Podcasts about write club

What if you could meet a poet, nay perhaps a prophet, communes with the divine, and loves the beyond so, they cannot miss the ordinary?Having tasted manna, they knows holiness in crusts and crumbs, prophecy in coffee grounds.Like Blake, they see the universe in a grain of sand, infinity in an hour, heaven contained within the petals?Then meet Joshua Luke Smith. Joshua is a poet for the people—a musician, author, and purveyor of the ordinary. He is a man of daring honesty, inspiration, and hope.I came across his book Something You Once Knew: Waking Up to the Extraordinary in Your Ordinary Life a few years ago—and you should definitely read it. For me, the timing was ordained. I had been sitting like an hen on ideas for a book about joy—eyes transfixed on a beautiful still pond. Then Joshua came along and nudged me into the water. After reading his book, I realized it was time to start writing—to get wet, flap about and make some ripples, let the eggs hatch—and, as a result, I wrote Longing for Joy. Once again, thanks, Joshua!You can imagine my delight when I got to chat with Joshua. It was the kind of joy that spills over. I saw the rest of my day with renewed sight. We talk about hope, how the ordinary stuff of life is actually the main event, and how all of life is one big creative act (even if you don't think you're an artist). I know you'll enjoy it. I want to encourage you to listen to Joshua's new album Liberated, check out his podcast This Is The Main Event, and even consider joining The Write Club. You won't regret it. Even better, you'll have an unshakable sense that being alive is a very good thing indeed.Opening and Closing Song: Water, Blitz//BerlinStory Song: Trackless Sea (Instrumental), Kings Kaleidoscope Featured Song: Joy, Joshua Luke Smith Get full access to Ordinary Matters at www.ordinarymatters.org/subscribe

In this “City Lights” episode, we discuss what you're not supposed to discuss outside of Write Club. Write Club. One of the co-founders, Nicholas Tecosky talks about this unique literary battle where local writers duel through dynamic reading. We hear from WABE's music contributor, Dr. Scott Stewart, about the late summer films coming out and their soundtracks. We revisit my 2019 conversation with author Cathleen Schine about her book “The Grammarians.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join us on Juneteenth for a special edition of Write Club Atlanta! Write Club is a literary event where writers go head-to-head on opposing topics. Expect amazing writers, stories that will take you on an emotional roller coaster, and an appropriate amount of joyous yelling.   All Black writers. Blackity Black themes. Come see 'bout it.   This event will take place at 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta. Doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8. Tickets $10 at the door.   Head to ontheme.show/juneteenth-write-club-atlanta for more info.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Week of 6/16/24 at the Library - Write Club | Hosts Dylan Posa and Barb Leitschuh go over upcoming events, talk about Write Club, and for "Barb The Bookie" recommend 'Long Haul' by Frank Figliuzzi.

In this episode I'm dishing out my take on the challenges we bring on ourselves due to our constant need for external validation / approval, and why it's so important to be intentional around WHO you seek feedback from. Ditching your need for the gold stars is incredibly liberating! Also mentioned in this episode: Write Club - the internet's least complicated, free writing accountability group - it's back, and you can join right now, right HERE

Mastering the Art of Audio Dramas & Screenwriting with Nicholas Tecosky   This podcast episode features a detailed interview with the multi-faceted creative artist Nicholas Tecosky, an accomplished writer, actor, producer, and co-founder of Atlanta's Write Club. The major focus lies in unraveling Nicholas' unique approach to writing audio dramas, emphasising the importance of outlining, multiple rewrites, and taking feedback on board. Nicholas shared insightful anecdotes and experiences from his work in 'VHS', ‘Aaron Mahnke's 12 Ghosts', 'Tomorrow's Monsters' and his upcoming project 'The Passage'. A distinct aspect of his approach lies in maintaining an overarching narrative in his anthology series, as exemplified in '12 Ghosts'. The artist also provided invaluable advice to aspiring writers, stressing the importance of careful practice and the openness to collaboration.   00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 00:20 Nicholas Tecoski's Career Journey 01:38 Transition from Acting to Writing 02:40 Exploring the Film Industry in Atlanta 03:46 The Art of Writing for Different Mediums 05:13 The Evolution of a Writing Career 05:53 The Art of Storytelling and Character Development 06:28 The Challenges and Rewards of Low Budget Writing 07:52 The Impact of Restrictions on Creativity 08:42 The Power of Suspense in Storytelling 11:22 The Role of Horror in Film and Literature 14:04 The Process of Creating 'Tomorrow's Monsters' 18:07 The Art of Creating an Engaging Anthology 26:10 The Challenges and Rewards of Voice Acting 31:47 The Art of Writing for Audio Dramas 37:38 The Role of the Actor in Bringing a Script to Life 43:00 The Process of Creating '12 Ghosts' 59:01 The Making of VHS: Initial Challenges and Budget Constraints 59:36 The Creative Process: From Idea to Script 01:00:14 The Power of Simplicity: Crafting Memorable Moments 01:00:56 Pushing Boundaries: The Art of Shock Value 01:01:39 The Production Journey: From Script to Screen 01:02:03 Character Development: The Art of Writing Silent Characters 01:02:23 The Art of Improvisation in Scriptwriting 01:02:56 The Magic of Unscripted Moments 01:03:29 Exploring the Works of Other Filmmakers 01:03:52 The Art of Storytelling: The Role of Improvisation 01:04:50 The Power of Collaboration in Filmmaking 01:05:04 The Writer's Journey: From Solitude to Collaboration 01:05:37 The Joy of Working with Actors 01:15:20 The Art of Deconstructing a Script 01:30:43 Upcoming Projects and Future Plans 01:33:17 Reflections on Favourite Genre Films and Books 01:43:22 The Craft of Writing: A Journey of Persistence 01:47:52 Final Thoughts and Contact Information  

In this interview, I spoke to acclaimed Scottish DJ's & Producers Illyus & Barrientos, With stellar releases such as ‘Shout', ‘So Serious' and ‘M.E.A' on Toolroom Records, plus releasing some Beatport chart-topping records on Defected Records and Mother Recordings, Illyus & Barrientos have well and truly cemented their status as one of the hottest DJ and production duos in the UK. So much so, that they have featured heavily on Radio 1 (Radio 1 Rave Lounge, guest interview on Danny Howard's show), and were asked to record a mix for the prestigious BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix series. We deep-dove into their music production techniques, how to navigate the industry, and how to get signed to some of the biggest record labels!

Tania Richard performed on Broadway ‘The Song of Jacob Zulu' with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She recently appeared in ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls' play at the Goodman Theatre. Television appearances include Chicago Fire, Chicago Justice, Chicago PD, Empire, The Chi. She's a published author and an award-winning playwright. Her writing has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, The Story, Write Club, This Much is True, Essay Fiesta. Richard is an Antiracism Educator and has led antiracism workshops for Fortune 500 Companies, tech startups, non-profit organizations, universities, theatres, Broadway. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ TANIA RICHARD ⌲ IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1470841/ ⌲ Website: https://www.taniarichard.com/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ The Moving Spotlight Podcast ⌲ iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moving-spotlight/id1597207264 ⌲ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cjqYAWSFXz2hgCHiAjy27 ⌲ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themovingspotlight ⌲ ALL: https://linktr.ee/themovingspotlight ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ #Empire #ChicagoPD #ChicagoFire #ChicagoJustice #TheChi #TheSongOfJacobZulu #LadysmithBlackMambazo #WomanKing #SchoolGirlsOrTheAfricanMeanGirls #Inclusion #DiversityAndInclusion #Emmys #TVTime #iTunes #Actor #ActorsLife #Believe #Success #Inspiration #Broadway #Netflix #Hulu #Amazon #HBO #AppleTV #Showtime #Acting #Artist #Theatre #Film #YourBestBadActing #Content #CorbinCoyle #JohnRuby #RealFIREacting #TMS_Pod --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-moving-spotlight/support

COME AND SUPPORT KEEKS AND HIS STUDENTS THIS WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, AT COPPER HILLS HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM AT 7:00 PM HIT THE LINK TO BUY TICKETS, BUY SHIRTS, AND STICKERS, AND DONATE. HELP SUPPORT THIS AMAZING PROGRAM! https://writeclub.ludus.com/index.php OR GO SEE WRITE CLUB AT THE DISTRICT MEGAPLEX :,) https://www.megaplextheatres.com/film/HO00002697/write-club Write Club premiere & review (0:00) Fav Trailers: - Killers of the Flower Moon (9:10) - Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Pt. 1 (12:00) Fav Watches: - Keeks: more about Write Club cuz he's so stoked about it lolz (14:00) - TC: Succession...go watch it (14:40) Shouts out to classicrockr2112 for the SWEET review on Apple Podcasts Fast X Review (19:00) ON THE SLATE: THE LITTLE MERMAID WOWOWOWOWW THE TIME HAS COME AND WE PREMIERED WRITE CLUB. IT WAS A BLAST. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN PLAYING IT FOR EVERYONE AND TALKING AOBUT IT HERE. GO CHECK OUT FAST X. IF YOU'VE LOVED THESE MOVIES, YOU'LL LOVE THIS...PROBABLY. OR YOU'RE JUST TOO FAR IN, MUCH LIKE US. LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH AND STAY SOOOO SWEEEETTTT

Three years ago today, Gov. JB Pritzker's stay-at-home order went into effect as COVID-19 swept the world. Host Jacoby Cochran, lead producer Carrie Shepherd, and producer Simone Alicea talk about what's changed since then, including the state of the city's businesses. Plus, with early voting now open, the team looks at some aldermanic runoffs to watch. Mayoral candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas take the debate stage tonight at 7p.m. on WGN. There's also a forum Thursday in Austin.  Some good news: Catch Jacoby at Gman Tavern tonight for “Write Club” at 7 p.m. Want some more City Cast Chicago news? Then make sure to sign up for our Hey Chicago newsletter.  Follow us @citycastchicago You can also text us or leave a voicemail at: 773 780-0246 Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ok so… Elections happened, adventures and journeys and such so yeah: I'm droppin this warning on a Monday cuz there's been a lot goin on, didn't wanna overload your anxiety. The holidays are nigh! And ye are not ready…Recorded LIVE at the Historic Green Mill Cocktail Lounge in Chicago 11/05/22Go see WRITE CLUB on Tuesday November 15th 7:30pm in Chicago! It's the goodz! Follow me here for all the Chadventures: https://linktr.ee/ChadtheBirdBrought to you by Jeppson's Mälort: Aiding in Social Distancing since the 1930's Featuring “Promises” by the Barrerracudas and a snippy of “SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR” by Jason Shaw http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jas... Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW, VOTE VOTE VOTE! And as aways: BLACK LIVES MATTER, MASK, VAX and BOOST, DOWN WITH THE SCOTUS!

