Warmest Year on Record: 2023 “October—All Over”? No Chance as Angels Are With Us

WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD: 2023 “OCTOBER—ALL OVER”?-NO CHANCE AS ANGELS ARE WITH US

Bahamian Hurricane Rhyme Stirs Us Creative [sometimes Insecure] Writers from Our Subterranean Slumber, Shoots us like Goddess Pele’s Lava Fountains into Real World

“June—too soon; July—stand by; August—come it must; September—remember; October—all over”

Traditional Bahamian hurricane rhyme, now weirdly outdated by 2023 temperatures & solar activity

Coronal Mass Ejections [CMEs] Still Corrupting Earth’s Weather

If we thought the month of October would bring cooler weather—technically a month after official “fall”—autumn equinox, September 23rd—we earthlings have been proved wrong, again.

Northern hemisphere temperatures continue to blast hot days [& not-so-cool nights], even though some areas of New England and northern Scotland are experiencing the beauty of falling leaves and changing colours in coastal woodland and montane forests.

CMEs which began last month-9/11-with a direct hit on Earth September 19th, have been plaguing distraught scientists who issued warnings to stay indoors.

But magnificent #AuroraBorealis, top, has tempted viewers outside from Arctic circle [Reykyavik, Iceland] thru the British Isles, & as far as Michigan-Keweenaw Peninsula,MI above top rt. Photo l. courtesy NASA

U.S.-wide memorials to those lost 22 years ago in New York’s 9/11 attacks on World Trade Towers, 2001, were accompanied by earth-wide explosions [Marrakech prefecture Morocco where earthquakes rendered 2100 people dead, but spared the local Mosque] & floods in Greece & Turkey caused by unusual weather swings. Some southern U.S. states [Nevada, Texas & parts of CA border w/Mexico near Tijuana] also suffered, but first responders—geared up after last month’s flooding at Burning Man, at Black Rock, NV quickly restored order. Turkish/Moroccan authorities are still at work clearing rubble.

Historical Examples of Celestial Intercession bring Peace to Many

Following Hawai’i’s tragic loss of life in the August 8/8 Làhainà fires on the island of Maui—sparing the local church building—and last month’s Marrakech earthquake where the local mosque was untouched, many have compared such unusual anomalies within destruction with the horrendous bombing in WWII by the Allies of Germany’s Kölner Dom—Cologne Cathedral on the River Rhein/Rhine—below, which remained standing while all around was bombed to bits.

Begun in 13thC on a sacred site of previous Roman worship, the Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petrus,[Cathedral Church of St.Peter] is the highest twin-spired church in the world at 515ft/157m.

Construction began in 1248 on an edifice which was to house the reliquary of the Three Kings and also to be majestic enough for a Holy Roman Emperor. But work stopped and it was left unfinished c.1560. Attempts to complete construction began again in 1814 and a protestant Prussian overlord injected major funding in 1840s. The façade was completed to the original medieval plan in 1880.

In 1996 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Significantly, its original medieval name, the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, has ties to other northern nations like Anglian Northumbria, Celtic Brittany and Kernow/Cornwall-with influence in Anglesey, Wales and Ireland. Its Prussian overlords not only injected much-needed funding to complete the building, but effectively re-translated its medieval [Roman] catholicism to protestant worship; thus keeping it more in line with original 8thC non-partisan [though aligned with Rome] Pictish kingdom of Peterkirk monarch Nechtan, who pulled his nation out of heathen darkness into Christian light with his stone “Fite” kirks.

In Ortelius’ revealing map of Scotland [Britannia Minor]! 1595-1612, mention is made of tribes Caledonii, Attacotti, Maetae and Venicones-viz. Tacitus.

By making the Grampian Mountains [Graupius mons] stretch from Firth of Tay as far N as Ross & Cromarty, however, he may have misled many historians to think Calgacus‘ battle of Mons Graupius happened in Morayshire! Some still do!

N.Britain—Roman ‘Ultima Thule’ Beyond the Wall—Back of Beyond

Historically Scotland—Ortelius’ ‘Britannia Minor’, above, and Hadrian’s Legions’ ‘Ultima Thule’ is a prime example of map-makers’ guesswork, in the absence of real on-the-ground discovery/exploration.

Tacitus, writing A.D.98 on the life and character of his father-in-law, Roman General/Governor of Britain Julius Gnaeus Agricola A.D. 77/78–83/84, described the tribes of North Britain—Caledonians—as heathen tribes of warriors in a country few of his contemporaries knew existed. At the time Caledonia was split into two divisions: Dicaledonii ruled by Pictish kings, in Moravia [Moray] and Veniconi & Taexali in Mar & Buchan [Aberdeenshire].

