Every year all the Christmas variety Gave me nothing but anxiety. Nasty memories from previous lives Always gave me bad Yule vibes. Then, last year it was, When another idea became my boss. Christmas was no longer to be the rule Winter solstice aspiring to be the new Yule. I owe it all to my friend C. C. She made it all possible to me. She gave me the idea of the Solstice of Winter To be more than a calendar splinter. Thus, this year I make it my shrine To put sun on the spruce top to shine. Light a candle the scent of vanilla, While slowly sipping a sweet wine. It’s winter solstice – let’s be...

I would like to share with you, how I have recently attempted to learn from the masters. I picked one of my favorite novels: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. While reading Benjamin Franklin’s biography by Walter Isaacson I learned that one of the Founding Fathers of the United States used to try to remember magazine articles he liked, and attempted to reproduce them a few days later without looking at the originals. He used a special kind of notes to help the recalling. This was his way of learning to become an accomplished writer. Inspired by Benjamin Franklin I developed my own method. I read...

You are welcome to read an author spotlight guest post about Vivvy and Izzy, which is finally available in paperback form. Thank you Colleen Chesebro for the opportunity of a guest blog. Take care, Helena Smole

To see fears as wishes is a crazy idea I got the other day, but I am going to go through with it anyway. Why? Because, in my opinion, any reflection which offers distance from fears can be helpful. Fears as wishes then. How can a fear be a wish? In essence, I could decipher two kinds of wishes camouflaged as fears: – the wish that something does not happen (being the fear of it happening); – the wish that things do not change (being the fear of change). Let me give you an example. I am in the process of publishing my second paperback: Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships...