One of the tips I often give to clients as a blog coach is to make your blog about more than you. Your posts should be infused with your personality, but on the whole they should be about relatable topics your readers are interested in, not just you. So as I sit here in my […]
Every September I go to a writer’s colony. Not because I planned it that way. I just realized this while preparing for my first residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, known among artists as VCCA. My two weeks there start today. Yup, today. In September 2009, I spent five weeks at The […]
Some good news hit my inbox last week: I’ve been accepted for a residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts! Known as VCCA, the colony calls itself an “international working retreat for visual artists, writers, and composers situated in the rolling foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.” The program offers fellowships between two weeks […]
There's a tradition here at Hambidge that each fellow signs her name, plus her medium — whether she’s an artist, writer, composer, etc. — on the cutting board in her studio. It's fun to look at the boards and see who has worked in your studio years before you arrived. Last year, I blogged about […]
Can’t write all the time. Gotta take time out for running.
Since announcing that I’ll head to The Hambidge Center for an artist residency this fall, several writers have asked for advice about how to find and apply to similar programs, places where writers gather to produce and share creative energy. I’m no expert. Remember, I applied to five colonies, and was accepted at only one. […]
Good news to start your Tuesday: The Hambidge Artist Residency Program has accepted me for a fellowship this fall! That means I’ll spend five weeks writing in a cabin in the mountains of northern Georgia, part of a small community of creative thinkers. The Hambidge Center was one of five writers’ colonies I applied to. […]
Writing at home can be lonely, especially for a reporter like me who’s used to the bustle of a newsroom. That’s why as soon as I returned home from Africa, before I even started writing my book, I applied to a handful of writers’ colonies. What’s a writers’ colony? It’s a place where writers retreat […]