Sage Woman Chronicles

‘Tis the Season 2

“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” ~ Steven Pressfield

“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” ~ Douglas Adams

Artists are people who try to interpret the world. For the most part we are attempting to express something we feel that is difficult to express in words. We create dances, or paintings, to evoke those feeling. Writer’s struggle, not always because we’re lazy, or find housework more interesting, but because putting things as nebulous as deep emotions into something as imprecise as words is extremely difficult. People who are not artists do not always appreciate the soul searching, time and effort, not to mention the cost of materials, it takes to create that work of art that they think is too expensive. But when you buy a work of art, you’re buying more than the canvas, paints, entertainment, or paper and words. You’re buying communication between the creator’s soul and yours. For this reason, I want to continue promoting the work of my writer friends and acquaintances.

The two authors I encourage you to check out today are women who have done a wonderful job of expressing deep emotions in their work.

Julie Christine Johnson

I met Julie online. I’m not sure where, probably Facebook. She was enormously encouraging to me as I was writing The Space Between Time so when her first novel, In Another Time, was published I was anxious to read it. Some of the elements are very similar to my novel. There is a woman who’s life has fallen apart, two time periods with some time travel elements, and the protagonist experiences some extraordinary experiences just like the women in my novel. But In Another Time takes place mostly in France. The reader can learn a great deal about the Cathars, a religious sect active during the middle ages. They were wiped out by the Catholic Church in the 1600s, if I remember correctly. This book is one many women have enjoyed but I think men can also relate to the characters and events of the story. I haven’t read Julie’s second book yet, The Crows of Beara. It takes place in Ireland. I have it on my long wish list. Julie’s writing is beautiful and her books would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

Stacy Bennett

Stacy is another person I met through Facebook. We are both members of a writer’s group there. When her first novel, Quest of the Dreamwalker came out, I was very excited to read it. It’s a fantasy, my favorite genre, and it had a women protagonist. When I downloaded it to my Kindle and began reading, I was hooked from the very first page. This fantasy novel takes place in a fictional world in a medieval type time period with an evil wizard, a war, mercenary soldiers, and an Amazon like society of mystics and warrior women protected by a ring of trees with leaves that become sharp blades if a man ventures into their realm. But the way the plot unfolds is original and unexpected. The relationships among the group of main characters is an important part of the story. I was so taken with this novel, that I gladly purchased a novella Stacy wrote to keep her fans happy while she finishes the second in the Dreamwalker series. That novella is Tales of the Archer. I loved it as much as the first novel even though it is about two of the side characters in her original story. It may be some time before Stacy can finish the sequel to Quest of the Dreamwalker, because like most authors, she has to work at a regular job to support her writing habit. I’ll be ready to read her second novel no matter when it comes out. However, in the mean time, you can enjoy the above mentioned books and one other by Stacy, Son of Anubis, which is also on my wish list.

Please don’t forget, if you get books for Christmas, whether they are these or others on your wish list, share how much you love them with your friends, ask your local bookstore and library to carry them. If you belong to a book club group, suggest the books to the group, and best of all write a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or other booksellers sites. Reviews help authors sell more books.

Thanks for reading, writing comments and pressing the like button. I appreciate it very much.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, and print-on-demand at Amazon and other fine book sellers. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.

‘Tis the Season

“Your personal life, your professional life, and your creative life are all intertwined. I went through a few very difficult years where I felt like a failure. But it was actually really important for me to go through that. Struggle, for me, is the most inspirational thing in the world at the end of the day – as long as you treat it that way.” ~ Skylar Grey

“I’ve had the thought that a person’s ‘artistic vision’ is really just the cumulative combination of whatever particular stances he has sincerely occupied during his creative life – even if some of those might appear contradictory.” ~ George Saunders

“It took me a long time to even dare to envision myself as a writer. I was very uncertain and hesitant and afraid to pursue a creative life.” ~ Jhumpa Lahiri

I just finished reading Love Life, With Parrots by my friend Cappy Love Hanson. It’s a wonderful memoir. We had lunch this week with another writing friend, Debrah Strait and just as I was arriving at our favorite Chinese restaurant, I got the idea to promote the books of some of my face-to-face and online writer friends during this holiday season. I figure it’s good karma. So this week I’ll tell you a little bit about Cappy and Debrah’s books.

Debrah Strait

I’ll begin with Debrah because I’ve read three of her books and loved all of them. The thing that is interesting about Debrah is that she doesn’t write just one genre. I’ve read rough drafts of screen plays, science fiction stories, her flash fiction book, Flash of the Pen, her novel, The Sweet Trade, and her latest book, Notes from Bisbee: Twenty years of Living with Rattlesnakes, Killer Bees, and Folks in Need of Supervision. This latest book I read as Debrah was developing it, and there were several times I laughed out loud partly because I live near Bisbee and know it’s reputation, but also because of the way Debrah described events and people.

Each of her books has a different flavor, if I can use that as a writing metaphor. But each one is poignant, serious, adventurous, funny, and they make you think. Even in her nonfiction stories the characters are vivid. I could almost hear their voices in my head as I read each holiday letter.

