Speaking Success Into Existence (Plus Actual Magic)

Big news drops in this episode: Krisserin has an agent! After manuscript consultations with longtime friend Kima Jones from Triangle House Literary, what started as friendly feedback sessions turned into official representation. Krisserin shares the whirlwind week from reading her book aloud to receiving editorial notes and submission timelines—all organized with Virgo precision.

But this episode isn't just about celebrating—it's about the magic that got them here. Kelton and Krisserin dive deep into the role of ritual, intuition, and intentional practices in their writing lives. From Krisserin's elaborate morning routine (three beverages, garage sanctuary, two-hour focus blocks) to Kelton's tarot-guided newsletter writing, they explore how creating sacred space around creativity actually works.

The conversation touches on everything from Bulgarian evil eye protection and coffee ground readings to the difference between prophecy and intuition. They discuss why "magic" as a concept might feel inaccessible to some, but argue that writers are already believers—we create worlds from nothing, after all.

Most importantly, they tackle the power of speaking your dreams into existence. No more treating book deals like lottery tickets or apologizing for wanting to make money from their art. As Krisserin puts it: "We're gonna make money from our writing... we gotta dream big here, you know?"

Whether you're skeptical about tarot or already burning sage, this episode offers practical wisdom about creating rituals that support your creative practice and the importance of believing in your work enough to make it real.

Plus! This is your last chance to sign up for Kelton's class. There are a couple more spots so snag one of them here: https://www.keltonwright.com/rewilding

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Music by Golden Hour Oasis Studios

Transcript

Krisserin: 0:00

Well, hello there. Kelton reporting in from Idaho.

Kelton: 0:03

That's right. Hi Krisserin. I'm reporting in from my father's home office. I'm surrounded by the largest electronics I've seen in decades.

Krisserin: 0:13

I love the, stack of stuff, just like on the floor. This is very, parent coded.

Kelton: 0:18

You would not believe the stacks around me.

Krisserin: 0:22

Um, so I have some good news.

Speaker: 0:25

I'm Krisserin Canary. And I'm Kelton Wright. Follow our quest to publish our first novels from first drafts, to query letters through inevitable rejections and hopefully eventual success from California to Colorado. This is pen pals.

Kelton: 0:39

I can't wait. Okay, now I have to tell the listeners first that Krisserin told me earlier in the week that she had good news and wouldn't tell me. She wouldn't tell me. So however I react is genuine. This isn't like an airing.

Krisserin: 0:56

My news is I got an agent. I can hardly believe it myself. Where to begin? My agent is Kima Jones from Triangle House Literary, and I have known Kima since we were in our PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship in 2013. So over 12 years. she joined Triangle House Literary recently. She was a publicist before that with her own publicity firm called Jack Jones. And she's incredible. She's the one who I've been doing these manuscript consultations with. So,

Kelton: 1:33

Gonna ask.

Krisserin: 1:34

at the beginning at the beginning of the year, correct.

Kelton: 1:39

Okay.

Krisserin: 1:39

At the beginning of the year, she was like. Let me help you. Let's do these manuscript consultations. She put time on my calendar in August and we met, I think we met either five or six times and I read my book to her out loud, which was really fun. And then last Saturday we finished the book. At least we, we read to the end of book one and she was just, we were talking about it. She's like, yes, I'm gonna send you, um, a letter of representation. And I was like, whoa, whoa, wait. You like back up. Does this mean you're gonna be my agent? She's like, this means I'm gonna be your agent, which was not what I thought was ever gonna happen going into those conversations. I

Kelton: 2:20

Yeah,

Krisserin: 2:21

it was just a friend helping out a friend.

Kelton: 2:22

Oh, A huge testament to the book though, to like, to read it out loud and have her be like, yeah, I want this. And that's, I'm so happy that finally happened because, you know, I have read one version of that book. I don't know if it's the latest version, but I loved it, you know, and I thought it was like incredibly readable, very fun, memorable characters. There's still a a point in that book that I think about now. That I will tell you some other time, but I, I'll, I'll tell the readers it's about an animal. But I loved that book. So it, it makes sense that when you finally were like, no, listen to this book, that someone was like, yeah, this is, it has it.

Krisserin: 3:04

It was a great feeling and know, I've workshopped, the book. I've had a lot of people read it and for me what was really important was there are themes in there that deal with class and money and race. And with Kima, she just got it and I didn't have to explain anything to her. And she understood the importance of the themes and you know, she really enjoyed the characters. She said, like for her, the thing that worked, the pacing is really good. And so after that. You know, we met on Saturday. On Monday morning I had the letter, an editorial letter, line notes for the entire manuscript in my inbox and calendar invites for when I had to send her the revision and the first 50 pages of the second book and a calendar invite for when the book's going out on submission, which I love.'cause I'm a type A organized person. She's a Virgo, so of course she's like, boom, boom, boom, here's all this

Kelton: 3:56

Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.

