First Draft Episode #288: Matt de la Peña

Matt de la Peña, author of seven critically acclaimed young adult novels including Mexican Whiteboy and Newbery Medal–winning author of Last Stop on Market Street talks about his newest collaboration with illustrator Christian Robinson, Milo Imagines the World.

This episode is brought to you by Plotting With Revelations, the three-unit online character arc workshop created by critically-acclaimed, Edgar Award-nominated author Erin Bowman (hear her First Draft interview here). Register at embowman.com/workshops by February 7th. and use special coupon code FIRSTDRAFT to save $100.

Links to Topics Mentioned In This Episode:

• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

• Maya Angelou, poet and author of memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• Ball Don’t Lie (movie)

• Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of National Book Award and Printz-winning The Poet X, as well as With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land. Listen to her First Draft interview here.

• A.S. King, author of Printz-winning novels Dig and Please Ignore Vera Dietz and many more

• Steven Malk, Matt’s literary agent at the Writer’s House literary agency

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• Kadir Nelson, artist and illustrator of A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis and winner of the Coretta Scott King award for writing and illustrating Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African-Americans

• Christian Robinson also wrote and illustrated New York Times bestselling picture books you matter, another, and more

• Stephen Malk also represents Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate and youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, and author of the forthcoming Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem

• Sales of Milo Imagines the World will benefit The unPrison Project's UP with Books program, which purchases, ships, and donates new children’s books to interested prisons, then facilitates a reading day to help incarcerated mothers stay connected and involved with their children on visiting day. The child then takes the book home.

🎙️ Enjoy this episode? Check out…

• Oliver Jeffers, visual artist, illustrator of The Day the Crayons Quit, and author and illustrator of How to Catch a Star, The Fate of Fausto, and Here We Are talks about his newest picture book, What We’ll Build.

• Carson Ellis, author and illustrator of bestselling picture books Home and Caldecott Honor book Du Iz Tak?, talks about her newest picture book, In the Half Room.

• Jon Klassen, Caldecott Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the I Want My Hat Back series, as well as the illustrator of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett; The Dark by Lemony Snicket; House Held Up by Trees by Ted Kooser; Cats' Night Out by Caroline Stutson; and many more.

🗣️ I want to hear from you!

Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998 or send an email to mailbag@firstdraftpod.com !

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In this week's episode of AchievingOPTIMAL, I talk about the importance of finishing strong. I want you to finish this year strong and head into the new year with lots of momentum.

I’m going to give you 4 ideas you can begin to practice immediately that will help you finish the year optimally. 

Clarity is a vital element of success. I sometimes like to joke with my audiences that lack of clarity is the root of all evil. Well… maybe it's not the root of all evil, but I do believe lack of clarity is the root of underperformance in almost any area of life.

You can't change your destination immediately, but what you can do is change your direction. – Coach

Once you are clear on what you're trying to accomplish, the plan for how to get there becomes a lot more apparent.

4 Steps for getting clear:

1. Who

Think purpose, mission, legacy.

Who are you intending to become?

At the end of your life, what do you want your legacy to be?

Are we leaving the kind of legacy that we want to leave?

Is your legacy something that you are going to be proud of?

2. What

What are the goals?

Are you clear on the goals you are pursuing right now?

What are your goals for the next week? Month? Year? Three years? Decade?

3. Why

The driving force, the motivator.

For all of your major goals, identify the reason you must reach those goals. Shoot for at least 10-12 reasons for why reaching those goals is critical.

Review your reasons why constantly.

 4. How

How are we going to get from where we are now to where we want to be?

If we don’t know exactly what we are trying to accomplish, it makes it a lot harder to come up with a plan of action steps that will take us there.

One we are clear, then we start noticing opportunities, resources, people that can help us reach our goal.

A simple plan is a list of action steps that move you closer to your goal.

Acknowledge the list of actions that move you away from your goal so that you can avoid them.

A GREAT life is, more than anything else, an accumulation of GREAT weeks. We can all have an off day now and then, and we shouldn’t worry too much about it. But if we have an off WEEK… we need to take corrective action. 

Planning is when you reach into the future and pull it back to the present. In this episode of weekly planning Coach Tommy Newberry explains the importance of planning your weeks and coaches you through the steps needed to WIN your weeks.

