Podcast Archives

Ep. 220: Rachel Lynn Solomon on Speeding up the Slow and Slowing Down the Fast

March 24, 2021

Rachel Lynn Solomon writes, tap dances, and collects red lipstick in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of the YA novels Today Tonight Tomorrow, You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, Our Year of Maybe, and We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This (June 2021). She will also tell anyone who’ll listen that it really doesn’t rain that much in Seattle, where she lives with her husband and tiny dog. Her newest novel is The Ex Talk.

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing.

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #220 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. And I am thrilled that you are here today. Today, we are talking to Rachel Lynn Solomon, and she has a little tip that blew my mind and maybe might help me change the way I first draft because my first drafts are really, really bad. And she gives us a tip that might help with how we look at some of the scenes inside our books. Plus, it was really fun to talk to her. She has a process very much like my own and her name is pretty great. So, it was just a delight talking to her. You’re going to enjoy that. What’s been going on around here? Well, I’m feeling a little bit better. This is really my first day, maybe my second day up all day sitting here at the desk, continuing to work. I took a little tiny break, but I didn’t need a big break. I’m still pretty tired, still working things out, still trying to get a good diagnosis and I’ve still got multiple tests coming. But feeling grateful to be sitting here, able to do my work. It feels really good. I wanted to mention that I’m reading a book called The Kindness Method. I love to read the self-help books. I just read the 12-Week year, which I really enjoyed. Which is kind of the way I already operate, but the 12-Week year really made me think, how can I do more, more, how can I do more? How can I do more faster? And The Kindness method says, what the hell? Why don’t you treat yourself well with the kindness and compassion that you deserve? And I’m really, really loving it.

[00:02:07] The whole reason I started You’re Already Ready. I started that podcast. I’m writing the book slowly. One of the reasons that I started that, and one of the reasons why I do this podcast, and why I do all the things I do, like the teaching and all of that is because there isn’t enough encouragement out here in writinglandia. We do beat ourselves up too much. And I know that because I am an expert at beating myself up, it is, I could be a pro. I am a pro. I’m actually professional at beating myself up. And its just kind of obscene when I think about the stuff that I have said to myself in my own head, while being very sick while going through an lockdown for almost a year now while rough things are happening. And I still tell myself, why aren’t you getting more done? How can you possibly not be living up to your expectations? And if you do live up to your expectations, why can’t you make them higher? And I am just putting a stop to it. I am so good. I really know this is something I’m good at. I’m so good at helping other people stop that in their own creative life, or at least allowing them the space to remember that they are important and that they are already worthy and that they’re already doing a great job. Actually trying to remember that for myself and do it for myself is something I am making into part of my job now. Part of my job is being kind to myself and having realistic goals and being gentle and loving with myself around my work. I’m pretty good already being loving to myself in terms of my personality and even my body, which is a challenge for a lot of people. I’ve been working on that for a long time, but what I have not been able to work on or have chosen not to work on for many years is being kind to myself in terms of the work arena and this productivity model that honestly capitalism gives us, right?

[00:04:24] What are you worth if you’re not producing? And I had a month where I wasn’t producing. And it really shook me up. So the kindness method is pretty wonderful, really enjoying that book. So if you are a person who needs that kind of break, I would recommend picking it up. There’s a lot of exercises in it and I’m actually doing them. So that’s good. I’m also gone back to journaling daily because that gives me so much, it’s so silly when I don’t journal, like the revelations that I have on a daily basis are enormous just because I sit down and think in terms of Clifton strengths, which, you know, I love, yay, Becca Syme. I am input and intellection. I have to be thinking about things and it is easy not to think about things. It’s easy to go from task to task, to task without asking yourself the big questions of why am I doing this task? Why am I doing it this way? Why am I treating myself this way? So journaling is not something right now for me, that is optional. It is almost imperative to my soul to be, I know that sounds silly, but to be journaling, to be willing to be present with how I’m feeling and looking at that on the page has been awesome in a non-driven way. In a non you must do this, you must get X number of pages by 9:30 in the morning just in a, in a really beautiful way. I’ve made myself a cup of coffee and I sit down with my journal and it has been great. So if you have forgotten to be kind and gentle to yourself, if you have gotten yourself into a place where your productivity or the speed of your productivity is getting you down, take a deep breath. You are just fine. You are doing great where you are. You can always change things to make them feel better to hit your goals. That’s important. However, being kind to yourself I think is more important. Honestly. So that’s what I’ve been thinking about this week.

