I've been part of a daily writing group since April 2020 on ZOOM, which I now facilitate. It's an accountability group where we write daily for 1 PM - 2 PM EST. On Friday we have feedback groups, and special lessons on writing craft, promotion, social media, among other topics.
Virtual hour-long weekday writing sessions at 10 am PT facilitated by writing coach and author Tim Gager
Special guests every month
A supportive group of peers working towards the same goals
Opportunities to workshop your writing
Learn strategies about publishing, promoting, branding your manuscript
We have had no less than eleven. bestselling books produced out of this group (see below), and many more on the way
So we you want to join or want more info, feel free to contact me at ctgager37 @ yahoo.com
Dr. Paula Perez
"This group was instrumental in teaching me about the
industry and helping me get my first two books out into
the world. They always share feedback with a spoonful
of sugar, which makes it easy to swallow. Ultimately, their
words of wisdom made me a better writer."
Jenna Tighe
"It is such a joy and honor to be able to support other writers through their process. I also really love and cherish the relationships that I have with the other writers. I have only met two of them in person, but I feel a deep connection with even the ones that I know only from Zoom, and I am forever grateful for these friendships! Building relationships with other people is such a huge part of this process because writing can be such a lonely journey, and these relationships have been so incredibly important. The group has also been extremely motivating for me as a newcomer to writing."
Leianne Messina
"I love the vulnerability, camaraderie and accountability. Our stories and books are so different but come from the same place of wanting to share our stories with the hopes of helping others. I haven’t met anyone involved whose story is being written with selfish ambition."
Barbara Legere
"When I joined in late 2020, my desire to write was 10 times stronger than my confidence. It didn't take long to feel at home. I have learned SO MUCH and I believe in my writing skills for the first time ever. I've also learned a lot about marketing. Whenever I felt stuck, I have a group of people who genuinely care about me and my book who have encouraged me with wisdom and humor! When my book came out, everyone in the group gave me a review on Amazon. On a personal level, we have laughed and cried together, and I consider each of them a special friend in my life."
Margie Allman
"I’ve participated in a number of writing groups and never felt like they were ‘safe spaces’ for my particular life story until this group. Some members have been so supportive that their encouragement keeps me going when I wonder if I can even get it done."
Kimberly Nilsson
“For me, this writing group is like a meeting of friends who dare to hang their laundry for others to see and in the process find sunshine, peace and fresh air. It’s so uplifting and inspiring with incredibly caring leadership, professionalism and direct helpfulness.”
Chris Joseph
"When the pandemic afforded me more time, I joined this group & was immediately inspired not only be the teachings, but also by the honesty, authentic and clarity of the members. I finished writing a book that will be published this year."
Suzanne Frischkorn, Kim Addonizio, Thomas McNeely, Jenna Le, Sarah Bridgins, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Lise Hanes, Dr. Paula Perez, Michael Mark, Maya Williams, Hannah Sward, Caitlin Avery, Carla Swartz, Stacy TenHouton, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Morgan Baker
Jonathan Papernick, A.K. Small, Aaron Tillman, David Rockland, Kimberly Ann Priest, Sain Griffiths, Harris Gardner, Lisa Taylor, Michael Keith, Jim Shepard, Zach VandeZande, Rusty Barnes, Daniel Nester. Kurk Lovelace (reading from Annemarie O'Connell's book), and Nina Shope
Sara Lippmann, Robin McLean, Gregory Orr, Rich Murphy, Diane Suess, Ron Tanner, Aleathea Drehmer, Christina Adams, Sharon Applegate Greenwald, Lucas Scheelk,
Joseph Milosch, Barbara Legere, Ellene Glenn Moore, Vincent Cellucci and Chris Shipman
Two brand new flash fictions of mine are in it (see below)
The stories:
a) Fairytale of Dysfunction
b) Wedding Guest
The story behind the stories:
a) Fairytale of Dysfunction
The fairytale is Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the metaphor is dysfunctional families, especially dysfunctional mothers who are critical. This isn't based on MY life, but I've seen a whole lot of damage in people's life stories. Those folks will know a thing or two about this.
b) Wedding Guest
This story is based on _________. Fill in the blank, it's a trigger warning. Let your imagination run by looking at the ENTIRE TRIGGER WARNING DATA BASE. So how does trauma effect people in the future? Read this one and you can find out, but you probably know a thing or two yourself.
On In Other Words, (my last post) I briefly spoke to Eric Lee Freedman, and James Bryant about my NDE.
After that one, I had the pleasure of speaking about it fully, and also explain why I usually don't speak about it when Tricia Barker Barton interviewed me on her Near Death Experience podcast. Tricia wrote the book, errrrr, a book on it, and appeared on my Virtual Dire Literary Series. She is quite an extraordinary human being even in human form. My experience of over 40 years ago changed my life in so many was, and only now am I ready to talk about it.
WATCH HER INTERVIEW OF ME below on video
ALSO YOU CAN WATCH MY INTERVIEW OF HER from my Dire Series from June 2023
In Other Words, a show hosted by James Bryant and Lee Eric Freedman, is a podcast where writers talk about their lives outside of writing.