Solitudinem faciunt Pacem appellant
They create a Wilderness and call it Peace—

Calgacus exhorting his Caledonians before Battle of Mons Graupius AD83

Roman Walls of Hadrian & Antonine built to Control ‘Warlike’ Picts

Roman legions—with their military god Mithras leading them north into unknown territory—were quick to destroy any signs of Pictish bull-worship which conflicted with their own pagan god Mithras’ birth— Hellenic pagan Mithra born under the sacred tree of life already bearing arms, able to ride (and kill) the mythic life-giving cosmic bull whose blood fertilized all vegetation. Pictish Class-I carved bull stones, viz. Burghead‘s 32 iconic guardian stones, were automatic casualties. One remains in British Museum. Others—thrown in the harbor—are still “missing”.

One intriguing reference from Roman authors following legions’ forays into Britannia Minor was that the Pictish citadel of present-day Edinburgh Castle, Braun Hogenberg 1581-8 map above, lower l. was the Castrum Puellarum, ‘Citadel of the Virgins’ or ‘Maidens’ Castle’ c.f. Maiden Castle, Dorset, ABD Maiden Stone. While the Aberdeenshire & Dorset icons refer to P-Celtic/Brittonic Mai-duinn=morning [ABD Maiden Stone casts no shadow at noon, but acts as sundial both a.m. & p.m.], the Castle in Edenbvrg was actually used by Picts to board up their young virgins while they went into battle, because the fortress was impregnable/safe.

It was a safe stronghold for other princesses. King Malcolm III [Canmore]‘s widow, Queen [later St.] Margaret of Scotland used it for her refuge after his death, A.D. 1093.

Other notable features of the capital city are: ‘High Street’, top, now the ‘Royal Mile’- its exact length; the town gate, bottom, near ruined Abbey of Holyrood; whose guesthouse was later transformed as official residence of the monarch in Scotland—the Palace of Holyrood House.

Also of note in Mercator 1595 maps, above top l.+rt. inset, Loch Ness is clearly marked with an opening to the North Sea on Moray Firth—today only accessible to boat traffic via man-made Caledonian Canal.

With Angels & Saints in our Corner, How Can We Lose?

Even in this 21stC age of materialism where the ‘Almighty’ is the dollar on the ground, rather than a spiritual presence from ‘Above’, thankfully there are moments of personal Revelation when a door—or a new path—opens up, where we thought there was no way forward.

But we gotta believe ❤ for it to happen.

Prime example of human belief in a higher power & fortitude when all light seemed dim, three pioneers stepped into a void on a beach on the Moray Firth [now considered part of Aberdeenshire, Scotland] in 1962 to follow their dream, and the spiritual community/ecovillage of the Findhorn Foundation began.

Dorothy Maclean, 1920-2020, pic.4 Canadian gardener communicated with the Devas, spoke to sweet peas and the pea fairy while she worked, was co-founder alongside her Brit friends Eileen Caddy who meditated while on the toilet in her ‘fifties blue caravan, far rt. above, with her ex-RAF husband Peter Caddy, a WWII vet. They all shared a dream of international peace. And growing their own veggies.

When their first year’s garden produced cabbages of such enormity that they could feed an army, all three realized they’d touched base with the ‘Great Spirit’—the Angels [FF member Joy Drake’s angel cards above 2nd l.]—and Universal Consciousness.

The Universal Hall was built [lower l.above]. Dorothy returned to die there, March 2020.

And the rest is history.

Findhorn Foundation celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, 2022. Winding down its workshop syllabus was chosen by team residents after the Sanctuary burned 2021.

Resource People Around the World

While it is tragic that Findhorn’s spiritual workshop initiative & on-site teaching seminars have come to an end—its last hands-on event was September 22, 2023—the Foundation continues with help from its RPs-[Resource persons] who have spent long periods at its Ecovillage on the Moray Coast.

My first RP Gathering in 1988 as one of their worldwide network [am current RP for U.S.A.Hawai’i-Hilo] was the first where they were proud to be represented by spiritual practitioners in over 40 nations in the world. At that time I was resident in [& RP for] nearby Aberdeenshire-not too onerous a task. ❤

While this news of the Foundation’s last workshops may disappoint many, to me it seems only natural—in a 21stC milieu of extremes [poverty & riches; poisonous & organic; death & life miracles] that on one level they’re returning to the simple life in the blue caravan on the beach overlooking Findhorn Bay.

More sad news:last week iconic 300-yr old ‘Robin Hood’ sycamore featured 1991 Kevin Costner movie at Hadrian’s Wall National Trust Northumbrian WorldHeritage site was chainsawed/vandalized.

Police have held & released two suspects & continue to investigate reason for such vandalism on a special tree, beloved & visited by thousands.

