Anne Tyler Lord

Coffee Klatch: Challenge

coffee klatch noun
—an occasion when people meet socially to talk and drink coffee (Cambridge Dictionary)

Welcome to the second Coffee Klatch. Join us each week for conversation and news for the Writer’s Life community and connect on Twitter at #Writers_Life.

We always serve a full menu of yummy drinks and treats. Help yourself to coffee, tea, hot chocolate or chai. Today I am serving cinnamon rolls hot and gooey from the oven.

Writer’s Life Happenings

The Writer’s Life Weekly Feature. My post for the week is The Writer’s Life: Flying With Focus. I have been thinking about priorities in my writing life and living with the theme of birds lately. We watched The Life of Birds episodes at my house (rented from NetFlix). It is absolutely amazing. You must see it if you haven’t yet.

Next week I am shifting my weekly Writer’s Life post to Tuesday and the Coffee Klatch to Thursday. That should work with my schedule long-term, for now, hehe.

Yoga & Writing Challenge. Thanks to Annie Q. Syed (@so_you_know) I have found a great new challenge for the next 21 days. The challenge is sponsored by Bindu Wiles (@Binduwiles) at Bindu Wiles: The awakened life… for seekers, creatives, and especially writers (I love that tag line!). Bindu has a community project online called 21.5.800 (we are hooking up at #215800) where the challenge is to do 5 days of yoga a week and 800 words of writing per day for 21 days. There were 200 participants when I signed up Monday- now there are 340+!

I am very excited about this challenge because I want a more regular yoga practice (but gentle) to help with chronic pain. I love the idea of combining yoga with writing challenges. I get more productive writing done if I keep my body circulating – too easy to stay in the chair. Savasana (corpse pose on the floor) is also considered yoga practice in case I have too much pain or need stillness on some days. I invite you join us, it started yesterday on June 8th – it is still not too late. I know there are a few of my friends already signed up. Let us know in the comments if you are joining too.

Coffee Klatch News

Safetycomfort. Josie Lyon (@safetycomfort) at Safetycomfort-Around the kitchen table has a newly redesigned website. Head on over to her housewarming party and make sure you sign up for her new Google Connect Friends.

Cecilia’s Random Writings. Cecilia Dominic (@RandomOenophile), wine and food blogger with a penchant for random tales, recently responded to feedback about her Random Oenophile blog and shifted her fiction and thoughts about writing to a new blog, Cecilia’s Random Writings. She hopes it will be a place to grow as a writer, connect with readers, and “think out loud” about and discuss with others the writing processes with the “Process & Progress” series. She can also be found on the web as a regular contributor to local news site Decatur News Online. She is currently in San Antonio and invites others to stop by for a margarita or blood orange mojito and look around.

Away With Words Collection. Olivia Tejeda is looking for your input for a collection of tips to overcome writer’s block. This collection will be made available on her website when it is compiled. From Olivia: My post last week on sleeping to beat writer’s block prompted some interesting responses.  I’d like to expand on that and get lots of input from the online writing community. The question is:  What is your best tip for overcoming writer’s block? Anyone interested in sending in a tip, can tweet me @SimplyOlivia or @SilentWriters using the #tip hashtag, or visit my site to send an email.

The Creative Mind. Douglas Eby (@talentdevelop) at  Talent Development Resources now has a blog on Psych Central called, The Creative Mind. It looks like a great new blog to follow.

Best Articles. I have found an amazing weekly update for writers. The Best Articles This Week for Writers is published every week at Adventures in Children’s Publishing by Marissa Graff and Martina Boone. You can follow this website on Twitter @4KidLit.

Other Weekly Updates. As mentioned on the weekly update by Marissa and Martina (above), here are other weekly updates you may already follow, but if not, you will want to:

Jane Friedman on her blog, There Are No Rules at Writer’s Digest posts Best Tweets for Writers each week. And, this week Jane put together – The Best Articles Writers Should Have Read  (1st Half of 2010)

Elizabeth Craig at Mystery Writing is Murder writes Twitterific, her list of helpful Tweets each week

Nathan Bransford at Nathan Bransford Literary Agent & Author posts every Friday – This Week in Publishing – publishing news and information

Nicole Humphrey Cook at It’s All About Writing posts a weekly collection of Favorite Tweets for Writers

Coffee Klatch is On!

