Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 226
October 5, 2012
Email Etiquette
Writers love to write, but sometimes writing can be counterproductive. Have you noticed that it takes your agent, manager, or coach what feels like forever to answer your email?Here are some suggestions for more efficient email management: 1) Don’t read “tone” into emails. Busy people tend to be brusque and to the point. So should you. If you’re upset about something or think the other person is, get on the phone instead (by setting up a telecom).
2) Keep your emails SHORT. By short, I mean, 1-2 lines, 3 at most! You will get quicker responses.
3) Keep your emails tightly organized, but NOT in outline form,
4) Make them READER FRIENDLY—in a readable typeface, that is not in angry UPPER CASE LETTERS.
5) Focus your email on a SINGLE SUBJECT. If you have questions, that means ONE question. If you have more than one question,
6) Write another email for another subject or question. Although sending a bunch of emails will get you into the doghouse, sending a few with single subjects will make you appreciated by your target.
7) Long rambling emails, written like letters to your best friends (in the old days), will often be (a) deleted, (b) ignored, (c) filed in the LATER file, or (d) printed out to be dealt with on long trips or when time allows.
8) If you’re wondering how to wrap your head around proper email etiquette, think TWEETING. Short tweats are allowed, long ones not.
9) Make sure to change your SUBJECT LINE each time you initiate a new email. Nothing is more annoying than a long series of emails with the same ancient SUBJECT LINE. Not only that, but it makes it nearly impossible to file the emails efficiently!
Of course, the suggestions above apply only to commercial literary communications, not to dating, political ranting, or joke dissemination. And one more thing,
10) Take your literary representation OFF your political and joke target list!
Remember, “less is better and faster,” use common sense, and respect the other person’s time.
October 3, 2012
Amazing Singing Plants Phenomenon
Plants are very much alive. Not only do they dislike human noise but they also posses the capacity to learn and communicate.
Perhaps even more astonishing is that plants can also make music.
Have you ever heard the incredible music of the plants? Plants can actually sing and compose music and listening to it is truly beautiful and relaxing!
Ever since 1975, researchers at Damanhur, in northern Italy have been experimenting with plants, trying to lean more about their unique properties.
Researchers use devices which they have created to measure the re-activity of the plants to their environment. The devices judge the plants' capacity to learn and communicate.
Using a simple principle, the researchers used a variation of the Wheatstone bridge, an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component.
... The experiments have shown that plants definitely appear to enjoy learning to use musical scales and also making their own music with the use of a synthesizer.
Although there is currently little scientific research conducted on this subject, one cannot deny that listening to these beautiful plants is a joy for the soul.
Que up to 2:10 minutes to where the music starts.
Learn More
October 1, 2012
September 29, 2012
Larry Thompson Gets a Thrill Out of the Family Profession
By Melody McDonald
Special to the Star-Telegram
The Fort Worth Library and Barnes and Noble University Village will mark the occasion by co-hosting a book launch party Thursday at the downtown library, where Larry will talk about the role Fort Worth, his law practice and his late brother have had on his career as a suspense writer.
"My brother wanted to be a writer since he was 8 years old," Larry said. "The highlight of his day would be to throw a noun up against a verb and say, 'That's a good phrase I just wrote.' I could never match my brother for his writing ability, but I think I'm a better storyteller. I guess there is something in our gene pool somewhere."
Larry's decision to finally peck out a novel came late in life -- long after he had founded the law firm of Lorance and Thompson and tried hundreds of lawsuits, long after his four children were grown, and long after his big brother died of liver cancer in 1982.
"I don't know if I could have been a good writer when I was 30 years old," Larry said. "Now that I'm in my 70s, I have a lot of experiences to draw on....
"I said, 'What do I know?' I know about lawyers and courtrooms and medicine and doctors. Let's put all that together and see what I can come up with."
What he came up with on his first trip out was 2008's So Help Me God, a legal thriller that put the debate over abortion at the center of a courtroom battle with larger-than-life lawyers.
In a nod to his brother, Larry Thompson took a character who was left in a coma in Tommy's last book, Celebrity, and made him the main character in his first book.
"I thought he was an interesting character," Larry said. "When I decided I was going to write a novel, I decided I was going to wake him up."
In the process, Larry also awoke his passion for fast-paced, suspenseful storytelling. So Help Me God was quickly followed by The Trial in 2011.
