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pick your day | Feb 28 or March 1 | $399embodied authorship:
writing from a place of wholeness
One-day workshop | for writers of nonfiction What to expect
A day-long workshop with expert facilitation to build a Mini-Blueprint and position your nonfiction book for success in the marketplace.
Somatic practices to connect your mindbody and drop into present-moment awareness.
We bring the structure. You bring the idea.
We hold the space. You bring your Whole Self.
You leave feeling clearer than ever.
❋ Meaningful Headway On Your BookStep-by-step guidance through a robust, proven tool for stress-testing your nonfiction book idea in today’s current competitive publishing landscape.
❋ Expert FacilitationLed by a certified book coach with publishing know-how and expertise, and a mindfulness teacher and Kripalu-certified yoga instructor trained in the Zen Buddhist tradition. We blend direct teaching, somatic exploration, and space to write and reflect—so you’re creating from a place of integrated truth.
❋ An Energetically Aligned SpaceOur bodies respond to the felt sense of a place. The Embodied Authorship workshop experience is designed to create a grounded, supportive environment where creativity can settle and emerge.
Who we’ve made this for
You’re in the early stages of planning out your nonfiction book. You’ve got an idea that you want to share because you know it’s going to make someone’s life better (and change your own life in the meantime).
Whether it’s a strategy, process, a how-to or a series of teachings, you’re coming to the page with a gift for your fellow humans. There’s a message inside that’s been looking for a way into form, and you’ve chosen to write a book to give your message that form.
This workshop is for people who want to explore whether their nonfiction book would succeed in the marketplace. Your idea doesn’t need to be fully formed, but you do need to have your content and message in mind.
This isn’t a workshop that answers the question, What should my book be about? Rather it answers: Is this a book the world needs now? How does life want to live through me?
This workshop is for writers of all experience levels.
Look what we’ve made for you
We’re gathering a small group of writers for a day of learning a calming, energetically aligned space surrounded by nature. You’ll work with a certified book coach to define and market-test your nonfiction book idea.
The day unfolds as a lovely mingling of contemplations, somatic connection and restorative inward focus paired with short lectures about nonfiction book elements, publishing industry intel, and, of course, time for writing. We’ll get outside, weather permitting, and connect with the grounding energies of nature.
By day’s end, writers will have completed a Mini-Blueprint—an essential book-planning document and a great stress test for their book’s viability in the marketplace. Personalized 1:1 feedback and coaching on your book idea is also included in the workshop pricing.
This is a one-day workshop in Victoria, British Columbia. We’re offering it on Saturday February 28 and again on Sunday March 1, so you can pick the day that works best for you.
Our space for this special day
We’ve arranged an intimate gathering space at the University of Victoria as our container for the Embodied Authorship workshop experience. We’ll convene in a classic seminar room that’s right-sized for just a handful of us, with space to spread out and unroll our mats, drop into a down dog or simply connect with breath.
We chose UVic because of its relationship to the land. The campus sits on gently rolling terrain just a few hundred feet above Cadboro Bay on southern Vancouver Island, woven together by green spaces, woods, and proximity to water.
The university is located on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən Peoples, including the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, whose ongoing relationship to this land continues today...and from whose wisdom we have much to learn. We acknowledge this with gratitude and respect, and with an intention to practice presence, care, and listening while we gather here.
The campus is designed more like a village in a forest than a machine for education. It blends nature and buildings rather than dominating the land. Its human-scale pathways, circular movement, and central gathering heart reflect invite a sense of interconnectedness. Imagine the humming presence of curious minds at work here, thinking, questioning, and shaping what comes next.
It’s an ideal foundation for beginning a book.
