Happy Earth Day

 April 22nd is Earth Day... A day for celebrating and honoring the earth.

I grow gardens. I hug trees. I walk in the rain. I meditate by waterfalls. I whisper to the wind. I dance in the sunshine. I love the beauty and essence of the earth, this wonderful planet that we all call home. 

I am a flower child, brought up in the sixties, and that part of my life will always be in my heart and soul.

Many years ago I wrote a book about healing and honoring the earth. Here's the blurb...

From simple ideas and suggestions to tuning into the energies of nature and experiencing the soul of the Earth, this book offers you many ways to honor the Earth. 

Encouraging and inspiring, it shares with you a mix of practical and metaphysical ways to benefit both yourself and the Earth. 

Inside these pages you'll find:

• How sharing a shower with a friend saves more than water;
• Why growing a garden is good for both you and the Earth;
• How to tune into your true nature and commune with nature;
• How to make friends with the flower faeries;
• How to invite angels into your garden;
• How to grow babies in the carrot patch;
• Grown-up ways to play in the mud and dig in the dirt;
• How to create a cloud and make it rain;
• Why serenading the birds is good for your soul and the soil; and
• A special gift from the Earth to you.

Filled with lots of happy, helpful hints and a few words of warning, this book includes anecdotes and Earth-oriented exercises you can do to increase your environmental awareness and to become more involved in caring for the Earth.

Available on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Book of the Month ~ April

Do you want to know who you were before? And what you did in your past lives? Would you like to go time tripping into the adventures of your soul to explore your past lives?

THE COMPLETE DO-IT-YOURSELF GUIDE TO PAST LIFE REGRESSION offers everything you need to know about traveling into and through your past lives. 

It gives step-by-step instructions, interwoven with an in-depth script, for remembering and re-experiencing events and emotions in previous lifetimes.

Included are sidetracks showing how you can use the same information in your present life for many positive purposes and side trips—interesting adventures and excursions—to experience along the way. 

Inside this book you’ll learn how to:

• Enter a meditative frame of mind to journey into and through your past life memories;
• Align and raise your physical energies into your spiritual vibrations;
• Meet your higher self—your spiritual guide into the multidimensional realms of your soul;
• Explore previous life connections with people currently in your life;
• Discover the plans and promises you made before birth;
• Re-visit realms of your after-death experiences;
• Understand, balance, and heal your karma; and
• Change the past so that it positively affects and influences your present and future.

This book is your ultimate guide to traveling into and through the realms and realities your soul has experienced in its many travels through time.

Available on Amazon.

Origins ~ The Write Way

I'd been writing and getting my books published (most of them were trad published; a few were self-published) for about ten years when I wrote THE WRITE WAY. 

I'd been teaching writer's workshops and facilitating a writer's group, so I decided that a book on that subject would be a good idea.

And so, Write Way was born to share the ins and outs of writing a book and getting it published.

Riverstone Publishing

 All of our books on writing are published by Riverstone Publishing.

We offer two series especially for writers.

 

30-DAY NOVEL SERIES offers lighthearted guides for writers, especially those who are writing a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. Welcome to the magic inside your mind where words sparkle and shimmer with light as they dance through your imagination and come to life on the pages of your novel. 

This book offers everything you need to know, and probably more than a few things you don’t want to know, about writing a novel in 30 days. 

Invites you into the magic inside your mind and shows you how to make the writing magic happen. It offers a workbook for planning your novel and a road map for your month-long, novel-writing journey. 

It encourages you to bring forth and listen to all your totally wonderful, magnificent novel ideas that your muse whispers inside your mind and your imagination.

You'll also find writerly words of wisdom sprinkled throughout the book, as well as a magical word fairy running through the pages.

You're invited on a magical novel-writing adventure... These books are available on Amazon ~ link goes to the series page.

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WRITER'S WORKSHOP SERIES offers "how-to" books on writing (novels and nonfiction) which offer you information and advice on how to write your book and get it published. These books are available on Amazon ~ link goes to the series page.

 

THE WRITER'S MYSTIQUE invites you on a journey into a magical place within you where words come alive and encourages you to begin writing your book. From writing from your heart to finding your voice, you'll see how to open up the ideas inside your imagination.

FROM BOOK PROPOSAL TO A PUBLISHED BOOK invites you to travel a yellow brick road to find a literary home for your nonfiction book or novel. Offers everything you need to know about writing a book proposal that will get you an offer and a publishing contract for your book.

STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL SELF-PUBLISHING offers a guide through the mystifying maze of self-publishing, offering the basics to get you started on the path to self-publishing.

Book of the Month ~ March

The ultimate, inside guide to getting your novel or nonfiction book published.

Have you always wanted to write a book? Are you in the process of writing your book? Have you written a book and are wondering how to get it published?If you’re looking for a “how-to” that will guide you every step of the way through writing your book, putting together a book proposal, finding a publisher or an agent, or self-publishing, look no further. You can turn your dream of writing a book into a reality. 

Packed full of encouragement, ideas, and inspiration to get you going and keep you moving, THE WRITE WAY guides you on a three-part journey, through listening to the muse inside your mind and writing your book, to putting together a book proposal that will get you an offer and a publishing contract for your nonfiction book or novel, to self-publishing your book if that's the path you choose.

