Latest / Postcards to the Universe / Elizabeth Mugavero

Transcript

Elizabeth Mugavero · Postcards to the Universe

0:11
Welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa Capria. Do you believe in magic?
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What if you were told that all you had to do was get a
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little creative and work a magic spell to bring anything you can imagine into your
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life. Here on Postcards to the Universe, we will share manifesting tips,
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postcards, creativity, abundance, and prosperity. Here is your host, Melissa
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Capria. Hey everybody, and welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa creating
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the life you create. How is your New year starting so far? I
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hope everybody's doing well and setting some good intentions for what we want to bring
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in for ourselves for the new year year. It's always a good place to
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start in January, right like refresh, reset button and we're like, okay,
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what is it we want twenty twenty four to look like in our lives?
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So it's always good to think about that. I have a bunch of
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things that I want to bring into my life and I will be sharing those
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as I go along. But today I have a really cool show. I
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have author Elizabeth mcgavreau as my guest, and she's going to join me in
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just a few minutes. And she writes fiction and they have a magical element
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to them. And I am almost finished with her book right now and it's
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I was telling her before the show that I'm really enjoying it. It's a
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lot of fun. So yeah, so we're going to talk about that.
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We're going to talk about writing today. So for those of you who are
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new to tuning into my show for the first time, I just want to
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say a big, warm welcome and to my regulars, thank you so much
1:57
for joining me each week the world. But a little bit about me if
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you haven't experienced my show before. I am a photographer and I'm also an
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author, and I have a book. It's nonfiction and it's titled Postcards to
2:13
the Universe. Harness the Universe's power and manifest your dreams. And my book's
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all about manifesting and using the law of attraction to bring into our lives those
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things that we want to consciously co create with the universe. So what I
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did was I asked people to create a manifesting postcard and it's kind of like
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a mini vision board. And the beginning of the year is always a good
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time to do. People like to do vision boards in the beginning of the
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year. But the difference with the postcards are there. I ask people to
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just work on one area at a time with each postcard, and when they
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create the postcard, they send it to me. I photograph it, and
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when their story or what they put in their postcard shows up in the reality,
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I share their story with their permission, of course, along with the
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image of the postcard. And that's basically, in a nutshell, what the
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book is. And there's thirty of those in the book, and I broke
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it down into money, love, health career, and those are the main
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areas where we always want more abundance. And I have so many writing exercises
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in the book that helps us get clear on what it is we want to
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manifest, right because we're not always sure. Sometimes we'll say like, oh,
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I want you know, I just want to feel happier, I just
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want to feel peaceed. Well, what does that look like to you?
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And you might not always know what it looks like. So the writing exercises
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are to help you get really clear on what that looks like. What does
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happiness look like to you? What does joy look like to you? What
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does love look like to you? You know? So because we're not always
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sure. We think we know, but when we have to articulate, it
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makes it a little bit more difficult. So if you're interested, you can
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find my books of course on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or you go
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to your favorite bookstore and if it's not there, they will order it for
4:02
you. But I also started last year. I started last year a month
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ago, No, but it's more of than moths. Probably about three months
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ago, four months ago. I started doing live readings from my book and
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I'm releasing a video a week and They're about five minutes long, and it's
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each person's postcard and I'm reading their story and I'm showing the postcard. And
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I started doing it on my social media Instagram, TikTok, and then I
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post them on LinkedIn and YouTube, so you can follow along that way.
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And if you do, just you know, say hi, let me know
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that you're seeing them, and you know, you know, share around with
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your friends if it resonates with you, which I hope it does. So
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the postcards that are in the book, I decided because the book came out
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in the end of twenty nineteen, right before COVID, so it's been a
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few years now, and I decided to rephotograph the postcards that are in the
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book, and I've been releasing each of those every week, usually on Mondays,
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I call my little magical messages and the affirmation that goes along with it.
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So this week's is and so it begins, which kind of just fell.
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It just fell that way, which is perfect because as we as I
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said earlier, January is a new beginning. So what are you beginning this
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year? Now? Something to think about? What is it that you want
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to start? What have you been sitting on and saying, Oh, I'm
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gonna finally get to fill in the blank whatever it is for you, And
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now it's the time to do that. So think about that, and what
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do you want, Like I said, by the end of twenty twenty four,
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what is it that you want to manifest? I ask people each week
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to send me a manifesting postcard, So please do. And if you want
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to know how to do that, you can go to postcards to theuniverse dot
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com and I tell you how to create one and there's an address listed on
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there about where to send it and let me know that you set one out
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to me so I can expect it I love getting them in the mail.
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It gets so excited. So yeah, create one. There are a lot
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of fun to do also while you're doing it. It's fun to tap into
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your creativity, right. I think that's a really powerful way to manifest and
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a lot of us forget that that. You know, as adults, we
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have so much to do. We're so busy, we're so stressed, you
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know, we have so many obligations, and getting to be creative is it
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shifts our energy, and it shifts our vibration and it raises our vibration actually,
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which is why these postcards work, because that's really what we're doing.
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We're raising our vibration so that what we want we'll match it. I started
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a few a couple of workshops and one is called Manifesting through Gratitude, a
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visual journey, and that runs Thursday evenings six to eight pm. It's online,
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and it's about using gratitude for what we already have in our life to
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manifest more of that. You can find out about that if you go to
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my website also, so check out I have some workshops lis sit over there
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that I'm doing. I'm going to be doing and make a manifesting postcard.
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Started off the new year with one, and we're going to be doing another
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one coming up, I think in February. I'm not quite sure yet.
