The other evening, my husband and I were strolling around downtown and popped into one of my favorite art galleries. I bought a couple of note cards and a glass nail file, and as we were leaving, I heard someone say, “Are you the author? The book editor?” “I’m Teresa Funke, yes.” “I...
Tag: books
Is Your Art too Trivial to Matter?
Please, don’t let this feeling end. It’s everything I am. Everything I want to be. Anyone recognize those song lyrics? If so, you’re as old as I am. But when your art is flowing and you are in the zone and all is right with the world, this is often how it feels. That’s not to...
New Video – How to Manage Your Research and Outlines
I’m taking a moment this week to draw your attention to my new writing video “How to Manage Your Research and Outlines.” I know many of you are becoming more and more interested in stretching your writing skills and moving in new directions with your work. You may have been inspired by the start of...
How to Create Art When Your Heart is Broken
Some of the greatest songs and stories are created by artists who have suffered a major loss or break up. They channel all that pain, frustration, anger, confusion, disbelief, and sorrow into their creations, and we embrace those songs and stories because they speak to our suffering too. Other artists, when faced with heartbreak, drop...
On Reaching Milestones
Monday I was speaking to a combined fifth-grade class about my author journey. I mentioned how I’d been identified as a good writer in fifth grade and how my teachers, family, and friends told me throughout my school years I should be a writer when I grew up. Then in my senior year, that all...
New Video – An Open Apology to My Creative Self
Enjoy my newest video revisiting one of my most popular posts from this blog, “An Open Apology to My Creative Self.” Feel encouraged again to embrace your creative energy and the joy it brings to your life!
In the Company of Artists – The Benefits of a Retreat
I’m up in the mountains this week on a writing retreat with a couple of friends. We hunker down and work during the day (emerging now and then for snacks or lunch) and stop in time for dinner. As writers, we are usually holed up in our home offices writing, researching, promoting, etc. But there’s...
Does the Universe Take Our Ideas?
I was having lunch with a friend the other day, and she said she’d heard that the universe sometimes gifts us with ideas, and if we don’t act on them, it pulls the idea and gives it to someone else. I startled when she shared this. How many times have I thought of something, told...
Inspiration From Artist to Artist
If you know me, you know that part of what excites me as a creative is figuring out ways to bring my art to diverse audiences. Why? I’m a writer, after all, so why not just focus on the written word? As individuals, we like to interact with art in different ways on any given...
The Students Become the Masters
As a writer’s coach, I often advise new clients to learn how to “read like a writer.” In other words, dissect every book as you read to see what makes it work. And if you don’t like a book, don’t just set it aside. Keep reading and ask yourself why? What is it that’s not...