I’ve decided to sell the domain for this website. If you’re interesting in buying www.ninetofive.com, send me your best offer at dianaburrell at gmail dot com. If it’s not obvious, I’m just selling the domain name here.

I’ve decided to run my Become an Idea Machine class through the Renegade Writer site again this summer, starting on Monday, July 12 July 19.  You can sign up here, or through The Renegade Writer site.

In this class:

• You’ll learn how to generate dozens, even hundreds of possible story ideas, starting on the very first day of class.
• You’ll learn how to sift through your ideas to find the good ones, the stories that have potential to sell to editors, and you’ll learn how to refine and shape them into pitchable stories.
• You’ll figure out how to target your ideas for the right markets.
• You’ll never be at a loss when an editor asks if you have any more ideas for them.  You’ll have dozens of good ideas at the ready.

This three-week course costs $99 for the basic level (web-based class with no e-mail support) and $149 for the premium level, which includes e-mail support. I encourage nearly everyone to sign up for the premium level — not because I want to take more of your money, but because for an extra $50 I can work with you on your specific problems coming up with salable story ideas.

Who benefits the most from taking this class? Students who are extremely self-motivated and driven to sell their ideas to national outlets. If you’re at all a slacker, this isn’t the class for you because it’s a lot of work and expect you to put in a lot of effort shaping your ideas and finding homes for them, even with my help. Hey, I’m not going to come up with ideas for you — the point of the class is so that you can learn how to do this yourself. My students have gone on to sell ideas they’ve generated in my classes to publications like Parenting, Woman’s Day, Yankee, Discover, the New Scientist, and more.

So if you need a kick in the pants this summer, sign up for my class today!

I’ll be offering my popular “Developing Story Ideas That Sell” workshop through The Renegade Writer this summer, starting on Monday, June 8 with a second session starting on Monday, July 6. I won’t be offering the class in August due to travel/vacation — the next workshop will be offered in September.

If you’re “idea challenged” when it comes to pitching editors, or you’re just sick and tired of writing about the same old subjects, this workshop can be the kickstart you need to put your career in high gear. You’ll learn:

* How to find stories that can earn you thousands of dollars in magazine commissions, even while you’re running errands, caring for young children, or surfing the Web;

* How to train yourself to come up with salable ideas effortlessly;

* Why your stockpile of story ideas makes you more valuable to editors;

* How to build an idea inventory that can take you through months, even years, of pitching.

So sign up today! Any questions? E-mail me at dianaburrell [at] gmail [dot] com.

For some reason I get gazillions of hits for people looking for Clean Eating recipes, so hey — if you’re so inclined, come check out my food blog. I’ve been food blogging for awhile, but recently I did a site revamp of DianaCooks. It’s basically a place to write the things that I want to write vs. what editors want me to write. Do come check it out — and grab the feed! I’ll be doing more recipes than what you find in the archives.