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I don't have the date set, but I'll let you guys know, and
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you can join me. And that's a Saturday afternoon workshop. But the Manifesting
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through Gratitude is five weeks from beginning to end, and each week we tap
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into those areas that I was talking about, like love and our careers and
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our health and money, and they're a lot of fun. And we're going
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to be making postcards in there too. So any questions, of course,
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you can always reach out to me and I'd be happy to answer, and
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I hope that you join me because there are a lot of fun all right.
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So we're going to be talking about talking about tapping into our creativity.
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We're going to be talking to author Elizabeth Magavero and she writes under her a
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pen name Kate Kanti, and she is the best selling author of three mysteries,
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two with King Kensington Books and one with Saint Martin Press. And as
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Liz, she writes the Paw Passivity Paw wait, oh my god, I
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can't even say it Positively Organic Mysteries, the first in which she won an
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Agatha Award nominee for her Best first novel and in her alter ego Kate that
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hit the scene in twenty fourteen with The Cat Cafe Mysteries featuring Mattie James,
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who moves back to Daybreak Island off the coast of Massachusetts and subsequently opens a
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cat cafe to help with island rescue efforts. Of course, people are murdered
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along the way, and Maddie discovers she has another skill solving crimes. But
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her latest series, which is what I'm reading right now, The Full Moon
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Mysteries, is a confluence of all her favorites things, which is crystals,
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cats, moon phases, and magic. Those are like all my favorite things
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too, so featuring Violent Mooney, a thirty two year old witch who has
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no idea she's a witch at least until her life is turned upside down and
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somewhere along the way, Liz lost her creative mojo and began the long process
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of her creative recovery. She spent seventeen years on learning all the limiting beliefs
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and stories that were holding her back through a variety of spiritual techniques and mindset
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shifts she found her way to her writing success. This inspired her to become
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a creativity coach, helping other writers fulfill their creative dreams with a touch of
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woo wu. She is the founder of the Creativity Lab, a membership site
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for writers, and if you want to find out more about Liz, you
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can go to her site which is Katecanti dot com, cace E coo nte
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dot com. Welcome Liz, thanks for being here with me today. Hey
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Lissa, thank you so much for having me. Your shows right up my
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alleys. I love it. Oh good good. I hear your dog in
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the background saying hi. So I all right, so say you're positively,
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So please say your first your name, the title, because for some reason
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it's like a tongue twister in my mouth. Positively Organic Mysteries said, I
10:20
get it right, positively. They just spilled it differently with the you know
10:26
paws. So I know I was. I'm trying to read it because I
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have her bio. I'm trying to read it like my tongue is like not.
10:35
I know, like positively, I could say that. I know why
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I couldn't say positively okay, But anyway, So you wrote that one under
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you as Liz, and then you decided to create Why did you decide to
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create an alter ego Kate? Yeah, So after my first series had started,
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I was just like two or three books in and my agent came to
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me with a request from another publishing house. They were looking or a series
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that centered around cats. So in order to fulfill that contract, they wanted
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me to have a different name. So I chose a pen name for that
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series, and that's been kind of the name that's stuck, probably because it's
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easier to say than my Yeah. No, well, I love it.
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See I was telling I was telling Liz, I don't usually have like fiction
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because I because of my shows, I usually have a lot of authors,
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but it's usually nonfiction and it's very in the same genre, like the woo
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woo genre, right, And I like to talk to people who are doing
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alternative healing, people who are psychics, people who are channelers, you know.
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But when we connected, I love the fact that this is the characters
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that you wrote. And also one of my favorite genre of my reading when
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I read for fun, are mystery. So I'm like, oh, this
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is going to be a lot of fun like reading a mystery, but also
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that has all this witchy stuff that I love. So what inspired you to
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start writing in this genre? Did you always want to be a writer as
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a kid, like when you were little or yeah, I was. I'm
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one of those kids who knew really early on what I wanted to do.
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I loved books. I loved reading. I loved being read to when I
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was little. Then when I figured out how to read myself, that was
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all I wanted to do. I was such a nerd. And my grandfather
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was a police detective, so he brought that love of crime. I mean,
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he didn't tell me too many things, so it was kind of work,
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but enough to really pique my interest. And I was always fascinated with
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crime. My very first research papers when I was a kid was, you
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know, focused on local crime stories and serial killers, and I mean I
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was into all of the things. My parents were a little worried about me,
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but I just, I just I loved to write. I loved to
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make up stories, and yeah, I knew that was what I wanted to
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do. Hmm, okay, and then now the magical elements like that,
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what did you tie them together? Like? Where what made you wanted to
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want to write in that way because your mystery. I read tons of mysteries,
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and your mystery is different because there is a magical element to it.
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So what made you want to add that component? Yeah, I've always been
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very woo woof. So I was what I was before I knew what crystals
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were. I was fascinated by rocks. So I love rocks. And there
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was a funny thirg my mother used to tell the people. When I was
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a little kid, she bought me a doll with a doll carriage, and
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we were walking through the neighborhood one day and I was pushing my doll carriage
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and my some lady stuffed and you know, told my mother arcute I was,
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and she wanted to see my doll, and I pulled the blanket back
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in the car. In the carriage and there were just all these rocks that
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I had picked up on the street. And so I just I love rocks.
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And then when I realized I could spend money on rocks, I mean
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I was all in. So I got really into crystals and oracle cards.
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And you know, I've been seeing I've been going to trying out psychic since
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I was a teenager, Like, I just love all of that stuff.
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I love the idea that you know, there's other things out there that are
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controlling the universe, and you know, just really digging into all things magic.
