“I’m a freelance person, and I’ve always been able to support myself.” ~ Gloria Steinem
“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” ~ Oscar Wilde
I know, I know, how many new things can I put on my plate? Right now I’m teaching a class at the college, working on the audiobook for The Space Between Time, working on Time’s Echo, writing these blog posts, helping a friend with her audiobook, and, of course, trying to keep up with domestic chores. But, everyone is busy, right? I’m ready for a change I just didn’t know how to make what I wanted to do happen.
For quite some time I have been looking for a way to increase my income by selling more books and perhaps using other of my talents so I can quit teaching. Last week, in my journal, I asked for help in achieving my goals. Though I didn’t expect it, my answer came that very day. I had signed up for an information workshop for a coaching program to help people become freelancers. I’ve wanted to do this for quite sometime, but had no idea where to begin.
As I listened to the presentation, I got very excited. 12 weeks of coaching on how to identify the skills I want to offer, how to find clients, and much more. I’ve only just signed up with The No Pant’s Project. (No pants as in wearing shorts to work instead of business clothes.) I will be sure to keep you informed about how it’s going. The goal is to help freelancers work smarter, not harder, and to help us have time freedom and income to do the things we love doing.
Part of becoming a freelancer is to find your “Super Power”, or the thing you are most passionate about, then offer that skill to people and businesses that need it.
As you know, if you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, I love discussing all the layers of meaning in movies and novels. The reason I chose theatre as one of my majors was so I could examine the characters in the plays we studied. What motivated them do the things they did in the story?
It’s my belief that most of the time our actions are a result of things we were taught and believed, or experiences in our past. So, if we can identify with and understand characters in a book or movie, we might have a chance at understanding ourselves just a little bit better, and begin to make new choices.
Some months, or maybe a year ago, I read an article that illustrates what I mean. I think it was in the magazine, Psychology Today. The article described a new technique in couples counseling, where the couple would watch a romantic movie, and then share with each other the characters they identified with and why. Watching the movie also gave them an opportunity to examine how well the movie couple communicated with each other and relate those situations with their own relationships. Whoever came up with the idea to help couples by having them watch and discuss movies was a genius. This technique gives couples a chance to distance themselves from their own troubles, yet, it helps them make a correlation between the couple on the screen and themselves.
If I can use my knowledge to help people learn more empathy, and self-understanding, I’ll be a happy woman.
Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. 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, novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, 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 on the audiobook version Lucinda is working on. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
“Don’t worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life.” ~ Michael Morpurgo
“Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.” ~ Hermann Hesse
Wow! The Space Between Time print-on-demand version was published a year ago this month. When I realized that, I started thinking of things I’ve learned over this past year and things I want to improve in both writing my next books, and in marketing.
The first thing that came to my mind was that I have to stop saying I’m bad at marketing. It’s not that I’m bad at it, it’s more a matter of not knowing much about it. So I’m now on a mission to find the right marketing techniques that fit my talents. I will probably be reading books and even taking some classes or getting some coaching to help me improve my skills.
Next, I have to do a better job of compartmentalizing my list of tasks for the day. Here’s an example: When I began working on the audiobook version of The Space Between Time, working on my new novel everyday went out the window. I haven’t even looked at it in three months. Now that’s not to say I haven’t been thinking about it, I have. But I need to sit down and work on it at least half an hour every day if I want to make progress on finishing the first draft. My problem is, I’m single minded, therefore, the more immediate tasks, like writing this blog, or things related to teaching, and my audiobook project take presidents. That’s not getting my novel written, which is a concern since an element of the book involves the current #metoo movement.
I don’t know, maybe I’m stuck a bit on my second novel because I’m secretly worried it won’t be good. The subject matter is so complicated. I don’t even know how I feel about what’s happening with women’s rights sometimes. That’s all the more reason to keep writing, because as some author said, “I write to figure out what I’m thinking and feeling.” Mostly, however, the thing that is keeping me from the new novel is that I still have things I need to do related to the TSBT, and that’s frustrating.
The other day I was watching the first episode of the PBS series, The Great American Read, first broadcast in the spring. The program encouraged Americans to go vote for their favorites among a list of 100 books so that this coming week they can reveal the number one favorite book in the country. One of the categories they discussed were books that did not become popular until late in the author’s life, or after they had died. That gave me hope for my book, though it would be nice if more people wanted to read it now.
I picked up another little tidbit in an interview Emma Watson did with Canadian poet, Rupi Kaur. Her book Milk and Honey, could be classified as a book of poems for women. But she said that she has been approached by men who have thanked her for writing the book. And that got me thinking that one of the promotion points I’ve used for my book is that it’s a woman’s book.