Krisserin: 3:57

was great. Um, and you know. What was really cool about it too, she was like, I'm gonna pull some tarot. We're gonna see what the cards say. Which is a great transition into the topic that we're going to talk about this week, which is magic. But yeah, since then, you know, since Saturday morning I've been really motivated and I've been getting up at five and you know, revising the chapters based on the notes that she sent me. And I've done two chapters a day, Monday through Friday. I have a very, tight timeline when I need to get all this stuff done.

Kelton: 4:32

Yeah.

Krisserin: 4:33

I have, you know, very clear notes on what I need to do, and then I have to revisit book two. And I think we're gonna read through that in December. And get her notes on, at least the first 50 pages of that second book. So it's a lot has changed in a week since the last time we spoke, but

Kelton: 4:50

That is awesome. Oh my God, I'm so excited. I'm so excited for our listeners that one of us is doing something successfully.

Krisserin: 5:00

Stop. You're gonna, I, I mean, not to like. You know, make any predictions, but I feel like you're gonna have good news very soon too. So how

Kelton: 5:11

Yeah,

Krisserin: 5:13

I know

Kelton: 5:13

well,

Krisserin: 5:13

so that's hard, but

Kelton: 5:15

yeah. Yeah. Um, the child got really sick. And so I was going to be in LA and we had to cancel that. I missed a good friend's wedding, which was a huge bummer. And then, we were able to reschedule my second leg of my trip to come visit my parents. And, I have not been able to do very much this week. So that has been a little challenging. I've just been able to like barely get client work done. But I have been thinking about, I would say I'm almost done with those first three chapters of the memoir proposal. I'm still planning to send that out end of this month. So under the wire, I like, I feel like all the writing I'm doing is work and promotional. I girl, I don't know how you work in. Like sales and marketing, it is a nightmare trying to get people to pay for things. I don't like it. I wouldn't recommend it. I'm never gonna do it for a living. But that is where I am with my personal career.

Krisserin: 6:22

For me, it's, I think, easier to get people to pay for things, that aren't anything related to me. My job's very data-driven. I'm on the data side of marketing. I'm not on the emotional side of marketing. I think your. The is harder what I do.

Kelton: 6:36

Yeah.

Krisserin: 6:36

lot of respect for the people who are in content and, and brand marketing.'cause that is the customer on like an emotional level. And I, I don't have to do that to do that

Kelton: 6:47

Yeah. And also understanding, you know, what they can pay for. Like we said, we're talking about magic today, and that's like a big part of the class that we mentioned. I'm teaching, last week, hosting a sixth session course on ritual somatic exercise, creative writing, all about reclaiming your rhythm and rewilding your life and it's something that people express a ton of interest in, which makes me feel like I'm, I'm on the right track. But getting people to commit to it is much harder. And, you know, I don't know, I dunno why that is. My instinct is price. That's why it's hard to get me to commit to anything. But I also think that I'm, I'm pitching an audience that might be a little hard to sell on, on incorporating more magic into their life. I mean, I'll talk a little about what I think magic is,'cause I, I think a lot of people are like, Hmm. Magic spells, potions, and it's like, for me, that's not it. Like magic is seeing the beauty and the delight in everyday life and being able to be present enough to notice synchronicities and those just moments that you would only describe as magical. And that doesn't mean that someone's like cast anything or that someone is clairvoyant, but that you're so tuned in with the world that you can catch the moments other people are missing and people are missing them more and more now that we're just staring at devices. We were pulling into my parents' subdivision the other day, and there's a line of cars ready to pull out at the stoplight, and every single person waiting at the stoplight was looking down into their lap at their phone, even when there were other people in the car, like they couldn't even for a stoplight. Stop looking at their phones and like that's sort of what the class I'm teaching is kind of about. It's like separation from the device, separation from the churn and burn of the machine, separation from shareholder value to like re attune with what you want and who you are so that you have a chance to breathe and be like, is this even how I wanna be living my life?

