My Last Pictures from Doe Branch Ink (for this year)

Last week was a mini-bonus life in a house full of writers with good food and good views: the writing workshop at Doe Branch Ink in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains:

To give full credit, the shot above of the group from the third floor landing was taken by novelist/site manager Nick Roberts.

The ones below are part of my record of the week, and my parting exploration of the neighborhood: the wide French Broad River, the 800 person nearby county seat of Marshall and its quirkily rich Lapland bookstore, plus the blazing fall color and blue sky.

Bold Bonus Life Tip #8: Make a record: a journal or photos or blog posts or saved emails or podcasts or some combination. That way you'll have your extra tucked-in life in fuller detail. Otherwise a lot of memory will simply slide away like the fast French Broad.

And you never know what use you might find for such a record. I got my novel Sister India out of my bonus life in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

BTW, I do plan to lead a group again next fall at Doe Branch Ink. Let me know if you'd like to join us. If you can't wait that long, the admirable Craig Nova will kick off the 2011 spring-summer season in May.

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Bold Benares #4

An original mattress factory. There's something satisfying about seeing daily objects made by humans, knowing that it can be done.

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How to Stay Creative

Women Who Run with the Wolves is Book 2 in my series of rediscovered treasures.

I remember well when it came out because I was then in the editing process of the book I co-authored, The Healing Power of Doing Good, and working with the same publisher. And so on the phone one day, I got to tell then-editor Joelle Delbourgo at Ballantine: I stayed up late last night reading the Clarissa Pinkola Estes book and was so excited by it I couldn't sleep. She was pretty excited about that book too.

The conversation somehow made me feel closer to the message of the book. Which is: Women! renew and guard and rely on your instinctive, intuitive capabilities. Use them to do what's important to you.

Estes writes about excitement, passion, courage and how to stay vividly alive and creative.

Number One Principle of Creativity: Keep Coming Back

"Protect your creative life," she says, "Practice your work every day. Then, let no thought, no man, no woman, no mate, no friend, no religion, no job, and no crabbed voice force you into a famine. If necessary, show your incisors."

Typing that quote made me ask myself: Do I have to show "incisors" to protect my work time? I did interrupt 2 social conversations so far today, each time saying: I have to get back to it.

But both chats were with writers, and knew what "it" meant. So no incisors were needed. Which has usually been my experience. Still, it's good to be able to trust one's guardian wolf as needed, to know that she's there.

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A Demonstration of Cheekiness (Boldness)

Do go visit the lovely and wildly flattering piece written about me and Sister India on Mojo's blog.

Here's why (other than because it's so nice about me): There's a five minute clip from a Bollywood movie that shows Varanasi, the holy city where my novel Sister India is set. It's a beautiful trip along the Ganges and the riverbank temples and old maharajah's palaces-- with just the right Hindi music. I'll likely visit the site there regularly, when I need to read an encouraging word and when I want to be taken back to India.

Posting this link was bold, don't you think?




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