As a writer and soulcare specialist, I struggle with the oft’ soul-less world of marketing. I want to create a system of sacred commerce around my work, in which I have peace around things like pricing, marketing, and promotion.

Thankfully I’ve stumbled upon Art + Money: Thriving as an artist without selling out by Chris Guillebeau and Zoë Westhof. This manual, plus the accompanying artist interviews, gives practical tips and guidelines for getting your work out there, connecting to you audience, and telling your story.

Art + Money is offered at two levels. The $39  Starving Artist version includes the 55 page guide, 3 artists interviews on mp3, and free updates for 6 months. The Picasso version is $58 and includes 3 additional artists interviews. (I’ve not reviewed this part of the product.)  Chris is also an incredibly accessible person who actively supports his product and his community.

I know there’s a lot of stuff out there promising to help you sell, sell, sell — and most of it relies on becoming a superstar on Technorati or having the biggest blog readership on the block. Art + Money does not take that approach. Rather it helps you connect your work, your story, and your people into a comprehensive whole that will help you earn either a supplemental income or a living wage — depending on how much time you want to put into it.

While it’s geared primarily for visual artists, it’s also great for writers. Just replace artists/galleries with writers/publishing as you read. And wherever it stays “studio” think “bookstore.” A lot of the links and suggested sites are specifically for selling visual art, but as a writer you’ll still find about 70% of the content applicable. 

Art + Money helped me redefining marketing as “sharing your story with your people” – which I already do and love! It’s also confirming my hunch that time on Twitter and Facebook promoting my work—and promoting the work of others in my community—is time well spent. In concrete terms, Art + Money:

• helps me figure out pricing.
• encourages me to keep on with my choice to not pursue traditional publishing.
• shows me how to fine tune my social networking methods.
• teaches me to launch my upcoming products and courses.

I would say the book is especially helpful if you are not yet blogging or using social networking, or if you have not figured out how to focus your blogging and networking in a way that supports your creative work. And if you are they type of person who is inspired by the stories of working artists, the interviews will be a big boon to you as well.

I hope Art + Money scratches where it itches and helps you bring your creative dreams closer to reality. 

Magpie Girl’s Promise: I adore my readers, so I only review products I truly believe in. In this case, I purchased the product at full price and decided to become an affiliate ambassador for Art + Money. If you purchase this book through the links on my site you’ll not only get a great product, you’ll also support my work. Thanks for being here!

There are things you want to be doing with your life. There are adventures to be had, projects you’d love to dive into, and people you want to have time for. You want room to breathe, to think, to play.

Yet, there it is. The stuff in your home, the paper piles in your home office, and the 101 things on your to-do list, all clamoring for your time and attention.”
–Lisa Baldwin, Clutter Coach and Professional Simplifier

In the gap between the day we signed our mortgage and the day we could move into our 1920’s craftsman, I would sit on the back porch with my soulful housemate Sharon, and wait for the day we could call The Densmore House home. “It’s good here, Rachelle.” she’d say “Someone has been prayerful in this space.”

Where we live has a feel, an energy…a zeitgeist. We long to live in peaceful, beautiful spaces. But often we find ourselves living in clutter, mess and mayhem. There’s the physical clutter—the mail, and the socks, and the stacks of paper. (How does all that paper procreate anyway?!) Physical clutter stops us in our tracks. It keeps us from starting creative projects—because who wants to work at that messy table? It keeps us from finishing tasks because we can’t find what we started on. It drains us of our inspiration, and tires us out with menial tasks.

Then there is the energetic clutter—the anxiety, the regret, and that mysterious slimy residue that hangs around when something particularly sad or nasty has gone down. Energetic clutter is more subtle than the physical kind. It resides on the edge of our awareness like something you can only see out of the corner of your eye. Yet energetic clutter can be just as distracting and draining as the stack of mail on your countertop.