Krisserin: 8:55

I think that magic as a term might not be accessible to everybody because to believe in magic feels like a, turning away from science or turning away from logic or religion. If that is something, if, you know, you have a belief system that has, demonized magic in the past. But I think the reason why I wanted to talk about magic with you, and I agree there is something about looking around in gratitude and in awe of the world that surrounds you that we don't do as often, I think, except for maybe when we are on vacation or we have these opportunities to be out in nature. But are ways to incorporate that into our everyday life, and I feel like people can really benefit from it. But. You know, I grew up in a house where my mom is very Christian she's not fundamentalist. She doesn't go to church really. She goes to Bible study, but she's very spiritual. So I was raised with a lot of prayer, but also she would do things like, when I was going to bed, she'd pet me and, and tell me, be smart, be smart, be brave. It's an incantation, it is like a spell in a way, in its own a blessing, right. And there's little things that, I've noticed in my own home. My husband's family, they're all, they're from Bulgaria and they have a lot of pagan rituals that they incorporate into their everyday life. And I remember when Sabine was a baby the first time I encountered it, where we were out with a lot of people. And people cooing over the baby and how beautiful the baby is and when we got home, she took Sabine to the sink and washed her face three times wash away the evil eye from all of the attention that she got. And so in, in Bulgaria even, you know, you see a pretty baby and instead of saying. Oh, what a beautiful baby. You say like, Ugh, what an ugly baby ppu, and you like spit on the baby. So it's just like to keep the evil eye away from the baby. There's all of these superstitions and they throw water out the door to walk through, if you have a test or if you're going on a trip to ease your way. There's all of these little things that are incorporated into everyday life that I think, um, less so a belief in this idea of magic or, or whatever it is, and more so an acknowledgement of this moment that we're about to enter could be a difficult one. And I want an acknowledgement of us as a family sending you on your way with the hope that you'll return safely. Or us as a family, acknowledging that, our child is precious and we wanna keep them safe and doing these things to make ourselves feel better. And now with my children, I pet them and I tell them, be smart, be brave. Be kind, you know, and trying to almost, you know, imprint on them, these hopes that I have for them. And is that magic? Is there some magical power that's coming down and blessing them in this way. Maybe not. But it's a moment shared and it is a, a wish voiced. It is a hope, brought to life. And I think that there's something really special about that. And that's why I think magic is such an interesting topic to talk about, especially when it comes to the things that we really want in our life and the rituals around our writing, which is why I wanted to talk about it with you.

Kelton: 12:23

Yeah. And I think calling those incantations is, is appropriate. And we have those, regardless of whether someone's intention is to infuse them with magic or not. You know, I remember every time I would go to the pool with my mom when I was little, she would always be like, chin up, chest out, shoulders back. I heard that over and over and over again, and it's like. That's a, that's an incantation that you're teaching that child for better or for worse. And so, you know, I think about the neural pathways that you're lining with those things and where you're like, every time I go to a pool, I can hear my mom like correcting my posture and I just want to line up my day so that I'm digging the right pathways. Because you can get stuck in the bad ones. And that is neuroscience. So it's like if I'm using a mantra or an affirmation to dig a new pathway, it takes a long time, but I can dig it. I can create a new waterway for myself where I'm following a different path that day. And I. Yeah, that's been really magical in my writing too. I really had to step away from this kind of masculine approach to life where I was just climbing the corporate ladder because it's what felt the most powerful and what would achieve the most success. It. But it was really shattering my relationship with my intuition and who I wanted to be and how I enjoyed myself and being able to step away from that is what has enabled my writing to get better. Absolutely. To just like hear myself more clearly. Do you have ritual before you write?

Krisserin: 13:58

Oh yeah. I mean, it starts the night before,

Kelton: 14:01

Mm-hmm.

Krisserin: 14:02

In order to be able to get up at five am and be present in front of my work. It takes a lot of mental, affirmations. The night before, I'm going to get in bed. I'm gonna get in bed by nine 30, I'm going to read and try and be ly sat by 10 because I have to get up at five. And then when I get up at five, it's the waking up and reorienting my consciousness to like, okay, now I'm working. Now I'm gonna get up. And out of the fog of, being tired and I go make my coffee. I make a cup of tea. I have three beverages. I make a coffee and a cup of tea and fill up my glass of water. And I walk into the garage and I put those things down and I put my headphones on and I put my playlist on. And then I look at my work. And I'm there for two hours. All of that is almost like a dance. It is the, the waking up, the preparing, and the sitting down to be present at the work. And that is, for me, it is a ritual. We can get stuck in bad rituals and they don't have to be formal. For me, this is a formal ritual. This is something that I know that I'm gonna do to write. But people get stuck in bad rituals, whether it's the, I'm gonna have a glass of wine at the end of the day and then I'm gonna snooze my alarm and I've already have 10 alarms set up so that I'm going sleep through all of them. I think we inadvertently can get stuck in cycles that are damaging. And not to say that, you know, having a glass of wine well. I would say that because I'm sober and I have an opinion on alcohol, but it can be, it can be little things that are keeping you from achieving what you want and being a little tired because you didn't go to bed on time and just deciding today I'm not gonna get up and work because I'm tired. You know? You have to prime your body to do the things that are important to you and you do make decisions. Every little thing you're doing is making a decision where you're going to invest your energy. So I do think that you, you know, examining the things that you're doing and whether they're serving you and your goals or not, and they could be little things and they could be big things, but sometimes you do have to reorientate your life around the thing that is most important to you. You know, for me, that's my family and my children and my writing, and I have a job and I have other things that I do too. But I choose to engage in this ritual of going to bed early, getting up early, and getting my writing done. First thing, it is the first thing that I do in the morning because the world pulls me in a million different directions the minute my kids get up and start getting ready for school.

Kelton: 16:41

I mean, I think even recently I, I really committed to not looking at my phone for the first hour that I woke up.'cause you're, you're doing so much processing while you're sleeping. And to kind of deny myself that burst of creativity and, and openness to the world by looking directly at my emails and text messages. I was like, what am I doing here? What, what? Can't wait until 9:00 AM you know.

