In the kingdom of hope there is no winter--Russian proverb
This winter I spent a good deal of time working behind the
scenes on preparing a new website, the latest in a series of steps along the
way to developing my life as a professional writer. With my youngest child
finally in school, I spent this last year devoting time to editing,
interviewing, cross-posting and promoting the work of other writers, all
valuable and worthy work I intend to continue. But with our family at a
financial cross-roads, perched on the cusp of choosing one city to live in so
we can potentially forgo the two city insanity, it is time for me to fund that
writing life.
Additionally, I began to feel Feral Mom, Feral Writer’s
usual focus (on the changes of heart and hearth as I write and raise children)
became diluted with posting announcements for classes and forthcoming published
writing. So I’m attempting to allow Feral Mom her due and let my other site be
the new hub for published work, classes I’ll be teaching, and a new blog I’ll
be starting in August about the transformative blogging book I am in the
process of writing for women bloggers.
Teaching a subject, of course, always pushes one to grow; teaching
Transformative Blogging continues to be rich. In the networking world, I’ve come
across the work of writer and blogger Nick Thacker (thanks to research expert and blogger
Marlene Samuels). I bought Thacker's book and am working
my way through it (actually answering his questions, putting in the footwork to look
around the net), as he provides very tangible ways for understanding the
business side of blogging (something I am definitely not savvy about) as well
as how to grow one’s roots and connect to others. Here’s a link to his blog:
Nick Thacker and a link to his book on Amazon ($4.99 on Kindle, and you'll see I wrote him a review) Building a Blog for Readers:
101 Questions to Ask Before you Launch your Blogging Empire.
While Thacker and I share some similarities in terms of questions and the inventory approach to the blogging process, I find the worksheets I'm using and developing for women cover what I'd loosely define as emotional and spiritual aspects of the blogging process. But I wanted to spend the next year inviting women bloggers to work with me so that what I offer extends past my own potentially myopic view of what we face as women bloggers. I invite you to come along with me--I will be blogging at my new site (
www.taniapryputniewicz.com) and offering sample worksheets to subscribers starting in August.
But until then, I have worked to make the site visually appealing, so I hope you'll visit. You’ll find links to the projects I’m enjoying, including the collaborative photo poem montages.
Robyn Beattie and I just completed our fourth montage,
“Nefertiti Among Us,” a
companion montage to “Nefertiti on the Astral.” We are also very excited to
have submitted our montages to a gallery—a goal we have long had in the back of
our minds. I’ll be sure to let you know when we do finally find ourselves with
a gallery opportunity.
I’m so grateful to be a writer, today, now, given the many
ways we have of connecting (as a writing mother, I’m thrilled we have the venue
of online teaching). I get so much pleasure out of coming up with on-line classes,
and then having the chance to work with my students. You know the saying, that the map is not the terrain--I start with the course map, and we veer where we need to go given who arrives to take the class. I’m excited about the
scope of the International poetry workshop, as well as the new class for
couples recovering from parenting (class structure will include the usual
sharing of poems in progress, but the secret assignment: writing a poem we won’t
share, to be mailed to the better half by Valentine’s Day).
Over at Mother Writer Mentor, here’s the forthcoming class
list:
Around The World in 30 Days: Reading
and Writing the International Poetry of Motherhood and Fatherhood:
September 10-October 5th, 2012
Transformative Blogging for Writing Mothers: November 1-November
30th 2012
Send Me a Letter: Love Poetry for Couples Recovering from Parenting:
Jan 8th to February 1, 2013
Excavating and Writing the Poetry of Motherhood: April 1-April 26th
2013
Excavating and Writing the Poetry of Fatherhood: May 6-May 31st 2013
Or to go directly to full course descriptions or to sign up:
Mother Writer Mentor Workshops.
Look forward to our writing lives crossing. As always, we are ever on the lookout for guest posts written by writing mothers about any aspect of that dual role.