[00:06:38] Let’s see, I want to thank Mandy Stevens for supporting me on Patreon. Thank you, Mandy. Mandy and I have been friends for a long time and it really means a lot to me that you support me there. It really means a lot to me from all of my patrons. Thank you so much, always, always for helping me do this job. I’m about to write my next Patreon essay and that’ll go out this week and is going to be a good one. I’m really excited. I’ve I’m, I’ve been writing it for a little while now and can’t wait to send it. So if you ever want to learn more about those, you can always go to patreon.com/Rachael. Otherwise let’s jump into the interview with Rachel Lynn Solomon. You’re going to love it. Okay my friends happy writing.

[00:07:20] This episode is brought to you by my book Fast Draft Your Memoir. Write your life story in 45 hours, which is, by the way, totally doable. And I’ll tell you how. It’s the same class I teach in the continuing studies program at Stanford each year, and I’ll let you in on a secret. Even if you have no interest in writing a memoir, yet the book has everything I’ve ever learned about the process of writing, and of revision, and of story structure, and of just doing this thing that’s so hard and yet all we want to do. Pick it up today.

Rachael Herron: [00:07:54] All right. Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show today. Rachel Lynn Solomon. Hello, Rachel.

Rachel Lynn Solomon: [00:08:00] Hi, Rachael, it’s nice to talk to you!

Rachael Herron: [00:08:03] Thank you so much for being here. I always enjoy talking to another Rachel, it’s fun to say. It’s weird to say the name. Do you ever feel, and this is a very strange question to ask, but don’t you feel that Rachel’s a very good name and like Rachel’s who inhabit Rachel’s are awesome people?

Rachel Lynn Solomon: [00:08:18] It’s rare to meet a bad one. I’ve not met like a complete dud. I don’t think

Rachael Herron: [00:08:22] Exactly! That’s what I’m saying. Okay. Let me give you a little introduction here. Rachel Lynn Solomon writes, tap dances, and collects red lipstick in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of the YA novels, Today Tonight, Tomorrow, You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, Our Year of Maybe, and We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This. She will also tell anyone who listens that it really doesn’t rain that much in Seattle, where she lives with her husband and tiny dog. And so welcome to the show, your new book, and I’ve just, it’s just got out of my head and it’s not in your bio for some reason, The Ex-talk, read it. Loved it.

Rachel Lynn Solomon: [00:09:01] Thank you.

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Ep. 219: Ashley Audrain on Getting Work Done During Lockdown

March 24, 2021

Ashley Audrain previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada. Prior to Penguin, she worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children. The Push is her first novel.

How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing.

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #219 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. I am so thrilled that you’re here, today, we are talking to the marvelous Ashley Audrain. I had the chance to read her book, The Push, which is out now, and you should get it. It’s so good. It’s so good. And she is delightful and charming. And so smart about all of this. And we talked quite a bit about what it is like to be doing writing during lockdown still, almost a year later. So stay tuned for that.

[00:00:50] A little update about what’s going on around here. I am still sick, I still haven’t had an MRI, still fighting with insurance. It is a full-time job and quite disheartening. The thing that disheartens me the most, and I’ll only dwell on this for a moment is that I am a strong and mostly healthy and stubborn and well off. And I had, I have a partner who advocates for me too. I have all of these things and we can’t get the help that I need. And I am the exception to the rule. So many people in this country have no one fighting for them. Don’t have the resources, don’t have the means. Don’t have half of what I have, and they are struggling with bigger, worse things. And it makes me so upset at this healthcare system. Yesterday, we were kind of losing it and my wife came in my office and looked down at our old dog who is still happily with us and she’s curled up on my couch right now. But if she were not here, my wife pointed out, we would be packing our boxes right now. I am not saying in any way that New Zealand is a panacea. It’s not a cure. All New Zealand has its own problems.

