The Gift of Boldness

I've decorated my desk with a couple of birthday presents I recently received in celebration of my turning 57.

One was a set of inspirational cards, (Isle of View Insight Cards). Next to my computer today is the one that plays off the word BOLD. The letters of the word are a reminder of the message: Believing Opens Life's Dream.

The idea, of course, is: BELIEVE YOU CAN ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WANT AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO.. I do believe that and I have, pretty much, found it to be so (although the jury's still out on a couple of matters). Much as I believe it, I also find it helpful to be reminded.

Then there's the Lady Godiva cup, which holds enough to feed Lady Godiva's horse, and came with some sumptuous Godiva cocoa. The image--of the naked woman on the horse--also brought along its thousand year-old history: Lady Godiva bared all in order to achieve her purpose.

What she wanted was for her husband, the Earl of Leofric, to lower taxes on the peasantry. He said he'd do it the day she rode through town naked. So she did.

What artists must summon again and again is the courage be as EMOTIONALLY BARE IN OUR WORK AS LADY GODIVA.

So I'm drinking deep out of this mug; of course the chocolate helps too.

And thank you, Joe Burgo and Karen Tam.

From Robertson Davies

Davies is one of my long-time favorite novelists, especially The Deptford Trilogy. His Jungian tilt intrigues me. Nobody does archetypes better.

Here's a thought from him that I found encouraging--especially for when a manuscript is at its muddy stage.


The best among our writers are doing their accustomed work of mirroring what is deep in the spirit of our time; if chaos appears in those mirrors, we must have faith that in the future, as always in the past, that chaos will slowly reveal itself as a new aspect of order.
Robertson Davies
A Voice from the Attic (1951)


The way I think about this is personal: "what is deep in my spirit" rather than what's in the spirit of our time. Often it's something I don't know about, and am shocked to find. Also, I don't try to "mirror" it. Instead I use it as a spark of energy that will start to lead me into a fictional story.

I chase the spark, do my best to keep it in sight.

ADDENDUM: Adapting bits of wisdom to suit me is necessary. A writer friend told me this definition of a writer: someone who, if present as God creates the universe, would stare at the final product then say, You know, God, it's nice, but it would be so much better if you just changed this...." I expect that definition applies pretty well to most humans.

Rejection Slip

Only one post ago, I was blythely writing about how we have to consider rejections, obstacles, setbacks as progress. Since it's inevitable that some come along, we just need to view them as part of the trip, not a reason to stop or slow down.

And then-- a favorite client of mine decided to cancel the project I'd already gotten deeply involved in. I'd written one draft of a booklet, a piece I'm especially proud of. Now: no booklet.

I got paid anyway, very well-treated. No hard feelings from me, and none from them that I know of.

Yet--that piece I like so much will likely never be read.

Indeed, A DISAPPOINTMENT.

I looked back ruefully on what I'd just so easily written about absorbing these blows. Well, the thing is I NEVER SAID THEY'RE NOT BLOWS.. The news hovered at the edge of my consciousness, like a pulled muscle, until mid-day the following day. I kept working, I'm proud to say.

Now once again I feel philosophical about the parts of this work I cannot control. I still wish, though, that that 20-pager was going to be published.

And I'm genuinely pleased to discover again that I still possess my RESILIENCE.

6 More Hints on Arts Marketing

*When you're having a booksigning or an art opening or some other career event, figure out who the people are whose presence would mean the most for your career. Write those people A PERSONAL LETTER of invitation, perhaps in addition to including them in an mass e-mail.

*LEARN ABOUT THE PERSON YOU WANT TO REACH, his or her interests and accomplishments, how you can fit into what that person is doing, what mutual friends or contacts you might have.

*COUNT ON A LOT OF REJECTIONS and setbacks in marketing, just as most of us do in the process of doing the work. Part of the day's work and the progress is getting the inevitable rejections. These are a step forward.

*OTHER ARTISTS' SUCCESSES show where there may be an opportunity for you. Find out how they did it, and how you can adapt that approach for yourself.

