I don’t know about you, but this winter has felt unaccountably long. Being a Canadian girl, I’m a huge fan of winter. I love everything about it - the outdoor sports, the snowfall, the breathtaking landscapes... I even love the early sunsets and the long, dark nights. So for me to admit that I’d grown... Continue Reading →
Why My Epic Fail Does Not Make Me a Failure
One of the things I love to do in my writing day is take a lunchtime break to walk the dog and listen to a podcast. Recently, on one of the regular podcasts I listen to, author and entrepreneur Jennifer Cohen was being featured, and she said something that made me stop in my tracks.... Continue Reading →
Being a Self-Employed Entrepreneur – How I Use My Favourite Tools and Apps to Stay Productive as a Writer
As all my fellow writers know, being an author means being a self-employed entrepreneur. It’s a wonderful thing to work for yourself. To have no one to answer to but you, to create your own schedule, determine your own tasks and objectives, and to work your own hours. But critically, being a self-employed entrepreneur means... Continue Reading →
4 Strategies I Use to Avoid Wasting Time Searching for “The Next Big Productivity Hack.”
Let’s talk productivity. Check out YouTube, Instagram, or any social media platform really, and you’ll find more than enough advice on how to be more productive. You’ll find content creators whose whole platforms revolve around how to get more done, how to work smarter, how to increase your output. As a writer, whose entire livelihood... Continue Reading →
The Importance of Consistent Execution (aka… palm smack!)
I’m going to come clean at the outset of this post. This is not a lecture. I am not going to tell you why consistent execution matters, why you should do it, or how you should begin. No, this is more of a confession. I mentioned in my last post 3 Ways that I am... Continue Reading →
3 Ways I am Preparing for My 2023 Writing Year
In my last post, Reflecting on My 2022 Year as a Writer, I outlined how I was doing a deep-dive into the successes and challenges which the previous year brought me. The reason I did this was not only to gain perspective on how my year went, but also to determine where I needed new... Continue Reading →
Why I Consider My Night Routine an Investment in My Writing Career
If you’re at all interested in productivity hacks and improvement, then you know that building solid routines which you actually follow is as fundamental as it gets. I certainly do. I am highly interested in ways to sustainably improve my productivity, so naturally I’ve not only heard about the importance of routines, I know firsthand... Continue Reading →
Managing Your Time – Why You Should Prioritize Your Books Over Social Media
If you are an author on social media today, you may have been led here by the notion that posting on social media is how you’re going to sell your books. If this is the case, then it likely follows that, at some point, you’ve realized social media is not exactly the siren call for... Continue Reading →
Novel Update: Beneath the Surface Chapter 1 (Excerpt)
Good morning, my friends! I am so excited to share my progress with Beneath the Surface, my current work-in-progress (for a book blurb, click here). This is the second book in the Hanley series, and follows my recently released contemporary romance novel, Autumn in Arborwood. This one was a fun one to write. Not only... Continue Reading →
Three Strategies I Use to Manage and Improve My Mental Energy
Writing is a mentally taxing pursuit… as any writer will attest to. It takes a lot of brain energy to invest yourself into the lives of your characters, their joys and their heartaches—not to mention conceptualizing and being the sole architect of their lives and their world in the first place. It is bloody exhausting. ... Continue Reading →