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And I went to college in Salem, Massachusetts, so which is been
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a huge part of my life. So love all of that. And so
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when I was talking with my editor after my first series was wrapping up,
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we were talking about, you know, perhaps doing something paranormal for another series,
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and he actually came up with the idea of kind of a modern day
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Bewitch, which I love that idea because I love to Bewitched. I love
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the mother daughter dynamic. That's something that I write a lot about Q and
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my different stas in different ways, So it was perfect. So I just
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kind of went with it and made it my own. Yeah. Yeah,
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well it's it's it's a fun story. So yes, there's obviously an element
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of mystery, there's obviously a murder in it, but it's it's a fun
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story. And it's really about a young witch who just is discovered she's a
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witch, and she's uncovering her powers and she doesn't even really know the depth
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of her powers, like she's discovering it as I'm reading. You know,
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she's figuring it out as she goes along, and all the interesting characters that
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she meets along the way. And you know, I like when I was
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talking in the in the intro and talking about our creativity. Being a writer,
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you know, obviously you're tapping into your creativity. And I know that
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you went through a little bit, you said, a slump, like where
15:45
you were second guessing yourself, you were questioning yourself and how did you how
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did you get yourself out of that? Like how did you let the limiting
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beliefs like not take over and give it up? Because a lot of people
15:58
do that. You know, a lot of people will try They'll try one
16:02
thing, they get a lot of rejections and they're like, boom, that's
16:04
it. I'm done. I'm not even going to bother anymore. And and
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that's and they let their dream die. So what did you do to kind
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of get yourself through that? Yeah, one hundred percent. So, like
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I said, I just have always had this really deep desire to be a
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writer and to write books and to bring stories to people. So I think
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I'm lucky in the sense where, like I feel like That's always been my
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purpose. And I've done other you know, many other things to make a
16:32
living along the way. But I've always really held on to that. But
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I think I let myself, when I was young, get really caught up
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in, you know, the old attitudes of like, well, that's not
16:42
a real job. You need to have a plan B. You know,
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I've come to really hate the term plan B because I feel like that's such
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a creativity killer for people. And yeah, people get people get brought up
16:55
with this idea. You know, no fault to anyone, but you know,
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I think it's beyond some people's scope of mind that something like this can
17:06
actually be a career, right, And so we get these ideas put into
17:11
our heads that we're never going to be able to do this, it's not
17:12
going to make us a living, And so I think we make it hard
17:15
on ourselves, right, harder than it probably needs to be, because we
17:18
may get we believe what people have told us. And so along the way,
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I always I was always working on stories and books and you know,
17:29
figuring out my path. But I let myself get really caught up in the
17:32
plan B and way too much energy into other jobs and other things. And
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other ways of making a living, and I kind of lost, kind of
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I lost my mojo over a while, and like I said, I still
17:45
writing, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I was totally in my own way.
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And then someone gave me the book The Artist Way by Julia Camps,
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and I started working through that book, and I mean I just really started
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to dig into all of the things that I was taught that I had believed,
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and really doing that inner work of coming back to that voice that I
18:11
knew was true rather than letting everyone else's voices keep dictating the way my future
18:17
was going to unfold. And so it was really that book that set me
18:19
on the path and that led to a lot of inner work and a lot
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of you know, establishing my own meditation practices and really digging into different crystals
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and how I use those to enhance my writing space. And you know,
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very rutle with things that some people are really spo should just sit down and
18:36
write the book. It's like you do, but you know you need some
18:38
help along the way. Yeah, Yeah, Do you have a do you
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have a writing practice? Like when daily? Do you write every day?
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Do you how do you like do you outline your book and then you start
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from there, because I know everybody's so different in their process, So what's
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your process. Yeah, my presence is weird. I'm trying to get better
19:00
at well. I'm also trying to stop saying I need to get better at
19:04
things, and really my process, yes, you know, I have a
19:11
new focus this year, and it really is going to be like I do
19:14
try to write every day regardless because I'm usually on some kind of a deadline,
19:18
but there are other things that I want to write that are outside of
19:21
my current contracts, and so this is the year that I'm getting really serious
19:25
about that. And that's the first thing that's going to be on my calendar
19:27
every day. And so that is my I don't want to say resolution,
19:33
but that's just my new approach and you know, taking it as a serious
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employee would write, which is what we all need to do if we want
19:41
to be serious in our careers. So that's one thing. As far as
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outlining, I have always been more of a what we call panthers in the
19:48
business, meaning you know, you're right by the seat of your pants and
19:53
what comes comes. But I've written myself into a couple of corners doing that,
19:57
and that's hard when you're on deadline to you know, not really know
20:02
where you're going, and then you start to stay like because the book is
20:04
due and trying to figure out a way out of that. So I have
20:08
a friend who's very good at plotting. She's bailed me out a few times
20:12
when I've done that to myself, but now she helped me kind of come
20:18
come come to a sort of midpoint between being like a really strict plotter and
20:25
a panther. And so with her help, I usually sit down before I
20:29
start writing a book and I do this exercise and she asked me all kinds
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of questions and we come up with, you know, maybe twelve to fifteen
20:37
scenes to kind of get the book started. And then I go from there
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and I, you know, I try to plot at least a few scenes
20:45
ahead now, so I'm not sitting down with that, you know, mindset
20:48
of I don't know what I'm writing today, because that's usually what details me.