Krisserin: 17:08

Yeah.

Kelton: 17:09

Changing that habit has been, has been really delightful and beautiful, and I can still access my phone, obviously, if I come up with an idea, I go to the notes app and I write it down. You know, I'm not like, oh, you touch your phone, your creativity's dead. But by letting that be the first world that you enter, I found that so damaging to my creativity.

Krisserin: 17:27

Honestly, your brain is so impressionable, especially first thing in the morning. With the world as crazy as it's, the news being so scary, you kind of need to let your body ease into the day without spiking your cortisol first thing you know, my husband gets up and the first thing he is doing is looking at his phone and I've definitely, said like, why are you doing that? But for him, he gets messages from people in Europe and he's looking at those and then of course he's on Instagram and he is looking at news and I'm like, dude, do you do that to yourself? But, I agree that especially first thing in the morning, and especially if you're going to be writing, I don't look at my phone. I have it in sleep mode so that even if I had messages come through, they don't show up on my screen, so I don't even know if people have been, texting me or slacking me or emailing me or whatever. I think that that's hugely important and that's why for me, writing first thing in the morning is the best because if you try and do it later in the day you've, you've already processed so much information and you've dealt with work and you've dealt with kids and spouses and all of that, and the drive to school and the traffic and the person cut you off and all of that. It's really hard to get your brain back to being present in front of the work, there's always gonna be something ready to distract you. So for people who don't have that problem, that's great. I just think, I don't know who said it. But it's like your most creative and productive time is in the morning. That's why corporate America wants you to start work at 8:00 AM'cause they know that that is when you're gonna do your best work. So why give that to somebody else? Keep it for yourself. Do it for yourself.

Kelton: 19:07

I love that.

Krisserin: 19:08

What about you? What's, what's your ritual for writing?

Kelton: 19:12

Well, for the newsletter, I often pull tarot. And it doesn't dictate necessarily what I'm gonna write, but I'll ask the deck, you know, what should be top of mind today and say I pull like, the three of cups. Okay. The three of cups to me is the card that's talking about relationships and communicating and, and answering the phone call. And sending the text. So if I get that card before I'm gonna write the newsletter, then I'm, I'm thinking about it from a community lens. I'm thinking about, okay, who, who did I interact with in town this week? Who could I have reached out to this week? And that doesn't always end up being what I'm writing about, of course, but it gets the juices flowing, especially, you know, since right now I'm sitting down every Saturday morning to write the newsletter, I'm not often getting a lot of time to do it in advance. And so I'm sitting down at my desk and I'm writing for the next, three hours and I'm baking something for the next day. And so to have a companion that's essentially guiding my thinking or expanding what I'm, what I'm processing, has been incredibly helpful. Obviously I'm a huge fan of using tarot to understand your own shadow and psyche and, and those sorts of things to like help you dig deeper and like ask questions that you might not have probed on prior. But, that's a big way and then of course I like a little ritual, you know, a little candle, obviously I also need my water and my decaf coffee. And like setting up my space so that it feels conducive to creativity. And it also that kind of ritual separates me from whatever I was doing So if I'm working on the memoir, if I'm working on the novel, things that don't have a specific time set aside for them, it's just like, okay, now I'm gonna do this. I need something that. Separates me from what I was doing prior, and ritual is the easiest way to tell my brain. This is something different. You can let go of your big client work and all those things and get into a more creative space, and by doing things that smell good and look pretty, it's just, it's enchanting and it works.

Krisserin: 21:22

The separation of the time before and where we are now with ritual, I think is hugely important. And this probably comes from us working at Headspace and learning about neuroplasticity but it does matter in training your brain to be like, okay, I'm here now. Like this is what. Time it is, I think is usually important. I wanna talk about tarot a little bit'cause I find it so fascinating. I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about tarot and I know, in my own family life, my mom had. Purchased a deck of tarot cards and then threw them away after a period of time because, you know, it's the idea of like inviting spirits into the house or whatever it may be. But what I, the way that I think about tarot, and I'd be interested to, hear your thoughts. It's not for me, this, way of predicting the future or reading the future. Although I will say that my mother-in-law throws playing cards, like she will use a deck of cards and I don't know how it works, but she'll, we'll ask her like, Hey, could you throw cards for this? Or Could you throw cards for that? And then she'll look at them and she'll be like, a woman with dark hair that's gonna help you. Or, or like, is there a man? Is there a man there? Like, I don't know if this man likes you, or, you know, so she's really reading, reading the tea leaves and, when we went to Bulgaria, there was this older woman who since passed. Her name was, and she would read your espresso grinds, like you would drink a coffee and then turn it upside down, and then she would read the grinds

Kelton: 22:53

Oh my God. I love that.

Krisserin: 22:55

it's pretty, I thought it was really cool. But that's not how I view tarot. And the way that I think about tarots, kind of the way you described it, which is a way to focus your brain on an idea that you might not have thought of. Meaning if you threw a card, you're trying to look at it and say, how is this relevant to where I am right now or in my life? And it might trigger something that you really hadn't considered. And take your brain down a path that opens up the opportunity for creativity and thought around something that your subconscious might not have pulled to the front. And that's why I find it so interesting. And, and it's fun, by the way. It's super fun

Kelton: 23:38

It's fun.