This one is a look behind the curtain of our most recent members meeting.We're organizing a challenge to get into a state of constant creation by auditioning for the audience a'la David Chin's Million Little Things Story from Episode 2.Change is happening. Enjoy! If you want to be a part of the conversation join our JBA MEMBERSHIPThe sustainability solution for actors.Click here to join or go to https://www.jebbeach.com/jbamembersSTAY IN TOUCHJoin the JBA discord community for like-minded peeps and to be the first to know about upcoming On the Zoom Casting Workshops: Click Here or go to https://discord.gg/N8eGFu2DmxSOCIALSThe Audience Experience Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audienceexperiencepod/Jeb's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teacherjeb/JBA YouTube Channel for more lessons & resourcesProduced by Jeb Beach and Associates Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aesthetic Press is a Full-Service Digital-First Independent #Publisher of commercial fiction Novels, Novelettes, & Anthologies. We specialize in Thrillers, Mysteries, Dark Fiction, and #books with Dark Humor, Anti-Heroes, & Compelling/Gritty Themes!7 of their #authors will join me for this week's discussion show. We will discuss what it is like to work for such a company. We will talk writing, author life, life and much more. Throw some questions our way during the live show and we could talk about that. Below is a list of Aesthetic Press authors who will be joining us. Aditya Gautam (debut author of Surreal Psychological Thriller, A DREAM OF DUPLICITY released 3/22/22): His short stories and poems have been published in India, Singapore, the USA, and the UK. One of his speculative short stories was included in the Best Asian Fiction Anthology, 2018 by Kitaab, Singapore. A.D. Graves: She is from Carmel, New York, a small lakeside town. She loves to sit by the water on sunny days and type herself into fictitious worlds. She has her associate degree in Psychology, which helps when it comes to creating characters. This story holds elements of life that teenagers endure in the shadows, she values the importance of not feeling alone.Rebecca Frost (Academic author of Psychological Thriller NOT YOUR MARY SUE releasing 6/7/22): She is a published academic who researches and writes about serial killers. Her dissertation was about the history of written true crime in the United States. She is the author of three books published through McFarland on Jack the Ripper, H.H. Holmes, and Making a Murderer, and she is currently under contract for two books about the works of Stephen King, one through McFarland and one through Lexington. Simon Maltman (author of Crime Noir THE WOLF IS AT YOUR DOOR releasing 8/23/22): Simon Maltman is the author of novels, novellas and short stories, released with various publishers. An Amazon Bestseller from Northern Ireland he writes a range of crime fiction thrillers. A regular guest at festivals and events, he is the tour guide for Belfast Noir, and also a well known book reviewer for the likes of ITV and online journals. An established ‘Ulster Noir' author, he also writes American-set high concept thrillers.A.G. Chacon (debut author of New Adult Dark Fantasy Saga THE IRON FISTS releasing 12/12/22): She is a bisexual Mexican college student majoring in English at the University of Chihuahua. Writing has always been her passion, for it helps calm her mind and erase her insecurities. Nothing gives me more pleasure than writing a good series of dialogues and creating new characters. She believes everyone has a role to play in this life, and that she can transmit hope through writing stories. When she is not writing or reading, she plays video games, watches anime, and does yoga every afternoon. Brendan Hayes (debut author of YA Horror Thriller EXPECTATIONS releasing TBA): For the past seventeen years he has been a high school English teacher in the Chicago suburbs. Without exception, his favorite class to teach has been Creative Writing, which affords him a steady flow of reading material. A couple of years ago, some students challenged him to write an example of an assignment; and, as he was writing it, he remembered how much he enjoyed the writing process (that story, heavily edited, was published on the Ultrarunning Magazine website). Ell Priya (author of Crime Thriller SHAMELESS IN STILETTOS releasing 1/13/23): Her writing career began in August, 2014 when she became an integral part of the Write Club, Bangalore. An avid reader and writer since childhood, she rediscovered her calling in writing fiction. Over the years she has been published in over fifteen publications by Women's Web, Write Club magazine and anthologies by The Hive, along with her stand alone horror book - The Door.If you want to sponsor CJ Aggett on The Frontline 100k Walk, please visit here: https://events.soldierscharity.org/fundraisers/christopheraggettFOLLOW US► Our website - https://www.thewritingcommunitychatshow.com► Universal link - https://linktr.ee/TheWCCS► Buy the show a coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheWCCS► Use hashtag #TheWritingCommunityChatShow or #TheWCCS on social media to keep us current. This show will only succeed with your support!► Support us through #Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/WCCS?fan_landing=true► For our #FIVERR affiliate link click here (we will earn a little from you signing up through our link and more if you use the service. We back this service and have used it with great results! - https://fvrr.co/32SB6cs► For our PRO #WRITING AID affiliate link click here - https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=15286

It's "Young Adult Month" on The Goods, and we have a double whammy this week: an adaptation of a YA novel about writing a YA novel. Join as Brian shares his award-winning history as a writer and Dan discusses his abandoned novel drafts. The week's movie, meanwhile, is a cheesy Disney Channel Original Movie about an accidental author with a very bizarre Tyler Durden-esque twist. Dan revels in the possibility of an "Iguana Cut," while Brian points out some of the movie's stupider plot points. Go YAM with The Goods in the second week of Young Adult Month! Music credits: RetroFuture Clean by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4277-retrofuture-clean License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Amy has not only become an amazing writer, but she's pretty darn funny! She's looking at writing a romantic comedy next. I want to thank Amy for taking the time to share her thoughts and wisdom on writing. I really enjoyed this interview. In this episode, we discussed:How she learned to embrace and reboot her imagination as an adult and become a writerA great trick to deal with your inner critic, or “the gremlins” which is what Amy calls those negative voicesHow she uses power hours with her writing group to support her writing practiceHow her writing group provides accountability for her to show up to her writing (if you need this type of support, check out the Let's Write Club).The value of the collaborative support of a good developmental editor, writing group, or book coachHow she bases her victims on some real life not so nice people to add the emotional drive to those scenes and charactersThe value in writing what you know, especially if it's a specialized field like she writes about organ transplant, because the author knows the details in an authentic and accurate wayUsing the concept of “pleasure bundling” to hold yourself accountable to your writing practiceWhat's next in her writing career!Amy's BooksCut  by Amy S. PeeleMatch by Amy S. PeeleMeet Amy S. PeeleAmy S. Peele RN, is the award-winning, best-selling author of Cut and Match, medical mysteries with a mission and a side of humor. Before becoming a writer Amy enjoyed a fascinating 35-year career in the organ transplant field which provides an authentic backdrop to her books. She learned early on in her medical career that humor was an important survival skill and studied improvisation at the world premier school, Second City, in Chicago.Connect with Amy S. PeeleAmy on InstagramAmy on TwitterAmy's WebsiteLike the Podcast?Are you a subscriber? If not, I invite you to subscribe, so you'll get notified every time a new episode goes up.Click here to subscribe on iTunes.Click here to subscribe on Stitcher.And, if you're enjoying what you're hearing, I'd be super grateful if you left me a review. Those help other creative souls find this show, and they're fun to read. To leave a review, open up the podcast in your podcast player, and scroll down to the bottom where it gives you the option to review the show.Stay Connected with AmyJoin the bi-monthly cowriting/creating sessions, you can subscribe to the newsletter to get ideas, tips, and inspiration to get started creating and acting on those creative callings.Connect on FacebookConnect on LinkedIn.Connect on Instagram.

Alison Powell is a freelance writer and creativity coach. She facilitates workshops and courses as part of Write Club, which I've taken part in recently and found invaluable as I write the first draft of my novel. In this episode we talk about: Why building a club for writers is important to Alison Why she pivoted from working for IBM to teaching English to facilitate workshops Alison's secret mission

Chuck Palahniuk book review. Photo by Stanislav Kondratiev from Pexels.

The Law Offices Of Quibble, Squabble & Bicker retain a very special guest counsel in the form of Mark Stancil, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Terminus Media, a company that creates comic books and graphic novels inspired by biblical stories but set in fantastic environments. Stancil helps the fake lawyers with the client, Accepting You Are Part Of The Problem Not The Solution but veers in the direction of got the Covid, crime brulee, a soupcon of horror, hey Marvel, the Evolution series, Howard the Duck, two shoestrings, a disembodied head, the Write Club, turn or burn, this house is clean, Westminster Zombie Competition, Mark Twain, young boy Jesus, Bedbug Man, Wizard of Id, Family Circus takes a turn, the gossiping fence, land squids, Lions in Space, hip hop culture saves America, useless eaters, whack 'em in the sanitarium, kill the water protectors, replacement children and pursed lips. For other episodes, go to www.qsblaw.org. They are also internettable on: Instagram - @lawofficesofquibble; Twitter - @qsblaw; TikTok - @qsblaw; Uhive - https://www.uhive.com/web/shares/z/QTTCLFU; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quiblle.bicker.3; Tumblr - quibblesquabblebicker; Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/QuibbleSquabble or watch them on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/LawOfficesofQuibbleSquabbleBicker --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/qsb/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/qsb/support

On this episode, we are sitting down with one of my favorite people of all time. We talk about the evolution of Write Club, developing an online web series, and what it's like to be a professional Janet. Settle in, pour yerself some bourbon, and get to know my dear friend, Corrbette Pasko.

Ep. 100 Gobble Gobble Write Club Welcome to the bench! We write on the bench, we snack on the bench and we procrastinate on the bench and it’s our 100th episode! It’s a writing podcast, about friendship, snacks, sometimes Bill Murray and today is our November #BENCHWRITECLUB. Come for the laughs, stay for the prompts! Thank you so much for listening, we love you.   On 11/26, Thanksgiving, we will be on FB Live, calling @butterball and showing you our turkeys!   Thank you to our #BENCHWRITECLUB November participants: Prompt: Include the following phrase: “that is not how you cook a turkey” in your 250 word story. @KaylaStorytella (Kayla #Sharpie) @bjkdrvr8  (Bret-Jordan) @HRHammer  (Stephanie #TheHammer) @BrookReadingPod (Melissa aka #MelBrook)   BENCH GIVES BACK: November is Epilepsy Awareness Month. If you want to donate our fundraiser for the Epilepsy Foundation, you still can. THANK YOU! https://epilepsyfoundation.donordrive.com/participant/30787 The Red Cross still needs blood donations: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive Be sure to follow @AlltheHorror18 so you stay up to date with horror content all year long! If you want some #AlltheHorror merch so you can match us head here – all proceeds go to @ScaresThatCare   Join our #Benchlings group on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/2girlsonabench Twitter: @2girlsonabench Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2girlsonabench/ Support the show via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/2girlsonabench Buy us a snack at https://ko-fi.com/benchsnack Check out our family of shows on the Podfix Network: https://podfixnetwork.com/

In this episode, we talk with Ian Belknap, performer and essayist, on compelling yourself to write, founding Write Club, why you should speak your work aloud, respecting time, finding humor in the darkness, and being kind to yourself You can find Ian Belknap online at ianbelknap.com and on Twitter @writeclubrules Follow the Chicago Writers Podcast on Twitter @ChiWriPodcast

How are Nicola and Judith coping with the extraordinary challenges presented by the virus and what tips do they have that the listener might find useful?   In The Show Judith describes her introvert approach to staying safe, and Nicola shares a soup recipe she’s perfected during her first two weeks of self-isolation. #Self-Isolation #Lockdown #Virus #Coping   What's Fuelled Their Fire? Judith’s fire is fuelled by two new testimonials for the podcast, and Nicola’s enjoyed another virtual meeting with the Write Club ladies. She’s been invited to co-present a webinar, and has a new marketing angle spurred by a spike in traffic to an article on her website.   Focus Of The Week How are Nicola and Judith coping with the extraordinary challenges presented by the virus and what tips do they have that the listener might find useful? LISTEN HERE TO OWN IT #268| Coping in Extraordinary Times   Words Of The Week Nicola chooses Optimist and Judith picks Impermanence.   Project Updates Judith thinks this is an exceptional opportunity for people to take up projects they’ve been postponing, and Nicola is pleased with writing progress.   Who Or What's Impressed Nicola is impressed by the 250,000 volunteers to support the community around the NHS though didn’t feel compelled to become one herself, and she recommends The Kaiser Report on YouTube. Judith thanked Nicola for her recommendation of Babies on Netflix from last week’s show and describes what she loved about the short documentary series. *** Join our free Facebook Group for Own It! the Podcast and talk back to us about what you hear in the show. Support our podcast on Patreon with a few monthly dollars to help defray our costs - thank you!   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/OwnItThePodcast/  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: https://OwnItThePodcast.com

Ep. 81 Write Club Serenade Welcome to the bench! We write on the bench, we snack on the bench and we procrastinate on the bench… and we’ve been doing it for 2 YEARS! What?? AND a plethora of new writing submissions thanks to our #Sharpie Kayla! It’s time for some major kazoo action ;) Gotta #snackdiddy? Send it over!   February #BenchWriteClub submissions: @KaylaStorytella (Kayla #Sharpie) @maddie_blake_ @ shirley_penick @Emily_Is_Moore @BooksTransire (Amanda Nelson)   SHOUT OUTS: Drew @ReelFeelsPod for all the Jack London info! @HRHammer  (Stephanie #TheHammer) just cuz! PROMO: Leave the Lights on Podcast (@leavethelightsonpod on Instagram, @13vlm13 on twitter)   TEAM LEESEY Epilepsy walk info – donate or join us! https://epilepsyfoundation.donordrive.com/participant/30787   Join our #Benchlings group on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/2girlsonabench Twitter: @2girlsonabench Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2girlsonabench/ Support the show via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/2girlsonabench Buy us a snack at https://ko-fi.com/benchsnack Check out our family of shows on the Podfix Network: https://podfixnetwork.com/

FIVE-ALARM SHOUT OUT: Go see American Blues Theater’s tense and timely ROAN @ THE GATES at Stage 773 on February 14th, use the code “2FOR1” for two-for-one tickets and bring a date for Valentine’s Day cocktails at the bar!THREE-ALARM SHOUT OUT: Check ME out as I host POONIE’S CABARET at Links Hall on Monday February 17th! Gonna be hotsie AND totsie!ONE-LLAMA SHOUT OUT: Go get your Corbette Pasko on as she hosts WRITE CLUB on Feb 18th at Hideout Inn: It’s the smartest thing you can do. Brought to you by Jeppson’s Malört: It’s on your mindAnd by Hero Power: Enough good energy to give you peace of mind.Featuring the song “Promises” by the Barrerracudas: A mindful tune!Recorded LIVE at Chicago’s Historic Green Mill Lounge for The Paper Machete: Chicago’s Live Magazine and then in the central brain we call BENDER Studios.Please Rate and Review and THINK Responsibly.

