Archetypes: The Sage.

Finally, we have reached the last Queen Archetype from the Mopop Queen Within exhibition! She is The Sage, and what a wonderful woman to finish with.

 She's the thinker, planner, risk-taker, and philosopher in all of us. She has wisdom, intelligence, and self-reflection and uses these powers to understand the world.

Her biggest fears are being ignored or tricked by others. This can lead to her weakness, which is the seductive lure of never-ending research.

The Sage cares about the environment and wants sustainable fabrics. Her clothing invites inquiry.

 What do you wear to invoke The Sage? What makes you feel wise and able to take risks?

Archetypes: The Enchantress

We are at our second-to-last archetype from the MoPop A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes exhibition. This one is The Enchantress.

 She's the familiar seductress, vamp, and femme fatale (whose sexuality is defined in terms of her interactions with men) but also a sensualist and enthusiast. Her strengths are passion, wit, spiritual and bodily appeal. She mesmerizes but also can manipulate.

She wears clothes that entice. She is symbolized by her direct and sensual gaze, her loose hair or fabulous wigs, red lips, feathers, teeth, and flowers.

What are your favorite Enchantress outfits? What symbolizes women's sensuality to you?

Archetypes: The Explorer

In my June 26th blog post, I introduced us to the Museum of Pop Culture's Queen Within show. Today, we will explore the second archetype they discuss - the Explorer.

 She is a pioneer, adventurer, and a rebel. She's all over challenges and rejects authority. Her strengths are determination and independence, and her fears are conventionality, inner emptiness and boredom.

In this exhibit, the Explorer woman rebelled against the rigid framework of beauty and consumerism. She wore clothes that paid attention to issues of gender, race, and disability.

She is symbolized by the planets, the moon, the egg, the night, and the turtle.

What do you wear that expresses your inner Explorer? What makes you feel strong and determined?

Archetypes: The Heroine

I've  been talking about the brilliant Queen Within exhibit at MoPop in Seattle. (here)

The third Archetype we visited was The Heroine. She's a warrior and soldier. She's strongly moral and embraces challenges, especially the thrill of the chase. She's a hard worker, especially in her relationships, but can get addicted to emotional drama.

Her greatest fears are weakness, softness, and cowardice. Her tenacity, strength, and mental resolve are symbolized by the chess queen (the most powerful piece on the board), pearls, gloves, rare stones, the spear, the Mantua, and also body parts such as ears, eyes, and hands.

Feed your head! (apologies to Jefferson Airplane): The Thespian

Earlier this month, I went to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington. An amazing exhibit called A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes completely blew my mind. It is an exhibition organized by Barrett Barrera Projects and curated by MUSEEA. You can see its Pinterest Board here.

I've discussed Archetypes before (see here, here, and here, for starters). Usually for women, our archetypes are tri-fold (Mother, Maiden, Crone), or limited in power (Waif, Seductress, Nurturer). The exhibit showed me new archetypes for my female characters.

I was so thrilled that I'm going to do a several part series on this show! Let's begin.

The first archetype we meet in the show is The Thespian. According to the words in the show, she is "an actress, entertainer, dramatist, or comedian. She loves to amuse others and enjoys the drama of life....Her greatest fear is to be constricted by routine, so she tends to dismiss the mundane aspects of life."

She is symbolized by extravagance and a vivid palette, as well as images of the earth, the labyrinth, the crane, the bear, water, greyhounds, peacocks, pelicans, and the phoenix.

Who do you know has aspects of the Thespian? What clothes do you own that makes you feel extravagant and vivid?

The guiltiest pleasure of all.

Kerry Blaisdell

On May 30, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry held an After Dark event (over 21 only). The theme was guilty pleasures.

The guiltiest pleasure of all is accepting a compliment. So we asked people to post the best compliment they have ever received.

It was beautiful.

My table, complete with Wonder Woman

How do you chase your dreams?

Last week, I had the joy and privilege of watching my friend Delilah Marvelle take a major step in making her dream come true. Ever since going to culinary school, she has wanted to own a restaurant. And she reached a  point in her life where she could make it happen!

Delilah dressed to fit the part!

Sshe and her family purchased a building in Hillsboro, Oregon. Last week, she invited everyone to come down and watch the boring, ugly facade on the building to come down.

When I feel like I will never achieve my dreams, I'm always encouraged by others who are creating their best lives. How do YOU chance your dreams?

Every historical tea house needs historical gum and sweets.

What it looked like in the middle of everything.

This is going to be wicked cool when it is finished.

I finally wrote my newsletter!

And here is a snippet:

Hello, awesome people! I’m writing this, my very first newsletter, while I am on retreat. I had been stalling on writing newsletters. It was all the usual stuff – too busy, too stressed- but in reality, it was all about creating a time and place where I could believe in myself. Finally, I decided I needed to get away from my usual routine, pull back, and focus on just this.

