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You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.

Brené Brown

For the past two and a half years, I’ve been joking that I haven’t seen my comfort zone since late 2017.

It’s not actually a joke, of course. I have been pushing myself beyond what I thought myself capable of and I’m not even close to being done.

During the last eighteen months alone, I quit my teaching job to start editing and coaching full time, I moved to Cyprus, I published my first co-written lesbian romance, I published my first and many other nonfiction books, and that’s just the business and writing part of my life.

Of course, these were all calculated risks, and some were bigger than others. You really don’t have to jump without a safety net. Falling flat on your face and bruising your ego is embarrassing enough as it is. Besides, there’s no guarantee a crazy leap will bring in a bigger reward. It might, but it might also end in a trip to the ER.Read More →

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New month, new interview!

Today, we are joined by prize-winning author Helena Halme. Helena writes contemporary fiction with a hint of both Nordic Noir and romance. She’s a former BBC journalist, bookseller, and magazine editor. Originally from Finland, where she gained an MSc in Marketing, Helena also holds an MA in Creative Writing. Helena acts as Nordic Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors and helps other writers publish and market their books.

Helena has published 12 fiction titles, including The English Heart, a best-selling Nordic romance, which won an Awesome Indies badge on publication. The bittersweet 1980s love story between a Finnish student and a British Navy officer is now a series of six books. Helena’s latest title, Book 2 in Love on the Island-series, An Island Christmas, came out November 2019.

Helena has also published two non-fiction titles, Write Your Story: Turn Your Life into Fiction in 10 Easy Steps, which we will be talking about today, and Write in Another Language in 10 Easy Steps.

Helena is addicted to Nordic Noir and dances to Abba songs when nobody’s watching.

Write Your Story: Turn Your Life into Fiction in 10 Easy Steps

Welcome, Helena! Please tell us, what is Write Your Story: Turn Your Life into Fiction in 10 Easy Steps about?

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When your inner critic makes all the sense…

…how do you keep going?

This past month, I’ve been working on my next tarot challenge—Speak Your Truth. As I was pondering the questions, the need to shake things up a bit during this challenge came over me. Great, right? I love it when inspiration suddenly strikes.

Unfortunately, those are also the moments that—for me at least—that nastly little voice inside my head pipes up and desperately tries to waylay whatever new idea is now buzzing in my brain.

As soon as my curiosity went ‘Yes, gut, let’s shake things up indeed!’, the following thoughts tried to take hostage of my mind, in this order:Read More →

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Failure is the mother of success, someone once said.

Yes, I’m all for giving credit where credit is due, but it looks like too many people have said it. And they’re all right. Failure is the mother of success.

There is no creative process without failure. You can’t innovate without making mistakes. It’s all trial and error, and hoping something eventually sticks.

But that’s not really how we do things these days, do we?Read More →

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Happy 2020, everyone! May this year bring you everything you need, including the ability to receive it.

I’ve set many goals and intentions for 2020, and one of them is to overhaul this blog. I’ve tried quite a few approaches over the past years, none of which really stuck, so new year, new way of doing things. Or organising things, rather.

The aim for 2020 is to have three posts a month: an interview with someone providing author services; a post with editing tips; and a more personal blogpost about all I’ve learned over the past month/period when it comes to writing, publishing, marketing, and so on.

We’re starting 2020 with an interview 🙂

Bethany Tucker lives in the Puget Sound Area, near Seattle in the U.S.A. Previously, she has lived and worked in China, South Korea, and Japan, as well as Ohio, California, and Chicago. She writes fantasy under two pen names and offers editing services to other creative professionals and hobbyists.

As a kid, she was the weird one reading grammar texts and studying character arcs with books written for adults. She draws inspiration from traveling, studying history, and her varied experiences among the communities she has been fortunate enough to meet. Her personal writing mantra is to leave figurative blood on the page and her readers sometimes hate or love her for what she makes them feel. If I can’t feel it, she says, then my readers won’t either.Read More →