Stephanie Birch is a wonderfully creative being. She is a yoga teacher, writer, photographer and the founder of Write Club, a monthly-ish gathering and weekly newsletter. What Stephanie loves so much about movement and writing is their ability to heal. She credits yoga with saving her life when she suffered from postpartum depression and finds the physical practices of movement and writing (by hand, not typing!) incredibly powerful. In this episode we talked about staying open to learning new things, how to choose a yoga teacher training and how to write without rules. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: movementbylara.com (http://movementbylara.com) Resources: stephynow.com (http://www.stephynow.com/) Instagram: @stephynow (https://www.instagram.com/stephynow/) Redefining Yoga is a production of (http://crate.media)

Back from Las Vegas, Nicola now has to get to grips with all the new contacts, business opportunities and ideas for new projects. What to do first? How to make sure nothing slips through the gaps? She shares how she prioritises everything she wants and needs to do. With more video extracts from the week, including an impromptu solo performance from Scott Page, saxophonist and rhythm guitar player with Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Toto.  Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. On the blog Resistance Visualisation What Does Success Mean To You What To Do With Your Goals Beating Resistance - Tip 1 Beating Resistance - Tip 2 What You Focus On Increases Masterminding in Vegas Customer Service: Good, Bad & Ugly Prefer to read? Okay, welcome back everyone. So, Nicola here, and I'm back in Greece, and still reflecting on the week I spent in Las Vegas. It was just quite incredible. The thing I didn't mention in last week's vzine was how humble everybody was, how down-to-earth everyone was. I mean, one of the attendees was the saxophonist from Pink Floyd, Toto and Supertrapp and he was just the nicest man. He was just lovely, and so was everybody else. There was no egos at all. It was very much filled with an attitude of gratitude. Everybody there was so thankful and happy and grateful to be there. It was just the most wonderful, wonderful atmosphere. And we had some really young entrepreneurs there as well. There was Allena, who's just put her first book on Amazon, and she's 11 years old. And also, Andy's two children, Sarah and David were there. And Sarah's about 16, and David's 19, and of course he came away very fired up from the whole thing. So let's talk about how I'm feeling this week in the middle section and how I'm dealing with everything I learnt and what I plan to do with it. Okay, so this week in the middle section as always, I want to tell you what's happening with me, and then try and draw a lesson from that that might help you in your business. So this week, I'm back from Las Vegas. I'm over my jetlag. I'm feeling a little bit run down from all the adrenaline that was coursing through my system. That's the only excuse I can think of 'cause I'm sleeping well enough for it not to be jetlag anymore. I wanted to just talk a little bit about how I'm coping with the overwhelm of all the opportunities that came to me while I was in Vegas and how do you even begin to start? I've come back to my usual workload, which is not onerous, to be honest, but I've now got to fit in all these new projects that I want to do and follow up with all the great people I met. So how do you do that? What I normally do is go about it by listing everything and putting it into a grid, a four-square grid. And, top left-hand corner of the grid is 'important and urgent'. This is a Stephen Covey: "Seven habits of highly effective people." So you might recognise it if you've read that book. And top right-hand corner is 'urgent but not important'. No, I lie. It's 'important, but not urgent'. And then on the bottom left-hand corner, it's 'urgent but not important', and then the bottom right-hand corner is 'not urgent, and not important'. So you try and categorise your tasks like that and obviously, you do the important and urgent stuff first, which is recording this vzine for me, because I really was very bad when I was away. I just couldn't make myself do it at all. I just never seem to have time, I never seem to be in the right place, I never seem to have the energy, or, y'know I was just firefighting all my energy levels all the time. Yeah, so catching up with the vzine is important and urgent. Catching up with podcast editing, catching up with Write Club, my hobby podcast I do with the girls. So those are all really urgent things, and important too. Moving on to the important but not urgent things.

THIS EPISODE: Ride versus Die. We head up to the headquarters of the original WRITE CLUB, the Hideout in Chicago.SAMANTHA IRBY is the New York Times Bestselling author of "Meaty" and "We Are Never Meeting In Real Life," as well as being a writer on Hulu's series "Shrill." Irby got romantic on public transportation with her take on RIDE.And CARLY OISHI is the co-founder of live lit shows Miss Spoken and Solo in the 2nd City (R.I.P.). During the day she's the director of financial capability services at nonprofit Ladder Up, an online grad student, and a C+ mom. You can read her musings at Oh Is She dot com.

This is the story of how Karen Flannery went from being a teacher to buying two lingerie shops in Cheshire with her friend Kate who one day phoned and asked “Do you want to sell bras?”.   In The Show Nicola’s “ground out” 500 words for Write Club and immediately entered them into a competition called Just Back (from Oz) at The Telegraph. She’s excited about her next trip to Vegas in early May, especially hearing Marianne Williamson and Marisa Peer speak from the stage at a mastermind event. Judith enjoyed her birthday, a couple of house moves, four days in a country cottage, a thank you letter, a nice birthday card, Waze playing nicely with Spotify, all her PPI funds safely gathered in and cleared funds leading to a shopping spree and more.   What’s Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola is excited about chat bots and even contemplated opening a new business, before deciding to stick to being a consultant as she remember she prefers teaching you how to do it rather than doing it for you. Judith’s shares an unsolicited testimonial, and her enthusiasm for Discord App.   Focus Of The Week This is the story of how Karen Flannery went from being a teacher to buying two lingerie shops in Cheshire with her friend Kate who one day phoned and asked “Do you want to sell bras?”. Karen describes how losing her parents, getting married and having children and expressing her inner entrepreneur led to a massive change of career, from one she loved to something completely different and why she grabbed that opportunity. K & K are passionate about the benefits of a well- fitting bra and their shops focus on fitting customers, especially younger ones for lingerie, swimwear and nightwear.   Words Of The Week Nicola chooses Love (lots of birthdays this week of those she loves) and Judith picks Interregnum.   Project Updates Judith’s got a second viewing at Worthing and Nicola reports that the podcast’s download numbers are back to normal.   Who Or What’s Impressed Nicola was unusually NOT impressed by the big fight scene in GoT (too dark) and Judith was delighted with her niece Clare’s marathon run (six hours, “hard from mile 8”), especially the £9,000 fundraising Clare achieved for Womankind. Plus, what an eye-opener Facebook Fundraisers turned out to be too.

On Bill's birthday (again!) we're talking about writing for TV with an interview with Matt Owen, Theresa sets a more difficult "Name The Novel" than last week, Heather shares a poem all about us, the Write Club ladies, and Nicola shares a techie tip. Linda and Sara Gangai from the Winchester Writers' Festival share what's on their respective bedside tables.  Write Club The Podcast is a weekly show for aspiring writers, published authors and readers everywhere. Join Stephanie Rouse, Theresa Stoker, Heather Worsley, Linda Jack Werlein, Pat Woolfe & Nicola Cairncross each week where they'll share guest readings and interviews, along with what they're reading, what they're writing and what it's really like to be an aspiring writer. You can join in the weekly "Name the Novel" quiz and find out "What's On The Bedside Table?".

Nicola describes how busy and stressed she’s been feeling over the recent month or so. Given that she doesn’t work full time she wonders why she never has time to do her creative writing which she schedules for the afternoons but mostly ends up cancelling. What’s the answer to feeling too busy and/or too stressed?   In The Show Nicola’s been flat out catching up. She’s recorded 14 one-minute videos, two vzines and six Write Club podcasts. She’s worked closely with her new VA, bringing her up to speed, supported Phoebe through a second job interview, borne some banking admin stress and been out three nights on the trot. Busy, busy, busy. Judith was up all night for the Oscars, and she’s grateful for a second PPI win. She appeals to the listener as her current housesitting gig is nearly up and Nicola has a genius idea about the Stoupa Life group as lots of people are about to come out for the summer leaving their UK homes empty for long periods of time.   What's Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola is excited about Google Optimise which is free and enables you to test things on your own website with ease. Judith has two new clients in her diary today, one of whom followed the ideal fast route to becoming a client, finding Judith via Google, buying her book, reading it (!) and booking herself into Judith’s online diary, all within one week. Judith has taken on the challenge of increasing the Own It! Patrons from five people paying $19 between them to sufficient in number to create $100 per month which would cover the podcast’s costs. If you’d like to be one of those who contribute a few dollars a month, there’s a link to Patreon on our podcast website or you can go straight to Patreon.com/NicolaCairnX.   Focus Of The Week Nicola describes how busy and stressed she’s been feeling over the recent month or so. Given that she doesn’t work full time she wonders why she never has time to do her creative writing which she schedules for the afternoons but mostly ends up cancelling. What’s the answer to feeling too busy and/or too stressed? Judith and Nicola discuss creating a buffer, getting ahead, better planning, addressing the feelings themselves, running to catch up, deadlines, and stress and time management.   Words Of The Week Nicola chooses Current and Judith picks Leadership.   Project Updates Nicola’s sold her third business book in as many weeks, this time on a PWYW basis and is delighted the purchaser chose to pay $10. She reports podcast downloads at 96,777 and predicts 100k in the next seven weeks. Judith sidestepped her writing on the day after the Oscars, and updates Nicola with progress on selling her BTL flat in Worthing – zero progress in the first nine days.   Who Or What's Impressed Nicola has enjoyed reading all night, After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell and Judith is impressed by a quote from screenwriter William Goldman which she picked up from Samuel L. Jackson at the Oscars.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/OwnItThePodcast/ To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: https://OwnItThePodcast.com

Judith and Nicola share the things and people they love in honour of Valentine’s Day, the day on which the show is recorded.   Nicola’s been out to dinner at Melissa’s with Dave’s Dining Club, enjoyed a weekend of work on her writing, realised she’s writing an action thriller (not sci-fi), recorded five Write Club podcasts and had a faffy month with her business bank account while putting a cheery face on it.  Judith enjoyed the BAFTAs and seen another four wonderful films – If Beale Street Could Talk, Roma, Bohemian Rhapsody and Widows.   What's Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola has sold two of her business books in one day and Judith’s realised how important creativity is in her work and personal life, having a sense of being creative and also working with creative people.   Focus Of The Week Judith and Nicola share the things and people they love in honour of Valentine’s Day, the day on which the show is recorded. The categories they choose are Something I love, Someone I Love, Books I Love, Work I Love and Wild Card. Their answers respectively are: Nicola loves her MacBook Pro, her children Phoebe and Nelson, books by Iain M. Banks and Diana Cooper, coaching work especially encouraging people never gets old for her, and her wild card is learning new stuff. Judith loves words, herself, memoirs and books by Bill Bryson and Barbara Kingsolver, being curious and helping people in her work and writing, and her wild card is the music scores of films and TV which is often how she discovers new music.   Words Of The Week Nicola chooses Passion and Judith picks Creativity.   Project Updates Nicola is pleased to report that download numbers for Own It! the Podcast on the first day on broadcast (Friday) for the last two shows have been up from 200 to 300. Judith reports in that she met her writing commitment on Monday this week but still isn’t feeling it quite yet.   Who Or What's Impressed Nicola is moved by a show she saw on YouTube called The Last Bee Gee about Maurice Gibb, and Judith trails the upcoming listener guest interviews with Linda, Cath, Sue and Karen.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group: To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: https://OwnItThePodcast.com