If you have news or announcements for the weekly Coffee Klatch (will be posted on Thursday next week) send a DM on Twitter or email to Coffee@AnneTylerLord.com.

Have another cup of your favorite drink, another cinnamon roll and chat below in the comments and/or head back to Twitter at #Writers_Life.

Let’s chat about challenges. Have you given yourself any challenges lately? Participated in challenges? Do challenges help you?

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Comments

46 responses to “Coffee Klatch: Challenge”

  1. Martina and Marissa

    Thanks for the mention! We’re so happy to pass along the research we’d be doing as kidlit writers regardless. Wonderful blog you have here, too!

  2. Pant and Slobber « The Other Side of Deanna

    […] and Slobber was inspired by a conversation with Anne Tyler Lord of Don’t Fence Me In, though the story itself has nothing to do with the conversation – I merely […]

  3. Barry J. Northern

    I was scanning this post because it went off my screen and I’ve got an incredibly short attention span when it comes to reading blog posts, and I saw many links to what is probably a load of interesting stuff about writing, but I’ve hardly written anything in the last three days and I just can’t be doing it with it all right now. Thanks for sharing anyway, but beware: reading about writing doesn’t count as “writing time”.

  4. Ronda Laveen

    The yoga and writing is such a great idea. I love reading all these tidbits of 411. Haven’t tried Twitter yet. Maybe soon.

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Ronda,

      Happy to see you again! Twitter is a big wild crazy world, but many of us like it. Just from here, you can find many great people to follow!

  5. Laura Eno

    My mind is boggled by the wealth of info you post and compile each week…and that cat is adorable!

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Thanks Laura – And I thought you would really love the cat!

  6. Olive

    Thanks so much for putting all those links together. Between the frequency of your posts, the number of comments you receive and the links, I’m so impressed. You’re showing the rest of us up though, lol.

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Olive,

      Thanks, but it is all a day by day thing!

  7. Linda

    My challenge the next two weeks is EXACTLY getting through all the end-of-year stuff with my kids. Will graduates from 5th grade (yes, they do have a ceremony) next Wednesday. My daughter Lea is in 2nd grade. Between now and then: two birthday lunches, one 2nd grade picnic, Little League playoffs, graduation ceremony, THREE graduation parties, and two playdates. Not to mention work. Which is why I am taking vacation now.

    You yogis — good position(s) for neck and shoulders? Just did a few sun salutations, downward dog, and mountain (my favorite), but extreme tension in upper back and neck barely dulled.

    Gany, I am counting 30 minutes of walking as part of my 21-day committment. Most of that is for exercise, but I also like to do 5 minutes of meditative walking.

    Off to write for 1 hour before breaking. Peace, Linda

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      My goodness, both my kids are going into 4th grade. I will have to get up to speed on all this 5th grade graduation stuff!

      I need to get out the sun salutation directions again to refresh my memory, get better positioning. I found this, instructions are good – Luke (sounds like Scottish)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P5PSqmnu88memory

  8. ganymeder

    I like the idea of the challenge except for the fact that I know pretty much exactly nothing about yoga. I wonder if 30 minutes of walking would substitute?

    Thanks for the announcements! My challenges lately just seem to be getting organized and finding time to write. Especially with Monsterbat off for Summer, I seem to be spending more time driving him places for activities or trying to catch up on stuff around the house that got backlogged while I was doing virtual school with him. I’m not the most organized person in the world.

    Oh! And on a completely unrelated (to challenges) subject, yesterday at the dentist one of the techs asked me about the Poetry contest I won a couple months ago. She said she recognized my picture in the paper, and I didn’t even know I was *in* the paper. I’m sort of excited. 🙂

    Deanna, I thought the cat was a voodoo doll too! I had to go back and double check after reading your post. Oops. If you want a real voodoo doll, I think you can buy them…
    http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=voodoo+doll&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=10111206973668602429&ei=G-oQTK-dGYymnwf-06jWBw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CD4Q8wIwCg#

    hehe
    That is all. 😀
    Anyone want some tea? I also make some mean brownies!