It is difficult to put The Space Between Time into a category. It’s part historical novel, part a contemporary story of young woman’s journey of discovery, it’s part magical realism with the characters having paranormal experiences. Now I’m thinking that also classifying it as a woman’s book may keep some readers away who might otherwise enjoy the book. After all, we pick up books to read that sound intriguing. I’ve read lots of books by male authors with male protagonists, and loved them. Why should I think that men couldn’t enjoy my book as well?
The best stories are about human beings dealing with challenges that we can relate to. In The Space Between Time, Jenna the protagonist in the present has experienced life shattering events. She was dumped by her fiancé, been fired from her job, and lost her mother in a terrible car accident. Most of us can related to one or all of those events. Now, getting help from her three-times great-grandmother by joining consciousness with her through her journals might be a bit odd to some people, but don’t we love reading about other people’s lives precisely because we learn something from what they went through?
Well, I’m rambling here, but I realize that embarking on this writing career has been, and will continue to be, a very important endeavor. I’m not giving it up and I’m looking forward to learning more things about myself and learning new skills along the way.
Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. Have a fun and creative weekend.
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, 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 on the audiobook version Lucinda is working on. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
“This instrument can teach. it can illuminate, and yes, it can even inspire, but it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it toward those ends.” ~ Edward R. Morrow speaking about television
I’m a big TV and movie nerd. It’s not that I know everything about the latest shows and movies, but when I like a show or movie, I watch it many times and love discussing all the layers of meaning in the story. I feel the way Edward R. Morrow expressed in the quote above. One of the ways I use entertainment is to learn something new, or to get a new perspective.
I learned this from my parents. Mom and I would read the same books and discuss them. My dad would stay up late on Friday or Saturday nights and watch old movies with me and we’d discuss the story for days afterwards. From my parents I learned that every story, even personal ones, has many layers of meaning and to truly learn something, I needed to dig deep into the character’s motivations. Doing that was one way I could not only understand other people, but myself as well.
Over the weekend my husband and I finished binge watching Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon. I had seen the other various Jack Ryan movies, and even read The Hunt for Red October, after seeing the movie. I liked them all because in each story we get to see into most of the character’s motivations. In Red October, for example, Captain Ramius, a legend in the Soviet Union, decides to defect and hand over the Red October, a state of the art submarine with a drive that makes it virtually invisible, sonically, in the water. We see that his reasons for betraying his country have more to do with the fact that his wife died while he was at sea, than anything else. He’s tired of war. If he hands over the sub, he might be able to prevent the human race from killing itself off.
Even though Tom Clancy does a good job of showing us his character’s reasons for their attitudes and actions, this new series takes that to a whole new level. It takes place in the present time where possible terrorist attacks are a constant worry for all government intelligence agencies in the U.S. and other Western nations. As in the books, Jack works for the CIA as an analyst. He’s a “think outside the box” kind of guy, which means he gets drawn into a mission out in the field because of his unusual abilities. However, this series is different than the previous Clancy stories. We see step by step how Suleiman, the villain of this season, became radicalized and even if we can’t condone what he does, we can understand his reasons for his actions.
In the first scene of the first episode, it is 1983 during the Lebanese Civil War. Suleiman and his brother are playing on the roof of their home, when fighter planes fly overhead and drop bombs nearby. Suleiman and his brother, we find out later, are the only ones in their family to survive the attack. As the episodes progress, more of Suleiman’s story unfolds so that by the end of the series, we can understand why he believes creating a new Islamic state is necessary.
Another thing I love about this series is that we get a view into the lives of Middle Eastern people from different countries. An important character is, Hanin, Suleiman’s wife. She does not like how her husband has changed. She decides to escape with her children, but unfortunately her son refuses to go. Getting her son back so that he does not become a terrorist as well, is central to her motivation for helping Jack and Greer, but it is central to the message of the entire series as well.
In my favorite segment, a drone pilot who killed a man thought to be a terrorist, but later discovers the intel was wrong, travels to the man’s home. We’ve seen the pilot going deeper into depression as his kill count goes up. When he gets the news that this particular man he killed was not a terrorist, he breaks down emotionally and is given ten days leave. Instead of going on binges, he goes to see the man’s father and son to confess that he was the one who killed their loved one. I weep even now as I remember the dead man’s father welcoming the pilot into his home. They don’t speak the same language. They communicate with gestures and facial expressions, which makes the moments between them so much more potent. The man serves the pilot tea. They sip as they look at each other, the pilot close to tears and full of remorse, the father with eyes filled with compassion and forgiveness. This encounter changes both men.
To me the deeper meaning of that scene is that we hurt each other and ourselves when we lump certain groups together and demonize them. I’m an imperfect student of A Course In Miracles. The scene with the pilot and the father of the man he killed, shows the main teaching of the course. We are all connected and if we look for the pure essence of God that resides in each of us, we find not only our own humanity but the humanity of our brother. This series emphasizes that message in other subtle ways as well.