20:53
Yeah. Yeah, now, as of I've only written nonfiction so far,
21:00
and on my to do list at some point, not saying this year
21:03
by any means, but I would like to be able to write a mystery
21:07
because I love them so much, but I wouldn't even know how to go
21:11
about it. Yeah, I wouldn't even know how about to go about it
21:14
at this point. But that is maybe floating around in the ethers or somewhere
21:18
down the lines where. But you should say that because I'm actually launching a
21:23
course this year. It's actually in a test phase right now, but a
21:27
digital course called the Mindful Mystery Writer's Masterclass. Oh yeah, send me an
21:33
email when you have it all plotted out. First establish your writing practice right,
21:41
which we talked about, and then going through the steps, the foundational
21:45
steps of what it takes to write a mystery. Yeah. Now do you
21:48
get like, do you think that your ideas are kind of like downloaded to
21:53
you? Because when I wrote my book, I felt like it was like
21:57
downloaded, like I was like from the universe, like it was given to
22:00
me. And I have a friend who just crossed over from writing nonfiction to
22:07
fiction and her story has a very magical theme. She was on my show
22:11
right before the end of the year from her Diana Silver from Moleay Mama,
22:15
and her new book is Magical Mochaheaday and it's these ants visit her and teach
22:22
her through the mochahead day and teach her how to cook right, and it
22:26
has a whole magical thing. And she felt like it was the ants were
22:30
actually like banging on, like to get her attention, like she had to
22:33
write the book like it was like she felt like it came from outside of
22:37
her. Do you feel that way or do you feel that you more self
22:42
create your characters? You know, I think it's I think it's I think
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all writing is channeling someone home. Yeah, me too. How open we
22:52
are right to that? Because there are days when I'll sit there and I'll
22:56
try to force myself into what's the next step in the spot or you know,
23:00
what is this next series is going to look like? And it's really
23:02
hard. But then when I get into that flow of like, Okay,
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I'm inspired, I'm creating, I'm coming up with ideas, that's when it's
23:10
easy. And that's when you're opening yourself up to letting the ideas come through
23:14
you. Yeah, yeah, I think so too. And when you do
23:18
sit down to to start writing, do you have a like do you do
23:25
because you said something that you started meditating? Do you do a meditation first
23:29
and sort of like set the space or you know, like light candles,
23:33
you know, shut your phone off. Like everybody has their little rituals.
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I'm such a ritual girl, Like I love setting rituals when I do stuff.
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So do you have that before you get on your computer? Yes,
23:45
for sure, for sure. So I try to write and them like I'm
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really I know, I'm best in the morning. So every morning, first
23:51
thing I do when I get up anyway, is meditate mm hmmm. And
23:53
then you know, of course I have my coffee because we're not doing any
23:56
writing without coffee, right, it's you know, in sensor candle usually depending
24:02
on depending on my mood. And I have my crystals that I keep around
24:06
my writing space. So the thing, if I'm up and writing really early,
24:10
I'll actually just grab my laptop and sit in my bed. But I
24:12
have all my my crystals in that room. And then my desk has a
24:17
million I don't even know how the computer fips on it. But yeah,
24:19
I definitely have my rituals. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's really important
24:26
to set the space too, because I feel like you're saying to yourself and
24:33
you're saying to the universe, I'm serious, I'm taking this serious, right,
24:37
Like I am setting my space. I am setting my attention. I'm
24:41
taking my work serious. Because when I have people, when I teach people
24:45
how to make a manifesting postcard and then I talk about on my website too,
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I always tell everybody before they get started to set the space whatever that
24:55
looks like for them, you know, and I give them some recommendations to
24:57
do. But you know, shut your phone off, you know, do
25:02
not disturb. Like just like a few things to do, maybe sage if
25:07
you're into that, like candles, put on certain music. Now they have
25:11
all these frequency tones which are great for tapping into your creativity. You can
25:15
listen to you in the background. Like there's so many things to do,
25:18
and I feel like you're saying, like I'm serious here, I'm gonna I
25:22
want to create something and I want to put it out there. And I
25:26
think the universe responds in kind. Because you now have how many books do
25:32
you have under your belt? You have at least nine, right, so
25:37
three I'm wrapping up my eighteenth right now. Wow. That's see, that's
25:41
amazing because I knew from the three that you I mean, the three series
25:47
that you talk about that we talked about in your bio you have three books
25:51
in each in each series? Correct? Is that what it was? Three
25:53
in each series or is the first one have more? Yeah? No,
25:56
I have three series total, my first seven book Okay, I'm working on
26:02
book eight and then my third series as three. Wow. So you work
26:07
on two different series at the same time sometimes Oh yeah, yeah, And
26:15
that's amazing. So I'm yeah, doing one at the beginning of the year,
26:19
one at the end. You know, it depends, like right now,
26:22
actually right now, I'm back to just one series, so discussing okay,
26:26
just one book, so yeah, yeah, yeah, And and and
26:30
anybody who does do writing knows that it's not just writing the book right then,
26:36
it's the edits when you go into the edits, which is a whole
26:38
other animal of you know, refining it, and you have to go over
26:44
and over and over. And so we're going to talk more about your process.
26:48
And I have some questions for any want to be authors out there to
26:52
ask you when we come back. So stay tuned and we'll be back in
26:56
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trailblazers, mystics and creatives who in our lives welcome back. So Liz,
30:10
I was thinking during the break for those listening, like, how do
30:15
you find if somebody thinking, God, I would love to write a book,
30:18
how did how do people find their voice as a writer? Yeah,
30:25
I think you know, a lot of it is you have to read a
30:27
lot. Yeah, Stephen King always says, you know, if you don't
30:32
have time to read, you don't have time to write. I think it's
30:34
reading a lot. I think it's figuring, not obviously not to copy anyone's
30:37
voice, but what resonates with you, to see what types of books you
30:42
you like? And then I think it's just a lot of practice. You
30:47
know, you have to try different kinds of writing and to try different points
30:51
of view, try different genres until you find what what fits you about hm
30:56
hmm. Now your process? Are you traditionally published? Is your publisher traditional
31:03
or do you self published? Or what are they indie publishers? Now?