Krisserin: 23:39

to open your brain up in ways and, and expand your mind without drugs, you know? I think, I feel like that's what, a lot of people who use mushrooms or, marijuana use those things in the same way. It's like opening up your mind to consider things that, your everyday life doesn't give you the opportunity to be open to, and so hearing that you're using it to kind of point your brain in a certain direction is really fascinating.

Kelton: 24:08

I agree that I don't use tarot for prophecy. I don't, I don't think it can do that. I think that tarot, helps me clean my compass. It helps me clean my compass. It helps me read my compass. I was talking about this on TikTok the other day, that, you know, if someone says, what do you want for dinner? Like that, that's often a question where you're like, I don't, I don't have any idea what I want for dinner. But if someone says, do you want pasta for dinner? You can pretty intuitively answer like yes or no. Because it's offered you a point of alignment and that's all the deck really does. You're pulling a card. So if I was like, uh, I, I don't know what I'm supposed to just like do with this morning or something, and I pull a tarot card and I get the eight of wands, the eight of wands, you know, is like, go with the flow. And so I'm like, do I feel like going with the flow? It kicks my intuition. It helps me think more clearly by giving me something to react to and more broadly than that, you know, I've talked a lot about pulling cards for inspiration or for kicking myself into gear, but I will do a spread for the beginning of the month or the beginning of the week. Where I'm just like, all right, deck. What do you wanna tell me? What should I be thinking about this month? Like, who's my guide for this month? And when I do those pulls, you know, I often end up with cards like the Sun and High Priestess and like these very inspiring cards that are basically like operate from your creativity opportunity is coming. You should be open to whatever happens in your life. And you know, it's like. Does that mean opportunity is coming? Opportunity can always be coming, assuming that you are open to opportunity, that you are putting yourself out there. It's basically a sermon, people that go to church. A sermon is not a fate reading a sermon is like, this is what to think about in your life so that you live it the way that you want to. This is a lesson to be processing so that when you do get stuck in traffic today, you can have a different outlook on it and tarot operates in the same way I, it's just a very fun, magical way to feel like you have a little bit of intuitive guidance. I don't think the deck guides you. I think that it allows you to listen to your intuition better.

Krisserin: 26:27

I guess it all goes back to ways to get out of our, day to day dreck and

Kelton: 26:35

Mm-hmm.

Krisserin: 26:35

up from whatever device step away from our everyday routine to look around and understand the world that we're living in and how we're operating through it. I agree with you. And I love that that's what your class is focusing on. It's so easy to get distracted by daily life, and you can look up in 10 years have gone by and you're like, what the hell? What the hell? What the hell is going on? It is very easy to get caught in the routine, especially as a a woman, especially as a mom, especially women of our age, elder millennials who grew up through corporate America telling us like, lean in and girl boss and, and, you know, making money and being successful in your career is the pinnacle of achievement. And being able to, to step back and step away from those things and saying like, actually what's important to me? What do I value? What serves me? There is a bit of, back to our intuition and, thinking again about what our body needs, what our heart needs, what our mind needs. That feels witchy. It feels like magic. Do men do this? I.

Kelton: 27:41

So when I was developing this class and I was talking to my therapist about it, she was like, you keep saying women, is this only for women? And I was like, well, no, I just think only women will sign up. And she was like, but men are interested in reconnecting with nature. And I was like. N no men. Some of them are of course, some of them are. But the ways that I'm seeing that in culture is like men returning to hunting, men, studying forest bathing, like it's still all these actionable, things that they're doing instead of sitting back and allowing a relationship to form. You know, I, I talk about in the class about developing a relationship with a plant, one specific plant and like getting to know that plant. I think it was Robin Wall Kimmerer in a recent video, was talking about plant blindness. Like if you look outside right now, do you know what any of those plants are? You know, and it's like most people truly don't. I was sitting on a patio last night with my mom and I was like, what's this tree? What's this tree I don't live in Idaho. I don't know these trees. And she had a, a pretty good familiarity with the trees in her yard, but still was guessing. She's like, that's some kind of maple. I think that's a kind of large, you know, we don't know anymore. We used to know. All of them, maybe not their scientific names, but we'd be like, well this one you can eat and this one you'll find a sap under the bark and like have this deeper relationship. And now we just see whether it's green or not green and we don't see plants as individuals. Which, you know, it's hard to do. It's hard to do. It's hard to name all the plants I have in my house. But being able to have a general awareness of those things around you, I think just helps you, helps you separate yourself from the slop era that we're in.

