About a month ago (or was it two years? -- so hard to tell nowadays) a nice guy named Payam Salehi who runs Anam Cara (https://writewithfriends.com) emailed us. Anam Cara is part writing workshop, part social-network type of thing, and part writing/accountability group. He got in touch with us to see if we'd be willing to help promote the next session (which starts on July 14th, and is led by author, professor and speaker Faith Adiele <https://www.adiele.com>).
Off the bat we were _very_ skeptical. There are an awful lot of on-line "writing classes" and they are usually, to some degree, a scam. They over-promise, the "experts" actually aren't, they charge too much, and so on. But Alan gave him a call anyway and he seemed like a nice, sincere guy. After that, Alan did some digging and talked to both some prior participants and some other folks who are promoting it. In the end, we decided that it was legit.
Though it has the usual elements that you'd expect from an on-line writing class, the thing that stands out to us is the peer-support element. At the outset, participants are added to a group and, further, assigned a writing partner. The expectation is that, in addition to the class element, the group and especially your writing partner will be helpful and supportive of your work. Based on the people Alan talked to, that idea actually functions as intended.
That seems to us to be a big plus over the typical writing group where the level of engagement within the group often leaves a bit to be desired, especially within groups that consist of mostly less-experienced writers.
Bottom line, if you're interested in trying it out, Payam is offering Borderlands folks a discount on the program. The base cost is $390 ($290 each if you sign up with a friend) for the five-week course, but, if you use promo code "borderlands", you'll get $20 off of either price. Further, he's agreed to extend the refund period through the entire class so it is essentially a no-risk deal. If you don't feel like it was worthwhile, you'll get a refund.
Full disclosure: Anam Cara's side of the promotional deal is that Borderlands will get 15% of any signups that come in through our promotion code. We're not really focused on the income but, if the program is good and legit, it might be a nice little bit of extra cash for the shop. The most important thing to us, however, is that it is, in fact, good and legit. So, if you do decide to try it out, please let us know what you thought.
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