Creativity Friday: starting rituals

I’ve just gotten back from vacation, after sending off my new book proposal to my agent. In some ways, it was perfect timing: I finished one cycle of work, had my break (more about that in a future post). Now I need to start anew.

While I was mulling this over, I came across this blog post from two years ago. It seems appropriate for today. So I’m reposting it—enjoy!

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It’s strange to be starting a new cycle. Now that I’m beginning a new book, I’m in the midst of preparing the creative field for it. This involves straightening up my studio, clearing the clutter off my computer desktop and household tasks. These activities help me start a big project without feeling that there’s something that I’ve forgotten that needs to be done. In a not-so-subliminal fashion, these are rituals to ready my spirit for the task at hand.

Appropriately enough, this week’s Alyson Stanfield’s Art Marketing Action newsletter is all about starting rituals. She and Eric Maisel, author of Creativity For Life, A Writer’s Paris, A Writer’s San Francisco, suggest using starting rituals as a way to begin creative work each day — a little different yet not-so-different from what I’m doing here, with my big clearing and preparing.

Eric writes, “One of the best ways to help yourself create every day is to craft a starting ritual that you begin to use regularly and routinely. When your ritual becomes habitual you will find yourself moving effortlessly from not creating to creating.”

Here are a few of his suggestions:

~ Do something physical like yoga, tai chi, or stretching. After five minutes of exercise move directly to your creative work.

~ Meditate for five minutes. Once you’ve calmed your mind, mentally bring forth your creative project and hold it gently until you feel ready to proceed with it.

~ On a sheet of paper, write down one goal for your upcoming work period. The goal might be “finish my current painting,” “go deep,” or “have some real fun exploring.”

~ Choose a small object like a pebble or coin to serve as your talisman and lovingly squeeze it several times before beginning to work.~ Set a clock radio to go off as your signal to start. Pick a station whose music energizes you or soothes you. When the music comes on, enjoy it for a few minutes and then move decisively to your work area.*

Eric also mentions an important point: “If the ritual you choose doesn’t take hold, craft or choose another one until you find the perfect starting ritual for you.” In other words, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

After I thought about it, I realized I have my own daily starting rituals in the studio. Basically, anything can serve as a starting ritual. The important thing is that you perform it with intention. Here are a few of mine:

~ Light some incense to focus my thoughts.

~ Make myself a cup of tea. The automatic action of boiling the water, chosing the “right” cup, the “right” type of tea helps me transition into creativity.

~ I have a singing bowl that I sometimes use to mark the start of my work day — a different kind of starting bell than the Stock Exchange, but a bell nonetheless!

~ I check my e-mail and voicemail before I dive in. A distraction perhaps, but helps me to feel that I’m on top of everything so I can work in peace.

~ And, most importantly, I write a list of what I intend to accomplish during my work session. This really works — nothing like writing your intentions to get results!

Another suggestion: As you finish your day creating, try to leave a clear place to start your next work session. It really make it less daunting to begin work — sort of like lying out your school clothes for the next day. I often resolve to edit what I’ve written that day, organize reference, or stretch watercolor paper — something that doesn’t feel like a big leap into the creative morass but makes me feel that I’ve gotten something accomplished. Then, once I get my feet wet, I can venture into deeper waters.

And what about you? What are your starting rituals?

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*Excerpted from the Art Marketing Action newsletter © Alyson B. Stanfield. Her mission: Alyson takes the mystery out of marketing your art and making more money as an artist. To sign up for her newsletter, visit http://www.ArtBizCoach.com. My very creative friend Karen Zuegner recommended this newsletter to me, and I really find it inspiring.

• Filed under be-mused, blogs we read, creativity | 2 Responses

Publishing Monday: Literary agent for a day?

Want to see what it’s like to manage a slush pile for a day? Think you can spot the good queries from the bad? Nathan Bransford, a literary agent at Curtis Brown is putting this challenge up to visitors at his popular publishing blog.

Here’s how the “Be An Agent For A Day” contest works:

1. Fifty people sent in queries, which will be posted throughout today on his blog here. He plans to automate them to post sporadically throughout the day, so there will be bursts of queries and then dead periods.

2. This is where you, the reader, come in. If you decide to participate, you’ll need to read and respond to as many queries as you can.

3. You will have one week to respond to all 50 queries. You can draft your own rejection letter and manuscript request letter (personalized or non-personalized, your choice), which you will paste in the comments section of each query. You might even provide some specific feedback to try and help the author if you’re feeling extra conscientious.

You can read the rest of the rules here.

Wanna play? Head over here to read the first book proposal query—and get agenting!

• Filed under blogs we read, publishing | 4 Responses

Creativity Friday: King’s Rose giveaway winner—and a tarot reading giveaway

It’s the start of spring break over here—meaning that Thea is out of school, and I’m tying up loose ends on the book proposal before vacation next week. At this stage of the game, I need to get the proposal done and off to my literary agent, for creative as well as practical reasons. So today’s post is going to be a quickie-but-goodie. I can feel the Muses tapping their collective feet in impatience….

