by Bethany | Nov 28, 2018 | Courage to Create, Podcast
In episode two of The Porchlight’s new series, Courage to Create, Writing Barn founder and author Bethany Hegedus asks listeners to answer the question why were you called to live this literary life? Bethany was called because she wants to be heard and believes we all deserve to be heard.
She discusses the importance of finding your community, not just those who will read your work but also those who are living their own literary life and will support you on your journey. Why is it we want an audience and how do we find one? How do we keep going even when that ugly internal editor voice tells us to quit? Bethany gives listeners tips, tools, and inspiration on how to answer these questions and more as we become” literary lifers” who are fully committed to our creativity.
by Bethany | Nov 21, 2018 | Courage to Create, Podcast
Join Bethany Hegedus as she interviews friend and fellow author, Cate Berry, about Cate’s debut picture book, PENGUIN AND TINY SHRIMP DON’T DO BEDTIME (Balzer + Bray 2018). The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books has said that “The story is a smartly comedic entry in the genre of the anti-bedtime story, and the exclamatory dialogue-only text adds energy and humor. This will be a joyous bedtime read.”
Cate is a seventh generation Texan with an MFA in Children’s Literature from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also teaches at The Writing Barn and is a longtime member of SCBWI and The Writer’s League of Texas. Cate speaks at schools, libraries, and conferences year round. Visit her online at cateberry.com.
In this entertaining and inspiring episode, Bethany and Cate discuss the circuitous journey of the literary life, the walls women must scale to break into comedy, and they even sing a little! The episode also touches on how important inclusivity and diversity are in picture books and how all children’s writers need to be aware of avoiding stereotypes in their work. Both writers agree that children love to feel empowered, and a good book can do that. Finally, they discuss how they find time to squeeze writing in, even at the most unlikely places.
by Bethany | Nov 14, 2018 | Courage to Create, Podcast
Hello listeners! While we love our “Insight and Ah-ha’s” segment of The Porchlight, and the wonderful authors we interview who grace us with their voices and stories, we also understand the personal journey of living a literary life — the up’s and the down’s, the triumphs and defeats, the everyday wonders of putting words to the page. For that reason we’ve created a new segment called “Courage to Create.”
(This new segment is all about living a literary life. How do we engage with our craft on a day to day basis, and how do we sustain that engagement in a world filled with distractions. Hope you enjoy our first segment of Courage to Create with Bethany Hegedus.)
Sam Bond Photography
Writing Barn founder and director, Bethany Hegedus, launches her Literary Life series of talks on this episode of The Porchlight. Bethany’s goal with these episodes is to delve deeply into what leading a literary life means to each individual and how we can keep ourselves inspired and engaged in our work without neglecting the many other areas of our lives. This series grew out of a talk Bethany gave years ago, and then it evolved into the Write. Submit. Support classes offered both in-person and online at The Writing Barn. The next evolution of Bethany’s idea is this, the podcast, where she monologues on how we can engage with ourselves and our work as well as with the community of creators around us in order to lead our best, most fulfilling creative lives. In this pilot episode, Bethany goes through Elmore Leonard and Zadie Smith’s Top Ten Rules for living a literary life as well as her own list. Hoping these talks will serve as a creative tool for listeners to get in touch with their own goals and make their own lists, Bethany is sure to encourage, educate, and inspire in this new podcast series.
by Bethany | Nov 7, 2018 | Courage to Create, Podcast
Welcome back listeners to The Porchlight Podcast, we couldn’t be happier to start off Season 3 with the one and only Jamie Swenson. Jamie teaches Picture Book classes at The Writing Barn and is a celebrated picture book author. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. And tune in next week for our brand new segment: Living the Literary Life with Bethany Hegedus.
Jamie A. Swenson, author of the newly released picture book A FALL BALL FOR ALL, joins Bethany on this episode of The Porchlight. Jamie has an MFA from Hamline University and is the author of four picture books and two chapter books, including BIG RIG and MEET WOOF AND QUACK. She’s also an associate librarian and early literacy story teller who lives in Wisconsin and is teaching an online picture book class via The Writing Barn beginning in January 2019.
During their conversation, Bethany and Jamie discuss the challenges of writing rhyming picture books and the importance of punctuation and page turns in the picture book format as well as how a writer can leave room for the illustrator. They share their mutual love of author Phyllis Root and discuss how much they learn not only as students but also as teachers of other writers. Jamie shares how she makes time for her writing amidst her busy work and life schedules, and Bethany calls Jamie’s commentary a master class in living the literary life. To learn more about Jamie, visit her website at www.jamieaswenson.com
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