*In sending out UPDATES ON YOUR WORK, limit yourself to twice a year, and don't send announcements about your very small victories. You might save some of your mailing list, in announcing a book release or a long-running art show, until you have a good review to quote.

*COMMUNICATE YOUR PASSION about your work to the person you want to interest. Show your excitement and say what has drawn you to this project, what it means to you.

These ideas are brought to you from the Creative Capital seminar on strategic planning for artists, which I've been carrying on about for weeks now.

ADDENDUM: The picture is the view from my desk (isn't my office building wonderful?)with the glass I mentioned in my last post. Note the COBALT BLUE color. Every time I reach for this weak iced tea, I'm reminded of my novel and my goals for it.

Delicious Literary Promotion Gambit

I got a terrific suggestion from one of the writers at the Creative Capital alum reunion Sunday night:

****For promotion (and celebration)of my nearly-done novel Cobalt Blue, to create a drink called a Cobalt Blue.

This potion needs to be an ethereal blue--and sizzling good. If you HAVE IDEAS? for the recipe that you'd like to contribute, do feel free to pass them on.

I already have the perfect vessel for the testing: it's a martini glass with a cobalt blue rim and a cobalt blue stem that I picked up at a thrift shop for the color.

A hard version and a soft version of the drink are needed--since I can handle about three sips of wine and that's all. So, for myself at least, I'm going to create for this pretty-racy novel a Virgin Cobalt Blue.

Years ago I thought it was funny that the screen rights contract for my first novel, Revelation, included the soft drink rights. I couldn't imagine a Revelation soft drink. I was clearly too narrow in my thinking.

Visualize the Published Book

Visualizations of a goal work even better for me when I create the image of what I want and keep it before me.

Here's an example: my mock-up of COBALT BLUE, my novel-in-terrific-progress, as a published hardback. It's about a painter: note the paintbrush, and the color blue.
Those little gold seals on the cover are for national awards, including the Pulitzer. I also put some nice blurbs and a picture of me on the back.

This looks like a second grader did it. But you get the idea. And so does my unconscious. I've done this with my previous books; it hasn't missed yet.

Bold Artist Reunion

First, to the right: another piece of my artistic cross-training, the dabbling I do in visual arts and crafts to refresh my writing mind. This crazy quilt in our guest-room is hand-stitched, took months of reflective evenings: so it's a crazy project in more ways than one.

THE BREAKING NEWS: a gathering took place last night of the artists from my area who are alums from the nationally-offered Creative Capital seminars on strategic career planning for artists.

There were 7 of us: 5 visual artists, one writer/visual artist (our host Carrie Knowles), and novelist-me. Also two spouses and a 15 year-old son.

The energy and excitement were as inspiring as at the original seminar, which teaches artists of all kinds HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY AND MANAGE THE BUSINESS SIDE OF AN ARTS CAREER.

Bryant Holsenbeck, a mixed-media sculptor, asked everyone to announce their goal for 2006. These included: get a six-figure book deal (two wanted that), settle down in one place, get work acquired by a museum, increase annual income by $15,000, become 50% less irritable, solve the health insurance problem, get Queen Latifah to play the heroine in the film, and become fluent in Hebrew.

At the very least, the question and the answers were quite a good party ice-breaker. (Not that there was a lot of ice.) But it was more than that: I'd bet that we're all seriously committed to these goals we've declared and are taking steps today to get there.

It's hard, of course, to figure the steps to a $100,000 contract. But one useful one is to FINISH THE NOVEL.

So I'm about to hit "Publish Post" and start on today's work on mine: without berating myself that it's already past 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

One way or another, time always seems to be an issue: getting it, using it, reaching a goal by a deadline, etc.

For me, the dinner was a double reminder: yesterday was my 57th birthday. My time, it's now clear to me, is not infinite. If this is true for you as well, feel free to join me in getting moving NOW on the NUMBER ONE PROJECT, and get a bit more done on it TODAY.

The Missing Piece for the New Year of Writing

After much pondering, I set out three resolves for the new year that all have to do with allowing me to work more effectively and write with more freedom.