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi gany,

      You can also do the corpse position – just laying there, meditating – easy enough! You thought it was a voodoo doll too? Wow! Will have to take a look at that pic again. Ha! Thanks for the link- it’ great – I have never know if or how you could buy voodoo dolls. Does anyone remember that episode of Gilligan’s Island where they used the voodoo dolls? Just watched it with the kids a couple months ago.

      Congrats on being recognized in public for your great writing! You will have to look up the article & pic, post it on your website. It is always great to have recognition!

  9. Deanna Schrayer

    First I have to tell you – I just glanced at the cat and thought it was a voodoo doll until closer inspection. 😉 Apparently I need that double espresso!

    So much going on and so many writers connecting – it’s wonderful! I like the thought of the 215800 and yoga challenge. I’m not sure what happened, but this past week I’ve been pounding away on my novel, (I normally use the majority of my writing time for shorts). Being a part of this challenge may indeed help me to keep on keeping on. I’ll look into it over the weekend, between parties. My son graduates 5th grade tomorrow and has 6, yes 6, parties to go to! I’m hoping the hubby can help cart him around so I can get some writing time in.

    Aside from the novel work, I did a post about submitting for publication, (which was requested by one of my readers), on my nonfiction blog: http://writingwonder.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/ready-set-go-submitting-your-work-for-publication/ . And you know I wrote that silly story of Pant and Slobber, (not sure I’ll put it up this week though). So, I’m chugging right along I’m happy to say.

    It’s nice to meet all of you who’ve just discovered Anne’s place. She’s such a great hostess isn’t she?

    Thank you Anne for all you do to bring us together!

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Deanna!

      Voodoo doll? Hysterical, but don’t put it past me to post one sometime. I hope you do join the challenge – we can be corpses on the days that pain get us.

      What’s this about parties for FIFTH grade graduation? Geez, now that is too much. I wonder if they do that at my kid’s school? The kids are already acting like teenagers in 3rd grade today! Luckily my kids think all that stuff is nonsense, so far.

      Yay! You go on that novel! But I still want to see Pant & Slobber!!

      I’m heading over to see your post.

      1. Deanna Schrayer

        Yes, 5th grade, can you believe it? Four of the parties are for birthdays though – some of them are scattered throughout the summer so the parents are doing early parties in the hopes they’ll have kids show up. I know that feeling because my oldest’s birthday is June 22, and it’s hard to get anyone to come then.

        You’ll see Pant and Slobber, it’s just a bit messy right now so I need to work on it. Of course that could just be because it’s so silly…

        I wouldn’t put a voodoo doll past you Anne. I wouldn’t put ANYTHING past you. 😉

        1. Anne Tyler Lord

          hehe!

          Whew, as long as I get Pant and Slobber sometime, I’m happy!

  10. PJ Kaiser

    Five days of yoga each week? I’d think i had died & gone to heaven! The only time that i’ve managed that much yoga is on retreats – i’ve been to two awesome yoga retreats. I adore yoga and I credit it (partly) with making my 2nd pregnancy easier than my first. I have done yoga on and off over the years and i can tell you that I feel healthier and i have more energy when i can have a regular practice, even when it’s once a week. This is my son’s last week at school and starting next week I plan to attend a yoga class on wednesday mornings at my gym. There, I said it. Now i *have* to do it, right?! And as for 800 words per day, well, i’m lucky to get that in a week, but I’ll keep plugging away 😉

    Keep up the good work, Anne & I’m loving your info & links 🙂

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi PJ,

      Oh, how nice to go on a yoga retreat! I can only dream nowadays, it would probably give me too much pain. I have to do such gentle yoga. I see your son is part of the late group in getting out. School started so late because of Labor day last year. Our school shortened up all the breaks (ridiculously short) so they could get out last week. Hope you and the kids have a great summer!

      1. PJ Kaiser

        Anne – Stick with the yoga – I’m definitely a big believer that it can really help what ails you. And a good teacher will be able to make the proper adjustments so that you’ll still be able to do them and get the maximum benefit. I hope that you start to improve very soon! Keep us posted! 🙂

        1. Anne Tyler Lord

          Thanks PJ. If only I didn’t live so far out of the cities. I look longingly at the yoga studios I drive by in the cities. I really could use a teacher for better alignment, but they have to also know chronic pain or they will kill me!

