Writer Mama Riffs on Raising A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

In the spirit of full disclosure, Jane Friedman is my editor over at Writer’s Digest Books

Jane has a new blog called “There are no rules” in conjunction with www.writersdigest.com.

Working with Jane has been not only a true pleasure but also a very educational experience for me, as a writer and an author.

If you want an informed perspective on what is really going on in the publishing industry these days, I hope you’ll check out Jane’s blog. Because she’ll give you food for thought about what the heck is really going on.

And I know we all want to be informed so we can succeed, hard-to-swallow as the news may sometimes be.

So, this was pretty cool…

I’m standing in the library, somewhat impatiently, with a bag full of books and a selection of DVDs and Videos for my daughter for the week, trying to decide how many more minutes to tell her she has left to play. And just then another little girl approaches her to play puppet theater, so I didn’t want to interrupt too abruptly. Besides our library is smart enough to put the parenting magazines in the kids section.

Alright, I thought. I’ll flip through some magazines for a few minutes. And right before I did I thought, Wouldn’t it be cool if I opened up these magazines and found my students names in them?

And guess what? That’s exactly what I found.

November issue of Parents: A tip by Stephanie Dethlefs.

December issue of Parents: A tip by Lori Lee.

February issue of Parents: A tip by Kim Linnell

April issue of Parenting: A tip by Janice Kaelin-Kee

I wasn’t even looking hard. I was just standing there flipping pages. So there are likely plenty more. Rock on! Way to follow through, mamas!

A couple days ago, I was blog surfing and discovered an article by Karen Lynch in the April 2008 issue of Parents. That’s probably what kicked off my curiosity.

Admittedly, I’ve been so busy writing my second book and improving and expanding my curriculum that I haven’t had much chance to pitch magazines. But it’s pretty cool to know that my former students are publishing short stuff all over the place even as I toil away on longer pieces.

It made my day. Keep up the great work everyone!

One never knows.

You’ll have to come on over and find out!

Check out my new blog:

Christina Katz Recommends

Hey, good news from Writer’s Digest. They’ve renovated their entire site.

It’s now cleaner, easier to navigate, and more visually appealing. Yum-yum!

And what good taste they have: they’ve even included an interview with yours truly, the writer mama!

In true butt-booting style, my interview’s tag line is: “Get to work! Stop asking if you have what it takes”

That makes me chuckle…

There is definitely some good stuff to check out over there. Have fun perusing!

And this seems like a good time to mention that I’ll be heading to L.A. on Wednesday, May 8th to speak at the upcoming Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference.

My topic is: Get Known While You Sleep—A Platform Primer

Last year’s conference was quality. I got to hang out with Jodi Picoult and my glorious agent, Rita Rosenkranz. (You can download videos from last year’s conference at the bottom of this page.)

I’d love to see you in L.A.! Let me know in the comments if you can make it.

The Writing Mother wrote a nice, thorough post on copyright over in her blog.

It’s a good reminder for all of us, mamas.

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Hiya mamas,

I am super-de-dooper proud of these mamas and they all have done so far.

Check out their sites and see why I’m singing their praises…

Jean Van’t Hul: Website & The Artful Parent Blog

Lora Shin: Website

Jennifer Applin: Website & Managing the Motherload Blog

And have a great weekend!

I love Natalie Goldberg. Always have. Used to read her writing books at the café on the corner of Clark and Orchard streets when I lived in Chicago. Even though I’ve found my niche teaching writing-for-publication, I still think that Goldberg’s writing-for-the-sake-of-writing advice is pure gold.

And, man, I love her accent. It is so similar to my husband’s grandmother Ruth. They must be from the same neck of the woods (I think it’s Brooklyn).

Listen to her talk about her book Old Friend from Far Away here.

If you are inspired by these short videos, why not subscribe?

Earthlink has been my Internet service and email provider since 1998 and I don’t have a single complaint.

Recently they sent me a referral form, so I figured I’d pass it on in case anyone is looking for an Internet Services provider.

Just mention my email address: christinakatz@earthlink.net and the following referral codes:

Dial-up: 1026849

DSL: 1026852

Cable: 1026853

If you are interested call 1.866.334.2799 or go to www.earthlink.net.

This is way too cool not to share.

Have you heard of Wonderful Graffiti?

The company is owned by a former student’s daughter and son-in-law.

Actually, the former student and her husband both took my class when I taught in Bellingham, Washington. They would sometimes quibble in class, so I called them “The Bickersons.”

It usually got them to stop and laugh about it. Now they’ve been married for fifteen years.

I love what a fun idea this is and how successful the owners have been in a short time.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have wonderful graffiti on every wall? Fun!