Sage Woman Chronicles

Write the Book You Want to Read

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My name is Alanna, I’m from the UK, and have just released my first novel, Abolish the Rose, published with Atmosphere Press. As a lifelong reader, long-time writer, and first-time, indie-published author, it’s been a long journey and a rollercoaster of mistakes and lessons learnt!

I also love salsa dancing, learning new languages and living in Barcelona, Spain.

Abolish the Rose tells the story of Camille Addison, who is recently retired and struggling to come to terms with the idea that her life has been a waste, or that she should have “achieved” something more with her time, after an unexpected tragedy knocked her off course. The title comes from a quote (or indeed my interpretation thereof) from James Russell Lowell: “The question of common sense is always: ‘what is it good for?’ – a question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage.”

Here are the links to the book on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Nobel (US), Waterstones, (UK)

Website, http://alannairving.com/, Instagram @Alanna Irving, Twitter, @Alanna_Irving

The Space Between Time, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden

Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami

The Greatest Evil is War, Chris Hedges

Reddit – Dive into anything List of books that will become classics

The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Anne Brontë, Author

Jane Austen, Author

Elizabeth Glaskell, Author

Anthony Trollope, Author

Charles Dickens, Author

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 is 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.

Patreon

I’m so passionate about stories that I created the Story-Power podcast and Patreon communities so I’d have an excuse to talk story with other story lovers. If you’re passionate about stories too, and want to talk about what you’ve learned from your favorites, come join me at patreon.com/StoryPower.

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. Use the affiliate link and tell them, Lucinda sent you. Then contact me so we can set up a Story-Power chat.

Where is the Love?

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“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Dave Dahl, my teaching partner for acting class before I retired, used to say to the students, “Where’s the love?” when they were rehearsing a scene. I think they found that question really helpful especially since plays are centered around relationships. And sometimes the answer to the question was that the love was in a place that did not feed the relationship.

Since I wanted to base this post on that quote, I asked Dave where he got it. He told me it comes from Michael Shurtliff who wrote the book Audition. It’s one of his favorite quotes and now it’s one of mine too.

Ever since the first time I heard him say that to our students, I have been looking for the love in the stories I consume. After all, stories are about human emotions and the most important of those is love. Looking for the love applies to all the genres I watch and read. I’m sure it applies to all genres in one way or another, though the “love” might not be the love for a person, family, group, or any business or government entity. It could be fear masquerading as love, trying to maintain the status quo.

This morning as the ideas for this post were simmering on the back burner of my mind, the thought came to me that we can apply this idea to things that are happening in the outside world too. For example, when a new bill is being introduced into congress, or a state legislature, or even at the city level, we might want to decide whether it’s a good bill or not by asking ourselves where is the love in this proposed law? We can ask it about company policies, personal relationships, news programs, political figures, bosses; virtually any situation in which we find ourselves.

I plan to do that as a guide for every aspect of my life. I’ll keep asking myself, “Where is the love?” or even “How can I bring love?” to a situation.

Of course, the first thought I had about this post was to apply the “Where is the love?” idea to a story or two. So, here are a couple for you to think about.

My family, et al, book club group is reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It’s a book about Hiram, a slave in Virginia, who’s father just happens to be the Master of the plantation. Hiram has extra-ordinary talents, for example, he can remember anything and everyone he encounters, everything except his mother. He vaguely remembers her leaving him when he was very young, but the exact incidents around her leaving, and even who she was and what she looked like are lost in a fog. Hiram’s father recognizes his talents as far exceeding those of his legitimate son, Maynard. He can’t acknowledge, even in his own mind, that Maynard is a ner-do-well. So he has Hiram educated so he can look after his brother. And that’s just the first part of his father’s oppressions. But Hiram is blessed in a way “The Quality” in the book aren’t, and that places unimaginable opportunities in his path to do good.

The love in this book is among “The Tasked.” They, for the most part, are the ones who develop deep love with one another, even though they may suffer a great deal, and have their hearts wrenched when their families are ripped apart by their owners. It is their memories of love and connection that help them continue on.

By contrast, or maybe it just seems like a contrast, the other story I want to share about is, Red Sparrow, which is based on a book of the same name by Jason Matthews. This is a spy thriller which takes place in present time with a female protagonist.

Dominika is a prima ballerina with Bolshoi Ballet Company. At the beginning of the story she is injured during a performance, and is unable to dance ever again. Unfortunately for her, the ballet company was paying for not only her apartment but her mother’s desperately needed health care as well. Another unfortunate fact for Dominika is that her uncle is the head of the Russian Intelligence Agency. He presents her with the “choice” to work for him, or lose her mother’s high level health care. It’s a trap, of course. He sends her on a mission, in which the person she’s supposed to get information from is killed while raping her. And now she either goes to “Sparrow” school where she will learn how to be a seductress/spy for the State, or she dies because of what she saw. She realizes that she’s being herded into specific choices. As she heads off to sparrow school, her mother tells her to keep a part of herself separate no matter what they teach, or do to her. It’s the love for her mother along with her superior intellect, that help her as she finds a way out of the clutches of the powerful men who want to use her as a weapon.