One thing amid uncertainty: Nature always survives, Of that we are certain: Angels are still with us all—Creative Writers/Artists; first responders; ditch-diggers; television & movie strikers & production teams. Thank you, @SGA Hollywood for recognizing screen-writing talent; & thank you, Universe & Angels & Great Nature Spirit-we’re all still here. And we believe. @AAM @cleopasbe11 @siderealview ©2023MarianC.Youngblood

September-Remember: As Autumn Hits, Human Tragedies are Hard to Forget but Human Kindness Wins

SEPTEMBER-REMEMBER: AS AUTUMN HITS, HUMAN TRAGEDIES ARE HARD TO FORGET BUT HUMAN KINDNESS WINS

From DEEP INSIDE EARTH’S CORE we CREATIVE [occasionally INSECURE] WRITERS EMERGE to LOOK AROUND at DISASTROUS EFFECTS of GLOBAL WARMING & WEEP

“June—too soon; July—stand by; August—come it must; September—remember; October—all over”

Traditional Bahamian hurricane rhyme, now severely outdated *see effects of DORA below

Maui Wildfires and Human/Wildlife Loss Stir Worldwide Response

While one might be forgiven for believing the U.S. Labor Day Weekend fiasco at Black Rock, Nevada’s Burning Man Festival [August 27th thru September 4th] was tragic—torrential rain (2″) all day Sunday-made wilderness campers & artists look like mud sculptures in a normally arid desert—revelers didn’t appear to be phased by Mother Nature’s drenching gift. Some tried to exit the muddy venue in vehicles ill-equipped to handle deep bog conditions.

Authorities ordered dancers, musicians and party-goers to “shelter in place”, but many trailer-dwellers & stuck campervan owners shouldered backpacks and attempted to hike 5-6miles out to dry ground.

Proximity to Ocean did not Save Làhainà Marina, but Divers Assist

Water was in short supply one month ago, when Hawai’i’s worst disaster in living memory happened on night of August 8th, 2023 [cosmically ‘Lionsgate’ 8/8] & the island of Maui was struck by a combination of lightning storm, tropical typhoon Dora, downed power lines and wildfires which engulfed the coastal town of Làhainà, spreading from oceanfront all the way to interior mountains in the centre of the island.

Emergency sirens—usually sounded in the event of a tsunami—were, because cable towers went down, without power & unable to blare a warning to residents on Maui’s southern shore. Sharp-eyed residents still awake, on the other hand-many older people were already in bed-took it on themselves to rescue a few of their own belongings, plus cat & dog [& other pets] and raise the alarm with their neighbours.

Fire was already consuming vehicles, and traffic on the main highway was down to a crawl—then nil.

So, locals took their few precious possessions, pets in arms or on a leash—and walked.

Because of severity of Dora winds, they met a combination of thick, dense smoke, unbreathable air+ immediate blockage of any & all escape routes. Many headed for the marina & dove in, hoping that proximity to the ocean would give them time to gather their wits, if not their doomed belongings/home.

Làhainà Oceanfront Villas Burned, despite Divers’ Help

But vessels at anchor along the oceanfront piers were also on fire—with yachts’ & speedboats’ water-logged hulls succumbing to flames. Many sought help, as volunteer divers and veteran surfers tried to save those less able than themselves.

The nightmare continued for the rest of the week as official rescuers, first responders & government agencies began the work of ‘search-&-rescue’ of missing persons, pets & belongings, after the fires were contained.

Lahaina’s iconic 150-year-old Banyan tree [Ficus Benghalensis] in downtown survived the fires. Benches under her aerial roots lay unharmed, but work by arborists continues 2tap underground feeders so new shoots can sprout both underfoot & in her canopy.

“After” above, & “before” pictures of the legendary Lahaina old lady.

Sap is still oozing from her main trunk & bore holes are being filled with organic earth-based ‘soup’, to encourage aerial roots to reattach themselves below ground

A Month Later, 115 People Dead,110 Missing–22,000Acres Burned

Fires are now 100% contained—even those spontaneous brush fires inland. This means they aren’t all out; but that Fire Dept. water hoses, helicopter ocean-filled buckets and local rescuers’ garden spray efforts [if they still work] have the previous inferno under control.

One month later, official death count stands at 115 dead, a similar number [110 approx.] missing, with the Maui Humane Society still on the ground assisting in finding & rescuing bewildered animals who don’t know where their owners are. In the first week of the fires, some animals were taken [when there were no shelters in situ] to Honolulu & mainland California, but all records are now updated and owners have been contacted—where possible. They suggest you call them if you haven’t found your pet.

Cats & dogs with seriously burned paws have been stitched & bandaged, scorched whiskers trimmed, other injuries surgically treated. While some owners have claimed their lost pets & taken them to state-offered free lodging, shelters, emergency quarters, or to relatives who still have a roof over their heads, a number still remain in the Society’s rescue cages.

