Be as Different as a Daylily
This time of year in the Northeast, you drive through the countryside and suburbs where banners of bright orange tiger lilies wave at you as you pass. The tiger lily is a hemoracallis or daylily, meaning that each individual bloom only lasts for 24 hours. Yes, only 24 hours. The reason it seems like the […]
Stop the Inner Battle.
MONDAY’S TAROT MESSAGE FROM THE MUSE, JULY 6, 2015 Theme, 5 of Wands. Wands is the element of Fire in the realm of spirit, creativity, career, work. Five is a challenging number. Here, the challenge this week is that of too many ideas, projects or roles fighting within you for prominence. Be aware this week, […]
How Portable is Your Writing?
I like writing to be more portable and flexible. I like writing to be something that fits into cracks and crannies. I don’t like it to dominate my life. I like it to fill my life. There is a big difference. ~ Julia Cameron, The Right to Write I do a lot of traveling, for […]
Quaking & Shaking in Your Writing?
We learn geology the morning after the earthquake. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Earth. The element of certainty and security. It’s the ground we walk on, the home we live in (whose foundations are planted in the ground), the income (coins) we earn. The food we eat, and the health of our bodies. But the Earth […]
Do You Believe in Your Own Identity?
Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. ~ William Zinsser Author William Zinsser died last week. He wrote the book On Writing Well. I love the idea that to be a writer, I must first believe in my own identity […]
Explore the Night Life When You Travel
This is my tenth post in this special series by Beth Barany and I on Travel and Writing. In this post, we talk about the value of those nighttime experiences for your stories. Also, get information on our retreats, Beth’s in Paris, and my VIW (Very Important Writer) retreats here in the Catskills. There is […]
Is Water in Your Writing?
We all end in the ocean We all start in the streams We’re all carried along By the river of dreams In the middle of the night ~Billy Joel, River of Dreams~ In classical Greek thought and other ancient world philosophies, it was believed that the simplest parts that made up the world were the […]
Your “Just Right” Isn’t Everyone’s
And the baby bear’s bed was just right. This past weekend, Bob and I went shopping for a new mattress. I felt like Goldilocks, moving from mattress to mattress, looking for the one that felt just right. This bed was too hard, that one was too soft, this was one was …almost. There were probably […]
Talking with Your Hands…in Your Writing
For this seventh post in this special series by Beth Barany and me on Travel and Writing, we share our personal experiences with how body language can communicate culture and country, and how you can use your experience of it to add dimension and detail to characters and setting. Look for more posts from us […]
Get Going on the New Creative Project
MONDAY’S TAROT MESSAGE FROM THE MUSE Theme, Ace of Wands. For the second week in a row, the Ace of Wands appears in this position…just in case you didn’t get the message last week. Ace as the seed with all potential, all possibility and Wands in the realm of spirit, creativity, career, work. So, what […]