All right, YouTube, let's go, baby. All right, here we go. Best fastest results, drinking ketones. All right, let's go. All right, y'all, all right, we're on. So we've got some action happening here. Okay, so we're gonna be basically keeping this simple. Best fastest results drinking this product. So a lot of people come for fat loss, a lot of people coming for focus, energy. It's actually kind of funny.  I'm like, you gotta talk about fat loss if that's what you came for, you can't hide from that. Yes, that's not why I drink ketones, but it's why a lot of people drink ketones right here. So let's talk about the best way to get started and benefits of using ketones. I do a lot of lives coaching people on this, but the reality is it's simple. It's a powder you mix in water. This is like one of the kits that we have that's pretty cool if you haven't gotten this, you should. But it's a powder you mix in water. So what I do is I basically take this ice and water, ice and water, take off the lid. I know this is fricking rocket science. Dump it in, shake it up. I actually have ketones in here already, so I'm not gonna make it all at once. Shake it up 10 to 15 seconds. If you can handle 10 to 15 seconds, you can do this.  And why over 30 minutes is these particular form of ketones, which are the only bioidentical peer therapy to ketones in the world. It's a state of the art ketones, right? You want them absorbing slower, right? So they're gonna absorb through this. So if you pound them fast, they can flush out. So you wanna drink them slower, not too slow, but 30 minutes, 45 minutes, not over an hour. And you drink your ketones down. Now, the thing that people often have questions are what do I eat? Like what do I eat? Too often people think this is a diet, right? They think ketones are a diet. And I wanna be clear, ketones are not a diet. They're independent of your diet, but what you can do is you can maximize your health by taking care of yourself. I know it's like, take care of you. So I can give you some tips around that, but what a lot of people do, especially if fat loss is their primary goal, a lot of people do is they drink them in the morning. Basically, they just take their breakfast out. They drink ketones in the morning, or if they have like sugary crappy coffee drinks, get that out. You can have black coffee, you can have low carb coffee, keto-friendly coffee, that's all fine. But what's up, Kevin? What you wanna do is you want to have them in the morning, and then you're gonna have your first meal when you get hungry. Often, sometimes between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., that's usually when people get hungry. And then what I recommend people to do is just make the best decision. Make a conscious health decision on your food.   No, it doesn't work that way. I have people in Mexico, Canada, Singapore, the UK, England, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, I mean, Australia, New Zealand. I mean, you name it, South America. Everybody's different foods.  It doesn't work. There's no meal plan out there that's ever worked for somebody long-term. It's like short-term and then they fail. So what I recommend is just, you know what to do. Eat healthier, cleaner foods, right? Or just start doing better. This is the home run. This is the thing. This is the game changer. This is the thing that the world needed. This is what NASA was looking for. This is what the department of event was looking for. It's what I was looking for for my entire career. This is the heavy hitter, the heavy lifter. Your job is to start pursuing better. So at lunch, if you can take the bun off your burger, get rid of it. If you can have a salad, awesome. With good healthy protein, great. Less carbs and crap, better, right? You can take and go to Jimmy John's and just take the bun away. Maybe you have a half a sub instead of a whole sub. Whatever you can do better. We have people that eat tons of carbs and still use their product, that's fine. But depending on results, we're looking for Chad Mann on here right now. He needs to go lower or lower carb because he's got some complications that require a lower carb diet to support while he drinks ketones. He added this item, right? And he already did. That's what's pretty cool about it. Chad, how long have you been going? How long are you doing this? This is pretty awesome. So, Facebook's changed some things. Hey, really quick, stars enabled, no stars. Hey, on Facebook, can you give me some stars? I'm just curious if it works. I'm just curious, I'm just checking it out. So, not sure if it working or not, but we're gonna go with it. So here's the deal, then for lunch or dinner, you wanna do the same thing. Piece of protein, vegetables. You wanna do that as often as you can.  No. We don't want you to be perfect. We want you to be better. I wanna say that again. We don't want you to be perfect. We want you to be better because perfect is different to everybody. My wife and I will never eat the same diet. You'll probably never eat the diet that I eat. Jen will probably never eat the diet that Chad eats. That's okay. Hey, that's the point. You gotta find your journey. And what you do is you use ketones as the catalyst to keep your brain working better, you're feeling better and living better while you're figuring out your diet. I know Jennifer Mann's on here right now. Like that girl never worked out.  She ate like a sailor. She tough spoke like a sailor. Now she speaks like a princess. I'm just kidding. That's not actually true. I can't back that up, she's kidding. But she drinks this once or twice every day. She takes and eats better food, being more responsible and her life has transformed. She's dropped 70 pounds. She's maintained for over 19 months because she's pursuing better. And that's the real secret work. It's like people want the perfect diet that they're never gonna follow. What I want you to do is drink your ketones and then what you do is find a diet that you can lean into to eventually find a lifestyle that you're willing to sustain. And that's the people that have the best results. It's not the person following the perfect diet. It's the person that figures out a way to live their life.  So I'm gonna hand out some flyers for Halloween the second I kid, so I'm going crazy here. But if you're just getting started, remember this. The lifestyle you currently live cannot be the lifestyle that you wanna live to have the life you want. Was that deep? Y'all, was that too deep for y'all? The lifestyle that you want to live cannot be the current lifestyle. Does that make sense? You have to ultimately change your life. I hope this makes sense.  And then we're gonna guide you and you crave less carbs and sugars, right? We're gonna guide you to start to live a better lifestyle that's gonna sustain the new life you're creating.   What's that with the new one that I've just been getting on a call with? I don't know who was on the call. There's this meal plans that they have. It starts with a P, I think, or O, Octavia or something like that.  I'm sorry, I'm getting a little bit huffy, but like this is not good. If you're following these plans, be aware that you're setting yourself up for long-term failure. Ask anybody that's been on there for five years and have sustained it. Look at any one of the coaches that have been able to sustain that. They don't, but you come here to prove it. Look at anybody that's been here for three to five years or seven years and look how different their life is and their confidence in their future and they're eating real food, y'all. They're taking care of themselves, but they're using this as a tool to help amplify their life.  Does that make sense? These meal prep things that are out there and these protein shake meal replacements? You can't sustain that. We're not in the Jetsons. It's not gonna work. Unfortunately, we're humans and we still need to provide really, real, real good food. All right, goodness. I'm new here and Rebecca Barker wants me to watch you. Hey, Tim, brother.  So Tim's new here. Tim, welcome. Hey, really quick, if you're watching this, how many people have gotten experience with drinking ketones and just put down what your experience has been. But here's what I really wanna tell everybody is this is simple. It's a, how do you make some water? That seems crazy, but if you understood really what's up, Rebecca, if you really understood what this was, this took years for this patent to be created, the original, original, original, original patent for the Department of Defense so that Navy SEAL's brains would work better. NASA had been looking into the same technologies for years and then Prove It, this little old company that just got started, said, what if we can make this real and get people to be able to sustain this? Because at the time you couldn't drink it, like nobody here would drink it, it's disgusting.  Hundreds of pounds lost to forever grateful. Kat, oh, you're amazing. She said hundreds, by the way, with the S. Kat Evans, she's an inspiration, she's been an inspiration to me. Jennifer Mann down 70 pounds, changed her life forever. I mean, that girl's trying to get to Costa Rica right now. How cool is that? If you knew her, you would understand that's a big deal. 42 pounds down, Kevin, three boxes of candy on the counter for Halloween and they are all sitting sealed. Cravings are gone, that's cool. But the reality is this is a huge breakthrough. And I know it's just kind of like, I just thought you were drinking water, but like, that's a big deal. It's like the invention of the automobile, the cell phone, the airplane for your health. I wanna say that again, it's the invention of the automobile, the cell phone, the airplane for your health. Basically it gets you from your destination of where you currently are to where you wanna go faster. The cell phone has gotten communication to be faster.  