Rescued animals include 10 cats, 14 dogs, 3 rabbits, one baby boar, one dazed chicken and a parrot.

International Response—Food & Financial Help from Media Stars

While local divers & international agencies collaborate with on-the-ground K-9 search dogs amid the ongoing clean-up operation, it is hoped the body-count will not get any higher. Tragic stories emerge of lost loved-ones found still clutching a beloved dog, of missing cots uncovered with babies still in them. Thankfully, few isolated child deaths have been reported. The job of sifting through contaminated ash & [unbreathable] dust heaps continues.

Meanwhile Hawai’ian Governor Josh Green encourages residents with relatives still unaccounted for, to contact his agency which is maintaining an exclusive DNA bank of relatives looking for a lost loved one.

FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] has received ca.11,000 requests for assistance and has donated $14.6 million in federal housing and individual assistance. Governor Green said 6,000 people are now living in hotels and Airbnb units, paid for by his office, with help from FEMA.

Media stars Oprah Winfrey & Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson-with 2nd homes on the island-have set up their People’s Fund of Maui, starting with a sum of $10million of personal funds, and assuring those who want to help that every penny will go directly in the pockets of Maui residents affected by the recent wildfires.

They guarantee any adult resident in the area displaced by Làhainà & Kula wildfires is “eligible to receive $1,200 per month”.

American Red Cross & Salvation Army have been on the ground since day one, providing food, free shelter & are now assisting those with no home to return to, to move into Govr. Green’s special units.

On a Brighter Note…Before our Muse Drags us Writers Back Down into our Subterranean Cave

September-Remember: one of our hurricane rhyme lines (top) is brimming with unspoken truth: it’s often a time around autumn equinox (9/22-23) when we look back on the year & prepare for winter—and the holiday season. 2023 adds a few sky miracles to help us through hard times. ThankU Universe.

With a new moon in Virgo September 14th, our skies will be dark: perfect for spotting the new comet C/23-P1 Nishimura which will be visible to the naked eye [without binoculars or telescope] in the early morning sky around 4a.m. Sept.12th.

Tonight 9/4-5 the Moon & Jupiter will be conjunct—together as they circle us Earthlings.

Then green comet C/23-P1 Nishimura can be spotted by early birds at 4am 9/12 thru 9/17 when it reaches perihelion-closest to the Sun in its orbit-before heading back out of the Solar system.

It won’t return until until 2431-that’s 107 years from now.

And if you need further consciousness-raising before you join us obsessed writer-holics as we go back into our Muse-directed subterranean cave below the Maui Banyan tree [<3]-the Moon & Saturn will be conjunct-only 2º apart on 9/26, with full Harvest Moon-closest to Equinox-in Pisces on 9/29.

If you’re REALLY blessed-aren’t we all?-you might spot some leftover Aurigid meteor shower remnants during moonless dark night skies—September’s iconic decorations as a prelude to festive sparklers & winter holiday lights! Happy Autumn peeps! ©2023MarianCYoungblood

Season of Mists, Mellow Fruitfulness & Hotspots

SEASON OF MISTS, MELLOW FRUITFULNESS & HOTSPOTS
Autumnal Insecure Writers‘ Monthly Hideaway

IWSG Anthology contest, submissions accepted from today, September 5th

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells
John Keats, Ode to Autumn, 1820

Should our Ninja Commander-in-Chief, Alex J. Cavanaugh be slaving (creatively) over the holiday period, I want to thank him for keeping this little writerly group together for a respectable period of time.

Let Not Labor Day Week Disturb, All Passes
We have a tendency to enter September, with a doom-and-gloom attitude—thinking the end of the year is upon us, fall is here & I haven’t done what I thought I would do. We allow ourselves to return to the TGIF and Woe-is-Me-Monday pattern. Such autumnal thoughts weigh us down or distract us from the lustre we see as we enter another season.

Brazil’s Museu Nacional—National Museum—in Rio de Janeiro after last Sunday’s fire, Sept.2nd

Writerly advice is not my strong point, but I know of some good human advice for introverts—which writers, according to Myers-Briggs’ classic curve, usually are: pause, stand and look at the view, and b-r-e-a-t-h-e!

There are others out there FAR WORSE OFF than you and me. The residents of Puerto Rico still haven’t had their power turned back on since last year’s hurricane season.

From flooding [sea-level rise] in Indonesia and Bangladesh, to hurricane Lane mop-up in the Hawai’ian Islands after she dumped 40-inches of rain; to the other extreme—forest fires still raging uncontained in Pacific NW—through No & So California, Oregon, Washington to Utah, Colorado and Arizona. Precious water supplies—river and urban recycled—are running low. Burning Man in the Nevada desert last weekend is our crazy cultural way of challenging Nature‚ believing we can fight fire with fire, proving our power as microdot humans in a world far beyond our comprehension.