What’s included for you in this lovely workshop
We’re heaping it high! Here’s what you’ll receive:
embodied awareness practices that gently align your energy and thought
a glorious setting to work in
a series of short lectures on the different considerations in bringing a nonfiction book to market
guidance from a book coach as you complete your Mini-Blueprint worksheet
clarity on the significance of each step of the Mini-Blueprint, and why each consideration matters for your book’s potential in the marketplace
feedback on your Mini (after the workshop)
feedback from a certified book coach on five pages of your writing (after the workshop)
a 30-minute followup coaching call to talk about your Mini-Blueprint (after the workshop)
a deeper appreciation of the soul-level purpose behind your book
greater clarity on your book’s message
more connection with yourself as a creator, an artist, a giver, an observer…a writer
somatic practices you can take with you to ground and center yourself at any time, in any situation (year of the Fire Horse? Pff. BRING IT.)
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The shape of our day
We’ll ease into the day with gentle movement and breath, then move into the nuts and bolts of the Mini-Blueprint. (You didn’t think we’d let you be a hippie all day, did you?)
Throughout the day, we’ll weave in quiet moments of inward focus—gentle movement, contemplative practices, and brief pauses to check in with the body. The intention is to support a grounded, settled state, where nervous systems can calm, curiosity can open, and creative work can flow more naturally.
We’ll break for lunch, with time for rest and a somatic practice or two, before returning for an afternoon of learning and application.
A few final pauses will help integrate the day’s work, and we’ll close together with a shared reflection and embodiment practice.
You will want to bring:
your yoga mat
your lunch
your usual writing materials, i.e. laptop or pen & paper
Agenda
This is a full-day workshop, starting at 9:00 a.m. and finishing up at 5:30 p.m.
Gather and tone-settingYoga for focus and creativityMini-Blueprint workLunch and nature / gentle somatic integrationUnwind and check-out9:00 a.m.
9:30 a.m.
10:30 a.m.
Mini-Blueprint work12:45 p.m.
2:15 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
A closer look at the Mini-Blueprint
The Embodied Authorship workshop includes expert instruction on each step of the Mini-Blueprint worksheet on the day of the workshop, plus time to capture your thoughts on the page.
After the workshop, you’ll submit your Mini for feedback. You’ll also receive feedback on five pages of your writing. Then you’ll meet with a certified book coach for a half-hour call designed to help you get clarity on your idea and execution, and assess the marketability of your book.
Books are enormous projects. Much bigger than you realize until you’re in the middle of one! The Mini-Blueprint shows you if you’re on track. It’s the Blueprint’s little sister, a miniature version of Author Accelerator’s robust, proven method for tackling a project as big as a book.
The Mini-Blueprint answers questions like:
Is this idea compelling enough for a book?
Would this book be competitive in the current marketplace?
What’s my main message to readers?
And who are my readers, anyway?
How can I position my book as intelligently as possible so that I can succeed in reaching those readers—and beyond?
The energetic trade
Everything is energy. My time, your time, her time, his expertise, their money. (Money is just stored energy.)
Let’s trade. Our training, industry expertise, time and vibe for your stored energy.
Because this workshop is our pilot, we’re offering it for just $399.
The Mini-Blueprint itself is $399 in Alex’s business, so getting the Mini and in-person education about the literary marketplace (that’s from The Steer) and Kate’s body-aware grounding and focus guidance?
It’s a steal, babycakes.
If you’re a student, get in touch and we’ll cut you a deal.
Breaking the Mini-Blueprint allllllllllll the way down
This is for all you 1-lines out there. The researchers.
#HumanDesign 🧬 #iykyk 🔥In this one-day embodied workshop, Alex will coach you through all the steps of the Mini-Blueprint. We’ll take our time and explore the underlying importance of each step in the Mini-Blueprint, so you’ll have insights into how best to frame and position your book’s content in a competitive marketplace. Kate will weave body-centric practices in among our head-centric learning sessions.
Be prepared to learn a lot about the publishing industry, including the different paths to publishing your book.
Following the workshop, Alex will review and provide feedback on your Mini: on your book idea, its execution, and the market viability of your book.
