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Marna Jones Hopkins's avatar

Life is not easy - but it makes for great stories, right? If you just sit down and start pounding the keyboard - or laying down ink with those beautiful fountain pens a dear writer friend keeps touting... Things have been good for me lately because I've been writing more. And when I'm not actually doing it, I'm thinking about doing it. So much of this is because I've recently had a creativity-awakening with a group of wonderful people who chose to examine The Artist's Way with you at the helm. It has truly made a difference for me in expanding my idea of what it is to create, and I want to thank you for all the ups and downs I experienced in delving into the concepts. You make a difference for me in so many ways - I'm just adding TAW to the long list I already have going.

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

You raise an excellent point--even when life is hard, it's fodder for your writing!

And I'm so, so happy that the Artist's Way was so creativity-expanding! I'm grinning from ear to ear at your comment. You know I appreciate your presence in classes and gatherings so much!

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Roy Burkhead, MFA's avatar

My friend, I've been on this rock for a long, long time. Yah know, never once have I expected any of it to be easy: Life requires adult supervision, and I'm okay with that philosophy. But sometimes...every now and then...I admit that I sort of wonder if it has to be so %^%$#-ing hard, so ^%^$$ of the time. Once in a while, it would be nice to get a pass. But no one wants to hear us complain about such things, so we don't. We keep on going. Anyway, you're singing my song this day. ;-)

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

I do like to remind myself that it doesn't have to be hard once in awhile. Thanks for commenting, Roy.

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Heather Walrath's avatar

Love this, Charlotte!

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

Thank you, Heather. So happy you are on Substack now!

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Megan Scribner's avatar

While I don't have a pug, I can identify with just about everything else you’ve written. Especially the miraculous refuge that writing (and editing) provides. Just a few minutes into writing, my worries and to do list fade into the background. All I see are the words before me. After another 20 minutes or so, I look up feeling rested, refreshed, and grounded in what matters.

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

Oh this is beautiful, Megan, and so like what I feel. We are so lucky to have this refuge.

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Shari Lane's avatar

Yes pugs DO make everything better :-) We loved The Residence and binge-watched the whole thing. I hope they'll be making more episodes. That bird-watching detective is wonderfully odd and cranky and endearing, and the other characters are hilarious. I've been thinking of it as Sherlock meets The Office.

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

Oh that's a great description of The Residence. We just watched another episode last night. I just adore Cordelia Cupp, the detective. It's so, so good.

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

Somehow the link for the story about how to spot a spam publishing email got screwed up. Here's the right one: https://www.agentsandbooks.com/p/what-does-a-scam-email-look-like

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Sandra Pawula's avatar

Charlotte, I related to the title! That's how life feels for me right now and still it is good and I am grateful.

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