The first finished book of Debrah’s I read was The Sweet Trade. It’s a pirate novel and even though I’m not a big fan of pirate novels, I knew enough about Debrah’s writing that I wanted to read it. This is one of a handful of books I’ve read that grasped me from the first sentence. I wanted to know what happened to Dirk and his young friends as their village is destroyed and their families killed. As they try to survive, they get tangled up in the world of pirates in the mid-1600s Caribbean. This is a great book for anyone on your list who loves adventure. It’s got historical figures, battles, shipwrecks and even romance, something to appeal to almost anyone.

If you like stories with quirky characters, Notes from Bisbee might be for you, especially since the characters in this book are real people which proves that sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.

Cappy Love Hanson

I have to say, I’m not usually a big fan of memoirs, but again, since I knew Cappy and a little bit about her writing, I wanted to read her book. I’m always amazed at people who are able to lay out their life on the page in such a vulnerable way. Cappy does this. We suffer through her various romantic relationships as she tries to learn to love herself and find that one lasting love all the while being supported by the relationship she has with her parrots.

Cappy’s book has adventure as well. She describes a horrific car accident that she should not have survived, and the subsequent healing process she went through which included her struggles to find work. She also describes relationship issues with family members that most of us can relate to. Love Life, With Parrots is an affirmation that no matter what challenges we face, there can be love and support for us if we keep trying to find it and give it.

I hope you will consider purchasing one of these wonderful independently published books for yourself, or a loved one because writers and artists have to pay the bills too. And remember to write a review on Amazon, Goodreads, social media, or your favorite bookseller. That’s how we writers attract new readers.

Thanks for reading, liking and leaving comments. I appreciate it very much.

On the Precipice

“First, accept sadness. Realize that without losing, winning isn’t so great.” ~ Alyssa Milano

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.” ~ Carl Jung

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” ~ Jimmy Dean

“Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.” ~ Hugh Prather

For some reason I’m feeling melancholy today. I don’t feel this way very often so it has thrown me off balance a little bit.

After writing in my journal, I realized that my emotional state has to do with a number of factors. I’ve been feeling like I’m in a rut and need to make some changes. One thing I need to do is get out and do some face-to-face book marketing. That’s a scary prospect. Another is my body is telling me to get back into exercise again, and the another is that I want to learn something new and meaningful.

This weekend a confluence of events helped break me out of my rut a bit. First, I found a new podcast to listen to, suggested by Anne Bogel of the “Modern Mrs. Darcy” blog and “What Do I Read Next” podcast. The new podcast is right up my alley in terms of my interest in spirituality and creativity. The title is, “The One You Feed” with Eric Zimmer. After listening to two podcasts in which Eric has a conversation with Father Richard Rohr, I was hooked.

The next thing that happened was I began reading my friend Cappy Love Hanson’s memoir, Love Life, With Parrots. When I first quit teaching to become a full-time writer, I wrote a memoir, but it wasn’t good. The woman I asked to read it said I was too guarded. And I do feel that way when I write. I don’t want people to know anything about my faults. I don’t want to be vulnerable on the page. It’s okay to do that with my fictional characters, but to put all my flaws out there for everyone to read is just too scary. Yet, as I was reading Cappy’s book, full of all her vulnerability, and thinking back on the podcast I’d listened too earlier in the weekend, I had this overwhelming feeling that one day I was going to go back to that memoir, revise and publish it. Yikes! That’s another scary thought.

Another thing that occurred to me this weekend is that I’ve been feeling quite dissatisfied with my reading life lately. It’s not that the novels I’ve been reading are bad. I have enjoyed the stories and learned some really interesting things from them. But my inner student is feeling neglected. So, I’m going to finish my Goodreads reading challenge by devouring some of Richard Rohr’s books and other non-fiction books that I have on my reading list.

As the days go along and I continue to examine my inner landscape, I will probably discover unfinished business that needs attention, or I’ll finally face the changes I need to be making that I have been resisting. That’s a good thing. Sometimes I need to do some cosmic closet cleaning to make room for new experiences to come into my life.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. I appreciate it. For those of you in the U.S., I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Life’s Journey

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ~ Oscar Wilde

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” ~ Carol Burnett

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” ~ Maya Angelou

Last night some of my acting students and I got into quite a discussion about the short play they were rehearsing. It’s a dark comedy. As we were talking about the characters and what could have made them the way they were, it became this wonderful “teachable” moment for us.

I’ve always approached teaching as a kind of fellow traveler. “Wow, here’s this interesting piece of literature. Let’s see if we can figure out what the playwright, movie maker, or author is trying to get us to see about the way he or she sees life. And, it’s my philosophy that my point of view is not more important than the student’s. My only job is to open doors so they can do their own thinking. I just bring up a multitude of possibilities for the students to consider.

So, it was interesting that my meditation with Oprah an Deepak today connected to the discussion the night before. Oprah said that each of us has our own path, and nice as it might be to have someone tell us the choices to make, or to give us a glimpse of what the future holds, that’s not possible. We can’t flip to the end and see where we end up. We have to just slog through life learning as we go.

