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!