Why does it seem sensible to make a business from scratch out of something you are not passionate about, when the thing you long to do seems unrealistic?   In The Show Nicola describes her week as frantic because it is Sarah’s last few days so she’s been working with the new VA who is based in the Philippines. Her local project manager is helping with a proper induction, and the team is immersed in SOPs (standard operating procedures), training videos and tick lists. Judith’s had what she says is a classic up-and-down self-employed week, some good, some bad, feeling a bit under the weather, best friends over to lunch and a small PPI win with more in the pipeline.   What's Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola’s made the first sale of her new book at NicolasBook.com – Attract 3.0 and Judith’s been coaching a man who is selling his business and going to live with his family in Spain. What will he do next? This discussion provokes content for this week’s Focus.   Focus Of The Week Why does it seem sensible to make a business from scratch out of something you are not passionate about, when the thing you long to do seems unrealistic? Is it because the product is you? Judith thinks so and she and Nicola debate how to find the confidence to pursue your passion project, how to make the time for it and how to believe in it before you see success and outside validation.   Words Of The Week Nicola chooses Tight and Judith picks Month-End.   Project Updates Two of Nicola’s Write Club the Podcast colleagues have offered to write articles for her own new passion project and membership site, Writing Club World.   Who Or What's Impressed Judith was impressed by a sponsored post on Facebook which appeared to follow the Frank Kern principles Nicola has mentioned a couple of times on recent podcasts. And Nicola has discovered a new crime writer she likes called Joseph Knox and his detective Aidan Waits and recommends the dark writing in the first of the series, Sirens.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/OwnItThePodcast/ To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: https://OwnItThePodcast.com

What criteria do you use to hire a coach? How do you think your clients hire you? How do you wish your clients would hire you? Nicola Cairncross and Judith Morgan discuss all this and more!   In The Show Nicola’s return journey to Stoupa was far less stressful than her outward one, although it did end with a rather “interesting” taxi ride. She’s pleased to be back in her peaceful, clean and tidy home. She’s had a breakthrough in her new VA plan and is hiring a project manager for a month to handle it for her. Judith tells Nicola about last week’s Cashflow game and what she learned from the day’s events, including very easy travel thanks to Waze and how to kill a couple of early morning hours in Chiswick!   What's Fuelled Their Fire? Following on from last week’s show about pro blogging, Judith updates Nicola with her discoveries and plan to niche blog on matters esoteric. Nicola’s been to a Write Club meeting and taught the members about the Story Grid, and she also talks about her own new book Attract 3.0. She’s had a second breakthrough this week, in her creative sci-fi writing after completing Module 1 of her Curtis Brown writing course.   Focus Of The Week What criteria do Nicola and Judith use when they hire a coach? How do they think their clients hire them? How do they wish their clients would hire them? Words Of The Week Nicola chooses Questions and Judith picks Solo.   Project Updates Nicola’s really pleased with the big upswing in her traffic results as an excellent outcome of her daily videos. And Judith has committed to and completed her second writing Monday, one cheat post and one about her three favourite astrologers. She explains her logic for that and is testing, testing, testing.   Who Or What's Impressed Judith was impressed by this week’s hard-working Russian cleaning lady who swept the entire house with a stiff brush when the hoover didn’t work, and Nicola explains the spooky coincidences which led to her discovering a sci-fi literary festival called Cymera in Edinburgh and she interviews the founder Ann Landmann who crowdfunded it to get it launched.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OwnItThePodcast/ To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: https://OwnItThePodcast.com

On my live Clicks & Leads Academy calls I allow my clients a couple of minutes to have a quick moan. And when my best friend Kim and I meet up, we allow ourselves 15 minutes. But then we ask ourselves a very important couple of questions that help us turn things around. Because nobody likes someone who continually moans but doesn't take action. I also reveal a handy tool for finding out what you DO want, if you are not sure. Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Clicks And Leads Academy Write Club On the blog Vzine 77 - Fairytales In Business Start A Business Podcast Your Marketing Budget Thoughts Become Things Your Offer That Converts Profit From Your Passion How To Become More Creative Own It! 205 | Does Your Schedule Reflect Your Values? Own It! 204 | The Internet And Social Media – A Force For Good Or Evil? Prefer to read? Welcome back. Nicola here, and I just wanted to update you on the one-minute video campaign which I'm doing. It's having a rather startling effect on the numbers that count. It's basically increased the views on my LinkedIn profile by 210%, and it's increased the views on my Twitter profile by over 100%, which is quite astonishing really. So I will be continuing with this, and if you're getting any value from the one-minute videos, do let me know underneath wherever you're seeing them. Whether that's on the Facebook page, the blog, the YouTube channel, Twitter, or LinkedIn, I'd love to hear from you. I unfortunately can't update you on what impact it's having on views on my sales pages, which is the real goal, of course, because all the power's just gone off in Greece, so I'm absolutely internet-less. Luckily my camera works without power, for a little while, anyway. So I'll try to get this content recorded for you while the power is off, and then I'm off to Write Club later, so that'll be fun with no power. We'll see what happens there. In the Clicks & Leads Academy, we have weekly live calls, where people can just pitch up, basically, and either ask me questions or just get a load of stuff off their chest, which is often what it turns into. Because they've got nobody else to talk to about their negativity, their fears, their doubts, to ask what to do next when you're feeling stuck. But what I don't do is let people wallow. I'm starting to ask people "What's your alternative?", because once you've had a little rant, or a little complain about something, then you've just got to think to yourself, what is your alternative, what's your choice, what are your choices here? Because nobody is going to listen to somebody who complains for very long. I give my clients about, oh, three or four minutes for a good ol' complain, and my best friend Kim and I have always had a policy that we get 15 minutes each to have a good old moan before we start talking about "Well, what's your alternative, what's your choice?" And so the other thing people are very keen on telling me is what they don't want. I had a client once who was a bank manager, and he knew he wasn't going to be a bank manager for much longer because the banks were getting rid of the older managers, so he knew he needed to find something else, and he didn't really know what he wanted to do. He knew what he could do, but he didn't really want to do any of those things, so we kept looking at what are his choices, what're his alternatives, and we also turned around what he didn't want into positives. Okay? So, if you don't want something that means you're going to work evenings and weekends, where does that leave you? What choices do you have where you don't want evenings and weekends? Eventually, he found his perfect business and funnily enough, it was right underneath where the bank was. It was a very thriving little cafe that was up for sale and the good news...

Just off to Write Club and we recorded our "Fairytales" episode for WriteClubThePodcast.com. This is appropriate because following on from last week's Vzine 076, I've been thinking about where this feeling of "someone's coming to save me" comes from. Also manifesting it in business as some external event or new shiny object that is going to be the "one big thing" that makes all the difference... Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Clicks And Leads Academy Write Club On the blog Nothing's Happening, What To Do? Think You Need A Business Partner? You Really Need To Be Everywhere Online Be Bigger Than The Space You Fill In The Universe Voice Search Is Coming! Would Your Business Be Found? Nobody Cares About Your Money (Like You Do) No Resources? Be Resourceful! The One Thing That WILL Hold You Back Own It! 204 | The Internet And Social Media – A Force For Good Or Evil? Own It! 203 | Secure Financial Futures for the Self Employed Prefer to read? Hi, it's Nicola and I'm back for episode 77 of the Vzine. I'd better not put numbers in in case I get it wrong, because I'm bound to. Yeah, it's been a great week out here. It's been thunderstorms and lightning, which means that the power goes off on a regular basis, and the internet goes off on a regular basis. I've bought myself a Calor gas stove, a little tiny one, so I can make a cup of tea when that happens, because there's nothing worse than not being able to have a hot drink. I've been out and about this week. I've been to writing club. I've been to reading club. I've been out for dinner, Dave's Dining Club. The ex-pats certainly know how to get a bit of action going on once the summer wears off. And I'm just off to Write Club where we're going to plan for a few episodes of WriteClubThePodcast.com over Christmas. So if you're a writer, or if you're a reader, do come along and check out that. This week, I would like to talk to you about how fairytales affect us How the stories we're told growing up, affect how we behave as adults. And the reason this was brought to my attention was because we were talking about fairytales in our Write Club podcast, and how they grew up from the folk tales, which means that they weren't invented by any government to indoctrinate us. They were invented by women telling stories around the bedside or the campfire. And I think it just grew up to reflect how life was like in the olden days. But when I think about the kind of fairytales I read when I was a child, before I went on to science fiction and fantasy, which is a grown-up version of fairytales, I think about how I had this subliminal thought that someone was going to come and rescue me at some point. And I remember when that realisation came to me that that was completely false, that nobody actually was coming to rescue me at all, not even my parents, was about when I was about 37 or 38, which is really late in life, isn't it? It really is. It came to me when I was married and I had children. And, somehow, I had this subliminal thought that at every stage in life, I would get more grown-up or that someone would come and rescue me and everything would suddenly be made alright. I remember how I felt when I realised that nobody was coming to save me. There was no prince in shining armour on a mounted steed with a sword. I'd had this feeling for so long that I'd be saved at some point, and I don't know where it came from. The only place I can think it came from was from fairytales, and, perhaps, that was my moment of growing up when I had my kids and I realised if it's to be, it's up to me, and nobody is coming, not even my parents. I think people who've got really good parents must have this problem because they must always have their parents to fall back on.

  Debating the pros and cons of the internet and social media, including friendships and the ability to create a living from anywhere in the world with WiFi. Judith Morgan and Nicola Cairncross ask - but at what cost?   In The Show Nicola’s been making the ladies at Write Club laugh when she transposed America and Paris, and reading aloud in her French accent reminded them of Glaswegian! Her week has been creative and quiet and she’s been out to dinner a lot. As Judith started to recover from the bug, she got going with sorting out her new home and two professional cleaners arrived to make it even more habitable. She got her Outlook fixed too so normal service is very nearly resumed.   What's Fuelled Their Fire? Just when Judith was beginning to despair, two fabulous results came in from her Baggy Trousers Low Carb group and on the day she too was ready to go back to that way of eating after the bug and in a pre-Xmas health kick. She doesn’t think those two are a coincidence. Nicola’s mentor has encouraged her to re-start her vzine and challenged her to make a daily one-minute video which she started to do herself in batches before deciding to outsource. Phoebe and Sarah are back in gainful employment.   Focus of the Week Nicola and Judith debate the pros and cons of the internet and social media including friendships, clients the world over, the ability to create a living from anywhere in the world with WiFi, access to a wealth of information and much more. But does it come at some cost and some risk to the old, the lonely and the vulnerable such as scamming, trolling, bullying and isolation? Nicola believes the internet is what you choose and thinks it is 90% a force for good. Judith is uncharacteristically more downbeat than normal and would put it at only 50% or even 40% good.   Words of the Week Nicola chooses Punctuation and Judith picks Discernment.   Project Updates Judith can already feel she’s rolling downhill to Christmas but senses this is no bad thing after a hard year. Nicola’s hell-bent on a LinkedIn cull.   Who or What’s Impressed? Nicola likes Tom Riley in Dark Heart, a compelling watch. And Dalton Harris and Nile Rogers on X Factor. Judith caught Michael Buble on Graham Norton and tells of the songs and journey that led her on to YouTube.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: OwnItThePodcast.com  

Jessica Sawyer, popular high school girl, has been murdered and her schoolmates are the prime suspects. Can the detectives crack the case? Can YOU figure out the murderer’s identity before they do? 100 Story Building's Write Club presents 'Murder of Jessica Sawyer', an suspense drama audio play created by young writers under the masterful guidance of crime writer Anna Snoekstra! To launch officially on 24 Nov 2018!