31:06
So right, there's like at these different Yeah, I'm especially published for my
31:11
series. I am thinking about, you know, other options for certain other
31:17
things going forward, but I haven't really gotten it yet. But there's so
31:21
many options today. It's so great. Like when I was first starting out,
31:25
so publishing wasn't as widely accepted as it is today. So yeah,
31:30
there are so many more options for people today. I think it's great.
31:33
Yeah. How do you feel that, because there's a conflicting and I just
31:38
wanted to get your personal opinion on it. Do you feel that because of
31:42
self publishing that the market is saturated? Too saturated? I don't think so.
31:49
I mean people who love to read love to read, so yeah,
31:55
always looking for books, right, I don't think too many books. Yeah.
31:59
I think it's just about getting yourself out there and getting yourself found.
32:01
And even if you have a traditional publisher and you know you're not like the
32:06
biggest name on their list, you still have to work to get yourself found.
32:09
Oh yeah, there'll be some stuff for you, but you know you
32:13
need to do a lot of it yourself. Yeah. So no, I
32:16
don't think. I don't think you could have ever have too many books.
32:20
Yeah, I agree with you, But I do think though, I have
32:22
to say, for those who do go the self publishing route, I do
32:27
recommend hiring a professional editor. I do recommend doing that. Yeah, because
32:34
I have found just from doing the show for so many years and people sending
32:37
me their books once. Some people are self published who don't hire a professional
32:42
editor. You can tell the difference, you know, And I really think
32:45
that. Yeah, yeah, because when you do go the traditional route,
32:49
they give you the editors you go, you know, you have your editor,
32:52
then you have your line editor, and you go through everything and it
32:54
just cleans it up very nicely. Right, It cleans up your book real
32:58
nice because I have found when I wrote my book and then I kept saying
33:02
the same thing over and over again, just in a different way. Yeah,
33:08
I'm like, oh my god, they're going to clean that up.
33:12
So yeah, that's important. Yeah. I would even say like having developed
33:16
having two different types of editors important, right, Yeah, you have a
33:21
developmental editors to help with your story, your actual storyline, and you know
33:24
your PA and your overall you know story, and then you have your copy
33:30
editor and your mine editor. That's kind of thing. Yeah, yeah,
33:34
now you you did. You also went the agent route, right, you
33:37
have an agent? Yes? Okay, So for those who don't and are
33:43
really interested in pursuing this as a career, how do you go about finding
33:46
an agent? Yeah? So it's probably one of the most asked questions that
33:52
I that I get, so m When I started out, I started so
33:57
I first I figured out that I wanted to write my stories, and there
34:00
I started going to I I just started google. I was very green,
34:05
so I started googling, you know, mystery writer conferences, and from there
34:08
I found a couple that you know, to this day, I still attend.
34:13
And you know, I started just going and meeting people. And a
34:15
lot of these conferences have agents and editors come to the conference. They'll do
34:20
pans and then they'll do pitch sessions, so you can actually bring something to
34:24
pitch to them. So I started doing that. I mean, you know,
34:28
pitching is very nerve wracking, cause you have like a series of ad
34:30
time and you have to be really really succinct and have a really good hook
34:35
and try to kept you know, get their interest in like five minutes.
34:37
If very stressful. I did this for ten years. I mean I was
34:42
going to conferences, I was writing, I was editing, I was pitching,
34:45
I was practicing pitches. All of the things I was querying. Yeah,
34:50
you can. You can go to Writers' markets dot com and find agents.
34:54
You can go to Publishers Weekly and look up AID or Publisher's Marketplace and
34:59
look up agents and query that way, you know, through email and such.
35:04
But ultimately how I ended up getting an agent was I went to I
35:07
joined a national group called Peatures in Crime and from there I joined one of
35:14
their local chapters. And back in twenty eleven, and the agents had reached
35:21
out to this local chapter and they asked for interested authors who might want to
35:25
help, who might want to develop cozy proposal, coly mystery proposal, and
35:30
so this the president of the chapter puts the request out to the entire membership,
35:36
and a bunch of us contacted this agent. We worked with him,
35:39
and a number of us got That's how we got our first contract. Oh
35:43
that's great. So that's interesting that you said cozy mystery. So what do
35:46
you classify your books? Or you're or you're kind of an author you are?
35:52
So what is that? Sam? I'm sorry? Go ahead. So
35:54
my three series that are out are cozyes. Okay, the one you're reading
36:00
is a paranormal cozy you know. I consider myself a mystery writer because I
36:06
am looking to branch out into other genres within mystery and crime. But the
36:10
series I have are definitely cozy. Yeah. Well, that's what makes the
36:15
fun. You know because some of the authors that I do read and the
36:20
mysteries are uh, you know, there's crime, a crime element to it.
36:25
Some of them are very graphic and very there. Some of them are
36:29
really hard, and you would never consider those cozy, you know, so
36:36
when they pick up a cozy, yes, yeah, So, I mean
36:42
it's just fun. And it was so when I was reading your book,
36:45
I was like laughing because the names that you have for your book. So
36:50
I had a cat named Zoe and a dog named Fiona, and a cat
36:53
name Maizie and a cat name Mazie. And I was like, oh my
36:58
god, that's so funny. All my animals are her character's names in a
37:00
book, Sue. Funnier than that my favorite Crystal Store. Yeah, I
37:09
actually found Crystal's names Fiona and Violet. Yeah, I love it. I
37:19
love it. And there's one character that their last name was Merlino and that's
37:22
my mom's maiden last name. I was like, this is so weird.
37:25
I guess I was meant to read this book. It's so funny, Sue.