And I LEFT OUT THE OBVIOUS: finish my novel COBALT BLUE and have it scheduled for speedy publication by an appreciative editor with deep pockets for my advance and for an unparalleled promotion budget.

How did I manage to leave that out? It's a mistake I've made before: forgetting the most obvious and pressing and important thing. I discovered that finishing my book isn't on my to-do list either. Jeez! Well, that has changed.

Now I formally add to my resolves for 2006: finish COBALT BLUE, and get a terrific deal that will set the book up for next year's resolution about New York Times bestsellerdom.

And in the future,I'm going to KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. To the contrary of conventional wisdom, it's quite possible to miss it.

Now, ABOUT THE PICTURES: They show more samples of my cross-training in the visual arts--playing at it with no standards at all to refresh my creative engines. And being so bold as to have the results on display all around our house, even when company comes.

On our shed is the Buddhist image of the Eyes of God which I saw so often in Nepal, when I visited there after my winter in Varanasi to research SISTER INDIA. The way the boards were falling off the wall and door suggested this image, which has long hung in my mind.



The pages of squiggles are nothing but that. However, the impulse to make those marks is relevant, because COBALT BLUE is a novel about the mysterious rising of psychic energy called kundalini. Looking at them, I feel that I'm visualizing that movement, and I've had a strong impulse lately that has led to the covering of many pages with these swirls.

A NOTE ON CREATIVE CAPITAL STRATEGY RESULTS: The seminar I went to in December has kept me excited about running my writing consulting business in a way that is better for me and for my work. I've been putting the lessons I learned into effect as fast as I can.

I decided to make a comparison. How did my income compare this December with last December? the holiday season being an invariably slow month for me for any kind of business. Well, I can't directly attribute most of the improvement to the new strategies--or to my new-in-October office with my friend Carrie; but I am pleased to say that my INCOME INCREASE was 275%. That sure dashed the notion that the writing business is always slow in December.

New Year--New Leaf--New Artistic Resolves

Some time back I was promoting here the idea of CROSS-TRAINING FOR ARTISTS of all sorts: doing some work/play in an art form other than the one that's the main focus of serious ambitions.

FOR THREE REASONS:
*It's fun and refreshing to be entirely playful with art.
*It's good practice; that playfulness, which is so productive, will come more easily than otherwise during the "serious work."
*It keeps the engines of creativity, the source of new ideas, well-oiled.

So this is why I have this picture of my personally-hand-beaded leaf here. Or at least it's how I'm justifying showing you this.

My work is words. I fool around, with no standards to meet, with lots of kinds of visual arts and crafts.

Last summer I beaded this roughly 3x4 foot item you see hanging from a tree next to my driveway (we live in a cabin in the woods.) Sewing on this many loose beads allowed me to play with colors and filmy material and gave me lots of time for thoughts to float up. Which they did.

I got the thing ready in time for a party at my house in July. I thought of it as my New Leaf party, though I wasn't really turning over any new leaves at the time. Now I am.

Now this leaf is my New Year's New Leaf: reminding me every time I come and go of my fresh career strategies I learned in the Creative Capital workshop that I've been detailing here for the last month.

And so my New Year's Resolve, which is: value myself (more and in ways that I can feel.) The pieces to put this into practice are:
*increase my income by 20% this year
*spend a minimum of one hour a week organizing my house better, so that everything I use is easily accessible, uncluttered, and pleasant to live with. This hour will, of course, turn into more than one, but if I start with a high requirement I'm likely to put off getting started.
*stop berating myself about anything. Do or don't do--but no wasting energy and time on self-nagging. My plan for doing this is to write down every time I start haranguing myself, and congratulate myself on having caught it. (This tactic came to me at lunch today from the creative mind of my friend and fellow writer Stephanie Bass.)

I will report here how I fare. And I'd like your encouragement.

Happpy New Year and New Resolves to you. I'd love for you to use this space to commit yourself to small definite steps toward what you want most this year.