I think everyone needs a chance to pull focus (movie term, yay!), revisit their goals and dreams, and see how they can make them happen. Topics can range from “how am I going to pay this month’s bills” to “how am I going to run this multi-million dollar business in an ethical manner?”

Retreats can range in extravagance from “I’ve got a raspberry popsicle and fifteen minutes to get this figured out” to “I’ve got a month on Richard Branson’s private island”. (If you are able to do that kind of retreat, please invite me.)

Since most of us don’t have *those* kinds of resources, here are some easy and cheap retreat ideas that I use.

1    Going to the library.

o   The local library is a perfect place for a completely free mini-retreat. You can sit down, spread out, and study a problem to your heart’s content.

o   You can find books, magazine, and electronic resources to help with your brainstorming. Some libraries even loan out things like sewing machines and games if you have a need of them.

o   Everyone you know can go to the library and find something to amuse, entertain, and inform them. This is no small thing when you have a bunch of energetic peeps to run herd on.

2  Headphones, your phone, and a long bus/train ride

o   Only slightly more expensive than going to the library is public transportation. I don’t recommend taking your laptop or a paper notebook while you are working on the bus – they are too easily stolen or lost.

o   Staring out the window can be wonderfully soothing and conducive to free-associating. Once, I had the joy of taking Amtrak from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, BC. On the eight-hour trip, I had so many ideas and solutions that I filled my little travel notebook.

3  Sit in a swanky hotel’s lobby.

o   This is completely free and you get to work in beautiful surroundings with all sorts of cosmopolitan types wandering around. Good for people watching, too. If you are feeling extravagant, you can order a fancy beverage, too

Enjoy your retreat time to clear your brain and find joy in life again!

Recommended Links

Richard Branson’s private island: https://www.virginlimitededition.com/en/necker-island Very ooh-la-la.

Previous writing on Retreats

https://lindamercury.blogspot.com/2013/04/retreats-and-why-we-need-them.html , https://lindamercury.blogspot.com/2016/02/back-in-saddle.html https://lindamercury.blogspot.com/2016/12/self-care-retreats.html ).

I highly recommend going on retreat BEFORE getting sick or causing serious bodily damage

What did you like and what would you like to see more of? Let me know at

LindaMercuryRomance@gmail.com

Oh, and of course, you can buy my books at

https://amzn.to/2GRYlIe

A great loss.

Photos do the stained glass no justice. It was awe-inspiring.

The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is burning as I write this. I had the privilege of visiting the cathedral several years ago. It was a life-changing event for me. 

The church and grounds shone with devotion to beauty, faith, and architecture. I experienced transcendence when I looked at the stained glass and wandered the cool, dark interior.

I'm not Catholic, but I lit a candle for my mother.

The famous entrance and flying buttresses.

Exterior Gardens.

Side chapels.

How to be more diverse in your writing.

We live in a big world full of lots of different kinds of people - over seven and a half billion as of May 2018. Writing a novel (or short story, or anything, really), requires the author to focus on a much smaller population.

It's super easy for writers in the United States to default to having an all white cast. So how do we overcome this habit?

By taking a look at the world's statistics! I consider using these numbers as a good set of training wheels to help you until you write diverse characters in a more natural, intuitive fashion.

I always start with my geography - where does my story take place? For example, if you set your work in the United States, the racial population estimates for 2018 are:

• 60.7% Caucasian alone
• 13% Black alone
• 18% Hispanic alone
• 5.8% Asian Alone
• 2.7% Biracial
• 1.5% Indigenous, including Hawaiian, Native American, and Pacific Islander

 When you are writing a story, take a glance at these numbers and go, "Oh, yeah. Let's not forget the rest of the population!" It's okay if it feels a little weird at first. I know that I'm not very good at things in the beginning. It'll become more relaxed quite quickly.

Is your book going to take place in an international setting? Take a look at the world population.

Chart shamelessly stolen from Science Chat Forum

If you don't write people from Asia (Chinese and subcontinental Indian, especially) wandering your setting, you are really missing a huge portion of the population. For example, when I traveled to Istanbul, I stuck out because I was tall. I was constantly afraid I would run into a petite Asian woman by accident. When I wrote about my characters being in Istanbul, I made sure to comment on how very diverse the city is. If I had pretended that there were no world travelers in the huge city, I would have been doing my readers a disservice.

Relax, observe, and write. You got this!

Okay. So you screwed up.

Maybe you accidentally said something racist or sexist. You hurt someone you never meant to hurt and you've been called on it.  (If you've done something mean or cruel on purpose, this blog post is not for you)

Now what? I know you want to defend yourself, to clarify that it was a mistake you don't usually make. So, here's a handy primer for when you messed up.

First things first. This is what you say:
"Wow, I screwed up. I'm sorry. Thank you for telling me and I will do better in the future."

