Life Transitions

August Sunset

This post contains affiliate links

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on the fighting the old, but on building the new.” ~ Socrates

“A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you’re in and take advantage of it.” ~ Nikki Giovanni

You know those times of day when the sun is just about to come up, or about to go down and the sky is lit up? If there are wispy clouds in the sky on both sides of the rising/setting, they all reflect the light. I didn’t notice that the clouds on the opposite side of the rising/setting sun were alight with gorgeous color until I moved to Arizona. In Portland, Oregon, the cloud cover was often so heavy that it just got light and dark, no gorgeous colors to admire.

I use the analogy of the glowing clouds to share that I’m in one of those transition periods in my life. The sun hasn’t quite risen, or set yet, but I’m heading into a new state of being and I’m not quite sure where I’ll end up.

I’ve been retired for almost two years now. My husband will retire in a matter of weeks. I’ve been writing this blog for eleven years, working on writing my books for sixteen years, and producing Story-Power for nearly four years. I feel restless like it’s time for a slight change, but I don’t know what the change will be yet. I don’t want to go into full retirement mode, but what do I do with all the puzzle pieces I have on the table?

I recorded a conversation with a Story-Power guest, Carew Papritz, the other day. He’s been a cowboy, worked in the film industry, written books, and marketed them with “The First Ever Book Signing” events where he signs books in interesting place, and in unusual ways. He has also created literacy programs, and he even invented the “Write a Thank You Letter Day.” One of the coolest things though, is that he lives in Arizona in the county next to mine where John Wayne filmed some of his most iconic movies. As we were talking he shared how he began writing his book The Legacy Letters, on horseback. That was also the first way he signed his books, on horseback. Needless to say, we had a very wide ranging and interesting conversation.

Talking about The Legacy Letters with Carew, made me think that perhaps I would write this post about some things I’ve learned about living, which is the subject of his book. But that felt too preachy and besides, I’m still learning, something I never want to stop doing. So, the point of this post is to let you know that the Sage Woman Chronicles offerings may be sporadic from now on, at least until I decide where this blog fits into the creative things I want to keep doing. I will post the Story-Power episodes here every other week, but I may take a little break from writing the Sunday posts.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you understand. We all have times when our life takes a little turn and we have to make adjustments. That’s where I am now.

What do you do when you need to make some changes in your life? I do lots of writing in my journal and waiting for guidance.

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead and enjoy the changing seasons.

Blessings,

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2024

The Space Between Time

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, after the last few years, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version and sequel are published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a podcast where she and her guests discuss their creative endeavors, and/or the stories that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

Rita Gau’s review: Recently, I finished reading a book titled, The Space Between Time, by my friend, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden. It was the best book I’ve read in a long time. It kept me captivated, which I have not experienced from any other book for the past couple of years. I loved all the little gems of meaningful and what I call spiritual statements throughout the book. You know, those words that make you pause and think, and sometimes have an “aha” from or a deeper awareness about something. And it was entertaining and informational about some of the history in the 1800’s and yet, contemporary. It also reminded me of the importance of “living in community” and how important it is to help one another and be engaged in your community. Thank you Lucinda for a wonderful, entertaining and captivating book!

Patreon and Apple Subscriptions 

I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power podcast, Patreon Community, and Apple subscription so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. Patreon is $5 a month for content not found on the Story-Power podcast, or on my Sage Woman Blog. The Apple subscription is $3 a month, again with content not found on the Story-Power podcast. If you’re passionate about stories, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower. Or, you can add the subscription on Apple podcast where Story-Power is published.

Lucinda Special: Favorite Sites and Stories

Lucinda has been a story lover since she and her family watched TV and movies together. Her father taught her how to find the deeper layers of a story. This love prompted her to pursue a double major BA in Religious Studies and Theatre and Speech, a MA in Theatre Arts, and finally a MAEd so she could share her love of stories with her students. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest but has lived in Southern Arizona for over 28 years moving there after a three month trip circumnavigating the globe. 

Now completely retired, Lucinda writes her weekly blog Sage Woman Chronicles, is working on her second novel, manages her Patreon Community and Apple subscriptions as well as producing the bi-weekly podcast, Story-Power.

Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube

Favorite Sites

Cinema Therapy, YouTube, Website, Patreon

Ted Lasso, Apple + TV Series (2020 – 2023), Director Declan Lowney and 9 others, Developed and written by Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Also Written by Brett Goldstein and 9 others, Starring Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddington, Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunster, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Nick Mohammed

What Should I Read Next Podcast, Patreon, Modern Mrs. Darcy website

Judith Starkston, author of The Priestess of Ishana, Sorcery in Alpara, Of Kings and Griffins, Flights of Treason

Madeline Miller author of, Circe, Song of Achilles, Galatea

Nikki Marmery author of, Lilith

Natalie Haynes author of, Stone Blind, The Children of Jocasta, Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth, A Thousand Ships

Damsel, (2024) on Netflix, Director, Julian Carlos Fresnadillo, Written by, Dan Mazeau, Starring, Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright

Ever After: A Cinderella Story, (1998) Director, Andy Tennant, Screenplay, Susannah Grant and 3 others, Starring Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott, Angelica Houston

Beauty and the Beast (2017) Director, Bill Condon, Screenplay, Stephen Chbosky and 4 others, Starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad

Barbie (2023) Director, Greta Gerwig, Written by Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, Starring, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera

Lessons in Chemistry TV Mini Series (2023) Director, Bertie Ellwood and 4 others, Book, Bonnie Garmus, Created for Television by Lee Eisenberg, Teleplay, Eissa Karasik, Emily Jane Fox, Starring Brie Larson, Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King

Silo TV series (2023 – ) Directors, Adam Bernstein and 4 others, Writers, Lekethia Dalcoe, Hugh Howey, Jeffery Wang, and 7 others, Starring, Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Tim Robbins, Harriet Walker

Rebel Moon – Part One, Part Two, (2023 – 2024) Director, Zack Snyder, Screenplay, Zack Snyder, Starring, Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel, Huisman, Bae Doona

Constellation,TV Series (2024 – ) Directors, Joseph Cedar and 2 others, Created and written by Peter Harness, Starring, Naomi Rapace, Jonathan Banks, James D’Arcy

Now, Voyager (1942), Director, Irving Rapper, Book, Olive Higgins Prouty, Screenplay, Casey Robinson, Starring, Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper

My Reputation (1946) Director, Curtis Bernhardt, Book, Instruct My Sorrows, Clare Jaynes, Screenplay, Catherine Turney, Starring, Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Warner Anderson, Lucile Watson

Kitty Foyle (1940) Director, Sam Wood, Book by, Christopher Morley, Screenplay, Dalton Trumbo, additional dialogue, Donald Ogden Stewart, Starring, Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Gladys Cooper

Random Harvest, (1942) Director, Mervyn LeRoy, Screenplay, Claudine West, and 3 others, Starring, Ronald Colman, Greer Garson, Philip Dorn, Susan Peters

Argylle (2024) Director, Matthew Vaughn, Written by Jason Fuchs, Starring, Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston 

Grab Bag

Photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels.com

This post contains affiliate links.

This has been a busy week. I got the next to the last group of Story-Power episodes up on YouTube, recorded a guest spot on someone else’s program, and recorded two new Story-Power episodes. The one for May 8th is a replacement for the one I had planned but had to scrap. I hope you like it.

In the May 8th episode I share about a new YouTube channel I found, Cinema Therapy that I’m in love with, because Jonathan and Alan, a licensed therapist and a film maker respectively, analyze movies. They also have a website and Patreon Community that I plan to join. I have been looking for a community where I can talk about movies and this one seems to be it. The only thing is, I wish they also included discussions about classic movies.

If you like talking stories, you might consider joining my Patreon Community. I just added a new recording there, oh, and I have also added a couple of new recordings for my Apple subscribers. The links for both of those are below.

In a way my head has been spinning because I recorded ten new episodes in April, one in May already, and have five more to do this month. Some of them I will be the guest, but the time commitment is the same. After that there are only two or three more to do in June and I’ll have enough recordings to take me through February 2025.

I guess I’m working so hard so I can relax once Barry retires at the end of June. I want to enjoy some fun adventures with him this summer. And I also want to get back to editing my novel, Time’s Echo.

In the spirit of relaxing, I’m going to cut this post short and go watch one of my favorite classic movies, Random Harvest 1942 with Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Be forewarned keep a box of tissues handy because you will most likely cry at the end.

Have a relaxing weekend and week ahead. I hope to have more to share with you next week.

Blessings,

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2024

Story-Power on Patreon and Apple Subscriptions.

I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power podcast, Patreon Community, and Apple subscription so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. Patreon is $5 a month for content not found on the Story-Power podcast, or on my Sage Woman Blog. The Apple subscription is $3 a month, again with content not found on the Story-Power podcast. If you’re passionate about stories, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower. Or, you can add the subscription on Apple podcast where Story-Power is published.

New Ideas Springing to Life

Empathy is emotional intelligence

This post contains affiliate links.

This post is late because it’s my birthday weekend and I was celebrating. I did want to share with you a new idea I’ve had recently that I’m excited about.

Since I quite teaching public school in 2008, I have wanted to write a memoir. But I could never come up with a good angle. This week, I got an idea. As you know I love stories. Well, my memoir is going to be about what it means to be a woman, about love, and how those and other things have affected my life. It’s still in the formative stages at this point, but I have read and watched lots of movies and TV shows where women play pivotal roles. Surprisingly, many of the stories are classics with women who decide they are not going to give in and live conventional lives.