[00:02:08] But in New Zealand, I could get healthcare. We have excellent insurance. We have a high cost PPO top of the line, through lawless job and still just can’t get anything done. So, I’m struggling with that. But in good news, yesterday was also as I record this, the inauguration and we don’t have to deal with the previous person who sat in the white house because, he’s gone and it makes me happy. And yesterday was a good day for that. So, I thought the inauguration was beautiful. I thought the speeches were great. Yeah, it’s, it’s a good feeling. There was a real sense of relief that was lifted a sense of this burden that was lifted from us just a little bit. And it, we still have every single systemic problem that is in this country, but it’s actually being named now, you know, Biden said the words, white supremacy and domestic terrorism. He said those words in his speech, the moment of silence for those lost to coronavirus, like so incredibly moving and it’s just such a relief to have somebody taking this stuff seriously. So I take heart in that.

[00:03:29] Oh, what else is going on? My classes started the 90 Days to Done classes. And I have to tell you, I can say this now because it’s Thursday, as I record Tuesday was the first day of classes. I had pushed the classes a couple of weeks because of my health and I was not sure I would be able to set up for those hours. Honestly, I did not know if I’d have enough energy to do the classes. And I did. Not only did I have the energy, but that night was the best that I have felt in more than a month. I had energy. I was bouncing around the house, doing things, dieting, cleaning, probably wear myself out a little bit. But it felt so good. I feel like I was a little vampiric perhaps like stealing some of my students’ energy. I don’t think I was, my whole goal in life is to give my energy to students, but there was some kind of exchange and it was beautiful. And I loved opening these classes and it’s going to be so fun to work with them on writing their books in 90 days or revising their books in 90 days. So that has been awesome. Also, I am actually writing again. I took like three and a half, almost four weeks off. Just could not write on my book while I was dealing with all the pain.

[00:04:44] So, starting Monday, I got my butt in the chair and I’ve written every day since including yesterday, inauguration day, which was very difficult. But, I can’t- I don’t think I’ve said this on this podcast. I just can’t remember, but I have been reading this book Called The 12-Week Year, which is pretty basic. It’s about setting goals and moving toward them by calculating and watching your actions. But I have, I’m finding it inspiring. I basically, I live my life in 12 week chunks anyway, so this has been helping and I have some pretty big goals for the next 12 weeks. And it’s been great to be able to sit in the chair and get some writing done. And that has felt really good. I’m hoping to finish the first draft of the book I’m working on right now in the next two weeks. I think. I’m looking at my calendar. So that’s the goal. And I hope that I hit it. If not, I will rejigger, rejiggering is always an option, but I think I’m on track.

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Ep. 218: Ricardo Fayet on Finding the Perfect Editor

March 17, 2021

Ricardo Fayet is one of the four founders of Reedsy, a marketplace connecting authors to the world’s top publishing talent—from editors to cover designers, book marketers, author website designers, and literary translators. He’s the author of several Reedsy Learning courses on book marketing and a regular presenter at several prestigious writers’ conferences: NINC, RWA Australia, and The Self Publishing Show Live, among others. He’s also currently finishing his very first book on marketing. In his spare time, he enjoys watching football, and carrying tactical analyses to explain why his favorite team won—as well as referee mistake analyses to explain why it lost.

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #218 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron, and I’m so thrilled that you’re here today. Today, we are talking to Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy. And if you haven’t heard me wax rhapsodic about Reedsy.com, (R E E D S Y.com) you will love this interview and if you’ve heard me wax rhapsodic, you will still love it. What it is really quickly, and then we’ll go into it. It is a place to find editors for your work. If you are going to self-publish or if you want an editor to help you, before you go out to find an agent, it’s a place to find them. And I need to apologize right upfront right now that I am so enthusiastic about the service it sounds like a commercial for him. He did not for him and the company, he did not come on asking me to do this. I reached out to him and asked him to come on my show. I believe in Reedsy. And before we get into my update, I just want to tell you, I want to read from an email that I got and here it is. Okay. This is from a reader. I get another reader, this from a writer, I get a lot of queries and I’m very flattered by them from people who want me to read and edit their books, especially their memoirs.

