Cauldrons and Cupcakes

Celebrating Life, Spirituality, Creativity and Kindness!

Tag: #amwriting

All I want for Christmas is…

  I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. ― Jorge Luis Borges   You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ― C.S. Lewis Hey, Lovelies, Christmas is almost here. Our office will be closed from Friday December 23 and we will […]

Cracking the Code

I had written down an important piece of information. But where? I needed to find it because I knew it was the info I needed to crack the code!

Heroes and Vulnerability

Name one hero who was happy. ~ Madeline Miller Hey, Lovelies. As some of you know I am slogging through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) right now, creating a new beginning, a new sub-thread and an ending for the novel I began writing in NaNoWriMo 2021. My hero is Dave. I know – not a […]

Dripping words onto the page…

  The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important […]

Pantser vs Plotter

  The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. ~ Dr. Seuss Hey, Lovelies! In preparation for my first session with my writing coach tomorrow, they have sent me notes on the manuscript excerpt and synopsis I recently submitted to them. The […]

Insights, Inspiration and Action – Monday Oracle 13 June 2022

The energies this week support a gentle letting go of the things that have been weighing us down. There doesn’t need to be a struggle or a big dramatic scene. In fact, the very best kind of letting go is one where we decide to let something go with grace and ease. When we let go, we invite new possibilities…

Lighten Up By Letting Go – Monday Oracle 6 June 2022

The energies this week support a gentle letting go of the things that have been weighing us down. There doesn’t need to be a struggle or a big dramatic scene. In fact, the very best kind of letting go is one where we decide to let something go with grace and ease. When we let go, we invite new possibilities…

Friday Night Vibes

  Music always sounds better on Friday. ~ Lou Brutus Hey, Lovelies. I am really coming to love Fridays. We’ve got a bit of a thing happening now at the Treehouse on a Friday afternoon. I finish work early. Ben and I might do some writing together. That feels amazing… It’s been too long since […]

Standing On The Edge Of The Known World

Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.  Haruki Murakami Hey, Lovelies! I saw my bossy but kind cardiologist on Tuesday, and […]

What I hate about writing memoir

Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.  Neil Gaiman Hey, Lovelies. I’m deep in what I hope will be the final edit of my memoir – the first one, anyway. The one where I find myself in […]

Thanks For All Your Beautiful Messages Of Support

If you can do nothing else, do whatever is in your power to make the people in your life feel completely unashamed of who they are. Sam Killermann Hey, Lovelies. I just wanted to thank you for the absolute avalanche of support and positive messages you have sent my way, in response to yesterday’s post. […]

I took a deep breath and changed things

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin Hey, Lovelies. I did something quite radical yesterday. Radical, but so in keeping with the energies of August, and this Lion’s Gate Portal. I set up a meeting with my team. I sat in front of […]

The Mundane As Sacred – Monday Oracle 26 July 2021

It’s the simple things in your life that make up the bulk of it. The mundane is where we live and we end up missing most of it. We find it again in the silence and in attention of everyday life. Eric Overby Hello, Lovelies! This Quarter I am using the Wisdom Of The Oracle cards by […]

The Tree House In The Forest

Old Person: What are you going to do when you grow up?Nicole, Aged 5: Live in a treehouse and write stories. Nicole Cody Hey, Lovelies! Yesterday was a big day for us. In the strangest and most unexpected of ways we have found ourselves affected by a series of synchronicities which has led us to […]

Sometimes It Doesn’t Make Sense But You Need To Say Yes Anyway

The day you realize you don’t have to make sense to anyone is the day you start to make sense to you. Greg Behrendt Hey, Lovelies. Over the past decade I have participated in a wonderful event known as NaNoWriMo (which stands for National Novel Writing Month). It happens every November, and is a month […]

It was because of Sedona

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett Hey, Lovelies, I know. So […]

Shush! Writing!!!

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ~ Rumi It’s too late to back away from this memoir now. I’ve started this final rewrite. I’ve peeled apart my old drafts and stuck sticky notes all over them. I’ve crossed out whole sections, entire chapters. On some pages I’ve simply […]

Humble Thank-Yous

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” ~ Elbert Hubbard Hey, Lovelies. I just wanted to thank you for the outpouring of support and love that you showed me yesterday when I updated you on why I’ve been so stuck with my memoir. Not long after I posted my […]

Book and Course Creation Boot Camp – NOW OPEN!

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” ~ Albert Einstein   Do you want to write a book*, create a course, build an author or brand platform and generate content or blog posts? (*Non-fiction books will work well, you could even be working on a fiction project and author platform but this is NOT […]

Up Late, Writing

“Listen. I will lose myself if it means I can find you.”  ~ Alaska Gold   I didn’t mean to do it. I meant to open up one folder, to check one fact, on one page, and to add one small note that was in danger of being forgotten if I didn’t immediately write it down. […]

Sometimes You Need Right Timing

“Sometimes my successes come quickly and at other times they are terribly slow to arrive. It is not my place to determine the speed at which they arrive or if they arrive at all. My place is to keep forging ahead no matter what.”  ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough If you follow my blog you’ll know that […]

This Blog Post Is Very Short

“There are days when I lose track of time, of place, of everything else, because I’ve been transported to another universe.” ~ Susan Isaacs   I sat down to write my blog post, and then, just for a moment, I opened up the document where I am editing my memoir instead. Three hours later I […]

Chop Wood, Carry Water, then Surf the Net!

