Happiness Sprinkles + Book Club ZOOM Link
+ Winners announced: Substack Emerging Talent Awards!
Hello, Protagonists! This post is chock-full of great stuff:
🥳 Happiness Sprinkles (my favorites/things worth smiling about this month)
🎧 Me on other podcasts
🔦 Protagonist Spotlight - celebrating what you’ve been reading and writing
🎉 Congrats! Winners of the $500 Substack Emerging Talent Awards
🎁 Gifts for everyone who applied for the Substack Emerging Talent Awards
📚 August Book Club ZOOM Link - THIS SUNDAY! @ 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT : BIG MAGIC by Elizabeth Gilbert
🥳 Happiness Sprinkles: Things Worth Smiling About in August
Here are a few delights that I enjoyed in the past month. I hope they bring a smile to you, too!
A singer-songwriter saw The Hundred Loves of Juliet in a bookstore in San Francisco and was so inspired by my book, she wrote a song! I cried when I listened to it—what an honor for my art to inspire someone else’s:
Wondrous, smile-inducing acorn art - I’m always in awe of artists who are not only creative and full of wonder, but also patient. David M. Bird painstakingly crafts these little figures out of acorns (he calls them “becorns”), then sets up scenes in nature and awaits the right moment to photograph them. Sometimes he waits days or even weeks! I think I’ll buy one of his prints soon, since everything about his art makes me smile.
Beauty is everywhere if we know how to see it (or hear it) - Who would have thought an iPhone alarm could be made so beautiful?
Maple bacon brussels sprouts - We are a little obsessed with this easy and delicious recipe. I have been making it almost weekly this past month. It takes 5 minutes to throw together, and 20-30 minutes in the oven. Voila—caramelized vegetables!
🎧 Me on other podcasts
I got invited onto a bunch of podcasts and a panel recently, so if you aren’t tired of hearing me talk about writing, here are some lovely conversations to listen to:
Storytelling and Career Sustainability for Writers (on the How to Write for a Living podcast with
)Fame, Literature, and Publishing (on the Finishing the Hat podcast with
)Integrating Fiction & Substack (from the Substack X Publishing summit with
and )🔦 Protagonist Spotlight—You’re the Hero of the Story!
Every month, I feature a few subscribers to celebrate books or essays that you have loved or written. If you’re looking for something to read, check out these recommendations from your fellow Protagonists:
David Jace is a “reality escape artist.” He also donated an extra $500 to help us grant another Substack Emerging Talent Award! Thank you,
! If you want to support his work, pop by his speculative fiction Substack to give his writing a look!
Fill your inbox with something that isn’t a doomscroll. Check out the many fabulous, interesting Substacks in our community that you all shared!
A small sampling of your wide-ranging interests and talent:
wine and movie pairings from a certified sommelier
urban nature diaries to reconnect us to the beauty on our doorsteps
writing as “refuge from emotional storms”
“middle-aged lady mom” - comedic takes on parenthood
a Lord of the Rings book club/read-along
a cookbook literary agent who is now taking her shot at writing (and experiencing what it’s like on this side of the desk)
feminist magic realism about birds: “Open me up and ink comes pouring out.”
the intersecting passions of baseball and travel (and the celebrities met along the way)
writing as way to “connect with my subconscious… a tool to travel in time”
wonderful Substacks that are building communities around sustainable living/climate change, finding identity, navigating midlife, emerging from divorce, sharing about life with disability, handling loss…
and so much more!
Applause for:
👏🏼 Congrats to Karen McCoy on her first book deal! Her middle grade novel is called The Etiquette of Voles, in which a talking vole must solve a kidnapping in Victorian London and learn the mystery of where he came from. Coming in June 2025.
👏🏼 Michael Mohr's novel, The Crew, is available now. He describes it as "punk rock literary YA." Congratulations on your publication, Michael!
Want to share something that you’ve recently read or written?
Just reply to this email or drop a comment below with a 1-2 sentence description. I can’t wait to hear from you!
CREATIVE.INSPIRED.HAPPY is a friendly, vibrant community of thousands who believe that EVERYONE can spark creativity and build an inspired, happier life.
🎉 Winners of the $500 Substack Emerging Talent Awards
There were so many incredible entries for the first CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY Substack Emerging Talent Awards! Wow wow wow… you all blew my mind, and it actually hurt me to have to choose.
But surprise! Thanks to the generous donation of a community member (see above in Protagonist Spotlight), we were able to have three winners!
One was picked by the CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY community (through your votes), and two were chosen by me.
Without further ado (and in no particular order)…
The three winners of the 2024 CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY Substack Emerging Talent Awards:
» Philomena Marie at Stone in the Stillwater Creek
» Alix Klingenberg at Earth and Verse
and
» Barb Natividad at Comedy, Tragedy
Congratulations Philomena, Alix, and Barb!! You will each receive an email from me later today (evelyn@creativeinspiredhappy.com) to set up how to get you your $500 prize. You can use the money on anything to help support your writing—childcare, paying bills, writing conferences, etc.
Honorable Mentions + 🎁 Gifts for everyone who applied
It is an act of bravery to put your words into the world for others to read. Everyone who applied for the award is an Honorable Mention in my eyes.
Because you dared to share your writing and your souls, I would love to gift each of you with a 3-month complimentary paid subscription to CREATIVE. INSPIRED. HAPPY.
Here is the link. It expires on 8/30/24, so make sure you redeem it before then:
Keep writing and smiling—you’re incredible! And our warm, friendly community is here to cheer you on, every step of the way.
✍🏼 And don’t forget about our $1,000 Scholarships for Aspiring Writers (more info here).
📚 Book Club ZOOM Link - THIS SUNDAY!
Feel free to come even if you haven’t read the book. (Just be prepared for spoilers.)
Book:
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Time:
Sunday, August 25, 2024 @ 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT
Book Discussion (30 minutes)—We dissect Big Magic to figure out how Elizabeth Gilbert utilized storytelling techniques to make this beloved nonfiction so compelling. Plus, what inspired you?
Bonus Writers’ Chat (30 minutes)—After the book discussion, we’ll have an optional hangout to share what we’re working on, ask each other for advice on writer’s block, finding a literary agent, doing book publicity, etc.
To prevent Zoom-bombing from not-nice people, the Zoom link is below the paywall.
100% of paid subscriptions go toward funding our Scholarships for Aspiring Writers (more details here)
or:
Get a complimentary paid subscription when your friends subscribe:
1 referral = one-month paid subscription, comped
2 referrals = three-month paid subscription, comped
3 referrals = one-year paid subscription, comped
ZOOM LINK BELOW:
💛