Hello there, wordicorns and scribblers!
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of tea, and settle in. We have a few announcements for you!
First, we’re so happy that you’ve stumbled across our little creative corner of the internet! We love having you here and would love to get to know you better. What is the first book you read that made you want to be a writer?
Second, we want to reintroduce ourselves to you since we have a few new faces in the crowd! *waves*
Elle Mitchell (left), aka Elizabeth, writes dark, suspense fiction, crip fiction, and even dabbles in speculative and horror. She has published 7 books independently in addition to several more short stories and essays. She is a disability activist, a gamer, and co-chair of the Horror Writers Association, Oregon chapter. She loves talking about sustainable creativity and how to wrangle ideas onto a page.
Valerie Geary (right) is mystery and suspense author, an anxious mess, and an avid hiker who has published 5 books, 2 traditionally and 3 independently. Her debut novel was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and she’s also dabbled in the romance genre under a secret penname. She loves talking craft and how to build creativity into your every day life while maintaining healthy boundaries with your self and the publishing industry.
Feel free to tell us what kinds of genres or stories you write in the comments! We’re always looking for new writers to interview and we may reach out to you in the future!
There are few changes coming to A Million Ways this summer.
We are firm believers in sustainable creativity and taking care of your body and mind first and always. Often that means slowing down, saying no, or hitting pause. To that end, we will be moving from a weekly to a bi-weekly publishing schedule for a while. Writing and creativity focused articles will be sent to your inbox every other Friday. This still leaves you with plenty of inspiring things to read, but also plenty of time to go outside and touch grass.
Additionally, we are going to be taking a mini-break with our Two Cent Tuesday interview series. If you missed any of the interviews, check out our always free interview archives! We’ve interviewed a lot of amazing authors since we started, authors who have given us so much wisdom and different ways of thinking about creativity! You’ll come away inspired!
We will be bringing back Two Cent Tuesdays in the fall, but for now, we’re going to kick off another round of the Read It Your Way Book Club! Officially the book club will start in July and will be free for all subscribers and followers until we finish reading the book, then we will be archiving the book club posts behind a paywall. So, feel free to join us in real time as we read our next book, Story Genius by Lisa Cron!
The official kick off and schedule for this book will be posted some time in July. On Tuesdays you will receive discussion questions and writing exercises and there will even be a virtual book chat at some point. So grab yourself a copy now and don’t miss a minute!
Valerie runs the book club and Elle is there to support. We look forward to having you join in the fun as we learn, explore and argue about whether or not writing advice is life-changing or bullshit. Watch your inboxes!
Finally, we will continue to do a monthly round up of writing and creativity focused articles that inspired us! If you have written or read any good articles lately, share with us in the comments!
We look forward to chatting with you soon!
Until then—happy writing!
XO - Elizabeth and Valerie