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” ~ Zen Buddhism quote “When hungry, eat your rice; when tired close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean.” ~ Zen Buddhism quote   It has been a frustrating week. Due to a faulty landline I’ve […]

A Life Examined – On Memoir Writing

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” ~ Charles Dickens, David Copperfield “From the ages of 8-18, me and my family moved around a lot. Mostly we would just stretch, but occasionally one of us […]

Home In My Own Bed!

“I live in my own little world. But it’s ok, they know me here.” ~ Lauren Myracle   There is something so sweet and good about sleeping in your own bed after a long time away. It’s a little crowded just now though. Harry and Bert refuse to leave my side. Not that I’m complaining. […]

What Else Can You See?

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” ~ Marilyn Vos Savant   A wise and talented memoirist and creative writing teacher, Beth Kephart, has her students do an exercise where they go out into the world and take ten photographs. The students know they are going to come back […]

Inside My Story

“Put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.” ~ Colette, Casual Chance, 1964   I’m deep into the editing process for my memoir right now. It’s a strange process, crafting your own […]

Poking Bruises

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche I’m still editing this memoir. Because of that, I did something really dumb. I couldn’t remember a detail about someone’s appearance. An old friend from the past. Turtle. What colour were his eyes? I couldn’t tell in any of […]

Crazy Busy Writing!

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ~ Ernest Hemingway There’s not much going on at my house right now. Except this. Reading. Underlining. Sighing. Crying. This book is all a pile of crap. Sudden bursts of stompy-footed door slamming and wandering around the paddocks. The […]

What It Feels Like to be Hijacked By a New Story

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” ~ Franz Kafka   Last year, on one of my retreats, something very interesting happened. Just a passing thing. But it would not let me go. I […]

On Overcoming Obstacles

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” ~ Calvin Coolidge   I have always wanted to […]

Shhhh… I’m On Writing Retreat

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.” ~ Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft   Shhhh… I’m on writing retreat. Well, writing boot camp, actually. So, hilariously, I’m writing this post to tell you that I have no time to write a post today. Because I’m writing. Me and a […]

Sleepy Morning

“I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.” ~ Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time   I woke to the sound of rain. It was soft at first, a comforting patter of drops on the old iron roof. […]

Sowing Seeds

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson   Yesterday afternoon the sky over the farm grew heavy and dark. The air was hot and humid, with not a hint of breeze. I had finished a busy day of phone readings and retreat […]

A Newsy Update and Writing Reminder

“Are you ready?” Klaus asked finally. “No,” Sunny answered. “Me neither,” Violet said, “but if we wait until we’re ready we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives, Let’s go.” ~ Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator   This will be quite a newsy post, hence the title. Breaking News and Announcements: Husband Update: Ben […]

Want To Get Your Book Written in November?

“Write it. Just write it. Write it on receipts in the car while you wait for your kid to finish their piano lessons, scribble on napkins at lunch with friends. Type on crappy typewriters or borrow computers if you have to. Fill notebooks with ink. Write inside your head while you’re in traffic and when […]

Write On!

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” ~ Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing   Over the next four days I’ll be on retreat. Not one I’m running, but one I’m attending. Hopefully I’ll have some phone reception while I’m there, so that I can sneak out a post or […]

That Strange Wise Universe

“All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this.“ ~ Miyamoto Musashi   Sometimes things don’t go to plan. We’ve had a lot of rain here at the farm. Lots actually. Think floods. Last Saturday, after having been flooded in overnight, the causeway dropped and Ben decided we’d make a run […]

Life on Hold

“Finished crap can be edited. Unfinished greatness languishes forever. The only bad writing is the thing you didn’t write!” ~ Margarita Gakis   I’m tweaking the very final edits of my memoir. You know, the one about my time in the Kimberley? So, there’s not much else to report right now until that’s done. That’s […]

The Sound of Rain

  “On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.” ~ Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time   Here at the farm it’s raining. It has been […]

And Then It Was Done…

“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live.” ~ Greg Anderson   Since early this year I’ve been hammering away at a memoir. I started writing it because you, dear readers, suggested that it was the thing you most […]

What My Morning Looks Like

“Each of us is a book waiting to be written, and that book, if written, results in a person explained.” ~ Thomas M. Cirignano, The Constant Outsider: Memoirs of a South Boston Mechanic   I woke at four this morning with the ending of my memoir firmly in my head. So I am writing. And writing. […]

A Busy Weekend of All Things #Books

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” ~ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye […]

Sorry, but I’m #writing

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”  ~ Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings   I’ll keep this short. You see, I’m busy. Writing. Not blog writing. Book writing. Do you know how many words you need for a book? So many words. Not even counting the ones I […]

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