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Courtney Maum

@cbmaum

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I write + I help writers write.⚡️Author of 6 books incl. ALAN OPTS OUT🦞📚🐎 Newsletter-> bio✏️ Anti-AI
Founder @turningpoints_writers workshop in NM

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A few spots remain for this May 2027 retreat and I’d like to fill them because I know this workshop is helpful. All genres except poetry and all skill levels will be supported and nourished. Plus exceptional food, inspiring scenery, luxurious linens, new readers and literary friendships....swoon.

Info through my linktree or comment SPAIN and I’ll send you the link. (I’ll send the link by hand, not by an automated thingy, so forgive me if there is a delay in me getting it to you.) 🇪🇸 ✏️ 🍤

Feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments! And just an FYI, I've updated the program a bit from what is currently on the website. The important thing to know is that I'll be structuring each day and the relevant workshops by theme. For example, we'll start out with Purpose-- clarifying exercises to help us understand what we are writing and why. The Structure day will see us working on organizing principles and plot (where appropriate) and making sure the middle doesn't lag. Next day is Momentum: we'll make sure there are stakes, and a reason for the reader to turn the pages. We'll tackle Audience and even Heartbreak- it will be an amazing week that will feel for each participant that they are getting a full week of a private workshop, just in a group setting. by @cbmaum

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14 days ago

THIS ONE IS A FRAMER. A dream announcement with the dream team of all dream teams. Warner Bros, Doozer, HBO and UTA....LFG!!! 🦞 🎉 💜 by @cbmaum

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2 months ago

Did you know there is a FREE, comprehensive and frankly kicky kit available for book clubs, reading retreats and other groups considering ALAN OPTS OUT as a group read? DM me for the link and I will get it over to you! (Or find the 🔗 in my Linktree bio.)
🦞 📖
Big ups to @mydeargeorge and @tessakeefe of Little Brown who helped make this guide so good! by @cbmaum

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3 months ago

My chiropractor who is helping me rehabilitate after my fall refers to my horse as “the scarred Prince.” Cowboy is the most sensitive horse I’ve ever known and that’s saying something, because I have a tendency to choose horses that mirror the worst and best in me. I’ve tried walking with him twice since my injury. First time I brought sadness, second time I brought a mind distracted by something going on with my daughter and thus neither time was great. Today I brought nothing but a banana and an empty mind, and I got lots of hugs.
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Please forgive the 🪰in his eyes; I swatted the little villains away immediately after. by @cbmaum

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2 days ago

I spent last night at a fundraiser for a very important organization called @theequuseffect that uses horses to help regulate the nervous systems of military #veterans and #firstresponders. Rather than keeping their equine facilitated work some kind of mysterious, beneficial secret, they organize retreats for the spouses and partners of the people they are serving so that the families can see the “horse Rx” at work. The evening was organized to raise money for initiatives such as this Family Healing program.
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Equine-assisted therapy is notoriously difficult to explain- but it’s powerful as hell to witness. We witnessed a lot of good last night. The veterans and first responders were courageous and candid about the paths they might have taken, had horses not entered their lives.
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It’s worth checking out @theequuseffect on their socials and website, and this is a very worth place to donate if you have anything to spare. taken in Highlands Hudson Valley by @cbmaum

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3 days ago

Two rules for writing funny: come from a place of emotional generosity, and never write a joke you'd have to explain.

Courtney Maum spent her twenties writing mean humour, making fun of people, convinced it was hilarious. Then she read it out loud at open mics and watched it not land. Then some of the people in it read it and were genuinely hurt.

In her episode of Elena Meets the Author we get into Alan Opts Out, her New York Times best book of the summer about an ad man who blows the biggest pitch of his career and moves into his kids' playhouse. The luxury playhouse that sparked the whole idea, her frustration with overconsumption, and what it really costs to keep up. Link in bio.

#podcast #books #authors #writingcommunity #bookstagram #courtneymaum #alanoptsout #literaryfiction #satire #bookpodcast #writingprocess #writingtips #amwriting #authorsofinstagram #readersofinstagram by @cbmaum

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4 days ago

Not gonna lie, I would prefer you purchased books through independent bookstores BUT money is tight. Gas is outrageous. Eggs cost more than buying a live chicken. So if you’d like to give yourself a little treat, this is a good time to do it because the e-book version of ALAN OPTS OUT is on sale for just $2.99 from now until October 7th. This is a novel about someone who needs a time-out from the world, and takes it. It’s very much a vibe. by @cbmaum

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4 days ago

This is one of my biggest events this fall— if you are in the #Greenwich CT area or know someone who is, please join us on Oct. 6th! Dana Chivvis is the groundbreaking producer behind This American Life and Serial—we met while working on my own story for This American Life, but it turns out we both have Greenwich in common as a place where we came of age and came into ourselves as the professional storytellers that we would one day be.
🍁 ✏️
We will be talking about the American Dream and why it is so bruised! We will be talking about the difference between making and sharing stories that are fictional and nonfictional. Maybe we will talk about Zima? It’s going to be a great night and a festive event and I do hope you’ll join us. Ticket information is through the linktree in my bio. by @cbmaum

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7 days ago

We be healing. 🩹🕰️❤️ by @cbmaum

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10 days ago

Continuing our Sunday “Things we have opted out of” series with bestselling author and @turningpoints_writers alumna ML Rio, who has opted out of streaming.

🪩💽📼 🎧

The mind behind “Hot Wax,” “Graveyard Shift” and “If We Were Villains” has said adios to subscription-based services in favor of her old iPod, DVDs from the library, and PBS.
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Catch ML now on her paperback tour for HOT WAX, and learn more about her at www.mlrio.com , through her Substack “Discursions” or here on Instagram via @sureasmel 💜 📻 by @cbmaum

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10 days ago

I had a bad horse riding accident yesterday and while I will be okay, I’m not okay yet. Terribly sorry to miss out on the fun and the conversations and the catch-ups with dear friends and readers. If you know someone in the hospital, get them ALAN OPTS OUT as an act of solidarity. Have fun for me in the Big 🍎! by @cbmaum

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11 days ago

AUTUMN BOOK REVIEW
🍁 🍃 🍂
Damn, I love me some #BenLerner. To me, his books read like a dream in which you are invisible, and end up on the property of a college that is both familiar and foreign. You walk unseen into a lecture hall where a lecture is being given in a language that you don’t speak. Until suddenly, you realize that you speak it- you have actually had the capacity to speak this language all along. You are awake, but you are asleep again, and you speak all of the languages. This is what reading TRANSCRIPTION felt like. I loved it. Highly recommend. by @cbmaum

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13 days ago