Paula Gardner joins us to talk about Chaos Theory which is about how every tiny decision alters your course and how you come to realise you have no control over events, good or bad.   In The Show Nicola’s having a quiet week since sister Sarah returned to the UK. Dave’s Dining Club re-opens now that the offseason has returned to Stoupa. Judith’s moved house, said goodbye to everyone in the West Country, and met her new helpful neighbours. She’s broken out the thermals, is contemplating NaNoWriMo and has enjoyed another crystal consultation.   What’s Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola’s ahead of the game when it comes to NaNoWriMo, she’s attended a writing sprint day with her writing club which was at her house so she mainly spent the time zapping (writing-based) tolerations. Sarah left her with the farewell gift of a tidy and clean home which means Nicola has a lovely feeling of being on top of all her chores. Judith enjoyed a timely reminder when spending a most unusual 2.5 hours in the hairdresser this week; she received not one but two SEO-based leads. Step away from the machine more often, Judith!   Focus of the Week Paula Gardner was in PR but her first love was always psychology. Careers advice put her and her parents off allowing her to pursue that but now she’s found a way to combine the two. She talks about Chaos Theory which is about how every tiny decision alters your course and how you come to realise you have no control over events, good or bad. This leads on to a discussion of Happenstance Theory which is about getting over the idea of goals, the more open you are, the more serendipity has room to happen. Connect with Paula via her website Scarlet Thinking or on Facebook.   Words of the Week Nicola chooses Autonomous and Judith picks Budget.   Project Updates Judith is taking a few days off to settle into her new home, and Nicola is experimenting with the podcast’s category by submitting it to Health/Self Help.   Who or What’s Impressed? Nicola is impressed by self-published fantasy writer Peter Flannery who she has interviewed for Write Club’s podcast. And Judith, by the care shown above and beyond by those ladies who have looked after her for the last six months, Holistic Helen and hairdresser Anita. She explains why.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: OwnItThePodcast.com  

Why are entrepreneurs so annoying? They buy systems and processes and then sabotage themselves by deviating from them!   In The Show Judith’s had a testing week with another fall, another house move, breakages and sleeplessness. Fortunately, there are lots of lovely family meetups too. Nicola has been woken in the night by an earthquake – wow! And she was persuaded to go and watch the local Am Dram.   What’s Fuelled Their Fire? Two of the ladies in Nicola’s Write Club have had some wonderful successes.  And sharing a computer with sister Sarah in 2-hour stints has caused them both to be more efficient and work differently. Both Nicola and Judith were inspired by the contributions from the listeners to episode 200 of Own It! And Judith’s enjoyed driving in the countryside, finding it uplifting; she’s especially enjoying singing M People’s Moving on Up and noticing the pretty English churches in Somerset and Dorset.   Focus of the Week Why do entrepreneurs buy systems and processes and proven formulae and then sabotage themselves by deviating from them, or not showing up at all or believing that somehow it’s different for them?   Words of the Week Nicola chooses Contingency and Judith picks Idiosyncratic.   Project Updates Nicola changed three things at once with her online presence across the summer and then realised she couldn’t tell the impact of any of them, so she’s reversing two. Judith’s still pondering a sabbatical in 2019 where she might not take on any new clients but would continue to look after her most beloved existing ones.   Who or What’s Impressed? Judith was impressed by Jo Berry who has found a way to forgive the only IRA member convicted of killing her father in the Brighton bombing of the Tory Party Conference. Patrick Magee was later released from prison as part of the Good Friday agreement and they got to know one another and now travel the world in the name of peace and reconciliation. Here’s her interview on R2’s Jeremy Vine show with Vanessa Feltz. Nicola has discovered Magic Numbers with Hannah Fry on BBC4 and the Mysterious World of Maths.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: OwnItThePodcast.com

Should Judith segment her newsletter to cover the two distinct areas of interest – low carb and business coaching? Nicola shares her thoughts on the matter! Nicola has some lovely friends staying this week and has decided to go into a joint venture business with the Dad of the family, Peter, which will involve a trip in Spring 2019 to Las Vegas. Judith wasn’t in the mood at all to go back to work on Monday so busied herself instead with some frenzied “spring” cleaning, very much NOT her comfort zone. What’s Fuelled Their Fire? Judith’s got a new notebook for the new term and a new Club 100 client plus she woke from a dream feeling the nudge to start using EFT/tapping with her low carb clients to help them beat the sugar cravings. Nicola’s new major client, SecretArtOfHuna.com, filled her first two workshops which she put down to “low-hanging fruit”. They are working on their third. Focus of the Week Judith received some useful feedback from a newsletter reader that she should ask Nicola for some advice about segmenting her newsletter to cover the two distinct areas of interest – low carb and business coaching. Judith asks Nicola what she would have done with this unsolicited advice and explains her own viewpoint too. They agree and Judith was pleased that another serious marketer does too. Words of the Week Nicola chooses Sociable and Judith picks Summer. Project Updates Nicola is happy to report that Write Club the Podcast doubled their download numbers during the time they were offline during August. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Own It! Our listeners prefer it when we are live each Friday and broadcasting a new show every week. Judith is comparing SendPilot to Missing Lettr, Zoom to Webex and she also talks about some thoughts she’s having and changes she’s experimenting with when it comes to organic Facebook marketing. Who or What’s Impressed? Judith is delighted that despite her Facebook misgivings it has brought forth some interesting opportunities for housesitting over the next couple of months. And Nicola is trialling use of Monday.com which is a project management/productivity tool, a bit like Trello which she didn’t get on with as well as she hoped.   Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: OwnItThePodcast.com

Welcome to the bench! We write on the bench, we snack on the bench and you guessed it - we procrastinate on the bench! Today we are joined for coffee and (gluten free!) muffins by activist, author and friend Stephanie Hammerwold for our monthly #BenchWriteClub Episode. Join us as we snack, write and try not to feel belittled by a judgmental chicken. Help solve the mystery of “Romeo & Juliet” and who sang it best in a parallel universe. Thank you to everyone who submitted writing – keep up the great work! Follow us on FB, Twitter and Instagram! @2girlsonabench Email us at 2girlsonabench@gmail.com Stephanie’s Pacific Reentry Career Services website: https://www.prcsca.org It only takes $5! PRCS relies on support from donors to provide our services to clients free of charge. Your financial support goes directly to helping us provide the programs necessary to help formerly incarcerated women (and men) find work. Stephanie’s HR Resource Site: http://www.hrhammer.com #BENCHWRITECLUB shoutouts to Caty Heyn Kayla @Kayla_Trapeze Drew @ReelFeelsPod Nick @EpicFilmGuys JayRay @PhonyNo & @WithDummies Stephanie @HRHammer Promo by @BrookReadingPod If you are reading this part of the show notes, it’s a secret message… tweet the hashtag #BenchEggs to us and you may get a prize! Thank you to #NoPhonyPodcastNetwork #WLIPodPeeps #LadyPodSquad #underdogpods for social media support!

What Do Boundaries Feel Like? That’s the question posted by The Psychology Babes on Facebook and debated by Nicola and Judith in today’s show. In the Show The UK heatwave continues, England win a penalty shootout against Colombia. Judith’s been blitzing the bathroom, the neighbours bring round high-carb gifts and there’s a potential long-term house sit. Nicola and Sarah have their children visiting, and they organised a surprise party for Steph which involved Nicola getting overheated making pasta bake for 40 guests. What’s Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola’s running her July Clicks And Leads 21 Day Challenge and enjoying it. The group is smaller but more actively involved and her process is streamlined. She teaches Judith about how to archive a Facebook Group. Judith is working her way through a coaching-type book with Marion from which they feel they will both benefit as well as their respective clients. Focus of the Week What do boundaries feel like? Nicola has a cracking example to share based on her experiences this week with family staying. The discussion includes responsibility, anger, saying no, knowing we are enough and that it is OK to ask for respect for our feelings and for our own needs to be met. Words of the Week Judith picks Reading and Nicola chooses Family. Project Updates Judith’s decided to take August off this year and not write another book. Nicola and Judith are not podcasting in August either and Nicola is also taking a break from the Write Club podcast intending to do more beach “work”! Who or What’s Impressed? Nicola: Rich Schefren is coming out of retirement and shares a video on Facebook Judith: The NHS is 70 years old on the day of this recording (5 July 2018) but mostly she is impressed by Cristina Palma who was a guest on Own It! recently. She’s made worldwide news in getting the Court in Sofia (Bulgaria) to recognise the EU mobility of same-sex couples - scroll down to read it in English Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: OwnItThePodcast.com

Skyler Heck of f-ether breaks down his new track Song Exploder style. Here’s his Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We hear the song Still as Ice. Rachel Trignano tells us a story. You can find more of her work at Write Club.  

Skyler Heck of f-ether breaks down his new track Song Exploder style. Here’s his Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We hear the song Still as Ice. Rachel Trignano tells us a story. You can find more of her work at Write Club.  

Skyler Heck of f-ether breaks down his new track Song Exploder style. Here’s his Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We hear the song Still as Ice. Rachel Trignano tells us a story. You can find more of her work at Write Club.  

Nicola Cairncross is back from a Write Club Lite meeting, where they get together and do anything BUT write. Planning future episodes of the podcast, doing a drama workshop, talking about writing, but not actually writing. Nicola concludes that, in order to get something done, you have to actually set aside time to do it and "just get the file out". You can also subscribe to Clicks And Leads via Radio Public Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Clicks And Leads 365 - Alexa Skills Write Club The Podcast On the blogs Vzine 072 | Alexa Skills Goes Live! Vzine 071 | Allowing Creative Force Own It! 185 | Toxic People Own It! 184 | Am I A Copycat? Prefer to read? Well, welcome to this week's vzine. I've got some apologies to make. I'm ever so sorry, the birds were really loud last week, and so were the cicadas, and there was that abrupt ending to section number one. That's because I was at Write Club today, and the girls were texting me, or messaging me on Slack to say I'm repeating myself, as usual, and which bit shall they cut out. Well they made an executive decision, and I'm grateful for that, because I was not contactable at the time, but anyway, it did end a bit abruptly. As you can hear, tonight was really quiet on the balcony. It's this evening, it's lovely. Gin and tonic time, you see? But just as I come out here, the scrap metal man decides to come past, and sets all the dogs off. The Alexa Skill has gone live, and it's doing very well. It's a live on all platforms, including Amazon, so if you go to ClicksAndLeads365.com, you'll find it on Alexa, and you can get your smart speaker to deliver me talking to you every morning for just a minute, giving you a little bit of motivation, and marketing, and business stuff, and a bit of money stuff as well, and I hope you really enjoy it, and if you do, would you give us a review? I'd love to hear from you, and I'd love to see your reviews. But let's get on with the show, shall we? Taking of advantage of a momentary lapse in the yapping from up the hill, I'd like to talk to you today, again, about procrastination, because I've just been to a Write Club The Podcast meeting. It's a Write Club The Podcast meeting lite - we call it that because it's one where we don't actually do any writing, we just talk about why we haven't done any writing. And I've got to say that the hardest thing I've ever done is try to make myself write a novel, and it's hard because every single time I sit down to do some of it, I am distracted by just about everything else, because making something up out of your head is really, really difficult. I find it easier to write poems, I've discovered, than write a novel, and so does everyone else in my group. They will find anything easier than writing a novel. One of them has actually finished a book, and she's now shopping it around for an agent, the other one has nearly finished a book, but she's distracting herself by going off and writing something else entirely. One person has got a book out to an editor, and so she's starting to write book two, so that's fine, we'll let her off, and the other one has been writing a book for years, not just months, years, and she is finding any reason at all not to finish it. So it is common among writers, and I think I didn't believe it, the writer's block thing, until I tried it for myself. The other thing I'm finding really difficult at the moment is sitting down and recording seven one minute tips for the Alexa Skills things. I'm fine once I get into the flow, once I sit down and get started with one or two, and then I can just rattle off the rest of them quite easily, but I think they thing is to actually sit down and just get the file out, as one of my earliest mentors said, because if you're in the right place, and you just get the file out,

Today our guest is Cristina Palma who talks to us about making a difference to the world through social enterprise, and becoming a social changer/professional volunteer. In the Show Nicola’s back in Greece, this time with sister Sarah. There have been parties and Roy delivered lunch to the ladies of Write Club when noisy neighbours obliged them to move venue. Judith updates the listener about her Weirdo newsletter, what happens in Women’s Shed, submitting her 100 words about starting over as a Promo Angel plus a new hairdresser, Stonehenge (twice!) and The Greatest Showman. What’s Fuelled Their Fire? Nicola talks us through the five boxes which create the business strategy from A.G. Lafley’s Playing to Win which she sees as the precursor to the Traction model and Judith enlightens Nicola on the topic of PayPal Credit. Focus of the Week Cristina Palma talks about social changers and professional volunteers who pay to do up to three months in a voluntary post learning something useful while contributing to the project. She mentions Toms Shoes and Pencils of Promise and Skilled Impact India-UK. Their mission is "We are a social enterprise offering responsible volunteer opportunities for individuals who want to share their skills, immerse themselves in a new culture and make a difference." And here's Cristina's interview with Anna Moran on Facebook. There are three important principles in taking up any such opportunity - cultural values, the slower rhythms of life in India and Africa and adapting to that, and the importance of rewarding and meaningful work as a volunteer in that it must work for both sides, being more meaningful when you receive as well as give. Words of the Week Judith picks Friendship and Nicola picks Sleep. Project Updates Nicola’s taking a phone call later this week which may lead to a JV (joint venture). Who or What’s Impressed? SuRie from the UK, Netta Barzalai the Israeli winner and Graham Norton, all in the Eurovision Song Contest plus Glenn Warner’s second video. Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a rating and review via your podcast app Ask a question in our Facebook Group  To help the show: Subscribe via Radio Public, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, TuneIn, Libsyn Please share on Twitter, Facebook or whatever social media platform you love to use and tag us if you can - we love to read your comments! Website: OwnItThePodcast.com