Thankfully I have two stellar practitioners who can help you remove BOTH kinds of clutter from your life – and they are teaming up to offer an e-course! (Oh you are so lucky!) Read the rest of this entry »

Returning To My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine

by Gail Straub

Of all the things I struggle with in my overly reflective life, one of the most prominent is my somewhat spotty ability to stand in my own power and to connect with my innate internal authority. So much of what has informed my life-decisions has come from sources external to myself—forces dominated by the patriarchal structures of church and culture. As I approach my forties, I have made it a priority to stop listening to those external opinions, and to focus more intently upon the intuitive, instinctive wisdom that lies within my own self. This is what Gail Straub addresses in her book, Returning To My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine. This not the story of a literal return to the place of her childhood, but a metaphysical return to the birthplace of classically feminine traits which Straub describes as “the rich realm of feelings and moods, intuition and creativity, stillness and contemplation.”

Straub tells the story of herself, her mother and the disconnect that occurred between them as she moved into adulthood. In her own younger years, Straub’s own mother left behind adventure and creativity to acquiesce to the cultural norm of home and family. In contrast, Straub chose to travel the world, to embrace art and lovers, and to delve into experimentation and intrigue. But in spite of her bohemian lifestyle, Straub eventually felt a deep disconnect from her feminine wisdom—a disconnection which was tied to her mother’s unexpected death in Straub’s early twenties. This book is the story of how Straub recovers from that loss and reacquaints herself with feminine ways of knowing and being.

I think now that taking back my feminine was like a holy excavation, a layer-by-gradual-layer digging to reclaim the hidden artifacts of untamed imagination, kinship with the mystery, quiet contemplation, feelings and moods, and the fluid spaciousness that embraces paradox, mending the opposites of life into a whole.
(p. 100)

Returning to My Mothers’ House is an intriguing story of a varied and thoughtful life. Straub has a concise but reflective writing style that allows the reader to move rapidly through the story. She is effectively selective regarding which stories she chooses to tell, and makes clear observations about key events in her life and the revelations which followed. While she does not make a distinctive summary of these life-lessons in the book, the reading group questions and other materials on her website help the readers draw out the specifics and enhance the “take away” value of the text. For instance, the accompanying material includes a summary of five ways women lose their innate feminine wisdom which includes, among others: fleeing from one’s emotions, losing connection with one’s physical self, and becoming addicted to ‘doing’ – all things to which many of us can relate. Straub’s website also includes suggested practices for taking back the wisdom of the feminine. These practices are embedded within the stories told in the book, but are separated out and stated more succinctly here. The combination of the book along with the discussion material provided on her site, create a powerful transformational tool for women who are seeking to reconnect to the wisdom they know lies within. I highly recommend it, especially as reading material for a book group, or perhaps as the launching point for a Soultribe.

Come, come dear reader, return to the house of the Great Mother. Up, up, take the elegant grand staircase of relationships made up of collaboration, cooperation, communication and caring….where the rooms of intuition provide safe haven for the imagination, for dreams and symbols, for creativity, and the arts. … I know how you feel up here in this sacred space; this is what has been missing from your life, this is what you have been so hungry for.
(from the prologue)

I know I’ve been on a bit of a depressive bent lately, but I’m a big fan of being in the moment, and this is the moment right now. Hang in there with me. We’ll turn the corner eventually.

If you are mourning some loss in your life — a loved one, your own youth, your health, a dream unfullfilled–these books could give you some companionship for the journey. And as always, please add your own good resources in the comments. Shalom.

The energy and sunlight of Summer can wake up our creative spirit — or the the heat and presence of the Children can rob us of our energy and time. Either way, this set of books is a good fit.

If you’re feeling ready to make/write/create/do something, one of these will give you new ideas and encourage you on. If you don’t have time for your regular work of writing/painting/carving monuments out of marble, then these books will let you slip things in around the edges. Several of them work well across age groups and can be used for collaborative art with the young ones. Happy creating, and thanks for supporting Magpie Girl! (More reviews here, if you’re curious…)

I’ll admit it — I read The Da Vinci Code, in hardback, and I LOVED IT! Sure it was like reading a Hollywood script and the timeline (among other things) was completely ridiculous. But I dig religious conspiracy theories, and grail legends are well…legendary…for a reason. Plus, it was Summer, so why not read something that has a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter?

