Monthly review – Nooks & Cranberries

Posted on May 2, 2013December 12, 2014 by Sarah — Leave a comment

A Productive April

A beautiful spring here in Seattle has beckoned us to explore sunny nooks and relish pre-summer trips. We’ve been busy learning from other writers and stretching our own craft as we’ve pressed forward, reaching and expanding in our own individual niches.

To begin with, we wrapped up a Destination Inspiration: Portland series with a taste of Powell’sÂ City of BooksÂ and also visited a great placeÂ to catch up as we’d been parted for a while through travel and spring plans.

In Writer’s Kitchen, we celebrate food bloggers who had recently released books. Cheers to our fellow authors!

Finally, and possibly most excitingly, we started our “From the Pros” series in which we are fortunate to have guest posts featuring advice and encouragement fromÂ successfulÂ and inspirational authors. This month we heard fromÂ Lesley Ann McDanielÂ about finding your character’sÂ AchillesÂ Heel.

Posted on March 28, 2013March 27, 2013 by Sarah — Leave a comment

A Productive March

Is the month really almost over? Wow! It seems that March has come and gone as quickly as January and February. Loss of time seems to be a common theme with writers which is why we like to stop and reflect every month to see where the time went. Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been up to this past month.

We explored of some of the writing nooks of our northwest neighbors withÂ Sterling Coffee Roasters in Portland, and enjoyed some Nordic inspiration at Scandinavian Specialties.

We shared more about our writing retreat to Chelan and dabbled in a game of “what if” at the Barrel Feast at Tunnel Hill Winery. We also discussed what some writers have been doing to possibly upset the world of publishing in our Friday Forum.

In the Writer’s Kitchen, we looked back at some of our favorites and shared a great Post-Flight Dinner idea to satisfy the family after an exhausting journey.

All in all, a very busy and successful March! We hope your month has been just as productive. Cheers and happy writing!

Posted on January 31, 2013January 30, 2013 by Sarah & Daytona — Leave a comment

A Productive January

The month of January is a crucial time for writers; the new year sets the stage for new goals and new habits, and the first few weeks can set the tone for momentum moving on through the rest of the year.

Since one of the common struggles amongst writers is coming up with ideas, we launched the Idea Generator at the beginning of the year, and have been dedicating our Daily Writer’s Fix time this month to helping you build a pool of writing ideas to last you well into 2013.

We have also been excited to share with you some of our favorite San Francisco writing and brainstorming spots with a special Destination Inspiration series based in that city. From Blue Bottle Coffee to La BoulangeÂ and Samovar, we had a great time discovering new creative spots to help you drum up inspiration and creativity if you visit San Francisco.

We talked about some of our own writing goals and created a worksheet to help you develop a strategy for setting and keeping your 2013 goals. We shared thoughts on the writing life with writing as an excuse to explore and the experience of working with divided attention.

We shared a favorite tea that was the result of a delightful accident, and an overnight coffee cake that’s easy to whip together even when you’re on deadline.

And, of course, we talked about the writing ritual and shared a recipe for a delightful cookieÂ that would be just right for pairing with your writing tea when you sit down to work.

It’s been a good month for us here at Nooks & Cranberries, and I hope it’s been good for you too. We’d love to hear what you’ve been working on this month!