2018: Year of the New

2018: Year of the New

I feel dusty. I feel like a dried up and crackled leaf on the wind that had been tossed this way and that for far too long. Like a doll that has been left on a shelf to watch everything happen through glass eyes. I feel like I've been holed up in my writer cave for too long and my back aches and fingers are curled and I need to shake the cobwebs off.

In thinking of Helen Lowe's last post of magic and possibilities, 2018 for me will be the year of the NEW. I feel like I haven't been writing enough or creating enough or saying enough with my work and that is just going to stop now.

Last year, I focused on the works of art, movies, the stories that I carry with me into the future. The works that have shaped the way that I write and process the world.

This year, I'd like to focus on possibly adding to that repertoire, changing my canon to help with this shake up. I just want to try something new: new books, new movies, new 5 am writing practices, journaling upside down while hanging by your toes. Like the Fool, I'm ready for an adventure!

So you, my dear readers will be along with me on my quest to become a new Writer, Creator, Human. And maybe through my foibles and follies, you can laugh along with me and add to your own treasure box of things that help you.

So for January 2018, I'm starting small. I'm going to read a book that has been recommended to me by several creative people that I admire.
BIG MAGIC by Elizabeth Gilbert. Perhaps this supernatural girl is really just drawn to the title, but for the next month, I'm going to be reading about "balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism," according to Amazon. I'm not usually a self-help sort of person, so this is really new for me. 

If you'd like to hear my thoughts throughout the month, I'll probably be tweeting over at @Pantherista with my progress, thoughts on the book, and maybe even the verdict on how the change is coming along.  Look for #2018YearOfTheNew.


Oh, and if you have a practice or book or movie or anything that you think I should add to my journey, please let me know!!!

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey!

Amanda Arista
Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther series 
www.amandaarista.com

The Magic Of Possibility: Happy New Year, Supernatural Underground!

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Happy New Year to all our Supernatural Underground community – the SU authors, our wonderful guests and to all our friends and followers that drop by throughout the year.

If New Year’s Eve is primarily about looking back on the “year-that-was” then New Year’s Day offers the possibility to consider the “year-that-will-be” – in this case, 2018.

And like all the festivals we celebrate throughout a year, New Year’s Day has a special kind of magic to it.

The magic of possibility...

To my mind, the most compelling element of New Year’s Day is the magic of possibility. 2018 stretches before us in much the same way as a blank page, one that may be written on in any number of different ways, whether for good or ill. Largely, too, the “what” and “how” of our response to life’s events rests with us, even if the events themselves may be outside of our control.
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So the celebration of New Year allows us a press-pause moment to contemplate the “what’s” and “how’s” that may lie ahead – not just the form they may take but how we may choose to engage with them.
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May your dreams take flight in 2018...

Today, on 1 January 2018, I would like to wish you all a year in which we not only contemplate many possibilities but feel able to seize the positive opportunities they offer, whether in creative endeavors, careers, or personal and family circumstances.
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May we all be well – and also kind, compassionate and generous in all we say or do. And let’s rock 2018 with more great blogging, book reading, and most of all MOAR book writing.

Happy 2018!

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Helen Lowe is a novelist, poet, interviewer and blogger whose first novel, Thornspell (Knopf), was published to critical praise in 2008. Her second, The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night Series, Book One) won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012. The sequel, The Gathering Of The Lost, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Legend Award in 2013. Daughter Of Blood, (The Wall Of Night, Book Three) is her most recent book and she is currently working on the fourth and final novel in The Wall Of Night series. Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog and is also on Twitter: @helenl0we