Top to tail, here’s what’s included in your Mini-Blueprint package:
a Mini-Blueprint worksheet
guidance from a certified book coach through every step
time to develop and write your ideas
loads of education about the publishing industry, setting you up for making good decisions (usually that’s only included in Alex’s package, The Steer)
Following the workshop, you’ll receive:
expert feedback on your completed Mini
notes on five of your draft pages
a 30-minute video coaching call where we go deep into the commercial viability of your book
clarity on your next steps to bring your beautiful, important idea into the world
Developed by Author Accelerator, the Mini-Blueprint offers a robust assessment of the commercial potential of your book, and it’s a fundamental tool in Alex’s toolkit for writers.
Writing like hippies in the lightstream
You didn’t think we’d bring you out to a vibey little classroom at the edge of the Earth so you could just nerd out on your book, did you? No no no my friends. This is 2026, the year of the Fire Horse!
We’re balancing our chakras, breathing into our back ribs and grounding into the subtle energies of Gaia during our day of writing.
It takes balance and alignment to stand in front of the world and raise your voice with a message that means something. Let Kate weave your way along a journey of embodying the energy and wisdom of authorship.
Everything about writing a book—fiction and nonfiction alike—is the work of turning the inner into the outer.
This is alchemy.
Beyond alchemy, out where the fractals and gods and wavelengths play, this is shakti—the primordial force that creates, sustains and transforms the universe.
(Now you can tell everyone you’re going to a shakti workshop in February…and watch the people stare.)
But seriously. This is big work. It’s enormous work. Books are huge! And the big work of developing a book requires a calibrated nervous system. So that’s where we begin.
Your guides for this vibey lil journey
We’re Kate and Alex. We kind of defy labels, but for the purposes of a super reductive snapshot, one of us is a certified book coach (that’s Alex), and the other is a certified yoga teacher (Kate). We’re hippies from both coasts, from different generations and lines of discipleship, but connected by spiritual study, somatic awareness, a fire for writing, and a fierce love for humanity.
somewhere in the Rockies, 1989, no clue I’d end up as a book coach
Alex Van Tol is a certified book coach & somatic coach who reads voraciously, writes every single day, helps other people write their books, and somehow manages to make room for Dance Temple and meditating. She hits the forest trails on the daily as part of her own self-care routine, and is an avid student of Human Design and the Gene Keys.
A multi-published author herself, Alex works with writers in every genre. She’s definitely a hippie woo-face, but do not be fooled by the peace & harmony vibes: she’ll kick your ass all over the page in order to improve your writing. Alex’s favourite place is flat on the ground somewhere, preferably on one of the big-wave beaches off the Sooke coast.
Kate, summer 2022 — among organic sweet potatoes, fifty nuns, and a swarm of energetic children
Kate Talano is a writer, teacher, and visual storyteller drawn to the meeting place between inner healing and the living world. With a background in geography, she has worked in conservation and restoration ecology, including flying drones and supporting coastal resilience and post–hurricane recovery efforts across the Caribbean.
Kate spent over a year living at Plum Village Monastery in France, where she grew vegetables for nuns and co-created retreats grounded in deep ecology and Buddhist mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. She is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and is in the long process of becoming a lay dharma teacher. Today, when not adventuring above and below the ocean’s surface (a lover of all things surf, bike, and hike), she teaches literature in U.S. public schools, develops mindfulness and place-based education programs, and is working on her debut graphic memior.
Here’s where we tell you how much we want you to join us
We do! We do we do we do.
Kate and I are just getting started, and we’re super excited to start with this one-day Embodied Authorship workshop where we get you all synced up, mind and heart and nervous system.
We’re feeling a yes to gathering all our energies at an energetically balanced place.
We’re super excited to inspire you, guide you, expand you and connect you.
Because we know how much you’ll inspire, guide, expand and connect us right back.
Come build your Mini with us.
embodied ❋ authorship
Reserve Your Spot
Remember to bring your:
yoga mat
brown-bag lunch
preferred writing materials, i.e. laptop or pen & paper