"Once I decided I would write a novel, I found I loved the creative process," Larry said. "I'm trying to turn out one book a year. Tommy was only 49 when he died and he still had a lot of good books to write. I figure I'm going to live until I'm 95 and write 20 more books."
The protagonist in Dead Peasants is Jack Bryant, a Beaumont attorney who, after winning an enormous wrongful-death civil suit, retires to Fort Worth. Bryant wants to be closer to his son J.D., an ex-marine who walks on at TCU and becomes a football star. When boredom sets in, Bryant sets up an RV on the city's north side to do pro bono work for the poor.
He winds up representing a widow who discovered that her husband's life insurance proceeds were made payable to the dead man's employer. Bryant sues to collect the benefits and suddenly finds himself in the middle of murder-for-hire serial killings.
Like all of his books, Thompson draws on his vast knowledge of the law and the courtroom to create colorful characters and spin a tale with twists at every turn of the page.
"It is great fun to invent characters and set them on a course and see where they go," Thompson said. "As my brother used to say, there is a little bit of me in every character I write."
In fact, readers may recognize a little bit of themselves in Thompson's characters. The lawyer-turned-author models them after people he knows -- including childhood friends from Fort Worth.
Joe Sherrod, the district attorney in Dead Peasants, is created with Joe Shannon, the current Tarrant County criminal district attorney, in mind.
Sons of Fort Worth schoolteachers, brothers Larry and Tommy Thompson were born with literary genes.
Reading books and penning prose seemed to be part of their DNA. Both aspired to be writers.
But when Tommy realized his dream first and became a nationally acclaimed journalist and author, Larry deliberately changed paths, went to law school and became a prominent civil trial lawyer in Houston.
"I was the kid brother who did not want to follow in his brother's footsteps," said Larry, who is seven years younger. "I wanted to strike out on my own. I took a different route."
But as fate would have it, their destination was the same.
On Tuesday -- 30 years after the death of his beloved brother, who was best known for the true-crime book Blood and Money -- Larry Thompson's third legal thriller, Dead Peasants, hits the bookshelves (St. Martin's, $25.99).
Shannon and Thompson attended Arlington Heights High School together and are longtime friends.
"I had Joe Shannon with his real name in the book and my editor said, 'He's a public figure and we'll have to go through too much red tape,'" Thompson said. "People love to see their name in print."
Indeed, Shannon got a kick out of it.
"I took the book with me on a family vacation," Shannon said in a review for the novel. "I just finished it. I could hardly put it down."
Fort Worth journalist Mike Cochran, author of Texas vs. Davis, also had enthusiastic words for Dead Peasants: "Set in Fort Worth and skipping murderously across Texas, Houston attorney Larry Thompson has whipped out another legal thriller that will propel readers on a riveting ride in, out and around Cowtown, where the author grew up."
Even though Thompson now calls Houston home, Fort Worth still has a strong hold on him.
"I love Fort Worth," Thompson said. "Fort Worth is a town with character, and I wanted that character to come through in my novel. I can't say enough how fun it is to write about Fort Worth."
In fact, Thompson had such a great time writing Dead Peasants that he predicts it will be the first book in a series about Bryant. After all, a lot can be done with a character that constructs an office next to a beer joint on the north side and does legal work for free.
"You just don't know who is going to knock on the door with a problem to solve," Thompson says.
Thompson, who is in the middle of writing his fourth book, Blood Decision, has no intention of winding down his literary or his legal career anytime soon. At 72, he splits his time between the courthouse and his computer.
His big brother, he says, would have been proud.
"Tommy would have been delighted. I guess, in a way, I'm carrying on the family tradition."
Read More
Special to the Star-Telegram
The Fort Worth Library and Barnes and Noble University Village will mark the occasion by co-hosting a book launch party Thursday at the downtown library, where Larry will talk about the role Fort Worth, his law practice and his late brother have had on his career as a suspense writer.
"My brother wanted to be a writer since he was 8 years old," Larry said. "The highlight of his day would be to throw a noun up against a verb and say, 'That's a good phrase I just wrote.' I could never match my brother for his writing ability, but I think I'm a better storyteller. I guess there is something in our gene pool somewhere."
Larry's decision to finally peck out a novel came late in life -- long after he had founded the law firm of Lorance and Thompson and tried hundreds of lawsuits, long after his four children were grown, and long after his big brother died of liver cancer in 1982.
