Lucky Find, as well as the award winning travelogue, Van Life. Various micro-essays/prose poems have been published in literary journals and anthologies over the years, most recently with Los Angeles Review, Immigrant Report, Passenger Journal, Dunes Review, Z Press Best Emerging Poets of New Mexico (2019), Devils Party Press (2019) as well as The People’s Apocalypse (2014). I also write book reviews and author interviews, found on Hunger Mountain, National Book Critics Circle, and Santa Fe Writer’s Project Quarterly. International publications include https://issuu.com/adaltabjl/docs/ad_alta_2020-21Ad Alta Journal in England, 2021.

Awards include winning the NM/AZ Book Awards for her fiction, Honorable Mention for the Quill Prize (Red Hen Press) and more recently long-listed with the Santa Fe Writers Project. Lucky Shot (2012) and When No One’s Looking (2016) won Best Gay Fiction in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Lucky Find was a finalist for the same award in 2014. Van Life won Best Non-fiction/ Grand Winner Award in the Great Northwest Book Contest of 2017 and was a finalist in the NM/AZ Book Awards 2018. Finishing Line Press is publishing Hidden, a chapbook in the form of a queer narrative prose poem in March 2021.

Okay, enough of the credentials. I hope there’s enough that shows you how serious and committed I am to a writing and creative life. It’s one I want to share with you. So let’s do this! I have time for three writers so let me know what’s going on for you. Cheers!

Join us! 

And thanks, once again, for being part of my extended community. Take care, Sleam xxx

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