Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:44:38 +0000 Tokyo on Ecstacy, tempera paint on canvas, www.carolineallen.com I'm lying on my sofa at about 10 Sunday morning with a hangover. I went to a party last night where the host, a man, brought out a paper mache giant pink penis and hauled it up the branch of a Maple tree in his driveway. He made a list of the women who wanted to thwack…

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:58:16 +0000 Maine sunflower, www.carolineallen.com I read an English translation of the I Ching almost daily. I find the ancient Chinese way of putting things quirky and exotic. "The penetrating (wind) moves above the profound (water) forming the condition for Reuniting." I mean, ponder that for a while and see where it puts your mind! My favorite paragraph in the translation by R.L. Wing is this: "Those…

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:22:53 +0000 www.carolineallen.com All writers have to learn to live in the place of "I don't know". Novels are complex unweildy animals. If you know how every scene is going to unfold, you're being too controlling. Perhaps you have a general idea of where the novel is going and that's fine, but to know too much is a sure prelude to writer's block. If you think you…

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:17:20 +0000 www.carolineallen.com I'm teaching a one-day workshop in Seattle November 1st called Shamanism and Writing. I wanted to offer an explanation of how shamanism might work to help writers explode open their creativity, how it might help them figure out a plot or a character in their novels, how it might show them where to go to find support for their writing. First, an explanation of…

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:02:10 +0000 nude, oil bar on paper, www.carolineallen.com In the film Batman Begins, a theme that fascinated me was how to create an aura of superhero around the man Bruce Wayne, so he'd become the superhero Batman, so that he'd be respected, feared, left alone, taken seriously and finally, be a successful crime fighter. I thought this is what a writer needs to do to become an…

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:41:50 +0000 Maine, digital photography, www.carolineallen.com I have a client who came to me to coach her in the writing of a nonfiction book about kids in foster care, their trials and tribulations, our misunderstanding of at-risk youth. I knew in my gut this client was also a writer of fiction. I'm not sure she knew it yet, though. People will often come to me with a…

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:09:00 +0000 Yerevan market, Armenia, 2008 I am a feminist. Not a humanist. A down-to-the-core feminista. I'm a feminist because I believe as a writer a woman's search for voice is epic, is political, is a gender issue. I am a feminist because as a coach I'm determined to help women find and express their voice. Many of the healers I work with, many of the more…

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:14:23 +0000 Statue of pianist, Yerevan, Armenia, www.carolineallen.com I have this recurring vision when I work with writing clients. Sometimes, I'll see the client pull a long cord out of their belly. On the end of the cord is a three-pronged plug. I watch them as they insert the plug into my belly. They think I'm the one who is the source of their explosion as a…

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:53:42 +0000 Body portrait of me drawn by Deb Dixon, www.deborahdixon.com I am with my friend Stephen in San Francisco. We've been dear friends for a very long time, back years, back to when I was a fresh faced farm girl trying to make her way in Tokyo. We have the luxury in our friendship of being able to tell each other the truth, even if it's…

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:45:20 +0000 Doodle, www.carolineallen.com I posted this blog earlier today with a digital photo of verdant nature. After I finished the blog, my inner little girl artist mentioned in the blog below said it wasn't that she wanted me to hang up my 'professional' works of art around the house, she wanted me to hang the hundreds of doodles I make a week and usually throw away…