Dreams keep coming true as long as you keep dreaming! This is my profile in the spring issue of River Towns magazine. Huge thanks to my husband, Frank Murray, for making this happen. There are benefits to marrying your publicist!

The profile is on page 47.

Featured Guided Autobiography instructor Steve Dolainski, who introduced me to GAB. My own workshops and courses start this spring.

https://birrencenter.substack.com/p/featured-gabber-stephen-dolainski?utm_medium=email

“Stephen Dolainski was drawn to GAB after learning about it through friends in Oregon in 2022.

“I did some research on GAB and, as a long-time adult educator and writer/editor, I was intrigued with the concept and the methodology. I immediately knew that GAB was something for me to explore,” he said.

After taking the the training in November 2022, he wanted to work with LGBTQ seniors.

“When I received certification, I contacted the Los Angeles LGBT Center and proposed forming a GAB class,” he said. “In 2023, we offered three GAB 1 classes and one GAB 2 class. More classes will be offered in 2024.”

Stephen loves teaching GAB and talks about how it how much it benefits writers by sharing their truth.”

CONTINUE READING

If you just keep at it, something new and exciting is always just around the corner. I never imagined I’d be on the board of anything, but here I am, in exceptionally good company. You can see all of the Mystery Writers of America-New York chapter board members at our website.

https://www.mwany.org/board-members-2024/

Jean Ryan has been a friend of mine for quite a few years now. Her writing and her painting always leaving me astonished that so much talent can reside in one person. She painted a commissioned portrait of our beloved cat Peanut when we first welcomed her to our home. Peanut left this world three weeks ago, and Jean’s painting of her hangs by our front door, where she always came running to when we got home.

Check out Jean’s artwork at her website.

Check out her short story collection Lovers and Losers on Amazon here, and her novel Lost Sister here.

And what better accompaniment to her paintings than her marvelous book of nature essays, Strange Company, here and on Audible!

And we’re off! My 2-hour Fiction Writing Essentials online workshop is filling up, and I’m putting together a 2-hour Guided Autobiography Introductory workshop I’ll be offering online and at several in-person locations.

Anyone attending who wants to dive deeper can sign up for the 6-week classes once I have them scheduled (YourWritePath.com). 2024 is turning out to be everything I’d hoped it would. And we have a new cat! James, our first male, and our youngest: 10 months old, a bed cat, an attention seeker, and he gets along great with Wilma (still my baby at 9).

You can now register for classes and workshops with Event Create, including payment! Here’s the link for the upcoming Fiction Essentials workshop.

I’m finally doing it: I’ll be offering workshops and classes later this year, in Guided Autobiography, fiction writing, and more. First up is an online 2-hour ‘fiction essentials’ in May. As the little wooden sign says over my desk, “Actually, I can.” Here’s the course at my Payhip storefront. I’m keeping these to 10 participants, online and in-person when I find a space.

You can also Venmo me here ($30):

I left Indiana three days after graduation high school, leaving for California. It was my creative writing teacher, Mr. Kenton Monjon, who told me he thought I was one of the few students he’d had who he thought could make it as a writer. And here I am!

I just spoke to two senior creative writing classes yesterday, and I have two more to go. It’s great experience for me: bored high school students are a tough crowd. It’s like being a standup comedian in front of an audience that doesn’t laugh. You keep going. You learn to roll with it. These are all skills I’ll need in the coming months as I embark on Your Write Path.com, offering Guided Autobiography courses, journaling and writing workshops, and of course Dreamshaping. It’s all about living our dreams!

Listen to a 3-chapter sample at the Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast

Fasten your headphones! ‘I, Warlock’ the audiobook has arrived.

“He hoped love was eternal … because he was.”

This is my third audiobook with narrator Sean Rhead, and what a pleasure it is! Listen at Audible.

About ‘I, Warlock’ (currently on sale for $1.99, and available on Kindle Unlimited) 

I, Warlock tells the story of Julius Tide, born part-vampire, destined to be all warlock. Julius is an almost accidental warlock, born into a family of witches. He meets the beautiful Charlotte one day at a country fair, and proceeds to dedicate his life to marrying her. Keeping his witching ways a secret, he becomes the night to her day, the guilt to her innocence, as he rushes to solve a mystery that has her family in danger and their futures in doubt. Good confronts evil several times over in this epic battle to save or sacrifice the world, set to the backdrop of a love story for the ages.

Now you can join my ARC (advance review copy) team for review copies of recent and upcoming releases. Just SUBSCRIBE HERE. And coming up next: Fatal Mistake: A Harry Hell Novella.

I’m officially on the Board for the Mystery Writers of America-New York Chapter! I’ll be heading up the mentoring program. Great start to the new year.