Hello!
How are you?
I’m doing well. Really well, actually. That’s part of why it’s been a while since we’ve talked, so I wanted to update you on my recent career moves.
As you know, I’ve spent years working with academic writers, and I have been coaching academic writers through my business LELA House for about 5 years now. I plan to continue coaching academic writers, but I am also going to transition to book coaching.
I’m currently enrolled in a book coach certification program through Author Accelerator, where I am learning to work with people on full book projects. I am a self-proclaimed cultural custodian for black women (it took me a long time to realize that my entire life trajectory has been pointing toward this, but that’s a different story for another day :-). So through LELA House, I seek to maintain, protect, and advance the culture of black women, focusing on our LELA (Life, Education, Literature, and Art). I offer writing coaching, executive life coaching, and self-care services. For the crux of my work, however, I support women whose writing includes black women and our concerns (especially, but not exclusively, from the long US 19th Century). I’m looking forward to working with writers who depict historical African American women, particularly women from the long US 19th Century. I’m excited about this shift, as it helps me dive deeper into 19th C US literature (particularly literature by and about black people), which was the focus of my doctoral studies, and more importantly, it gives me a new way to serve writers.
As I move through my book coach training, I will focus on working with writers to meet the specific requirements of my practicums. To that end, I will need to scale back my work with academic writers.
Before I scale back, however, I am offering a Summer Editing Special for academic writers. I will edit 5,000 – 10,000 words for a flat fee of $499. My goal is to help academic writers complete their writing before the end of summer. My editing will include in-line edits, comments, and citation review. If you are interested in moving forward with your own writing this summer, please fill out the interest form linked below. And please forward this message along to anyone who may be interested.
Summer Editing Special Interest Form
As I move through my book coach certification, I will still serve a limited number of academic writers as clients. I will also look for writers who would like support as they include historical African American women in their writing. If you know any writers who need either of these kinds of support, I would appreciate an introduction. And if you are interested in writing support yourself, I’d be delighted to talk with you about it.
Speaking of writing support, I’m working on two new offerings.
The first one is Leadership Legacy, which is an 8-week writing workshop for African American coaches of all kinds (life, leadership, career, book, etc.). In the workshop you will explore which African American leaders have influenced your leadership and how you would like to leave a legacy through your leadership. You will write an essay (or a poem, or a dramatic reading, or a TED-type talk, or whatever works best for you) over the course of the workshop that you can use as a blog post, post on LinkedIn, introductory video, or however your creativity blossoms. The workshop will be a great place to connect with other coaches and thought leaders, and you can use it to jump start your journey on that leadership book or memoir that you’ve been thinking about writing but never knew how to get started on.
The next one is S.O.S – Sisters Offer Solidarity. S.O.S is a 12-week solidarity circle that offers support to women working on their dissertations. We will work on cultivating the mindsets that will see you through the process, set goals, check in on progress, encourage one another, and dedicate time to writing. The solidarity circle will be a great place to connect with other writers in the throes of dissertating, and you can use it to help you reach your goal of finishing your dissertation.
Now, let’s keep each other accountable, because I’ve said I’ll do some things and I’ve asked you to do some things.
My Action Items
- Write more about what I mean by cultural custodian for black women.
- Tell you more about Leadership Legacy.
- Tell you more about S.O.S.
- Tell you more about my book coaching journey
- And we didn’t talk about this, but try not to go silent for so long.
Your Action Items
- Sign up for the Summer Editing Special
- Share this blog post with people, so they can sign up for the Summer Editing Special and learn about other ways they can move forward with their writing, too.
- Fill out the contact form if you would like to be my practicum client. I’ll tell you more about it as I know more, but if you are writing about black women in any way, we may be a great fit.
- And we didn’t talk about this, but take care of yourself more, write more, have more fun, and eat more healthy food.
I can’t wait to hear how you’re doing and learn what is new in your world. Leave a comment to let me know which of these offerings has gotten you excited and why!
Until next time!