Krisserin: 29:38

I feel like the slop era also has to do with an era of our lives where we're expected to be hyper productive and take care of other people and just make money and, you know, it's so funny. So Boyan is the gardener in our family, and he always makes fun of me because I'll be like, oh, that plant's nice, but did we just get that? And he'd be like, we've had that plant for three years. I don't notice. I don't notice anything. Which is horrible because we have a ton of plants in our house, and my mom is also a gardener and I grew up with plants in the house, and so I've just always just taken them for granted and I'm not very good at keeping things alive, but I, so I thought. That he would be interested in this herbalism retreat with, uh, Marysia Miernowska, and he I hated it.

Kelton: 30:28

What, why?

Krisserin: 30:29

Yeah, he hated, well, so she's the head of a, of a coven in Topanga Canyon and it's very witchy and was leading, plant spirit meditations. And so we would drink a tea and, and personify what the spirit of that tea would look like and learn about the things that the plant could do for your body and try and feel the plant as it entered your body. And he was like, this is just. Absolute bullshit.

Kelton: 30:55

You know, I.

Krisserin: 30:55

does, why does that plant have to be like a human? That is so dumb. I was like, fair enough, I guess. But, the, the intuitive spiritual side of the plants, he just whole, whole cloth rejected. It was like,

Kelton: 31:09

I do think there's something there though about masculine energy, wholeheartedly rejecting all of everything that fits in that camp culturally and then women being expected to slide into patriarchal positions in work to become like more male focused and like you said, girl boss, lean in, et cetera. We were sort of asked, I mean, many moons ago, women, you know, were, murdered and, burned and all the good stuff for their intuition and, and liking cats and using herbs and stuff and we're still asked to deny that. We're still, that's still called silly, it's still called superficial, girly nonsense and all these things where it's like, yeah, but I'm bleeding according to the moon. Okay. I'm sorry you don't have some magical connection with the world, but it turns out I do.

Krisserin: 32:02

Yeah.

Kelton: 32:03

And I, for a long time I would laugh at all that stuff and then I would read my horoscope in private. And so I think just, you know, for myself denying all the things that brought me to light and joy really held me back for a long time. I don't need them to stand up in a court of law when all I'm using them for is like inspiring me to live a better life and be a better person.

Krisserin: 32:26

Women have to navigate a world that's not built for them, and so we are constantly using our intuition to figure out how to survive in environments where we're not necessarily welcome and, and pivot and be like water. You're constantly butting up against things that just like intuitively don't make sense. And then you have a kid and they're like, okay, well you gotta be back to work in 12 weeks. And you're like, that doesn't make sense. is so counter to what my body and my child and nature is telling me is right. So we've kind of had to, to rely on our intuition in a way that maybe men don't, because they're on the fast track in life. They're not really required to have empathy in the way that women are, you know? So I wonder if that is a huge contributor women always taking a step back and having to be a little bit more, you know, reliant on their gut and how they feel about what's going on and having to change their course. I was talking to someone the other day about, what's your leadership style like? How do you work with difficult founders or difficult CEOs and my answer was, I observe. I see. What they respond to, what they don't respond to. And I changed my tack base on how I feel like what I want will be best received by this person. I don't care. I don't care how it makes me look. I don't care if it goes against my ego or my pride because I just wanna be successful and I will happily change in order to get from A to B. Do you think men do? I don't think they have to.

Kelton: 34:04

Well, I,

Krisserin: 34:05

kinda like bulldoze their way through life and like get

Kelton: 34:08

yeah.

Krisserin: 34:09

you

Kelton: 34:09

I mean, that's definitely a more masculine approach and I, I think that like pause and reflect and, and think and intuit, like those things don't operate in capitalism. You know, it's like they're inefficient. And they're, they don't have data to back them up, and so why would you use them? Those aren't the right tools. And so I think that, you know, they're sort of lambasted as, soft skills, which unfortunately for all these bulldozers, they're gonna find out that in the age of ai, the only skill that a human has value now in the workplace is a soft skill, is their ability to read the room, to make people feel comfortable to, you know, to. To be the human there. And so I, they're in for a rude awakening if they don't work on their strategy skills pretty soon. I mean, there are men who do and, and bless them, but I feel like every time I talk about tarot, any man who was in the room leaves, you know, you're like, want a guy to skip your TikTok? Just start by being today in my tarot deck. And then just swipe right by.

Krisserin: 35:16

You see that trend on TikTok where it's like, I wanna talk about this eyeliner. Okay, are all the men gone?

Kelton: 35:21

Yes. Where they're like, I'm so obsessed with this mascara. Oh, are the men gone? Okay.

Krisserin: 35:28

Back to the writing and in general, I do feel like if you are a writer, you in some part of your spirit believe in magic because we're creating worlds here, right? We're, we're really trying to understand. How things work on a, cellular and on a spiritual level. And just wonder if, being a writer primes you for all of these things, ritual, and incantations. And one thing I do want us to walk away from today is. The idea of us speaking into existence, the things that we want for ourselves. So I was thinking about the conversation we had last week around this idea that we're like, never gonna make money from writing, we gotta cut that shit out because that is an incantation. If we keep telling ourselves that we're kind of priming ourselves to make money from writing. You know? So I think figuring out, how you believe in yourself and how you believe in your work and the importance of your work in speaking it into existence is just hugely important. And I, and I do think that, especially when I was a baby writer. I was really kind of embarrassed to tell people that I write. the more people you tell and the more people understand that this is an important thing in your life, I do feel like you are making it real. feel like you are speaking into existence, your identity as a writer. Whereas if you hide it and you don't tell anybody it, it's just so easy for that little spark to die'cause you're not. You're not putting into it, you're not fanning the flames of it. And writing is so hard that if you don't have this like full hearted belief this thing that is so important to you, it can just, it can just sputter and die.

