In this week’s episode, we discuss the three books I’m thankful for (right now, anyway). Like most lists, they are subject to change with the season, the mood, and the moment you ask me to remember them. So here are a few links to the books I mention, in case you are in need of some new books for the rest of the year to finish out 2023 with a bang.

• Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll: This edition from the Rifle Paper Co. is particularly stunning.
• Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald, an honorable mention.
• 1001 Arabian Nights, Children’s Illustrated Version
• Walrus and the Carpenter in Seattle
• Daily Rituals: Women at Work, Mason Currey. He is also on Substack as Subtle Maneuvers.
• Frida, with the fabulous Salma Hayek
• Nolan Green, artist, here on Substack as Of Sound andFury
• Katherine Anne Porter, PBS American Masters
• Mortal Acts, Mortal Words, Galway Kinnell. This is a first edition copy. Of course, you can find a reprint.
• The Book of Nightmares, Galway Kinnell
• Wait, Galway Kinnell

Keep Writing.

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As artists, we long to be in the flow state for as long as possible, but sometimes we can feel like we’re wandering among the trees aimlessly. Yes, it’s beautiful, covered in snow, crunchy branches under our feet, songbirds in our ears, but we have to find the way out at some point. For many artists, goal setting can be painful. This week’s episode talks about the how and why goal setting is important and hard.

I don’t have a lot of links this week, so here are some notable books on creating and of course the link to my website if you find yourself in need of a coach.

Keep doing good work.

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• My Coaching Website
• The Artists Way, Julia Cameron
• Fearless Creating, Eric Maisel
• Daily Rituals, Mason Currey
• Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
• Share Your Work, Austin Kleon

This week's episode is a starter kit to recognizing the role of body work in your creative life. There are a lot of names thrown around, book titles offered, and even a Walt Whitman poem at the end. But above all, honor your body the way you do your muses. Without it, you couldn't make anything.

Here are some links to the people, books and poems I mention:

• Susan Sontag
• Marie Curie
• Nikki Giovanni
• Hayden Dunham
• Frida Kahlo
• The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD
• Alvin Ailey Dance
• I sing the body electric, Walt Whitman

Treasure your breath and keep doing the good work.

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This week we are talking about how creative pursuits can sometimes leave us with an emotional hangover: that hollowed out feeling like we have given over so much of ourselves how can we ever hope to fill up again. I assure you, dear artist, you will.

Here are some links to some of the things I talked about this week.

Pete Holmes on Zach Braff’s Podcast

Pete Holmes’ You Made it Weird Podcast

Dr. Huberman and the sun in the morning

Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with A Thousand Faces

See you next week.

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We are so lucky to live during a time when the myth of the artist emerging fully formed has been debunked. The artist is a person, just like you, who has made the choice to fill their space and time seeking the common core of our humanity.

Here are some links to things I talked about this week you may want to check out:

• DaVinci’s Sketches at the Metropolitan (I said it was the ‘90’s, but it looks like it was 2003!)
• Letters from EB White (1st edition)
• Teachers and Writers Collective Workshops
• Colum McCann
• NYPL Stacks
• Jack Kerouac baseball cards
• William Blake’s watercolors
• Judy Blume’s Master Class
• David Sedaris Readings
• Patti Smith’s Substack
• Artist/Mother Podcast
• NASA’s Genius Study
• Louise Glück’s poem “Afterword”

Keep doing your good work.

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Sometime you need a kickstart into living a more creative life. Here are three small things you can do this month to help. If you need more ideas, head over to my Substack posts, and there is a free printable of 20 creative prompts for October. I will leave that link below along with some others to things I mention in this week’s podcast.

Keep writing. Keep making stuff.

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Here are the links for the week:

• October Creative Prompts
• Episode #16: The Literary Sipper Asks Should I Take That Class?
• Nooranji: The BEST bookstore
• The Article on Translation I mention
• A Modern Work in Translation you may like
• A Classical Work in Translation you may like
• Gretchen Rubin’s Book on Senses
• The Sense Quiz
• Judy Blume’s Master Class
• The Donald Justice poem
• The Emerson Quote in its original text

In this episode, we talk about the fear we have about our own voice. We talk about the cringey feelings when we first hear our recorded voice and the trouble that translating our own voices through our art can bring up.

Here are links to some of the things I mention that you may like too:

• The Simply Julia Cookbook
• The Brothers Koren Voice Gurus!!
• Roseanne Cash’s book
• The Scientist, Coldplay

Keep using your voice to usher more art into the world.

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In this episode we talk about asking for space to create, claiming that space, leaving that space and sitting and doing the good work! Then returning and returning and returning.

In this episode I mention a few things you may want to check out:

• This William Blake Poem
• This Virginia Woolf Essay
• EB White’s Barn
• A Sign for your Space
• The episode on small moments to create
• Mason Currey’s Books
• Alexander Calder’s Studio

And as always if you would share, rate, text someone you know the link…all the things. I would love you even more.

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What do you think? Should you take that class? Did you already sign up? Let me know!

Here are some links to things I mention in the episode:

• The PNWA (Pacific Northwest Writers Association)
• MasterClass
• Mindy Halleck, author
• Charles Martin, author and translator
• 92nd Street Y
• The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf
• Epictetus Quote

Keep Making Good Work.

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A continuing conversation regarding self-care. If you missed the Substack post on the topic, here it is.

Amber Vitti Hill

Ever since the great pandemic of 2020, we have been inundated with the “rules of self-care”: morning routines romantically filmed with dreamy filters for YouTube, calls for daily 90-minute yoga sessions and artisanal hot tea, long showers and nature walks, mani/pedis and massages. These all sound wonderful and healing, but when you break those activitie…

Read full story

I also mention a couple of other things in this podcast you may want to check out:

1. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Helen Frankenthaler, American Abstract Expressionist
3. Show Your Work, Austin Kleon

Keep Writing. Make Stuff.

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