37:30
Okay, I My second book, uh is being is at places right
37:36
now, like the book Proposal. So I don't think you have to do
37:39
a book proposal in fiction, right, you don't have to do a book
37:42
proposal. I have to do a book proposal for nonfiction. So it's being
37:46
queried right now. So I'm waiting. But I fine, and this is
37:51
me and maybe a lot of other people are so as I'm sitting here waiting,
37:54
I finally I kind of feel like I'm in a creative as far as
37:59
writing goes separate from my photography, like a slump. So how do we
38:02
get out of? Like what I get? What do you call it?
38:06
Creative recovery? Like? How do I get myself out of that? And
38:07
anybody else who's listening right now, you know, how do I get out
38:12
of that? Yeah? For sure? So I don't know. It's the
38:15
journal, but I am a huge journaling fan. So again, this is
38:21
a practice I started after reading ours. I'd always dabbled in journaling. Yeah,
38:24
I'm one of those people who I you know, I'm very like perfectionists,
38:28
you know, So I'm always I was always like, oh, I
38:30
I'm doing this right, which is so stilly. Right, it's a journal
38:32
to do it right, nobody's greeting you. But once I read The Artist's
38:37
Way, I started doing pages every day, and those morning pages have truly
38:44
saved my life. I mean because I you know, it's really just a
38:46
brain dump every morning, you know, pretty much when you wake up of
38:52
just getting all the crap out of your head. Yeah. Me, that
38:55
opened up a lot of space that I could then, you know, go
38:59
back to my I inspired work. That's been a huge practice that I that
39:04
I do to stay creative. Also, I've been trying to have more fun,
39:09
you know. I find that going out to a museum or going out
39:14
and a couple of friends and I did this, you know, one of
39:15
those painting classes, like for a fundraiser, just stuff like that. It
39:22
opens up a new channel in your brain. I think it allows more creative
39:27
inspiration to come through rather than just doing the same thing, you know,
39:30
staring at your computer hoping that some inspirational strike. I think it's just kind
39:35
of mixing it up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
39:37
did the artist way myself and I talked about it in a while. I
39:42
haven't talked about it in a while because it was a few years ago.
39:45
And I did I did the morning Pages I would probably say for about a
39:47
good year and that really yeah, that really really did help me when I
39:52
was writing the previous books. So it's been a while though, and maybe
39:58
it's something I should I should do start doing again, you know. Yeah,
40:02
it's a very good book for creatives who want to clear out the joke
40:09
so that they can get to get to work on what it is that they
40:15
want to pursue and if somebody wanted because you do. So when you talk
40:21
about your creative coaching, what does that look like working with you as a
40:23
creative coach? Yeah, So my main source of coaching is in my membership,
40:30
So people can join the membership. We do a lot of co writing.
40:37
So I think the biggest thing about the membership is it gives people community,
40:40
it gives people accountability. So there's a group of us. We have
40:45
different sessions throughout the week. So there's some early in the morning, there's
40:47
some mid day, there's some in the evenings, or some on the weekends.
40:51
We get together, we you know, pull some oracle cards. We
40:54
kind of set our intentions and then turn our cameras off and we write for
41:00
you know, twenty five minutes back. We kind of do a little debrief
41:02
and then we do it again. So we do that a number of times
41:06
a week. And then also we you know, we have a community.
41:10
I told you I like to do a lot with cards, So they get
41:14
a workbook every month that that's all based on a monthly tarot card shutting prompts
41:20
and you know mindset, mindset, uh like prompts on how to where my
41:27
where your mind is, where your mind wants to be, kind of just
41:30
doing like little mindset resets. We talk a lot about again mindset. So
41:36
yeah, we spend a lot of time really just kind of lifting each other
41:39
up and making sure that you know, everyone's clear on what they want to
41:45
do and that they're trying to do something every day just to keep their creative
41:50
solves alive. And having the community to bounce ideas off of and things like
41:53
that really seems to be helping people. Yeah, because you so you have
42:00
created a membership for people. But you do talk about that a writer needs
42:02
a strong community, right, what do you Yeah, why why do you
42:07
think writers need a strong community? Because it's so isolating when we write.
42:10
I mean you're really buy it by yourself? It is. Yeah, it's
42:14
a solo job, right, Yeah, that's your you know, if you're
42:17
lucky that it's that's your only job. That's great, but it's also like
42:21
you don't you know, maybe once or twice a year you see people at
42:23
conferences or you get on a do you know, an event, but you're
42:27
not really interacting with people that much. So if you have people that you
42:30
can and I think there's there's different levels of community too, right you know,
42:35
for me, I have five ladies that I've been blogging with since the
42:38
beginning, and we're kind of you know, we're always on email in the
42:43
background and like, oh this happened and how did you handle this? And
42:46
you know, there's kind of that level of community. Then there's the you
42:50
know, the bigger groups that again you might do some writings with and just
42:54
be kind of co writing knowing there are other people on the other end of
42:58
the phone or people that you're plotting with. I do have some friends,
43:02
like I mentioned before, that we get together and we plot if we're stuck.
43:06
And you know, that's also something that we do in my membership.
43:08
If somebody has a plot problem, we talked that through and they can get
43:13
different ideas from people. So it's really it's a way to combat the isolation.
43:16
It's the way to keep you motivated and inspired, and it's you know,
43:20
it's just good for the souls. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's
43:25
interesting. And I'm thinking about especially when you talk about plotting. I mean,
43:30
if you're writing a mystery, right, I mean, the whole point
43:32
of the mystery is not to reveal the who done it too early in the
43:37
book? Yeah, right, right? And I always wonder like, hmm,
43:43
you know, and if you and if they're very good, there's usually
43:46
some easter eggs or clues somewhere along the way that leads without revealing too much.
43:53
So how do you craft a story like that? Like, let's say
44:00
you're writing your story. You have a murder, you have a mystery.