Now you can text them like that. So this is basically in ketosis in 60 minutes. What's her name? Base Day Enemy Rosemary. I don't know her whole name. So I lost 50 pounds, but more than that, my health is better than it's ever been many years. I've been able to come off several challenges, she says. It's several challenges we're gonna say there. But these things are really, really important. The reality is, is people are getting healthier because they're using a tool that provides a sustained energy to the brain. And then from there, we're gonna encourage you to do healthy acts. What does that mean? Eat healthier. What does eating healthier mean? Meaning more real food, like real animals, like real vegetables, like real fruit. People go, do you have to follow a crazy keto diet? I do not follow a ketogenic diet. I do not. I eat a lot of protein. I love fruit. I eat fruit. I eat vegetables. I eat at the diet. I follow, and guess what? I still eat, drink margaritas. Y'all, but I've earned it. I've been working hard at this stuff. The more active and fit you are, the more you can get away with a little bit extra stuff.  That's gonna be different, right? That's nothing. That's just the way it is. If there's a way around that, I'd love to see it. Doesn't exist yet. During ketones for three months down 56 pounds, feel amazing, energy, mental clarity, better mood, cravings gone. Cara, that's amazing. Way to go. I mean, three months in, 56 pounds, that's a feat. That's pretty amazing. If you're lucky to get results like that, because I'm the same weight from the day I started. I am the same, this is the worst weight loss product I've ever seen. I haven't lost a pound. I am the exact same weight from the day I started, and that's what I wanted. I wanted high mental clarity, focus, anti-aging, better mood. I wanted the real benefits up here, but so many people are seeing transformation, but I've also had two, three major surgeries, went through COVID, I didn't gain any weight. Does it mean I didn't drink more? I drank more. I probably didn't eat as well. Maybe I was pretty active. I always stay pretty active. I like to stay there. So the secret, 25 pounds of 25 pounds fat down, but gains so many other benefits. I love personally, I'm becoming, the person I'm becoming a vet, that's amazing. Down 25 pounds, that's awesome, but she's becoming a better person.  Maybe she doesn't wanna do that.  I've already dropped three to four pants sizes. That's awesome, Rebecca, congratulations. Super grateful for you. So the goal here is to let people know like, what happens is a lot of people are seeing stories or maybe they're, is this real, not real? And what I found is really simple. Most people are afraid of failing. They're afraid of falling back into the world. I mean, you should hear the stories.  This is the last thing you ever have to do. I'm just gonna say that again. This is the last thing you ever have to do to get healthy and maintain it. Now you're gonna have to keep pursuing health. I'm not saying that you can go back to your old lifestyle. The ultimate goal here is to drink your ketones, feel better, provide sustained energy in your brain, muscles and heart and vitality and start making the choices that you know you should be making, but don't hold yourself like, like don't be strict. Why are people like, people beat themselves up so much. Dustin, I know I shouldn't have to eat that. Who cares? What are you gonna do tomorrow? That's all that matters. Drink this and get back into ketones and keep going. That's all you have to do. I feel like I'm yelling at everybody. So I'm gonna show it up right now really quick. If there's any questions I'll take any, but if you're not drinking ketones yet, get back to whoever invites you to follow me and get your hands on some ketones. Just listen, there's a good, better best bundle. The good bundle is I don't, I'm not that committed. I don't, I actually don't like this bundle, but I have people buy it. I'm not that committed, but I wanna try it. That's the good bundle. People that work with me, I'm always like, no, you should drink this for six months if you really wanna know. You have to hire me for six months to work with me. That's why, I don't like the dabble. I like to do it. I don't like to try and we're going to. That make any sense. There's a better bundle. That was very pretty mean for some of you. The better bundle is a great way to get started and be committed to your journey. And I recommend everybody getting on smart ships. You get a next month with the discounts, get all the loyalties, all the royalties, everything else that we offer. And then the best bundle, that's a better bundle. The best bundle is like, I wanna go, I'm committed. I wanna change my life and I wanna go all in on it. And I'm fully committed. We are going to teach you how to eat real food.  This is about taking care of you. I wanna be upfront and honest with that. Does it mean that you have to follow my diet? No. Does it mean you can never have carbs or high carbohydrates again? No. Does it mean that you have to follow kids like diet? No. What it means is we gotta start changing some things if you want more changes. This will do the heavy lifting. This is the 80%. Can you meet us 20%.  Can you walk a little bit more? Can you do an extra 100 steps a day or a thousand steps a day? Or can you hit 10,000 steps a day? Like that's the start. And if you do that, your life will change.  And I tell everybody, if you commit to 60, 90 days to try it.  You won't. Everybody on here that's been drinking this for a while, they don't even recognize who they used to be because they've changed so much in a good way. In a good way. And the most important things, they're becoming the example for the people they care about. Now they're proud of themselves and the people around them are changing their lives. Without having to talk about it, they just live it. And that's what makes Prove It so exciting. And so this is so amazing. So your bundle will look like this. You'll get one of these or two of these. Or three of these. This is what you're gonna get in your bundle. And if you're following me to follow me, hit me back. What's up Steve? How are you? I hope you're well. I love this Kevin Metz and said, invest in yourself. Your future you is worth it. Man, that is so true. People go like, but it's kind of a premium product. It's, you know, what about the cost?  You're like $11 nowadays. I live in California. It's like $15 to $17. That's three of our products. Like three servings. And you don't just go out and have one drink. You're literally $50 in on a night out, just an alcohol alone.  Like, come on, it's not a cost. It's a savings.   I don't know. It works for me. So, y'all, I gotta go. Appreciate you all. Get back to whoever invited you to follow me.  Let's change your life. If you're ready to change your life, I'm ready to help. However, I can. Remember, it doesn't have to be complicated. You just gotta get started. What's that quote? I forget the name yesterday. Forget that quote. Not sure. But whatever you do, commit to it. Don't finish. Don't end. Don't stop. Don't try, dude. Don't try, dude. I wanna make a shirt. Don't try, dude. Too many people wanna try stuff. Like, why don't you try anything? Just go do stuff. Y'all see the difference between trying and doing? Like, I wanna try to skydive.  You don't try. Tryings are really bad experience. You go do, right? Don't try to lose weight. Go lose weight, right? Don't try to get in shape. Get in shape. It's very different up here. Trying basically says, I might quit. I might not, like, don't do that. Don't set yourself up for failure. Let's go. I wanna try to build a business. No, you're gonna go build a business. It's very different. That means there's no stopping. You gotta keep going to achieve it. I promise you'll be happy with you at the end. Well, I gotta stop. I gotta stop. All right, I gotta go. Gotta go. All right, good night. Cheers, y'all. Appreciate you.


I came to UWM because it was close to home. It was just the right fit, but my first two years weren't very involved. I guess I was a little bit overconfident. Then in my sophomore year, I was placed on academic probation and ended up taking a year off after that. I knew right away when I left that I wanted to come back, but eventually I had someone who encouraged me. If you don't go back, there's not gonna be much there for you as far as opportunities go. All it took was the effort and all that stuff that I was worried about kind of like worked out okay. I studied abroad in Taiwan. That was great. Second trip was completely different. It was co-op program sponsored by Foxconn. I've had six internships. Some of the companies I've had internships with have been Foxconn, or Healthcare, or Force for Mutual, and even some local startups. Having all those internships made it really easy for me to find a job after graduation. I've accepted a position as an application system engineer for Foxconn. UWM played an essential role in paving out that future for me. None of the internships, none of the people I met, none of the opportunities I had would not have been there for me if I wasn't a student.


