Ampersand Gazette #36
Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest …
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Next up, the universe. Credit...Valero Doval
“A mood board is an idea. A world is a place that triggers all my senses,” she said. “How does a place smell? What sounds do I hear? What does it feel like when I touch it? A world is alive, versus a mood board, which is something that lives on a corkscrew board.”
From an article in the Style Section of The New York Times
“Don’t Call It a Mood Board—It’s a World”
April 16, 2023
I laughed when I read this article. A mood or a world. Both! The featured world creators therein happen to be in the business of brand creation. So?
So, every writer in the world creates both a mood and a world.
So, most importantly, does every person.
Yeah, read that again.
You create your mood. You create your world.
That’s so … bold, isn’t it?
Now that doesn’t mean you create everything in your world, but your mood about everything in your world is strictly your creation. Yep. What that means is that if the current political circus is getting your goat, there is something you can do about it. Now.
Here’s an example. Recently I worked with someone in his fifties who has had anxiety issues since before he could talk, for real. I told him I thought it would be a bad idea to try to get rid of his anxiety. It was too much a part of him.
Now that’s counterintuitive, isn’t it?
Not really. The moment I said I thought he should keep it, our work started getting much more effective much more quickly. Why? Because I’d removed his expectation that I would ‘make him’ get rid of something that was so much a part of him.
Now most of the folks I work with who have anxiety want to tell it good-bye for good in no uncertain terms, but not this particular person. He needs his. His ego structure would falter if it left him.
But he does not need to keep resisting then, either. He can have his anxiety and go forward at the same time. What were we working with? His mood about it.
The etymology of the word mood is from the 16th century. It’s based on the word mode, namely, how one goes about something.
Our world, Beloved, your world and mine, is definitely affected by our moods, by how we view it. Managing your mood is a necessary skill these days.
The easiest way to do that is to notice it, name it, and make a choice. Do you like your mood? Yes? Good. Leave it be. No? Okay, what could you choose instead?
My default mood, fwiw, is always inner peace. If I can have inner peace about anything, I can let it be. Try it, and let me know how it goes.
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When faced with an overwhelming adversary, the best strategy is to compete asymmetrically.
In simple terms, that means don’t go head to head where your opponent is strongest.
Instead, identify areas where you have advantages and only compete there.
Shawn Twing
from “Emergent Marketing Newsletter” by André Chaperon & Shawn Twing
one of the best marketing newsletters ever
March 31, 2023
Shawn Twing was writing about the flurry of worry that had arisen in the world of business writing, copy writing, and email marketing over the latest AI magic. The subtext of the Henny Pennys was, “We’re all about to be replaced by ’bots! Help!”
By then, I was deep into writing the second book of The Subversive Lovelies, on page 271 of 468 of Jasmine Increscent—more than halfway through.
Did I stop? Did I wail? Did I gnash my teeth? Did I wring my hands like a nineteenth century heroine in a melodrama?
No. I laughed.
Honestly, my inbox was full of variations on “The sky is falling!” for days.
Editors and publishers wrote posts about how AI generated manuscripts were inundating them.
Freelance copywriters were certain they would be out of work in moments.
Because artificial intelligence can write? Of course it can. It’s made in our image and likeness. Most humans can write. AI can write.
Ah. But what can it write?
Could it possibly have written my Jasmine? No, of course not. I’m a discovery writer. I don’t write from an outline. I write from my imagination when I show up at the page. Even if I’d uploaded up to page 271 in an AI app, it still couldn’t and wouldn’t have done what I ended up doing when I finished it on Beltane as had been my goal.
One of the things I discovered in my research for Jasmine is that Diamond Jim Brady was the first person ever to ride in an automobile on the streets of New York City. In 1895. Sailing down Fifth Avenue at the outrageous clip of eleven miles per hour, he caused a two-hour traffic jam down near Madison Square. The police fined him and forbade him to use the car during business hours.
People turned out by the hundreds to see him fly down Fifth Avenue, and were absolutely certain that these newfangled machines would never catch on.
Well, we all know what happened. So cars replaced horses, and airplanes replaced iron horses, and the world kept spinning on its axis.
Things change. Perhaps the basic law of the universe. Things change.
Well, cars go faster than horses, so things changed. And planes go faster than trains, and so things changed. And writers are persons who have bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits that we pour into what we write, and when AI came along, we were glad because things were changing and that meant that some of the scut work of writing could be handled by machines, and things are going to continue to change for as long as you are alive, Beloved.
So, let’s leave Henny Penny happily in her nest on a rural farm, and instead, welcome change because the moment we do, it’s no longer a threat. It’s a tool we can use unless … we can’t.
And in publishing news …
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Sadly, ignite the light expo has been cancelled for now. I think it will be rescheduled.
I was so looking forward to speaking with Lauren Grace again. I think we will likely arrange a one-off evening some time this fall.
Stay tuned.
The Soulful Conversation at OneSpirit Learning Alliance was a big hit. We explored some lovely details about how to use your intuition. If the emails I received afterward were any indication, I’ll likely be invited to present again.
I did my interview with Christian de la Huerta for the Reclaiming Our LGBTQ Spiritual Heritage virtual summit, June 17-24. We had much fun, but more importantly, we talked deeply about resistance and how it’s just not a workable strategy anymore, not in this contentious environment. Instead, we need to learn to resist without being in resistance.
We also talked about the theme of my new historical series, The Subversive Lovelies, although not in that context. The tagline for that series is “someone always goes first,” and Christian pointed out—the man’s known me for thirty years—that I am always one of those go-first people. It’s true. Eldest child. What can I say?
Here’s the sign-up: https://consciousleaderssummit.com/optin-545884751675376506103
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I did finish Jasmine Increscent on our wedding anniversary, May 1st. So happy! I’m rereading now, and titling chapters. Then Tony will do his edit, and then I’ll put his edits into play.
He’s such an integral part of my writing process, it’s hard to estimate the value he provides. All through the process, if I have questions or want to check something out before I commit to it, he’s right there, present, and willing to talk. He sees things I would never in a million, squillion years see, and it makes my writing better because of it.
Yesterday morning, I began to create a packet for my cover designer, the Book Goddess a.k.a. Victoria Davies. If you need one, email me, and I’ll gladly pass along her information. She’s a genius. There will be a cover reveal soonish, I hope.
True to form, I started Book Three, Gemma Eclipsing, on May 2nd. The interesting thing to me is that I’ve just kept writing every day. When I worked on Jasmine, I wrote three thousand words a day, relentlessly, for ten-and-a-half weeks. Now with Gemma, I’m writing about seven hundred and fifty each day. No idea where that’s going to end up. I’ll keep you posted.
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Beloved, no matter what is happening in our world, you have dominion between your own ears. Make sure you gift yourself with some time within each day. Your choices, and your life, will be the better for it. Until next time, be ampersand, S.