It's hot in Greece and Nicola Cairncross is trying to make up lost time after a power cut knocked her internet out for a whole day. As that week had already included a big party and recording five "Write Club" episodes, scheduling a client call on a Saturday morning proved to be not such a good idea, leading to extra urgent work that made her miss the local "Royal Wedding" party, (but she enjoyed it at home while working). She's got a great business book recommendation for you though... You can also subscribe to Clicks And Leads via Radio Public Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Harry & Meghan Royal Wedding Highlights by BBC Playing To Win by A G Lafley Traction by Gino Wickman Profit First by Mike Michalowicz Clicks And Leads Academy - mentoring with Nicola Cairncross Nicola's free app for your mobile device - Clicks & Leads On the blogs Vzine 068 | Dancing In The Future Vzine 067 | Lessons From A Mossie Net Own It! 181 |Dancing In The Future Own It! 180 | Starting Again In Business Prefer to read? Hi, everyone, Nicola here, and it's hot in Greece. It's like summer's come all of a sudden. It's only, what is it, mid-May, day of Harry and Meghan's wedding. I've just been having a late afternoon shower because I've been working all day. I was supposed to go to a wedding party, but didn't make it because I had a chat with a client this morning. There was some urgent stuff to be done and I wanted to do it straightaway. So I was a bit silly on that one. I should have scheduled the client call for Monday morning, and then I would have had all the work on Monday afternoon, and I would have been able to go to the wedding party. But the internet was out yesterday. We had a power cut and, for some reason, my router's not working. So I'm very kindly piggybacking on my next door neighbour's but it did mean a whole day of stuff that was scheduled didn't happen, including two new business development calls. So you have to roll with the punches on this one, and today I chose to get one of my client's work done so that on Monday I can concentrate on the new business development calls. I've still got one podcast to edit before tomorrow, that's the Write Club podcast, and I'll be doing that before I go out this evening. Just like to get everything done, then I can have the whole Sunday off, completely free of client work or any other kind of work. And I think it's important to at least have one day a week where you can just go and do whatever you want to do that doesn't involve a computer. So it's been a really busy week this week. Got back on Sunday with Sarah. Went to a party on Tuesday and then Write Club ladies came round to record five episodes of the podcasts on Wednesday. Thursday was a podcast recording day with Judith, and then on Friday, as I say, no internet. So it's been a pretty busy week, and I'm starting to think that this semi-retirement lark isn't all it's cracked up to be But we'll see what happens this week. It should calm down a bit hopefully. So let's get on with the show, shall we? Okay, so, this week I want to recommend a book to you. It's called Playing To Win by A.G. Lafley, L-A-F-L-E-Y, and it's all about why strategic decision-making can be made easier, and how important it is when you're starting out in business. Now you may have heard me recommend the book Traction many, many times. That does help you make a simple two page business plan, and it helps you set goals, timeline goals, and it helps you set the actions that you need to do. The big rocks I call them, and many other people do too. So how to get your big rocks done first. The book that I'm recommending to you now, I think, comes just before Traction. It comes when you're actually thinking about the kind of business you want to start, and who you're going to serve,

Ol' Bazsquatch talks Tinder and bi-coastal love. Ian Belknap (Overlord, Write Club) joins us in studio to talk story craft, his days as a standup, and his unending hate for James Franco Syndrome. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/jwbasilo)

Enter the Ginormous! After murdering the vicious Johnny Bonestorm when he attempted to shake Canton down for massive amounts of water, our heroes have caught the attention of the fearsome warlord The Ginormous, played by our special guest Ian Belknap of WRITE CLUB! As news reaches his dread keep of the Shuffle Crew's transgressions, the die is cast for our heroes. That'd be bad enough on its own, but first we have to survive a bloody clash with Bloodraven as his maniacs ransack the Flight of the Valkyrie. Luckily, Ruddy's car is fueled, Omie's knucks are polished, and Fuckcrow Steve is drunk. What could go wrong? SITE: shufflequest.libsyn.com FB: facebook.com/shufflequestpodcast TWITTER: twitter.com/ShuffleQuest PATREON: patreon.com/shufflequestpodcast DISCORD: https://discordapp.com/invite/SXCcf8P EMAIL: shufflequestpodcast@gmail.com

We regularly write short stories as part of our Write Club meetings but do we like reading them? We discuss our favourites and Stephanie interviews Carys Bray, successful short story writer while Theresa reads one of her own short stories. Write Club The Podcast is a weekly show for aspiring writers, published authors and readers everywhere. Join Stephanie Rouse, Theresa Stoker, Heather Worsley , Linda Jackim Werlein, Pat Woolfe & Nicola Cairncross each week where they'll share celebrity guest author readings and interviews, along with what they're reading, what they're writing and what it's really like to be a writer. You can join in the weekly "Name the Novel" quiz and find out "What's On The Bedside Table?".

If you've experienced success then failure, you can lose your self-confidence and wonder if you can ever make it work again. However, if you knew that every endeavour has only a 50/50 chance of success and that YOU bring the magic, 1% can really make a difference. But as always there's a twist in the tale... Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Be Everywhere Online - 30 Day Challenge Write Club Podcast Michael Neill - Creating The Impossible James Schramko podcast - How To Transform Your Extraordinary Mind With Vishen Lakhiani Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani 6 Phase Guided Meditation by Vishen Lakhiani The Money Gym Own It! The Podcast featured on Radio Public On the blogs Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: Chris Barrow Vzine 061 | How To Be More Efficient Vzine 060 | Marketing Versus Sales Own It! 174 | Tom Evans - How To Own Time Own It! 173 | Being Unbusy Prefer to read? Hi everyone, it's Nicola here and it's a bit of a gray old day in Stoupa. Yes, shock horror, we do get gray days here too. Not so often nowadays. Yeah, just wanted to update you with what's going on, the 30-day challenge for "Be Everywhere Online" has started. We got about 70-odd people in there. And everybody's getting very animated and excited. They're on day two now, so basically I chunked the whole thing down into tiny steps every day. And hopefully, that's making people able to move through it. It's interesting how that works isn't it? I think my brain just naturally chunks things down so it's interesting how some people need a bit of help with that. But I'm happy to give it, and it's great fun to watch everybody moving through it. You may have noticed, I am wearing not black today. I've had a delivery of not black clothes, how exciting is that? And I think there's a few more to come yet. I've even got some colors. This is denim obviously. I've got jeans on as well. Don't die of shock. And it's really nice, it makes me feel a bit more normal. While it was good to not care about what I wore for a while, and while it was good just to throw anything on as long as it was black, I'm starting to get a little bit more interested in clothes again now. So that's making me feel good. What's not making me feel good this week is the Sahara sand, from Africa. Apparently every five years, they get a wind that comes straight off the Sahara, and it brings a lot of sand over. And it's very very fine, and I woke up a couple o' nights ago and I thought I had my friend Stella's lurgy. She came back from England with a coughing lurgy so I trotted off down the chemist yesterday afternoon and bought a bottle of cough mixture cause there's nothing I hate worse than being woken up at night by coughing you can't stop. And it turns out I'm not sick at all. I was expecting to get sicker and I didn't. I've just figured out that perhaps its the sand that's bugging me. So I'm a little bit chesty today. I used to get asthma but I haven't had it for years and years and years. A little bit chesty today but I feel fine in myself so fingers crossed. You know, I haven't been sick for so long, I was really not looking forward to it. So I'm very happy to have a reprieve. What else is news? We did our Write Club recording last week, we got seven episodes done. We did six, but one didn't record, can you imagine the pain of that? A one-hour podcast episode and you have to go back and do it all again. Luckily, we were able to do it although some of the jokes got left out, and some of the others didn't sound quite as good second time round. But we pressed through and we're very pleased that we've achieved it. So we're set now for the next six or seven podcast episodes. Let's get on with the show shall we? So this week I want to talk about the magic of you.

It might feel like harder work at the time but there are several ways to become more efficient and when you have a big enough incentive to close your computer you get a lot more done! Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Write Club Podcast Be Everywhere Online - 30 Day Challenge Own It! The Podcast Taverna Melissa in Stoupa, Greece On the blogs Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: Chris Barrow Vzine 060 | Marketing Versus Sales Vzine 059 | Ethics In Business Own It! 173 | Being Unbusy Own It! 172 | Law of Attraction (Part 1) Prefer to read? Hi, it's Nicola here. Recording, I hope. I've got 15 minutes to do this, so I've really got to get organized. I've got to record the three sections, I've got to re-label them, get them uploaded to Google Drive so Phoebe can take them from there and Sarah can take them from there. Today is a big day, we're recording five Write Club podcast episodes, and I've also dashed off a marketing email. What else have I done this morning, I can't remember what else. There must be more. Yeah, so, basically we batch-record them, because people come and go from here all the time, and it's really nice if we want to catch everyone in on the podcast recordings, then we just get together for a day, and hash them out. We've got a really, really strong organizer on the team, Stephanie, and she makes sure that we each know what we're doing, what we're talking about. There's a different chairman every week, we've got a different guest every week. So, it's a bit of a logistical nightmare, and she's taken that over, thank goodness. That's not my strength. I just have to concentrate on making sure we actually record each episode as we're going. So, I want to talk a bit more about how to make your life easier with doing things like that in the main section. This week I suddenly had a mad burst of enthusiasm and decided to launch a 30-day challenge. I wanted to help people who were interested in the concept of being everywhere online, to know what to do every single day for thirty days, and I figured out that if they just followed my instructions, one simple instruction every day, then at the end of thirty days, they would end up with three to four great bits of content out there on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, and all that stuff, and they would also end up with three to four podcast episodes. They would now know how to make a podcast. So, I figured that was pretty cool. I put out the word on Facebook, Twitter, through my mailing list, on my blog, all the usual places. PushCrew, you know, which is a sort of SMS push notification, and I sent a message to everyone who subscribed to my chatbot on messenger, and we've got pretty much 40 people signed up already in just literally 24 hours. It's going to be quite lively one, if you'd like to join along, just come along to my Facebook page NicolaCairncrossUK, and you'll see pinned to the top of that page, all the information you need to find out about the challenge, get involved, and sign up for it. So, yeah. Looking forward to seeing you in the private Facebook group for that. It's been quite a busy week this week. Mainly, characterized by nearly 24-hour power cut and the fridge man not coming for three days. So, that was quite funny. My fridge broke, my landlord and landlady supplied a replacement one while we tried to work out what was going on. And then we called in the fridge man from Kalamata and he was supposed to come on Thursday, and I was thinking he's going to turn up in the middle of the podcast recording, then I was thinking he was coming on Friday, and he was going to turn up in the middle of four recordings we were doing for the Own It! podcast where we were inviting guests, and listeners of the podcast on to talk about their main passionate topic,