And welcome to today's day trading recap today's Thursday, February 18th managed to squeak out a small profit on the day of exactly $50 Mighty 90s were good had four trades three of which were winners Apple plus 393 AMD minus 450 Roku basically let's scratch 40 bucks and Tesla plus 330 No pairs trades today and then on the runner side Had a nice downside runner in the Nasdaq. We don't trade futures a lot But took a took a short in the Nasdaq for 323 really nice biggest winner today MU 836 Neo got us for 462 and then Roku was the one that slapped us around a little bit for 960 so let me show you what we did here Starting with the mighty 90s going to Apple So in Apple we had this big flush down and we were waiting for it to get down close to this pivot didn't quite get there But we got filled right there and then caught a nice bounce. I left one little piece on And ended up getting out of my last piece right there. So nice nice profit in Apple for 393 AMD was a mighty 90 that did not work Kind of a similar situation had this flush down Got long right in this area started to bounce and then just rolled over chopped around a little bit Technically we got two little green bars right there I could have got out which would have been a smaller loss than I ended up taking But gave it a chance and it flushed down. So when it bounced back up, I just got out right there I took a loss on that one to 450 in Roku So I'll go over the mighty 90 and the and the runner So in in Roku Was looking really strong on the day big massive volume spike when it pulled back actually well So first of all before this bulk bar closed. I was anticipating a mighty 90 with this with this volume spikes We actually got short right here Then when that volume spikes really got massive, you know higher than the first bar I wanted to get out of it because a lot of times that signifies continuation now Had I held in hindsight That would have been a beautiful mighty 90, but You got a you got to play the criteria that you trade Every time and so we actually got out of that mighty 90 Just a little scratch of 40 bucks as it came down right here and then we turned around and got long right here for a potential upside Continuation runner upside volume runner Started to bounce almost got out of half at this point Didn't quite get there and then the market the overall market just flushed and Roku certainly went with it. So we held Got another got a volume spike right here And so we ended up adding right here took some serious heat on this one it continued to flush But you know, I don't again on these trades the the whole risk Management is based on position sizing and making sure that your position size correctly In this case, you know, I held I mean took a significant amount of heat I don't I don't close it out if I'm down a certain amount or anything like that I don't have a stop loss because I had not found that to be beneficial over time and certainly in this case it It worked out and it typically does now you're gonna have some, you know by by trading that way, you're gonna have some times when you hit a pretty decent loss, but Position size correctly held on held on The market started to bounce things turned around and this thing started to bounce And so I scaled out as this thing continued to move higher got out of my last piece right here, frankly You know, I thought it might continue to go higher, but I was just done for the day. So I ended up just closing it out Overall took a loss on the Roku runner of minus 960 So decent size loss there, but paired it back pretty decent on that bounce And then going on to the other runners. Oh wait to have another mighty 90 Oh, yeah, Tesla Tesla was our last mighty 90 and on this big push-up Had a little volume pop got short right here and just caught a little piece of that down move in Tesla for plus 330 and Then on to the other runners. So let's go to the Nasdaq So in Nasdaq had this when the market was flushing had this big massive volume spike Nasdaq S&P Dow all had it that the Nasdaq was the weakest at that point so I took it in the death so on this I took it in the Nasdaq so on this little bounce here got short and Scaled out of most of it right down here. I held one contract in case this thing continued to really fall apart It bounced and when I kind of was holding here, I ended up cutting the last one loose But still booked a nice profit of 323 Mu another nice runner In em you we booked 836. This is my biggest winner So had this initial push-up massive volume spikes didn't quite get as high as the first but kind of splitting hairs So on this pullback got long right here and got out of three quarters of the position right here It was up over a thousand dollars at that point held on to a quarter of it came back down Reloaded it bounced up. I think I closed out of That ad right there booked another nice profit and then you know it got caught in the flush with the rest of The market so did see some downside held up pretty decent compared to the rest of the market though And so I held on to that last quarter and then when this thing pushed back up closed it out held held on to one Contract just to see if we got some more strength when it started kind of chopping around ended up getting out I think right. I don't know right in this area here Maybe but still booked a nice profit of 836 and then let's see our next runner was neo I'm blaming Ramu Alde in our community for this one But I mean good signal just you know big massive volume spike here got short on the bounce I was really small in here But even even staying small ended up taking a loss of 462 this thing just really pushed against us Started to roll over thought we had a chance and then it just popped up when the market started to bounce So just ended up closing it out right here and and taking a loss on that one And that's it. So those are all the trades plus $50 for the day. So Not much but green nonetheless, so I'll take it Everybody have a good day. We'll be streaming live tomorrow on Friday and all next week. See you then


Good evening, everyone. I am Christina McGowan, Dean of the Library and University Librarian. Thank you for attending the Alumni Author Panel, a writer's journey to page and stage. This event is brought to you by the Office of Alumni Relations, the Dementa Nicelius Library, and the Office of Community and Lifetime Education. This alumni panel is one in a year-long series of events that the university is hosting in celebration of the 50th anniversary of women at Fairfield University. Today, October 20th, is the National Day on Writing, and what a fitting day to recognize the accomplishments of our alumni writers. This day is built on the premise that writing is critical to literacy, but needs greater attention and celebration. I am pleased to introduce our moderator for this evening, Carol Ann Davis, Professor of English at Fairfield University and Director of the MFA program. Carol Ann is a poet, essayist, and author of the poetry collections, Psalm and Atlas Hour, both from Tupelo Press. Her newest work, The Nail in the Tree, published by Tupelo this year, is a collection of essays in which Carol Ann narrates her experience of raising two sons in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, on the day of and during the aftermath of the shooting there. Carol Ann is the former longtime editor of the literary journal Crazy Horse and founding director of poetry in communities, an initiative that brings writing workshops to communities hit by sudden or systemic violence. Carol Ann. Thank you, Christina, and welcome everyone. This is so exciting to see so many familiar names and faces in the in the audience and to be here with these extinguished alumni to celebrate their work on this important day of the year and any kind time we get together. I'm just so excited nowadays because what writing can be solitary work and community is the key to keeping us going. So thank you so much for being here. We're going to go, we're going to go through our four writers in alphabetical order, Elena Dillon going first, Meredith Kaser going next, Lone Lee going after that, and Melissa Tantequigen-Zoval going last. But throughout this we're going to also leave a little time at the end for your questions and I'm totally happy for you to put them in the chat either to me privately or I'm going to, I'm going to be watching the chat also while I'm moderating. So feel free to put your questions in either ahead of time or when I ask for them. So thank you so much for all of you being here and for I have wonderful proud mama feelings even though I don't really have claim, you know, ownership of any of your wonderfully distinguished careers but it, but I get to be that person tonight as the director of the program. So without further ado, I will introduce Elena Dillon, who is the author of Mercy House, which is in development as a CBS all access television series, and the forthcoming the happiest girl in the world, which will be forthcoming from Harper Collins in April 2021. Her work has appeared in publications including lit hub, river teeth, slice magazine, the rumpest and bustle. And as so many of us do she teaches creative writing, and she lives on the beautiful North Shore of Boston. Elena, welcome. Thank you so much for having me it's an honor to be here. And it feels particularly relevant and special to be celebrating women at Fairfield University. My debut novel mercy house is about fierce and enthusiastic women who band together. And it was launched by a group of fierce and enthusiastic women so my two agents are female my, my film agents are female my editor copy editors publicist marketing professional there for all female and then Amy Schumer, who is producing it and the screenwriter so it's just a lot of collaboration by awesome women so. So, like, I'll guess I'll start where my brain in Fairfield you, I graduated the MFA program in 2011 as a nonfiction writer actually, and I wrote a memoir through the through the program and I revised it and I tried to submit it. And I was told repeatedly which maybe a lot of writers here have have heard that with nonfiction you need a very strong platform, either as a celebrity or you very neat you need a big following or you need a very significant story, personal story. So I was like, How do I build a platform maybe I'll just write some novels that will be easy. So I switched to fiction, and luckily for my third semester project where you get to kind of explore outside of your concentration. I studied screenwriting with Bill Patrick so I kind of had a foundation of how story structure might work. So I developed that and I wrote a bunch of different novels and it turned out it wasn't as easy as I thought it might be. So I wrote a novel and I got a representation