Happiness Sprinkles + Book Club ZOOM Link
Clever art, gorgeous cakes, and celebrations of our community members
Hello, Protagonists! In this post, you’ll find:
🥳 Happiness Sprinkles (a.k.a. things worth smiling about this month)
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight - celebrating what you’ve been reading and writing
📚 Reminder! Our Book Club meeting is this Sunday, March 23rd at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
» Book Club ZOOM Link at the bottom of this post
🥳 Happiness Sprinkles: Things Worth Smiling About in March
Here are a few delights that I enjoyed in the past month. I hope they bring a smile to you, too!
Life in Pictures - Artist Sergio Ingravalle creates clever illustrations about things we’ve all experienced but perhaps don’t know how to put into words. His Mindshots series is creative and witty and well worth your time to browse.
Why You Should Make Art Even If You’re Bad at It - This is an older video but I still love how it reminds us that art is about the process, not about being “good” at it. So go out and make some art, without caring about the result! (Maybe start with our Creativity Mini-Challenges 🥰)
When You Don’t Know What to Do, Make Tea - I grew up in the Taiwanese culture where tea accompanied every meal. So I enjoyed this piece about why tea is a part of so many cultures. Whether it’s Sally Rooney’s characters or the Japanese art of making tea, I always feel a little cozier and more relaxed with a mug of something warm in my hands. (Even if it’s coffee—sorry! 😆)
👆🏼Watch me speak Spanish 😆 (with English translations) - Happy anniversary!
Have You Ever Wanted to Learn Spanish? - I’m celebrating 4 years of learning Spanish with my wonderful teacher, Juan David, who has recently opened up to taking on new students!
Juan David got me from being a super timid language learner (afraid to speak) to doing author interviews in Spanish! He also helped me with translating dialogue into Spanish for my novel One Year Ago in Spain.
If you’re interested in studying Spanish, email him at juandapj9817@gmail.com and tell him I referred you—he’ll give you a free 30-minute, 1-on-1 class.
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight—You’re the Hero of the Story!
Every month, I feature a few of our community members to celebrate books, essays, or other projects that you have loved or written:
👏🏼 Amy Suto, an active member of our Book Club for Writers & Curious Readers, recently published her debut romantasy novel, The Ash Trials. The story follows Saffron Vale, a powerless human who wakes up wearing a ruined wedding dress in a prison for magical criminals—but she can't remember who she is. Saffron has to compete in the annual Ash Trials to win her freedom—and to decide whom to trust as she tries to recover her lost memories. Congratulations on your publication, Amy!
🏆 Golden Kite Honors for two of our community members - Wow! SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators) named Stacey Lee and Seina Wedlick’s books as Golden Kite Honors! Congrats to Stacey on her YA novel, Kill Her Twice, and to Seina on her picture book, The Night Market.
Want to share something that you’ve recently read or written?
Just reply to this email or drop a comment below with a 1-2 sentence description. I can’t wait to hear from you!
📚 Book Club for Writers & Curious Readers
THIS SUNDAY - ZOOM Link below
Our Book Club is for our community members who want to dive even deeper into the craft of writing. 🤓 Come nerd out with us!
Feel free to come even if you haven’t read the book. (Just be prepared for spoilers.)
Book:
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Time:
Sunday, March 23rd at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
During the book discussion, we’ll chat about:
How the book is constructed
mix of memoir, humor, and advice - did this resonate with you or not?
her archetype of a certain kind of writer
How we interpret the book’s advice from different points in the writing journey:
as beginning writers, authors with a couple books under their belts, and old fogeys like me who’ve been publishing for nearly a decade.
did this book resonate with you?
if so—why?
if not—why not? (We often learn more, as writers, from examining texts that don’t resonate with us.)
During the writers’ hangout portion, we will talk about:
The business of being an author:
When (or should you) invest in:
a freelance editor
a freelance publicist
a marketing consultant
marketing “book boxes” for creators on social media
ads on Facebook, Instagram, or elsewhere
Is it possible to make a full-time living as an author—and how does that work, financially?
Should you go full-time? or should you keep a day job?
» Read my deep dive on How Authors Make Money before our book club meeting
I think this is going to be a wonderful conversation!
To prevent Zoom-bombing from not-nice people, the Zoom link is below the paywall.
This also allows us to keep our members’ book discussions private from the general internet; it’s nice to have a cozy, totally private space for just us!
If you’d like to join us in the Book Club, you can upgrade to a paid membership here:
or:
Get a complimentary paid subscription when your friends subscribe:
1 referral = one-month paid subscription, comped
2 referrals = three-month paid subscription, comped
3 referrals = one-year paid subscription, comped
Note for Introverts:
If you’re comfortable being on camera, I’d love to see your smiling faces!
But if you prefer to have your camera off or to change your display name on Zoom, that’s totally ok! (before you sign in to the meeting, go to Zoom and change your display name in Settings/Profile/Display Name).
ZOOM LINK BELOW:
💛