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Monday #Motivation #Meditation #TarotReading

Published on by Jan Sikes36 Comments

Welcome to the start of another week filled with powerful opportunities!

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The Chakra we are focusing on this week is the Solar Plexus. It is located in the upper area between the navel and diaphragm. It acts as our center of personal power. This chakra governs personality, ego, and identity, as well as personal freedom, choice, and authenticity. The solar plexus chakra also has much to do with motivation, willpower, and purpose, which stem from one’s sense of personal efficacy. Self-confidence and view of the self connect to the solar plexus chakra, as well. Furthermore, this chakra governs the digestive system and its respective organs; as a result, it has jurisdiction over both the gut’s emotional brain and stored emotions. You can wear the color yellow, carry or wear a yellow citrine gemstone, or get out in the sunshine to help bring awareness to this chakra. I found this short guided meditation to share with you.

Now for our weekly Tarot Reading.

It feels like we are in such a powerful time right now. Once again, I randomly drew cards from the Major Arcana, which affects the deepest aspects of our life lessons and karma. The first words that come to mind with The World card are, “All the world’s a stage.” This card represents unlimited opportunities. It is the final card in the Major Arcana and can also symbolize accomplishments and success. But for this reading, I just see it as a world full of opportunities for us to choose from. The Death card always symbolizes the end of something. Perhaps it’s walking away from what no longer serves you, or the death of old ideas and beliefs. It indicates transformation or transition. The ending of something old so that something new can begin. And in this layout, that is perfectly represented by The Fool. It indicates new beginnings, taking the proverbial leap of faith with innocence and bliss. The sun is shining on him as he nears the edge of the cliff and he’s carefree and trusting. So, to me, the overall take on this reading is this: The World is filled with opportunities waiting for us if we can only let go of what holds us back and no longer serves us. Then we take the leap of faith, trusting that our new beginning is going to bring us one step closer to what our heart truly desires in life. This is truly a powerful time of transformation. I can feel it.

If you’ve forgotten how I draw cards, you can refer back to this short video, but they are always random and always inspired. https://youtu.be/wvNEkIrVUgI

Make it a great week and I’d love to hear your comments on the Solar Plexus Chakra, the meditation and the reading!

Generating Page-Turning Momentum—Characters & The Wound

Published on by Jan SikesLeave a comment

An excellent blog on characters, their wounds and how they heal.

Kristen Lamb's Blog

Screen Shot 2012-12-20 at 10.17.54 AM Hmmm, what’s the story behind THIS?

Can we answer the question, “What is your book about?” in one sentence. Is our answer clear and concise? Does it paint a vivid picture of something others would want to part with time and money to read? Plot is important, but a major component of a knockout log-line is casting the right characters.

Due to popular demand I am running my Your Story in a Sentenceclass in about two weeks and participants have their log lines shredded and rebuilt and made agent-ready. Log-lines are crucial because if we don’t know what our book is about? How are we going to finish it? Revise it? Pitch it? Sell it?

Once we have an idea of what our story is about and have set the stage for the dramatic events that will unfold, we must remember that fiction is about PROBLEMS. Plain and simple…

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Writing and Body Language

Published on by Jan SikesLeave a comment

These are great suggestions to have variety in your writing and expressions.

Jens Thoughts

I find one of the most talked about topics in writing is “show don’t tell”. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I try not to I still do, and I also find myself repeating words or not describing actions well.

I stumbled on this list of body language for us to keep near us while writing.

body-language-for-writers

he lowered his head
she hung her head
he ducked
she bowed her head
he covered his eyes with a hand
she pressed her hands to her cheeks

she raised her chin
he lifted his chin

her hands squeezed into fists
his hands tightened into fists
she clenched her fists
she balled her fists
he unclenched his fists
her arms remained at her sides

he shrugged
she gave a half shrug
he lifted his shoulder in a half shrug
she gave a dismissive wave of her hand

she raised a hand in greeting
he…

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How to thrive as an Independent Author…

Published on by Jan Sikes2 Comments

This blog contains some very practical advise to anyone doing or even thinking of doing self-publishing!

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

If you’re serious about self-publishing, you might already know that publishing books isn’t easy. Behind each book there are countless hours of writing, revising, producing and marketing. Most importantly, behind each book, there’s a piece of your bare soul. The world of publishing can be as rewarding and fertile as it can be ruthless and disheartening.

front cover copy I decided to pursue self-publishing in early 2012. A year after, I was the proud author of a beautiful children’s book called Tristan Wolf. I’ve done everything my Marketing 101 book said I should do. I’ve protected fiercely the quality of my books, and I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve made (and I keep on learning). I’ve published four more books and released three of those in Spanish. It sounds exhausting, but it’s all part of my plan to take over the world one children’s book at a time 😀

As part of…

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