Everyone knows of tarot cards. Many take advantage of the many things they have to offer. Others look at them as nonsense.

Like most people I knew of tarot cards and did have the association with gypsies and fortune telling until one day in Sebastopol California when I walked into the Milk & Honey metaphysical bookstore where I instantly fell in love with a beautiful tarot deck that I knew I had to purchase. It was the Simplicity Tarot by Emlie Muniz.

Before that, I had no interest in learning the tarot though once in a great while I'd have a reading from a tarot person or I'd watch tarot readings on YouTube. They were always thought-provoking. They offered an opportunity to look at life things deeply. Their biggest value was how quickly they tuned me into the spiritual realm and reoriented me in the larger reality and put the smaller pieces of life in perspective.

Once I purchased the cards, I realized I had to learn more, so I began the research. One of the most interesting books I read on the tarot was by a psychiatrist who used the cards in his sessions.

And then came the opporunity to use the cards for some urgent and important questions I had about my life. That's when I experienced the way the cards draw you in, pull you inwards to gain deeper insights and know your deepest truth, a larger truth of life.

Being psychic, I was completey taken by surprise when I found out that the cards, in themselves, held a lot of power. I suspect that may be because of the hundrerds of years that were given to it; people, for centuries sought answers through them -- and that can give anything a lot of power.

I was amazed at the insights I gained and the power of the cards. At that moment, the direction of my life changed. Being psychic it's easy enough to see things with other people, but for myself it is harder when I am looking for direction and answers for myself; the emotion, the urgency is too high to go deep enough to see clearly. As an aside, that's one of the reasons I created the guided meditations. They help me access deeper realms when its too difficult to do it just through general contemplation.

Because of my interest in the tarot, I came across Simon's channel on YouTube: the Hermit's Cave. He's been on the tarot journey since he was 16! In this video he explains that journey. I find it amazing that he was able to put into words such a complex subject -- the way the tarot works, its incredible value in personal growth and spiritual development. It's an extraordianry, outstanding description.

A new, young voice that synthesizes all metaphysical ideal and new research in science.

Very inspirational, hopeful, comprehensive.

We've needed this book, a new voice to take us to the new level of light, a new generation to take over the teachings.

This is great advice about how to stop a racing mind and create peace -- from the Samurais.

BookyCall is a great app that lets you find books you love to read. You enter your preferences and the app brings up all books that would be of interest to you. I love it! And my novel, Ariel, is available on BookyCall.

You want to lose weight, but before you know it, you find yourself eating. The purpose of this guided meditation is to slow you down and discern: Is it food you want or something else?

Many times when we eat, it’s not food we really want, it’s something else. This guided meditation will help you discover what it is you really want and help you bring it into your life.

So, before you reach for food, listen to this guided meditation.

You will relax and experience the safety and love of divine presence. Filled up with love, we crave nothing and we are in a position to bring into our life what our hearts really want.

Two versions of the guided meditations are included.

The first version is for everyday use. It’s about 16 minutes long with about 10 minutes of just music at the end.

The second version is for when you have more time. It is longer, goes deeper into your hearts desires and gives you the opportunity to consider actions you can take to fulfill your real needs and wants. It’s about 27 minutes long with about 10 minutes of just music at the end.

With both versions, if you can, continue to listen as a way sustain the love and peace and to stabilize these new energies.

The soothing voice of Angela Ohlfest will guide you along with beautiful Thaddeus’ music.

The information track, How to Make Best Use of Guided Meditations Created by Zorica Gojkovic, Ph.D., is included.

A PDF of Special Opportunities is also included.

Available everywhere, including audiobooks.com

Audiobooks UK is running a sale on my audio book, The Workings of Energy in the Human Energy Field: A Psychic's Perspective, through August 31, 2025.

50% off.

Here's the link.

If you're an author, especially a new author, you're trying to find ways to promote your book. There are many options, some very expensive and you don't get to find out if they worked for you until after you paid. It's a trial and error thing.

I just released my science fiction novel, Ariel, and Rob has put it up on several websites and several social media sites. I'm really happy with his work; and it comes at a price every author can afford.

Reach out to him on Fiverr, https://www.fiverr.com/sexychallenges/promote-your-book-on-4-book-blogs#

On we go as writers with hopes and dreams!

I've read many books about the writing life many of them interviews with authors. Those were very interesting books. Every writer had his/her own unique way of approaching writing. It certainly showed that, as writers, we had to figure out for ourselves our own unique way of how we write and how we organize our writing life.

I got a lot of these books from the library, so don't have them on hand. You can check the library yourself and see if anything calls to you.

Many years ago when I was just thinking about writing fiction, absolutely no one seems to address the issue of fear of writing and blocks to writing in general. There were lots of books on how to do it, but no books, that I could find, on all the inner problems that many creative people face.

Then at some point, Eric Maisel came on the scene. He started out as a philosophy person, then got his degree in clinical psychology, then somehow he got involved with the creative set and started addressing the problems creative people have about creating.

Since then, he's written many, many books about the creative person's life, problems they faced and solutions. He's offered workshops.  He's trained writing coaches and still does. And he offers private sessions.

His book, Coaching the Artist Within is the first book I ever read that made me feel understood as a creative person. I highly recommend reading it.

Many of his books are in the library, so you can get them there if you don't want to buy them.

He has many books addressing every aspect of the creative life. And each one of them is extremely well written and hugely engaging. Look on his website and see if any of his books or services are what you need, ericmaisel.com.

I taught myself to write fiction by reading about a million books. I also took three workshops.

The workshops were really fun and I enjoyed them very much. The books . . . I'd have a question in my mind about how to do something and I'd go to the bookstore and find a book; there was always a book that talked about what I wanted to know.

I'd read that book then I'd have another question and back to the bookstore I went, found a book that answered that question. Then I'd have another question . . . and so it went until I was pretty sure about how to write a novel.

Once I started writing, I discovered certain things just didn't read write and neither had the idea what the problem was and obviously no idea how to solve it. Sometimes it took a long time to figure that out, so back in the bookstore I was looking for that solution.

It was that way through the entire process. And then came the revising. In the bookstore, again, trying to figure out how to revise. And more books.

Here is a list of the books I found really helpful.

You Can Write a Novel, James V. Smith, Jr. -- This was the book that broke the sound barrier, so to speak. Things clicked. The only thing he recommends that I would never ever do again is wait to correct anything. He says, just keep on writing, don't go back and correct. Really, really bad idea! If you do that, as I did, you end up with a big mess. So, if your character changes color hair, or something happens that changes what's happened before, I suggest making that change immediately. With a big book you forget what needed to be changed and why. But worse, it messes things up in your mind and becomes difficult to keep writing.

The Craft of Novel-Writing, Dianne Doubtfire -- This book is only about 90 pages, but it's the only book I read that gives you a simple method to discover your plot. You may have an idea for your novel and some pictures in your mind as to what happens in it, but what about the rest of the novel? Doubtfire says, get a notepad. On the first line, write down a one-sentence description about that scene, basically what happens. Then ask yourself, "what happens next?" And you keep going that way until you come to the end. This is a fantastic method to uncover your plot. I used it for my novel. What I also found is things change as you write, but as long as you have a basic framework, everything comes together.

Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy - David Gerrold. I can't remember what I learned from this book, but do remember it was excellent and I learned a lot from it and wrote to thank the author.

Writing Romance, Vanessa Grant -- I had no plans to write romance, but it's the only book I could find that addressed how to plan passage of time in a novel.

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, Syd Field -- This is one of the first books I read. It was extremely useful to get the idea of scenes and writing in scenes. If you think about a movie, there are scenes. A novel is the same way, except it's not visual; you have to write in the visuals. Also, when I watched movies on a DVD, I'd watch the special features. They always had deleted scenes. That was a big learning to see what scenes they kept and what scenes they deleted. Same goes for scenes in a novel.

The Weekend Novelist, Robert J. Ray -- This was another really, really important book. It talks about giving your characters a wardrobe. Who knew that might be important, but it is. Also, it's the ONLY book where a certain method is talked about. Let's say a character is looking at the menu (this is an example he used). Well, the character is looking at the menu and then what? Then you have to tell the reader what is on the menu. It's a two-part thing, the character looks or see or comments on, and then you tell the reader what the character sees. Critical in writing fiction.

All books by Jack M. Bickham: Writing and Selling Your Novel; Scene & Structure; The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes. Bickham was a writing professor. He really knows the proces sof writing a novel and knows how to teach it. Outstanding books, all of them.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne & Dave King -- An excellent book that is specific to editing fiction writing, which is very different from writing non-fiction. I learned a lot about the conventions of writing fiction by reading about how to edit fiction.

I read other books that weren't very helpful that I still have, but the ones I've listed are the ones that taught me how to write.

I also read popular and highly recommended books like On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner and found them completely useless. They offered nothing and they just confused the whole idea of how to write fiction. I got nothing out of them except frustration.

I think each one of us who wants to write fiction finds the best way for them. I tend to learn alone and from books, so that's mostly how I did it. I was also fortunate that the three workshops I attended were taught by a great professor and had some great people in it.

Given all these books and all the degrees, classes and workshops about writing fiction, one wonders how Austin and Dickens did it. That's always a humbling thought.