The Fire Inside
A Companion for the Creative Life
Within each one of us, there is a deep need for creative expression—whether it be in the visual arts, writing, or the sort of “everyday” creativity which can so enrich our lives.
Our creativity quotients are greater than we can imagine; we just need to tap into that potential. Based on the authors’ combined fifty-five years of teaching and presenting workshops on writing and creativity, The Fire Inside is packed with creative tips and exercises, anecdotes, insights, inspiration, and hearty acknowledgements to the reader, that you, too, can heighten your creativity. Living the life of an artist is joy-filled but challenging. Wherever you are in that life, it helps to have strategies to keep going, and it helps to have a companion along the journey. The Fire Inside, written in a spirit of warmth and generosity, can be that companion. It may be read straight through, or to enjoy a daily dose of inspiration, read one well-researched, heart-opening story at a time. Whichever way one chooses, The Fire Inside invites readers to say yes to creativity, choose to live a bigger life, and discover how the “magic” happens.
These writers have great authority and expertise on this topic. They write ideas that are fresh and new with profound potential for empowering readers as well as writers, connecting them with their honest, authentic peers." - Mary Pipher, author of The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture and Writing to Change the World.
Lucy Adkins is an award-winning poet and co-author of two books of encouragement and inspiration for writers. These include WRITING IN COMMUNITY, which won an "IPPY" in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, and THE FIRE INSIDE. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies and has received nominations for Pushcart prizes. Her latest collections, TWO-TONED DRESS and A CRAZY LITTLE THING were named winners of Nebraska Book Awards for Poetry in 2021 and 2023. In addition, TWO-TONED DRESS was the winner of a Blue Light Press Poetry prize. For many years she has been a writing workshop leader and was named winner of a Lincoln Nebraska Mayor's Award for Artistic Excellence in Literature. Her undergraduate degree is from Auburn University and her MFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Lucy lives with her husband and Scottie dog in Lincoln, Nebraska where, in addition to writing, she spends a lot of time on her hands and knees in her garden.
Becky Breed, a veteran educator, poet and essayist, is an award-winning co-author of two books of creativity and writing. Becky and partner Lucy Adkins are the authors of Writing in Community: Say Goodbye to Writer’s Block and Transform Your Life, Book I: Essential Writing and Creativity Series, and The Fire Inside: A Companion for the Creative Life, Book II. The Independent Publisher Book Awards honored Writing in Community with the Silver Medal for Excellence. They were named winners of the Nebraska Book Awards of the Lincoln Nebraska Mayor’s Award for Artistic Excellence in Literature.
Becky was the recipient of a state-wide Humanities grant entitled Women at the Spring and conducted a series of workshops aimed at connecting women to nature, specifically the prairie, through written and visual arts. The Nebraska Cooper Foundation honored Becky with an award project she created entitled The Intergenerational Connection. The innovative project paired Elders with teens to promote cross-cultural communication, writing and media. Becky has her Ed.D. and served as a high school principal and taught at the collegiate level. She lives with her husband in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is never far from the bounties of nature.
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