[00:01:37] And I just don’t have time to do that. I did that for a while, probably about a year, I did that and it took so much away from my writing. I’m a writer, not an editor. I’m good at editing, not my own work, of course, but other people’s work, students work. I’m good at that. But, I just can’t do that. I don’t have the time. So what I do is for years, I’ve been sending them to Reedsy. And I just got this email, a couple of weeks ago. I want to thank you for recommending that. I use reading to Reedsy, to find an editor to read my first draft of my book. I found the most wonderful person. She wrote a long editorial letter, gave an overview of each chapter and on many pages posed questions that when answered will add emotional depth to the story I’m writing. She is extremely encouraging and thinks the format is very good. The first writer who critiqued my work thought I should structure it differently chronologically, but this editor noted anecdotes. She loved and liked the chapter. The first critiquer told me to definitely drop. So although I asked you, if you would be able to do a critique and you weren’t able to, I really appreciate you recommending Reedsy. Thank you so much based on her guidance, I have my work cut out for me. So real letter that I got, I redacted the names. About Reedsy, you can go to RachaelHerron.com/Reedsy to find out more about it, or just listen to me, do this commercial for Ricardo’s company, but it is so important to be able to find an editor that you can trust that you know is good because that’s the hard part. How do we just go out and find an editor if we don’t know they’re any good, or if our friend says are good, how do, how does our friend know that they’re good editors.

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Ep: 217: Show Me the Money, 2020 Edition

March 17, 2021

Every year, Rachael Herron talks you through what she made over the previous year and how she made it because she firmly believes there’s not enough transparency in publishing. In 2020, she made $186,000, and here’s how she did it.

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode # 217 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. Could not be more thrilled you are here today for our annual money, honey roundup. We’re going to be talking about how much I made in 2020, and I will spoil it a little bit right here and tell you that I made more than I made in 2019. So hazah! that’s the whole goal. Well, it’s not the whole goal. It’s actually not even a big part of the goal. So let me backtrack that a little bit, but it is a nice goal to have and I hit it. So I’m really pleased about that. First of all, though, a little bit of an update around here. Thank you all for your concern that you sent after the last podcast. I am still sick. I’m still battling some tough organs in my body that want to, like I said, leap out of them, leave out, leap out of it. So I have a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow. I did end up pushing my 90 day classes for two weeks which I just want to say was really huge for me. And I talk about it a little bit over at my Youre-Already-Ready podcast, which is not about writing. It’s more about life and I’m really loving that podcast.

[00:01:31] I’m so glad that I started it. Would I have started a brand new project? Had I known I would get sick a week later? Absolutely not. My goal for You’re Already Ready was to post to it a couple times a week, two to three times a week. And I can’t do that right now. Maybe once a week is my max for that. So that’s kind of rough, but the fact that I am listening to my body and like I talked about last week, I have one job right now and my one job is to get and stay healthy. And I’m working on that. I have other little jobs and one of those little jobs I have decided today is being able to do this podcast for you to update you. I was not sure. I was going to be able to get this out this early in the year. Usually I try to make it my first episode of the year. I couldn’t do that this year, but it’s the second. That’s not too bad. And I don’t feel like I’m pushing myself too hard after this. I will go lie down for another great long while during my lying down, I am reading a ton and treating it like my job because my writing friends, reading is your job. You should be reading. I really recommend the Good Reads Reading Challenge. I hate Good Reads as a platform. I hate that Amazon owns it. I don’t use it for book recommendations. Although a lot of people do get a lot out of that. I do that. However, a couple of years ago, I discovered that they have that reading challenge per year. And when you finish a book, you just zap over to Good Reads. Put in that you finished it. You can give it a star rating if you want. You can do a long review if you want. I don’t. I only do star ratings and I put red because I wanted on my list. Sometimes I don’t even do the star rating if I don’t care that much. If I love a book, I give it five stars. If I don’t love a book as much, normally I don’t finish it. But if I do, I just leave those stars blank because as writers, we are polite to each other. If you give a writer a two or a three-star review, absolutely, you will hang out with them at a party, at a conference someday. And you will wonder if they remember that and they might, so I leave five stars or nothing, but I always mark them as read in Good Reads.

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Ep. 216: Heid E. Erdrich on Writing Poetry in the Dark

March 17, 2021

Heid E. Erdrich is the author of seven collections of poetry. Her writing has won fellowships and awards from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bush Foundation, the Loft Literary Center, and First People’s Fund, and she has twice won a Minnesota Book Award for poetry. She was also the editor of the 2018 anthology New Poets of Native Nations, which was the recipient of an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and a Midwest Booksellers Choice Award. Erdrich works as a visual arts curator and collaborator, and as an educator. She teaches in the low-residency MFA creative writing program of Augsburg University and is the 2019 distinguished visiting professor in the liberal arts at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain. She lives in Minneapolis. Her latest book is Little Big Bully.