          Judy Clement Wall, at Zebra Sounds is doing the writing/yoga challenge also. She asked if I was going to post updates like she is. I hadn’t thought about it, but think I will – one each Monday.

  11. Josie

    Hey Anne, thanks so much for the mention 🙂

    I love the idea of the yoga & writing challenge. I’m not yet a yoga practitioner, although I’ve been promised free one-to-one yoga sessions by a friend of mine who’s a yoga teacher, in exchange for the help I gave with his website. Hopefully that will be happening soon. In the meantime, I hope you and everyone else enjoys & benefits from the challenge – brilliant idea.

    Darn it, I missed #SilentWriters this week. It’s still a new idea for me, so that’ll be why – will mark it in the diary.

    I hadn’t realized you were so relatively new to blogging – very glad I found you, via @FutureNostalgic and @Skycycler. thanks for writing and sharing. I laughed too at Annie’s comment, “when I grow up I want to have your blog” – excellent 😀

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Josie!

      What an excellent barter deal – yoga for computer help. You can still participate with the yoga deal and do the corpse pose to rest – several people are not yoga practitioners doing this challenge. I don’t even consider myself a practitioner, I just use videos.

      I too am glad we connected!!

  12. Jemi Fraser

    Cinnamon buns! AND Chai tea?? I may never leave 🙂

    Thanks for all the links to check out – I’ve visited some, but certainly not all. Looks like I’ll be busy … Thanks!

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Jemi,enjoy the treats! I am so in awe of your ability to read so many blogs. Let us in on your secret – or your super powers of speed reading!

  13. annie q. syed

    When I grow up I want to have your blog! 🙂

    This is the awesomes section. I really would like to make a space similar to this where I can direct my non-twitter friends for all the great links I come across.

    I don’t know how to go about it yet, since I want it for those who are not on twitter and just ask me via email etc.

    You are awesome. Thank God I found you. And moreover, thank you for mentioning me. So glad your energy is part of the #215800 journey.

    Hugs,

    annie

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Ha!! You made me laugh so hard with that first line!

      Annie, your comments are very encouraging to me. I am just making this up as I go. I never had a blog or even read a blog before last year, and didn’t do much until December 09. So, I am most gratified when I have provided something of use (or just plain fun) to our writing community.

      I am also very glad to have found you on Twitter and am still amazed that you came to me through Linda, but you already knew Marisa and some of my writing friends. You were one of the really fun Twitter finds, full of magical connections and great times on Twitter.

      Thanks again for another great connection to Bindu and the challenge – so many of us will have a great productive and flexible month!

  14. Linda

    Thanks for another great round-up Anne! I also am doing the yoga-writing challenge — both were on my priority list for this month. See you there!

    Challenges. I like to call them goals. You know, the old crisis = opportunity mindset.

    I chart out my writing ‘to-do’ list every week, and prioritize to what’s important. It’s so gratifying to see what got accomplished, and then use what didn’t get scratched off as impetus for achieving the next week. My little list keeps me motivated more than anything (other than my caffeine).

    peace…

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Linda,

      Yay! Another yoga-writer! This is fun to see others I know also participating in this challenge!

      You are very organized, and good for you for taking the time to notice your accomplishments each week!

      I give you a downward facing dog!

  15. Olivia Tejeda

    Hi Anne, Great buns! Thank you!

    Thanks also for the mention about my request for input. I hope to collect many great ideas to share with everyone.

    After seeing your tweet about 21.5.800, I read about it and decided to participate. Thanks, Anne! Into Day 2, I’m excited by the enthusiasm and encouragement that everyone shares. More and more I am becoming aware of the importance of the community of Twitter. It really hit me yesterday. I used #21.5.800, #Writers_Life, #SilentWriters, #amWriting, #FridayFlash and a few others to connect with other writers in a way that was helpful to me, and I hope nurturing and helpful to others. Yes, there are lots of hashtags and yes, it can eat up too much writing time, but I try to be aware of the time I spend there and use it for its best purpose. (TRY!)