But even better than a fun read, is a fun read that’s also well crafted. Those, dear friends, are hard to find. So here’s a little list for you all — a brand new carousel full of great reads for road trips, backyard hammocks, and days at the lake. I hope you find something you love amongst these treasures I love. And remember, anything you purchased by clicking on a link helps support this blog. Tak, and good reading!

Notes from an Exhibition
Patrick Gale

When it comes to museum gift shops, I am an undeniable sucker. I usually manage to resist buying the paint-your-own-Van-Gogh tee shirt set for the kids. But beyond that my will power fades.

Last month at the National Gallery in London I discovered a new and marvelous new gift shop offering – novels with art-and-artists tie ins! I am so in love!

The culprit this visit was Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. This moody, complicated novel drew and me in and kept me captivated from beginning to end. It’s one of those books you just devour.

Rachel Kelly is an abstract artist with fabulous execution and ground breaking ideas. She’s also schizophrenic, bipolar, and fond of hiding her meds. For some reason having four kids seemed like a good idea, and her longsuffering family is shaped by her difficult personal world—inheriting both her brilliance and her madness.

When Rachel dies suddenly in her locked studio, her family begins to peer tentatively into their past and face into their mental and emotional present. As each character unwinds his or her story, we see how Rachel’s dominate presence has influenced each of them– for good and for ill. Author Patrick Gale also shows us how each character’s individual personality, talents, and perspectives forms their own story and shapes their family’s history.

You know how I love clever, and Gale uses a very clever technique, beginning each chapter with an exhibition card from Rachel’s posthumous final show. But where many authors stop at clever hooks, Gale manages to go on to craft a very fine story. With the exception of the youngest child Petroc, each character is well developed, showing us both their flaws and the things which makes them endearing. And while the book moves back and forth through time, at times telling us the same piece of family history from a different viewer’s perspective, Gale manages to avoid that annoying re-hashing phenomenon that most authors fall prey to when employing this timeline technique. Finally, Gale manages to weave together meaty themes without preaching at the reader or bogging down the narrative.
With finely developed characters and topics as diverse as faith, family, art, passion, illness, death, and creation, Notes from an Exhibition feels as enriching as it is intriguing. Today’s Flavor: Complex and satisfying.

Any purchase made by clicking on a title or image above helps support this site. Find more Magpie Reviews here. Thanks!

The Monk Downstairs
(This paperback version include book group discussion questions and the first chapter of the sequel.)

Recently I requested all of my medical records to lug with me to Denmark in my continued quest to stay out of status migranosis. There were two manila envelopes full of them — and that was just from one neurologist. The beginning of every office visit summary starts out like this:

“The patient is a pleasant middle aged woman….”

Excuse me? But how did that happen?

Perhaps the reality that at 38 I am, apparently both ‘pleasant’ and ‘middle aged’, is what led me to enjoy The Monk Downstairs so much. The New York Times Book Review describes it as such:

“A tender, witty novel in which a former monk, after twenty years in his order, rents an apartment from a 38 year old single mother; the ensuing relationship grows cautiously, taking account the prudence required of struggling people who aren’t going to get that many more chances.”

See anything that might appeal to moi? Monks, motherhood, spiritual crisis, being 38…

Even if you have less in common with this characters than I do, you will still find this to be a well executed novel with real, flawed, loveable characters and everyday life experiences that just might help you feel companioned for a journey. I’m especially fond of Mike’s struggle to rebuild his spiritual practices after a crisis of religion. (Gee Rachelle, really?) And I was equally touched by Rebecca’s final acceptance that she must experience grief over the crisis moments in her life (ex husbands, bad dates, aging parents.) Author Tim Farrington writes of Rebecca:

She had never allowed herself to grieve wholly before, she realized now. … some pragmatic, self-protective sense had told her that grief was bottomless. Skirting this sea, she had dipped her toes in; she’d wondered what would happen if she crossed the line, but it had always seemed that it could only be a kind of defeat, a drowning, a death. And so it was. But maybe it was not the end, to be defeated by life. Maybe that is even part of what it meant to be a human being; to recognize ways in which death had come, to stop looking away from the failures of love, and to grieve.

