Allie McCormack

(D: Dianna A: Allie) D: Welcome to Finding Elara, safe space where authors artists and creatives share their worldbuilding style and mindful strategies. Brought you by Bushland Castle Productions Aussie Tales Told. Welcome to the show. My name is Dianna and this is episode 3 of the 2025 season in the first 2 episodes I spoke to JA Duxbury about the worlds she has created and some of her mindfulness strategies. It was really good to get back into the swing of recording and working with a team for editing competitions and promo. The last season, I was a solo podcaster, so having this support is a gamechanger. In the last week, the majority of my focus has been on getting this podcast up and going and putting together the website. Julz was can't enough to donate her trilogy entitled clans in conflict that is dark dimensions part 1 and 2 and dark reign to our Treasury chest and provided the keyword to unlock access. This is the first time we are doing a group give way, but I'm elated, that there will be multiple winners in the end, I've been setting up the landing page on the website, so all the info is in one spot. One of our sponsors Bushland Castle Productions are currently looking for authors tho are interested in participating in a fantasy novella series called otherworldly emergence. This is your invitation to imagine the unimaginable bring creatures into the light show how humanity rises, falls or changes. Surprise us with your creativity. This could be your first book or your 15th. There are more details in the show notes or head over to Bushland castle productions.com board/emergence, where you will find the theme brief, submission information and pitch details. I'm really excited to hear some of the story ideas that will come through in this series and meet like-minded Authors. That have a passion for fantasy. There will be a different theme every year and I'm looking forward to doing a story about witches. So I'm going to put my pitch together and see what the team thinks. My guest today has been on the show twice before and is always a pleasure to interview Allie has achieved so much in my break. When I first met her in 2018, I came on as a Beta reader for her Gift of Jacinth book and I've continued to enjoy her stories, keeping a keen eye for each new release, many are set in the same world and it's comforting to return to a familiar world every now and then. Allie McCormack is a disabled military veteran who has transformed her lifelong dream of writing, into a reality. Having lived across the United States and spent memorable years in both Cairo, Egypt as an exchange student and Saudi Arabia working at hospital in Riyadh. Allie, now crafts her stories from beautiful California wine country she calls home, accompanied by her family and 2 rescue cats. When not weaving towers of romance and adventure Allie explores the intersection of art and technology through AI generated artwork, finding new ways to express her creativity. Her passion for storytelling drives everything she does. Bringing to life the countless characters and Worlds that populate her imagination whether through words or images, Allie believes in creating works that touch hearts and spark joy. D: Hello, Allie, I'm really, really happy to have you back on the show. A: I am really thrilled that you asked me to come back. D: We've already gone through your bio for the third time, cause the third time you've come on as a guest, can you tell us a little bit about your journey onto the creative path? A: I've always been making up stories in my head. I remember reading underneath the covers when I was in third grade. I know we were in, it was third grade because that's when we lived in a brick house okay, so we moved a lot! So I always know it was because of where I was. I would write underneath the covers with a Flashlight in pencil on a black and white composition notebook. My mom would bring me. At that point It was bambi fan fic. But not bambi, not the Disney bambi. We actually had the actual unabridged novel by Felix Sultan and that’s what I was reading and doing then, I was always writing, always, always, always writing. I think I had like 123 stories. I’ve still got them. In the file cabinet drawer over there in pencil on yellow line paper that is so faded you can’t read it and I don't want to because it’s like really bad. A: But then in 1999. I watched you've got mail. Back then you could get on an AOL with a free trial because they had all the CD’s. So I went on to AOL because I wanted to hear my computer tell me if you've got mail when I had mail. That was a reason that I signed on for a free trial of AOL, I'm honestly it was. Just call me shallow, it’s ok. A: Once I was on AOL I discovered the writing community there. They had published authors, they had complete rank newbies like me and everything between. They had workshops, they had classes. It Just, I had never been around any kind of community like that, and so I started going to the workshops I started taking classes on writing. I had never actually even thought of trying to finish a book because I just knew that was not something that I could do. I mean, my mom was always saying you should write a book and I was like yeah yeah. A: I started to feel like maybe I could. That was how it's started. A got introduced to romance writers of America, and joined and a lot of the chapters in RWA have contests as part of their fundraising, and it's pretty minimal, you know 10 or 15 or $25 to enter a contest and