Finding Riches in Frugal February (Especially for Writers).
Plus: The cat pics keep coming! Grab your marketing workshop spot asap.
The Clothesline is a weekly newsletter from Vanessa Chiasson offering cozy business content for writers who love to plan, read, and travel.
Happy February, friends!
What I’m Reading
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal: by Jeanette Winterson. A moving biography of a young queer woman coming of age in oppressive circumstances.
They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall. An interesting take on a “locked room” style mystery.
Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan. What can I say? The library delivers when it delivers! But this second instalment in a charming series by Colgan is good at any time of year and focuses on the trials of running a struggling bookshop on a delightful Edinburgh street.
What I’m Writing
A few weeks ago, I blogged about the best way to spend a day in Rome, complete with recommendations on buying gelato, coffee, and even Harry Potter-themed gifts!
It’s been a quiet writing month so I’ll give a shoutout to my past self and this piece I wrote for Broadview about a creative fundraiser for domestic violence survivors. This piece is up for a Canadian Online Publishing Award, which will be handed out this Thursday! (I’ll be attending virtually but I’ll still get all dressed up).
(From my archives) Okay, I don’t have anything that’s great for groundhog day but I DO have a fantastic blog post about the world’s cutest rodents: Quokkas! Check out these cuddly, smiley guys who live on Rottnest Island in Australia.
Travel Tidbit
I’m VERY particular about my travel socks and Smartwool is one of my favourite brands. I don’t buy them that often (in part because they last a long time and also because I love wearing sandals). However, next time I order them, I’m taking advantage of this offer to send in your old socks (no matter what brand) for textile recycling. If you go hard on your footwear (I’m looking at you, hikers and backpackers), this is a great way to repurpose worn materials.
Upcoming Events
Join me and Sarah Sambles for a fantastic 90 minute workshop on marketing and branding for writers on February 22nd. Marketing and branding is SO much more than just choosing cute colours for your website and designing a logo (as much as we love fun stuff like that!) If you struggle when it comes to putting yourself out there, finding your own voice, and identifying your core audience, this is for you.
Early bird pricing of just $37 applies until Feb 8 and you can bring a friend for free! Get tickets here!
BTW… One of the best things about this event is that people are sending me cat photos. Why, you ask? Because in last week’s newsletter, I talked about the challenges of marketing and how personal is too personal… For instance, some folks draw the line at sharing pet pics while for others it’s half the reason they’re online. So I hope you’ll enjoy today’s photo of PEPPERMINT. What a good girl!
Keen to get a head start on your quarterly planning? Grab your spot for my Q2 planning workshop on March 28. Tickets start at $28.00
The next Pitching Power Hour is on Tuesday, February 6. This is a free perk for paid members. We come together, just like a homework club or accountability group, and get those tough story pitches DONE.
(Zoom link for our next session is at the end of this email).
Food For Thought
Are you going to participate in #FrugalFebruary?
This is a month that celebrates thrift. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it. I’ve been Frugal February’ing for several years now, and some of the things I’ve tackled include cutting back on takeout coffee (hard!), renegotiating our mortgage (easier than it sounds), swapping books, games, and unloved liqueur with pals (the best) and turning prosaic pantry ingredients into low-cost meals. Case in point: ever since I took a cooking class in Prague back in 2016, I’ve been saving my veggie scraps in the freezer to make homemade stock. However, sometimes I get lazy and that bag starts getting FULL. Just seeing the calendar flip over to February was motivation enough to start planning some soups.
Frugal February is a great way to kickstart new financial habits, shore up extra savings, gain confidence to tackle tough financial decisions, and even flex your creativity. It’s not meant to feel restrictive. Sadly, no amount of frugality can redress our society’s fundamental economic problems (like gender- and race-based wage gaps and government mismanagement), but overall, I find it a very fulfilling experience.
So why does this matter for writers?
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