In This Issue:
- More award news for Playing by Heart
- Anniversary giveaway ends soon!
- Playing by Heart is only 3 reviews away from 50!
- COD class update
- Introversion/extraversion and creativity
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Another award for Playing by Heart
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I neglected to mention in my recent special edition that Playing by Heart received the 2018 Catholic Arts and Letters Award (CALA) for Children's/YA fiction. The award was presented at the annual Catholic Writers Guild Conference, which was held in Lancaster, PA this year. Unfortunately, I don't have a good photo of the award ceremony. However, I did get one later with Guild president, Joseph Wetterling.
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It's hard to see the lovely award in the photo, so here's a close-up shot:
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At the award ceremony, Joe mentioned that the competition in the children's/YA category was so tight the committee chose to have four finalists instead of the usual three. And this year all four of the finalists are books that are featured at CatholicTeenBooks.com. My congratulations to the authors of the other finalists: Bane’s Eyes by Corinna Turner, The King’s Prey by Susan Peek, and Seven Riddles to Nowhere by A.J. Cattapan.
I also send congratulations to Sarah Tipton, author of Betrayal of the Band, which won the ACFW Carol award in the Young Adult category. I was honored that Playing by Heart was a finalist for that award along with For Love and Honor by Jody Hedlund
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Anniversary giveaway ends soon
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The first-anniversary ebook giveaway for Playing by Heart ends this Sunday, Sept. 30. If you haven't already entered, see my website for details.
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Playing by Heart is only 3 reviews away from 50!
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Long-time subscribers may recall that my publisher would like Playing by Heart to have at least FIFTY Amazon reviews. As I've mentioned before: reader reviews are crucial to the success of a new book. Of course, potential readers are greatly influenced by the reviews. But the impact of reviews is more far-reaching than that. For example, if you buy books on Amazon, you may have seen ads there suggesting other titles you may find of interest. From what I understand, Amazon's algorithms only promote "other titles" that have at least FIFTY predominately 4- and 5-star reviews.
So I send HUGE thanks to all of you who have already posted a review. Playing by Heart now has 47 reviews, and an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars!
If you've read the book but haven't posted a review yet, I'd REALLY appreciate your help getting to the 50-review milestone. Your review needn't be long--some consist of only one sentence. Here's an example of a brief one from C.Calhoun under the heading: "I really enjoyed this book."
I really enjoyed this book! It's a story about
choices, family, gifts and love in another time.
Beautifully written with exceptional detail.
To make it easy for you, here are links to the book's Amazon page plus two other sites where you can post reviews.
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In case you didn't see my September special edition, I'm teaching only one class at the College of DuPage this fall: the six-week hands-on workshop Finding Your Writer's Voice. Class will meet Tuesdays,
7-9 p.m., Oct. 2-Nov. 13 (no class Oct. 30). This class is limited to 15 students and only a few spots remain. If you're interested, see this page
of my website. If you decide to register, you'll need to buy a copy of the class text right away.
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Introversion/extraversion and creativity
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Last weekend, I attended the SCBWI-WI Fall Conference in Green Lake, WI, where I had the honor of participating on an author panel. I drove to and from the conference with my friend and fellow Illinois author, Cathy Velasco.
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One of the breakout sessions Cathy and I attended together was called "Come to the Page as You Are … Wired" presented by Genevieve Artel, a creativity coach. In the presentation, Genevieve talked about how understanding our personality type can help us improve our creative life. As she says in the session description:
". . . every individual is uniquely wired with cognitive preferences, flow states, and strengths. Many of the frustrations we experience on our journey are the result of a perceived set of practices that go against our intrinsic nature."
This idea is a great follow-up to my last regular newsletter, in which I talked about developing personalized habits to support your creativity. (If you missed that newsletter, you can read it here.) The habit-formation tips I've been sharing are based on Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies framework, which is relatively new. Genevieve's conference presentation focused on understanding our personality traits using the long-standing and perhaps better-known approach of Myers-Briggs typology.
Cathy and I were both intrigued by what we learned in Genevieve's session and we talked about it extensively on the drive home. Cathy later sent me a link to the article The Myers-Briggs Types of 101 Famous Authors. If you aren't familiar with Myers-Briggs, the article includes a brief explanation at the beginning. There are lots of online quizzes to determine your Myers-Briggs, but I've found the results to be inconsistent. That's why Genevieve recommends working with someone like her who's specifically trained to do personality profiles.
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However, I have received a consistent result from all the quizzes I've taken regarding one of the Myers-Briggs traits: Introversion vs. Extraversion. It's important to note that the definitions of these words in Myers-Briggs terminology doesn't exactly match our everyday usage. (Which is why I'm using the Myers-Briggs spelling for Extravert and Extraversion.) For example, I am definitely an Introvert as defined by Myers-Briggs. That doesn't mean I dislike being in groups or public speaking. The fact is, I enjoy teaching and presenting. But I can only be "out in the world" for so long before I start to feel drained. To put this in Myers-Briggs terms, I draw energy from being alone rather than around from being around others.
Even though I've known this about myself for a long time, I never thought about what my introversion means to my writing habits. Inspired by Genevieve's talk, I spent some time this week researching the topic and found a terrific website called Write with Personality by Andrea J. Wenger. On the site, Wegner provides helpful strategies for writers based on their Myers-Briggs personality type. She emphasizes the importance of what she calls "Playing to Your Strengths" in this post, which also links to articles specifically for either introverted or extraverted writers. Wenger also notes in the post:
"The 'right' techniques are the ones that work well for you, even if they don’t work at all for your coworker or critique partner."
(Note: though the website focuses on writers, I think much of Wenger's advice applies to other creatives, too.)
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In Saturday's talk, Genevieve shared an important tip for Introverts like me: we need to recognize our need to be alone and give ourselves permission to do so. But as Wegner points out here, too much alone time can cause introverted writers to "lose sight of their audience." She provides ideas for how to avoid that problem. Conversely, if you're an Extravert, it may help you to know this tidbit from Wegner ". . . there are more extraverts in the U.S. population, but more introverts among writing instructors. If you’re an extravert, the natural writing process of introverts may not work well for you at all." I'm glad that even though I'm one of those introverted writing instructors, I always tell my students there is no one right approach to writing--you have to find what works for you.
This all leads to my creativity tip for this month: Reflect on whether you are an Introvert or an Extravert, as defined in Myers-Briggs terminology. You can simply ask yourself what gives you energy--being alone or working with others. Or you can try an online Myers-Briggs quiz like the one Wenger recommends at the end her "Playing to Your Stengths" post. Of course, for the most accurate Myers-Briggs evaluation, you'd do best to consult a professional personality profiler like Genevieve Artel.
Whatever approach you take, after you've identified your type, consider how it may be affecting your creativity. Read Wegner's advice for either Extraverts or Introverts, and then consider: Are there changes you could make to better support your creative growth?
I'd love to hear from any of you who try this exercise. Feel free to simply reply to this email.
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You can expect the next regular edition of this Creativity Newsletter to appear in your inbox in late November.
Until then, happy creating!
Carmela
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Copyright © 2018 Carmela A. Martino. All rights reserved.
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