Intimidated by Publishing Options? Join Me in May and June 2022 to Explore Strategies for Traditional and Self Publishing
These classes will include worksheets/handouts, and participants will get discounts on Storyweaving services for 1 month after the training. There will be time to ask questions and strategize around your particular goals. You'll clarify what to do to best present yourself and your work, how to set up timelines, and other keys to success.
MYTH, MYSTICISM & STORY Starts March 15: An Online Workshop with Carol Pearson and Me
Myth, Mysticism, and Story, is a workshop based on Carol Pearson’s system of 12 archetypes in human development and evolution. Archetypes are universal patterns in thought, creativity, nature and human designed things. She and I have been writing and teaching together around archetypes and stories for the past 20 years. Her system, described in What Stories Are You Living? Discover Your Archetypes – Transform Your Life, focuses on archetypal characters and story patterns. These characters are the Idealist, Realist, Warrior, Caregiver, Seeker, Lover, Creator, Revolutionary, Ruler, Jester, Sage, and Magician, and these describe patterns in our minds, that affect what we do, believe, and expect. Come wake up your primal archetypal consciousness and step more deeply into your life and dreams.
Announcing (Online and In-Person!) Mini-MFA Writing Workshops, March 2022
These workshops, one in person and one online, will share the writing and revision skills that make MFAs so useful! The class is limited to a select few of fiction and non-fiction prose writers. (Poets, you’ll get your turn soon.) If you want to hone your skills in a dedicated group of focused and evolving writers who want to build their strengths and reduce bad writing habits, join us! All feedback will be facilitated, supportive, focused and honest, and you will come out with a clearer sense of the writing process, adapted to your own writing practice.
Choose the Better Story: Don’t be a Victim of the Polarizing Dracula Syndrome!
This shift from being controlled to being in control takes some discipline. Believing in monsters protects us from self-knowledge. That’s why myths make such good propaganda tools! We want to believe. But most monstrous acts come from human actors who think of themselves as saviors. We are all capable of destruction, as we are all capable of constructive acts. Blinded by the Dracula Syndrome, we unintentionally support Evil in our daily choices, all the while believing we are embodying Good.
Sandra McKay 2022 Booklaunch: Storyweaving Press Novel Shines a Spotlight on Orphan Train, Canton, IL Scandal
Irish child Dora is torn from her family after her father’s tragic death, transported on the Orphan Train to Canton, IL, and adopted by a scion of Canton, IL society, only to find herself at the center of a shocking scandal.
Forget resolutions in 2022: Welcome a surprising year with a great question!
I’ve found a better way to transform my year creatively: ask a question that will guide me in exploring possibility all year long! One of my students years ago told me I asked impossible questions – and that’s what she loved about working with me, because she found amazing and unexpected answers as she explored. I’ve always pushed my writing forward with open-ended, challenging questions. But it wasn’t until two years ago that I opened up my life with them.
Just to let you know, these questions can open up your life without burdening you with excessive seriousness! I’ve found that when I ask an open-ended question (like the one that led to my year of photographing dinosaurs!), it recharges me whether it leads me to a year of play or to a year of diving into serious writing.
Creative Strategies for Individuals to Manage Change in Challenging Times: The Power of Story, Part II
Creatives are people willing to imagine a better world, and work towards their vision, building on a foundation of practice, discipline, and solid values. I work with creatives both in my writing mentoring and in my organizational consulting, and have learned a great deal about the courage it takes to commit to innovation and invention. I’ve also learned a lot about ways to minimize the stress of being brave and creative in a world that doesn’t always seem to reward us for choosing to thrive and innovate. Above all, we need to learn how to make fight or flight work for us, not against us!
Harvesting the Light in Winter Darkness: Storyweaving Tips Featured in Pathways Magazine
Always remember, when you aren’t sure what to do, embracing your purpose will ease your fear and fuel your next steps. Honor your calling as you know it now, and in a sleepless night, know you’re not alone. We are all asking hard questions and facing challenging truths. But in the dark before the dawn, there is always a spark to lead you through. Take a deep dive into that darkness, knowing that the light you need pulses in its creative center.
Organizational Change Management: The Power of Story
The stories we live in our organizations can make us or break us. The key is to co-create stories based on real and present situations. In the process, we get to be fully present, rather than projecting our assumptions and fears unconsciously onto others, reinforcing oppositions that comfort us only temporarily and cause problems for all.
Got the Winter Shivers? Stoke Your Creative Fire!
Who says chilling out is a good thing? Few of us love the layered winter's cold. From November's early sunset to February's quickening light, keep the home fires burning in your creative work, no matter the weather.
Storyweaving Article Published: On Purpose Woman Magazine
An excerpt from my article, Owning Your Leadership Purpose: Move Beyond Your Brand, in On Purpose Woman Magazine.
Happy Halloween: Free Your Ghosts!
Why let the ghosts of old beliefs and assumptions limit you? This Halloween, bid them farewell and find your creativity, your professional power, and your leadership gifts!
Find your inspiration! It’s the key to a longer, better life….
Think - and travel - outside the box