which is a put like a huge feet in itself. She submitted it all around it didn't get much traction so I wrote another book she submitted it all around didn't get much traction wrote a third book. And at that point I switched agents and I wrote another book. So now I have four novels stacked as in addition to my nonfiction work. And the fourth novel was mercy house so it's my debut but it's certainly not my first book. And at the time I was represented by a male agent who read mercy house after reading my other books and found the main character so unlikable that he said if you're going to write books like this we can't work together. So I was just so attached to sister Evelyn who is the main character that I said I guess we can't work together. So that's when we parted ways. And I kept working at it I kept doing different versions where I fleshed out different aspects of the book. I got to know my characters much better. And then I got this representation about two years ago in 2018 and I had kept extending these deadlines where I thought to myself okay now I'm in my late 20s. I don't have I have all this part time works piece together my opportunity to have a career is kind of slipping through my fingers. If you look at you know my resume like what were you doing these last 10 years it's becoming so I kept making this deadline I'm going to I'm going to give up after this. If I don't have it by the end of this year if I don't have it by the end of next year and we kept extending the deadline and I swear this is the last time we were going to extend it. And then, yeah, then I got, I got another agent in May, and by August we had a publication deal and film interest. So it was just this like absurd thrill of a lifetime, especially after 10 years of it seeming like it was never going to happen so I was incredibly grateful for that and then the book came out in February right before a global pandemic. So, that has been interesting. You know, I've been wanting to see my book on a bookstore and then all bookstores are shuttered down. But it's it's been an unexpected gift that people have done these creative connective events like we're doing right now, where I get to to join readers in their living rooms, you know, virtually where they have their book clubs and maybe there's like more of a personal connection in that way so that's been a real gift. So, the book Mercy House. I forgot I didn't actually see what time I started here but very quickly, it was inspired by, since the Jesuit college was inspired by my time at St. Joseph's College in Long Island, where I met these awesome nuns. So the book is about Sister Evelyn who runs a woman shelter in Brooklyn and is investigated by the Vatican for breaking church doctrine at her women's shelter. And she is breaking church church doctrine so when the Bishop comes to visit. She has something to hide and all the residents of the house, kind of band together and share their voice and and work together to keep the the shelter open and it's kind of a me to movement. So, um, yeah, again I didn't see what time I started so I think that's probably about my time. Um, so thank you again so much for having me and if you anyone has any questions I'm happy to address them at the end. Thank you Elena that was wonderful and I didn't keep up with your time either but I promise I'll do better with the other three. Um, but it was wonderful. It was probably a little short but we will get to some questions at the end. And I look forward to seeing your book on a shelf one fine day. You too. An actual bookstore. When I brought a shelf. Yeah. So now we turn to Dr Meredith Kaiser, who is a 2001 PhD graduate of New York University Steinhardt School, and a 2015 graduate of Fairfield University's MFA program. In between those two things she became the Dean and still is the Dean of Fairfield University's top ranked, Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies. She does by day and in the margins or by night, I don't know she sneaks her creative writing into the margins of her busy life, including dedicating lots of time during residencies to her writing during the MFA. Prior to pursuing fiction, she published 11 professional nursing books and earned four American Journal of Nursing book of the year awards. So her journey to page is various and I'm looking forward to hearing more Meredith. Thanks Carolyn. Hi everybody. It's so great that you were able to join us tonight. I love nothing more than talking about my novel and my journey there so and Elena and I did not plan our comments but my journey actually was shockingly similar to her so I'll share a little bit about especially when it comes to the agents and all of that and yes please time me because I'm going to try to stay within my time. I tend to be a little on the tercer side so I could always add some stuff in the margins as you say.  And I had written a lot of professional nursing books and I actually was getting pretty good at it, you know, had won a couple of awards, it was looking really good. And just so you know, I love fiction I devour novels like a week ago by I could read two or three novels a week and constantly I was a Nancy Drew fan when I was really little always had a book in my hand and even now I'm reading this Kate Morton book from the library and I just just love reading. And so you know here I was so I write well professionally, I love to read novels, I should be able to write a novel right it's just and and I also had a story I lived in this house in New Haven. It was a Queen and Victorian. It was very unusual architecture for that area, most of the houses were built about 20 or 30 years later. So when I moved into the house I did some research about the bones of the house and found myself a good story so I said okay, I'm going to write a book I'm I have a story, I know how to write. I like to read novels that should all come together really nicely like that right. Well, like Elena is not quite as easy as it looks. So I, you know, I sat down and I wrote about the house and wrote wrote wrote and I thought okay I really nailed this this is just a dynamo story that's going to be on New York Times that's all over by the end of the week no doubt about that gave it to a few friends and you know people are very kind, but yeah, it was very clear that they're thinly they show that the book probably wasn't very good so I wanted to be honest with you this is probably 2010 2011 didn't I'm like okay well I guess I can't write I'm going to go back to reading books and writing professional novels. And then it occurred to me well not if you know you've had situations in your life before where you really didn't know what you were doing and somehow you figured it out what did you do well, you think because I was an educator that it occurred to me to go get some education, but after a couple years that's exactly what happened and I remember that Fairfield had an MFA program, and I made a few phone calls and just research. And I applied and I was very fortunate to be admitted to the program, which is on so this is back in I think 2012 2013 so was just took my story into this program and I was so very blessed to work with amazing faculty who taught me how to be a poet. But I did learn a few things about poetry, and I see Karen Osborn is on the call Karen and I wrote an article about the experience of older adults through dementia. And we looked at some novels. And it was just really and some of that ended up in my novel so through the course of the program also met amazing friends to who I'm not sure if they're on the call now but wonderful wonderful women I got to work with who helped to inspire me and drag me through this. At the beginning of the program I was not the dean and then through the program I became the dean so there was a little bit of a transition there. And then finish the novel shortly after the program and did the same thing. I tried to get an agent I remember one of the workshops I went through with the MSA said you know you think you send it to one or two agents and you get one but now you have to send one that I ended up finding with. And we, she sent it out to a lot a lot of people and eventually I got a small press that ended up publishing the novel it came out. So in 2019 I got an amazing editor through that program who really shaped it up and made it look a lot better. And here is my novel, The Keeping House which I'm so very very proud of. It is a fraction of the novel that I wrote it's you know it's only like 250 pages there but I wrote like thousands of pages before. There's about a fearless nurse, a fearless young woman who is kind of down on her luck novel open as she's sitting on the front steps of this house. And waiting for their own party real estate agent to come and show it to her she's really down on her luck and her husband recently died left her with a ton of debt. And she talks to mother and to buy in this house with her, and over the course of the moving in they start to discover all of the house's secrets. And the house weaves back and forth between this contemporary story and the original owners and builders of the house who planted some of these secrets. And there's a lot of little intermingling and twists and turns of the plot and it's a little surprise ending at the end and yeah so that's pretty much it. It's not going to win any great Pulitzer prizes or anything but I'm proud of it. And it's an easy read it's a fun easy read it's got some good reviews and that's pretty much my story. How'd I do. You did great you did five minutes. Yeah, but it was, it's exciting and I'm getting all kinds of good ideas for questions I hope that people and the people are people out there are thinking of questions for all of our writers that was wonderful Meredith and I didn't I didn't remember that you actually became now I do I remember the dean, you becoming a dean, like during it but. Yeah, so I started the program in 2013 I think and I became the dean in 2014 so and I didn't think you and I had worked together. Yeah, it was, it was a lot become the dean so we worked out the different you're very flexible I think. One, life requires flexibility if we didn't know that before this year we certainly do now right. Yes. Yeah. Thank you Meredith. You're welcome thanks. Now, Lone, lonely holds an MFA degree in fiction from Fairfield, a push cart prize nominated writer, her short stories have appeared in craft literary mud season review and Angel City review. Lone is an editor at this is terrible loan is it atria books. Yes. Okay, atria atria atria books which is an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Atria is in Manhattan. A fo love story is her first novel. And you can visit her website. I'll put them in the chat for you, put it in the chat for you