I looked for a contest where you got feedback from your judges and I entered one just because, I wasn't trying to like win or anything, what I wanted was to see if see what the feedback said. So I would know, can I write, is this worth my pursuing, or should I just keep on what I’ve been doing, which I was pretty happy with anyway. So I took a chance and I did it and here came the envelope, ♪dadadada. And I opened it ready to you know, see the feedback and it's said congratulations in big red letters. D: Wow! A: I’d won the contest. D: Congratulations back then. A: Yeah, right, well, the winning prize, which I hadn’t even known, because I wasn’t looking a that. I wasn't looking at the prize, I didn't expect to win. I entered it for feedback from the judges, but the winning prize was that the winning manuscript's got to be read by a senior acquiring editor at silhoette, which was then the American branch of harlequin. D: Okay A: I was just so, and it gave a phone number and of course even then I knew you don’t call agents and editors, you send them a letter but they gave me a phone number. So I called her and she said, Oh yes Allie McCormack I have your chapter right here and I was like, oh my God she knew my name and so she asks, you know, how much do you have. Well all I had was the first chapter and the synopsis. Which I had thrown together to enter the contest. So I said you know I'm not done yet. And she said, well that’s ok send me what you have. I said well I have three chapters. Totally lying okay, I had three chapters and she said, okay, we'll send those so I sat down and pounded out 3 chapters. And I sent it off and then I sat back going ooooh, okay that was exciting. So I kept going to workshops and to classes and stuff. Then I got the letter back. You know, she wanted the full manuscript. This doesn't happens, you do not get a request for a partial, the first time out you did not get a request for a full manuscript, the first time out that’s not how it works. So I hadn't written any more than the 3 chapters. So I finished the book and then I was like, Oh My God I finished the book so I wrote the next book in 3 weeks. So anyhow, so that’s how. Yeah, long story but it was wow. D: That’s pretty much the dream getting in there, was that for truck stop? A: That was Truck stop yes. Now they did wind up, not taking; they wanted it, but at the time, the heroine, when they had a love scene, she wasn't eighteen yet and we actually sat with the editor called me up to brainstorm, to see if there was any other way to make it because he was on the run from her abusive father, she had to be underage. And that was crucial to the plot, and we couldn't figure out, years later, I did figure out how to make it that way. But at the time We couldn't so they wound up passing on it, but still they didn't buy it but they wanted it. But that stuck with me, you know ever since, all through the rejection processes. You know submitting to agents submitting to, they wanted it. They had wanted it. Enough to call and see if there wasn't some way we could work it. D: That’s amazing A: You just can't ask for better, you know? D: Start A: Yeah D: So you are now an Indie author did you end up going through other publishes before you chose the indie path? A: I did, I queried and submitted to agents and editors for a long time. Then I read back in 2018. I decided now, you know you Indi publishing, Amazon is a thing back in 2000 none of this was. Ebooks, we're only just beginning to gain some respect, they're really just gearing up, but now we had Amazon and thought, take truck stop, which no publisher is gonna buy anyway because it’s already been published. And I did rewrite it so that she was 18 when they had the first love scene and so I did a second edition and then I was still querying for the other books and then I read a book called being indie by Eva Lancaster. When I read that book I was like, okay, that's it. I have you know, I'm not on the fence anymore what I'm gonna do it. So I went out and I found a professional cover designer who specifically does romance genre. I’m still with her she does all my covers and I got somebody to do the Editing and formatting and started looking for Beta readers and I, here I am 16 books. 15 .16 tomorrow. D: 16 tomorrow. Amazing. A: I got another one coming out Tommorrow. D: Well by the time this comes out, that would have been out for a couple of weeks. A: Okay see, 16 books. D: We'll have to keep an eye on your socials. So, I do have any cultural consideration, that you think impacts the art that you’ve been creating? A: Yes absolutely. I spent a year in Cairo Egypt as an exchange student through my university. Then I spent a year in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia working at a hospital and I was inadvertently there during Desert storm. Less than Fun. I took classes at college in Arabic art and architecture and Islamic art and architecture. In ancient egyptian, art and architecture. They took us on field trips out to the city to see old mosques from you know 1000 years ago, like to 6-700 ad common era. It made a huge impression on me. The culture made a huge impression on me. The clothing in Saudi Arabia made a really huge on, and in Egypt the bedouin gowns and shirts and so forth and Scarves and shawls it just the whole thing. Plus I also studied belly dancing for years before I went. So the music and it's just always and you'll find that in all my book in some measures that well I mean I’ve got Genies right? D: You do. So you were raised in America? A: Yeah D: It was this time over in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and all that jazz that has the impacted your writing more than anything. A: Yeah, that was the link mid 20’s early 30’s. D: I think that's quite a pivotal age. I think for your development, because you're not with your family anymore your finding your independence in that point? A: Absolutely D: So you know, this episode is about mindfulness. A: Yep D: And now we know who you are as a whole person and thank you for sharing all of that, what does mindfulness mean to you? And how do you find mindful moments in your day? S: To me mindfulness about creating a balance which is not natural to my personality. To me I am go, go, go. If I'm doing something, I'm doing it. I'm all in and I will write every waking minute of the day. And then I burn out. So for me, mindfulness means not doing one thing, every waking minute, but having several things to do and space them out so that I'm not burning the candle at both ends, no matter how much I enjoy the lovely life. And it's really taken years to train myself not to do that to find a balance. It's actually honestly only been in the last, I wanna saying 2 years that I've managed to achieve that. And I have now. It took a long time, this is just not, or hasn't been who I am. Now it is. But I had to change that. D: It's interesting that that's your perspective of mindfulness, because everyone sees it differently, the way they manage mindfulness in their work and how they incorporate it into their lives. So the last time you're on the show, your daughter was just about to have a baby. A: Yeah she’s 5 years now, and she’s in Pre K. D: Wow! Do you think family impacts the way you work and your strategies that you use for mindfulness? A: Yeah, We all live together, and this happened after I was on the podcast last, COVID happened there, all the daycares shut down the kids. Their jobs were remote, but they had no one to watch the baby I was in Tucson and they needed a babysitter. I didn't want to be 700 miles from my daughter in the middle of a deadly pandemic. So my son-in-law said, well, let's just find a great big old house and we’ll all move in together. So that's what we did, and it's actually been working really well mostly because we're all nerds. I have, as you can see I'm here in the foyer with the loft upstairs. That’s upstairs. Downstairs, I have a mother suite downstairs I have a bathroom and bedroom and my own little hallway and upstairs they each have their own home office. D: That’s amazing A: So we all scatter to our own places. There’s lots of room for us to spread out so we're not like on top of each other all the time. So really it's, for this Podcast , basically you know, Let us know 15 minutes ahead, we'll get the dog inside and make sure. And it all works. when they're working. Usually, I'm also there working in the evenings they go in the living room and watch television, which I'm not into, so I’m working and, but when they all go up stairs at night and go to bed. Cause I’ll go down or go up to do things like, you know, computer stuff upstairs. That's my time, that's when I get away from the computer. That's when I go into the living room, the whole house is dark and quiet. It's just my light there next to my recliner. My recliner and my cat and I open the back door we live semi-rural and in Wine country. So the air is like really sweet from all the flowers and stuff, so I had the door open I get this breeze in I got my cats I got my kindle, having that time set aside when I get open the morning, I get up charged and ready to get to my computer and write. I'm not exhausted because I spent all day and all night writing. D: Yup S: The night before, so it really has made a difference when I started doing that on a regular Basis. D: That sounds like, it's pretty much the perfect home situation. You're close enough to family but you're not in each other's faces and you’ve got your own space. A: Exactly. Sponsor Spot When was the last time you took a moment to reflect on your life? Have you achieved your goals and dreams? At the end of the day, does your busy life leave you feeling truly connected and peaceful? Looking forward, Have you got a plan to achieve your goals and desires? Selva from Selva’s Ality is a life translater, who can help you balance what has happened in the past and what you desire for the future. As a sponsor for the show, look her up on Facebook at Selva’s Ality and ask for your world reading for a very special listeners deal D: Because you've had a lot of books come out. How do you handle a lot of the reviews that come through when it's good or bad or either/either A: Well, the good review I love! It gives me happy happy joy joy. Now bad reviews and rejection. So years ago, there was this book came out. It was call the horse whisperer. And everybody went mad for the horse whisperer and they made it into a movie and everybody it was the big thing that everyone was talking about. I hated that book. I mean, I hated it I despised that book. You can't please all the people all the time, you can’t please all the people some of the time. You can’t please some of the people all of the time. You can please some of the people, some of the time and that includes books. And Reading books is very personalised. We give 3 people the same book. And they're all gonna have different takes on it. Oh my God, you should hear our living room go when we start talking about lord