3 Questions:

1. Where have you won in the last seven days?
2. Where have you lost in the last seven days?
3. What are you going to do differently?

Bonus Questions:
How strong was your performance on a scale of 1-10?
What was the biggest reason you hit your goal or fell short?
Would this weeks result be acceptable to me if they became my new standard?
What preparation is necessary ahead of actually producing better results next week?

We talked about what you'd buy if you were super rich, the group of Canadian teens who pushed a woman for hours, the shocking percentage of people who think the moon landing was fake, the senior class that didn't cheer for their classmate, losing your brakes on the highway, the shutdown of Cornelius Pass Rd., the new smart-diaper from Pampers, sitting vs. hovering, and much more!

“When we aim at the target of performance, maturity always suffers. But when we aim at the target of maturity, the performance goes off the charts.”

This is one of the best parenting episodes we've ever had! Janet Newberry shows us how growing up in a performance based culture & education system harms our children, ourselves and our relationships. Thankfully, we have a choice to live free by design and not stay stuck in the default.  In this episode, we chat about the differences between design vs default, how to know whether we're performing for others or being our true selves, and why parenting should not be transactional (striving to earn our next privilege), but transformational (built on a trust relationship & help) and so much more!! Janet is the host of the Brave Love Podcast, one of my go-to podcasts that is making me a much more effective parent and I count it as a privilege to have her on the show!

In this chat, we also talked about: 

-Their grand adventure- traveling the US and living in an Airstream named Freedom 

-wearing the "good enough" mask

-perils of a performance based culture

-breaking the perform & pain relief cycle most of us live in

-how work is different than performing

-the default mindset in the education system

-breaking codependency 

-What is my God given instinct? 

-finding courage to move from codependent to confident

-crisis in the dishes section

-the cost of finding your voice

-redeeming childhood

-creating transformational, maturing relationship with our children

-helping our children mature

-learning to "be me"

Follow Janet's journey & John 15 Academy at www.janetnewberry.com , on FB at Janet Newberry, and IG 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

Brave Love Podcast by Janet & Doug Newberry

"Education by Design, Not Default: How brave love creates fearless learning" by Janet Newberry

John 15 Academy with Janet Newberry

Trueface

"The Cure: What if God Isn't Who You Think He Is and Neither are You?" by Trueface 

"The Cure & Parents" by Bill Thrall & Trueface

Trueface Podcast

"Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals the Way to Our Healing" by Jay Stringer 

"Beloved Chaos: Moving from Religion to Love in a Red Light District" by Jamie West Zumwalt

Your body is composed of trillions of cells that either contribute to or detract from optimal health. In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL session, wellness coach, Darren Fink, discusses how to fine-tune those cells via inflammation control, purposeful antioxidant consumption, healthy blood sugar, and the practice of detoxification.

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How many of you are fans of premium, budget-friendly skincare? Well, you might be interested to know about an up-and-coming skincare brand called The Inkey List that will debut at Sephora this month. We sit down with founders Colette Newberry and former microbiologist-slash-virologist Mark Curry to get to the bottom of the fast-growing phenom – one product sells every 30 seconds in the UK, where it first launched just one short year ago!

We know, we know… it’s just like The Ordinary, you say. Yes, The Inkey List also zeroes in on one hero ingredient, like vitamin C, AHA, retinol, squalane… It’s also a minimally packaged, buildable system you can customize – with all products costing under $15. We find out what led Mark and Colette to launch The Inkey List to begin with, and we don’t pull any punches in asking about allll  those similarities.

To be fair, you’ll also learn about a few key points that set The Inkey List apart. Tune in as we review the top-selling sku, the Hyaluronic Acid Serum, as well as Jill’s personal fave, the Vitamin C Serum. Plus, we fill you in on the fast-coming innovations whooshing down the pike in the months to come – all of which focus on buzzy new ingredients, destined for beauty headlines. Have you tried The Inkey List yet? Head on over to our Facebook group



and tell us what you think!

*Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, all products reviewed are gratis media samples submitted for editorial consideration.*

Hosts: Carlene Higgins and Jill Dunn

Theme song, used with permission: Cherry Bomb by Saya


For any products mentioned in this episode, check out our blog: www.breakingbeautypodcast.com/blog

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We speak w/ Jim Crow survivors Elliott Robinson, Jr. and Allen Cromer to explore what it meant to be “banished” from your hometown. We also learn about the random nature of Jim Crow era racial violence and its rigid system of written and unwritten rules.