but it's visitor website at writer lonely dot me and find her on Twitter at loan loan. Um, so I'm really excited to be here. So yeah so a fall love story is my debut why you're on come. It's about two Vietnamese American teenagers, whose parents own rival restaurants, and they end up falling in love and also figuring their life path because you know they're expected to follow a certain a certain path but they're also exploring creative paths and they want to figure out how to have to do that so yeah it's it's, I think it's a heartwarming story about family about love about dedication. It's actually my, you know, my first YA kind of work. So from the very beginning, I guess, what made me a writer I think I'm definitely an introvert. I definitely have an overactive imagination and I just remembered my childhood always just being inside my head, making up stories. But I didn't really think that it could amount to anything until maybe college college is when I was began to be really serious about writing. I love the English department at Fairfield I took a bunch of the regular English courses but also fiction nonfiction poetry which is mind boggling Caroline like poetry is just another level. And, but my major was journalism and I think that was my first career path I wanted to do. Initially, I was part of the mirror for my whole four years from being a writer to editor in chief, and I was pretty serious about journalism and considering it as a career path until I got my first first internship at Simon and shoots to where I'm currently working and I got a really close look at how books work and how writing works and how I just wanted to be one of those authors, you know, who whose books are like taken care of by these people who are pretty easy passionate about about writing. So, I guess, I was really serious but then after after college, I graduated in 2014, and a week later I went right to work at seven juicer as an editorial assistant. I think I decided to go into the MFA program because I was feeling stuck. I think I was like two years in as an editorial assistant and I felt as if I was like losing my passion and writing itself in the act of writing and I never wanted to do that I always wanted to keep this like I wanted a career obviously because those two are sometimes they are mixed together but sometimes they need to be separate. You can't you can't be defined by career like I, I love the idea of being defined by your passion as a person. So, I went to the MFA program, I applied and I, it was like the only, it was the only MFA program I applied to because I heard such great things about it most of the professors I've already learned from that as an undergraduate. And it was really a life changing experience for me because I don't I think I always like structure when I'm being taught and MFA really taught me structure taught me to really love, fall in love with the craft of writing, not just learning how to write but why I'm learning. I just learned so many things from the different mentors and the one on one aspect of this program where a writer and educator writer and educator in one, they get paired up with the writer. They teach you along the way they see your work as it's developing. I always love this aspect of writing where you're constantly improving yourself and to see that, you know, improvement over time, I just, I just really enjoyed it. And in the program I was mostly doing, I was only doing short stories really. And it was more of adult, bleak, traumatic stories, I think, which I still write. And then towards the end I got more interested in the supernatural like ghostly kind of stories, especially with Vietnamese folklore, which I really enjoyed and I still write that. But, but after I graduated in 2017 I was, I didn't think I had a clear publishing plan like I think I wanted to just keep on writing keep on improving and writing and then gradually placing my short stories and that's what I did I took my time to please short stories. I was on the web on imprint as well. And then I think in 2018. So this is where like this journey I think is a little interesting it's unusual but it actually happens more often in a mix. I'm really excited to share it because it's something that I think writers could consider doing. I got an email out of the blue from an editor, who's my current editor, and she said hey I know you write. I've seen you work online. I have an idea. And she, this is the idea that is now the book. She was like, would you be interested in auditioning for the story that has these American teenagers, a restaurant kind of bribery, something heartwarming about family. And I was like okay tell me more like this is amazing. So she sent me a very brief outline and asked for some pages. And for me, I was, I think I've done one of these before it's it's essentially an intellectual project property project, meaning the idea is formed in house. And it's just an idea, and then people hire writers to write it. And sometimes IP is where the writer is very kind of silent the writer is just writing it it's not their identity it's not their kind of career on the line. And this one's a little different because, because I have the copyright I was able to negotiate for copyright for my book and it's essentially my book and the outline, I was able to kind of break it apart so that it was longer than the intended. I think it was 15 pages of what I envisioned for this novel and during this process, I think, I was trying not to get my hopes up because I auditioned before for IP. And IP also, there's Nancy Drew babysitters club gossip girls that's IP. A lot of the comics and for Marvel, for example are also IP. So when I was auditioning I didn't want to get my hopes up because I had auditioned before and not for this one but for another think tank and it didn't work out and I was like, Oh, no no I tried so hard and then nothing happened so I just tried to put my heart into it I tried to be very honest as well this was the first time writing about someone from my background, my age into the story I used to beat me is my beat me is language, this experience with my mom as well. And then a week later after submitted materials, the outline and the first 15 pages. I heard, you know, they loved it and they wanted to offer on it, which was the best news ever because I was, I was in a spinning class and I almost fell off my bike. But yeah, from there, it's a little backwards but I was able to interview with three agents, and I picked one of them, who's, who's amazing has he's just, he's he's a guy to but he's been just come like extraordinary. But he came in and he like a negotiated a better offer and things like that. So I really love my agent. But yeah, it's in that so it took like about two, like a year and a half to write the full novel. And my editor was actually really hands off with it she was just like right, because she was trusted the outline I wrote and she just said just write it just write the whole entire thing doesn't make sense for me to come in when you're writing something fresh at all so had a lot of fun. I was torturing myself because I'm not good at deadlines. And I was also working full time I'm still working growth full time as an editor which is means my brain is going to explode one day, because of the words and everything. But, but yeah, and then it got, you know, it was such a great journey. I learned the art of editing as well from, you know, my editor and we have arcs so now arcs is it's being sent out it's already sent out to indies and media and books to Graham and it's starting to crop up on, you know, like websites, and it was in buzzfeed recently So the marketing and foolishly my plan is just Oh, thank you Carolyn. It's just starting to begin like I'm chatting with them next week about pre orders and and things like that so So yeah so I think one of the questions that we had was, are there things you wish you had known or had done differently and for me I wish I was better with deadlines, giving myself more time to write Because I think I was stressed out a lot of times. And I guess another question was, do you have advice for anyone who's thinking of starting a journey. I have so many. So many things that I would say to any writer be excited about it be passionate always be committed to learning, all the time, all the time like you can't you're there's nothing. There's nothing that there's no perfect writer. So, so I think you should just remember that because it's constant improvement. It's deadening yourself to craft and understanding what you're writing. I encourage writers to submit and peel and always and celebrate the rejections celebrate the, you know, the winds but rejections are amazing too. It hardens you to the rejection that you'll have all throughout your life. And, and I think surround yourself to with writers and just good people that people celebrate you who lend you a listen at an ear whenever you're you're kind of crazed kind people I think that makes that really I love. And then the last one about sorry I'm actually going through the 50 50 fear of women at Fairfield being woman. I'm really proud to be a woman I'm proud to come from a family of very strong women very very strong.  