by Rochelle Melander When the world is in crisis—it’s important to get connected to your why. Twice a week, Heather Cox Richardson, closes her Politics Chat by encouraging people to find their purpose and act. Often, she recommends that people make art. Today, writers are taking to their blogs, YouTube, and many other places to...Read More

by Rochelle Melander In the past ten years, I have consulted with many authors on their book proposals and book ideas. I have also written and successfully sold several book proposals of my own. In every single case—mine included—the writers needed to improve their marketing section—the one about their audience—before they could sell their book....Read More

by Rochelle Melander I’ve been thinking about game changers: ideas, practices, or products that literally change the game. Consider the printing press. Before Johanes Gutenberg invented the press in the 1440s, all manuscripts were copied by hand. Imagine the waitlist at the monastery for the Bible. The monks must have tired of saying, “Don’t worry—we’ll...Read More

Rochelle Melander As a coach, I work with people who want to overcome obstacles to write. Usually we work together to find a way around or through the obstacle. Makes sense, right? We can’t achieve our goal with that huge obstacle in the way. But I had a new view on obstacles this week. We...Read More

by Rochelle Melander Clarissa Pinkola Estes has something important to say. Did you know … that eccentricity is the first sign of giftedness? What if the thing that people criticize you for, the thing people find irritating about you, is also your biggest gift, your superpower? Author and Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes says...Read More

An Interview with Kimberly Knowle-Zeller by Rochelle Melander Welcome, Kimberly. Tell Us About Your New Book. Small Steps: Blessings to Lift Your Soul on the Pilgrimage of Life is a collection of blessings, poetry, and essays that meet the reader in their everyday life: the nitty gritty, down-in-the-dirt, dishes-piled-in-the-sink, carpool-waiting, caring-for-family-and-friends-life. Your life as it...Read More

An Interview with Renée M. LaTulippe by Rochelle Melander Congratulations on your new book, LIMELIGHT. Can you tell us about it? Thanks so much for having me, Rochelle! Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics! is a genre-blending collection of mask poems about theater, presented in a graphic novel format. Most of the poems are written...Read More

You Need to Slow Down by Rochelle Melander Last Monday, I took a walk during my lunch hour. Between Show Up and Write and several meetings, I had a busy day. I was walking fast, thinking about where I was going, when CrAsH! I faceplanted on the sidewalk, blood spurting from my split lip. My...Read More

by Rochelle Melander Writing can be like folding a banquet-sized tablecloth; you can do it yourself, but it’s a lot easier when you can find somebody to help. —Ted Kooser and Steve Cox What stands between you and a finished product—a book, article, blog post or podcast? When I speak to people who have a deep...Read More

They Want Your Money, Not Your Work by Rochelle Melander The scams hit my inbox at a rapid rate. Publishers wanting to put my ideas into print. Book groups and libraries asking to host me. Promoters promising they can get my book in top spots on Amazon. Promotional Scams When I got a message asking...Read More