44:01
You you obviously know who committed the murder, right, you already have that
44:06
out, So how do you know how to do the reveal and not let
44:12
it come too quick? Like? Is it just practice because you've been writing
44:15
for so long in this kind of genre that you just sort of know how
44:19
to do it. Yeah, I mean it's practice, and it's a lot
44:22
of intuition. You know, as you as you write more and as you
44:27
kind of get more books under your belt, you kind of you have that
44:30
intuition of like where things should go. I'm actually, like I said,
44:32
wrapping up a book right now, and I'm doing a little bit of that.
44:37
Like I you know, I do know who the murderer is, right
44:42
the book is you very soon, but I am you know what I tend
44:45
to do is I tend to like not talk about the murderer that much,
44:50
you know, in my first draft at all. And then I when I'm
44:52
doing my edits, I'm looking at it, I'm like, well, that's
44:54
not fair. We can't just have the person coming at the end and be
44:58
the killer, right, have to be engaged in able to have a chance
45:01
in solve this mystery. So then it's about kind of going back in and
45:06
figuring out in the painting where those red herrings and where those clues need to
45:10
come in, you know, to keep this person in the mix, but
45:14
not give away too much. So it's a lot of you know, fine
45:16
tuning and crafting and revising. Yeah yeah, and a lot of it's happening
45:22
right up to the very end for me. So yeah, I imagine that's
45:29
how it would be for I mean, that's how it was with the nonfiction,
45:31
So I imagine that's how it would be if I ever tackled fiction.
45:35
So let's talk a little bit about marketing because every author I know, artist,
45:42
I know, photographer, painter marketing ourselves. We have to market ourselves.
45:46
So what would you recommend for people who have books out there and are
45:52
trying to get it to readers. What do you use? Like? Do
45:55
you is there a certain social media you like over others? Is there something
46:00
you do? How much support are you getting from your publisher? Yeah?
46:05
I mean I think you have to know you know who your ideal reader is,
46:07
right and then to figure out where they are right. So if they're
46:13
on Facebook, you know, you're going to spend time on Facebook. If
46:15
they're on Instagram, you're going to spend you want to spend the time on
46:17
Instagram. But really what you want to do is get them onto your email
46:21
list because that's that's the most captivating audience right there, who have signed up
46:28
to get your emails and want to stay on top of you know what you're
46:30
doing. So definitely getting people on your email list and keeping that nurturing email
46:37
sequence up with them so they know what you're doing, how you're doing it.
46:42
People love readers love to hear about writing process. They don't they love
46:46
the books, but they also are really fascinated by how the books get written.
46:50
So sharing things with them about your your life and how you write and
46:53
your writing space. And you know, my readers love animals. They love
46:59
to follow my books because they have a lot of animals in them, so
47:00
they pictures of my dogs and you know, here you go what they're up
47:05
to, and really just cultivating that relationship, I think, okay, is
47:10
really is really important. So what sure, what do you spend most of
47:15
your time on Instagram? I do on Facebook because I do still have a
47:21
lot of people on Facebook. It's not my form of choice, but if
47:22
that's where the people are, then that's where. Yeah, you got to
47:25
go, right, Yeah? Are you doing? Are you just curious?
47:30
Are you doing videos? Are you are you venturing into TikTok? You know,
47:36
I've made a promise to myself of this year, I'm going to get
47:38
better at video. Again, we're just doing the getting better thing. But
47:42
yeah, I'm very introverted and I do always tried away from video, and
47:47
yeah, I know I have to get out there more. I've been trying
47:50
to do it for my business. I have to do it for my for
47:52
my books. As well. So yeah, yeah, I'm going to Yeah,
47:57
I know, I'm going to show up more on video. Yeah.
48:00
Well I noticed there's with TikTok, there's a market there for book they called
48:07
book talkers. You know, if you're a book talking and you that's your
48:10
hashtag. And and I'm seeing it more and more because I started doing it
48:15
last year. That was my one of my intentions last year to start doing
48:17
it, and I started releasing the videos, and I'm going to start doing
48:22
more, you know, because I've been reading from the book, but I'm
48:25
going to start doing more videos where I'm talking about my process is just more
48:30
like organic of me just showing up and being on video without like reading from
48:34
the book. So yeah, I do notice that there is you know,
48:38
there's a place for it over there, and people really really like it.
48:42
And it's interesting because you know, everybody thought, oh, well TikTok,
48:45
you know for the younger kids and the dancing, and it's just moved way
48:50
beyond that, you know, especially for creatives and especially for us authors.
48:53
So that's that's pretty amazing. Yeah, so going to be interesting. Yeah,
49:01
I haven't ventured into threads yet because I just have so much that I'm
49:06
doing. It's like I don't know if I can take off another things.
49:08
Yeah, well threads just started like one of those hashtag I forget what it
49:13
is, but yeah, you know, the author hashtags are now starting to
49:15
pop up on threads and yeah, being a lot more of that. So
49:20
that's going to be an interesting because I think Threads is, you know,
49:22
obviously taking the best of what used to be Twitter, yes, and kind
49:27
of recreating it. So we should have a few years before the trolls start
49:30
to show up on threads. Yeah yeah, right, oh yeah, because
49:34
Twitter is not even Twitter anymore. It's like x or so I don't even
49:36
know what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Marketing is it's hard
49:42
for for I have found. I mean, yeah, using those words is,
49:45
like you said, is not good. But I've I found it's more
49:47
challenging for creatives is to switch from being in the creative space and that vibration
49:54
of creativity to switching over to the business and like, okay, how I'm
50:00
going to market myself? You know, it's it's it's not as easy as
50:04
it is for for some people. Do you have a marketer? Did you
50:07
hire a marketing team to market your book? So you want to hear something
50:12
funny. Yeah, marketing is what I do like during the day for my
50:16
Oh so then you know how to do it right. But it's one of
50:21
those things where you can always do it better for someone else. Yeah.
