In this episode, I share my experience writing and publishing a middle-grade book, from the first picture game to finding an agent to books hitting the bookstore shelves. It was, indeed, a long process.
Does a spiritual practice play a part in your creative process? Do you have any rituals to help you create? Aleen and I share our thoughts, feelings, history with spirituality, & current spiritual practices (or, in Aleen’s case, attempt at creating ritual) and how they relate to their creativity.
I’ve been dying to talk to Whitney “Strix” Beltrán about her twisty-turn-y journey to becoming a narrative designer in the video games industry since XOXO back in 2019. Turned out to be just as fascinating a conversation as I hoped.
Aleen, Whitney, and I talk about how sometimes we take the road we’ve always intended to go down and sometimes we’re led on a path we never could have imagined.
In this episode Aleen and I talk about how easy it is to get bogged down in the notion that you’ve waited too long to start being creative. We’re here to tell you that it is never too late to try something new or start your creative life.
In this episode Aleen talks to Rosemary Orchard and we discuss getting over barriers to creativity, not holding yourself to impossible standards, and establishing a writing ritual that works for you. Also: do you trust strangers to watch your stuff in coffee shops? (I totally do…)
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
In my recent post about communities I talked about the importance of Finding Your Tribe. In this episode we discuss this in the context of the XOXO Festival and why creating intentional community spaces at conferences like this one matters. Also ways to get to conferences even if you don’t have the funds to do so.
Let me know what you think of this one in the comments!
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
In this episode we talk about the F word: failure. Bob Ross didn’t want you to be afraid to fail, and neither do we. So we discuss mistakes and how to frame those experiences to be productive instead of destructive. It’s not as woo-woo as it sounds, I promise.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
In the past year I’ve had many occasions to think about the value of community and having a close-knit cadre of friends you can count on. It’s key to my mental health, my creativity, and everything that’s important to me. And that’s what this episode is about.
For about a year and a half I’ve been part of an artist’s collective with five other amazing woman who inspire me with their creativity and their compassion: Alethea Kontis, Monica Valentinelli, Stina Leicht, Shveta Thakrar, and Leanna Renee Hieber. I wanted them on the podcast to discuss the wonderful microcommunity we’d built and so I could talk with Aleen about how to take what we’ve done and apply it across time and space. Leanna, unfortunately, could not join us, but I got the other four together for a conversation and the whole thing turned out far better than I’d hoped.
This is one of the episodes of ORIGINALity I’m proudest of and I hope you’ll give it a listen.
It’s also a nice intro into a post going up later this week in which I expand on many of the ideas discussed here about community and trust. That one’s been brewing a while…
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
In this episode Aleen and I talk about the line between inspiration and appropriation. We get into the value of learning by copying and also what questions to ask yourself to ensure that your final product isn’t still a copy. We also dip into the nuances of drawing from different cultures, how to interrogate what really interests you about that culture, and what to do when you mess up.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