For a visual companion to this episode, visit CreativeTension.org. Follow us on Instagram, FB and Pinterest: @creativetensionpodcast and Twitter @createtension

Until next time, #createtension.

Creative Tension can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts:

• Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/2wBqYHb
• Stitcher: http://bit.ly/2gcmfVp  
• Google Podcast: http://bit.ly/ctgoogpod   
• IHeart: http://bit.ly/2h7K69f
• TuneIn - http://bit.ly/2gp6ZS8  
• Spotify - http://spoti.fi/2ydhVbK
• SoundCloud - http://bit.ly/ctsoundc

Julian Reid & The JuJu Exchange: http://bit.ly/JRJuJuExch

Thanks to the Emory University Center for Digital Scholarship for their cooperation in the recording and production of the Creative Tension podcast

#createtension #jimcrow #history #behindtheveil #emory #caricatures #podsincolor #podcastsincolor #blm #blacklivesmatter

Choosing the right foods and engaging in smart exercise goes a long way to producing optimal health. But there’s another major factor to consider that is essential to your energy and vitality. I’m referring to your environment. Your physical environment, home and office especially, either enhances or compromises your health. Knowing the “what and how” of cleaning up your surroundings is the focus of this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL episode with our wellness coach, Darren Fink.

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Whether you know it our not, your digestive system is ground zero for your health and vitality. The ability to absorb nutrients, eliminate toxins and avoid inflammation is essential for if you intend to have the energy to crush huge goals. In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL podcast, we discuss the importance of gut health as we continue our series with wellness coach, Darren Fink.

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Knowing what you want to achieve is not enough. Achieving your goals and living your best life requires that you line up your daily habits with your goals and aspirations for the future. Think about the habits that influence your early morning time and the habits that color your evenings. Think about your spiritual, financial, marriage, parenting and fitness habits. And, most of all, evaluate your habits of thought. In this week’s episode of AchievingOPTIMAL, we mastermind about the repeated behaviors that are shaping who you are becoming.

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Working hard right out of college is not enough. When it comes to launching your career (and life), nothing matters more than developing a winning mindset. Like an internal operating system, your mindset governs your potential for crushing your goals during your twenties and beyond. In this week’s episode of AchievingOPTIMAL, we continue our series aimed at coaching young adults toward peak performance early in life.

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Mindset is critical. It’s the leading indicator of your life’s coming attractions. Your circumstances, both personally and professionally, are a reflection of this mindset. To crush your goals early, and become unstoppable, work from the inside out. Work on the mental game. In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL episode, we discuss the power of the right mindset for young adults.

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Every habit, whether helpful or hurtful, adds color and definition to your character. Constructive habits produce positive results while destructive habits become enemies of your full potential. In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL podcast, we discuss the power of goal-directed habits and how to integrate them and make them stick.

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Getting lean is predictable, once you understand insulin management and the advantages of a ketogenic diet. By using fat for fuel, you can radically upgrade your energy, immunity and focus. In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL podcast, Joe Dillon and I discuss how to get and stay super fit by increasing quality fats and proteins while eliminating all but smart carbs.

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Thoughts have consequences. We plant thoughts, and we reap a mindset. Then, our mindset governs the direction our life takes. Without careful attention, our thought life (and by extension our entire life) can be adversely influenced by the random ideas, words, images and opinions that we allow to enter our mind.

In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL podcast, we discuss optimizing your thought life by becoming intentional with your daily exposures and inputs.

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When it comes to our wellness, everything works together. Our Creator designed us to be healthy, vibrant and full of life. Through our habitual choices, though, we often sabotage this intended natural state. Our energy and vitality depends on being spiritually, emotionally, and physically fit.

In this week’s AchievingOPTIMAL podcast, Darren and I discuss how unresolved negative emotions can manifest into physical ailments, and how we can prevent this from happening.

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Eventually and inevitably, we come face to face with some type of significant difficulty. There’s really no way to avoid it. Although what happens to us may be out of our control, how we respond is not.

Training and preparing yourself to deal effectively and gracefully with the struggles life throws your way is a critical success skill. In this week’s AcheivingOPTIMAL podcast, I share strategies for making the best out of tough times.

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