Kelton: 37:23

Yeah.

Krisserin: 37:24

We're gonna make money from our writing. My agent Kima asked me, how much money do you wanna make on these books? And I was like, at least six figures. Like, we gotta, dream big here, you know? And believe in ourselves and believe in our work. And so. that's, that's the one like spell the one incantation I want us to agree upon

Kelton: 37:49

Yeah, I need to clarify my own incantation. I wanna make write money from the writing I want to do.

Krisserin: 37:56

Okay,

Kelton: 37:57

Because I, yeah, I do make money from writing. I make more money now from my writing than I ever have, and it's pretty much what I do full-time now. And I would like to be making that money from the writing that I love and not the writing that I am contracted to do.

Krisserin: 38:15

I like that. Any other closing words you want to, you are the, the magic expert here. I'm just the, enthusiastic observer. So anything else you wanna say

Kelton: 38:26

I think the easiest things you can do are start a ritual for yourself and one that is novel. Something as simple as setting your coffee up a different way isn't gonna do it. Like you kind of gotta like go a little full hog on your ritual. Go buy some incense. Go buy some Palo Santo, like get a tarot deck. While we're on that note, I just wanna, I know that people have this idea in their head sometimes that. A tarot deck has to be given to you. And I just wanna squash that tarot myth into the ground. That's not true. That's gatekeeping. That's people hoarding magic for themselves and asking you to pay for your own intuition. So you can buy a tarot deck, but like do make a splash in your life. In a way that makes you pay closer attention to what you're doing. And if you're like, I don't know how to do that, it's, you could just Google it, there's a billion suggestions. Or you can take the class, you can obviously sign up for my class, which I would love because I do really love this work at kelton wright.com/rewilding. You can change your life today. Like you don't have to get bangs, you know. You don't have to, you don't have to quit your job, but just by being more in tune with what you're doing and making time for those practices to feel special, get a candle, you know? That's it.

Krisserin: 39:49

Yeah, I think it's about making it special, right?

Kelton: 39:51

Yeah.

Krisserin: 39:52

investing in your dream and your hope and making it real for yourself, whatever that looks like. Um, and carving out.

Kelton: 40:02

Equinox or something and you're like, I'm gonna go thrifting with a spicy latte and then watch when Harry Met Sally. Like that's a seasonal ritual and it like marks the season even though it feels like, oh, this is so basic. These are just things I like. No, it's a seasonal ritual that you're practicing and to have something smaller that you can do weekly or daily, like it just will make your life feel more romantic if nothing else. And like. Why would you not want that? And like if someone lambasts you or teases you for making your life romantic, throw them out of it

Krisserin: 40:42

I was gonna say it's probably'cause people are afraid of being considered cringe or uncool or whatever it may be, but honestly, no one needs to know like it's

Kelton: 40:56

like.

Krisserin: 40:57

Yeah.

Kelton: 40:58

like, I'm sorry, but it's cool.

Krisserin: 41:01

It's really cool. A hundred percent. I think women are remarkable. The things that we, we can do, our, our intuition, our gut. Honestly, my gut has never led me astray. Ever, ever. What does that tell you? Just invest in yourself, investing in your dream, making it a little special, making it a treat to sit down and do your work, I think is really important because it is really hard work. So if you're gonna sit down and do it, you should reward yourself for it. I really, truly believe that. The work in itself is so rewarding. And when you, you finish, there is that feeling of accomplishment where you can just like, go about your day and be like, damn, I already did the most important thing of my day. It's done already, and you should feel really good about it, and it should feel like. You are rewarding yourself every single day, and if helps you get there. And for me it does, and it sounds like for Kelton it does, then I think it'll help you as well. So, if the term magic turns you off. You don't have to think of it that way, but I think it. You should think about, not to tell you what you should do or how you should think, but thinking about it as investing in yourself and listening to what your intuition is telling you, what your body is telling you. I think that that is a helpful way of framing it,

Kelton: 42:17

Think of it.

Krisserin: 42:18

than anything else.

Kelton: 42:20

Just tuning in

Krisserin: 42:22

tuning in,

Kelton: 42:24

and romanticizing your life.

Krisserin: 42:26

Yes. Taking a moment to have gratitude for the world around you and the things that are working, especially when everything in the news is just so and devastating. So, um, having

Kelton: 42:41

the world sucks. Be cringe.

