Fierce Heart™ Writing Consultant & Mentor.
Author.
I help writers and creatives Show Up – Speak Up – Tell Their Stories….fierce hearted.
I help mend the split between their creative life and their life in the real world. Together, we shape ideas and break through mindset snags.
They value living creatively, with courage, fierceness of Heart, and excellence. They know they can’t go back to less.
They want to go deeply and Connect . . .with themselves, their readers, and even, with the world.
~ Why Fierce Heart™
Show Up! Speak Up! Write Your Fierce Hearted Stories.
I believe connection & using our Voice are the heart of empowerment. You have stories, and they matter. My mission is to help you write
what matters to you, in the best way you can.
Because from the time I was tiny, the message I got was ‘be quiet, you’re too much.’ I grew up thinking, ‘watch yourself.’ I engaged with life, had strong connections with people, was known for my passion about life, the world, art. . .and the whole time that message ‘watch it’ hung over me. And I showed up smaller than I am.
Back at school for the fifth time for my bachelor’s degree, something ignited inside me as I heard young women mention date rape as an accepted risk. Studying communication, seeing power structures, I saw a disconnect between men and women across cultures. I became an activist on that huge university campus, using my Voice as a fierce advocate for women. My vision, a Women’s Center where women could gather, tell their unique stories, find allies & support. I felt seen, heard, respected, and empowered with purpose. I didn’t think, ‘watch it, keep quiet.’ I thought, ‘how can I connect with people so we create the Vision.’ The Women’s Center opened 18 mos. later, on the eve of my graduation. At the time, I didn’t know I’d saved my own life, too.
Years later I had to save my life again. From the outside looking in, my life was good. Even one of ease. And as I was walked the streets I loved in Asheville, NC, I felt dead inside. These exact words went thru my head: ‘I’ve lost my Voice.’ It wasn’t as much about purpose as it was about not feeling connected to anything larger that me that mattered. Feeling disempowered, I was startled with the realization. I tried the things that worked to inspire me before: I took a class at the university. Went to galleries and places I once found stimulating. It did little to lift me up. And by angels or luck (a story with magic of its own), in a brief encounter, my natural curiosity caused me to ask a woman what she did as we parted. She led prompted writing circles. No pressure, she said. I signed up. Writing was my journey back. . . to my Voice, to myself, and to my passion.
For more than three decades I’ve coached and mentored creatives and others, working with them, helping them translate their intentions and desires with a focus on their desired outcomes.
I know about Fierce Heart, and Fierce Hearted Writing.
Read more here.
Where We Connect
I’m a novelist, poet, essayist, shift agent and consultant for all things writerly. Always an artist, my passion for creating has focused on words and the language of life in stories for the past 20 yrs. Reading and writing’s like living a good life to me. We settle into the world, get to know folks, ride through their ups and downs, share their angst and triumphs. We’re touched in ways so something shifts inside us. It’s the way I travel the world, too. As a lifelong learner, immersed in the culture and rhythm of place. It’s how I approach my work, whether as corporate advertising account manager, micro-brewery owner building a business, activist doing big things, or helping authors move toward their goals. Creating and connection at the core.
I’m a slow reader and a slow writer. I’m also a mother, wife, friend, educator, advocate, artist, connector, and dreamer. I claim recovering perfectionist, optimistic realist, and a deep connection with nature and the spiritual. Perfect days and beauty in any form make me happy. Highly intuitive, I confess awe, wonder, and curiosity are in my DNA.
Ask me about myself I’ll tell you I prefer tea to coffee, walking to running, sunrises to sunsets, quiet to lively, light filled rooms to cozy caves, exploring to shopping. I need a huge dose of solitude, and love driving through uninhabited landscapes, but you’ll think me extrovert when we meet.
My love for the Appalachians lives in my forthcoming novel Flight. My soul-connection with the high desert of Northern NM lives in my second novel, in progress.
Read what matters to me most here.
And my many lifetimes here: LinkedIn.
Morning Glory © Heloise Jones
Read My Works
The Writer’s Block Myth – A Guide to Get Past Stuck & Experience Lasting Creative Freedom‘
#1 Bestselling Book described as the best book about what being a writer is.
“Kenya 2018 – The Mara” The Wayfarer, Vol.8 Issue.1 – Homebound Publications
Inspired by my stay of several days in the middle of a Maasai Nature Preserve.
“The Altar of Birds” The Wayfarer, Vol.3 Issue.2 – Homebound Publications
2014 Pushcart Prize nominee poem
“Know Yourself Better than You Know Anyone Else” a contributing essay in Patti Digh’s What I Wish for You: Simple Wisdom for a Happy Life
“A Writer’s Life” guest blog on Marginalia with Nancy Peacock
“The Honey Hour,” short story, The Ekphrastic Review, May 1, 2018
If you like to listen, you’ll enjoy this fun & informative audio guide in my voice, taken from the #1 bestselling book: The Writer’s Block Myth. The Creative Life for People Living in the Real World
Awards & Recognitions
- Summer Literary Seminars Prose & Poetry Contest 2018 – Finalist
- Pushcart Prize nomination 2014: The Wayfarer, Vol.3, Issue 2 – Homebound Publications
- Ruminate Magazine Poetry Contest 2014 – Semi-Finalist
- Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize 2012 – finalist
- Panhellenic Outstanding Women’s Award (NC State University)
Author Stuff. Life on Earth. Things I Love.
Page Lambert – all things literary, building a creative relationship with the natural world
– In Search of Kinship is beautifully written.
Fresh New Day – seeing each day anew, stories and contemplations
Elizabeth Gilbert’s thoughts on writing
– Her novel The Signature of All Things, quite wonderful.
Jane Friedman – writing & publishing in the digital age
– Her book Publishing 101, a concise overview
Alan Rinzler – everything publishing from a long-time pro
Starlight Illuminates World’s Oldest Trees – trees and celestials, linked in magical ways
– A whole stunning book: Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time
Vagabond Teahouse Pours Camaraderie – oh gosh, makes me feel good.
– Curious about the world, browse The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge
Richard Louv – how nature heals us humans
– Seminal works: Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle