Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe.
She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook.
She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.
I picked The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women up on a whim for 50% off what are already delightfully low book prices at Goodwill. This is not the sort ... Read more
Your awesomeness inspires me! Your perseverance in the face of struggle keeps me humble and faithful. All the dreams I’ve ever had began with those first friends, those girlfriends–at that ... Read more
We’ve been quiet here for a few days at All The Muses, in part because my sister-in-law and collaborator had her gall bladder removed and hasn’t had the strength to ... Read more
Dear Letter In The Mail, I look for you every day, though at times you have stayed away for years. I have put bundles at a time of my own ... Read more
I’m a planner. Planning anything comes easy to me: a backpacking trip, a date night, a novel, even this blog. Always in the execution is when doubt, that mental bully, ... Read more
Dear Procrastination, Let’s get real. Writing is hard. I’ve never done anything harder. Or more rewarding. But it’s the hard part that makes me turn to you, old pal. If ... Read more
The end of a school brings a flood of emotion. Woo-hoo! Summer-time–Cooking outside–Sleeping in–Reading whatever I want.I’ve started three lists of all the marvelous ways I’m going to spend my ... Read more
The only part I didn’t like? The very ending. And that’s my fault. It makes me uncomfortable when people get too mushy and the very ending was definitely a syrupy ... Read more
“Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get ... Read more
After I’d told yet another story of my struggle to decide just what I should be working on, Carrie (friend; colleague; fellow writer) put it simply: “Everything’s back on the ... Read more