of the rings. D: Oh A: My goodness. Okay. So I keep that in my mind all the time, and it's gonna happen. It's a fact and I didn't like the horse whisperer. So this person didn't like my book, it's fair. yeah, and most of my reviews are peak, are good. People tend to really like my books. Um, you know, I might get the occasional negative review. But it's not very often. So not like I’m constantly getting them in my face in my face, in my face, not like their quality concern. So I’ve seen so many and it’s like, oh my God as a reader. So yeah, so that that's what I do I it's a practical viewpoint that allows me to not be, you know, knocked off my stride if I do get a negative review. I could just say, okay, that you know this is not a person who enjoys my storytelling and I go on. ‘Cause I’m story telling for the people who do like my D: So you’re just pretty much let it wash over you? A: Yeah, let it wash. D: That’s a good way to handle it. So have you ever tried to write in a different genre away for the Paranormal and the romance, have you ever tried to thriller or horror or something along those lines? A: No no no no. Never never never. I, romance has always been like, aside from the Bambi Fanfic. Okay, You know, this is my genre and I never felt the desired to stray. D: A lot are like that, they've got their little corner that I'd like to play in and yeas A: Now that being said. Tomorrow, I'm publishing a book of short stories in the medieval fantasy Genre. D: It’s still fantasy though. A: It’s still fantasy, and there’s Paranormal element, you know, and that was actually inspired by role plays that I did the Second Life back in 2009 through 2015. I looked up some of my old. favourite role plays, it was just like, oh, gosh they would be so cool if I wrote these up as short stories, so that’s what I did. D: I remember you talking about Second Life last time and you're very passionate about it. A: Yes I love second life. D: Do you have any tips for setting app good writing habits for maybe someone who's just starting out. A: No I don’t. However, that being said, I have chronic paint for 30 years, which is why don't have any tips because I don't know what it's like this to try and set up writing habit without having chronic pain. I never know when I'm going to be able to write or not be able to write. But for people in my situation, I do have tips. When you can, write. If you're not doing quite well enough to actually write, but you're well enough to be productive, go back and edit what you've already written or you do charactization work, or think about your world building because all that stuff still needs to be done, but you're not using premium writing time to do it, if you do it on an off day. And if you can't do any of those things, just close your eyes and let the scene build in your head and just visualise the scene and then stay with it, you get some ideas for when you are able to be back to the keyboard. And if you can't do that, then for gods sake, give yourself permission not to do anything knowing that you'll get back to you when you can and you can't ask anything more of yourself than that. D: That sounds beautiful, very reasonable, making sure you understand your body and knowing what you actually need. A: Yeah D: Okay. Well, I'm gonna go to the last question for the mindfulness. And that's what are your goals aspirations dreams going forward. A: For the immediate future, I've just started characterization, work on the next Paranormal romance in my magic of wishes and dream series. And I don't even know the plot! But that would be, that's my next after tomorrow, when I get joy's story book out. This is where I'm going to be putting my focus, and after that, I have 2 more of those medieval fantasy short story collections. That's my immediate future. I'm also in the process of seeing about getting my books produced as audio books so that's kind of like on the side as a side project. Over the longer term, I have some projects, I have a 4 book contemporary romance series started of which I got 2 books published and I've never gotten around to those other 2 books, the Paranormal romances keep calling me. The characters keep coming in my head. The stories keep wanting to be told. So really no idea after these next three books. D: They don't look too far ahead, just a couple of projects away. A: Yeah D: One thing we didn't cover, which I really want to before we close this part of the interview. A: Hmmhm D: How do you stay motivated when you've got such massive projects going on? A: Well for one thing, I have a checklist. I use asana. And if I start to get overwhelmed by the number of things to do because there's lots of author tasks that always have to be done I just create a checklist, and it's actually very motivating to go into the checklist and see all those little green checks that have already done those things. I also operate on rewards basis. When I finish a book, I get a reward. I get to buy myself something and it could be anything from the mundane to the fanciful to the really out there like my poor teeth and a gold plated, slinky. D: Did you say gold plated slinky? A: I said Gold plated slinky. Sitting here on my desk right now. I found it on ebay and I'm like, oh my God I’ve gotta have this. D: What was that a reward for, which book. A: ah, Gold Plated slinky, hold on. I got, I have a spreadsheet. D: You spreadsheet your rewards. That's amazing I love it. I love spreadsheets. A: I spreadsheet everything! I do I really. I’m like