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88 Cups of Tea

Love all things upbeat, warm, and uplifting? Welcome to 88 Cups of Tea, an online platform and podcast for creative writers who look for guidance in their storytelling journey and connection to a community, fostering year-round conversations around the personal and professional life of a writer. Our podcast episodes and online essays and articles explore and unpack conversations that touch on topics like overcoming rejections and challenges, querying tips and crafting advice, lifestyle habits that support the heart and the soul, what it means to be Human while navigating a creative path, and more. We pride ourselves in nurturing a supportive environment that aims to encourage, inspire, and entertain. Check out our website 88cupsoftea.com for essays, articles, and access to nearly 200 podcast episodes!
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Now displaying: March, 2020
Mar 19, 2020

Warm welcome to our new listeners!

Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Libba Bray's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of her writing life! 

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Curious to discover how leaning into your emotions can strengthen your writing? How about the actionable steps to reach your writing goals? Or tips for creating a financially viable marketing plan for your novel? We talk about it all and much more with Akemi Dawn Bowman.

Akemi is the award-winning author of "Starfish", "Summer Bird Blue", and her newly released novel "Harley in the Sky" which just released on March 10th. It’s been particularly hard on our writing and book community, so please show support however you can, and if you are able, order a copy! 

She is also a Ravenclaw and Star Wars enthusiast, who served in the US Navy for five years and has a BA in social sciences from UNLV.

We kick off our conversation discussing her career path from joining the navy to falling back in love with writing, and ultimately pursuing storytelling full-time as a published author. We discuss how she developed the perseverance to grapple with all the rejections that come along with the querying process and continue on to have a very honest conversation about her mental health, finding the right support system, and how to be a great ally for others. We then dive into how she juggles being the best mom she can to her children, showing up as a partner to her significant other, and a writer while maintaining a healthy mental state by prioritizing what’s most important to her, giving herself permission to slow down and take breaks, and cutting out toxic relationships both in-person and online. She shares how leaning into her emotions helps her craft such beautiful and immersive stories, how her writing voice and character development has changed throughout her career, and her experience being an author with multiple published novels. And later, we get into some real-talk about book sales, contracts, and self-marketing. We wrap up the conversation with a small but powerful step you can take to reach your writing goals. 

Please say 'Hi' to Akemi on Instagram! instagram.com/akemidawnbowman/

Head over to Akemi's shownotes page at  https://88cupsoftea.com/akemi-dawn-bowman/ to download her writing prompt and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Mar 5, 2020

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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We Love Our 88 Cups of Tea Sponsors

Did you know we collaborated with VCFA’s MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults to curate a thoughtful series of intimate essays and podcast episodes so you can feel empowered throughout your writing journey? Click here to explore the published pieces.

Vermont College of Fine Arts is a global community of artists continuously redefining what it means to be an arts college. They’re accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education and offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in a variety of fields, including Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, and Writing & Publishing, along with an International MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation. With low-residency and fully residential options, VCFA has the graduate program to fit your needs. Be sure to learn more about VCFA by clicking here!

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Curious to discover ways an MFA program can strengthen your writing craft and provide a thriving community of writers to lean on for the well-being of your creative life? Wondering how to pick yourself up during those heart wrenching bouts of self-doubt during writing setbacks? How about a strong dose of writing advice about creating powerful first-person POV? We talk about it all and more with Kekla Magoon.

Kekla is an award-winning author who has published over a dozen novels for children and young adults, including The Season of Styx Malone, The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, Light It Up, and X: A Novel. She received an NAACP Image Award, three Coretta Scott King Honors, the Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, has been long listed for the National Book Award, and more. Kekla holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she now serves on faculty.

In our conversation, Kekla and I jump right in and talk about her love for stories and how being absorbed into a narrative can help you make better sense of the world around you and bring you comfort in times of uncertainty. We dive into her career path to becoming an author and how she discovered Vermont College of Fine Arts where she got her MFA. She shares her childhood experience and discovering her identity which influenced her passion for acknowledging the grey areas, the reality of racial bias, and cognitive dissonance in her writing. Later we dive deeper into her experience at VCFA and how the MFA program helped evolve her writing, grew her reading and critiquing skills, and provided her with a supportive writing community. We wrap up our conversation by discussing how to be compassionate towards yourself during writing setbacks, along with tips to help you move past moments of frustration, and advice for crafting your characters in the first person.

Please say 'Hi' to Kekla on Twitter! https://twitter.com/keklamagoon

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/kekla-magoon/‎ to download the writing prompt she made special for our community and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

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