Keeping Cool in the Hotspots

Winged serpent deity in Temple of Isis, Pompeii survived AD79 Vesuvius eruption

Fire/Sun is indeed challenging our survival in increasing desertification, global temperature rise, baking end-of-summer days. Water is scarce, not just for farmers, but for fruit orchards, local gardeners and fish.

Yet, as writers, we keep on writing, don’t we? ❤

Frescoes that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 like the winged serpent, right, were among the priceless collection of 20 million pieces burned in Brazil’s National Museum blaze last Sunday.

They included a fragile fragment depicting peacocks perched on stylized gold chandeliers, and two 1900-year old designs featuring seahorses, a dragon, and dolphins. These irreplaceable objects, originally gracing the walls of Pompeii’s Temple of Isis, were among 750 pieces from Rio’s Portuguese/Mediterranean culture in the collection—largest group of artifacts in Latin America. The huge upwelling of international support has encouraged them to try to save what’s left.

Barely breathing, we pinch ourselves, thank our lucky stars—and our Ninja Cap’n Alex—for our ability to wield the pen that holds body and soul together. And what do we do?

Write on IWSGers—write on.
©2018 Marian Youngblood

Under the Wire: November Writing Retreat, Celtic New Year’s style

Insecure Writers’ Support Group [IWSG] Corner

November 5th 2014 weather anomaly Eastern/Central U.S. CA basks in eternal sunshine, map
©NOAA

Many times this eventful year, I have longed for time/space to write—at least a few lines at my leisure—within my comfort zone. Events have a way of redirecting our otherwise good intentions, don’t they?

So far, 2014 has been short on leisure.

November heralds Celtic New Year and I’m no farther forward than last Samhainn.

Astrochart for now: 11:11p.m. EDT 11/05/14 Saturn leads pack of Starhounds to Orion’s chase

And, now that fall is well and truly here, my writerly output—like my garden shed—is showing its leaks!

Driving our Engines into the Ground
It’s not that we writers aren’t driven to distraction by our need to put graphite to tree pulp; extract or express some primeval desire hidden in the God-given Word; even one in our own God-driven engine-mind. I have known a fellow scribe who went into catatonia for a fortnight—today we call it ‘withdrawal’ or ‘having a bad hair day’—because she couldn’t find her high school propelling pencil.

Like losing a cell phone or iPod, our sudden disconnection fuels our dependency.

Change of season usually alters our work pattern, anyway. Deep inside, we must be akin to swallows, electromagnetically programmed to changing home base. Bureaucratic daylight manipulation makes it worse: disturbs our brain and sleep patterns, resulting in near-writer’s block.

Heaven forbid. I hope my mind hasn’t also flown the coop, along with my summer projects.

All Fall In

Rainstorms bring water, turn grass green again

If I’m honest, this is the time when I sometimes admit defeat, float around in ‘can’t cope’ mode for a day or two with the change in weather, or, paradoxically, don ‘wellies’ (Wellington boots, rain gear), grab a pair of lethal secateurs and get forceful with a blackberry root.

Needless to say, I’ve found the culprit: something I can blame. It’s easier to point a finger at retrograde Neptune, floundering in his own exalted sign of Pisces, or beg deathstar Pluto to release his vice-like grip on his fellow planet, Mars conjunct in restrictive structure-driven Capricorn! The ancient SeaGoat rises from the waters to vanquish all malingerers…

Under the Wire
We are, I do believe, supremely grateful for excess H20 which fell from the heavens just in time to save us from a fiery death by 2014 heatwave. Water saved us from our (continuing) careless treatment of our planetary home.

It’s mot for me to criticize. William McDonough’s Cradle to Cradle has shown us the way for a decade. We are still playing games with water. I merely add my comment—and gratitude. And pray that fewer hours of light may bring me time to relax, allow me to retreat into inner worlds.

And thanks Alex, as always, for doing what you do.
Dragon of the Stars, indeed. 🙂
©2014 Marian Youngblood

Displacement Activity during NaNo month

FEATURED WRITERS CORNER

November is NaNo writing month

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by
– Douglas Adams

My last two blogs have featured talented — and busy — authors: the GuestBlog is such a boon when you’re feeling not quite writerly yourself.

Er, well, it’s not that I haven’t been writerly, I have. Just otherwise focused.

NaNo started on November 1st and won’t stop until November 30th and we’re not quite half way through the introductions yet. NaNo is when you abandon all hope of having a life, get up each day knowing you have an obligation to fulfill, fall into bed far too late into the wee hours because you know you won’t get a good night’s sleep otherwise, and generally find it difficult to communicate with your family — unless they’re on Facebook for a couple of minutes. Did I say eat? Whatever’s within reach. So long as it’s quick.