the speadsheet queen. D: I think it is so important to celebrate success. A: Okay, that was, that was when I finish when darkness falls, and that was that was worthy of the gold plated slinky, because that was a trilogy, that was three books. D: Yes. I have read them they are amazing A: Thank you D: I have a few quick questions. These are called the fast five. A: Okay. D: I don't say them in advance because I don't want you to think too hard on the answers. A: Uhoh. D: And then we'll move to our buffy night segment. A: Okay, I’m bracing myself. D: You bracing yourself. It’s nothing to serious. Would you rather be a table or a chair? A: Table. D: Are you a dog person or a cat person. I already know the answer to this one. A: Cat cat cat cat cat D: Definitely. Who is your favourite superhero? A: Superhero, I never really go into Superheroes. D: Really? Yeah, there's so you know. A: Oh my family is. Always going on about Batman D: You just stand aside from all of that. A: I just Read my book and roll my eyes. D: Were to have a magical power? What would it be? A: Oh yeah, I want to Teleport. I want to be able to teleport. Then I can go see the Taj Mahal. The Carpathian mountains, I could go back to Cairo I could go see my Mum in North Carolina. I could go to. I could go to New Orleans. D: You’ve thought about this before. A: Absolutely not. not thought about that. D: Okay. So if you were to have a huge lotto win, what would you do? A: Oh right I would hire a housekeeper and cook. And I would get lots of 100 dollar bills to carry around in my wallet and when I drive through the fast food, I can leave the person a $100 bill tip. Or in a restaurant or the bag boy at the supermarket. Leave them 100 dollar tip. I would just go round the country just to do that. D: You’d Change people's world doing that. A: A 100 dollars aint gonna change much, but still, you now it’s something. D: It would have a positive impact on people's lives. A: Yes, And they would always remember the strange lady who just left them a $100 tip and just walked ok. D: Okay well, that's the end of the question segments. A: OK D: So we talked about buffy night and Buffy is the one night a week that I'm allowed to have the big tele the lounge room and I watch whatever show I want with my friend. We do once a week. Been doing it for over 22 years now. So A: oh wow, D: my night that I gets to just binge something. At the moment, we're on supernatural season 9. Dean’s just got his mark of cain. So I don't think it's a spoiler. I mean supernatural finished years ago. So if you were to have your own Buffy knight, what show would you choose? A: Actually, I would choose. The Equalizer with queen Latifa. D: I haven't seen that. A: It is not my usual type of show. I like the crime drocedural dramas where they catch the bad guys at the end. Well, she always catches the bad guys too. But this is not usually my kind of show. I saw the trailer. And I thought well you know. I’m trying to try new things. Ok I’ll try something new. I get a gold star. For trying something new. A hypothetical gold star anyway. So I thought well It’s kind of it like Hmmm. So I was, and I was just. I didn’t even know who Queen Latifa is, and I think she was like a singer or something at the time I didn’t know who she was. But it did look kind of interesting. I thought I'll try it out. Opening scene. I was hooked. And her daughter and and I, I Just I just love these people. They are just. And she is kick ass. Her daughter, she has a teenage daughter and she's a single Mom with a teenage Daughter. and that kid is just wow, she is darling, she is charming, She is right and she’s got the attitude. They all have the attitude. And it is so much fun to watch. The family interactions are as fun to watch as the kickass scene where she's out there kicking the bad guys ass. And I really, now were in season 7 now and I'm loving it and at the end of each season, I buy the DVD. Just in case I'm ever stuck without pay per view or internet D: What book do you think has impacted your creative writing most? A: I think I would have to say secret Garden. By Francis Hutchison Burnett, that Book really got. I mean, besides that, I mean I love the book, it got fantasies going in my head. Pictures going creative stuff going in my head. So it just uplifted my creative side, I guess you could I don’t know how exactly to express it. D: I know where you are coming from I read The Secret Garden when I was younger, Like every, every young little lady does and then I read. A: Did you see? D: It again A: The broad way show? D: No A: It was AMAZING, you should atleast get the soundtrack. It is amazing. I lay on the floor and wept for 2 weeks listening to it over and over. D: I'm a huge fan of musicals so that's definitely getting added to my list, but what I was getting at is, I read it when I was younger than I read it again when I was mid 20’s, maybe 25-26 I read it again to the kids. In my mind, I remembered how intrinsically beautiful and calming the garden was when I was a child. But when I read it again, as an adult, there wasn't as many details as I recalled. So I'd obviously I've had a vivid imagination and created this garden gate perfectly my mind as a child, but it was actually all written down, it was a lot in my mind, so I found that that amazing. A: The BBC did a really nice adaptation of it with the Dame Maggie Smith as the housekeeper. D: Another version to watch. It's not a musical though is it? A: No not that one. There are several versions of the made that one just was my favourite one. D: Okay, well, every 5 guests or 10 episodes we're going to be doing a treasure chest in this series, and I understand you're going to be putting something into the treasure chest, so what are you putting in the treasure chest? A: I am indeed. I am putting a box set of the first 3 books of my magic of wishes and dreams Paranormal romance series. Of which there are 7, and one spin off. D: Can you tell us a little bit more about these three books. A: The first is wishes in a bottle. And that was my first Paranormal romance ever. And I never meant by the way to write a series, I just had this picture in my mind or this poor guy, you know, in agony. So tired of having to grant wishes and he's just tired of it all and I wanted to write his story. So I wrote his story, and then there was another in then there was another, then I had 8. So he is a mage from around fourteenth century Genoa Italy when the black plague came from cimea and all people in his village were dying and he did a big, powerful spell to be able to help people only be careful what you wish for. It backfired and he got trapped down to an a genie bottle, or Djinn bottle. Granting 3 wishes to each person until certain conditions are met. And it’s been 600 years and he’s really tire of this whole wishes gig. and then he meets this young woman a hospice worker and she winds up getting his bottle somehow, which we don't know how and they are falling in love. The second book is a gift of Jacinth. Jacinth a bonafide Genie. And she was Julian. Julian I the hero of wishes in a bottle. She was Julians mentor, assigned to him by the Djinn to help him through the process. To know the rules of the magic and so forth. To see him through all these you know, she is funny. She's charming, she’s ebullient and everybody loves Jacinth and I love Jacinth and she had to have her story written. So then I wrote her story. Ah, the hero there is a single and he’s divorced and his wife, he has custody the children. because she wasn't able to care for them, she kidnapped them, and they've been gone for 2 years, so he wishes for his children back. So then they’re found and he’s all in a panic because he hasn’t seen them for 2 years. They’re 4 years old and 6 years old, 1 day she has the kids out at a park and they see a, just gorgeous main coon tabby, sunning herself on the bench and the kids fall in love with her and she follows them home and disappears and comes back and she’s a shapeshifter and that’s cat from the next book a cat for Troy. D: I love how they all link together. A: Yeah they all link together D: And how in depth you went for your genie lore and mythology in the stories I really enjoyed that too. A: Ah, Yeah, that was a lot of fun, I did a lot of research. I actually went into the Ko-ran and read the parts about the Djinn. I did AIot of research in old pre-islamic Arabic folklore because they're around then too, and I kind of you know, did the artistic licence where I picked in chose the parts that I wanted to pull in and use for my Djinn. D: Okay, we're meet pretty much out of time now. We've actually probably gone overtime, we'll see how this gets put together and um here, thank you very much for coming onto the mindfulness episode and I will see you in but a moment for the worldbuilding segment. S: Okay, D: thank you for coming in. A: Thank you for having me. END ROLL I really enjoyed the interview with Allie and have been listening to The Secret Garden musical on Spotify. Even though I've spoken to Allie on the show a few times we had never covered her origin story before and it was so interesting to hear her journey and how fortunate she was to have such a fantastic opportunity and it gave her the inspiration to carry on. I think being a part of a community is so important. I am still a member of the romance writers of Australia and the Australian Fairytale society and the author coaching club. They add so much value to the writing process You meet people that you otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to meet. Allies advice about listening to what your body needs and giving yourself permission to take a break then you need it is so beautiful also having a spreadsheet for a reward system was inspired. If you like to carry on the conversation with ally or ask her more questions about mindfulness, you can find her in Facebook, as Allie McCormack, her artwork is on deviant art. And if you head over to Ali mccormack.com. she has all the information about her books and regular newsletter. If you are enjoying a show and would like to show some support, consider buying us cuppa. head on over to coffee com. That's KO-FI.com/findingelara. The link is in the show notes. There is an option for you to buy a cup of tea for $2 or you join the Shadow link for 5 dollars a month to receive exclusive content and advanced information about the show. If you would like to get in touch with myself or the team are push castle productions, then I'm on Facebook as DL Nix and on Instagram and TikTok @findingelara. There's also a discord channel called finding Elara podcast. The BCP team are on TikTok and Instagram as BCP dot creative or you can check out the website. Bushland castle productions.com. The music is brought to you about @keysofmoonmusic and is called ‘the epic hero’, if you are enjoyed listening to findingelara, have any questions or just want to share your world with us in Then please get in touch. Until next time keep up the search for your Elara.