Welcome back to our Mid-Month Monthly Check in from Barany School of Fiction! And a Happy New Year!

I hope you’re well and writing, or editing, promoting, or daydreaming your next books. Or perhaps you're resting and feeding the creative well. It’s all a part of the creative process.

In fact, this is a great time to set your goals and intentions for the year. If you'd like to share yours, I'd love to hear.

(Some of these items may be review for you if you saw last month's newsletter. There are new items too!)

#1. As added benefit of being a part of Barany School of Fiction, we have a Facebook group to lend a sense of community where you can interact with other writers who have taken our classes and workshops – over 100 people are in the group. 

If you’d like to join and haven’t already, there’s a 3-step process because this is “secret” group. (Hoops to jump through per Facebook.)

The group is “secret” so that you can feel safe sharing story ideas and your writer’s life without anyone outside the group seeing your posts or even seeing that you’re in the group.

   First, email me to say you want to join the group, Fellowship of the Pen. Just hit reply :) That way I know to respond to the next steps more quickly.

   Second, friend me on Facebook here: 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=799399464. I'll say "yes."

   Third, I will invite you into the group, Fellowship of the Pen: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FellowshipofthePenforGenreNovelists/. And then you're in! I'll also post a welcome. I do that about once a week.

   (You won’t be able to see the group until you’re a member.)

#2. Did you know you can learn from my classes on the go?

Yes, Teachable, the platform I use to deliver my courses, has an iOS app. 

Click here to download it:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teachable-online-courses/id1177062376?mt=8.

Sorry, they don’t have an Android app at this time. 

More about downloading the app here:

Teachable says, “If you come across any bugs while using the Teachable iOS app, please report them through the app. These reports go directly to our engineering team, and any feedback (the more detailed the better) helps us tremendously!”

I want to add that Teachable has been a highly responsive and good company to work with these past few years. I'm happy with them.

#3. We may do some live Q&A next year with students and alum of Barany School of Fiction and our live classes and workshops.

I’d love to know what you'd like for 2018 in our online community. If you’re already in the Fellowship of the Pen, vote for what you’d like to see us do in the community in 2018 here.

Did you know I offer prizes to students in the Plan Your Novel course? 

(You may need to log in again to access the course.)

You can enter to win the prizes by taking one or more of the 4 quizzes in this course.

I pick winners at the end of each month!

Prizes include my self-coaching guide, The Writer's Adventure Guide, and consultations with me.

Good luck!

I'll pick my next winners on Feb. 1st.

Enter this giveaway here and you have a chance to winner 1 of 18 prizes, including my "Create Compelling Characters" course.

9 days left!

I offered this a few years back; its evergreen content is still as useful as ever, and I've updated it with some new content too.

http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/2016/01/01/happy-new-year-gifts-fiction-writers/