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Episodes
The Pebble in Your Shoe
There’s something that has been bothering you. It’s like a pebble in your shoe that irritates you just enough that you think about it all the time. It intimidates you, taunts you, and won’t let you stop thinking about...
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Are You Grateful for Your Critics?
This is the seventh and final entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. Rejection is not fun, but it still has an important place in our business and creative lives. When you’re rejected or criticized, it...
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It Only Takes One Match to Burn a Bridge Down
This is the sixth entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. When your writing has been rejected—or at least when you perceive that it has—you respond emotionally. And that’s totally natural. We all respond...
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Journal of a Memoir #1
In this episode, I begin a series on the making of my Father’s memoir of his experiences in Vietnam. I’ll be writing it with him over the next year or so. I talk about why I’m doing it, some of my fears as I start the...
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Brigitte Cutshall: The Formula for Publishing a Quality Book
Whenever I talk to new writers, the most overwhelming emotion I sense from them is confusion. There are so many options and resources for writing and publishing a book that it's hard to know what to do next....
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Stop and Check in With Yourself
This is the fifth entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. If you saw the 2009 movie Star Trek, which was, of course, a reboot of the classic TV show, you might remember the scene where Spock gets into a...
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You’re Being Prepared for Something Great
This is the fourth entry in our series on dealing with rejection. One of the biggest paradoxes of feeling hurt is that everyone experiences it, but when you’re going through it, you feel totally alone. This happens to...
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You Don’t Need a Gatekeeper
This is the third entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. The publishing world has changed radically in the last fifteen years or so. In the past, you would have to go through some kind of gatekeeper in...
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Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day
This is the second entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. It’s happened to all of us. You had your heart set on an opportunity and it falls through. Maybe it’s a writing job, a podcast guest appearance, a...
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The Seed of Truth
Today’s episode is the first in a seven-part series on dealing with rejection. As writers, we deal with rejection in many forms. You can be rejected by a reader, a publisher, a literary agent, a podcaster, a beta...
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Keep a Lid on It
Have you ever noticed that writers like to talk about the things they’re working on? It’s a strange habit, isn’t it? Maybe it’s because we like to get feedback on our current work in progress, which is totally fine....
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Jennifer Harshman: How to Write Your Book in 12 Weeks
We've all heard the stories about people who take years to write a book. In some cases, that's necessary, especially if the author is writing a very large book or one that requires a lot of research, such as a...
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