Isabelle Hardesty Isabelle Hardesty started her creative life in visual art and fashion before trying her hand at writing. Inspired in part by her childhood in South Florida, her most recent novels are The Witch of Belle Fleur, and its upcoming sequel, Midnight in Belle Fleur. We talk about the importance of listening to our… Continue reading Finding YOUR Way with Isabelle Hardesty
This week I have a more lighthearted look at things that get in our way, riffing off a great story from Zander and Zander's book The Art of Possibility. Maybe you, too, would benefit from remembering Rule Number Six? Want more help? Check out my Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools… Continue reading Creative Pep Talk #15: Rule Number Six
Mark Ryall Author Mark Ryall explores the exciting, and ethically daunting, world of genetic engineering in his novel, Age-Decoded. Focused on the current technology called CRISPR, he explores the wide variety of possibilities the technology opens up. It’s a project that brings together his background in math and science as well as teaching. Our conversation… Continue reading Age-Decoded with Mark Ryall
Continuing from last time: more on comparison, and how it's actually a way to reject ourselves, even if we don't know it. Perfectionism factors into that process, too, creating an ugly soup of not-good-enoughness. The good news: you CAN do something about it. Details within! Want more help? Check out my Creative Tune-Up, which is… Continue reading Creative Pep Talk #14: Comparison and Self-Rejection
Paul "PB" Bessenbacher Musician Paul Bessenbacher, known to his friends and fans as PB, lives a genuine optimism best summed up in his signature statement: “It’s gonna be great.” PB has followed the flow of that sentiment from an undergraduate degree that let him experiment with every genre he could find, to learning recording engineering… Continue reading It’s Gonna Be Great with Paul “PB” Bessenbacher
A story about comparison and how it robs us not only of our creative joy but also distorts our sense of ourselves. Did you know you can watch this episode on YouTube? If you knew how much time drafting experimentation, especially the failures, screaming cursing, heartbreak and desperation went into creating the Mona Lisa, would… Continue reading Creative Pep Talk #13: A Story About Comparison
Dr. Ryan Martin None of us gets through the day without encountering anger somewhere, be it at work, at home, on the road, or even inside ourselves. Ryan Martin is a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, and he specializes in anger. He’s written a book, Why We Get Mad:… Continue reading Anger and Curiosity with Dr. Ryan Martin
"We can do hard things," as the saying goes—but we can also make it way harder to do those things than we have to. Hear how I learned this lesson and how you can make it easier to do the tough things on your list in this episode. He knew we could do it. And… Continue reading Creative Pep Talk #12: How Hard Is It?
Sarah Fine Urban fantasy author Sarah Fine, who writes psychological thrillers as SF Kosa, is a clinical psychologist as well as a novelist. As a result, she has a lot to say about the amateur psychology and observational skills writers tend to possess, as well as what she will and won’t do in portraying aspects… Continue reading Psychology and Writing with Sarah Fine
Failure visits us all—and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Failing doesn't have to be the end, and it definitely doesn't reflect our worth. It's actually a really important part of the creative process (and of growing/learning in general), so maybe we should start embracing it rather than fearing it. All failure means… Continue reading Creative Pep Talk #11: Failure