Then there is also this great bit from Mike, in which he spots a little bit of wisdom at his first-time-out-of-the-cloister job and records it in a letter to a former brother monk:

..or as my colleagues at McDonald’s put it, “My bad.” I’m sorry I dissed you….The ritual response to a penitential “My bad,” incidentally, is a benevolent, “It’s all good.” The drama of Christ’s forgiveness is reenacted a dozen times a day over the deep fryer and the grill, by teenagers, with refreshing succinctness.

Lest you think this novel is all heaviness, be not afraid! Mike is funny, Rebecca is droll, her daughter is sweet and hilarious, and the sex…we’ll the NY Times Book review is a bit off there because it is neither cautious nor prudent, but pretty damn hot. (Not for the prudish of heart.)

Special kudos to Tim Farrington for writing the character of Rebecca so well. About half way through the novel I thought “Wow. This female character is really spot-on. Who wrote this?” When I turned the book cover over I was surprised to see it was written by a man–so convinced was I that a sister must have created Rebecca’s reality. Props, Tim!

Today’s Flavor: Bittersweet, romantic, and real.

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The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls
Valorie Lee Schaefer

When I bought the kids second-hand American Girl dolls, the Dad of the teen who sold me the dolls said, “I warn you, this doll is a gateway drug.” He couldn’t have been more right, and by Christmas I was drowning in a stack of AG catalogs.

While the girls haven’t become AG users, they are big fans of American Girl’s line of books. In addition to the decently written historical novels, AG also offers a line of great growing-up advice books. This week what with all the flap about Miley Cyrus’ portrait by Annie Lebowitz for Vanity Fair, combined with the great discussion going in the comments on my post Why I’m not teaching Abstinence to my Kids, I thought I’d review a book about growing-up bodies.

American Girl’s The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls is an excellent reference guide for a growing girl. Written in a simple, friendly style The Care & Keeping of You gives kids the details they long for in a way that communicates “it’s not gross, it’s your really cool body!” Author Valerie Scharfer covers the obvious concerns—zits, period, and bras (or the lack thereof)—as well as broader concepts about size, mind/body connection, and the way physical changes can effect emotions. Even things a grown up might think of as insignificant, like how to get gum out of your hair, get straight forward solutions,

The publisher says this book is for ages 9-12, and some of the information may be more than younger children want to know. For instance, there’s a pretty detailed cartoon/line-drawing illustration of a girl using a tampon, and girls in the drawings are pictured nude and anatomically correct. My oldest daughter needs a lot of reconnaissance before she moves into a new area, so we got her this book when she was 8 years old and started asking questions about ‘becoming a teenager.’ She had it for about an hour before she came bounding down the stair saying things like, “Mom, did you know you get you period about two years after your breast buds appear?” (No, actually, I did not. That would have been really helpful to know back in the day.) So far, she’s feeling really confident about the changes ahead, and proud of her growing body.

Other good books in this line include The Feelings Book: The Care & Keeping of Your Emotions, which pretty much saved our lives though the drama that was third grade; A Smart Girl’s Guide to Starting Middle School; and A Smart Girl’s Guide to Money. Today’s Flavor: Knowledge is Power.

All purchases made by clicking on a link or image above help support this website. Find more great reads at Magpie Reviews. Thanks you!

Shiva Rea – Yoga Shakti

After many MANY months without yoga, I’ve started practicing once again. Since I can barely keep track of my right and my left in English, doing Vinyasa (flow) yoga in Danish is definitely not an option. So I’m grateful for Shiva Rea – Yoga Shakti.

Centered around various combinations of the sun salutations, the DVD offers the perfect practice for not-still-a-beginner but not-yet-a-yogi practitioners. You can choose from several pre-set practices, most of which are 30-45 minutes log. But the really great part is that you can also use the ‘yoga matrix’ to create your own practice. It’s easy to choose from a collection of poses so one week you can do sun salutation, standing poses, and shoulder openings. Then the next time you can do backbends, twists, and warrior series. The instructions are clear, the pace is well measured, and Shiva Rea offers the more challenging poses in different stages so you can advance as you get stronger and more flexible. The video is shot in India, mostly on the coast, with the sound of the tides and shot only in natural light. It’s beautiful, satisfying, and will hold your interest for many practices to come. Today’s Flavor: Gettin’ Strong and Flexible.

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