    Thanks for sharing your coffee and buns, and thanks also for the Savasana picture. I nearly spit out my coffee when I saw that. Why is anything “cat” so funny/cute? ~ Olivia

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi sweet Olivia,

      I’m glad you are joining 21.5.800 with me. I am excited for the infusion of intention and energy. I need it right now to get my next projects moving along. I’m glad it is paired with yoga, instead of something like running – eww.

      Don’t you just love that cat? I have a large orange tabby that lays like that too – totally hysterical!

      I use those hashtags regularly too. We start to take it for granted after awhile, but stepping back, isn’t it amazing how we all have connected?

  16. Julie Jordan Scott

    I must have found you and 215800 on the same day. Grateful for both – looking forward to knowing (and writing and yoga-ing) with you!

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Julie,

      I’m very happy you did find me and 215800 – looking forward to a great productive writing time on that challenge!

      Stop by anytime, we have a great time here and lots of parties!

  17. Emma Newman

    “He said the thing about climbing these mountains, was that when he looks back at them, no matter how high they seemed originally, in hindsight they look like little hills and he forgot to feel a sense of achievement.”

    Err, that about sums up my life.

    Yes! I do know exactly what you mean. The goal posts are shifting so fast, I forget that I scored the last goal. It’s exhausting. I need to learn to appreciate what I have already achieved much more than I do now. Hmmmm…

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Emma,

      I didn’t see the tweet, but saw someone respond to you today – having a rough day? I hope it is getting better. You have begun an amazing business on your blog and have accomplished so much just in the past few months. Today would be a good time to sit back, relax a moment and see that you are right where you should be and have accomplished a great deal! *hugs*

  18. lil_monmon

    *grabs a sticky bun and munches it quietly while drinking a quad-shot.
    Thanks again for the news updates. I need to read some of these.

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      LOL! Thanks for coming by – have some more cinnamon rolls. Watch out for that quad-shot after effects. You will either get amazing writing done, or have to go for a run to burn it off.

  19. claire King

    I have to set myself challenges constantly. If I don’t I sit around drinking coffee and eating cinnamo…oh, yeah, right.

    Ten years ago a colleague told me something about challenges that I really identify with. He said that when he looks ahead of him and sees the challenges, they rise like mountains, and the climb up is hard.

    No, this is not about the view from the top!

    He said the thing about climbing these mountains, was that when he looks back at them, no matter how high they seemed originally, in hindsight they look like little hills and he forgot to feel a sense of achievement.

    I think we writers do that a lot with our writing, we forget the effort it took to finish and polish that short story, to get over that rejection and submit again, to produce that 80,000 word first draft. But it’s the next mountain that seems insurmoutable.

    Does that seem familiar to anyone?

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Claire,

      Thanks for stopping by from your beautiful place on Earth (I’m a HUGE fan of France – I think I am from there – in some lifetime). That is an interesting idea about the mountains. I definitely relate to that feeling of always looking at the next mountain without stopping to appreciate the last one I just climbed. You have given us a great reminder to pause every once in awhile, breathe, and look at the view!

  20. Cecia Dominic

    Thanks for posting the announcement, Anne! Having some internet trouble, so the virtual bar isn’t quite set up yet, but will do so later today.

    Happy caffeination!

    CD

    1. Anne Tyler Lord

      Hi Cecilia,

      Take your time – tweet at #Writers_Life when you want us all to visit!

      1. Cecilia Dominic

        Okay, the open house has moved to the patio because of time crunches and chaos, but there are still plenty of fruity beverages and snacks!

        http://tinyurl.com/256jx9r

        CD

        1. Anne Tyler Lord

          Yay! Everyone head on over to Cecilia’s party – great drinks, chips and waffles!

          1. Mari Juniper

            Party, yay!

            Wow Anne, last time I stopped by you had about 16 comments and after one day you have the double already. Cool!

            Sorry I’ve been absent from your parties and great convos. Crazey times these ones… 🙂

          2. Anne Tyler Lord

            Hi Mari! Believe me, you have come to the right place for people with “crazy times.” I hope things will calm down for you soon! I’m cheering for you!!

          3. Mari Juniper

            Thanks dear. And I’m cheering for you! 🙂

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