I appeared with them in October and spoke about
00:00 Opening
02:56 Feeding feral cats,
09:07 Nearly failing out of college
13:11 Fun Size Candy vs. Minis
17:12 Having a Near Death Experience
25:00 Being the "go to" guy for useless information in conversation
27:50 Auditioning for Jeopardy and "Stump the Blob" Games Shows on the same day
31:20 Being a Strat-0-Matic Geek
36:00 Electric Football Game was the most disappointing game of my childhood
38:56 Segment: Would You Rather have the olfactory senses of a dog or see more colors in the electromagnetic spectrum like a mantis shrimp?
So today, November 3, is my birthday, and as an alcoholic, I’m expecting a parade. Won’t happen, but for the past 10-13 or so years, I’ve found that my sober anniversary is a much bigger, more important and brings me much more joy. It marks the anniversary of a change of the better of me, something I am proud of, and something I feel good about when I help others. In three days, November 6, if I can get to three more midnights, I’ll celebrate 13 years of being sober. There will be others celebrating that with me, those who made the same decision I did, and found that their life really began at that point, rather than ended. Oh, and I will get a present---not the one I get every day by being sober, but the one below. I'm very excited to receive it! (Plus read the features of this thing! High Quality 3D Graphics, for example)
So in three days: November 6.
If you follow me or read me, November 6 marked a
decided milestone in my life. On that day in 2010 I stopped drinking, stopped
using, became clean and sober, without ever having the need to go back to it. (Note:
Need is different than want, and I may have thought that I wanted to, but when
push came to shove I didn’t).
I’ve thought about this and a lot of other things today, (because I tend to overthink),
and concluding that stopping was not because of something associated with that
particular birthday. Perhaps I was reflecting upon my life on that day (I tend to do
that too) and it had some influence, but mostly, I stopped, was because my life wasn’t what I
wanted it to be. I was settling for less, my emotions were all
over the road, and my personal relationships were pretty non-existent. I was in rough shape physically and mentally.
I’ve written about this subject here in the past nearly every year
and if you want more details go to the right side of this news/blog thing and
open up entries from early November, 2010 and on. (Let me help you)
Also, there in the search bar (look hard, it's small) if you plug in
words, for example, sober, sobriety, alcohol etc., various entries will
also come up. (Go ahead, stick your name in there too, to see if I wrote about
you).
Mostly, three things stick out about how my life has changed.
1) I am more even tempered, level-headed, and when there are issues I am able to walk through them.
2) When my son was married in July, I was asked to speak. This never would have been asked because there was no way anyone could predict what would come out of my mouth. Also, at the wedding my new daughter in law stated, "When it comes to father-in-laws, I hit the jackpot." Yes, again, drunk Tim would have been described by other jackpots.
3) And most important. Four years ago, almost to the day, my mother would jump straight from a cancer treatment appointment to hospice care. Because of my sobriety I was in a) good standing in my job. b) had enough sick, and vacation days accrued and c) was able to be with her almost every day until she passed. What a gift!
Always such an honor to be nominated. Thank you Robin Stratton and Big Table Publishing for the nomination, and for publishing many of my books. Although I Never Called You Beautiful does not appear on-line. It is within the pages Best of Timothy Gager: Poems, Essays, and Stories, 2002-2022. It also appears in another secret book, whish is sort of like a secret menu item---and only one of those exists in the world. So, there's that. So very grateful to be nominated for the 18th time.
That one closed in 2020, but I would drive to the other Burlington to enjoy their food, but no longer the Margaritas. Interesting thing happened there the last time I went, and I've not been back since. You can read about it in this issue of 10 X 10 Flash Fiction, Issue 12. The piece is personal and partially true..
Actually, I sat in the booth right here---inside. After all, it was raining.
If you are sunk in a sea so silent who are you left hanging with? There are all kinds of deep sea critters, perhaps too ugly to cuddle up to. When the narrator says to them, looking up from the ocean, "nobody likes you," he could be referring to himself---hence, some "double-meaning love" within the words. You are just like them, and just like an abandoned sunken ship. The other double-meaning found within is that the moon features fields of basaltic lava referred to as seas, because early astronomers mistakenly thought they contained water.
Also "metaphor love" about the end of a friendship,
lNP is a simple blog journal no frills (see masthead above) except the editors who know a thing are two about a thing or two. Funny thing about the sub-title you know it came from people asking, "What's Live NudePoems?" Well, it's like the title say, so, take a hike, son.
If you dive into their submissions statement, you'll find this (so yahoo!):
In trying to sum up what our aesthetic at Live Nude Poems will be, we are drawn to the idea and function of poetry. In our opinion, we’ve always believed that poetry must serve a purpose – to enlighten, to explain and by doing so, bring a greater understanding of self. We have a job to do as poets, even if only to better know our own humanity. We're certainly not here to argue what art is or why we write. We write because we have to, and the work is unique to each of us. Knowing that, we would like to showcase poetry that breathes and presents moments in time, work that helps us understand you, tells a story, changes the reader--if only for a second.
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