What is the difference between marketing your business and making sales and, prompted by a client request to promote a high ticket event for him, Nicola discusses why you can't just send cold Facebook traffic to a sales page. Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Find out more about Nicola's Clicks And Leads Academy where you can access the Be Everyhere Online diy course and get the help you need to start your online business Would you prefer Nicola and her team to do the grunt work for you? Find out more at ClicksAndLeads.com Get Nicola to speak at your event On the blogs Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: Chris Barrow Vzine 059 | Ethics In Business Vzine 058 | Keep Focused On Income Producing Activities Own It! 172 | Law of Attraction (Part 1) Own It! 171 | Essential Journeys Prefer to read? Hi, everyone, it's Nicola here, and it's suspiciously quiet 'round here today. I can see the odd cat going past, and there's a few roosters having a go down the hill, but apart from that, it's no chainsaws, no dogs at the moment. So I'll try and get this v-zine out to you while the circumstances are favorable. So what's been happening this week? Well, I'm off to Write Club in a minute, and it's our Write Club Classic meeting, which means we actually talk about writing, and I have to confess, I haven't actually done any in the last month or so. The Write Club podcast is taking up all my writing time. Actually, business and the Write Club podcast has taken up all my writing time, so I've really got to get my finger out on this one, because I keep feeling that I've committed to writing a novel, but I'm not actually doing any writing. So I need to get that sorted out. I've been out to dinner last Friday, and then we went out, where'd we go on Saturday? I can't remember where we went Saturday. Oh, yes, to watch rugby at someone's house. I'm not into rugby, really, but I go because a FOMO. I don't like to be left out of these little gatherings. So catching up is the order of the day, and trying to get some novel writing done. I've just remembered, I've got a new client coming on board on Friday. This gentleman is a very well-established corporate performance leadership coach, and he wants to turn what he knows into digital products, and then he wants to attract a following and attract clients from making videos. Done a lot of stage speaking as well, so he should be really good in front of the camera. We also surprised all our existing clients on the Clicks & Leads Be Everywhere Online Done for You service by creating little ident videos at the end. I've got to credit Sarah for this. It was her that found the software, and they absolutely love them. It just rounds off a video nicely. We don't put them at the beginning, because you wanna get straight into your videos on YouTube and Facebook and LinkedIn, but at the end, it gives a nice little touch, and it shows the person's website, where people go to get more information. So, yeah, it's all rolling along nicely, and if you're someone who is a coach, consultant, or specialist of any kind, just go and check us out at clicksandleads.com to see if we could help you be everywhere online in under 20 minutes a week. Today, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about marketing versus sales, and I've been prompted to think about this this week because we are doing a lot of marketing, branding kind of marketing, for several clients under our Be Everywhere Online program. And it's an interesting one, because things are changing. You know, you can't just send cold traffic to an opt-in page and expect to get opt-ins at any reasonable price anymore, and you can't just then jump those opt-ins to a sales page and expect people to buy anymore. It's much, much, much easier and nicer and even less expensive to warm people up first,

After a conversation with a potential client, Nicola Cairncross is very aware that, if she cared less about doing the "right thing", she could make more money but she would always rather make less but treat people well. She also knows that this attitude attracts people to her business that want to succeed but only if that's by helping others, not hurting them. It's important to be able to sleep at night knowing you do your best for people, always. Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross. Mentioned in the Vzine Find out more about Nicola's Clicks And Leads Academy and get the help you need to start your online business Get Nicola to speak at your event On the blogs Vzine 058 | Keep Focused On Income Producing Activities Vzine 057 | Who Drives Your Business? Own It! 171 | Essential Journeys Own It! 170 | Facebook Group Changes Find out more about Nicola's Clicks And Leads Academy and get the help you need to start your online business Welcome everyone, it's springtime in Stoupa still. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, but today is absolutely glorious, and I've got about 18 minutes to record this message to you. And I've had to seize the opportunity, even though some Greek guys are just delivering some rocks over behind the camera there, so you might hear lots of "ela, ela, ela," 'cause that's them saying "come, come, come," when they're telling people where to put things. Yeah, so you might notice something different about me today. Yes, I've got some makeup on. Well, why is that, then you might ask yourself, those who are even remotely interested. It's because I woke up in a bit of a funk this morning. It's the last week before the anniversary of Steve's, second anniversary of when Steve died, and I wasn't feeling so great this morning. The week before is always a difficult one, because you remember exactly what you were doing on the Tuesday, the Wednesday, the Thursday, et cetera, and you can't help those thoughts crossing your mind. You know, what if we'd done something different, what if we'd made him go to the doctor's, et cetera, et cetera, although there weren't any obvious signs. So, yeah, so I thought, I gotta do something to change my mood, I've gotta do something to change how I feel, so I thought, I don't know, it just came to me. I'll tell you what it was, I had my hair cut above my eyebrows and I suddenly thought, I really need some eyebrows there, so I thought, why don't I put a bit of makeup on? I'm going to meet the Write Club ladies in a little while, and I thought that might surprise them if I turn up with makeup, having not worn any for two years. So it just turned into a bit of fun, really, just to see if I could remember how to do it, and who knows if I've succeeded. So yes, it's all about changing my mood. And funny enough, it worked. I feel much chirpier now. I've come upstairs and I'm battling through the elements to try and get this message out to you. So, if you're not feeling like it or you've been feeling a bit down or if you're feeling a bit mis, then see what you can do. Getting up and doing something physical is supposed to help, playing loud music and having a bit of a dance is supposed to help, just changing your physical state is supposed to help, and obviously, giving yourself some eyebrows helps too. So, I just had a call with a charming gentleman called Derek, and he booked himself into my day, and when he filled in the form, I knew that there was not a lot to go on. He said he was a new business, he had a fiction book, and he wants to know how to market that better, and he also wants to become an affiliate marketer. And I thought to myself, I'm probably not gonna be able to help him, but we'll have the call anyway, and we just had the most delightful chat for half an hour about all the different ways that he can move forward to market his children's book. So,

Linda reads from her work in progress and we discuss The Art Of Procrastination. Write Club is a weekly show for writers (and readers!) everywhere. Join Stephanie Rouse, Theresa Stoker, Heather Worsley, Linda Jackim Werlein, Pat Woolfe & Nicola Cairncross each week where they'll share guest interviews along with what they're reading, what they're writing, what it's really like to be a writer, then you can join in the weekly Name the Novel quiz and find out "What's On The Bedside Table?" and more.

A weekly show for writers (and readers!) everywhere. Join Steph, Theresa, Heather, Linda, Pat & Nicola each week where they'll share guest interviews along with what they're reading, what they're writing, what it's really like to be a writer, then you can join in the weekly Name the Novel quiz and find out "What's On The Bedside Table?" and more. In Episode 1, you get to meet our Write Club members and find out what gets Linda riled up!

This week, Theresa reads from her work in progress, "A Village Called Faraway" and we learn about the Oxford Comma. Write Club is a weekly show for writers (and readers!) everywhere. Join Steph, Theresa, Heather, Linda, Pat & Nicola each week where they'll share guest interviews along with what they're reading, what they're writing, what it's really like to be a writer, then you can join in the weekly Name the Novel quiz and find out "What's On The Bedside Table?" and more.

This week's story is from our reigning Muni Haiku champion, Baruch Porras-Hernandez! You can see him at Muni Diaries Live on Saturday, Nov. 4 at the Elbo Room. Tickets are at munidiarieslive18.eventbrite.com Baruch tells a story of taking a visiting friend on her first Muni ride, promising that nothing will go wrong. And if you've been on Muni at all, you know that's a hard promise to keep. Baruch Porras-Hernandez is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer, performer and standup comedian, named one of the 13 Top Bay Area Writers to Watch in 2016 by 7×7 Magazine in San Francisco. He’s been featured in Writers with Drinks, has performed several times with Radar Productions, LitQuake, and is a winner of Literary Death Match, Write Club, The Moth, and of course, Muni Diaries. 

Today's Guest I'm excited to introduce today's guest, Stella Orange. Back when I first started talking about finding new ways of marketing, a friend suggested that I check out Stella. I instantly loved what she had to say, and invited her to be a guest on the show. The day has finally arrived, and I can't wait for you to hear this episode. About Stella Stella Orange teaches coaches, healers and consultants how to effectively market their business by telling a better story in their marketing— the story of the hero called to more. A professional copywriter whose writing has generated millions of dollars in sales, Stella knows that the story we tell in our marketing matters a lot, because on a deep level, it shapes how people think about themselves and what’s even possible for them. Three times a month, Stella hosts a 90-minute Shut Up And Write session via videoconference for members of her Write Club community. She is based in Buffalo, New York, where she lives with her husband, the Philosopher, and their dog, Chachi. Get a copy of Stella’s position paper The New Marketing: How to Create Clients Without Feeling Gross, Icky or Manipulative at www.stellaorange.com/newmarketing. Listen to this episode    What You’ll Learn What's wrong with old marketing, and why it's not working as well as it used to How to forge a new way forward by experimenting with New Marketing Where to find other people and organizations who practice New Marketing How Joseph Campbell's hero's journey can inspire your business marketing How we can create deeper connections with people Things We Discussed Poet Mary Oliver  Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces  Connect with Stella Website Facebook Twitter Linkedin Instagram How to Subscribe Click here to subscribe via iTunes Click here to subscribe via RSS Click here to subscribe via Stitcher Help Spread the Word If you enjoyed this episode, please head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating and a review! You can also subscribe, so you'll never miss an episode.

Double agents. Passing. Going undercover. There’s a lot of ways to be not what you seem, and this Wednesday Brooke Allen, Allie Wachowski, Kim Nelson, and Bea Cordelia get into these cases of Mistaken Identity with humor, grace, guts.   Miss Spoken is lady live lit: a storytelling show from Chicago, Illinois featuring female-identified readers, hosted by Rosamund Lannin and Jasmine Davila.    Reader bios: Bea Cordelia: Bea Cordelia is an award-winning, Chicago-bred, internationally slandered writer, filmmaker, performance artist, actor, producer, educator, & activist whose work uplifts & reimagines the narratives of transgender people. Her “life-changing” solo show Chasing Blue has featured in Steppenwolf Theatre’s LookOut performance series & The Brick’s inaugural Trans Theatre Festival in Brooklyn. In 2016 she developed her first multimedia installation The Cosmic Body in a University of Chicago Performance Lab residency through Salonathon, was made a Luminarts Cultural Foundation Creative Writing Fellow for her poem “The Future,” and made headlines for her lawsuit against the City of Chicago regarding its sexist & transphobic ordinance forbidding the exposure of breasts in establishments with liquor licenses. She is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency, and is currently working on the forthcoming web series The T with co-creator Daniel Kyri & distributor Open TV. Kim Nelson: Kim Nelson is a writer, performer, lifelong Chicagoan, karaoke enthusiast, and regular contributor at Drinkers with Writing Problems. This summer, you can read her Game of Thrones recaps at HeauxsChicago. She’s on Twitter and Instagram with the handle @ponytailup, where you can see lots of pictures of her awesome dog.   Brooke Allen: Brooke Allen is a Chicago playwright and storyteller. Her work has been published on such websites as Story Club Magazine and Role Reboot. She has performed with YBR, Essay Fiesta, Mortified, Paper Machete, Guts and Glory, Write Club and more. She loves pizza and cats.   Allie Wachowski:  Allie Wachowski is a writer, local internet sensation, teen heartthrob, and the self proclaimed Mariah Carey of the Midwest. you can find her online, or getting asked to leave your favorite bar

Guests: Nick Tecosky and Myke Johns Write Club Atlanta: 2 opposing writers. 2 opposing ideas. 7 minutes apiece. audience picks a winner. Host: Amanda Plumb Photo: WRITE CLUB Atlanta Viceroy Nick Tecosky and Consigliere Myke Johns holding the graven image of combatant/Naked City host Bernard Clark. Photo by Parker Davidson

It's the dead of summer, over here at WRITE CLUB headquarters. The a/c can barely keep up with our core temperatures. The entire operation teeters on the brink of implosion. 
 If you can relate, then this episode is for you: A rallying burst of rejuvenation from Gwynn Fulcher (FIRST), and a smash-bang last day of school with Cher Vincent (FINAL).
 Yes, this episode just might save you from pushing your a/c unit out of the window and onto unsuspecting passersby. Not that we would ever consider such a thing.