Krisserin: 42:43

Yeah. Yeah. To be cringe is to be free. My friend said that, which I loved. Alright,

Kelton: 42:50

are your goals for the week.

Krisserin: 42:52

Yeah. So I actually like. I'm. know, type A love, love some organization. I took the chapters that I have to revise and actually created a schedule for when I needed to get everything done by when. So, um, today and tomorrow I'm spending around. I wanna spend around two hours each day of the weekend, Revising chapters, but I should, by the next time we speak, have 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 chapters revised. And this is really me just like going through the line edits that Kima gave me and. There were a lot. I think I told you when I read it out loud, there were a lot of typos in the draft, so making sure I'm not blinded to those and fixing those. And the other big note she gave was just like making sure that I am removing from the book that is stopping the action from moving forward. So just like.

Kelton: 43:56

Yeah.

Krisserin: 43:57

Killing. I've been killing all my darlings. I do not care. I've been really brutal with my edits and just, you know, I'm a big believer if something's meant to be in the text, you will remember it. I've written things down and then I'll be editing and it'll be there already, like on the second page, the exact thing that I wrote earlier. If that's not magic, I don't know what is. That's my goal is just to keep, keep on keeping on getting up in the morning, getting these, chapters edited because I do have to give her the revised draft by December 1st. I did the math and I have 150 hours of available working time between now and December 1st, and I have 128 hours of, work that needs to be done if I do two chapters a morning.

Kelton: 44:42

Yeah.

Krisserin: 44:43

I am on a schedule.

Kelton: 44:45

Yeah, you are methodical. I love that there's a Virgo in charge for you. That's amazing.

Krisserin: 44:50

It's very helpful for me'cause I thrive under that. Having a deadline is very helpful. I don't know if. I hadn't been given this December 1st deadline from Kima if I didn't have

Kelton: 45:00

Yeah.

Krisserin: 45:00

if I didn't have a plan, if I would be getting up at five o'clock every morning. So that's been hugely inspirational for me.

Kelton: 45:06

Oh, that is so sick. I'm so happy for you.

Krisserin: 45:09

Thank you, friend. I couldn't wait to tell you.

Kelton: 45:13

Oh my God. I, I love that you waited. I love it, but I'm stoked.

Krisserin: 45:18

All right, well, what's your plan for the week?

Kelton: 45:21

I have to do a lot of sales. I need to sell out the class by September 30th, since it starts October 2nd. So if you are interested, please look it up if cost is prohibitive to you to shoot me a message and we can work something out. And then the goal is also by September 30th to have the first three chapters finalized, and then I will start looking for who I want to pitch. I very intentionally have not done that yet because I was like, the work isn't done yet. Do the work and then do that part. Because, you know, you can just like spin your wheels looking for agents. It's like looking for hotels, you know, you could, you could do it all day. So I'm like, that's my next step. But those three chapters I gotta get locked in. So three chapters and sell out the class.

Krisserin: 46:11

By next Thursday. That's a lot of work.

Kelton: 46:14

I mean, yep.

Krisserin: 46:16

When are you going home?

Kelton: 46:18

Tomorrow, I fly home tomorrow, so by, by Monday I will be back on like a regular schedule with daycare. And I'm looking forward to that. So it's gonna be cranking, it's gonna be really cranking, so,

Krisserin: 46:31

And Woods this feeling better.

Kelton: 46:34

Yeah. Yeah. He's, I mean, sort of he's getting his canines in. So every night is just him screaming and agony all night long. So I haven't slept in like four days, but, I sort of feel like, you know, you reach a point where you're not sleeping with children where you're like, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. I'm in the casino. We're just fucking going for it. I'm gonna keep betting on black. We're gonna keep going. And then I, once I come out of this haze, I'll feel, I'll feel better, I guess. I

Krisserin: 47:05

Yeah.

Kelton: 47:05

kid is hard, you know?

Krisserin: 47:07

Yeah. It's really, you're just, you're just surviving. Yeah, you're just surviving and you've got, you know, two brain cells that have, have gotten enough rest for you to function, rattling around in your, in your head. I remember those days. I remember those

Kelton: 47:22

Yeah.

Krisserin: 47:22

Well, you know, I, I thought that what you said on was incredible. Just the fact that, you know, he has needs and you're meeting his needs. there is, there's magic in that and it is something, you're pouring into him that feeds you and it feeds him and together it's going to result in some magic in life.

Kelton: 47:41

Yeah,

Krisserin: 47:41

think

Kelton: 47:42

He is a constant affirmation.

Krisserin: 47:43

Absolutely. I wish you the best of luck this week on all the work that you have to do

Kelton: 47:49

Thank you.

Krisserin: 47:49

for everyone else. I'm hoping for a little magic in your lives. And we'll back in next week. You can email us if you so wish at officialpenpalspod@gmail.com. Follow us on all the, the social networks@penpalspod and we look forward to chatting with y'all next week. Happy writing.

Kelton: 48:11

Happy writing and congratulations to our agented, Krisserin.

Krisserin: 48:19

Bye everyone.