Soulful Agitation.

I am lucky to call Marcia Reynolds a colleague and luckier still that she is a new friend.

Her book, Wander Woman: How High Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction, is resonating with me.

I just celebrated a birthday, I've moved to the Southwest and I am re-evaluating my career direction.

New chapters, all.  Plenty of agitation--soulful and otherwise.

Reading Marcia's introduction about how "soulful agitation" leads us to accomplish great things but ache for what's missing, captures what many of us--and not just women--feel.

I look forward to an insightful, inspiring read.   

http://www.amazon.com/Wander-Woman-High-Achieving-Contentment-Direction/dp/1605093513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327870769&sr=1-1

Did you know that vocation is Latin for "voice?"

A vocation means a calling that one can hear. 

But before any of us can respond to our inner voice--whether its writing or preaching or selling or cooking or woodworking--we must listen. 

In the listening, we become wise.

And that wisdom, in turn, allows us to listen to others.  Actively listening is a gift we can give our family, friends, colleagues and clients. 

As writers, we try to ferret out a client's voice with word choices that reflect a company's unique character. 

That's why the most succeessful writers are superb listeners.

The Art of Storytelling.

In a review of director Angelina Jolie's new movie, In the Land of Blood & Honey, Entertainment Weekly columnist Owen Gleiberman praises her diligence in recounting the facts, but writes that "there's still a big difference between telling it like it is and telling it compellingly."

The film earned only a C+ from him.

Even when it is reality-based, the best storytelling is anything but average.

The Power of Intention.

New Year's Resolutions are so last year.

Wha't current are your intentions.

So, instead of saying "I want to lose 10 pounds," try "I will eat better and exercise more, so I believe I will lose the weight." 

It's a small shift in thinking that can make a big difference in results.

Happy 2012. 

Once Upon a Sentence.

"It was a humid afternoon in late September, the kind of weather that makes an apple feel slightly greasy  to the touch."

So begins writer John Seabrook's food piece called "Crunch" in the November 21 issue of The New Yorker.

It's a grabber, as we say in the industry.

Don't you want to read on?  

The Power of Metaphor.

Politics aside, in the December issue of GQ writer Drew Magary pens a powerful metaphor about President Obama in a feature called "The Least Influencial People Alive,"  penning "he wields all the power of a substitute teacher at night school."

You know it's apt because you get an ouch reading it.

Vanishing Points & Creativity.

In the December 9 issue of Entertainment Weekly, director Steven Spielberg talks about growing up in Arizona and how it influenced his filmmaking:

"We subscribed to a magazine called Arizona Highways.  It was always shots of roads going to infinity, going off into the vanishing points.  I tried to appropriate a little bit of this lonely road to nowhere for Close Encounters.  So the idea of a straight-line highway going to a vanishing point is compelling."

As a new resident of Arizona, I find myself staring and dreaming along these saguaro-studded straight roads myself.  I trust it will boost my creativity.