This episode the BROS. discuss How To Be An Effective Home Creative, with a focus on songwriters with special guest co-hosts "The Write Club" (Nick Bain & Jarmone Davis). This show continues with "DJ Xample's writers to get a hit song written to submit to Mary J. Blige. Nick & Jarmone walk us through the steps of writing a hit song, all the way through working out the business aspects of a songwriter. So if you write amazing song that are just begging for Grammy Nominations... then that's right... THIS ONE IS FOR YOU! The Blue Chip Showcase Artist is: Special Guest & Co-Host, Grammy Nominated Songwriter, Jarmone Davis (@Jarmone)

“You can carry nothing really easily.” -Paula Killen Charity Event the second Monday of every month called “Write Club”   -Paula dated a guy who shared a birthday with Ronald Reagan. On his birthday he decided he wanted to piss on Reagan’s grave, so he brought a bottle of pee to pour on his grave. Then they ran. -Michael was bad as a boyfriend but Jim was worse. -Your partnership is a mirror of where you’re at in life -It was 10 year relationship where the guy couldn’t commit. And then he did and I didn't. -Lisa lost her sense of humor in the breakup with Jim -Paula took 5 years off of dating... “To have someone who looked after me was like the coziest sweater.” -Paula Killen  -Don’t watch the news, just makes you sad and angry -Sometimes I feel like I just want to run away -Paula asks: “Have you ever had sex with someone you weren’t attracted to?” -Sex in your dreams has to be better than real sex -Younger girls are intrinsically willing to compromise, they want to be the girl that’s cool with everything. -Don’t do The Moth “Oh, she’s so much more interesting than her picture.” -Lisa on first seeing Paula -My mom used to say, rip up those ugly pictures, so when people look back at you they can go look how pretty she was. -There has been a man masturbating on my lawn in the mornings. Links: Xanax Bikram Yoga Girls Orange is the New Black Late Show with David Letterman The Comedy Store VEEP Enlightened Transparent Dreyfus Fund iO West Improv   Name Dropping:   Janet Reno Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton Gloria Steinem Louis C.K Woody Allen Jay Leggett Roseanne Barr Sarah Silverman Maria Bamford Amy Schumer Julia Louis-Dreyfus Marc Maron Laura Dern Wanda Sykes Norman Lear Robbie Rist Dick Orkin Jill Soloway Eileen Myles Cherry Jones Jack Nicholson Angelica Huston Adam Goldberg Dweezil Zappa ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Honestly Lisa is an audio road trip through my soul... or just an excuse to talk to people to help figure out who I am at 53ish. I talk to everyone from ex-boyfriends, lovers, family member to comedians, writers, filmmakers, mystics, guru's in the hopes of finding a path that feels right for my life. My hope is in my quest for enlightenment/happiness/peace/contentment my conversations will help you feel better about your life. I love comments and feedback! And don't forget to check out honestlylisa.com, there is much more.   Please feel free to share and leave a comment on itunes. I love when you do!   ========================================­­===   Recorded at Double RR Studios: http://doublerrstudios.com/ Go download my free eBook, BE SILLY NOW! http://honestlylisa.com/free-ebook/   Website: http://www.honestlylisa.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lisaorkin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisaannorkin Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisaorkin Pinterest:http://www.pinterest.com/lisaorkin/  

Our Atlanta chapter brings us an incredible showdown: Joy vs. Sorrow. Our writers this episode are Myke Johns (JOY), a producer of WRITE CLUB Atlanta, and Chris Alonzo (SORROW), a seasoned pro at mopping the floor with WRITE CLUB combatants. Who will prevail? Only you can decide.

Why starting your own Write Club writing retreat can help you and fellow researchers complete writing tasks you might have been putting off.

This week, Tyler and Don resurrect their "Date Night" segment wherein they take you out on the town with them for a show. WRITE Club is the focus this time: Chicago's own competitive, literary smackdown. After that, the guys get your thoughts on the best (and worst) kind of storytelling nights.

Tensions come to a head between the PleasureTown founders, as Claude and Cyrus duke it out in a battle of words for control of the town. Meanwhile, the children of PleasureTown embark on an adventure and make a wish that could change the course of their lives.

Lindsay and Dan sit down and discuss her involvement in Write Club, the proper way to discuss wings and why Ira Glass fears this podcast.

Ian Belknap is the founder of Write Club, and Dan and he spend a good deal of time discussing how it doesn't suck. Dan also attempts to get Ian to relieve his glory days as a stand-up comedian doing material based of his Grandfather's murder and Father's suicide. Dan also spends an unhealthy amount of time name dropping Jimmy Carrane in a shameless attempt to get him to listen to the podcast.

The San Francisco Neo-Futurists offer up their best and their brightest to do battle on our WRITE CLUB stage. Willie Caldwell brings us a beer-soaked blast from the PAST before Artistic Director Adam Smith counterattacks by taking us back to the FUTURE. Time is of the essence when confronted by this group of trend-setting performance artists helping us to celebrate New Year's in January 2014.

Och aye the new Failed Critics podcast! We're back in Scotland for our second annual trip to the Glasgow Film Festival, and once more James is entrusted with somehow patching together a podcast without the erstwhile talents of Steve and Owen. Luckily he isn't alone, and for this special podcast is not only joined by our good friends Dave McFarlane of Born Office and Paul Fisher of The Write Club, but also by our very special guests Pappy's - the award-winning sketch comedy stars of BBC3's Badults.

The long-awaited return of the Write Club podcast sees host Paul joined by Chris, Dale and Simon to discuss their alternative version of the Brit Awards, celebrating the worst in music over the last two years. There is also the new regular feature, the suggestion box, as well as the old favourite, Write Club Recommends. Lend us your ears for an hour.

In the brand new relaunch of The Write Club podcast, hosted by Paul Fisher, the panel of writers and actors go through their favourite film, TV show and album if they were stuck on a desert island for the rest of time. Discussion on the show include the worth of Bruce Springsteen & whether the X-Files are worthy of a lambasting by one member of the panel. Guests include Lovely Left Foot editor Simon Furnivall,Theatre Soup UK and Write Club contributor Dale Cowan and Write Club contributor/Bundesliga writer for Lovely Left Foot, Christopher Wood.

Steven Westdahl and Casey Childers do battle for the honor of Joy Carletti and her glorious WRITE CLUB, Inc. donation. One minute each in the case of LESS v MORE.

Frank Weisberg follows his HEART. Joy Carletti gives us a piece of her MIND. The take-away is that the universe, like WRITE CLUB, is run by jerks.

Hello Scotland! This week's Failed Critics podcast sees James head north of the border to report back from Glasgow Film Festival. With the reluctant blessing of the rest of the critics, he is joined this week by two special guests; Dave McFarlane from our 'sister podcast' Born Offside, and Paul Fisher from our new upstart rivals on the Write Club podcast. They review South Korean heist movie The Thieves, as well as documentary Men at Lunch and the microbudget feature Breakfast with Curtis. James is also joined by the excellent film writers Steven Neish and Amy Taylor at the first UK showing of Stoker, and they discuss that as well as their thoughts on Cloud Atlas, Citadel  and Songs for Amy, the new film starring Sean Maguire... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

WCSF cornerman Steven Westdahl gives a righteous sermon on secular good against returning WRITE CLUB favorite Ed Ntiri's address of the states of the union, nostalgia, spare time, and quality television.

Hello, Athens. This is the WRITE CLUB Athens Podcast. I'm Jami Howard, the Head Bitch In Charge. If you're not familiar with WRITE CLUB, let me break it down for you. WRITE CLUB started in Chicago, the brainchild of our seriously disturbed overlord Ian Belknap. It goes like this: 2 OPPOSING WRITERS. 2 OPPOSING IDEAS. 7 MINUTES APIECE. AUDIENCE PICKS A WINNER. Writers compete for cash going to a charity of their choosing. It was a balmy night on April 2nd when a standing room only crowd welcomed WRITE CLUB to Flicker Bar for our inaugural show. Three seasoned WRITE CLUB Veterans -- Nick Tecosky, Randy Osborne and Topher Payne came to face off against three of Athens' finest ladies, Krista Westervelt, Janet Geddis and yours truly. The battle began when I faced off with WRITE CLUB Atlanta's Viceroy Nick Tecosky. We'll start with Nick's work of fiction chronicling his struggle with being a scientist zombie. His topic: Brains. [Nick's performance] Nothing is more human than desire, President Palin. Hard to follow, I took him on with my topic, Brawn. [Jami's performance] So, who had the better piece? Are you kicking yourself for not coming to see the show now? Fret not! WRITE CLUB Athens will be back soon. Make sure you like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter at WRITECLUBAthens. You can also check out our site at www.writeclubathens.com. If you're interested in participating in an upcoming bout, send us a message at hello@writeclubathens.com. We're looking for a fiery, brave soul to be our regular emcee and host. Thanks to Viceroy Nick Tecosky and Consigliere Myke Johns for coming up and helping get this crazy adventure off to a roaring start. Big thanks to Flicker Bar for taking a chance on something new. Also thanks to Carla Le Fever & The Rays for lending us the sweet, sweet sounds. Look for upcoming podcasts for Janet Geddis vs. Randy Osborne and Krista Westervelt and Topher Payne.

Live at The Whistler with Ian Belknap, Liza Treyger and The Harrow I am a fan/not a fan of an upcoming scandalous fast food taco product. Ian Belknap is the founder of Write Club, half of Irby + Ian and not a scumbag. Liza Treyger is funny. The Harrow played a good set. I like […]

WRITE CLUB cornerman Steven Westdahl minces words with editor and digital strategist Kristin "show-don't-tell" Sgroi.

So, it took a while. It took some planning and some soul searching. It took some realization that doing this podcast was something that we enjoyed doing, as long as we were doing it the way we wanted to do it. So, we're back. Perhaps a bit leaner and meaner, but back nonetheless.This podcast covers the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival that took place back in December, specifically the LYNDA BARRY AND CHARLES BURNS IN CONVERSATION program. Kurt and I are planning on doing at least 3 podcasts a month, more if time allows, and we're pretty psyched with some of the things we have planned.Enjoy the recording, and as always comments are welcome via email here: Write.Club1@gmail.com, Twitter here @Write_Club, or in the comments section on this post.

Write Club can't always be about comics, right? Right! So in this episode Tim & Kurt take the podcast out into the streets of Brooklyn to cover a Slice Magazine reading event.The event, coordinated by Slice's resident blog czar and online editor, C.A.B Fredricks was your basic head-to-head reading competition featuring the best and the brightest up & comers of the indie publishing world!photo courtesy of Amy SlyPIETHOS! A Reading, works like this: Five independent literary organizations were chosen, each selected a champion, and presented a challenge for an opposing organization. Each reader had about one week to compose a story in answer of their challenge. The prize? A FRESH BAKED APPLE PIE!The event was held at LEGION bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.Listen to the event here: And now, THE READERS, with visual aids and in order of appearance:Liz Matthews (Slice Magazine)photo courtesy of Amy SlyLiz's story involved some visual aids. To get the whole experience, click on each link as she prompts the picture in her story.WindowBreakfastLeavesCorey Eastwood (Book Thug Nation)photo courtesy of Amy SlyKate Axelrod (Featherproof Books)photo courtesy of Amy SlyMartha Raoli (Canteen Magazine)photo courtesy of Amy SlyThe Prize:photo courtesy of Amy SlyNow Dear Write Clubbers, after listening to the event, who would YOU have chosen to win the nommy pie?

The big brains behind Write Club tackle the life, work, and reputation of outspoken and ofttimes problematic comic legend Alan Moore. If you haven't listened to the previous episode, where Tim Mucci interviews Moore, you may want to do so; it does come up and you will be tested.Kurt Christenson, Phil Gelatt, and Tim Mucci discuss Alan Moore. Intro: "Oh Somba!" ElectrelaneOutro: "Write Club Theme" Scott St. PierreWhat do you think of Moore? Let us know in the comments!

This is what happens when the theme of the next issue of Slice Magazine is Villains: You get a crazy idea in your head that just won't leave. At the last Slice Magazine editorial meeting I was asked if I wanted to contribute an interview for their upcoming Villains issue, issue 7. I'm pretty sure they asked me because A) I'm into comics B) I'm into comics C) Most, if not all of my friends are either into comics also, or work in the comic industry.As soon as they announced the theme I immediately knew who I wanted to interview. I wanted to talk with Alan Moore. I tried to get such a crazy idea out of my head, I mean...Alan Moore? Me? How could that happen?? Suffice it to say, I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I had a great spin on the interview, I'm a tremendous fan of Moore's work, and here was the perfect reason to try and contact him. So I set to work. Moore doesn't have an agent, he doesn't have any official representation, so I just sent out an email to pretty much every publisher he'd ever worked with. Blanketed the field, and heard nothing back.Until. Until some nice folks at Avatar emailed me and told me that they'd forwarded my request to Top Shelf comics, which is his main publisher here in the US. Not long after, Chris Staros over at Top Shelf emailed me back to let me know that he'd contacted Alan with my request, and that I should be hearing something soon. Let me pause for a moment here to say how awesome Chris Staros is, because he is. In all of my communications with him he's been nothing but friendly, and professional. A true gentleman. Eventually I was contacted by Mr. Moore's assistant editor at his magazine Dodgem Logic, Joe Brown, and Mr. Brown said that Alan would love to speak with me. He gave me a time and a date. I threw up. Well, almost, because I had about a week to prep.Background: One of the first comics I can remember reading (and understanding) was Swamp Thing #40, which was about this woman who was a werewolf. The central idea was that werewolves and women both cycle with the moon, and it was horrifying, and sad, and human, and amazing. And written by Alan Moore. Alan Moore is pretty much responsible for my comic book obsession.So, I had a week to prep to talk to one of the most influential figures in my life.Here is the result. Write Club and Slice Magazine presents Alan Moore: