8 Pentacles - Kavanah

As noted previously, this is a chapter in a book about the Tarot aimed at Intermediate students of Tarot, not beginners or advanced students. It is particularly aimed at writers looking to learn World Building and Alien Character building.

Updated and expanded compilation of all these Tarot Just For Writers entries is now available on Kindle:

The Wands and Cups Volumes and  the Swords and Pentacles Volumes, are now all available separately on Kindle.  The 5 Volumes combined are also available on Kindle as one book, cheaper than buying them individually.

The Not So Minor Arcana: Never Cross A Palm With Silver Aug 30, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0108MC26O

The Not So Minor Arcana: Wands Sept. 1, 2015  99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVPKU

The Not So Minor Arcana: Cups Sept. 11, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106SATX8

The Not So Minor Arcana: Swords  Sept. 17, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0100RSPM2

The Not So Minor Arcana: Pentacles  Sept. 21, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVKF0

The Not So Minor Arcana: Books 1-5 combined Sept. 24, 2015 $3.25
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010E4WAOU

This series is designed not for the beginner or the advanced student, but for the intermediate student and specifically for writers doing worldbuilding..

---------------

And Remember: The meaning of a Tarot Minor Arcanum resides in the placement on the Tree of Life (i.e. the number on the card) integrated with the "World" or Suit of the card.

For the Tree of Life and the Jacob's Ladder diagrams see:

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~maggyw/treeladder.html

I don't really go with the way this page explains the Tree, but it is worth thinking about. There are many other ways. For now, ponder the diagrams on this page or Google up some others.

I have been posting here since August 14th, 2007, every Tuesday, the 10 minor Arcana of the suit of Swords. The Ace of Pentacles was posted Oct 23, 2007. The 3 of Pentacles was accidentally posted dated Monday November 5th.

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8 Pentacles - Kavana

We're now talking about the bottom circle of the left hand column (your left as you face the diagram) of Jacob's Ladder.

The Waite Rider card is the picture of the cobbler-like figure making coins - circles with Pentacles on them. It is the master craftsman materializing his art.

And you thought Pentacles (the material world) would lack mysticism especially when manifesting through 8 which is where all of "science" resides?

8 is associated with Mercury (Hermes), which rules thought via Gemini (Air) and Virgo (Earth).

Hermes is associated with Natural Philosophy, the precursor of science and science is organized (Virgo) thought (Gemini).

So what's Kavana?

Well, that's the transliteration of the Hebrew word which is translated as "intention." But it's a lot more than that. It's the central discipline of the magician - focused attention at the soul level.

When it comes to mastering the craft of concentration or meditation, the one hardest thing to grasp is that concentration does not consist of what you are thinking about, nor does meditation consist of thinking of nothing.

This craft of the mind has to do with what you are not-thinking about, more than with what you are thinking about. It is what you exclude from consciousness, or the fact that you exclude all but a certain thing, that brings on the meditative state.

Remember the discussion of 3. To be anything is to not-be everything else. Choice and commitment are an Initiation, a process to be mastered and internalized.

Thus "intention" is focused and narrowed to a laser beam, with all the attention that would be multi-tasking, scanning and recording 360 degrees around you, flicking from issue to issue trying to juggle your life into some semblance of order -- all that force of attention is gathered away from all those "other" issues and brought to bear on one thing and one thing only.

What thing?

Ah, there's the art in this matter.

What to "intend" during this exercise can't really be effectively chosen by the conscious Will.

The lesson of the 8 process is all about the place of the conscious will in the scheme of things. It is not dominant. But it can not be dominated.

The intention to be poured into the crafting of this Pentacle is negotiated through the point where the deepest subconscious mind connects with the soul, communicates with the spirit, and receives energy from the Creator.

How all those levels interior to the human being connect, interact, and function will provide the menu from which to choose an intention for this process. Success or failure will be governed by the degree of Peace that has been achieved.

Here we come to a mystical meaning for the word Shalom - Peace.

Peace isn't lack of war or lack of conflict or lack of disagreement. "Peace" doesn't mean I win; you lose. Shut up and do what I say. (which is the attitude behind the "self-discipline" of dieting.)

Peace does not originate outside the physical body. Peace is a matter of love between the Spirit, Soul, Mind, and Body (all of which consist of many components which can likewise be in conflict.)
Peace is smoothly flowing energy - collimated light; laminar flowing fluid. Peace is energy manifesting effectively and efficiently without collateral damage.

8 of Pentacles works best as the Intention to Craft Peace between Spirit, Soul, Mind and Body.

The Pentacle represents the upward yearning human spirit supported by the 4 "Elements" or "Worlds." Bringing those "Elements" together to cooperate toward a single goal crafts peace.

Remember how I've mentioned that in the scientific view of the universe, the results of your actions are governed by what you do?

If two people in different countries perform the exact same experiment, they "should" get the same results. If they do, it "proves" the hypothesis and advances it to the level of a theory.

In the magical view of the universe, the results of your actions are governed by who you are.

Two people in different countries should perform different actions to get the same results. One person might need money and buy a lottery ticket (and win); another person might need money and write a book titled Harry Potter. Each person has to do that which bespeaks their own personal Identity at the soul level.

Example 1: Two scientists on opposite sides of the globe each run a particle accelerator experiment, certain of their theories and certain the experiment will work because all the ones leading up to this one worked out. Each is certain they will be the first to prove this theory and win a Nobel Prize for it.

S1 runs his experiment and sends the results to the computer. He goes home, triumphant, knowing his results will be ready in the morning.

S2 runs his experiment (truly identical in every regard to S1's) likewise certain he's got it. He sends his results to the computer, and goes home imagining what he'll do with the prize money.

S1 wins the Nobel prize.

S2 is killed in the blast when his accelerator blows up and takes out most of the university campus and his home and all evidence that he achieved the breakthrough first (yeah, no off site backup).

Example 2: Two farmers, one in Canada and one in Argentina, plant crops in their correct season. They've calculated the cost per bushel to produce the yield and guessed the World Market price and sold into the commodity futures market. They each have sound estimates of their profit.

F1 sows, weeds, fertilizes, and reaps. She gets double the yield and makes a nice profit that year, paying debts from the draught of the year before with something left to buy seed for next year.

F2 sows, weeds, fertilizes, and -- doesn't reap. A raging firestorm sweeps in from the prairie and destroys his crop.

Success or failure does NOT entirely depend on what you do or how well you do it.

Of course, if you do nothing, you reap or win nothing. But it is likewise possible for someone who does things "all wrong" to get the promotion, reap the windfall, write the best seller.

From a mystical point of view, it seems that "what" happens to us is not nearly so important as what we learn from the results of our actions and how that learning changes us inside to make peace between spirit and soul.

All that internal change doesn't change "what" happens to you in the world externally -- it changes how it feels when it happens and thus how you respond to events -- and how events then respond to you. The world is an interactive game. The world responds to you, but not so much to what you do.

Back to 5 Pentacles -- remember our writer got her first really bad review in 5 Pentacles and it hit her so hard she lost her self confidence.

In 6 Pentacles, a film option opportunity dropped in her lap, and in 7 Pentacles she sat over cold coffee for hours and hours hesitating to sign the option contract.

The process of 5, 6, 7 is the same as in Swords. A project comes out of the private growth stage of 4, gets hammered in 5, repaired by Love in 6, then the lesson is evaluated and assimilated in 7.

Now in 8, the meaning of that lesson starts to become clear. The mentality becomes involved in judging the evaluation of 7 and how the lesson hammered home in 5 actually fits into the overall life and personality.

This kind of lesson "learned" makes changes in the subconscious, and possibly even in the soul and spirit. These are the lessons that you might (not will) take with you to your next life.

No two people learn the same lesson from the same events.

Here in 8, a new "power" (a skill, knowledge, position, wealth -- some kind of power) has been acquired through the 5, 6, 7 processes and now must be used. (See One; Do One; Teach One)
The Waite Rider deck image is of a cobbler chiseling out a Pentacle on a circle. He's using a skill (practical or arcane) to create a material object which then can be used for something. The image implies it's money -- he's either a Royal Minter (right side up) or a forger of currency (upside down - lesson not well assimilated in 7).

I like to remember the core meaning of 8 Pentacles by calling it "The Initiation of the Mirror Degree" -- which is a mystical experience that rams home the lessons of all the previous processes; "As you Sow; So Shall Ye Reap" and "What Goes Around; Comes Around" and all similar maxims (cliche's all) that indicate you, of your own free will, craft your world with whatever skill (or lack thereof) at your command.

What is inside you is mirrored outside you. By grabbing hold of what's outside you, you can get hold of what's inside you, down underneath the subconscious where your conscious mind can't go, and make changes in yourself by changing your world, then watching your world change to match your new inside. (the Arcane name for this science is Alchemy, so the guy in 8 Pentacles is actually an alchemist changing base metal to gold.)

Change is a process: a cyclical, interactive process of problem solving, part of the scientific method. It is a process of successive approximations.

Mastering a skill is a problem solving sequence: "Oh, that didn't work; what did I do wrong this time?"

The 8 Pentacles let's you see how your Self (your Identity) creates the world around you as a reflection of what is inside you where your intentions are shaped. If there's no peace inside, there will be no peace outside.

In principle, when you can see what you're doing, you can start doing it on purpose, if you're willing to forge a peace with yourself. 8 Pentacles sums up all the foregoing lessons embedded in the processes from Ace of Wands on down to 8 Pentacles. As you craft your own Identity, your Self, so will your world be crafted to match, so that the lessons the world dumps on you will pertain to you and not to someone else.

If you don't like what's going on outside of you -- change something inside.

Take for example, a young runaway teen girl who finds herself on the streets dealing drugs and getting high every night.

She gets shot at, sees where this life is going, and makes a change inside herself. She makes up her mind this life is not going where she wants to go. Then, by "accident" she sits down on a bus bench and sees the 800 hotline number offering help. Because of the change she has made inside herself, now (in 8 Pentacles) she is able to make that phone call.

That bus bench didn't happen to be there by accident, and that 800 number wasn't still legible by accident, and she wasn't sober enough to comprehend the opportunity by accident. The bench had been there all the time. What changed was inside her. She is now crafting her world with her skills.

OK, making a phone call isn't maybe such a lofty skill, but she couldn't do it before she got shot at in 5 Pentacles, got saved by a Good Samaritan in 6 Pentacles, and re-evaluated everything in 7 Pentacles.

90% of the solution to any problem of the real world, just as in algebra, is stating the problem in a useful form.

In reverse, the 8 Pentacles can represent a problem statement that is not in a useful form. It is misdirected problem solving energy.

For example: You want happiness. You look at your life and see all the things you don't have and conclude (because you didn't assimilate Love in the 6 and 7's processes) that you would be happy if you had those things. So you set out to get money in order to buy things.

Sometimes that works, but most often it doesn't because you have put your energies into solving the wrong problem.

You may get the things, and still find yourself unhappy, but now you don't have the energy or the years left to solve the real problem.

This kind of hyperdrive toward solving the wrong problem can result in a feeling of working so hard to no avail, a feeling of futility and failure while others look at you with envy of your success (which attitude only makes your despondency deeper).

In the midst of the 8 Pentacles Reversed process, you often find the syndrome called Type A Personality -- the person who can't sit still and who is far more likely to die young of a heart attack.

In reverse, 8 Pentacles can produce the sort of situation where progress (i.e. earning huge year-end bonuses) is counter productive. You lose your family because you're never home, but boy do you have what to pay alimony with.

Or 8 Pentacles reversed can result from the sort of endless mentation our writer fell into during 7 Pentacles.

Let's rejoin her as she re-reads the option contract for the hundredth time.

Suddenly it dawns on her that she can't decide because she's been evaluating the situation all wrong.

It doesn't matter whether they make this movie or not, or if they do make it, it doesn't matter if they mess it up. What matters is whether she has another book in the pipeline to take advantage of any attention garnered by the movie project.

With 8 Pentacles right side up at last, she can see how this opportunity has resulted from the internal changes she made in herself. Her world has rearranged itself to reflect those inner changes, and now in 8 Pentacles she can see what to do.

She is now confident she can handle whatever results from this option contract. She has spent hours studying this contract. She understands what she can (and can't) use it for. She intends (kavana) to make good use of this opportunity, regardless of what others do, to further her writing career. She will employ all her skills, incorporate all the lessons that have gone before, and work with diligence and impeccable determination.

She picks up the pen and dashes off her signature with a smile.

Wholly focused on externalizing that which she's crafted within herself, she runs into her office, makes a copy for her files, puts the original in the return envelope and takes it to the mailbox -- in the nick of time.

She catches the mailman walking away and hands the envelope to him.

Then she goes back inside to call her agent before the kids get home.

8 Pentacles is SIGNING THE CONTRACT WITH FULL FOCUSED INTENTION. It is a magical act. It creates something real and tangible, coin of the realm. It changes - everything.

The result of that act, in success or failure, will reflect the kavana at that moment more than it will the simple business of affixing a signature.

When you act with kavana, you don't get what you want, think you want, or intend. You can't make things happen with your conscious mind's intention. Kavana comes from deep down, way beneath the subconscious mind, from that place where Identity connects to the Creator.

You can't select kavana and you can't control it because one component of it is you, your own Identity.

It matters more who you are than what you do -- but even who you are doesn't control the world. Everyone else is a "who" with free will and kavana, with needs, wants and desires, with craft and determination. Everyone matters as much as you do.

However, you will note that our writer would not have had an option contract to sign had she not crafted herself and her novel with such energy, application, and vision.

You craft your own corner of the world. It's just like installing a program - everyone of the few people who own this program (are born with this natal chart) have started with the same code to install. But then you install it in the directory you choose on the drive you choose. You select what features of it to install and what to disable. You customize the colors of the display, the font size, etc. You arrange the contents of the dropdown menus. You program the right-click menu. Then you use it to create your own original content (your own life), like nobody else's.

And yet your life will follow a recognizable pattern because others have lived that pattern. The Tarot can reveal a lot about the recognizable pattern of the software you are using to write your life, but relatively nothing about the story you will produce.

Each of these Minor Arcana cards describes one of those archetypal patterns. A Tarot reading can show which menu selections are not grayed-out at the moment, but it can't show which you will select with enough kavana to manifest a change, nor how that change will manifest.

If you're looking for a tool to foretell the future, you're looking in the wrong place. If you're looking for a tool to make sense out of life, you just might find it here if you can look beyond the surface of this tool.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/

Alien Romance. What makes us who we are.... (lite)

I was surprised to find myself blogging aloud on live radio with two anthropologists this week.

Why was I surprised? Because I was hosting one of my "Crazy Tuesday" internet radio shows, and my five guests were authors of faery stories. I might not have been surprised to learn that one speculative romance author in five is an anthropologist. Two seemed more than a coincidence. Moreover, two of my guests have a special interest in crows!

Jacquie Rogers, Eilis Flynn, Elaine Corvidae, Roberta Gellis, and Sahara Kelly called in for a sometimes-learned, occasionally hilarious whirlwind tour of the world's magical beings-- both benign and malign-- from the Japanese Kappa that bites unwary waders below the belt if they splash into his river, through the fairies of the Silk Road, to the crow spirits whose task is to cause the sort of accidents that bring a man and a woman together (Crow-Harmony!), to sirens, selkie, and kelpie.

Anthropology, crows, and fairies... And history.

This isn't the first time that an unrehearsed, free-wheeling chat with other authors has turned up surprises. One week, I had two historians discussing mermaids and seafaring males with a roving eye for the odd manatee.

I've heard of the Romvets, former military ladies who now write action adventure, often with a strong sci-fi bias.

Who are today's story tellers?
Do we have more in common than we imagine?

In our personality types?
In our "other" careers?
In what we studied at university?

(There are endless quizzes we could do on MySpace and Facebook, if we had the time, but most of us are always on some deadline or another)

Or, do we run the gamut of former careers, and it is simply serendipity when a few of us get together and discover how much we have in common?

For what it's worth, I'm an INTJ when I'm not an INTP. I read English and Education at Cambridge, and my school majors were English, History, Art, and Greek Literature in Translation. I've had extensive experience of being "an alien". That's why I write alien romance .

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
Chess-inspired ("mating") titles. Gods from outer space. Sexy SFR. Poking fun, (pun intended). Shameless word-play.

Rowena Cherrry

Sexy and Not-So-Sexy Aliens

Some time ago, we speculated here about what kinds of creatures (if any) would be completely unacceptable as romantic heroes. I recall a comment in a paranormal romance newsletter years ago (in the pre-Internet age) to the effect that scales or tentacles would disqualify a character as a love object. I protested: What about mermaids (scales)? What about Jacqueline Lichtenberg's Simes (tentacles)? On this blog we questioned whether anyone could fall in love with a slimy blob. Odo from DEEP SPACE NINE was offered as an example. On one of my e-mail lists, I recently mentioned a novel by Mercedes Lackey that includes a love affair between a human heroine and a sentient, vaguely humanoid (flightless) bird. I stated my dissatisfaction that we aren't given any details about his lovemaking technique. One of the people on the list expressed the opinion that a giant bird would be totally non-sexy.

So I'd be interested to read some new comments about whether there are any kinds of creatures that can't possibly be made sexy. How about a sentient spider? (Hmm. . . I haven't tried that one; maybe I will.) I made erotic use of tentacles in my Lovecraftian romance novella "Tentacles of Love" (Ellora's Cave). Conversely, what species make especially good alien romance heroes? Personally, I'm partial to shapeshifters (mainly werewolves or werecats), cat people, vampires (the intimate symbolism of blood-sharing), and Jacqueline's Simes (intimate sharing of life energy).

If you haven't read Octavia Butler's short story "Bloodchild," try to find a copy. It's not a romance, but it does focus on an intimate relationship between Earthlings and aliens. The insectile humanoids who dominate the planet have granted Terran refugees a colony on their world in exchange for one service: The giant-centipede-like females lay their eggs in the abdomens of human males. Typically, a female "adopts" a human family, for whom she shows genuine affection. And she tries very hard to remove her young before they grow large enough to eat the host from inside out. Butler manages the dazzling achievement of believably portraying a kind of love between the narrator, a teenage boy in a host family, and his insectile patroness. Butler was quoted as calling this a "pregnant man story."

7 Pentacles - The Right Answer

As noted previously, this is a chapter in a book about the Tarot aimed at Intermediate students of Tarot, not beginners or advanced students. It is particularly aimed at writers looking to learn World Building and Alien Character building.

Updated and expanded compilation of all these Tarot Just For Writers entries is now available on Kindle:

The Wands and Cups Volumes and  the Swords and Pentacles Volumes, are now all available separately on Kindle.  The 5 Volumes combined are also available on Kindle as one book, cheaper than buying them individually.

The Not So Minor Arcana: Never Cross A Palm With Silver Aug 30, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0108MC26O

The Not So Minor Arcana: Wands Sept. 1, 2015  99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVPKU

The Not So Minor Arcana: Cups Sept. 11, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106SATX8

The Not So Minor Arcana: Swords  Sept. 17, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0100RSPM2

The Not So Minor Arcana: Pentacles  Sept. 21, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVKF0

The Not So Minor Arcana: Books 1-5 combined Sept. 24, 2015 $3.25
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010E4WAOU

This series is designed not for the beginner or the advanced student, but for the intermediate student and specifically for writers doing worldbuilding..
---------------

And Remember: The meaning of a Tarot Minor Arcana resides in the placement on the Tree of Life (i.e. the number on the card) integrated with the "World" or Suit of the card.
For the Tree of Life and the Jacob's Ladder diagrams see:

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~maggyw/treeladder.html

I don't really go with the way this page explains the Tree, but it is worth thinking about. There are many other ways. For now, ponder the diagrams on this page or Google up some others.

I have been posting here since August 14th, 2007, every Tuesday, the 10 minor Arcana of the suit of Swords. The Ace of Pentacles was posted Oct 23, 2007. The 3 of Pentacles was accidentally posted dated Monday November 5th.

---------------

7 Pentacles

Here we evaluate the results of all the work that's gone into this project, whatever that project might be. The example we've been following is a writer boldly beginning her first novel and having her adventures after that, however these processes apply to almost anything you can do.

Here in 7 Pentacles our writer applies aesthetic criteria to the results of her labors and tries to figure out what is the right thing to do.

We are looking at the bottom circle in the right hand column of the Jacob's Ladder diagram. Note it has no other circle behind it or superimposed on it.

This part of the Ladder reaches down to mundane reality. This is where all that energy driving the project finally ends up manifesting in our conscious world.

The Suit of Pentacles represents the crystallization of energy -- the forming of concrete objects from philosophical abstract ideas, emotions, and actions, finally ending in something you can see, hear, touch and smell. It may be money, or what money can buy. Or it might be a tool -- or an obstacle you have created for yourself to overcome. It might even be a conundrum to consider so you will leap to a new level of spiritual insight.

This crystallized energy property of matter (yes, once again we're talking pure mysticism) is the reason the laws of magic say that it makes a difference what you say aloud while stirring the stew, what you mutter while hammering a nail, what you wish while quilting the baby's blanket, what you imagine while building a cabinet.

Things built with the power of intention (Wands), emotion, (Cups), and skilled action (Swords), manifest as an object which can outlast similar objects, be treasured by generations, have meaning when viewed in a museum, be studied in universities for hundreds of years, -- or simply change the world.

Compare 7 Pentacles with the 7 of Swords, Cups and Wands. 7 is associated with the various astrological meanings of Venus. Venus rules the natural second house, Taurus (money, and all concrete personal assets) but also the 7th House of personal relationships, Libra.

So 7 Pentacles is not so much about money alone, but rather where in your personal hierarchy of values you place "money." What are you willing to do for money? What won't you do for money? Would you promise to sell your grandmother into slavery? If so, would you deliver?

7's are about values, and those personal subconscious values are inevitably expressed in your personal aesthetic sense -- what you consider pretty, what you find funny, what you see as entertaining, what makes you cry, what makes you angry, what offends you. All that and more reveal what and who you really are, rather than who your parents wanted you to be or who you want the world to think you are.

All of your subconscious motivations, values and internal conflicts become concrete and externalized in 7 Pentacles.

Oh, here comes another cliche. As you sow; so shall yee reap.

That sums up the 7 Pentacles so we should just quit there. But who today knows what that means? There are so many thirty somethings who have hardly ever heard that phrase, as it is banned from television because, not only is it a cliche, it has religious associations. Besides, few today even sow a garden, and many 20 somethings don't know the difference between "sew" and "sow."

A family's very survival used to depend on sowing and reaping. Today people think reaping is done with a huge, expensive machine made by Caterpillar. The metaphor is broken.

But like, "As Above; So Below," "As you sow; so shall yee reap" is a maxim of the magical view of the universe. What you do has consequences that are directly relevant to your soul's journey through life.

And as noted in previous chapters, the Tarot based model of the universe is entirely rooted in Free Will. It is by your own, personal Free Will that you choose your actions.

Unfortunately, you rarely get to choose the consequences your actions produce. Even if you are trained in the methods of concentration and invocation used by practitioners of magic, and you use them, you still don't always get what you intend.

The subconscious mind projects the results of personal values into the material world, not the conscious mind. And that subconscious intention is the crop that grows as a result of actions.

But it isn't quite that simple, even at our Intermediate Level. The conscious mind may oppose the subconscious (and don't forget the levels of spirit and soul -- in the advanced study, you may learn about the 7 levels of soul within a human soul.)

If the conscious opposes the subconscious or has a different agenda, the subconscious may not be able to manifest its product cleanly against that interference. So looking at the material world result of a person's actions does not tell you (exactly) what that person's subconscious intended.

There's no way to reverse-engineer the results of an action to discover the "intent" behind the action because the result is a composite of many factors, and not all those factors originate within the individual who acted way back up there in the Swords processes.

Let's look in on our writer who gritted her teeth and started writing her first novel in Ace of Swords, had her packaging go all awry, finally began another novel in Ace of Pentacles and built a career in 4 Pentacles then lost her confidence in 5 Pentacles only to be offered a plum of a film option in 6 Pentacles.

In 7 Pentacles, she's sitting at the kitchen table over a cold, stale cup of coffee holding the pen with which to sign the option contract her agent negotiated for her.

She's been all over the web reading up on authors who have had films made of their books.

She's re-read some of the books then watched the films. She can see in her mind's eye what a horrible travesty of her book this film will be.

She just has to sign to get the money which she really needs. She remembers that striking moment of inspiration when she decided to write her first novel in Ace of Swords, opened the word processing file and stared at the blank page.

Ideas had been there for years, maybe decades. But in that moment, all the theory (Wands) and yearning (Cups) became the action (Swords) of typing a title.

It took all her courage to type those first words. But "Nothing ventured; nothing gained" so she made her fingers move.

In this moment, sitting over this option contract, knowing what it really means, that first moment of typing her very first words of fiction and this moment of signing her name, signing away creative control (because it's take it or leave it time), are connected without any intervening moments. That first letter she typed feels like it was just yesterday.

This is her dream. It's come true.

But.

And that's what stops her. Her consciously espoused values and what her subconscious has projected into the world don't exactly match.

And now, when it's too late, she realizes that the reason she has to surrender creative control of what amounts to the most important thing she owns (her family is more important but she doesn't own them) is not what she has done -- but rather what she has not done.

She wanted the "big bucks" -- but she didn't stop in her headlong plunge to get these books into print to develop the skills and credentials that would allow her to be trusted to write the script. She had in fact, never really visualized this moment when the option would be before her.

And it's not a contract to make the movie -- it's only an option. Which means the movie might never be made. Nothing may come of this. That's a lesson she learned in 5 Pentacles -- not to be so cocksure she knows what she's doing.

But in 6 Pentacles she learned a lesson hammered home into her subconscious by love which she is now trying mightily to assimilate. Though there were people who scoffed and scorned her novel, there were also those who loved it. Those are the people she wrote it for; those who would understand it.

Remember, this is the author who, when her cover and even her byline were totally messed up by the publisher, adopted the screwed up byline and appeared on local cable TV to give unstintingly of her experiences to those who hadn't yet reached that point.

In 6 Pentacles, something was given back to her, and now she is looking at the prospects opened by that gift of love. And she has to evaluate what all this means.

She can extrapolate events in a straight line from here. She knows what seeing that messed up cover and byline felt like. She knows what the total rejection of 5 Pentacles felt like. She doesn't want to experience that again by seeing the travesty this option will create of her novel.

But in 6 Pentacles, she learned an even deeper lesson.

She learned that life in this world isn't a straight line you can extrapolate like a novel plot. This isn't "Murder, She Wrote" or a "Star Trek" episode. This is real.

Events have meaning. Decisions have consequences. Everything has a price. But the connections between those elements are rarely clear.

And here's the value she has to apply to make her decision about whether to sell her soul for money to feed her family.

To what extent should we, as individuals, act to shape our own destiny -- and to what extent should we bow to a Higher Power?

At what point does humility become pride?

Who are we to know what any given event or opportunity means?

Maybe the director of this film will cherish her heart and soul -- maybe that relationship will lead to a second marriage, the birth of children who will change the world for the better?

Maybe her heart she has poured into this novel will be set on a shelf and forgotten. Maybe an award winning blockbuster film will be made that thematically says the opposite of what she, herself believes. And for that, according to this option, she might get paid residuals for years to come.

Knowing how she arrived at this moment, willy-nilly, on the wings of a hope and a prayer, on naive certainty she knew what she was doing, on sacrifice of her paying job to write these novels, knowing she didn't do this on purpose, she knows she can't consciously impose her choice of what will happen as a result of her next action. Furthermore, she's learned that total control of her world by herself might not be the best possible idea.

So she sits over her cold coffee, cream congealing, pen poised, and ponders.

What she's really doing is letting the lesson of love learned in 6 Pentacles soak into her subconscious and change her on a level she can't consciously reach.

The lesson of love in 6 Pentacles, just like the lesson of Love in 6 Swords, has its roots in the harrowing experience of the previous 5 process, which couldn't have happened had nothing been grown in the preceding 4 process, and so on back to the origin in Ace of Wands.

The philosophical abstracts upon which she's founded her life are sweeping through her mind, dragging waves of emotion in their wake, which cause jittering jerks of action toward signing, not signing, swishing the coffee around in its mug, glances at the clock.

She has to sum it all up and make a value judgement.

If she hasn't the energy to form that judgement (either a yes, or a resounding no), or if she's conditioned against forming value judgements (if she hasn't practiced by judging the values of others) she will become trapped in a 7 Pentacles Reversed situation.

All that she's endured from Ace of Swords on down will have produced valid work, good novels that entertained thousands, but she will have nothing to show for it all and will have to start a new project, perhaps a new career.

It is the forming of the judgement that is the process here -- not "getting the right answer."
We search incessantly for the right answer. We are conditioned from early grades in school to find the right answer, to get the right answers on tests, to be right.

We can spend our whole life searching for that one and only right answer.

"What does this Tarot card actually mean?"

"What should I do now?"

"What will happen to me next month?"

We ask that kind of question never suspecting that the formulation of the question leads us away from useful answers (not "right" answers; useful answers).

Having brought a project down from Ace of Wands, through Cups, into Swords where action is taken, and now deep into Pentacles -- here, in 7 Pentacles we have to figure out what we've learned, what we have actually produced, how what we've learned has changed us so that what we've produced is no longer a valid representation of what lies within.

We may learn here in 7 Pentacles that questions about values and relationships don't have answers, but rather like algebra, they have solutions.

Venus represents the subjective reality of our personal, internal life and the subconscious drives that govern (not control, govern) our personal relationships.

What is the "right" thing to do at a decision-moment like signing a coveted contract is a question that has a solution -- but no "answer."

It's not arithmetic. It's not a calculation. But it's not random either.

What this author does in this moment will have consequences. There will be a link between her action at this point and the ultimate consequence, but the nature of that ultimate consequence arises more from Divine Will than from Human Will (though both are involved).

To sign or not to sign isn't the question.

No matter what she does, she may have vast financial success or end up dying as a street person. There is no "right" answer to this kind of question.

But the question must be answered. To refuse to answer is in fact an answer and will have consequences.

So, if it doesn't matter "What" you do -- then what does matter?
Harmony. Peace.

That is ultimately what Venus is all about, and the 7's moments are Venus moments. They are moments when you take all the experiences that have come before in all these processes we've discussed and synthesize them into beauty.

To get the optimum consequence from this moment, (not right, not wrong, not best, not avoiding disaster, not defying disaster, just optimizing your performance in your personal, subjective life) -- you must use all that's come before this moment to bring your conscious and subconscious minds into harmony if not actual agreement.

You must internalize Love (the 6's) and love yourself.

All relationships are rooted in your own love of yourself, your own ability to have compassion for your tormented subconscious. To the extent that you love yourself, you will be able to love your spouse and children. To the extent you have compassion for your subconscious, you will have compassion for your intimate associates. That's the secret of solid novel plotting.

And that's why our author is sitting there so long, pen poised over this opportunity of a lifetime, hesitating.

She has to write her name in a moment when her subconscious, conscious, mind and soul and spirit are all in harmony. She has to be at peace internally to create peace as a result of this document.

That's it. Magic is subjective. Love is the glue that holds the universe together.

Having been through 3 previous 8's and 3 previous 9's and 3 previous 10's, she has a good notion what challenges await her in 8 Pentacles, 9 Pentacles, and 10 Pentacles. (You should by now, too.)

She knows that if she acts without internal conflict, she will be able to negotiate through the coming mine-fields to the end-of-life experience she prefers.

She has learned a lot (maybe not all there is, but a lot) about internal conflict by crafting it for her characters and writing about the results. She's learned the shape of the world by doing that, but she knows she's no hero. It takes more than she's got to do what she knows she must.
So where's it going to come from?

Magic is subjective. In the mystical realms, it doesn't matter what you do nearly so much as it matters who you are when you do it.

Remember, your values, summed up in the 7's, tell the world "who" you are by determining what you like, what repels you, what makes you laugh, etc. And those values bespeak "who" you are to the universe, as you act.

So whether she signs or not won't determine her fate or the fate of her novels.
But what she thinks and feels and does as she signs will determine at least some of the outcome, if not the path to that outcome. And what she thinks, feels and does is determined by those internal values, by her Identity.

Still, this one single act of signing an option contract won't change things so very much. Life is made up of a myriad acts. The policy which generates those acts (determined by her values, thus by her Identity) will ultimately determine the significance of what happens -- but it won't determine exactly what happens.

Your destiny isn't graven in stone. You craft it yourself, but you don't craft it by yourself.

Venus is about relationships and values, two of the ingredients necessary to shape your destiny because they are defining elements in your Identity.

Back to the ancient wisdom encoded in the weary, shunned cliche.

As you sow; so shall you reap. Be careful what you pray for; you might get it. Better late than never.Neither borrower nor lender be.

The results of our efforts that come to fruition in 7 Pentacles are determined by the aim we took at our goals in Ace of Wands, then Ace of Cups, then Ace of Swords, then Ace of Pentacles, and by the level of harmony within us at the time of Ace of Wands. That was many processes and experiences ago!

Crafting a life is like astrogation -- a very tiny increment of an angle difference in course at blast off to a distant galaxy can result in arriving at a very different galaxy. The 7's allow for mid-course corrections in life.

So whether she signs or not doesn't matter nearly so much as how much internal harmony she has achieved because of the experience of Love and Charity in 6 Pentacles.

If she acts in harmony now, the film gets made, maybe it doesn't resemble her novel very much, but it says what she became a writer to say. The message reaches far and wide and makes a difference in some lives. The world is enriched and her next novel provides enough new contracts that she can finish a good career and retire.

Or perhaps the film never gets made, she inherits a fortune she never expected (or wins the lottery) and can retire in comfort.

If she's in internal angst and conflict instead of harmony, if she's held motionless over this option contract because she must bludgeon her subconscious into submission, then most likely she will sign and the film will get made.

But it won't resemble her novel at all, says the opposite of what she personally values, and it bombs at the box office, ruining her reputation as a writer. Her 3rd and 4th novels are given no publicity. She can't sell a 5th no matter what she does. And she wonders if she did the right thing trying to become a writer.

Yet another possibility is that the film gets made, says the opposite of what she values, and is a smashing success. But her subsequent novels don't live up to the promise of the film because deep down, she simply doesn't believe what the film says and can't mimmick that philosophical stance.

Bottom line: you can't guide your life on purpose. You may have an intuitive sense of what your life is or will be, and you may actually end up at that point, but it won't be conscious choice that creates that end. Nor is it destiny.

The theory behind the Wisdom behind the Tarot is all about the soul and the spirit, the intangible part of the human being that survives death of the body. The Tarot is the "Royal Road" to Wisdom, not material success, nor even "happiness."

And so the cards have no "meaning" at the intermediate level and there is no "right answer" nor any roadmap to destiny or way to avoid disaster.

Still, it isn't random. It isn't futile. It isn't all just smoke and mirrors. And it most especially is not a matter of opinion with anyone's opinion being equal to anyone else's.

There is, this ancient wisdom insists, a very well defined objective reality out there, and it is within human purvue to apprehend that objective reality. The shape of it, and its rules of function, are encoded in the Tree of Life and the extension ladder of 4 Trees called Jacob's Ladder.

When you stop obsessing on finding "the" meaning of Tarot cards or a Reader who is "good," or "psychic," you will be able to place your foot on the bottom rung of the ladder that leads to solutions, not answers.

Because there are so many variables in life, there are no "right" answers, no one thing that works for everyone all the time. But there are workable, usable, general solutions to common equations.

Most of your life, even though it is unique, is just exactly like everyone else's life. That's why film makers and novel publishers want stories that are identical to successful ones - but also new, fresh, startling and unique.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

http://www.simegen.com/jl/

More Reader Round Robin Fun: Best Character in a Sinclair Novel

I queried the almost five hundred fans on my reader group as to which of my characters was their favorite. Answers were all across the board, and fun! Here's a peek at a sampling. Who's YOUR favorite?

Sully, Sully, Sully. He transcended his own history, even his own humanity, to become a "new man". He has savior written all over him. I admire Mack's open-mindedness and willingness to think outside the box, to consider more than what his eyes tell him. Rhis is hero material but doesn't quite make the shift from a great guy to 'I want him!'. Kel-Paten pretty much left me cold. – Marydot

Oh my God, I'm half in love with Kel-Paten! He's the reason I began reading your books and recommending them to my friends. He's my perfect romance story hero. He's super intelligent, vulnerable but striving to keep it secret, loyal to his lady love, sweet and tentative about love and yet intensely passionate underneath it all, and just so handsome in an austere way. He's Mr Darcy for the Sci Fi Romantic. – Brekke

Mack. Or maybe Kel-Paten. Hmm. I would have to think about that. Can I be honest? I really like the books and the heroes are good, but I actually like them more because I like the female characters and identify with them. – Birgit

Kel-Paten but only just, because he is so vulnerable despite his strength. – Lynne Connolly

Trilby: intense, independent, needing tenderness and soft/hot to touch. – Gerard

Sully. He's unique and different and the ultimate hero. Yes, he's got issues, but he works with them and not against them. Mack would be my second choice. He's willing to do what is necessary - even if it's a bit
unconventional - to get the job done. – Vicky B

Ooooo, that's a hard one! Do I HAVE to pick one, Linnea? See, I love Rhis and Sully and Kel Paten, so it's tantamount to treason of the heart to have to pick one of these luscious men. But, if I absolutely had to pick which one I'd want to be stranded on a spaceship with, it would be Gabriel Sullivan, Sully of the wicked smile and dark good looks (and I am more of a fan of redheads in real life!). Gabriel Sullivan was just so smart, charismatic and hot that I felt that Chaz should have hauled him off to the sack long before she did and just had her way with him...I know *I* certainly would have, in my younger days. I have a thing for smart, charismatic men of great talent, such as Steve Jobs, Sting, Alan Rickman, etc...brains and wit do it for me. Add an English or Scottish accent and I have no resistance at all to falling at said males feet in a swoon of lust! LOL. – DeAnn R

Sully all the way. He's got the most life experiences and has his own agenda rather than being part of a military organization. He's comes off as being the most unique of your heroes. – Misty R

Sully. Any man who says: "all that I am is yours" knows the true meaning of love. –Velvet

Kel-Paten. Why? Just imagine what a bio-cybe could accomplish between the sheets! Plus, he's a little lost boy inside with a world of love to give, and for so long his real personality is hidden, invisible. Doesn't get any more tortured than that. – Heather

Oh gosh, I have to pick only ONE? Has to be Kel-Paten. Super smart, powerful, tall dark and handsome, mysterious, incredibly sexy, vulnerable heart.- Donna M

Kel-Paten. Because I'm a sucker for the strong, silent types with a hidden weakness. Because he's a survivor in a world where ANYBODY could kill him by reporting him to Psy-Serv. Sorta like Superman, only
better. –Mary K

Kel-Paten - he's so different - and he's become human even though he's not supposed to. Then he's managed to keep both his humanity and love secret. And he's sooooo sweet because he doesn't know what to do! He's feeling his way into love and all the other feelings humanity brings while he tries so hard to keep the persona that was forced on him. – Kathleen

Lady Sass primarily because she has that quirky sense of humor even when being in the command mode :) – Mikey

Rhis, Sully, Mack or Kel-Paten, and WHY? Gosh, hard to pick as I liked them all while I was engrossed in the story but in the end I'll pick the most basic-model human, Mack. –Jen

Being an Equal Opportunity Employer, I think I would want them all. Think of the orgy that would be. Although I would still probably be the guy holding the blender while everybody else was involved in "reindeer games". SIGHS DRAMATICALLY... –Skipper skippy

~Linnea
http://www.linneasinclair.com/

Space Saver

For the past two or three Sundays, instead of posting, I've nipped in, written "space saver" as a title, and "space saver" as the message, and saved it as a draft, which means no one but another admin member of this blog can see it.

One day, I'll write something and it will post retroactively on those past Sundays... but if a writer does not reserve their space, the window closes.

"Space Saver" seems a pretty good pun for a wanna-be sfr writer, and pondering the pun may have inspired me to think of the ultimate space-saving means of competitive entertainment, but I'm going to have to see if it survives editing before I share it.

Do feel free to record your guesses in Comments, if you wish.


By the way, I saw the link to this article posted on the FFandP yahoogroup loop, and thought some sfr/rsf readers and authors might be interested.

http://horrorworld.org/columns.htm


Today's link goes to a new blog-of-blogs that I just started: bloglinkhoppers If you wish to join in and have your own blog's link added to the list, please contact me privately... Comments won't take HTML for obvious reasons.

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

Martian Child Revisited

I've just read THE MARTIAN CHILD, by David Gerrold, the basis of the movie I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago. I like the movie better, surprisingly. (I usually feel movies don't measure up to their book sources.) What I enjoyed more about the film were the quirky Martian-like behaviors Dennis performed. In the book, he's more of a mundane troubled little boy, aside from his claim to be a Martian. The concept of a "Martian wish," however, features in both the book and the movie, and in the book it plays a critical part in the very touching resolution at the end. The novella by the same title published in the 1990s in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION allows a lingering ambiguity as to whether Dennis is really from another planet. Both the novel and the movie make it clear that his Martian identity is a delusion (or a conscious pretense?) and a metaphor. Still, I find it a compelling metaphor, and one factor unique to the book that appeals to me is the author's memory of his own sense of isolation in childhood—because of being "the smallest and smartest"—along with his dream that someday the aliens would come and take him to his true home and people. Many of us share that childhood fantasy, especially those who read speculative fiction. At least, I know I strongly identify with it!

Like the film, the novel comes to the conclusion that we all begin life as "Martians" who need to "learn to be human." It's a quick read and yet emotionally engaging. Although this book is marketed as fiction, apparently it stays very close to the author's actual experience in adopting his son. It doesn't give any information on how far the story departs from the actual events. As one of the online comments I read asks, why did Gerrold bother to fictionalize it at all? Why not straight autobiography? I haven't come across the answer to that question.

6 Pentacles - The Social Contract

As noted previously, this is a chapter in a book about the Tarot aimed at Intermediate students of Tarot, not beginners or advanced students. It is particularly aimed at writers looking to learn World Building and Alien Character building.

Updated and expanded compilation of all these Tarot Just For Writers entries is now available on Kindle:

The Wands and Cups Volumes and  the Swords and Pentacles Volumes, are now all available separately on Kindle.  The 5 Volumes combined are also available on Kindle as one book, cheaper than buying them individually.

The Not So Minor Arcana: Never Cross A Palm With Silver Aug 30, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0108MC26O

The Not So Minor Arcana: Wands Sept. 1, 2015  99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVPKU

The Not So Minor Arcana: Cups Sept. 11, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106SATX8

The Not So Minor Arcana: Swords  Sept. 17, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0100RSPM2

The Not So Minor Arcana: Pentacles  Sept. 21, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVKF0

The Not So Minor Arcana: Books 1-5 combined Sept. 24, 2015 $3.25
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010E4WAOU

This series is designed not for the beginner or the advanced student, but for the intermediate student and specifically for writers doing worldbuilding..

---------------
And Remember: The meaning of a Tarot Minor Arcana resides in the placement on the Tree of Life (i.e. the number on the card) integrated with the "World" or Suit of the card.

For the Tree of Life and the Jacob's Ladder diagrams see:

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~maggyw/treeladder.html

I don't really go with the way this page explains the Tree, but it is worth thinking about. There are many other ways. For now, ponder the diagrams on this page or Google up some others.

I have been posting here since August 14th, 2007, every Tuesday, the 10 minor Arcana of the suit of Swords. The Ace of Pentacles was posted Oct 23, 2007. The 3 of Pentacles was accidentally posted dated Monday November 5th.

---------------

6 Pentacles

What goes around comes around. Yep, I'm still on cliches.

As much as the 5 of Pentacles is about isolation, loneliness and being unable to get anyone to listen, unable to get psychological validation from another human being, the 6 of Pentacles is about connectivity.

6's are about Love, and how love opens the psyche to receive Beauty.

The shock-and-awe of the apperception of the Beauty which fuels the Universe is the essence of 6, the center of the Tree of Life.

Look at the Jacob's Ladder diagram. We are now talking about the 3rd circle up from the bottom of the MIDDLE column.

Under that 6 of Pentacles lies the 10 of Swords, so these two processes are related harmonics.

6 of Pentacles is immensely complicated because it is in fact so very simple. It is love. We've grappled with this before, discussing the 6 of Swords.

In Swords, we did not discuss how the 6 of Swords overlays the 10 of Cups, and is overlain by the Ace of Pentacles. We just tried to tease out the meaning of 6 Swords without getting so complicated.

The 10 of Cups is a vast and stable emotional joy -- a psychological stability. The 6 of Swords is a journey to start over somewhere else, despite dragging your habits with you (good or bad habits, you drag them everywhere).

The Ace of Pentacles is the start of materializing something new (not always good, just materializing whatever project you've been working on).

Here in the 6 of Pentacles, we hit the 6-note again, harmonizing with the previous 6's and bringing it all down into concrete manifestation.

How do you concretize G-d's love?

Well, a good start is Charity.

But mostly people think of Charity as giving to those less fortunate, those who have less. And its often just physical things that get donated.

But very often, the most meaningful kind of Charity is done just within your own mind, quietly inside your thoughts and opinions, your thought-habits (10 Swords).

Political correctness requires that we not judge people's values, and most especially that we not judge on a double standard.

But it's very possible that true Charity requires a double standard.

Not everyone can do what you have done -- so should you require everyone to measure up to the standard by which you judge yourself?

Look at it backwards. If you find yourself wanting, should you necessarily judge others by a higher standard?

And some people "put others on a pedestal" in order to devalue themselves.

But if you judge everyone against the same standards, you aren't "handicapping" (as in golf or gambling). You aren't allowing for the inherent differences among us.

Charity may in fact mean that you judge each person you meet against their own ideal condition.

But of course, you not being Infinitely Wise, can't possibly know what that ideal condition is. In fact, you can't know what your own ideal condition is!

So what are we to do? Not judge anyone? Political correctness indicates that one should not ever pass value judgements.

Wouldn't it be nice if life were that simple? One rule that always applies.

Something about that idea makes me suspicious.

If life were that simple, would the Tarot deck need so many cards to describe the process of living?

In the 5 of Pentacles, we experienced solitude, loneliness, and learned self-reliance. We learned to get rid of some of our emotional baggage and other clutter to make room for that which others value.

That housecleaning left us able to re-enter social interaction after the long, quiet building process of 4 Pentacles.

What we built in 4 Pentacles we are now able to SHARE with others by accepting into the spot emptied by housecleaning, what they have to share with us.

So maybe we can't judge the value systems other live by as better or lesser than our own. So maybe all we can judge is how compatible someone else's values are with our own -- at this particular time.

Everyone changes all the time, though we change within the parameters delineated by our natal charts. We can become a better example of our self, but we can't become someone else or live someone else's life.

However, at any given moment, we can respond to compatibility -- that what the Other has to share fits nicely into the empty spot within us while what we have to share fits into their empty spot.

Cliche: You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours.

And that's the Giving and Receiving contract represented by 6 Pentacles.

Once again, the Waite Rider deck images miss the point somewhat. The essence of Charity is not the wealthy giving to the poor. The essence of Charity is the Social Contract. It's not about what I have and what you have -- it's about what we have.

Yeah, love is a contract -- a legal contract! Isn't that awful?

But in a way it's true. Every human interaction is based on a contract of some sort -- a "you do this; I do that" contract.

Mystically, G-d came to Avram and said, "Come walk in my ways and I'll make of you a great nation." That's a contract. And again at Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments were given as a contract -- you do this; I'll do that. G-d interacts with humankind via a legal contract.

All human relationships mirror that, as do all civilizations.

The contract part is the concrete part, the Pentacles part of the deal.

6 is Love, the love of Beauty and the Beauty of love.

The contract of love is reciprocity -- to allow one's self to be affected, changed, as much as one offers to affect the other.

For the most part, the terms of the contract of love are unspoken, mostly subconscious and therefore un-speakable because you, yourself, don't know your own terms -- and therefore the whole contract is subject to misunderstanding.

That misunderstanding often manifests as co-dependence, sometimes in a healthy way, and sometimes not. See 5 Swords again.

So 6 Pentacles is about the individual's pairing contract mirroring the social contract which mirrors the mystical contract the Creator made with humankind.

So to figure out the 6 of Pentacles, we have to start at the top, the origin.

As we discussed in Swords, creation was Created by a Word. Much later, we learned what that Word was about via the Ten Commandments.

It's no co-incidence there are 10 Sepheroth of the Tree of Life and 10 Commandments. Trust me, no coincidence at all!

We learned that if we follow these 10 simple rules, there will be Abundance. Vast Abundance! The Universe is Abundant. It's a Law and part of the Contract. (remember the Swords discussion of the Zero Sum Game model vs. the model of Abundance).

So how come there are poor people and rich people? And the richest aren't always the best at following Commandments!

The theory is (more mysticism here) that the vast abundance flows into the world unevenly, and some people are challenged (remember, you can't judge other people very well, being a person yourself) to develop ways of redistributing the extra that they get. Yeah, being rich is (cliche!) no bed of roses.

Conundrum: If you find that you need to get more, the way to get more is to GIVE more.

So those who start out with extra and figure out how to give, (it's not that easy - look at the celebrity-gossip headlines!) find they have even more than they started with.

But it's also true that some of those who start out with too little have become prosperous after doing Charity.

Remember the movie where the fellow will inherit a fortune if he can figure out how to spend a million dollars in a short time? It was a comedy, but could be remade as an Alien Romance.

We all know from experience that giving doesn't bring more right away.

You can't (usually) get by deliberately giving for the purpose of getting.

Remember the discussion in 5 Pentacles of discarding some of the irrelevant bits accumulated in 4 Pentacles? You discard what you don't need to make room to accept something from someone else, something they cherish (an idea, a value, a joy, whatever).

Relationships are established and nurtured by exchanging such personal bits of individuality.

One of the most difficult principles of Kabbalah is Giving and Receiving. Receiving is very likely the single most difficult occult concept of all.

6 Pentacles is the process during which we complete the circuit with G-d, receiving the Love He gives and giving to others in reflection of that. This process leaves us more and more capable of loving G-d.

This process is not so simple. How many of us are even capable of letting ourselves be loved by another human being, never mind the Creator of us all?

It's a pump - you have to prime it.

Young people today don't know how to prime a pump -- all their sinks come with faucets and their cars don't have carburetors. How are they supposed to learn about love?

Well, by attempting to participate in giving and receiving, even by deliberately giving in order to get, we start to open ourselves up.

It is a stepwise process, taking many lifetimes. Eventually Pentacles can be understood in a whole new light. (when I get there, I'll let you know what color that light is)

Story characters, just like some people, often set out to get rich, to make money, to amass wealth. We like to read stories about the wantonly rich. The TV Show Colombo was about an ordinary Los Angeles Detective who investigated murders among the grandly wealthy the city is known for. His rumpled trenchcoat became an icon!

There is a fascination in how the "other half" lives. And in the USA, it is possible for the poorest among us to become the richest. So we're fascinated to a purpose.

Often, wealth is chosen as a goal. And we read many stories about people who became "hard-hearted" as they pursue that goal.

Cliche: Money Is The Root Of All Evil.

How can that be if one whole quarter of Jacob's Ladder, the path to Heaven, is formed of Pentacles? The Suit of Coins?

What's wrong with wanting to be rich?

Nothing, unless you choose having a lot of money as a goal.

Maybe that's the whole secret of it! Wealth is not a goal. It is a side-effect. Wealth is a side-effect produced by the pursuit of self-knowledge and spiritual health that lets you love and let yourself be loved.

Remember, Jacob's Ladder is the conduit down which G-d's love flows into the world, and it is also the circuit diagram of human personality-soul-spirit.

Perhaps wealth is chosen as a goal by those who despair of ever knowing love. Or perhaps they believe if they're rich enough, they'll be loved.

How many Romance novels involve a young woman yearning for the rich scion of a Titled family?

If wealth is chosen as a goal in itself, you may achieve it and never know you've made it. Or you may think you have it made only to have it all evaporate. Or you may star in one of those movies where the elderly Grandfather is dying in a huge four-poster bed, and the children are sniping at each other all over the mansion, vying for shares of the fortune.

We yearn for riches as much or maybe more than for love. Why is that? Why do we worship the almighty dollar which is represented in Tarot by the Suit of Pentacles?

There is a relationship between wealth and love.

When we feel G-d's love, we feel wealthy even if we don't have much. When we don't feel G-d's love, no matter how much wealth we have, we feel poor and use our wealth to batter at that internal barrier (hence celebrities with a $17,000/month party budget).

The 6 of Pentacles is all about puzzling out how that relationship between love and money works for you right now.

The key is to realize that money is not the root of all evil, but rather the conduit through which G-d's love flows into manifestation.

If you attempt to stand in the way of that downrushing flood more powerful than Niagra Falls, you will be swept away as surely as so many celebrities with wasted lives.

If you become an extension of that conduit, then the event that marks the 10 of Swords process (which underlies 6 Pentacles) will be a culmination of your actions resulting in filling you up with love to give.

Let's look in on our writer who gritted her teeth and started writing her first novel in Ace of Swords, and eventually had her packaging go all awry, then made changes, and finally began another novel in Ace of Pentacles and found herself building a career in 4 Pentacles and lost her confidence in 5 Pentacles.

Guess what's happening to her now that she's worked that second novel down to 6 Pentacles.

She's just been offered a FILM OPTION on her second book! That's 6 of Pentacles -- something you earned in a past life but didn't get, a big break, a leg up when you really need it, a boost you couldn't create for yourself, just "falls into your lap." I suspect many "rescuer" novels are primarily inspired by this kind of event half-remembered from a prior life and misunderstood in today's model of the universe.

To others our writer's good fortune looks as if a fumbling, incompetent beginning writer (they always blame the author for the cover) got unreasonably lucky with her second novel and got a film option. She couldn't possibly have earned it more than someone working for decades in the industry.

Well, she didn't earn it now. She drew some capital out of the karmic bank, or possibly a loan against collateral. Because of that, the right person for her got the editorial job and inherited her book contracts.

Or perhaps someone with a big karmic debt (not to her, but just a debt) was drawn to pay off that debt. The love that should have flowed to our writer splashed sideways and hit her new editor who happened to send an ARC to this producer who was moved to give because he loved her book.

Why did he love her book? Well, he didn't love her book. He just loved.

Now our writer is all excited and energized again, toiling away on her third and fourth books, working with self-confidence, once more sure that what she has to give will be well received.

And because she is glowing with all this love, she will do as well with these new novel contracts as her skills permit. If she worked hard enough acquiring skills before her first sale, she will now be able to deliver the goods. If not - she won't have the follow-up success needed to continue the build.

This writer has chosen as her goal to gift-wrap her heart and soul in order to give it away as stories. She has poured love into those stories, unstintingly, and when she's empty, love will pour back into her. Her chickens will come home to roost and lay many eggs.

6 of Pentacles Reversed happens when goals aren't chosen well, usually for lack of sufficient energy in the execution of plans.

6 of Pentacles Reversed feels like being held back a grade and having to repeat the lessons of giving and receiving, of charity and discipline of creating karmic credit.

In the Reversed process, wealth is not understood as a side-effect but as a goal on the road to power without self-knowledge.

It took knowledge of yourself to select the the right bits to discard in 5 Pentacles in order to re-enter the flow of the social contract in 6 Pentacles by receiving.

One last caution. Don't judge how well people are doing spiritually by how much wealth they have amassed, or by how "lucky" they are getting "all the breaks."

Someone can be doing splendidly in one area, with one project or one part of life, and be completely messed up in all the others. Humans are complex and develop unevenly -- and we all have challenges tailored specifically for our own lesson in this life right now.

The spiritually greatest among us can be the poorest or least lucky.

Remember that when you give to someone who has less money than yourself. You may be giving to the richest person on earth who simply doesn't have money for food at the moment in order to give you a chance to tap into abundance. You would be wise to give with respect.

There is no one answer that will work for everyone. Your right answer today will not be right tomorrow - because you will change. We'll look into that in 7 Pentacles.

But the basic principle is always there and objectively true. The universe is made out of love, and it's love that holds it all together via the social contract.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

http://www.simegen.com/jl/

The Down Home Zombie Blues - On Sale Nov 27th!

Check out this video: The Down Home Zombie Blues by Linnea Sinclair



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Star Trek

Its official, there will be a new Star Trek movie. And I'm not talking a coninutation of the original or one of the many spin-offs. The original Star Trek is being remade. The story is supposed to be Spock heavy and be about the origins of all the characters. It's interesting to see the new cast next to the old cast although I'm not familiar with Chris Pine who will play Kirk, I'm wondering if he can use the cheesiness that William Shatner has to the same effect.

Word is that Leonard Nimoy will make an appearance but no William Shatner which IMHO is a great snub. I'm looking forward to Zachary Qunito as Spock and Karl Urban playing against type as Bones.

The release date is Dec 08 which will be here before we know it.

Holiday Greetings

Happy Thanksgiving! We can be fairly certain that wherever humanity goes in the future, we'll carry our holidays with us. Details may change, of course. Observation of marmots or hedgehogs for signs of spring in Europe became Groundhog Day in North America. The Irish custom of carving faces in turnips at All Hallows Eve became the pumpkin jack-o-lantern in the U.S. The party hats, exploding "crackers," and plum pudding of English Christmases didn't survive the transatlantic transplantation, but Christmas trees did. We have visits from Santa Claus (aka Saint Nicholas), while children in other countries await other gift-bringing icons such as Father Christmas, Pere Noel, and the Three Kings. Modern Jewish families may light electric menorahs instead of old-fashioned candles. When we migrate to distant planets, we may decorate exotic native plants or even crystal outcroppings rather than pine trees, but we'll surely decorate something.

For poetic meditations on the holidays in an age of interstellar travel, enjoy these filk carols on Suzette Haden Elgin's blog (divided into 2 lines because the software cuts off the end when it's displayed on our blog page):

http://www.livejournal.com/
tools/memories.bml?user=ozarque&keyword=carol&filter=all

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

5 Pentacles -- Bad Reviews

As noted previously, this is a chapter in a book about the Tarot aimed at Intermediate students of Tarot, not beginners or advanced students. An updated and expanded version is now on Kindle:

The Wands and Cups Volumes and  the Swords and Pentacles Volumes, are now all available separately on Kindle.  The 5 Volumes combined are also available on Kindle as one book, cheaper than buying them individually.

The Not So Minor Arcana: Never Cross A Palm With Silver Aug 30, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0108MC26O

The Not So Minor Arcana: Wands Sept. 1, 2015  99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVPKU

The Not So Minor Arcana: Cups Sept. 11, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106SATX8

The Not So Minor Arcana: Swords  Sept. 17, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0100RSPM2

The Not So Minor Arcana: Pentacles  Sept. 21, 2015 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0106RVKF0

The Not So Minor Arcana: Books 1-5 combined Sept. 24, 2015 $3.25
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010E4WAOU

This series is designed not for the beginner or the advanced student, but for the intermediate student and specifically for writers doing worldbuilding..

---------------

And Remember: The meaning of a Tarot Minor Arcana resides in the placement on the Tree of Life (i.e. the number on the card) integrated with the "World" or Suit of the card.

For the Tree of Life and the Jacob's Ladder diagrams see:

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~maggyw/treeladder.html

I don't really go with the way this page explains the Tree, but it is worth thinking about. There are many other ways. For now, ponder the diagrams on this page or Google up some others.

I have been posting here since August 14th, every Tuesday, the 10 minor Arcana of the suit of Swords. The Ace of Pentacles was posted Oct 23, 2007.

The 3 of Pentacles was accidentally posted dated Monday November 5th.

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5 Pentacles


We are now discussing the 2nd circle up from the bottom of the left hand column (your left, as you face the diagram) of Jacob's Ladder.

In 4 Pentacles we spent a long time building something.

The writer we've been following is building her career in 4 Pentacles, submitting outlines, getting contracts, delivering novels, doing galleys, juggling all this against family, health crises, and obligations. She is trying to resist all distractions. It rarely works.

In the 4 Pentacles processes, she's writing characters layer by layer, building one layer on top of another to create deep characters she can write long series of books about. She's creating intricate worlds, one layer at a time, one revelation at a time. All that is 4 Pentacles, the long apparently non-productive pause in the materialization of a project.

Now, in 5 Pentacles we come to a situation similar to what we found in 5 Swords.

Check Jacob's ladder again and note how both 4 and 5 Pentacles dangle out in space, without another layer of circles behind them. This section of the Ladder is fundamentally different from the top section of Wands, which also dangles out in space, and at the same time it is much more accessible to living people than the top. This is familiar territory.

So in 5 Swords, our writer presented her (overly long) novel to her critique group and felt their criticism as an attack. She fought back, defending her baby, and eventually felt their love and learned something (6 Swords). But the 5 Swords process was brutal.

So what happens to our writer now she's got it made, has a career, contracts, and can say proudly, "My editor told me . . .."

Her books start being published (Pentacles -- materialized) and her career hits the 5 process in Pentacles. What could be worse than a hostile critique group?

Now that she's self-confident and happy -- she gets a bad review, a scathing, scornful review that reveals loudly that the reviewer didn't even read the book!

Devastated, she can't write. She's lost self-confidence. She misses a deadline. Her editor is on her tail. Her family erupts in rebellion (You have to go to my recital! You can't miss my graduation! Some mother you are, nose in the computer while your kid has a fever!)

She emails pdf files to reviewers herself, but nobody has time to read her book. She asks for help on the book she can't finish, and nobody has time. Her editor won't return her calls.

On a fan listserv she has always relied on for support, she gets blasted by a newbie because, "That's easy for you to say. You're a professional writer!" And for the first time, nobody defends her. Her friends are gone.

She's in the 5 of Pentacles process.

This is actually a process we write so many novels about. This is the Initiation where you get sent into the desert alone, or dropped into a forest, or marooned on a desert island, all alone with nobody to depend on but yourself. It's a Teen Rite of Passage we repeat throughout life.

The lesson to be learned through this process is the one we harp on in so many Romance novels -- no man is an island. (yep, another Cliche) It's not about islands. Or men. It's about self-reliance. Not independence, but real self-reliance. 5 Pentacles is where you learn not to need help but to give help -- not to be dependent but to support others.

The 5's are associated with Mars, ruler of Aries, the natural first house.

It's all about ego, and ego strength. There's a difference between being strong and being a bully. There's a difference between being self-reliant or independent, and being isolated like a sociopath who can't make emotional contact with others.

Aries is the loner, the first-in scout, the explorer -- Daniel Boon or Captain Kirk. But a leader needs people to lead. And in 5 Pentacles, there's nobody following -- except others who are (cliche warning) "on the outside looking in."

Mars is the root of the meaning Martial Arts -- the arts of war. It is both defense and offense. It is the way of using force, power, position, tactics and strategy.

But Mars is also about sex. There is nothing more sexy to a woman than a powerful man in full possession and control of his manhood.

But what good is all that without the recipient?

And so love comes into the picture, and we see the lesson of 5 Pentacles is about the meeting and blending of two strong egos battered by isolation.

Think of all the fanfic about Star Trek's Spock! His time on the Enterprise was a 5 Pentacles period of isolation from his peers and estrangement from family. That loneliness made him seem intensely sexy to many women writers.

The first real "Alien Romance" novels may have been Star Trek fanfic about Spock.

In 4 Pentacles, our writer wrote and wrote, creating substance from her heart of hearts, sure her second novel would be accepted.

In 5 Pentacles she offers it to the world (Mars is the aggressive tendency that gets you out of procrastination and on the move.

Taking the initiative and contacting an agent or editor is a Mars function). But her new novel is ignored. Or maybe outright rejected. Or perhaps rewrite demands would distort it all out of shape. Or the ARC may get bad reviews. All of these events would be 5 Pentacles experiences.

She doesn't get the feedback she expected that indicates her heart is beating in tune with that of others.

So the loneliness of 5 of Pentacles is a lesson in Love -- the importance of it in our lives, the function of it even in the business world, the place of physical possessions or other material resources (such as time and heart) in Love. It is also about what lengths we would go to for social sanction.

Often we learn such lessons only by contrast, and 5 Pentacles is where the contrast is most stark.

As we learned in 9 of Swords, the whole physical world is a projection of our Ideas (9 Wands), Emotions (9 Cups) and Actions (9 Swords). All our material possessions, including our very life, are shaped on the Astral plane (the 9's) and are still rooted in that level of reality.

In a mystical sense, we are our possessions and our possessions are us. This is true not just of physical things (your grandmother's antique vanity mirror; your mother's sterling; your grandfather's Tefillin) but of all the things you've created. Your marriage, your children; your characters; your novels; your house decor; the critique group you founded.

Yes, there are things that pass through our hands without touching our hearts. But there are things we cherish in a very special way. Those things are imbued with our essence.

You know that romance has ripened to love when the things your lover cherishes become things you cherish -- even if you don't particularly like them. Because they have meaning for your relative, your S.O., your role model, your friend, they have a new, unique meaning for you.

Love cherishes the significant and defining creations and possessions of the Other, not for their intrinsic value, but because they are loved by the beloved.

Thus, when you offer something of yourself that is so significant to you, and it is spurned by those you expect it will delight, you experience a crushing blow akin to ramming into a brick wall (Pentacles; physical reality).

The spiritual lesson of 5 Pentacles comes after that crushing blow, when you are all alone, wounded and unable to get anyone to listen.

You throw a party and nobody comes.

You distribute a hundred review copies and get no reviews.

You win a contest and call everyone you know to tell them -- but nobody's home.

Here, in the total void, with all relationships absent, in the wake of your friends betraying you, your spouse leaving you, your children screaming out their hatred of you, you learn what a relationship really is.

What you have created with all your heart collides full force with what others have created with their heart. And there's no room in their hearts for yours.

Relationships belong to Pentacles. They are investments of a non-renewable resource. (Applicable cliche: "You only live once.")

In the 5 of Pentacles process you have to sort out what's important to you from what you can throw away (the baby from the bathwater) in order to make room inside you for what is important to others.

If you don't clear resources for what's important to others, nobody will have patience with what's important to you. But even if you do clear resources here, there is no guarantee others will treasure what is important to you.

Having space inside yourself for what others cherish is a necessary condition for building a Relationship, but it's not a sufficient condition.

Life is complicated in its sheer simplicity.

Martian energies often come on way too strong, so oddly enough the 5 of Pentacles Reversed (where there is less energy pouring into the 5 process) actually tends to work better.

In the 5 Pentacles Reversed, you get a few new chances or second chances to jump-start a new relationship. Maybe your editor didn't read and accept your manuscript because she was leaving the company rather than ignoring you. Now a new editor writes how she loved your book, but wants changes.

She says they're minor, but to you they're major.

Maybe instead of a new editor you only find a new hairdresser -- but that leads to meeting someone who knows someone, and you start to be included in a new network of relationships. Somebody will have time to read your newest book.

These little 5 Pentacles Reversed openings are caused by your discarding some irrelevant bits accumulated in 4 Pentacles to make room for something created by another person.

Once the vacant spot inside you is open and clear, very likely something will be attracted and fall into that hole. (not always a positive something, though, so be wary)

If you like being included, you may clear away more space inside yourself, and find you are able to attract more attention by paying attention to others. And this is a process that may take years -- 7 years or so is normal, as that is the interval Saturn spends in the "obscure" part of your chart where nobody notices you.

Again, as with the 9's, this is NOT a conscious process. Most of the work is done while you are asleep, out of body, visiting the astral plane, reshaping your life by re-imagining it.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

http://www.simegen.com/jl/

Reader Round Robin: What’s Important?

Since I'm being nibbled to death by deadlines at the moment, I asked readers on my Yahoo Group (which also includes some authors, so look for names you know!) what were the two most important things for them when reading science fiction romance. One of the reasons I asked that question (other than to have them do the work for me in thinking up what to blog about today) is that my group has an interesting mix of science fiction readers, romance readers and paranormal/science fiction romance readers. We're an interesting bunch (which is what happens when the "location" of the group is the Intergalactic Bar & Grille…somewhere out there, second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.) I often read with fascination missives posted by the science fiction contingent on various books (or movies or silly pet stories or…) and then watch how different the flavor is from the romance section. Or not. Sometimes the two factions—which one might assume could never meet, with science fiction being 'the intellect' and romance 'the emotions'—will actually agree.

So here, with their permissions, are some of the answers. Agree, disagree, comments?

1 - What are the two most important elements in a science fiction romance novel for you?

Marydot: Most important element in sci-fi romance for me? I prefer a strong sci-fi plot with adventure, gadgets, and abilities. I came from a romance background and am thoroughly bored with the conventions and gawdawful repetitious lines of dialog that turn up again and again.

Birgit: Most important factors aren't really much different from what I look for in any genre I read: 1. Engaging and believable characters that interact in believable ways--people I would be honored to call my friends and invite into my family. 2. Entertaining and complex plots with excitement and action, that resonate with complex emotions, that follow to their conclusion in a natural and not forced way. I like flashes of humor here and there as well, in all my favorite books, because life is generally like that. You get messiness and emotional pain, ,but then there are always lighter moments.

Jen D: Science Fiction = technology; I prefer it be mostly human not a lot of aliens with amazing supernatural powers, which takes it over into the realm of fantasy for me Romance = believable characters thrown into a situation that draws them together; romance/sex that fits into the storyline, not just 'time for some steamy stuff here'

Lynne Connolly: Believability and compelling characters

Vicky Burkholder: Since we're talking romance and not straight science fiction, that is the main part of a science fiction romance for me. The relationship between the hero and heroine are tantamount to the story. Then give me gadgets or scientific principles (the basis of a science fiction story) or a plausible alternate universe - either our own in a different time or a new one.

Misty R: That the story actually be science fiction and not just a romance that could take place in any setting but just so happens to be out in space somewhere.

Clara Bow: a) A sense of adventure. b) Compelling, larger than life heroes and heroines with sexual tension so sizzling that I'm left aching until they get together.

Robin Greene: Character development is always key for me with good plot and world building a close second. I use LM Bujold (as well as you) as an example here.

Mo: Well obviously since it's a romance, I want to see the romance grow between the hero and heroine, the sexual tension and the emotional connection. Otherwise, because it's also science fiction, I want to see other worlds, other cultures, aliens ;)

David Gray: 1. First and foremost, there must be an engaging story line. A hero's quest or action adventure setting works well for me in that vein. Secondly, I like a bit of lively humor, and my observation -- one of the reasons I so like this genre -- is that the romantic interaction between main characters can often provide this quite handily.

Kathy of Kathys Review Corner: 1) The Romance is the focal point - not the Science Fiction. 2) While there must be aliens, spaceships, new gadgets and otherworldly cultures, the storyline must not get too technical where it pulls the average romance reader (like myself) from the story.

Donna: Active space opera adventure! Strong fiery attraction between heroine and hero with hot consummation of same!

Gerard Gourion: a) the world building quality: the ability to give the reader a full world / universe with its societies, its technologies and its complexities **(Linnea's note: this reader of mine astounds me. He's in France, English is not his main language. Of all the genres to read in a second language, SF must be the toughest!)

Kathleen O'Neil: First and foremost - a GOOD story! With well developed characters in situations that feel real and tech that makes sense. And the story is driven by the growth and interaction of characters without pandering to the romance - the romance must seen real, not pushed into the for just because there's supposed to be romance.

Mary Fitz: The same elements that are important in any novel. The novel has to pull me into its world so that while I am reading it the universe of the novel is real to me. In SF romance it is important to me that both the SF and the Romance work. I don't want a heaving bosom historical novel that someone went through with a "find and replace" function changing castle to space ship and swapping sword for ray gun. I also don't want techno babble with some sex tossed in as an afterthought. I want a story that does not insult my intelligence, and characters more than cardboard cutout personalities.

Eileene Brady: It's hard to pick just two. Female characters that can hold their own and don't give in to the male characters. Romance not sex. There is a difference and I prefer to use my own imagination. It must be a believable part of the storyline, not just thrown in there because there has to be sex.

Mary K: A realistic and believable world. Realistic and believable characters with no TSTL heroines.

Tamara H: a)For me it's all about the character development with a believable romance that fits within a science fiction world. b) It should be a solid science fiction story where the romance adds to the story and is not just fluff on the side.

Patty Vasquez: 1. I like the creativity of world-building. I appreciate the intelligence and the believability of the writing and the fact that I have to think throughout the story. Secondly, I like the soul-deep connection the characters make with each other. It is complex, as humans are, but there are moments of humor, tenderness, anger, tension, and that final look deep into each others' eyes that has the reader sighing....

Mike Helfstein: 1 - It has to be a believable love story (I'm a closet sentimentalist) where the mc's really could fall in love that fast. 2 - The story has to be a "can't put this darn book down" kind of sci-fi story.

Elaine Corvidae: 1) Characterization! If I can't empathize with the characters, I'm not going to "feel" the romance. 2) Plot, because this is why I read SF in the first place. ;-)

DeAnn: Strong/Excellent storytelling (ie good plot, dimensional, complex characters, fine prose) A character that I can identify with (ie a good guy/gal, someone who isn't perfect, but who is intelligent and moral and does their dead level best to do the right thing for the right reasons, and is eventually successful)

Skipper skippy (note from Linnea: also known as the Owner, Overseer and Slum Lord of the Universe. IMHO he's worth the price of admission to the Intergalactic Bar & Grille…): Exploding space ships and sex, preferably both at the same time. If a space ship explodes while our hero reaches climax, then the fireworks he/she sees are real. Besides, explosions are ALWAYS cool, as is sex. That is my motto...write yourself into a corner, have the spaceship explode. Or, have the universe be saved if the hero/heroine have sex. It is a formula that will NEVER fail you. Oh yeah, and also add a boy wizard with a funky scar in your books, that will help also.

So, post your thoughts! ~Linnea, back to deadlines and oh, yeah, don't forget: THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES hits the shelves in the US Nov. 27th (pssst...I hear it's already out in the UK).

FORCED MATE --what's the book about

A reader on the Amazon Romance discussion thread (about what Readers wish Authors would put on their websites... good thread!), asked me why there is no unbiased information about what FORCED MATE is about.

In a small, but not unbiased, way, I'd like to rectify the omission.

FORCED MATE is a chess term (all my titles are chess terms). Basically, the Black King and the White King race to make a pawn their Queen. It seemed a great metaphor for a romance where two powerful world leaders want the same girl.

Persephone is abducted (from Earth) by Hades (dark god of the Underworld) ... and kicks his butt.

My heroine, Djinni-vera (Jinny) Persephone, is psychic and a mind reader, and an intergalactic warrior in training who is being kept hidden on Earth until the time is right for her to marry her betrothed, the White "King".

The "Black" King (I am using my inverted commas deliberately) sees a picture of the heroine, and decides --much as Hades did-- that he has to have her. He also wants to make her happy --in some versions of the myth, Hades also was willing to go to great lengths to please Persephone and he turned his underworld into a dark version of Earth for her, but with a double bed.

Since the "Black" King has never had to woo a woman to get her into his bed before, he's a bit out of his depth. He consults unreliable sources, such as old, pirated James Bond movies, and Romance novels, and an embittered English mercenary, and tries almost every stock "Romance" situation, and is astonished and baffled --and annoyed-- when his romance is not an instant, outrageous success.

Of course, the White "King" does not take the abduction of the perfect pawn Princess like a gentleman and a sportsman. He objects. He wants her back. He does not give up gracefully.

This is a complex romance with many levels and layers. It's full of puns, miniature spoofs, good jokes (and bad jokes!), bathroom humour (I-tell-your-alcohol level toilets), political intrigue, one explicit consensual sex (think of England) scene, and a whole starshipload of interesting characters with their own ideas of what is really important and whose side they are on.

Some commentators have said this book is about the ultimate hunk.
Others have said it is about the heroine and her relationships with other females. Others have said it is about the humor.

For me, it was the book of my heart.

Rowena Cherrry
alien romance

1. FORCED MATE (paperback, also e-book)
2. MATING NET (prequel, short story, e-book only)
3. INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL(paperback, sequel/spin off... story of Djetth (Jeff) and Martia-Djulia (Marsh)

Coming in 2008: KNIGHT'S FORK

I beg pardon for the self-serving post. Today, I mean to finish KF (before it is 3 months late)

Women and Children as Aliens

In an earlier post I mentioned the Kuttner-Moore story on which THE LAST MIMZY was based. The original story rested on the theory that children have mental processes fundamentally alien to those of adults. The new film THE MARTIAN CHILD speculates in a similar vein. Based on a book by David Gerrold, a thinly fictionalized account of his own adoption of a difficult little boy, the movie features a widowed writer who becomes the guardian of Dennis, abandoned as an infant. Insisting he comes from Mars, Dennis fears the sun's UV rays (when David first meets him, he spends all his outdoor time inside a large box) and has other peculiar habits, such as taking innumerable Polaroid photos and hoarding common household objects for his "mission." The plot follows this eccentric but highly intelligent kid's experiences in learning to be human. From what I remember of the short story from which the book developed, that version maintained some ambiguity about whether Dennis was really a Martian. The movie's climax, when Dennis proclaims that his mission is finished and runs away to await his rendezvous with the Martian ship, makes it clear that he's a troubled human child who finally becomes able to trust David's love. The closing lines of the script state that all children are aliens, with whom we must learn to communicate. Every one of us must, in a sense, "learn to be human." It's a very moving story; I recommend it. I've requested the book from the public library.

Many decades ago, Dorothy Sayers delivered a lecture titled (ironically, of course) "Are Women Human?" Men, she said, often think and talk about women as if we're some exotic kind of creature. Freud famously asked, "What do women want?"—as Sayers puts it, as if we were potted plants with a simple answer to that question, e.g. "They need lots of phosphates." Nowadays, we've been told men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Linguists still disagree on whether distinct "masculine" and "feminine" styles of speaking exist in American English. I've read somewhere that few women would recognize themselves in the Madonnas and Liliths who inhabit much literature written by men. Although, to be fair, we probably won't find many real-life incarnations of Heathcliff, Mr. Rochester, and Rhett Butler, either. And, come to think of it, why does the dominant critical consensus regard most such books by men as "classics" while relegating those written by women (with notable exceptions such as JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS, which aren't generally considered part of the topmost tier of Victorian literature; they're more like second-level classics) to the category of "popular fiction" or even "trash," even though masculine literature idealizing or demonizing women can't claim any greater degree of "realism" than feminine literature doing similar things with male characters?

If we tend to view the opposite sex or members of younger generations as "aliens," we often find ourselves thinking that way even more so about people from different cultures. The very phrase "illegal alien" emphasizes that natural human tendency to feel suspicious of the Other or, at least, have trouble understanding the Other. Maybe dealing with the Other in our own society—or our own household—if handled wisely, will be good practice for meeting other intelligent species.