So, but yeah, I think, I think this whole journey. I've never been held back as a woman. I don't think it's right for people do that I know it happens and I really hate that it happens but I think it's, I don't know, it's for me it's been such a power powering journey. And I think I went over overboard. Sorry. Well I was mesmerized. So, you know, the timekeeper was happy. And I actually thinking about your mother I remember one of your very first poems for my class was was a beautiful poem about her I think, yeah many years ago now, maybe seven years ago now. So, last but certainly not least we have Melissa Tanta quidgin zobel, and she is the medicine woman of the Mohegan tribe of uncle's in Uncusville, Connecticut. Tanta quidgin zobel's first book publication was a biography of her met mentor medicine woman Gladys Tanta quidgin titled medicine trail with, and it was published by University of Arizona Press in the year 2000. In writing her MFA from Fairfield in 2012 she moved into fiction, writing the young adult murder mystery Wabanaki blues, published by poison pencil press in 2015, which I think I that's where I became aware of you, Melissa. At the request of director Steve Nash, she began writing screenplays in 2017 and her screenplay flying birds diary about the woman who saved the Mohegan language has won dozens of dozens of awards, but has been slow to receive funding. In 2020 she entered the full length stage play version of flying birds diary in Eugene O'Neill theaters, national playwrights conference and together she and Tara Moses who is from the seminal Indigenous people became the first to Native American playwrights to advance to the finals. In the same year I think which is kind of exciting. So Moses and Tanta quidgin zobel's plays will both advance to the finalist round which is exciting because it's happening now. At the request of the national playwrights conference in 2012 zobel's collaborative stage project up and down the river with her daughter stage director and playwright Madeline say yeah, say yeah, say yeah, say yeah was commissioned by Hartford's heartbeat ensemble. It's a five part radio drama, and it will be broadcast in its entirety soon during the week of November 20, and it chronicles the struggles of Mohegan leaders from the 17th century through the 20th along the river we call home. One of the things I just like to say reading all that is to say that one of the marks of a writer and what something we encourage is the variety, and many people have spoken about moving genre. And you are, you are a great example of that as our, I think everybody here, but like really like moving among three genres just in that bio so welcome Melissa and tell us about your journey. Thank you so much. This is really thrilling to me to be at this celebration of women here with you today. For many reasons, but the series you just talked about up and down the river is about Connecticut at a time when Connecticut was a matriarchy, because the indigenous people of Connecticut, you know the women here we all really kind of ran the show. So, what's really interesting about about that piece, I think from an outside perspective is that it looks at how those women lost their power in the colonial era, how that power just appeared, and how they spent the next four centuries trying to get it back, because it happens over time. So it's, it's kind of apropos to everything that you're doing here. But I did want to do a real shout out to the NFA program and thank them because one of the things that I've noticed some other folks talk about is turning I guess Meredith mentioned that you take you take your weaknesses and turn them into your strengths right the place is where you really are failing. And when I entered the program. I had a real hard time with seed. I don't know what it was about seed, you know, and I'll give you an example so I wrote, I wrote these two books which like, I don't really want anybody to look at or look for anywhere except they have great covers, gorgeous covers right, but the scenes are terrible. They're just terrible. This one just got a shout out in the New York Times this week because it's like a founding mother of Native American sci fi and I was thinking oh God please don't please don't read that. But in any case, the rest of them, after my MFA program, I started to learn a little bit about seeing these two, especially this one. And so much so that, as I told you, a Hollywood director said you know, I read your book, and I think you can write screenplays, and I'm thinking. Oh, dear God it's all seen, right. That's my first thought is, this is my ultimate nightmare. There's nothing else but seeing. It's just seeing after seeing after seeing after seeing. He said oh no it's there you can you can do it but I did have some, some great professors who helped me was seen, and I guess that would be, you know, would be Da and Da Chan and Karen Osborne and Eugene Kim. Shout out to Da on the other side, you know, always saying give it your whole.  And then you learn to overcome your biggest obstacle in this case which is seen, and seen is now to the point where, after I finished writing the screenplays, I started to move into stage plays. And I thought, well, I might as well try it I mean how different can that be. And my daughter is a play right. And it's sort of irritating for her because I think people think she got it for me but actually I got it from her which is sort of a reverse, you know thing. But Flying Bird's diary did exceptionally well and again I credit my greatest weakness which is seen, because you know there's not a lot of description in place really. It's all just dialogue and scene. So, I kind of don't understand now why I didn't understand it, but I found it, you know, super challenging so I know we're getting close on time so I guess we know we're not we're okay. Other things that you wanted to talk about, you know things that you would do differently. I would have liked to learn scene first before I wrote the other two novels I'll be completely honest about that so that would, I would say if you do have a major weakness. That's a really good reason to go into an MFA program even if it's just one. And I think for a long time what I felt was, I'll just work through this. And now that was not the answer. So I guess that's all I've got I really am admiring of the other, the other writers because I've never had an agent. I've never had any kind of representation. I still don't have any other place. Yeah, I just don't know what that is I'm just so excited for you I'm thinking it must be a beautiful thing. And, and yet I just kind of you know I'm just kind of a plotter, but but it is a little different with stage right because you're looking for workshops, you're looking so you're the fun thing that I think you all would enjoy if you haven't done stage places. Other people help you make them better on a regular basis you know you, you workshop plays and so the places in your stories where maybe they're a little rough. You're working through them as a team, and I, I think that's a very different process than most of us I know loan talked about having friends. And Meredith talked about having people who read her her works and all but it's very different to actually have people speaking the words and saying, can I say it this way. Can I try this. And, and I'm finding that a lot of fun for anyone who enjoys that process, you know working with actors who are engaged in it and, and I think for me that's a different kind of writing that really works. Thank you. That was wonderful. All of you were so wonderful I'm I'm applauding for everyone here, because it was really inspiring and the themes and the threads were clear, you know, celebrating rejection. Meaning into weaknesses, taking your time, seeking out community, I mean it was amazing how much it all went together, given how much, how little, how lightly we planned it all. And I think we have all fall together because writing is about those, those very essential sort of exercises that are almost spiritual in nature. So, yeah, Meredith. I didn't answer any questions in my, in my couple minutes but I will share one other thing if we have a minute that I did learn from the whole process and that was to check your ego at the door. One thing that I felt was very helpful was to just be vulnerable to be open to the feedback from your friends to learning new things, which is hard for all of us I think but it was a decision I had made consciously in becoming a student. I was an academic administrator to just, just, this was probably going to be my last experience educational experience and I wanted to it to be an educational experience so I really felt I had to, to just really just be open to all of the feedback that people were so generous and kind to share with me. Making that sort of along with the celebrating rejection right. That kind of goes with that. We are starting to get a few questions in the chat. Diane asks, she has a personal essay about 2000 words or so on a positive spin on Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's journey with her mom and she's wondering about any tips I think she may be any tips and getting published maybe. It sounds like it's done 2000 words or so. Any thoughts about placing it. I mean I know about poets and writers there's like a really good on poets poets and writers.org you can search out different magazines with different specific interests and find one Meredith did you have your hand up. Yeah, so we would be happy we have a journal that one of my colleagues who's also a nurse enrolled in the MFA program. Dr Susan Bartos is the editor in chief of a journal that fear field publishes through our library here with Dr. Susan Bartos and all of our wonderful staff up there. It's called sauna which is self actualization through self actualization through nursing arts but it we do focus on different diseases and those kinds of experiences. So feel free to reach out to me or my colleague Susan, and we'd be happy to take a look at that for you or advise you in any other way but good for you good job writing that that I'm, I'm sure that was a very helpful process. Thank you for the challenges coming from a gerontological nurse practitioner perspective. And I can understand that that must have been a really difficult experience for you and I'm hoping that it was somewhat healing to write that so happy to work with you on that if that's helpful. Great, thank you. And now we have another question for the group it sounds like everyone came in wanting to be a writer or pro or with prior writing experience. I think you found most helpful for you by joining the formal MFA program and what did you learn about yourself you didn't expect. And Elena, I'll jump in. So what I found to be super valuable and I think I've heard this a lot, talking to other MFA alums is the community that you create that you continue to lean on after graduation. So I for one am a terrible self editor, like developmentally speaking so if I'm looking at a novel, I know that it's weak, but I can't quite identify why. And I really benefit from readers. So I still kind of tap on my friends from my MFA program like you want to swap, or can I owe you a favor. And then their their feedback is just incredibly valuable. And, and as soon as somebody points something out, like, I zoom in and I'm like, of course that was it how did I not see that all along. And just kind of discussing character motivation or how the plot should go just let that kind of conversation helps me understand my story better. And then in addition to that that mentor relationship that you have with your faculty mentor, where they kind of go back and forth on your work in a really practical way mirrors your relationship with your agent and then your editor. And that kind of sets a kind of an example of how you'll operate later when you're when you're, you know, moving forward in the publication process so it's nice to have that foundation and to know how to work with somebody's feedback and how to have those conversations, when you're really applying it in the in the public in the publishing process. I absolutely agree with that. That's, that was such a great way of explaining it, especially the community aspect I think, I think people, I think what Carolyn was saying that