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript

[00:00:15] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #216 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron and I am so pleased that you’re here with me today. Today we’re going to be talking to Heid E. Erdrich on writing poetry in the dark. I have been getting so much more into poetry this year. I have mentioned it. I took a class. It has really unlocked and un-bottled some stuff inside me that is really important. And speaking of importance, Heid really talks about how writing can be transformative and we talk about how important to can be in terms of emotional health and strength and recovering from trauma. So I know you’re going to enjoy the interview. Very quickly, what’s going on around here? Well, what is going on? And I mean, very quickly, what is going on is I am very sick there’s something wrong inside me and doctors can’t figure out what it is and I’m in a great deal of pain. Right now, all the time. And I have been for the last 10 days and I need more tests and an MRI and all this other stuff. So, I have been feeling terrible. That is why there was no podcast last week. And I just need to say right now, that if there’s no podcast next week, that is why I’m going to try like hell to get this up. But I can only sit up for about 10 minutes at a time right now. So I’m kind of hearing my voice that I’m upset. I put on lipstick for you and I put on mascara but let me just talk for a minute about what we do when this kind of shit hits us. We do the freaking best that we can. That is all.

[00:02:09] I have my 90 day classes starting on the Tuesday after this goes out, I’m recording this on Wednesday. It’ll go up on Friday. Hopefully, if I get it done. And then I have 90 day classes starting on Tuesday. That is my focus right now, are these 90 day classes. They are so important to me. They are what I love to do. Number one in my life, you know is writing in terms of my work life. Number one in my life is my people, but number one of my work life, is writing in a very close number two, are helping other writers write their books and revise their books. You know that I love that so much and I don’t know what’s going to happen. I may have to push the class for a week or two, and I can’t even think farther than that, but I don’t think I will. Which is why, if you are taking one of these 90 day classes, I haven’t made that announcement because I think I’m going to be able to do it. Hoping, fingers crossed and that is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. We don’t- in writing, we don’t need as much certainty as we think we do. There are plotters and there are pantsers. There are people who plot their books and there are people who fly by the seat of their pants. A real truth of life, I think for most people lies somewhere in the middle, we plan quite a bit and then things happen and we have to fly by the seat of our pants. And I am one of those people who prefers to plan things out. I prefer to have an outline. However, in reality, when I’m writing, I deviate from the outline almost a hundred percent, as soon as I start writing, Oh, one page later, I’m in a different land and that is just life. Remembering that is very important to me, remembering that everything is changing all the time and I don’t need to have the answer for what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day or next week, when the classes start understanding that we can make shifts. And most importantly, we have to take care of ourselves in whatever way that looks like.

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Ep. 215: Jeff Elkins on Making Dialogue Really WORK in Your Book!

January 21, 2021

Jeff Elkins is the author of twelve novels and leads the writing team for an innovative technology company that simulates difficult conversations for professionals to practice. In the Fall of 2020, Jeff began a new business, DialogueDoctor.com, that helps writers defeat mono-mouth by coaching them to build engaging characters and write realistic dialogue that will pull readers into their work and keep them reading over multiple books. Jeff lives outside of Baltimore in the United States with his wife and five kids.

Join Rachael’s Slack channel, Onward Writers!

Transcript

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode #215 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So thrilled that you are here, extras super-duper thrilled because today we are talking to Jeff Elkins and Jeff is an old friend. He comes to me from the Writer’s Well, when J Thorn and I were doing that show and he’s just been around and part of my writing community for a long time. And he listened with horror as I was answering questions the other day on the mini podcast. And I was talking about how to make different voices of characters sound unique, which is something that I always add later in revision. He has a system of doing that and I am so excited to share this with you. It kind of blew my mind. It is truly unique, truly his, I know that you are going to get so much out of listening to it. I basically couldn’t wait to get off the phone with him in order to start implementing it into my work. And yeah, so look forward to that. That’s going to be Jeff coming up here in a minute.