"I don't know if I could have been a good writer when I was 30 years old," Larry said. "Now that I'm in my 70s, I have a lot of experiences to draw on....
"I said, 'What do I know?' I know about lawyers and courtrooms and medicine and doctors. Let's put all that together and see what I can come up with."
What he came up with on his first trip out was 2008's So Help Me God, a legal thriller that put the debate over abortion at the center of a courtroom battle with larger-than-life lawyers.
In a nod to his brother, Larry Thompson took a character who was left in a coma in Tommy's last book, Celebrity, and made him the main character in his first book.
"I thought he was an interesting character," Larry said. "When I decided I was going to write a novel, I decided I was going to wake him up."
In the process, Larry also awoke his passion for fast-paced, suspenseful storytelling. So Help Me God was quickly followed by The Trial in 2011.
"Once I decided I would write a novel, I found I loved the creative process," Larry said. "I'm trying to turn out one book a year. Tommy was only 49 when he died and he still had a lot of good books to write. I figure I'm going to live until I'm 95 and write 20 more books."
The protagonist in Dead Peasants is Jack Bryant, a Beaumont attorney who, after winning an enormous wrongful-death civil suit, retires to Fort Worth. Bryant wants to be closer to his son J.D., an ex-marine who walks on at TCU and becomes a football star. When boredom sets in, Bryant sets up an RV on the city's north side to do pro bono work for the poor.
He winds up representing a widow who discovered that her husband's life insurance proceeds were made payable to the dead man's employer. Bryant sues to collect the benefits and suddenly finds himself in the middle of murder-for-hire serial killings.
Like all of his books, Thompson draws on his vast knowledge of the law and the courtroom to create colorful characters and spin a tale with twists at every turn of the page.
"It is great fun to invent characters and set them on a course and see where they go," Thompson said. "As my brother used to say, there is a little bit of me in every character I write."
In fact, readers may recognize a little bit of themselves in Thompson's characters. The lawyer-turned-author models them after people he knows -- including childhood friends from Fort Worth.
Joe Sherrod, the district attorney in Dead Peasants, is created with Joe Shannon, the current Tarrant County criminal district attorney, in mind.
Sons of Fort Worth schoolteachers, brothers Larry and Tommy Thompson were born with literary genes.
Reading books and penning prose seemed to be part of their DNA. Both aspired to be writers.
But when Tommy realized his dream first and became a nationally acclaimed journalist and author, Larry deliberately changed paths, went to law school and became a prominent civil trial lawyer in Houston.
"I was the kid brother who did not want to follow in his brother's footsteps," said Larry, who is seven years younger. "I wanted to strike out on my own. I took a different route."
But as fate would have it, their destination was the same.
On Tuesday -- 30 years after the death of his beloved brother, who was best known for the true-crime book Blood and Money -- Larry Thompson's third legal thriller, Dead Peasants, hits the bookshelves (St. Martin's, $25.99).
Shannon and Thompson attended Arlington Heights High School together and are longtime friends.
"I had Joe Shannon with his real name in the book and my editor said, 'He's a public figure and we'll have to go through too much red tape,'" Thompson said. "People love to see their name in print."
Indeed, Shannon got a kick out of it.
"I took the book with me on a family vacation," Shannon said in a review for the novel. "I just finished it. I could hardly put it down."
Fort Worth journalist Mike Cochran, author of Texas vs. Davis, also had enthusiastic words for Dead Peasants: "Set in Fort Worth and skipping murderously across Texas, Houston attorney Larry Thompson has whipped out another legal thriller that will propel readers on a riveting ride in, out and around Cowtown, where the author grew up."
Even though Thompson now calls Houston home, Fort Worth still has a strong hold on him.
"I love Fort Worth," Thompson said. "Fort Worth is a town with character, and I wanted that character to come through in my novel. I can't say enough how fun it is to write about Fort Worth."
In fact, Thompson had such a great time writing Dead Peasants that he predicts it will be the first book in a series about Bryant. After all, a lot can be done with a character that constructs an office next to a beer joint on the north side and does legal work for free.
"You just don't know who is going to knock on the door with a problem to solve," Thompson says.
Thompson, who is in the middle of writing his fourth book, Blood Decision, has no intention of winding down his literary or his legal career anytime soon. At 72, he splits his time between the courthouse and his computer.