And that's it. That's all you say. You stop talking, you don't defend yourself, you don't explain. Just take a break. Once you've calmed down from feeling bad and/or defensive, do some research. Look at the people who are taking the time to educate you.

Start with reading The Invisible Knapsack, especially if someone has said you are coming from a place of privilege. This essay carefully explains what exactly that means.

I've always seen privilege as a river of sewage running through our ideals of equality. People like walking in the middle of all that hate because it's warmer and the current can take you further. If you manage to escape the current and start walking to the beach, you start off feeling colder and slower at first. Then you realize how much better the world smells, and how much more fun you are having with all these neat people.

Of course, we all still slip up or fall into an unseen deep spot. When you apologize and step back, you give yourself to wash off the garbage and see what happened when you are more clear sighted.

(I do know that being able to step back is a privilege in and of itself.)

While you are researching and thinking, try to remember a time when you experienced true equality. I like to think of going to a George Clinton/Parliament concert. Even though I was queasy from all the pot smoke (I'm allergic), I got a glimpse of at what one nation under a groove could do. We all danced together - no self-segregation. Everyone was smiling at each other (the pot might have helped, but the music was what brought us together). I had NEVER seen everyone taking up equal space on the dance floor. This show was a harbinger of hope.

Lastly, when someone says they have experienced racism, the best way to make them feel better is to give them loving human contact. In a real way, they are grieving a lot, especially one of trust. Buy them some croissants (or whatever. You know what they like) and do something nice together.

In the end, the best way to keep combating racism is to be real and honest with each other.

No Guilty Pleasures

This morning, I woke, remembering the feel of an ex-lover’s skin under my lips. It was the thin, warm, tender skin of the crook of his neck. I could hear the sound of his panting and the way he fit between my legs. 

I wanted nothing more than to call him, to beg him to meet me in a lovely hotel for one more rendezvous. 

You know what? It was okay for me to feel this way. I didn’t need to feel guilty because I missed someone I had once (still) cared for deeply. 

One of the myths of a committed relationship is that you can never remember or dream of someone else. Your sexuality now belongs to your partner. 

It doesn’t. You get to have your lawless desires. You get to fantasize and orgasm from thinking of whom ever you want. 

(Need I say that desiring some one does not give you permission to be a jerk to your main squeeze?)

My delicious dream stayed with me. It brought great pleasure to my day to think on such sensuous activity. I had a glide in my stride and a dip in my hip, as Parliament/Funkadelic would say. Instead of beating myself up for my unconscious brain, thinking that perhaps I had inadvertently cheated on My Charming Man in my dreams, I allowed it to be a joy, a delight in the person who had been the focus of my passion. 

I refuse to feel guilty for any of my pleasures. I hope this gives you permission to savor your pleasures, too.  

Kisses, Tony Stark. Even now, you bring me great delight.

#MyFinal24 for Alexandra Franzen!

---

My friend Alexandra Franzen has written a new book - So This Is The End: a love story. 

The central question of the book is, "If you had just 24 hours to live, what would you do with your time?"

Of course, my brain went into overtime thinking of what I'd do for my final twenty-four.



1. The first thing I'd do is check on my legal documents. I want to make sure my loved ones have all the information they need to have a good life after I am gone.

2. I'd make love to the Charming Man. *hearts*

3. I'd write love notes to my friends and family so they would know how much they have meant to me. Heck, I'd write The One I Had To Say Goodbye To, just to let them know that they had made my life a better place.

4. I'd sneak a few love notes into the Charming Man's drawers and desk. Something to make him smile!

5. I'd make love to the Charming Man. (He better have taken his vitamins)

6. I'd put my money where my mouth is. I take a lump sum of money and just hand it out to people higgley-piggly. We all deserve a windfall. We all deserve some unexpected blessings. And I would want one of my final acts to be one that brought joy to the world.

7. Then I'd invite everyone I could over to my house and I would have a huge party. Lots of dancing, lots of crazy costumes, exquisite food, games, hugs, kisses, cuddles, and soulful talks. Maybe sneak in some lovemaking with the Charming Man. We would play all night long, because play feeds the body, mind, and soul.

Whew! That's a full 24 hours. What would be on your list?

Location, location, location

Radu (not in picture) loves Istanbul.

 Dracula Unleashed takes place all over the world. I've been lucky enough to travel to some of the locations I write about. Here we go, across the globe!

Amsterdam is the home of Luc Breton, the European leader.

More Amsterdam. So gorgeous!

The Hagia Sophia.

Once a cathedral and a mosque, the Hagia is a museum. Can you imagine worshipping here?

The Sultan's private rooms in the Topkapi Palace.

Valerie and her boys.

Motivation!

Every book has its own rhythm and its own soundtrack. I did try to do a bunch of YouTube Links here  but that didn't work so well. Instead, here is a Spotify playlist that you can revisit over and over.

Here we are - classic heavy metal to women of rock!

Click here for the awesome sound of Valerie's world!