A few links and things before I announce the winner of The King’s Rose giveaway—and announce a new giveaway. (Yes, a new giveaway! This one is for a tarot reading with me. Details below.)

* While I’m away, I’ll be keeping to my regular posting schedule. Some old-but-favorite posts have been bankrolled to go live in my absence. I do hope you’ll check in!

* Over at Carlyn Beccia’s Raucous Royals blog, she’s posted the next installment of her “The Tudors: Hollywood versus Historical” series. Fun! So far, I’ve only watched the first episode of the new season, but am interested to see how they develop Jane Seymour’s character—especially after all of last season’s Anne Boleyn histrionics. To paraphrase what I wrote in Doomed Queens, Queen Jane does seems a rather bland Mrs. de Winter after Queen Anne’s vibrant-but-dead Rebecca.

* Wonders and Marvels has reposted my “Art of Dying” piece, which will tell you all you ever (or never) wanted to know about beheadings. Many thanks to a neuropsychologist friend, who helped me out with researching it. (She wants to remain unidentified out of shyness.)

* Author Catherine Delors has been posting a lovely series on her blog featuring transcendental art from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Perfect for spring!

* If you haven’t checked it out yet, tarot artist Lisa Hunt has been recently posting about the creation of her highly anticipated Fairy Tale Tarot. She’s included photos of her studio and work underway. It’s a great peek inside her creative process, especially for anyone who’s interested in creating a tarot deck of their own.

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And now, for the winner of The King’s Rose, Alisa Libby’s new novel about doomed queen Catherine Howard:

Congratulations to Nicole C.!

Nicole, please e-mail your mailing address to kris [at] kriswaldherr dot com. And again, many thanks to Alisa for this generous giveaway and fabulous interview.

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Now for the new giveaway: Leave a comment below before midnight EST April 22, and you’ll be entered into a raffle to win a one question tarot reading with me via e-mail ($50 value).

Here are the rules: Only one comment per person. Winner will be chosen at random and announced Monday, April 27, on this blog.

And that’s that—for now. In the meantime, I wish you all a wonderful two weeks!

• Filed under be-mused, blogs we read, creativity, giveaways and raffles, new projects, queens, tarot and oracles | 2 Responses

More adventures in moviemaking: Tarot videos?

Yes, tarot videos!

Those of you who have been recently following this blog know that I’ve become a bit obsessed of late with making videos for my books. But some of my fellow tarot artists have applied this thinking to videos for their decks. A post over at Mary Greer’s tarot blog spotlights a handful of tarot videos from Lisa Hunt, Joanna Colbert, Corinne Kenner, and others. The comments which follow are very interesting as well.

I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are. Which tarot videos do you like best? And why? Do you prefer longer or shorter videos? The more straight forward ones which just show the cards? Or the more atmospheric ones? I know for myself that shorter is better, since I’m always so short on time. But that’s probably just my personal preference.

Oh, and if you haven’t checked out my recent adventures in video making, here are the Youtube links:

Ask the Queens (1.02)
Good Queen (0.44)

Make sure to watch in HD, if you can. Coming soon: a video teaser for the Sacred World Oracle—not quite the same as a tarot video, but close enough. This video has been under development for the past month, believe it or not, so all this is coincidental yet timely.

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Last call: The book giveaway for Alisa Libby’s The King’s Rose ends tomorrow at midnight, April 9! Enter to win an autographed copy of this novel about Catherine Howard by leaving a comment here. I’ll be posting the winner on Friday’s Creativity post. Good luck to all.

• Filed under be-mused, blogs we read, tarot and oracles | 2 Responses

Tudors Week: Was Anne of Cleves *really* a Flanders mare?
a guest post by Carlyn Beccia

It’s Tudors week here at Art and Words! Today, Carlyn Beccia has graciously offered up this guest post about Henry VIII’s fourth wife. Tomorrow, Anne Boleyn offers up some Doomed Queens Bitter wisdom. And on Friday, it’s Catherine Howard’s turn: We’ll be featuring an interview and book giveaway with Alisa Libby, author of The King’s Rose, a new novel about Henry’s fifth wife who shared the same fate as Anne Boleyn — at the block. (BTW, if you don’t have Showtime, you can watch the first episode of the new Tudors season here.)

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Historians have often wondered why Henry did not find his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves appealing. Part of the mystery lies in the fact that we have very few accounts describing her appearance and only two contemporary portraits. One portrait is the infamous betrothal portrait by Holbein which sealed her fate and the other is from the workshop of Barthel Bruyn the Elder (shown below).

Writers through the years have certainly not been kind to Anne. The reference to Anne looking more like a “flanders mare” than a princess was first made in the 17th century by historian Gilbert Burnet who criticized Holbein’s painting as taking, “the common compliment of his art too liberally.” Nothing could be futher from the truth. Holbein was known for his accuracy and attention to detail in his paintings. Most importantly, the whole purpose of sending him to paint Anne was to take a likeness. He did his job and was therefore never punished by Henry when the real life Anne did not meet his expectations.