I’ve been looking back at my childhood and how having a working mom influenced me to a very large degree. She probably would not have said that her decisions, or life was unconventional. She was just doing what needed to be done to help support our family. But working outside the home gave her confidence, and purpose beyond the regular household chores.

I’ve started compiling a list of movies, books, and TV shows that have taught me great lessons, and already the list is way too long, but it’s encouraging to see that even when women didn’t have many rights, there were authors writing characters who managed to circumvent convention and push the boundaries of what a woman could do, even if it was make her own decisions about who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do.

The other thing I’ve started doing is an audio blog for Apple Subscriptions about stories that I’ve seen or read that I not only thought were fantastic, but that touched me emotionally. After all, it’s when our emotions are touched that we get a shift in our thinking and learn something new.

That’s all for today. I’m nearly caught up converting my Story-Power episodes for YouTube, only ten more episodes to go. That will free up some time to work on other projects.

I will be a guest on about three, or maybe four podcasts in the next couple of weeks thanks to PodMatch. I’ll post the conversations here as well as my Story-Power episodes.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Blessings,

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2024

The Space Between Time

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, after the last few years, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version and sequel are published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a podcast where she and her guests discuss their creative endeavors, and/or the stories that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.

Rita Gau’s review: Recently, I finished reading a book titled, The Space Between Time, by my friend, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden. It was the best book I’ve read in a long time. It kept me captivated, which I have not experienced from any other book for the past couple of years. I loved all the little gems of meaningful and what I call spiritual statements throughout the book. You know, those words that make you pause and think, and sometimes have an “aha” from or a deeper awareness about something. And it was entertaining and informational about some of the history in the 1800’s and yet, contemporary. It also reminded me of the importance of “living in community” and how important it is to help one another and be engaged in your community. Thank you Lucinda for a wonderful, entertaining and captivating book!

PodMatch

If you are a podcaster, or have a message or fantastic product you want to share with the world, I encourage you to check out PodMatch. I call them a dating service for podcasters. Use the affiliate link and tell them, Lucinda sent you. Then contact me so we can set up a Story-Power chat.

Patreon and Apple Subscriptions

I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power podcast, Patreon Community, and Apple subscription so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. Patreon is $5 a month for content not found on the Story-Power podcast, or on my Sage Woman Blog. The Apple subscription is $3 a month, again with content not found on the Story-Power podcast. If you’re passionate about stories, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower. Or, you can add the subscription on Apple podcast where Story-Power is published.

Passonate About Stories

This post contains affiliate links.

As a lifetime reader and evolving writer, I have always enjoyed fiction that left me wishing there was more to read, made me long for a sequel, or kept me thinking about its intricacies long after I turned the last page. My purpose in writing is to provide for an audience who appreciates plot twists, intrigue, and smart dialogue, which I have crafted to carry them to a surprising and satisfying final chapter.

I have been an educator and library director for over 30 years, but I have been a plot junkie my entire life. I value any medium that keeps me guessing and/or thinking throughout any novel, short story, piece of poetry, movie, and the like. I believe this sentiment accurately describes my style of writing.

I live in Saint Charles, Illinois, with my husband, Kyle, and dogs, Hendrix and Janis. Together, we have two grown children: Mitchell (25) and Madelynn (21).

Website, Goodreads, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook

Monica Hesse on Amazon, The Girl in the Blue Coat

The MCU, too many movies and TV shows to list here

Jojo Rabbit (2019) Director, Taika Waititi, Screenwriter, Taika Waititi, based on the book by Christine Leunens, Starring, Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Taika Waititi

Only Murders in the Building, TV Series (2021 – ) Directors, Jamie Babbit and 10 others, Created by John Hoffman, Starring, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez 

Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein 

Assissins Are Us, Kimberly Van Sickle, purchase on her website above

The Book Fest of New York City

Bryce Wilson, Kim’s content editor

Streaming network, Hulu, with TCM as part of their package

The War of Art, Steven Pressfield

Smashwords, “Your ebook, your way” Alternative ebook vender, and publisher

Createspace, now Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Placement: Will you be remembered for where you went … or how you got there?, Kimberly Van Sickle, available on her website

The Many Souls of Azazel: A Horror Novel in Rhyme, Coming soon, Kimberly Van Sickle on her website

Green Angel, Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman

PodMatch

This episode is brought to you by PodMatch, the dating service for podcasters. They introduced me to Kimberly Van Sickle, and I’m so glad they did. I hope you’ve enjoyed our conversation and remember that if you have a podcast or something to share with the world, check out PodMatch at my affiliate link at PodMatch and tell them Lucinda sent you.

Story-Power on Patreon and Apple Subscriptions

I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power podcast, Patreon Community, and Apple subscription so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. Patreon is $5 a month for content not found on the Story-Power podcast, or on my Sage Woman Blog. The Apple subscription is $3 a month, again with content not found on the Story-Power podcast. If you’re passionate about stories, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower. Or, you can add the subscription on Apple podcast where Story-Power is published.