From finding the right publisher or agent, to negotiating a book contract, to formatting both an ebook and a print book, and seeing your book on the bookstore shelf... this book has it all. It clearly explains what to do and how to do it, and what NOT to do. Inside these pages you'll learn how to:

• Write from your heart and find your voice;
• Discover the secret that all writers know;
• Create a workable outline and concept for your book;
• Do market research to target appropriate publishers for your book or find the right literary agent;
• Develop a promotion and marketing plan that will convince editors your book is destined to become a bestseller;
• Understand and negotiate a book contract;
• Credential your book with an ISBN if you are self-publishing; and
• Brand your books and choose a publisher name.
  

If you choose to self-publish, either as a first choice or a last resort, this book can help guide you into and through the mystifying maze of self-publishing, offering the basics to get you started. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, like to be in control of and in charge of everything, publishing your own book may be the “write” path for you.

Available on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Have a Happy Day

I was looking over my Zen Coffee blog (to gather unpublished posts to put in a new book) and came across this one, wishing everyone a happy Zen coffee day. 

Thought you'd enjoy it so I'm posting it here. Since I'm working on a new book about Zen coffee meditations, I thought it might be fun to meditate on a happy cup of coffee for a while.

Coffee is so much more than a way to wake up in the morning; it's a way to center and focus your thoughts. It's a way to tune into the calm, peaceful essence of your inner self.

Have a Happy Zen Coffee Day!!!!!

Looking for Love?

In honor of Valentine's Day, I've posted a love meditation on my Light Library blog.

Today, right now, is a day of love. It is a day for enhancing relationships, rekindling feelings, letting love into your heart, and opening your soul to expand the love. It’s a day for bringing love into your life and for strengthening the love you have. It’s a day for forgiving past hurts and freeing yourself to move forward. It’s a day for healing your heart. It’s a day of loving yourself.

Read more...

The Koan of Coffee

You may be wondering how to meditate by coffee. 

How can caffeine and calm, poured into the same coffee cup, create a peaceful state of mind? 

How can you meditate if you're all stressed out or jazzed on coffee? Well, it's a koan... that's the nature of Zen.

A koan is a Zen Buddhist riddle that has no easy answer; it may be totally illogical in nature and it appears to be a paradox. 

A koan is a question that must be experienced in order to be understood. 

Zen and coffee don't seem to mix. Or do they? It seems they'd be completely opposite to one another, but part of the mystery of the koan is that they are truly in harmony. 

What do you suppose the koan means? How do caffeine and calm mix together in a cup of coffee?

Ponder this for a few mindful moments before you read the next paragraph.

The paradox of meditating by coffee is that mindfully meditating is not separate from any of your experiences; it is a basic, integral part of everything in your life and can be incorporated into every thought, feeling, and experience you have, much in the same manner that caffeine and calm — which are seeming opposites — poured into the same coffee cup are a perfect blend of meditation and mindfulness.

ZEN COFFEE is available at Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Book of the Month ~ Februrary

 Wondering how caffeine and calm, stirred into the same coffee cup, can help you mindfully meditate?

ZEN COFFEE is for people on the run... an active approach to mindful meditation in every moment of your busy life. 

It offers many ways to bring peace and serenity into all your experiences and day-to-day activities.

Zen Coffee uses coffee as a metaphor for mindfully meditating and tuning into the calm, peaceful essence of your inner nature as you zip through the Zen of daily life.

As you race through the hectic pace of life with your coffee cup in hand, you'll find a moment or two to de-stress and drink in the essence of Zen... the essence of your inner nature. 

It would seem that coffee and Zen don't mix. Or do they? Inside these pages you'll discover how to:

• Capture the essence of your inner nature in all your experiences;
• Use caffeine to wake up your inner self;
• Put the magic of mindfulness into every moment;
• Minimize stress and maximize happiness;
• Find peace, quiet, and harmony in hidden places in your mind where you never thought to look for them; and
• Create a meditation space—a Zen sanctuary and coffee zendo for a few mindful moments of meditation every day.

Capturing the essence of your inner self is as quick and easy as drinking your coffee and being mindful as you race through the ups and downs of all your experiences.

A few moments of mindfulness scattered here and there puts the caffeine calm of Zen Coffee into your life.

Available at Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Origins ~ Magical Mind

Once upon a time, a way long time ago, when I was twenty-five, I began reading lots and lots of books on the power of your subconscious mind.

A few years later, I began writing notes for a workbook, thinking I'd like to teach a class one day to help people find the magic inside their mind. I began to really observe how the outer world worked, and how my inner world could transform the experiences I encountered in my day-to-day activities.

Years later, I began teaching a twelve-week class. I called it Magical Mind. That workbook and class evolved into a book—MAGICAL MIND, MAGICAL LIFE: HOW TO LIVE A MAGICAL LIFE, FILLED WITH HAPPINESS AND LIGHT.

The basic premise of the class, and the book, is that the power of your mind is totally awesome. You have so much power within you; all you have to do is tap into it. The key to living a magical life, filled with happiness and light is a positive attitude.

You create your reality through your thoughts and feelings, and you have the power within you to create any reality you want and to make in real in your world.

We all have that magic and power inside us. We all have the ability to make that magic happen.