writing with is solitary and that's very true and then people forget that we need people, we need other people we need that warmth we need that community. I'm still very close with my MFA cohort and and we have our own separate, you know, writing group that we, you know, it's been on pause because the pandemic but that has helped so much. I really appreciate the mentorship aspect as well like you mentioned it's very it's it is very true like it's someone who is focusing very like zooming so closely into your work and viewing it as as as yours. Versus like when you're like in a classroom or something. Or I mean, like a general workshop, where it's like one person trying to look at multiple people's work for the mentorship it's like this one mentor that's maybe doing at most three students at a time and they really look at your journey and they. I love the aspect of writing craft essays especially I know that's a little odd to say but the craft part. It's just identifying pieces, like sometimes things that you're using your writing or techniques that you're using your writing and, and thinking about it more. That really helped a lot, because it's like the foundation for your writing it's stuff stuff that lessons that you learn from this mentor and these essays and applying it to your life, life work of, of, of things. It doesn't apply to one specific novel or something it's all writing for a lifetime so. Yeah, Melissa or Meredith I don't know if you wanted to answer that or comment. Go ahead Melissa if you want to go first I feel like I've been talking a lot. I would definitely concur with Elena and loan the experience of community within the MFA program was a really unanticipated and really wonderful benefit. The first day of the program so here I am kind of this older woman walking into a new master's program thinking there'll be a lot of young people and, and there was a key there was a really great age range so. I met two of the best friends of my life in the program we continue to get together all of the time and got a zoom schedule session scheduled for next week, and celebrate each other and support each other, and help each other writing moving along our writing so I think that's really one of the really great benefits of the program the community of writers and also just as you said staying in touch with our mentors. It has been just such a wonderful experience. I, outside of the MFA program I have not been able to find that same type of community of writers. So I'm so grateful to continue to have that community I know one of the next questions that came through is how to find that. And I can't give any great advice on that unfortunately but very grateful for my continued involvement with the MFA program. Melissa, or Melissa, did you want to chime in. So yeah my story is a little different than that because in terms of community it was really interesting when I was growing up there weren't a lot of Native American writers, the Native American writing Renaissance kind of took place as I was growing up. And so I, I knew a few people and they were iconic to me, you know they weren't really my community they were just these luminaries and some of you may have heard of Joseph Bruschak has written several hundred books about the native northeast and he's a personal friend and was, was really a mentor. So there was no community in terms of finding other native writers except the one or two here and there and in 1992 when I went to the first ever Native Writers Conference in the country. I just had no idea they're all these other people and that was kind of wonderful. But, but because our subject matter is so hard to write about and so different. I was just really grateful for the diversity of professors at Fairfield, who could at least kind of zero in on some of that and I found that, particularly with Eugenia and da to professors who really had a very international experience, and, you know, really had such a great awareness about them that they could really embrace something that was so different than than what they had actually experienced and, and that that is in that sense that was a community connection that I did find. Thank you Melissa Elena did you have something to add. I think I saw you. You know, I was just moving on to the next question. Yeah. Please go. So the next question is asking about social media and how and what that that plays, or how that factors into finding community as writers. And so I don't know how many of you are part of the binders full of women group on Facebook. So it's, it's kind of a playoff of Mitt Romney's binders full of women, but it's just a huge community of thousands of female writers. So you can ask, and then they have subdividers for all different genres. So like there was one that was forth like forthcoming 2020 so there we were able to discuss a lot of the problems we were facing as being debuts during the pandemic and different ideas for promotion and because like a lot of bookstore events even virtually have preferred authoring conversations so it's been a good way to kind of team up and find people that want to have a conversation. So that's been really helpful but the general binders full of women is has been a place where I asked like these really obscure random questions but the community is so huge that somebody is relevant. Like, for instance, with the book that's forthcoming in April, which I have an arc is, yeah, is about a gymnast who's training for the Olympics and all of the losses that that that people have to sacrifice in order to achieve greatness and I'm not a gymnast, I've never practiced gymnastic gymnastics but that was going to be a huge aspect and so I needed an expert who was a writer and a gymnast to be my to be a reader. So I asked and I, you know, offer, I was going to offer payment and I actually ended up landing the ghost writer for Ali Raston's memoir. So it was a huge win for me that I had this like extremely qualified writer and gymnast to be my authenticity reader and she was absolutely invaluable so. So there are communities like that and that that give you access to a lot of different kinds of people. And then, as far as like connecting with readers and things Instagram has been very valuable because that's, you don't have to be connected to people with them, they can just tag you when they've read your book and offer a review. And in that way you connect with readers and you see your your book in the hands of people even when you're inside. So that's been really fun and connecting with hashtags and things like that to different writing groups to try to get yourself flagged on to other people's feeds even if you're not connected with them as a strategy that I'm still learning but the resources have been have been particularly helpful for me. And earlier on. Sorry, earlier on in people's writing I'm not sure whether Paul's question had to do with one of books or the seeking of affinity groups which you covered both of those, Elena but the third major community of writers is the one that we were talking about happens at the MFA program and I think that I mean as a director of an MFA I've seen people, you, a few of you talked about sort of topping out in terms of what you could learn inside community writing groups. Right so like, you know, and I think when we, we can even get to the point where we have figured out a craft issue at that level like that. So community writing groups are really amazing kind of step for people I think like the Westport writers group or I mean there's, you know, so just to say not only on social media but in the world there are there are not MFA programs. In my mind, that can be a step when you when you really get to the end of the utility of those but you still have craft things you're trying to learn. Or as Melissa was saying I can't do scene and you're just very aware of something like that. I think that can often be the step at which an MFA program is the next step. I don't know if any of you can speak to that kind of seeking of community loan you had it as an undergrad you had a community of undergrad, you know, writers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was, I was, I think I didn't realize it until like senior year where capstone. The capstone was really fun it was great to be exposed and there is like a some this writer Lee who I'm I still talk to it's from time to time created this whole like a different kind of magazine it was like it folded up into eight pieces and it was like ton of art. Why did I just forget the name I feel so bad Wagner, Wagner is the name of the magazine. Yeah, the name of the student though. Yeah, it's just so good because it's just it. You have you remember, you remember why you write when you're in a community they share their passion with you and you can celebrate them. I think I'm a tool another tool that writers can. Well, I go back and forth sometimes because there's Twitter, I feel like I sometimes I'm in a vacuum, where there's I feel like book polishing is all on Twitter and I just follow a bunch of. I have all my friends and stuff we follow like you know agents and other editors and, and things. It could be a good tool because it's a way to kind of celebrate small celebrations like you know this author tweets they finished their draft great like that's amazing congrats. They placed it at this magazine great awesome. At the same time, it does kind of open up this thing where you're like oh what like you're kind of measuring yourself against this person on Twitter, that's unhealthy. So I think there's a point to social media where you probably should step away. And that's why the in person things. Like I had an undergrad and also my favorite program and there's Westport writing I've heard great things there's in New York, you're based there there's Gotham writers group. 90 second why as well. But yeah. Does anybody have any closing we're just about out of time we want to respect the zoomness of things it might have gone over but on zoom people are. You know, it's very incredible to, you know, have one hour of someone zoom time so we're very grateful Karen saying congratulations and Karen's one of our wonderful faculty. If you are interested in learning more about this wonderful community of writers and find out more you could email me at see Davis at fairfield.edu as I'm the I'm the director of the MFA program. I couldn't be more grateful for the community that has sustained each other and myself over this this long year. And I just, I loved hearing from all of you congratulations and thank you so much and thank you to the Christina and everybody behind the scenes who hosted alumni affairs and have a wonderful evening everyone and definitely email me if you want to know more about the MFA. Thanks everyone.


