Category Archives: Writer’s Life

Is it imitation? What would a Queen do?

Writer's Life,

Or is flattery? When I can stay awake my favorite late night pleasure is watching The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. This week his guest was Kathy Kinney the infamous Mimi on the Drew Carey show in which Craig also appeared. Here is the show appearance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGfsb_3qk74

She was there to discuss her new book, Queen of Your Own Life: The Grownup Woman’s Guide to Claiming Happiness and Living the Royal Life You Deserve (Harlequin Non-Fiction Hardcover/April 1, 2010). What piqued my interest was when she started to talk about being called a crone and creating a crowning day for women as Queens.

The reason I became very interested was that Donna Henes wrote The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife back in 2005. Donna has really broken ground on this concept and developed quite a following around the book. For full disclosure, I interviewed Donna about the book and we know each other from traveling in the same circle of friends.

I was really surprised to hear the concepts of Donna’s book coming out of Kathy Kinney as new ones. Now I don’t know if she knew about Donna’s book. I am not saying she plagiarized it. I have not read her book to compare it to Donna’s so I couldn’t fairly say that. Below I will post a couple of links for further reading. But a little red flag went up. The similarities were close enough to make me uncomfortable.
This cover is different from Donna’s in color and design. The one similarity that shows up in both logos on their Facebook fan pages is a crown on the Q for Queen.

Looking at Donna’s fan page other people noticed the similarities. Again I am uncomfortable with this- anyone can pick up the concept and run with it. There are a slew of Goddess/Law of Attraction/Soulmate books on bookshelves. It happens. But acknowledge that its already out there. Don’t pretend like you discovered the idea of becoming a Queen on your own. The title and logo’s are too similar to be a mistake. Someone had to use Google at some point. Was it intentional on the author’s part? I don’t know.

Imitation is a form of flattery. At the end of the day this will just expand and contribute to the work Donna has already done by making it known to a larger audience. It is important for us all to remember to acknowledge those who have paved the road that is ahead of us. And when we birth a new idea some one else may pick it up and run with it. There is room for us all. I think I know Donna well enough that she will bless the other authors and continue to do her work.

What would you do in this situation?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-corso/the-queen-of-your-own-lif_b_533213.html

Here are the links for both of the books:
The Queen of Myself
Queen of Your Own Life

What do you mean?

books, workshop, Writer's Life, Writers, , ,

The first session of the Wild Angels Poets and Writers group was held last night.  We have been meeting since 1999, but nine years in this format. Normally we meet in both the fall and winter this year we held off and opted for a 10 week winter season. Kathleen Cromwell is the instructor for the series and I am so happy to have her leading this group.  Our theme for this series is rededication. The Wild Angels is a group run by the congregation at the historic Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. The cathedral just reopened fully after a devastating fire in December of 2001. The Cathedral’s theme is rededication and so we thought it was time to rededicate ourselves to our writing.

Kathleen will be using particular method to get us into the writing mindset. Writing the Mind Alive: The Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your Authentic Voice is a wonderful book that I have used in the past.  The day I bought the book my chiropractor discussed proprioception and how it related to the body.  I showed him the book and we discussed how it could be used for writing before I even had the chance to open it myself.  Refer to the Wikipedia page linked here to learn more about how proprioception and how it came into being.

How Does Proprioceptive Writing Work?

In Proprioceptive Writing we express our thoughts in writing so that we can reflect on them. It is a self-guided exercise that calls forth your imagination, your intellect, and your intuition all at once to open your heart and clear your mind. You practice it in twenty-five sessions while listening to Baroque music, which roughly reflects the steady rhythm of the huma pulse. At the end of each session you have produced a written work we call a Write.

The beauty of a workshop is trying some thing new and out of our comfort level.  Starting off our weekly sessions with a meditative writing is different for what we have done in the past but not out of the ordinary. We have danced, drawn, sang- trying different methods to stimulate our creativity.

We won’t spend twenty-five minutes but we will spend some time in this practice and looking anew at our senses. We will also have a chance to share the writing we are working on at this time. The benefit of the group is receiving constructive and helpful feedback.

Pulling the body – mind – spirit together to become a fuller creative creature is a goal that we could all aspire to achieve.

if you are interested in attending this workshop in NYC we meet on Thursdays until March 12. Email us at wildangelsgroup@saintsaviour.org.