To me, life is an adventure. Oh, there have been times when I’ve played it safe, but I can’t do that for long. I get bored and look for my next adventure. Sometimes the adventures I go on are strictly intellectual like the course I took this summer on Alfred Hitchcock, or emotional like having to deal with loss, or disappointment, or the ups and downs of self-discovery. But then I guess all adventures, even physical ones, have those components. Adventures, some people call them challenges or problems, shake up our lives and help us get a new perspective.

If ever I am asked to give a speech, this would be my message: There will be people who will open doors for you, but it’s up to you to walk through and find your own way. The important thing to do is to keep moving forward. Sometimes it will be hard to see the path because of all the brambles, but you have no idea how many people you will help if you just keep trying to find your way.

Something else interesting happened yesterday that relates to the message of this post. I was at the chiropractor and his wife was in the office. We hadn’t seen each other in perhaps ten years. She told me, “I knew you right off, because you look exactly the same as the last time I saw you.” And she said something else, “You look so happy.” I told her I am happy. All the challenges I’ve had to go through have been worth it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more things for me to learn, but because I’ve come to love myself and my life, they will be so much easier to deal with.

That’s always my hope for my students, friends and family members, that the challenges they face will help them clear out the guck so they can arrive at a happy place.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting on my posts. I appreciate it. Have a happy weekend.

Shakespeare for Any Situation

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” ~ William Shakespeare

“I have good reason to be content, for thank God I can read and perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths.” ~ John Keats

“But what if Shakespeare – and Hamlet – were asking the wrong question? What if the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?” ~ Gayle Forman, Just One Day

So, two or three posts ago, I wrote about my dilemma about whether or not to direct a Shakespeare play. I am not a great student of Shakespeare. I haven’t studied all the plays or the ins and outs of his life and I’m not obsessed with seeing every production of his work produced nearby. I do, however, believe that all his plays and poems, can be applied to any situation we face in life. That’s why I chose to direct the play Measure for Measure this coming spring.

While I was preparing this post, my husband and I went to see the new version of Murder on the Orient Express. I loved it but then I’m a bit of a nerd in that way. I love to see different versions of the same story. In fact, I have two versions of Jane Austen’s Emma, and have seen multiple versions of Jane Eyre. In my opinion it’s a good thing to reproduce the timeless stories so that new generations can become engaged with the story. Every Christmas, my husband and I watch more than one version of A Christmas Carol. Each director has just a little bit different take on how to tell the story and I love that.

Since I love comparing the various versions of plays and movies, I was surprised at how many critics panned this new version of Murder on the Orient Express. I was so disturbed by the reviewer on NPR, asking why do it?, that I wrote a long comment about the need to do remakes of these classic stories, and that just because an actor in a previous era was fantastic in the role, doesn’t mean you won’t learn something new from a different actor’s interpretation.

Which brings me back to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. It’s not one of Shakespeare’s cannon of famous plays that everyone knows and it’s not performed as often as some of the others, but it’s one that has stuck with me ever since reading and watching it forty years ago when I was in undergraduate school. And now that more women, and some men are telling their stories of sexual harassment and abuse I think it’s time to revive this play, even if only in my small town.

In the last couple of years, I’ve read and watched lots of movies that center around the issues women face. Measure for Measure, is in part, that kind of play. But Isabella’s situation with Angelo isn’t the only reason I wanted to do the play. The three main characters are on a journey of self-discovery and those are the stories that I find most intriguing.

If we choose to be, we’re all on a journey of self-discovery. Angelo and Isabella are both characters who try to deny their darker, more natural, some might say animal, instincts. But it’s been my experience that the parts of yourself you try to push away, or stuff into the darkest corner of your psyche, are eventually exposed. That certainly happens to Angelo, and because of his demands on her, Isabella must also come face to face with her sexuality, something she has been trying to deny.

As I study this play, more facets and deeper layers of what drives the characters are revealed to me. That’s the sign of a great and timeless story. All of Shakespeare’s work is like that, even the light comedies have a deeper message than the antics of the characters.

I had a meeting last week with a man who is not only an Actor’s Equity member, but an expert on Shakespeare and who has done Measure for Measure seven times in one capacity or another. When I was getting ready to drive to town for our meeting, I was feeling “sklunklish”. (That’s a word I love from the Cary Grant movie Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer that means not feeling well. I love it when people make up words, much like Shakespeare did.) I wished I didn’t have to go into town so early before my class that evening. Yet, the more this gentleman and I talked, the more I was energized by the conversation. And I felt like this is just the right time to examine the issues the play presents. I don’t know if I’ll get enough actors to produce the play, but I’m learning a great deal from my studies.

Though I love the Shakespeare plays I’ve studied, I have shied away from directing them, or even using them often in my dramatic structure classes because of the language. But with the wide range of situations and themes his plays cover, I can never go wrong watching, directing, or showing more of them in my dramatic structure class.

In the new year, I hope to be writing about how the rehearsals are going.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. I appreciate it.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel. It’s available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, and print-on-demand at Amazon and other fine book sellers. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.