At one point Jack and Greer are in France trying to track down Suleiman’s brother. The French agent Jack is teamed up with says to Jack something like, “In America you have African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and so on. We don’t hyphenate in France. You are either French, or you are an outsider.” And it’s around that point in the story, we find out that Suleiman and his brother were sent to France as refugees after they were orphaned. Each of them attended college and got advanced degrees, but they were unable to get jobs in their fields because they were not considered “French”. Their skin color and country of origin was held against them. To survive they had to get jobs in restaurants, and live in neighborhoods filled with people without much hope just like them. Suleiman would have become a completely different person had he been given a chance to use his talents and education.
The world is such a complicated place. Every person and nation on earth has made mistakes. This series shows different facets of the conflicts we face today. Yes, Jack and Greer are the heroes of the story, but we find out they too have made mistakes that cost people their lives. They too suffer from old wounds. None of the characters in the story are completely unscarred. But in the end, when Hanin’s son is returned to her, we see that there might be a way to come together, forgive each other, and start over. Jim says to Jack, “You were right to try to get the boy back,” and Jack replies, “We’ll see.” When Jack says that, I think the writers are saying that we never know what is in another person’s heart. And even when we try to do the right thing, sometimes it goes horribly wrong.
And yet, the series does end on a hopeful note. In an interesting twist, Greer is a covert to Islam. He converted when he fell in love and married a Muslim woman, who is now divorcing him. We see him struggling with his faith at different points in the series. In the last episode, when Greer is packing to go to his new assignment in Russia, he says to Jack, “You know I went to pray the other day for the first time in a long time. It was good. In fact, it was really good and I was struck by the words of the prophet, ‘No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Felt like it was a very important lesson.”
If we can learn that lesson from an action TV show, maybe there’s hope for the human race after all.
Thanks for following, liking, and commenting. I hope you consider checking out, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.
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, 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 on the audiobook version Lucinda is working on. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
“A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.” ~ W.H. Auden
“Let’s detox our cluttered academic brain. That’s what the poet does. People call it daydreaming, detoxing our minds and taking care of that clutter. It’s being able to let in call letters from the poetry universe.” ~ Juan Felipe Herrera
“Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose.” ~ Bo Bennett
I’ve always loved daydreaming and saying “what if this or that happened?” And yet, I was also the “good” kid who, for the most part, did what she was told. I took responsibility very seriously but I was always planning when I could be alone with my own thoughts. In my daydreams I was free to be me without the masks that we all wear to protect ourselves.
When I dared to share how I dreamed the world could be, I was criticized for being a Pollyanna. I may not be a gourmet dreamer as the quote above states, but I learned pretty early in life, that the canned and frozen dinner type dreamers felt threatened by my world view. So I went underground and dreamed in secret.
Breaking the habit of hiding how I really feel about the things that are going on around me has been difficult. And yet, it’s the artists who are vulnerable and share their true thoughts and feelings with the world, who effect the most change. Today’s post is one of my attempts to share my true self with you.
Thursday as I was driving home from a hair appointment in Bisbee, the cloud formations were gorgeous. It reminded me of when I was a child and my friends and I would lie on the grass looking at clouds imagining they were horses, or ducks, or cars, or rocking chairs. I didn’t know it then, but we were doing something really powerful, imaging a different reality.
As I was driving, I was thinking about friends of mine who are going through extremely tough personal issues right now. And about my own little aches and pains as I grow older. Why do we make ourselves suffer so?
I don’t believe we need to suffer. It’s that we all accept without question that reality is particularly dark. But as Gary Zukav points out in his book Seat of the Soul, human existence has been dark because we have chosen it to be that way. And we have seduced ourselves into thinking it WILL ALWAYS be that way. In our minds and in the stories we tell ourselves, evil will always be battling against love and light. We also tell ourselves that we must all suffer with only occasional periods of joy, and then we die. What if all that is only “true” because we have never questioned the “fact” that suffering, or this war between good and evil will go on forever?
While I was on this train of thought, I turned the bend toward the valley where I live, and I gasped. In front of me was a most amazing sight. It was raining between where I was and home. The sun was low on the horizon behind the rain, and it lit up the droplets into a wall of radiant light. It was one of the most breathtaking sites I’ve ever seen. If there had been a place to pull off the road I would have taken a picture of it. It was so bright it lit up the surrounding landscape with the most amazing glow. That sight was so extraordinary it seemed to be the answer to what I had been thinking about just moments earlier.