Later historians have speculated that Anne was unattractive to Henry because she was “large-boned,” but I disagree with this assessment. Anne was reportedly tall and the layers of clothes certainly made her look like a stuffed sausage, but I suspect that Anne’s body type may have been closer to thin and gangly than big-boned. I have already written about some of Anne’s finer qualities in a previous post.

Find Me a Woman with Some Meat on Her Bones
Before marriage negotiations began with Cleves, Henry had instructed his advisors to find him a heavy-set woman for his fourth wife. His exact words (and a bit of an understatement) were, ‘I am a big man and in need of a big wife.’ Yet, Henry contradicted his own words with his previous actions for he tended to be more attracted to small-hipped women like Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. Perhaps his days of slim women were over at the point in which he began marriage negotiations for his fourth wife?

Digging deeper, there is obviously more to attraction then someone’s body build. And we also can’t forget about Henry’s political motivations toward the marriage for he may have simply not needed the alliance with Cleves as the marriage progressed. But Henry was obviously very much repulsed by his new bride too.

What did repulse Henry enough to annul the marriage and make Cromwell a head shorter?

The clue may be in the infamous rumor that Anne looked like a “Flanders Mare.”

What is a Flanders Mare?
A Flanders Mare is not the graceful and delicate horse of a queen. In Medieval times, Belgium Horses were prized in wars for their tremendous size and strength. (show above).

Colored like a Flanders Mare
These heavy, war-like draft horses were typically black and ranged from colors to bay, bay-brown to chestnut. They were rarely lighter colors like they are today. Many accounts report that Anne was of a darker skin tone, the opposite of the beauty ideal of the time. When Henry asked Lord Russell what he thought of his new bride he replied that ‘I take her not for fair, but to be of a brown complexion.’

Smells Like a Flanders Mare
I grew up around horses. I love horses. But let’s face it. No matter how much you love horses you cannot deny that they stink. One of the biggest turn-offs for Henry was Anne’s lack of hygiene. Maybe it was her smell that truly repulsed him? But wait….I have an even more far fetched theory.

As Skanky as a Flanders Mare?
Henry also told Anthony Denny, a member of the Privy Chamber, that she had ‘breasts so slack and other parts of body in such sort that [he] somewhat suspected her virginity.’ And if that was not bad enough he complained to his court physician of the ‘hanging of her breasts and looseness of her flesh.’ Could Henry have really suspected Anne’s virginity?

Later in the 17th century, Flanders Mares were not only prized for their strength, but also their eager willingness to pull heavy carriages. The Flanders Mares were mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys:

Thence to my Lord’s, where I found Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, and with him and Mr. Sheply, in our way calling at the Bell to see the seven Flanders mares that my Lord has bought lately, where we drank several bottles of Hull ale. Much company I found to come to her, and cannot wonder at it, for she is very pretty and wanton.¹

Pepys never really says who the “her” is but he seems to be making a double entendre between the horse wantonness and the unknown women. Interesting that he chose the always willing Flanders Mare to make his comparison. Perhaps the word “wanton” had a different meaning then? I suspect it means relatively the same thing.

In the eighteenth century, English writer and pamphleteer Daniel Defoe gives the prostitute and main character of his novel the fictitious name of Moll Flanders. He makes it clear that this is not her real name. In general, Defoe rarely named his characters and generally referred to people as “the elder brother” or “the nurse.” I doubt Defoe’s choice of Flanders was insignificant.

I personally believe that Henry was not attracted to Anne because of a combination of factors. She lacked refinement and grace (she couldn’t dance or play an instrument), her darker complexion was not the beauty ideal of the time, she smelled when Henry was fastidious about cleanliness, and most importantly she may have exhibited an eagerness to please that Henry found unattractive. Aside from Henry’s political motivations toward the match, we will never know for certain why the science of attraction failed, but perhaps if Anne had played hard to get she might not have reminded Henry of this eager draft horse.

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This post was adapted from the blog of Carlyn Beccia, the award-winning author of The Raucous Royals. (You can read my review here.) Beccia lives in a royal castle north of Boston with her princely cat, princess daughter and extremely kingly husband. Her biggest wish is to go back in time and share a glass of ale with Henry VIII and his six wives.

Learn more or purchase The Raucous Royals here.

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Sources
Starkey, David. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2004
Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York, NY: Grover Press, 1991
Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Hayes Barton Press, 1660 – can be accessed online in Google Books.
Warnicke, Retha M. The Marrying of Anne of Cleves: Royal Protocol in Early Modern England, Cambridge University Press, 2000
Daniel Defoe Wikipedia Entry
Notes:
1: Weir (p.227 )

• Filed under blogs we read, friends and colleagues, queens | 2 Responses