I think asking ourselves where the love can be found, is another way to try to understand where people we don’t understand are coming from. What love motivates their choices? And maybe more importantly, what love motivates our choices? I know that some people don’t want to do self-examination. However, if we are going to heal the way we interact with each other, we need to at least try to heal our traumas.

I’ll just leave those questions and ideas for you to think about. I know I’m going to be looking for the love that motivates me more closely.

Welcome to my new followers. Have a wonderful week ahead.

Blessings,

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.

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Caught in a Whirlwind

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“I’m a big believer in keeping a certain balance between the whirlwind that life can feel like sometimes, and slowing down and doing things that really make me feel alive.” ~ Brandi Cyrus

For the last two weeks I’ve felt like I was caught in a whirlwind. First a family member was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, which was a shock to all of us. Fortunately the cancer is treatable and options are being discussed and decided as I write this.

On Tuesday of last week our internet and then phones were out all day. I could text one friend who does not use our phone provider and she helped me communicate with other family members. That threw me for a loop since I had the next podcast episode to schedule among other things. But that night, Barry and I decided it was time for some laughter so we pulled out our DVD of The Whole Nine Yards, and enjoyed the craziness of what the characters were going through and how funny they were trying to make sense of their own whirlwind.

That night we decided we needed to watch things that made us feel good and that’s what we’ve been doing. So, Ted Lasso, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and Ghosts, are our antidotes to everything crazy that is going on in our personal lives as well as out in the larger world.

Laughing helped us later in the week when another family member ended up in the hospital. Thankfully the doctors could find nothing wrong and she went home but on top of that, at the same time I had two other friends end up in the hospital. I guess my life was getting to stodgy. I needed to be stirred up.

I have decided that even when it feels like I’m caught in a swirling storm, I can maintain my balance by looking for fun and making sure I take time to rest. And that’s what I’m going to do now.

How has your life been going? I hope it’s not as topsy turvy as mine has been the last couple of weeks.

Have a lovely week ahead. Spring is here. The flowers and trees leafing out is always a sign of hope for me.

Blessings,

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.

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Do Your Most Important Projects First

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“Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” ~ Roger C. Schank, Cognitive Scientist

Statement:

Since very young, I knew I wanted to be involved in the arts in some capacity. From coloring books, (frustrated I could never stay inside the lines) to sidewalk chalk drawings, to play dough, (myGod, play dough!) I would spend hours on end creating; thinking I was great. At least my mother said I was.

It wasn’t until much later, I found clay; grown-up play dough. I was attracted immediately, especially to hand-building. Unlike wood or stone or plaster, clay is relatively forgiving. Mistakes become stages of evolution. This is not to say clay doesn’t have its own temperament. The properties of clay and the fact it’s an organic substance gives it a personality and is therefore subject to its own dispositions. If the mood ring reads black, it’s best to just back away and find a nice coloring book.

The subjects I choose and the process of raku-firing are aspects of my work that have evolved over time. The animals I select have certain distinctions which lend themselves to my style. Simplicity in design and a touch of personification, brought together with the organic nature of raku brings the creatures to life.

People ask me, “Do you like animals?” Initially my response was, “Who doesn’t?”, but after some thought, I realized I do like animals. But it’s more than that. Respect…Awe…Fear? To say you just “like” animals is to trivialize their stature. I think they deserve more. All I can do is couple these feelings with the animal’s natural splendor to try to create something great. At the very least, my mother will think it is.

I graduated from Trinity College of Vermont with a BA in Craft/Art Entrepreneurship and now live and work in Southeast Arizona .

Exhibitions:

Arizona Handmade Gallery: Featured Artist, Flagstaff, AZ Spring 2018 & 2022

“To Phoenix with Love”, Group Show, The Collective Gallery, Phoenix, AZ Winter 2015

Niche Award Finalist Exhibit, Group Show, Washington, DC Winter 2015

Dia de Los Muertos, Group Show, Central School Project, Bisbee, AZ Fall 2014

Heather Green Studios Anniversary Show, Group Show, Bisbee, AZ Fall 2010-14

Alan Potter’s “Found”, Solo Show, Heather Green Studios, Bisbee, AZ Fall, 2013

Arizona Handmade Gallery: Featured Artist, Flagstaff, AZ Spring 2012

Alan Potter’s “One Odd Duck”, Solo Show, Panterra Gallery, Bisbee, AZ Spring 2012

