My father used to tell me “It’s not what you know it’s who you know.”  He was a wise man able to offer a pithy remark for just about any circumstance and his words of wisdom stuck with me because they are true.

On the morning of my thirty-second wedding anniversary (apropos of nothing except to show readers I am able to stick with something once I start) my husband brought in the local newspaper and said, “There’s an article here you might want to read.  It’s about an author who sold the movie rights to her book to the Hallmark Channel.”

Yes, dear that’s just what I want for my anniversary.  To read about someone more successful with her books than I am.  I told him probably what happened is she wrote a book that would have gone nowhere, gave it to somebody who knew somebody who worked for a movie producer who passed it along up the food chain and wah-la!  Movie deal.  Not like I haven’t read about this exact scenario a time or two before.

Since I feigned complete disinterest, my husband tossed that section of the newspaper into the recycling bin along with the rest of the day’s dull news.  The following day I decided perhaps I’d like to read that article after all.  Without complaint my long-suffering husband dug it out for me.

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Tell us a little about yourself and your company Earthly Charms. What’s the story behind the name?

I’m a lifelong avid reader. I grew up in libraries. My first job was in a library. And I’ve been writing almost as long as I’ve been reading. Photography and graphic design both came later but also morphed out of my love of story which leads me to how Earthly Charms got its name. A friend and I, author Amanda McIntyre, started out as critique partners. Then one day we got the idea to write a paranormal romance which includes a magic shop.

Amanda, clever girl, came up with the name Earthly Charms. I loved it so much; it just begged to be used. So with Amanda’s permission, Earthly Charms was born back in 1999. Sorry to say the story never saw the light of day but I’m happy to say the business has been a success thanks to some wonderful authors.

eBook cover design

Your company produces promotional packages for authors, including advertising, bookmarks and even eBook covers. Please tell us more about that.

When the business first opened, I was actually making a lot of the products by hand. On the plus side, it allowed me to offer some unique products, on the minus side, it meant hours and hours of tedious work. Eventually, I got more involved with promotional supply companies and outside printers so that I could concentrate more on design creation. And it’s been wonderful.

I love to take clients’ stories and try to bring them to life in some small way in the design of their promotional products be it bookmarks, ads, postcards, door hangers, etc.

And at the request of a client, I’ve now expanded into cover design. I’ve been studying book covers my whole life so designing them was a natural fit. I like to read a synopsis of the book so I can really get a feel for the story and then I’ll try to bring a piece of that story to life in the cover design. For me, it’s all about creating some type of emotion that will move the reader into buying the book.

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What? Me giving up meat, processed foods, artificial sweeteners, refined carbs, and dairy products? Never figured on that.

Vegan cuisine wasn’t on my radar screen at all—until Dr. Hunt came into the exam room saying, “We’ll talk about that ankle in a moment, Charlotte. What’s with your blood pressure? We’re taking you off the Premarin. You’re not going to have a stroke on my watch!”

Ya gotta love a doc who actually cares about your health instead of just chatting you up as she writes out a prescription for blood pressure meds. And because she has gone off the hormones herself, and has ditched her cholesterol meds, deleted her pre-diabetic condition, and lost more than 30 pounds on Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s “Eat to Live” program, I decided right then to give it a shot. She looks wonderful. Her skin glows. When I asked if her husband eats vegan with her, she says if he wants meat, he goes out for it. She calls it “Project Me.”

Oh, it was time for me to hear that! After seven months of driving my sister to work each day, adjusting my writing schedule to her needs, and accommodating her self-imposed dietary restrictions, it was simply time to take back my table. Time to look after Me.

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It seems that new writing workshops crop up every day–at least every week!  There are bootcamps, retreats, on-line seminars, master’s degrees and certificates, summer-long sessions, and local weekly events run by the only person in town who has tried to sell a book.

A google search on writing workshops brings back over eleven million results.  How is a writer to choose among them?

Writing workshops are the synthesis of three key points:  topic, teacher, and participants.  To figure out what’s right for you, you first have to examine your needs as a writer.  Where are you with your creative work?  Where are you with your writing career?  And perhaps most importantly, where do you aspire to be?  Then you narrow down the choices, and examine the workshops to determine which is most likely to get you there. Read more…