By now all leaf color is a leaf carpet

But November is also the month of Scorpio. That black and white personality, do or die, and if you die, don’t expect anyone to come and pick up the pieces — kind of month. Winter approaches. You can feel it in every breath. Watery autumnal sunlight, and where I live up here on the 57th parallel (cf Juneau, AK), light is gone from the day by 4p.m. Leaves are no longer pretending to cling to tree branches because most of the colorful ones are now carpeting the driveway. That kind of month. A time when one should be out there making the nest ready for hibernation through the next three months of dire weather and even direr temperatures.

And yet that’s the month a small group of writer-stroke-genius displacement activists chose to nurture the NaNo Bug.

Those of our critics who aren’t writers themselves say writing is ‘displacement activity’ from Life with a capital L. As a child, were we encouraged to write or were we encouraged to get an education which would slot us into a ‘good job’?

No displacement activity

Nevertheless I am writing. It’s what a writer is supposed to do.

NaNo was founded in 1999 by a looseknit group (I like the picture that conjures up, kind of like a quilting bee) of writerly types in San Francisco, CA. They chose to set aside the month of November — all 30 days of it — to create the bones of a novel. The ‘bones’ amounts to 50,000 words. Or writing a minimum of 1667 words every day. In order to nourish, challenge and encourage each other, certain perks, ‘gifts’, achievement stickers and carrots are used.

While the pain and self-immolation this exercise invokes might seem to be some people’s idea of lunacy, the Nano idea grew.

Gradually a body of supporters, themselves plunging into writerly waters for the marathon type-in, brought Nano fame. And purpose to November for writers. The month made the real world go away. Instead of the world of lethal freeze outside, your world turns inwards, into the novel or what the novel will become. You hand yourself over to an overlighting presence. You become just the fingers on the keyboard. The body on the bed.

NaNo’s acronym grew from the idea that November is now National Novel Writing Month and a website encourages the cotidien and foolhardy habit, suggesting you upload* a daily wordcount, so as to see your own (growing) stats and feel you are accomplishing something. There are free stickers and website widgets to egg you on, should you feel in need of a boost. And at the end of it, when you’ve passed the 50,000 word mark (some achieve 70,000-100,000. Hey, let’s not knock it), they proclaim you a Winner and you get a purple ‘winner’s’ accolade; plus the offer of a proof hardcopy of your book in print from Amazon’s CreateSpace.

But what happens to this human being who has committed her/himself to such a daily chore (sometimes a pleasure, sometimes a chore)? Does the Muse** visit every day and hold her/his hand through the ordeal?

Even if you don’t feel the Muse holding your hand every day, there are a couple of NaNo folks who do. They’ve taken on the volunteer job of keeping you at it. Been there, done that. They too, most of them, are sitting at their laptops in Peoria Illinois and Ashland Oregon and Walnut Creek California and (Rome, Madrid, London and Skye) pitching in again this November to finish writing their very own ‘new’ idea, plot, adventure, MS, WIP, exercise in writer’s-block-removal.

First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him
– Ray Bradbury

At the end of the 30 days, if you drag yourself kicking and screaming to the keyboard every day, and create a piece of work, long or short — ignoring edits, spelling errors, lack of thought-flow; just get it out there — there’s one thing you’ll have achieved. A 50,000-word story. It may feel awful, scratchy, patchy, unformed or uninformed, and half the characters may have glaring holes in their back-stories, but it’s the bones of your next novel, your very own WIP — the Work in Progress that will make you feel a teensy bit achieving.

It may take another year before it becomes fit to print, but that’s not the point. During the process, and especially in the middle doldrums — Week Two Blues — it’s the vision of a completed task that draws you on when you tell yourself the last thing you want to do today is sit down and write a chapter about some silly characters that won’t talk to each other.

That’s part of the clever NaNo trick. They must have learned it from Jack Kerouac. He pasted sheets of copier paper top-and-tail together and fed the roll into a typewriter carriage, stocked up with coffee and ‘uppers’ and wrote ‘On the Road‘ in three weeks.

I’m not suggesting the ‘uppers’. Besides, NaNo ‘writing buddies’ are quite good at keeping you going if you flag. Or Facebook. Remember what they say: if your Subconscious has been alerted and informed by your Will that it has to regurgitate something every day in November, believe me, the Subconscious does.

And it sends in the Muse.

You may not like Her. You may not even be able to identify with Her, but at the end of 30 days, you will have Her staring you in the face, handing you a story. And when you really have something finished — I didn’t say polished: that comes after — you really feel you have to do something with it! Because it’s your WIP and it’s all yours.