If you're someone who struggles with anxiety, there's a very valuable lesson to be learned from the whole graveyard girl and Starbucks situation. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution.  And sometimes what I like to do is take different things from YouTube or TV shows or movies and things like that and talk about mental health so I can help you out a little bit better. So if that's something that you're into, make sure you subscribe, ring the little notification bell if you want to be the first to get notified whenever I post content on YouTube, all right? But anyways, for those of you who aren't in the know, let me do a quick little recap about what's going on with Graveyard Girl, her real name's Bunny and Starbucks. So basically she uploaded a video and there was a lot of stuff she was posting online about how mad she was at Starbucks. So she made this video explaining and I'm not going to say the whole thing like I don't want to get into the drama aspect of it, but basically she was getting free refills from Starbucks for years, right? She was friends with the baristas and all sorts of stuff. And they said that the policy had changed. See, Bunny was going through the drive through at Starbucks and she would come back like four times a day and get free refills. They said, hey, policy's changed. You want to get those free refills? You got to come inside or you got to pay for them. So Bunny goes on this huge rant and talks about how she isn't going to go to Starbucks anymore and she can't go inside because she has anxiety and I get that, okay? So that's kind of where we are right now. The internet blew up.  Bunny has since taken that video down, all right? So basically, I want to start out with this. I first found out about graveyard girl like my girlfriend knew about her, but I didn't. Like, I'm kind of new to YouTube still and I found out about her through Shane Dawson series and talking to her and she struggles with anxiety and other mental health issues and she's trying to like reignite her channel. And to be completely honest, I think she made a misstep with this video. Shane encouraged her to make more videos of getting vulnerable and talking about, you know, her life and things like not just, you know, her unboxings and like trying out different products and stuff. Like, and I think she made a misstep. You know, she was like, oh, this is a good topic. This is something that really happened to me. And she didn't quite get the reception that she was expecting. So anyways, I found out about this situation because YouTube just recommends a billion videos. And there was a bunch of like, I just kept getting videos like graveyard girl on Starbucks. I'm like, what happened with graveyard girl on Starbucks? So I watched a few videos just to kind of see what was going on. And so the first thing I want to say is, is this really interesting to me? How many of these videos commenting on this situation? Like how many people made these videos? And they said, I get it. I struggle with anxiety too. Anxiety and depression. She suffers from bad anxiety. I suffer from anxiety. So I understand that she put this down to being like an anxiety thing. Somebody with anxiety, I totally get that the change of routine or something like that can really like mess with your mental state and like give you anxiety even worse. We all relate to your anxiety. I don't know one person that does not have anxiety, social awkwardness or anything like that. Like, I'm not saying anything either way, but I just want you the audience to think about that for a second. Like, is it coincidental that everybody making a commentary on this, not everybody, but a lot of people making a commentary on it. They say, I get it. I struggle with anxiety too. Like I, the channel trailer right now currently for my channel is you're not mentally ill and I talk about how people are perpetuating the stigma and kind of deluding the whole mental health thing by people just throwing around words all willy nilly. Like, I'm anxious too, or I'm depressed too. Because like when you're saying that and you haven't been diagnosed or you don't really have it, it's really minimizing other people with legitimate disorders. So like, again, I'm not saying the people who made their commentary videos haven't been diagnosed with anxiety, but it's just something I want you to think about like statistically more people are suffering from anxiety than ever before. So it's very well possible that all these commentators do have anxiety. So it's possible, but I just wanted to point that out because it's also possible that, you know, people are just saying this, you know what I mean? They're like, well, I get nervous too sometimes. So I have anxiety. Like it's, it's different. Okay, I've made a ton of videos about how anxiety is much different when you have a clinical disorder than it is for just like normal nervousness and worries and things like that, which is something that everybody gets. So I just want to start out and point that out a little bit. So anyways, here's my take on it. And here's the lesson I want all of you to learn from this. Okay. So a lot of people pointed this out, you know, some of the videos that I just referenced, they pointed this out like, you know, here's the thing. I had to realize like I got diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder. Okay. I've had a lot of social anxiety issues, just all sorts of anxious, everything, right? And something I had to accept and realize a long, long, long time ago is that the world is not going to change just for me. Okay. This is one of the reasons why I suggest that all of you, you know, practice meditation and keep a journal and write a gratitude list, because our brains default into a selfish, self-centered place. We think me, me, me, me, this is affecting me. Everybody else needs to change because of me, right? And that's where I take issue. And this is something that I hope Bunny learns. Like I know the struggle of anxiety. And I'm not just saying that I've been diagnosed. I take anti-anxiety medications, non-narcotic anti-anxiety medications. And like I understand that, but until I accepted the fact, the fact that people, places and situations are not going to change because of this, I wasn't going to get anywhere because it's fighting against the current.  You're setting this unrealistic expectation that everybody is going to not only know that you have this mental illness, but they're also going to cater to it. That is extremely unrealistic. And once I let go of that idea, I started getting better. I started realizing what I could do in my life to manage my anxiety without just blindly walking into situations thinking that everybody was going to change just because I have anxiety. Like I would get really, really anxious going to grocery stores or going to any other stores or going to the mall or public places. I would get really anxious in crowded spaces, right? So it would be like me saying like, okay, well, since I have anxiety, nobody should go to these stores or malls or anything like that, because I have anxiety and everything's about me. Like do you kind of see how that sounds? So this is a call to action for you. Like you have to work on these things. You have to figure out your own workarounds. When you acknowledge and accept your symptoms of mental illness and you start creating workarounds, your symptoms start to decrease and your life gets a whole lot easier. So I want to reference a story that happened a few months ago, where there was this thing that blew up online because of an Eminem concert, okay? So Eminem was doing a show. I forgot which show it was or where it was or whatever.  And I think fire went off too. And people were tweeting out about how insensitive it was because of, you know, different mass tragedies going on in the country, especially at that time. There was a lot of stuff in schools and things like that. Like, and they were saying how insensitive it was. And, you know, I think one tweet went viral from some celebrity who said they were at the show and they said they have PTSD and there needs to be a warning and da da da da da. And this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Like, I'm actually like, even though I'm a mental health advocate and I want to increase awareness and decrease the stigma, like I agree with Eminem. Like Eminem came out and like they said, like, we're not changing anything. We've been doing this same sound effect for years. We're not changing anything. And I'm like, good, because our mental health is our responsibility to take care of, you know what I mean? Like we have to acknowledge like when, like, especially if you struggle with PTSD and loud noises and things like that, like you have to be more mindful about what you're doing, where you're going, is there a possibility of this? And that way, if you're preparing yourself when you go into it, you either A, you don't go or you're prepared for it. And hopefully you develop coping skills to deal with it.  Like, for example, even though I had a lot of social anxiety and didn't like crowded spaces, like I love going to concerts. I love going to shows. So I had to figure out ways to deal with that. But at the end of the day, this is a good thing because it also makes you really, really resilient to these situations. And it helps to decrease your symptoms. Like, I can go anywhere I want to now. And my anxiety is minimal because I have become more resilient to those situations. And this is the last thing I'm going to say. And this is something I'm going to continue to say whenever I see a YouTuber discuss their mental health issues. And again, I don't know bunny. I don't know graveyard girl. I don't know if she's seeing a therapist. But like, if you watch the Shane Dawson series, like graveyard girl is balling, like she has money out of control, right? Like, girl, make sure you're getting help. Because that's the other thing. Like, when we're talking about the selfishness and self-centeredness, right? Like, we expect the entire world to change and bend around our mental illness. Yet when we have the resources to go get help, we're not getting any help. So we want everybody to do what we think they should do. But we're not doing the thing that can possibly improve our quality of life and mental health. So I like I said, I don't know if she's seeing a therapist. But if not girl, go see a therapist, go see a doctor, like start working through this stuff. Okay. And I'm going to make some videos eventually, because like, as I continue to grow, I know I'm going to get backlash when I keep telling people to go get help. So I'm going to make some videos about that because I understand how how scary it is, how how hard it is, how some people don't like asking for help. I get that. But we need to make a change if we want to improve. And if you need help or you need to work with a therapist, I have a better help link down below. It's online affordable therapy. If you can afford it, check it out. All licensed professionals, my girlfriend loves it. She struggles with anxiety, and she's been making massive improvements since working with a therapist on better health. So check it out if you would like to. All right. But anyways, let me know your thoughts down below about do you think the world should bend to your needs if you struggle with anxiety? Let me know down in the comments. All right. But that's all I got for you today. So if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up.  Make sure you click the subscribe button and a huge, huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon and trying to help me spread a message of hope to anybody struggling with mental illness. All right. That's all I got for you today. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you next time.