His big brother, he says, would have been proud.
"Tommy would have been delighted. I guess, in a way, I'm carrying on the family tradition."
Read More
September 28, 2012
Author Interview for Aries Fire Written by Elaine Edelson
Aries Fire revolves
around the 415AD’s and starts off in the time of the Roman Empire. The novel
revolves around Seira - a motherless daughter’s – search through Europe and the
Middle East in an epic journey to discover reason for her mother’s murder and
her father’s identity.
Elaine’s novel has been
described as “An action packed, fast paced
non-stop adventure with
intrigue, suspense, romance, and tragedy.”
Elaine thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule
to do this interview.
Elaine – you are known as America’s
foremost and renowned intuitive channel, empath and astrologer. You are a
spiritual counsellor with a worldwide clientele spanning over seventy
countries. Can you tell our readers a bit more about yourself? How did you
become content with the road you are on?
Thank you for
the opportunity to share. “Content with the road I’m on?” I smile.
Contentment is a state of being that can only come from accepting the present
moment. Most often, none of us are
taught or shown how to do that. That said--feeling that urge, that desire, that
impetus to help other people is where I hit the ground running on that road
toward contentment. (Oh my stars…I think I just encapsulated my protaganist,
Seira! Hmm.)
The work that I do is who I am, whether I’m giving an intuitive session or
writing a chapter in a book, there is a complete sense of well-being and
contentment from the perspective that I’m doing what I LOVE. That I’m doing
what I came to this earth to do; to be as compassionate as possible in as many
moments as possible is my gig. (Most times I fly with contented wings but once
in a while I go splat, face down in the mud.)
Yet in the early years, poverty consciousness had a tight grip on me and left
me serving at the sake of myself. There’s nothing sacred or compassionate about
‘giving’ if you shrivel up in the process!
Having insights or being able to ‘see’ into a person’s spirit or being able to
‘see’ dead people was not, um…a very comfortable…beginning. I always felt
separate, alone, crazy, weird, and freakish. As I developed my skills as a
clairvoyant, astrologer and empath, and finally realized that I wasn’t crazy
afterall, but rather connected to one consciousness more than ever before, the
world opened up to opportunities that can be described as Divine, as magical.
I landed in my body (fear kept me ‘spaced out’) and found that the road I
created for myself wasn’t a lonely one. It was filled with others who search,
share, collaborate, empower and entertain in the process. I stopped using,
“Stop the World I Wanna Get Off,” as my theme song and started humming,
“Walking on Sunshine,” instead.
I found my
‘calling,’ as they say. Being a trance channeller at first, led to me writing
about it. In my spare time when I wasn’t sharing a message of Divinity or of
Love (what’s the difference?) I’d focus on writing ideas for stories about
ordinary people who discovered that they were, in fact, living extraordinary
lives.
That means you! You who’s interviewing me and you who’s reading this. There’s
nothing small about any of you. Plain and simple…you are Pure Conscious Love.
So I thought I’d get around to writing a book series dedicated to people via
astrological signs called, ‘Sign of the Times.’ Aries Fire is first in the
Series.
Understanding the languange of people and their behavior was my first step in
being able to communicate and assist whenever possible. I think this is why I
LOVE watching movies and reading books. Human behavior is splattered all over
the place. We make little testimonies to our race with every written word,
every flicker on the screen.
Mustered my courage, jumped up and said, “Hey! Me too! I wanna celebrate us,
too!”
Now where’s my pen? (Imagine Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo patting his pockets and
looking around.)
Read Entire Interview Here
September 26, 2012
September 24, 2012
Realms of Gold: Ritual to Romance Reviewed By Sandra Shwayder Sanchez for Bookpleasures.com
This fascinating novel is prefaced with a quote from the book From Ritual to Romance written by Jessie L. Weston in 1920:
“That the man who first told the story, and boldly, as befitted a born teller of tales, wedded it to Arthurian legend, was himself connected by descent with the ancient Faith, himself actually held the Secret of the Grail, and told, in purposely romantic form, that of which he knew. I am firm firmly convinced, not do I think that the time is far distant when the missing links will be in our hand, and we shall be able to weld once more the golden chain which connects Ancient Ritual with Medieval Romance.”
For readers interested in Arthurian legend, ancient archaeology, the development of ancient philosophies and religions this book will be a journey well worth taking.