Critters, Group Show, Shelburne Craft School, Shelburne, VT Spring 2007

Mountain Artist Guild Member Show, Group Show, Prescott, AZ Winter 2007

Animals in Art, Group Show, Prescott Fine Art Gallery, Prescott, AZ Fall 2006

Barns & Farms, Group Show, Barnsite Gallery, Kewaunee, WI Fall 2003

Anomalies, Solo Thesis Show, Trinity College of Vermont, Burlington, VT Spring 2000

Useless Clay, Group Show, Firehouse Gallery, Burlington, VT Spring 1998

Published Works:

“Hot From the Fire”: a personal essay on Raku, Mountain Artist Guild Web Newsletter Summer 2006

500 Clay Animals, Lark Publications, 2006

Alan on Facebook, @thelastpotter on Instagram, Alan’s blog “My Life In Shorts” on WordPress

Wade Walks on Amazon

Friend Request (Podcast) with Justin Lamb Ep. 46 on Story-Power

Moshe Mikanovsky, The Resurrector, Ep. 33 and 37 Story-Power

Dallas, Texas, Deep Ellum Art Festival

Austin, Texas Wonderspaces

Bisbee, Arizona Festival of Arts

Road Scholar Tours (Used to be Elder Hostel)

New Orleans Jazz Festival

Tucson exhibit at La Encantada Mall

Reno Tahoe International Art Festival

Patreon

Saving the World One Story at a Time

The world is in such chaos right now that sometimes we need to get a perspective on what’s happening. I designed this course on Ûdemy for people who are looking for a way to get a better understanding about what we’re going through, and what it means to be a human being. Stories are one great way to walk in the shoes of the characters, connect with them emotionally for a short time but not have to live there. Not to mention it’s a pleasant way to learn. I hope to see you in class.

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Being the Change

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“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

When I was a theatre student, I read several George Bernard Shaw plays. I loved his ideas. They aren’t very stagable, because there isn’t much action. They would make great novels because they are full of wonderful ideas that are different than conventional wisdom. My Fair Lady is based on Shaw’s play Pygmalion. It’s interesting that that particular play should come to my mind, because it’s a story that illustrates my mission.

Professor Henry Higgins is an intellectual genius, but he’s almost devoid of emotional intelligence. He thinks everyone should conform to the way he sees the world. He is particularly dismissive of women. Eliza, a street girl who becomes his student, understands human frailty and warmth much better than Henry does. The only good thing he does for her is to teach her how to speak properly, which helps her elevate herself on the social ladder. He’s a person who does not want to change his mind, whereas Eliza desperately wants to expand herself in everyway possible, and she does. In Pygmalion, Eliza does not go back to Higgins at the end of the play, she marries Freddie. I always assumed that she marries Freddie because he treats her with love and respect, even though he knows she’s from a lower class than his own. And, as I always do, I imagine that after the end of Shaw’s play, Eliza eventually comes to love and appreciate Freddie. Not only that, she helps him find meaningful occupations which help support the family, but also suit his upper class position.

Over the last few years my mission has become more clear, we need to pay more attention to our emotions than to our mental intellect. In my opinion, that’s the direction education should be going in. What good is going to Mars, or exploring space if we can’t get along with each other and in fact have leaders who threaten to blow the planet up? Only people who are emotionally intelligent have the opportunity to listen and learn from those who are on the opposite political, religious, and cultural spectrum from themselves.

Stories are one way we can learn to become emotionally intelligent because they take us on emotional journeys. We get to walk in the shoes of the characters, analyze their actions, and decisions. We get to see the outcomes of the choices they make and compare them to the choices we might make if we were in similar situations.

The other day I saw a quirky movie titled, Miss Meadows, (2014) staring Katie Holmes and James Badge Dale, about a young woman who is a substitute elementary teacher. She is also a vigilante. She is so kind, supportive, and protective of her students, but she’s not above killing people who are obvious threats to her children, or society at large. Oddly enough she falls in love with a sheriff in her town, who figures out that she’s the vigilante they’ve been seeking. We get to find out why Miss Meadows is adamant about killing people who threaten her students, or the members of her community and it’s a tragic story.

Now, I would never become a vigilante, but I could understand Miss Meadows motivation. The world can be a scary place, especially for children. So her need to protect them when she can resonates with me. She, of course, is a deeply wounded person who needs therapy desperately. In a perfect world, she’d get it and heal from her childhood trauma. But as of this moment, we don’t live in a perfect world and so Miss Meadows copes the best she can.

I wrote all of that to give you a glimpse into the reason I created my course, Saving the World One Story at a Time on Ûdemy. I’m including the trailer for my course here in case you might choose to take it, or share it with others. Here’s the link. https://www.udemy.com/course/saving-the-world-one-story-at-a-time/?referralCode=3F95529C1D400C795737

No matter what you decide, consuming stories gives us a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes and learn something new about what it means to be a human being.

My hope is that you have a wonderful and restful weekend and maybe read, watch, or listen to stories and learn something new.

Blessings,

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.

Patreon

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