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Get poetically inspired — go on a meditation-vacation

By Rachel Dacus | September 1, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

A new scientific study came out following people who had recently been on resort vacations and those who were meditators who had been on meditation retreats. The interesting thing is that the beneficial effects on their bodies, though similar, were different. And meditators seemed to have the longest term benefits. Their immune responses and ability to resist stress were stronger for a longer time than those who had simply greatly relaxing vacations. Here’s an article…

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To obtain a great cover image, try pleading “Poet in Poverty”

By Rachel Dacus | August 11, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

It was great fun to correspond with Matisse’s great grandson in order to obtain rights to use this image on the cover of my poetry collection Femme au chapeau. Happy to say it will be available as an eBook in September! Pre-order price for you is $2.99, until 9/26/16. You can go here to pre-order: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/657130. Poet Barbara Crooker did a wonderful review of the book on Smartish Pace, mentioning “exquisite figurative language throughout”. She…

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What If Your Heroes Won’t Play Nice?

By Rachel Dacus | August 8, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

What if you can’t get your two favorite heroes from history to play nice? That’s the problem my main character, art historian May Gold has in my WIP novel The Renaissance Club. She has a plan to get her idol, Gianlorenzo Bernini, the rock star artist of the Renaissance, and his chief rival, architect Borromini, to play nice and work together. Trouble is, she has to travel four centuries to bring it about. Time isn’t…

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Magical realism – why do we love the magic so much? (+ 3 great books)

By Rachel Dacus | July 28, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

Magical Realism Fiction – Why Do We Love the Magic So Much? (Plus Three Great Books) I just finished Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Now there’s a mouth-watering title for a devout reader, a magical sounding name like Penumbra and a reference to books. We just know we’re going to have a great escape reading this book. And I did. I could hardly wait until evening, when I could pick up my device…

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My Poem “Cone of Silence” at Blue Heron Review

By Rachel Dacus | July 23, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

The writing life is a little like surfing: being tumbled under the tide but also catching some wonderful waves. I’ve just caught one of those good waves! I’m happy to say my poem “Cone of Silence” is up this month at Blue Heron Review. This online journal has a mission with a tagline from Hafiz: “An awake heart is like a sky that pours light.” I’m thrilled to have my work alongside that of many…

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Poetry & Prose — the Twins in My Life

By Rachel Dacus | July 18, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

If you have an addiction to writing like I do (and a writer by definition is an addict), perhaps like me you can’t contain it within just one literary genre. I began with poetry, getting swept up first in the poems of the haiku poets Basho, Buson, and Issa. Issa (Kobayashi Issa 1763-1828, one of the Big Four of Japanese haiku) charmed me with tiny masterpieces that evoked a stunning attention to the natural world,…

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As Yearning Is Red – Visions with Waterbirds

By Rachel Dacus | July 13, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

This weekend we drove to Sebastopol, over the top of the San Francisco Bay, through marshlands filled with waterbirds. I’m lucky to live near a creek where egrets hunt and nest. I take walks alongside this miniature waterway and appreciating the ducks keep an eye out for that white, upright stillness near the shore, often half hidden by tall dry grasses. When I come upon a lesser or greater egret, I stop at the pure…

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Platform, platform — I thought those shoes went out in the 80s

By Rachel Dacus | July 12, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

Author platform: what is it, do I need it for fiction, and other brain-freezing topics. There’s so much written about this ugly word (I keep thinking of those awful shoes you can literally fall off and break your ankle), that my research has frozen my mind on the topic. So here’s my hopefully refreshing take on Platform for Novelists. You don’t need one. No, you just need to be your most authentic writer-self, and in…

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Publishing a Novel — Not Quite Torture, but Bearing Some Resemblance

By Rachel Dacus | July 7, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

Is she in ecstasy or torture? Does she look like she’s in ecstasy or torture? She must be a writer of fiction conteomplating current avenues of publication because where there was once a clear path to authorship, fame, and fortune, now … 100 articles on how to publish OR see a fabulous, must-own publishing guide by The Book Doctors and Jane Friedman’s advice on publishing. So you studied all that, and now you’re ready to…

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What This Writer Does While Waiting

By Rachel Dacus | June 28, 2016November 9, 2017 by Rachel Dacus

Waiting. Publishing your writing is so full of waiting to hear from an agent or editor that medieval torture begins to seem like a diversion to inflict on yourself while enduring the greater agony. I’m at another waiting stage with my novel-in-progress, The Renaissance Club. I’ve been working on this for so long that I can’t look at it right now without guidance. I need an agent or editor to hold my hand and tell…