Terry Stanfill combines a stunning knowledge of Mediterranean history, art and archaeology to create an engrossing tale of mystery and romance. Bianca, An American of Italian heritage, is a student of art history who writes for an art magazine. Giovanni is an Italian archaeologist. Neither of them really wants to attend the wedding of a mutual cousin in Venice but for different reasons, they both do and there they meet each other and embark upon a journey of destiny, which Giovanni explains to her:
“In this case there’s no such thing as coincidence. Again it’s synchronicity -events unlikely to ever occur together by chance. You see, Bianca the culmination of synchronicity is its direct revelation of destiny, the design of the whole universe working itself out in the display of each unique human life. And since you delve so deeply into the unconscious synchronicity is activated and can occur frequently. Again, its all that right brain business I keep talking about.” (p. 169)
Bianca is an intuitive who studies the diary of her great grandmother Nina and sometimes dreams or has visions of what Nina saw in her life. And Interspersed into the 2007 narrative are bits of medieval & ancient history in the words of historical characters. It is Pythagoras, for instance, who makes a claim that Bianca and Giovanni would each agree with (as exemplified in their lives):
“The highest and the fewest are those who love wisdom, those whose lives are devoted to pursuits of the mind – the philosophers, whose entire lives given to searching for the true wisdom of the universe. Perhaps theirs are not only the greatest gifts, but also the greatest challenges.” (p.173)
The story culiminates when Bianco and Giovanni discover the real site of Camelot together and thence discover their destiny . . . together. Along the way, the author also demonstrates her knowledge of music, neuro-psychology and Italian cuisine. Every detail is perfect and the reader. upon completion of this literary journey, remembers it as if it were a real life journey to Italy, Greece, France & back into time.
Reviewer Sandra Shwayder Sanchez: Sandra is a retired attorney and co-founder of a small non-profit publishing collective: The Wessex Collective with whom she has published two short fiction collections (A Mile in These Shoes and Three Novellas) and one
novel, Stillbird.
September 22, 2012
Dana Holyfield's Cajun Sexy Cooking
PEARL RIVER, LA—
What if there was a TV show where sexy Cajun
girls venture into the swamp, hunt down dinner then prepare a succulent
bayou feast?
A local author is making it happen. All based around
her award winning book titled Cajun Sexy Cooking. The tasty and sexy
bayou recipes are all the creation of Pearl River native Dana Holyfield.
September 21, 2012
Guest Post: Turning Anxiety Into Creativity by Dennis Palumbo
Hollywood on the Couch
The inside scoop on Tinseltown, USA.
by Dennis Palumbo
Using what scares you to motivate youAn old deodorant commercial on TV once proclaimed, “If you're not a little nervous, you're really not alive.”
Pretty sage advice, even though the only thing at stake was staying dry and odor-free. But there is something to be said for accepting---and learning to navigate---the minor turbulences of life. I'm talking here about common, everyday anxiety. The jitters. Butterflies.
This is particularly true for artists in Hollywood---writers, actors, directors, composers---whose very feelings are the raw materials of their craft. No matter how mundane, the small anxieties can swarm like bees, making work difficult. Those everyday distractions, like an impending visit from the in-laws, money worries, or that funny noise the Honda's been making.
Then there're the more virulent, career-specific anxieties, shared by few in other lines of work: Your theatrical agent hasn't returned your phone calls. You're three weeks past deadline with your latest screenplay draft. Your short film didn’t make the cut at the Sundance festival.
In other words, you're the stereotypical struggling Hollywood artist: bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived, staring pathetically at a blank computer screen (or the waiting edit bay, or the silent piano keys), hoping for inspiration and yearning for another cup of coffee, and maybe a nice piece of cheesecake. A dozen nagging, self-mocking thoughts echo in your head: You're untalented, a fraud. You're getting old and fat. No woman (or man) will ever want to sleep with you again. Your life is over.
Related Articles
You Are Not Your Talent
The Switch, Part II: Ingredients of the Hollywood Formula
The Switch: A Despicable Hollywood Formula Threatens A Strong Romance-Comedy
"Love and Other Drugs:" True and Mythical Paths toward Happiness
Envy in Hollywood
Find a Therapist
Search for a mental health professional near you.
Find Local:
Acupuncturists
Chiropractors
Massage Therapists
Dentists
and more!
These kinds of feelings are tough to deal with, to be sure, even if validated (and then gently challenged) by a supportive therapist, mate, good friend, or fellow creative type who's “been there, done that.” These deeply embedded, childhood-derived, seemingly inescapable Dark-Night-of-the-Soul feelings can, in fact, be crippling, regardless of your level of craft or years of experience.
And, as I've said countless times to the creative patients in my practice, struggling with these doubts and fears doesn't say anything about you as an artist. Other than that you are an artist.
Frankly, this difficult emotional terrain is where an artist lives much of the time---in a matrix of triumphs and defeats, optimism and despair, impassioned beliefs and crushing deflations. In the end, it's all just grist for the creative mill.
And, believe me, this is equally true for both beginning artists and accomplished, battle-hardened veterans.
But there's another kind of anxiety that emerges occasionally in a creative person’s life: the kind of gut-wrenching, dizzying upheaval from within that throws everything you think you know into doubt and that scares you to the very core. A puzzling, alarming career dive. A shattering divorce. The death of a family member. A spate of sudden, dizzying panic attacks.
Then, what balm is there to offer---or to receive---that doesn't seem trivial or woefully inadequate? Catharsis and validation, the foundation of most psychotherapeutic work, suddenly feel like mere word games. Medication, while often clinically appropriate, seems at best an armoring against something primal that's working within you.
What is an artist to do with that level of anxiety?
Use it.
Because, for an artist, when all that's left is the work, the work is all that's left.
What kind of work? Maybe numbed-out and shapeless at first; chaotic and unsatisfying. Maybe dark and ugly, or self-pitying and shameless. Maybe a blind, angry clawing at the air with inchoate feelings and inexplicable images.
The important thing to acknowledge, to accept and to make use of, is the fact of this anxiety -- its weight, its size, and its implacability at this time in your life. For whatever reason, it's there. As immoveable as a brick wall, as deep and fathomless as a sea.
And, for now, it isn't going anywhere.
So you, the artist, must ask yourself this question: Is there a character in the story I'm working on who feels such anxiety? Who feels as overwhelmed, as out of control, as terrified as I? These are the raw materials of the work. Whether writing a scene, directing a scene, acting in a scene, or composing the music for a scene, you must inhabit those aspects of the character whose narrative you’re building.
If you’re willing to do so, then plunge headlong into creating the hell out of that character, giving him or her your voice, your fears, your dreads. Create situations and scenes in which these anxieties are dramatized, exploited, “acted out.”
Create monologues, rants, vitriolic exchanges between characters, letting passions and behaviors emerge that may astound or alarm you; that stretch or distort or even demolish the narrative you've been working with. These problems can all be dealt with, deleted, perhaps even woven into the story later, in the cool light of day, when you have some kind of perspective.
Because to be truly in the eye of the emotional storm, to create from a state of anxiety, is to surrender any fantasy of perspective. In fact, in the purest sense, it's the ultimate act of creative surrender from which, out of the crucible of your deepest pain, you might discover a joyful, wonderful surprise.
Do this: put those trembling fingers on a keyboard, RIGHT NOW, and start stringing words together that reflect how you feel...without context, or narrative, or character. Just raw feeling, in as many vivid, living words as you can call forth.
Then look at what you've written. Feel whatever it is you're feeling. And hit that keyboard some more. Soon, I believe, you'll have a sense of the logjam cracking. You'll feel the urgency of creative expression, the palpable release of banked anxiety. Without judging what comes, without needing it to be anything, I think you'll find yourself creating something---even if that's just defined, for the moment, as putting words down on a page.
Does the idea of this exercise itself make you anxious? Doesn't surprise me. We're all pretty scared of creating, or making art, out of the very emotional space we'd most like to avoid or deny. It's human nature.
Besides, as famed psychiatrist Rollo May reminded us, real creativity is not possible without anxiety. In many ways, it’s the price of admission to the artist’s life.
Which means, for those artists who have the courage to embrace their own fears, to co-exist with potentially crippling anxiety and create anyway, the rewards can be significant. Consider artists as diverse as Woody Allen and Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen King and James L. Brooks, Anne Rice and Phillip Roth, Richard Pryor and Diane Arbus. They use who they are---all of who they are---as the wellspring of their creativity. Just as it is for yours.
Moreover, when all that’s left is the work…the work is all that’s left.
So trust it. Trust yourself. Like it or not, you’re all you have.
And the good news is, that’s enough.
