Story Rebel
Learn how your story can help you grow your business, spread your message, and make an impact in the world.
Live on air
I let the call go to voicemail, like I almost always do. Because I’m a millennial, sure. But also, because c’mon. It’s almost always a scam: a fake marketing agency offering to represent my book at Famous International Book Festival, or a trademark lawyer telling me to call them immediately about my Story Rebel filing, or—my fave—the IRS warning me that they’ve put a warrant out for my arrest. Anyway, I was rolling my bike out the door on my way to dinner when my phone began to buzz. I was in...
Story + structure = published author
A year ago, a guy from South Philadelphia came up to me after my talk at the 2025 Willamette Writers Conference. His name was George E. Keller, and he'd come to the conference with one goal, and one goal only: to finish his book. George had been working on his memoir for fourteen years. And he had material—wowwww did he have material. George had Bookzilla. He knew his superpower—he can tell stories for hours on end. And he knew his weakness—he's dyslexic, and "not much of a writer." So he did...
Forget outlining
I clicked on one of those ads the other day. You probably get them too—especially if your phone knows that you're trying to write a book. This one read, "Outline Your Million Dollar Book Idea in 15 Minutes!" So it clicked because, yeah, I've written a good number of books. But none of them have yet to make me $1 million, and none of them were outlined in 15 minutes. The ad sent me to a $17 digital product, and I figured that was worth paying, if only so I could see what the competition had to...
From stalled out to a finished draft—in 4 months
For twelve years, people told Meadow Rae Khoury she should write a book. (Twelve years! That's a lot of "you shoulds.") Meadow runs a doggy daycare, where she teaches dogs how to be dogs—and people how to "speak" dog. Every time she shared something with one of her dog's parents that shifted their understanding, they told her, "You should write a book!" Meadow wasn't so sure at first. She worried she didn't have enough to say. She wasn't much of a writer. She didn't know how to organize the...
You're allowed to write a page-turner
My husband begged me to put down my book last night and come to bed. I started to protest that I was almost at the end—only to realize that I was actually at the 80% mark. Still at least an hour's worth of twisty-turny reveals before I could close my eyes. Reluctantly, I closed the book. "If you weren't here, I would have read all night," I told him. "Good thing I'm here," he said. Of course, when I woke up at 4am and my brain was buzzy, I grabbed my e-reader for another chapter or two ......
Wait—show me how you did that!
A few weeks ago, a handful of business friends and I got to be heroes. We didn't set out to be heroes, of course. We were just on a routine trip—and then the spaceship we were on lost power. Critical systems had gone offline. We were the only ones that could save the ship... and we had exactly 60 minutes to do it. Okay, okay. So we were in an escape room. But we still banded together and saved the day by solving a lot of complicated puzzles. Have you done an escape room before? A friend of...
The art of fighting
I read Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering as I was organizing the first Author Alchemy Summit in 2024, on the recommendation of one of my clients. It's all about creating meaningful experiences in groups of all sizes—whether you're joining a couple of friends for a happy hour, gathering with extended family for a holiday dinner, running a meeting, or organizing a conference. How do you set the container for the gathering? How do you spark and guide meaningful conversation? How do you make...
Using AI without losing your voice
Professionally, I run in a handful of very separate circles. And let's just say that conversations about AI are extremely different depending on which circle I'm in. Circle 1: Artistes & Trad Authors I'm a life-long writer and lover of words, with a lot of friends who are traditionally published authors. Here, AI is approached with reactions ranging from fear and frustration to outright pitchforks and torches. And I get that. It's the plagiarism machine that was trained on our work without...
Writing in scenes
I start a lot of books—but I don't finish them all. I'll give any book a few chapters to see if it grabs me, but there are far too many books in the world (and life is far too short) to waste my precious reading time on something that isn't captivating. So, what makes a book captivating? It's not the subject matter. It's the way it's written. Is the author explaining events and ideas like a bored lecturer? Or are they sucking me into their world, scene by scene? Writing in scenes is more...
Tomorrow! Join us live for weaving narratives with Leah Sottile
Hey there! We're going live at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern tomorrow for Weaving Narrative and Research in Nonfiction with Leah Sottile. Here's the link to join us: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89520732545?pwd=efguKrv3hFpaEXYkI52QupiPPMKWDu.1 Leah Sottile is the author of two books: Blazing Eye Sees All, which won the 2026 Oregon Book Award for General Nonfiction, and When the Moon Turns to Blood, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Both books are fabulous examples of a “weaving” nonfiction...
This weekend! Escape the Plot Forest
Hey there! I'm excited to tell you about this one. Starting tomorrow (Oct 17th), Daniel David Wallace's annual plot summit is coming back—for year seven! Escape the Plot Forest is a great learning experience for writers, with five days of in-depth, serious presentations and interviews to solve your plot problems. Even better, you can register for free or with a reduced price ticket. When Daniel reached out to ask if he could interview me as one of the featured speakers, I was thrilled. Partly...
Learn how your story can help you grow your business, spread your message, and make an impact in the world.