I wish I could remember who said something like, “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional,” but the light seemed to be telling me that if I shift my thinking just a little bit; if I and a whole lot of other people play the “what if” game, we might be able to put evil back into the bottle, or at least confine it to a very small corner of our minds and hearts. Challenges will always be present in each of our lives. I don’t dispute that. But we don’t have to hang onto the pain until we make ourselves and everyone around us miserable.
This beautiful miracle caused me to ask some what if questions. And a kind of “what if” poem formed in my mind. I’m not a poet, but here are my what ifs.
WHAT IF:
We were taught to love ourselves,
have empathy for those we encounter everyday,
make sure the wounded were taken care of,
we were able to see the true essence of those around us,
we were able celebrate the successes of others?
WHAT IF:
People came before money,
Greed was a word in the dictionary that teachers and parents had to explain to their children, governments and corporations listened to their citizens and workers,
artists, creatives, and public servants were paid as much as lawyers, doctors, and other professionals,
religions were there to comfort rather than control,
nations worked together for the good of all beings on the planet?
WHAT IF:
Everyone was always safe,
had enough to eat,
had a proper roof over their heads,
had adequate health care,
a good education,
and work they loved?
Some people will say I’m crazy, or delusional to think that we can make radical changes to human existence. But I believe it’s possible for me to daydream new states of being into existence by examining my own and society’s long held beliefs. Think of it this way. What if what we have always thought to be real, or true, was just someone’s interpretation that took hold and now we accept as fact? If we knew that was true, would that change our outlook on life as we know it?
I’ve started to take a look at my personal thought patterns. When did I accept them as reality? Are they really true? If not, what new perspectives can I gain from looking at myself and the world in a new way? I hope if I continue to do this, I’ll be one of many dreamers who create a new world.
Thanks for following, liking and commenting. I appreciate it. Have a fantastic weekend and take a few moments to watch some cloud formations.
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, 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 on the audiobook version Lucinda is working on. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievements, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly …” ~ Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic.”
I have a confession to make and it’s probably not very surprising. I’ve pursued life as a theatre artist, and writer hoping for my big break so I wouldn’t have to split my focus and do some other job on the side just to pay the bills. In fact I’ve been irritated that I’ve had to work at conventional jobs to keep afloat financially. On the other hand, I’ve felt guilty that I wasn’t making much money while I stuck stubbornly to my creative endeavors. My focus has been fractured and I haven’t done a good job of financial planning for the future or promoting my work because of it.
Over the weekend I read an article on Mashable, about a nasty post on social media about actor Geoffrey Owens that made me feel a whole lot better. Owens was one of the children on The Cosby Show. He’s still a working actor, which means there are times when he’s between guest appearances. Last week someone snapped a photo of him bagging groceries in a New Jersey Trader Joe’s. They posted the photo which engendered some pretty nasty comments and even news stories criticizing Owens. However, he got lots of support from fellow actors who Tweeted the various jobs they’ve done to make ends meet between acting gigs. My favorite Tweet was from Patricia Heaton, “Again, why is this news? When I worked on “Thirtysomething” I was also summarizing depositions to pay my rent. Why are you trying to humiliate this honorable hardworking actor? Shame on you! #geoffreyowens – many great blessings are coming your way!”
I once read that George Clooney slept on his Aunt Rosemary’s couch for several months, a year, or longer while he was getting started as an actor, Jim Carrey lived in his car, and Mastin Kipp lived in a friend’s 10 x 10 shed until his blog began to get a huge following.
As the quote above says, if you’re not in the arena, you don’t get to criticize someone else’s choices.
The news story about Geoffrey Owens, and a meme I saw on Facebook not long ago, helped ease my feelings about my struggles to be an artist. The meme pointed out the imbalance in most people’s thinking about the work artists do as compared to more mundane types of jobs that can bring in more money. I wish I’d saved it, but it went something like this: “You resent how much that piece of artwork/book/movie/video game costs, thinking that the artist’s time isn’t valuable. They could make lots more money if they had a “real” job. But try to go without any kind of art for a month, or even a week. That would mean, no radio, TV, music, books, magazines, artwork on your walls, video games, no movies, theatre, or museums. And then come back and tell me art isn’t important.” I would also contend that without artists we wouldn’t have houses or other buildings. There would be no cars, airplanes, computers and all the other machines we use in everyday life that we take so much for granted. All those things have to be “designed” by someone.
The story about Geoffrey Owens, and this meme stirred up deep feelings about the choices I’ve made. Something inside me just couldn’t spend years sitting at a desk, or all my time preparing lesson plans and grading papers. A different kind of life called to me. I haven’t always heard it’s voice very clearly, but I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that what I’m doing is right for me and no matter what, I’m going to keep my main focus on my art, and work on the side if need be.
Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. I appreciate it very much.
P.S. How do you like the new icon my husband designed for this site?
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, 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 on the audiobook version Lucinda is working on. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
Sage Woman Chronicles 