They say writers are the least likely people to market their own wares. Isaac Asimov said:

Rejection slips, query and form letters, and synopses, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil, but there is no way around them.

2010 NaNo in progress

Which brings me back to Displacement Activity. What NaNo does for writers is just such a way around the roadblock that Asimov thought inevitable. It physically takes over space and time and allows the writerly urge to come through. Displacement activity is put aside to make way for words. That means life functions, regardless/oblivious of eating, drinking, sleeping, making love, shopping, paying bills or stoking fires — or any other life chore, for that matter — take a back seat, offering space for the writer and Muse to get to know one another all over again. And ideally during the process, all distractions, such as rejection slips, plotlines, query letter seminars, agent/ editor suggestions or even how the story’s going to end (along with cell phones) fall into the file drawer below the supply of tea/coffee, twinkies/cookies, cheese bits, and granola.

The rest of the world can criticize you for making writing your Displacement Activity from Life. But by the time you’re past Week Two, the halfway hurdle, and you find you’ve got a story going, your characters are coming alive, even if you’re not quite on the home stretch, you (hopefully) don’t believe your activity is displacement at all. You’ve found a new friend.

So why am I here writing this blog? Must be Nano Displacement Activity. Sorry, dear readers and fellow writers, I got to get back. My NaNo Muse is calling.

* An exciting widget until year 2010 was the wordcount widget. You copy & paste your daily output as input to the NaNo page and it counted the result for you and pasted the glorious total as part of your personal and site-wide stats. In 2010 this feature will only become available to site visitors after November 25th when the widget will be available to participants to ‘verify’ their (completed) output/MS/novel.
**Some days She does; some days She doesn’t.

Ed. As evidence of Marian’s supreme NaNo Displacement Activity, she wrote the following little Drabble for entry in the December Drabble contest over at Burrowers, Books and Balderdash.

NOLA HOLA

She’d worked hard – her beads sparkled in December sunshine. Farmers market always busy on weekends, the tomato and squash guy in the next stall said, selling his pumpkins for pennies. Mark ’em down low was his recipe for getting home early.

Freezing, only her second time, she gotta stay to cover costs. Don’t come back without a Franklin, or I break your arm, he’d said.

That weirdo, watching from a doorway since lunchtime, came over, handed her a 1000 dollar bill.
‘Cleveland cover it?’ he asked, picking up the jewel case.
Passport outta Dodge, she thought.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’

©2010 Marian Youngblood
photo ‘Colourful beads’ by Natasha Ramarathnam
A Drabble is a story — a bullet, an idea, a character outline, a work of fiction that is exactly 100 words long: no more, no less.
December Drabble Theme at Burrowers, Books and Balderdash

Equinox Signals Powerful Changes

part of the Featured Writers’ Corner

powerful chart for September Equinox 2010

Equinox is a trying time: invigorating, yes. But it puts one on one’s mettle. After the heavy weight of responsibility placed on us earthlings over the summer — a second year in a row of inclement weather and battling the elements — we may be feeling a little ‘wabbit’. It’s a good old Anglo-Saxon term for feeling so buffeted by Life’s challenges that all you want to do is lie back and let someone else take the reins. Well, the Universe is taking them. So we might as well hang on because we’re in it for the Ride.

I wrote an Equinox blog on my other site about the changes, the current planetary alignments and influences, and the following came as a response from Rodney Fitzgerald.

As you know, here I’m promoting my writerly friends in this current series of GuestBlogs — see 18 Steps to Becoming a Writer — and Fitzy’s commentary is so great, so gentle with the vibration of the turning season, that it deserves a corner of its own. So, here goes, Fitzy — thank you. The first of what I hope will be a few guest blogs from you.

Vitality, vigour, joie de vivre…

Dante wrote in his inferno, Canto 1;
“Midway through the journey of our life, I found
myself in a dark wood, for I had strayed
from the straight pathway to this tangled ground.”

Here we find ourselves, in 2010, striding in the opposite direction, back up the twisting stair, to the Spring time of the soul.
Like the freeway, when you’re heading out of town and everyone is heading in, open road speeds now apply.

“Where are they going?” asks the kid in the back seat, all leather interior, only two hundred more repayments to go.
Silence from the harried parents, the city looming ahead filled with mortgages, cold envy and doubt, chills and terror at 3am.
The kid shrinks back into his seat, eats his Big Mac and imagines having super powers, as the green turns to grey and asphalt.
I have my foot down hard, there is nothing behind me, more compelling now than the open road, I look for the turn off…
..And the exit, is well lit.

Sidereal, you are right, Pluto is coughing up the dregs of his passing reign. That old Tyrant Holdfast is loosing his grip. The death rattle is terrible to behold.