[00:01:24] If you ever watch me on the YouTube video that goes up only a few of you do that most of you listened to this in podcast form, but hopefully you will notice, even if you’re just on the podcast, that this sounds a little bit better. I have upgraded my recording studio here. And I actually have a mic that is much better. I was using a Samson meteor mic and I have moved up in the world. I’m actually using a pop filter and a shock mount and all of those things, which I have always known I should be using. And hopefully this will increase your listening audio pleasure. Let’s see what’s going, going on around here, writing wise, I had a migraine, so I had a couple of days off there. I am recovering have recovered, but I want to say that I did use some of my downtime while I had the migraine to think is when I’m on migraine, when I’m having a migraine I’m on a bunch of drugs and it does kind of free my mind to think about things and make connections that I possibly wouldn’t have before migraines are unique in that they are not just in the brain. They’re the whole body, the whole body is reacting to the migraine. Many people’s stomachs are involved, but for me also involved non drug dependent is the way I think I am able to kind of get back to this 30,000-foot view into a book. And think about it. So actually use some of the time, not a lot of the time because then my brain would drift away in pain but when I was able to, I was really thinking about the structure of this book that I am first drafting. I want to make that really clear. I am first drafting, so it is nothing but a hot mess.

[00:03:08] However, it’s going to be a book. That’s really something I am reveling in knowing right now that no matter how messy it is, it’s going to be a book someday because I know how to revise, no matter how messy your book is, no matter how messy your writing is, even if you don’t know how to revise yet, you can learn. It is a learnable process and it’s just super exciting. And I’m still, now that I’m back at the page, feeling better, I’m still just throwing crappy words out and one of my students said just this morning in RachaelSaysWrite she said, there is a level of freedom that comes with that knowledge. That means you can just screw around on the page. Have a good time, leave sentences incompletely paragraphs hanging, jumped from chapter to chapter, add characters, kill the characters off in the next scene because they weren’t a good idea in the first place, knowing that you can remove them entirely or add them even further when you get to revision. That knowledge of that freedom is so fun and wonderful. So I hope that if you were playing with first drafting, you are remembering that you can fix anything, anything, anything, anything. So I am doing that.

[00:04:27] Another thing that I’m doing, it will be almost back by the time this airs. So I feel comfortable saying this. I am tomorrow going away by myself. A friend of mine owns a beach house in one of those fancy, fancy beach areas. And she doesn’t look right at the water, but it’s a one-minute walk to the water, basically around this little corner and I’m going there for four days alone. 100% alone. My wife is going to be here taking care of the sick dog and the other dog and the two cats and I am going away. And yes, I have guilt about this. However, she knows she’s also allowed to go away whenever she wants and can do so. And I pointed out to her when these plans were made. I said, do you realize that when I’m gone, you are going to be alone too. And she just brightened because neither of us have been alone since March. You might understand this, it seems like there’s this, it’s not easy for anybody. The people who are alone are very, very, very alone. And I cannot imagine what that is like. And then the people who are together are very, very, very freaking together. And I need to be not together for a while. My wife and I have both always very much enjoyed and valued our alone time in really big ways. Like we are very comfortable saying, I need you to leave the house because I have not had alone time in, you know, four days. I need you to go somewhere, go to the movies, go to the store, go to the cafe. And we can’t do that anymore. We haven’t been able to do that since March, so I’m going to be alone. And I think I’m going to work. I am planning on getting a lot of words. Oftentimes when I go away kind of vacation like this or any other kind of time when I leave town, which I haven’t done since February. I don’t write. I failed to write. I, what I, what I really succeed in doing is lying around and reading and thinking and jotting notes and journaling and drinking tea and walking along the cliff and going down to the beach.

[00:06:26] But this time I’m bringing my office smart and I’m just going to play at having fun. And I’m also going to give myself grace if nothing gets done, because that is more of my typical emo, but I, I’m just going to feel my way into it. Speaking of feeling my way into things, I will let you know that one of the motivations for getting this new recording equipment is that I have a new podcast just call me J Thorn. Now my new podcast is called You’re Already Ready and it is really tiny, short bites of pieces that I’m putting up. Basically I am reinstituting my blog. I am writing some things that I’m thinking, and I’m going to put them out in this little 5 to 7-minute podcast, 3 to 5 times a week. That is my goal. So go give that a try. I know it’s find-able on iTunes or whatever it’s called now. I, iTunes podcasts or wherever, Apple podcasts may be on Google play podcasts. It’s kind of hard to find it is available and it’s there but it’s hard to get to, Stitcher I know it’s available. I think it’s already available at Spotify. So you can check that out. You either search for my name or search for You’re Already Ready and let me know what you think. There’s about five episodes up right now, and it is not written, written. It’s not made for writers. It’s made for creative people.

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