50:24
Yeah, so I have not really, you know, I have. I
50:27
do have some help with this media here and there, but I have not
50:30
hired like a marketing firm. So yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, so
50:37
you know, all the little tips that you would do for other people you
50:39
could just do for yourself, but you know it's easier to do it for
50:45
that it is. It is well your books? So how are your books
50:51
mostly getting seen? Like spread? Is it a word of mouth? A
50:57
lot of books are word of mouth? Is it? People like the reviews?
51:00
Do you get a lot of good reviews on Goodreads or Amazon or finds
51:04
a noble? Like? How are you? How are people finding you?
51:06
You you think? Yeah, I think a variety of ways, right,
51:10
you know, I'm trying to say people know my name now, so that's
51:14
nice. People know when when a book is coming out. My latest Cat
51:19
Cafe book was featured in Woman's World. Was really cool. Yeah, and
51:23
that was because it's a mix. Thank you. But it's a mix of
51:28
there's a psychic, a dead psychic in it. There's a haunted house,
51:31
there's you know, cold cases, there's ghosts. So that one I bring
51:36
a little bit of the paranormal into my non paranormal series. So yeah,
51:43
you know, different thing. You know, my publisher will you know,
51:45
try to find different avenues like that to kind of bring some extra interest to
51:51
it, which is nice. There's a lot of animal related publications that have
51:53
reviewed my books, which is cool because you know, people who love animals
51:58
are always people I want in my world. So yeah, it's been really
52:00
good. Yeah, Yeah, that's always a good thing. Yeah, I
52:04
know, I gotta I gotta go over to the Cat the Cat Mystery series
52:07
when I'm finished with this one and check it out. It's not audible,
52:12
right, it's not audible, Yes, yeah, because audible is my favorite
52:15
way to read. You No, I love listening to books, so I
52:19
definitely like to go on audible. Yeah. So for anybody who's thinking there's
52:30
so many mixed opinions out there, you know, everybody has an opinion,
52:34
but there's so many people that like, really feel like they have a good
52:37
story to tell, but they just don't are afraid to take, you know,
52:43
take the leap, or they hear like, oh, publishing has changed,
52:46
it's not the same, don't even bother. What would you say to
52:49
those people who are listening. I would say, if you have any kind
52:53
of a desire or an urge to write, you need to sit down and
52:57
write. And you don't need to worry about what's going to be up and
53:00
after. You don't need to worry about you know, who your age is
53:04
going to be. You don't need to worry about how are you going to
53:06
publish it. You just need to write a really good book and then you
53:09
go from there. But you have to write the book before you can worry
53:13
about any of those other things. And if you write a book, then
53:15
you have to write the book. Yeah. I think so too. I
53:20
mean, I think there's so many good stories out there and that need to
53:24
be told right, and people need to hear them and read them and see
53:29
them. And you know, and I love what's happening. Especially since we've
53:34
gone on streaming with Netflix and Hulu and all that stuff. How many books
53:38
have been made into series, you know, which is really great. Yeah,
53:44
instead of the same old movie made over and over and over again,
53:46
like fast I'm nothing again. Sorry if you don't like Fast and Furious,
53:50
But I mean, how many are they have? They made like twenty thousand
53:52
already, Like yep, I hear you. Yeah. So someone says to
53:59
me one that you know, if you have something that the world needs and
54:04
you are too afraid to share it, then you're actually being selfish by holding
54:08
it back. And that really stuck with me because, like, you know,
54:10
given when I'm when I'm hesitating about going on social media or you know,
54:15
offering something to someone or you know, promoting my membership whatever it is,
54:21
and I feel kind of weird about it. Then I think about that
54:22
and I'm like, no, what if somebody actually eats this, who am
54:25
I to not offer them? That's a good way to think about it.
54:30
Yeah, I did hear that. I've never heard it that way, but
54:34
I have heard that. They said if you have a fantastic idea, there's
54:37
a million ideas floating out in the universe, and if you there's a fantastic
54:39
idea that comes into your head and you don't grab onto it, it's going
54:44
to go They don't float away and somebody else will. Yeah yeah, yeah,
54:51
Oh is that what it was. Yeah, I love it. I
54:52
love it good. I'm glad you sourced it for me. That's such a
54:58
good such a good author, were there? She just gave me the source.
55:02
Who Liz, I mean, we only have like a minute. So
55:06
is there anything that you want to leave the audience with and then let everybody
55:09
know the best way to connect with you, especially if they're interested in joining
55:13
your membership. Yeah, for sure. Again, I just think you know,
55:16
if you want to write, just right, if that's a gift to
55:20
the world, and it's a gift to yourself, and you know, being
55:22
creative is such a privilege. I think you should grab off to it.
55:27
And Yeah, anyone who's looking for anything about my books or anything that I
55:31
offer, you can find me at katecont dot com. Yeah, yeah,
55:37
and connect with and check out her site. I love your book covers,
55:39
by the way, So I loved the Did you have any say in that?
55:45
Basically ask me for some ideas and they'll send me a design to review
55:50
and I can have some input. So that's been a full process. My
55:52
covers are always amazing. Yeah, your your covers are amazing. Well,
55:57
thank you so much, Liz. I really enjoyed our conversation today. Thank
56:00
you for being with me all right everybody. Thank you for listening to Postcards
56:05
to the Universe with Melissa creating the life you crave. And I'm wishing everyone
56:08
a wonderful week filled with joy, abundance and love. Peace,