The passing spirit of the fading epoch, does not go gently into that good night however, its mind of domination and cruelty is sold to the masses as entertainment in the form of the Vampyre drama. Novels, Films and TV shows run amock, selling dark desire to a well-groomed flock of children.

What the empty and fading dark wants most, is the energy it can never produce itself – the Divine spark. It does not hide now, it’s desperate. It sells the idea its epoch is in ascension, and this is a lie. Its way is broken, it stumbles where it treads, the grasp too weak to hold.

All politics and policies are the same, all politicians and frontmen look the same, actors all look alike – the rictus wide grin, the arched and frozen eyebrows, animated mannequins, mimic life. Like all parasites, these faux forms are getting an epic dose of that old curative – strong sunlight.

As the contrast in this realm is turned way up, the profane is revealed, its sham mimicry dissolving, as the Profound laughs gladly with a full heart, at the usurping mockery, that would hold all life in thrall.

The craven shape breaks apart, the spell is fizzer, sorcery pops like a cheap firework, the record skips and the DJ slips.

Horus pins Set.

As Autumn brings a dying season, Spring in the southern hemisphere is just beginning

Spring brings storms. As winter groans and breaks and fades, the gates of Hades finally swing shut on the age of Kali Yuga, the noisy undead of this epoch will again fall mute.

This realm rebukes the interloping shades, the Ancestors hold firm ground. Our song is their song mingled with our own. We sing in an age of Ages, four colours on the wheel, the Universe pivots as it should.

The fire of life, invigorates the eternal spark in all benevolent beings, now free of the gloom of a passing, savage age.

Blessings!

©2010 RFitzgerald

Rodney Fitzgerald is a New Zealander, a Kiwi. This guest blog is part of our series of guest-writerly blogs.

Others in the series to be featured here (along with those already featured) include:

Cathy Evans
Hart Johnson
Pete Madstone (May 2010)
Natasha Ramarathnam
Genie Rayner (October 2010)
Rob Read
Mehal Rockefeller (April 2010)
Catrien Ross of Energy Doorways
Tara Smith (September 2010)
Jim Vires (October 2010)

And the following delight from Chris OneFeather at BlogTalkRadio:

Balancing Eggs on Equinox
Dust from the Comet’s Tail

OneFeatherBlogTalkRadio

About this time every year, the leaves start to change, the air cools, and news about a familiar balancing act starts to surface. So what is the Autumnal Equinox and what’s the deal with balancing an egg on that day?

The Autumnal Equinox is the point during the second half of the year, when the sun is directly shining on the Equator. This day is known for marking the first day of Fall in the northern hemisphere. The reason why is all due to the position of the sun. When the sun shines at 90 degrees at the Equator, the entire Earth will experience 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night (This skews a few minutes around the Equator and North/South Poles, but it’s still pretty close). In fact, Equinox literally means “equal night.” Beyond that, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, our days will continue to get shorter.

On Equinox, September 23rd, the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south at 03:09 UT. This astronomical event marks the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the south, Full 'harvest' moon occurs just six hours later at 9:11 UT

It is important to note, the Autumnal Equinox is set on the day in which the sun reaches 0 degrees latitude; therefore, it is not always on the same exact date. This year, the exact time is at 8:09 Pacific time. That’s why half of our calendars are marked with Thursday, September 23 as the first day of fall, since that is the first full day.

So, why the egg trick? This myth originated in China attached to the beginning of Spring. It relates to eggs representing new life, as does springtime for many agricultural areas. Over the years, the myth became famous at both equinoxes and is now more of a fun parlor trick for your friends. The assumption with this myth is that during equinox, a special balance of gravitational forces exists across the Earth. Although scientists have tried to bust this myth for years, the popular urban legend lives on. The actual truth is that the main gravitational force acting on the egg is the Earth’s gravitational force; which determines the weight of the egg. In fact, the moon is responsible for more changes in gravitational forces (i.e. tides) than the sun is.

So, can you balance an egg on an equinox? The answer is Yes. However, with a little patience, you can balance an egg any day of the year.

If the scientist in you is not quite ready to bust this myth so quickly, try your own experiment at home. Today, take a break and hold an egg with its wider part on a flat surface. Give the egg a minute or so to allow the liquid to settle in the bottom. Then, start carefully trying to achieve equilibrium, and therefore a free standing egg. Once you’ve mastered this, try it off and on throughout the year and see what happens!

Despite scientific inaccuracies with this myth, it is still a fun trick to try with your family and friends. After the Autumnal Equinox, the days will start getting shorter and the officially Fall will begin.

Ed: I want to thank Fitzy and Chris OneFeather for their contributions. We need to share more thoughts like these around this time of year. Thank you both.