Some 2024 Announcements!
What's going on with This Creative Life? What am I doing? How old am I? Is there going to be a new podcast in this feed? All these questions and more answered in under 6 minutes!
This Creative Life
enFebruary 21, 2024
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This Creative Life
Author Sara Zarr reads between the lines of the writing life in interview episodes as well as solo minisodes, with a focus on the practical and psychological aspects of writing and publishing, the creative process, and the strange landscape where art meets commerce. Past guests include filmmaker Scott Derrickson, author Malinda Lo, and literary agent Michael Bourret.
enSara Zarr61 Episodes
Episodes (61)
87. Ashley C. Ford and the Ultimate Pivot - TCL Finale (?)
I know you’ve been waiting a long time on a wish and a promise for this final episode in the Pivots, Comebacks, and Reinventions series. I appreciate your patience while I went and figured out myself and my own potential pivots and reinventions!
The wait is over and I present to you my conversation with Ashley C. Ford, bestselling author of Somebody’s Daughterand lots more.
I’m so grateful to Ashley for her time and generosity in this conversation. I know you’re going to love it as much as I did.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music.
This Creative Life
enNovember 08, 2023
Audio Updates - October, 2023
Fall updates! New interview episode coming in November.
Pre-Order Kyra, Just for Today
The Inbox Variation newsletter (This Creative Life newsletter will be ending)
This Creative Life
enOctober 28, 2023
TCL Mini: Updates & the Future
News about my next book, and an opportunity for space that I am taking!
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This Creative Life ebook on sale for $2.99 through June!
This Creative Life
enJune 21, 2023
TCL Mini: The Writing Life Audit
This is the audio version of the most recent newsletter PLUS some thoughts about what's next for the pod.
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86. Melissa Walker Takes Action
In late 2016, Melissa Walker was working on her 10th novel when she went to a holiday party and heard then Senator Daniel Squadron talk about the importance of state-level politics—even for the national landscape. She was inspired to take action. That action eventually grew into a pivot from full-time writing to full-time work with The States Project.
This conversation is everything I wanted from the Pivots, Comebacks and Reinventions series. It’s a great example of how passion and purpose can realign for a season or a reason, while the writing is still always there. It got surprisingly emotional for both of us; I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
(This conversation is explicitly political in places, which may or may not be your jam!)
Selected Links:
The States Project - get involved
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music.
This Creative Life
enMarch 08, 2023
TCL Mini: No Sure Things
The audio version of this week's newsletter on living with the uncertainty of writing.
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This Creative Life
enJanuary 05, 2023
85. The Publishing Year in Review with Agent Michael Bourret
From the supply chain issues that started the year, to the conversation about AI that's ending it, I talk through the year in publishing with Michael Bourret of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. Also, we answer listener questions!
This will be the last episode for the year, and the last one before a break during which I'll go off to Boston to teach and maybe even revise my novel. I'll be back (most likely in February) to pick up the Pivots, Comebacks, and Reinventions series.
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music
Happy Holidays!
84. Bennett Madison's Permission to Let Go
What do you do when you've established a writing career and then it's not giving you what you came for? What does it look like to be a person who writes but whose entire identity isn't wrapped up in Being a Writer? Is there life on the other side, if you can just let go? Bennett Madison joins me for the first time since 2013 to talk about the work of deprofessionalizing his writing life to pivot to joy in creative work--and a steady paycheck doing something else.
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music!
TCL Mini: Year In Review
New full episode next week!
Until then, here's the audio version of this week's newsletter, with a question for YOU about your dream writing podcast.
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This Creative Life
enNovember 30, 2022
TCL Mini: Writing In Reality
Letting go of the idealized version of your writing experience.
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Take the Google survey on 2023 classes.
Happy Thanksgiving!
TCL Mini: Creative Rest
The audio version of this week's newsletter on resting before making the next creative decision.
83. Tara Altebrando Is Solving the Puzzle
In the third episode in the Comebacks, Pivots, and Reinventions series, my longtime friend and one-time (?) collaborator Tara Altebrando talks to me about her multiple pivots over a couple of decades as a working writer, and the driving forces behind those choices. Currently, she's working in scripted audio as the creator and writer of the Dream Breachers podcast at Pinna Audio and the President of Listen Like Thieves Productions.
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music!
82. Malinda Lo Never Went Away
In the second episode in the Comebacks, Pivots, and Reinventions series, Malinda Lo and I talk about her huge year with Last Night at the Telegraph Club and what it has meant for her writing and life. But is it really a “comeback” if she never went away in the first place? Also we talk about her brand new book, A Scatter of Light.
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music!
81. Faith Gardner Takes Control (Comebacks, Pivots, and Reinventions)
When author Faith Gardner grew frustrated with the slowly grinding gears of traditional publishing and wanted to spread her wings a bit, she took matters into her own hands.
This is the first episode of this fall's Comebacks, Pivots, and Reinventions series!
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music!
Comebacks, Pivots, and Reinventions - Coming Fall 2022
What's coming this fall from This Creative Life!
Show links:
TCL Mini: Writing When It Doesn't Feel Like It Matters
When it feels like the world is burning down, is writing something you want to save from the fire?
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Thanks to Dave Connis for the theme music
TCL Mini: Becoming a Good Self-Editor
TCL Mini: Accepting Your Limitations
Ep 81: Author Michelle Huneven
I’m so happy to be back with one my favorite contemporary novelists, Michelle Huneven. I love the compassion, humor, and reality in how she renders life and relationships.
She’s got a brand new book out, Search, which we talk about along with her other books, her background, and process—including the 20-year circuitous journey to the publication of her first novel, Round Rock. I hope you enjoy the episode and, if you’re not already a fan, go explore her catalog.
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Theme music by Dave Connis
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