Paris Was A Woman...

Hello Beautiful Humans:

In anticipation of starting the 12-week course outlined in The Artist's Way, (see last weeks blog post for more info on this) I have been getting up earlier than usual and having having coffee on the patio, while the air is still relatively cool, watching the birds take their morning baths in the fountain, and writing three pages in my journal. It has been a wonderful way to start the day! Also, I have been researching for a novel idea I had which was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast and picks up where he left off (with my own imaginings) of the life of the woman "with hair as black as a crow's wing" whom he mentions in the first chapter. By all accounts, Paris in the 1920's held many virtues for intelligent, creative women looking to live life a bit more freely than they could in most other parts of the world, and I thought this novel might be an interesting way to explore that time while at the same time having her life some what parallel Hemingway's Paris experience.

One of the cool things my researching has led me to is the wonderful book Paris Was A Woman-Portraits From The Left Bank, by Andrea Weiss. As creatives, I feel like camaraderie amongst people who want to live creatively is incredible important in these times and do hope if your feeling called to join me, you just go for it! You can still download the Ebook of The Artist's Way or pop out to a nearby bookstore for it and then the th t Sylvia Beach, Ada Smith, Gertrude Stein, Adrienne Monnier, and on and on, who's vision, on and commitment to the arts, really facilitated and created the world in which artists like Hemingway, Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, etc thrived.

Reading about that time and place has made me lament more than usual, the fact that finding a creative community to gather with, support and inspire is harder and harder to do in our modern lives. To that end I have been researching local book stores and places here in Long Beach I might visit hoping to find some feeling of Shakespeare and Company at 12 rue de l'Odeon and perhaps meet some local authors and creatives as well. This one, Gatsby Books, is walking distance from my house!

Finally, just a reminder that tonight is the deadline to sign your contract from The Artist Way and email it to me at jamiesimscoakley@gmail.com . As creatives, I feel like camaraderie amongst people who want to live creatively is incredible important in these times and do hope if your feeling called to join me, you just go for it! You can still download the Ebook of The Artist's Way or pop out to a nearby bookstore for it and RSVP to our first Zoom Chat For Creatives - The Artist's Way Edition.

And in closing, "If you had no fear, what would you create?"

With Love,

Jamie