Humor: Your Sun Sign's Favorite Read

© 2014 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

Before we get more serious with books and reading lists this Book Month on the Radical Virgo, I wanted to honor the fact that this month starts with April Fool’s Day. It’s also National Humor Month. Tipping my hat to both, I got together with my wiseacre alter ego, Auntie Joyce, and we envisioned the favorite books of each zodiac sign. Feel free to disagree—or add to your sign’s fave—in the Comments. Who can have just one favorite book?

ARIES: The Indiana Jones series by various authors, including James Rollins, Steve Perry and Max McCoy. Indy’s the ultimate adventurer and predicament pioneer. He flies by the seat of his pants and has no time but the present to crack his whip and solve his latest life-or-death dilemma. These books will fire up any Aries to make the best of those natal qualities of loving and charging through danger.

TAURUS: The Sensuous Woman by “J” (1982) and The Sensuous Man by “M.” (1971) They’re oldies, but if you read the comments on Amazon, they’re still goodies. Examples from The Sensuous Woman: “Laughingly dated but surprisingly solid.” What earthy sign doesn’t like a good laugh while boning up on how to make more senses of life?

GEMINI: The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. With twins at the heart of this light-and-dark comedy, any Gem is likely to resonate with his or her inner twin to the wit, mistaken identities, slapstick and verbal humor.

CANCER: Mickey’s Gourmet Cookbook: Most Popular Recipes from Disney World and Disneyland by Disney Book Group.  It’s vintage and All in the US Family, as Mickey has been a part of Americana since 1928. It’s about food, and it makes kids happy—and the kid within us all. Cancer will read it like a novel and feed you from it, if you’re lucky.

LEO: The Aspiring Actor's Handbook: What Seasoned Actors Wished They Had Known by Molly Cheek and Debbie Zipp. All your world is a stage. Know how to work it!

VIRGO: Any Miss Manners book, pen name of journalist Judith Martin. As you’ll see from this link and her bio, Miss Priss is a bona fide Virgo. (Big surprise.) If you’re old enough, you might just have had Etiquette as a subject in school like I did. My favorite title is Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. For fiction, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries or Lee Goldberg’s Monk books. Caution: The latter might possibly bring so many of your annoying Virgo traits to your attention; you might set yourself up for a reactive slob streak.

LIBRA: Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus by John Gray. Whether you’re a Venus guy or gal, this classic on how communication differs between the sexes will help you deal best with what you care about most—love. Recommended especially during the current Mars in Libra Retrograde transit. We need all the help we can get.

SCORPIO: The Art of War by Sun Tzu. This is the perfect choice for Scorps with their dual Rulership by Mars and Pluto. Unlike Aries who is more likely to shoot first and strategize later, Sun Tsu’s classic oozes the Scorpionic ability to psych out the enemy and even spy on him or her. The Art of War has been used in modern business as well as on ancient battlefields. Any Scorp true to his or her nature will get into both the game and the wisdom and probably find some laughs in this epic on handling enemies.

SAGITTARIUS: The Know-It-All: One Person’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs. If the title weren’t enough, this memoir on Jacobs’ obsession to learn everything is apparently laden with humor. Laughter, BIG learning and romps through history that are a vicarious journey around the world through time: What’s for Sag not to love?

CAPRICORN: How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying: The Dastard’s Guide to Fame and Fortune by Shepherd Mead. The book, on which the successful Broadway musical is based, has been dubbed classic, timeless and hilarious by readers. It may suggest to success-happy Caps that hard work isn’t the only way to get to the top—and you’ll surely have a good time contemplating the alternatives within this short romp (160 pp.). Reader feedback suggests its message “ … still is 90% true of the office environment today.” Satirical and ultimately lyrical in its musical incarnation. Will appeal to the Capricornball sense of humor.

AQUARIUS: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Can’t you just imagine your favorite Aquarian hitching a ride on a comet? Quirky, funny and ahead of its time anytime.

PISCES: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Nothing could be more grounding for the often floating and spiritually-minded Pisces than coming into the present moment. As proof that Pisces is indeed the culmination and soup of all 12 signs, this book holds power for everyone. The ultimate tip from The Radical Virgo Recc Room!

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Photo Credit: © determined - Fotolia.com

April: Book Month on The Radical Virgo

© 2014 by Joyce Mason

Since I’ve begun writing novels, I’ve been reading more—primarily fiction. I’ve discovered some things I think you’ll want to know about.

During April we’ll take a look at who’s writing astrological fiction. Turns out there are more authors than I knew! I’ll share some blurbs about their work. We’ll have a couple of full-length reviews, both of fiction and non-fiction on astrological topics.

I’m on a reading kick this year for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to promote my own novel on Goodreads, so I started tracking my reading there. It’s kind of like tracking points on Weight Watchers, another past good habit I’m about to get back to. Following my own progress and setting goals leads to more success. I’m doing a book challenge of reading 35 books this year, which at the pace I’m going, I’ll exceed to the point of about a book a week. I think I could have committed to 50, but I’m trying to tame my Jupiter trine Mars overachievement. Better to overshoot the goal and cut myself some slack, especially with this year’s big personal agenda. I'm also enjoying the excuse to sit down and how it rejuvenates me to get that big To Do List done.

My return to my bookworm roots brings back fabulous memories of our rickety old library in my burgeoning Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, Illinois in the 1950s. The library was so old; its ugly brown linoleum pitched at what felt like at least a 35-degree angle. It was musty and smelled peculiar, but it was like finding buried treasure to a wide-eyed kid. I once heard someone ask, if you could only have one card in your wallet, what would it be? Mine would be my library card. My mother had fits as I read constantly in poor lighting by my bedside. That habit may or may not have led to my extreme near-sightedness and coke bottle glasses till I turned 14 and my hands-on-knees begging my mom for contacts finally worked.

Second, I picked up my reading pace early this year so I could cast an intelligent vote at the Left Coast Crime conference for the award nominees. I admit, reading 20 books in six weeks was not a possibility for me, as I had not yet read one of the books in contention except for excerpts. I did hit the Kindle samples and read those that I knew would most appeal to me, and I just have to share the list of nominees and winners with you; it’s so terrific. I want to read most of them, and I bet you’ll find some great reads, too.

In this list I discovered the best book I’ve read in years, Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. There’s something about it that reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird, because it deals with heavy topics from a child’s perspective and is told with humor, sensitivity and ultimate optimism despite dealing with death, bigotry and other meaty issues. It touched me from the Prologue, and I cried several times. Mostly, it has the real goods about what’s important in life when it comes to love, community and not letting first impressions stand, as the truth is often buried deeper.

Since The Radical Virgo is known for its large dollop of humor, you might want to especially check out the entries for the Lefty or humorous novel. April is National Humor Month—all the more reason.

LEFT COAST CRIME NOMINEES AND WINNERS

Winners highlighted

The Lefty: Best Humorous Mystery Novel

• Donna Andres, The Hen of the Baskervilles (Minotaur Books)
• Timothy Hallinan, The Fame Thief (Soho Crime)
• Lisa Lutz, The Last Word (Simon & Schuster)
• Brad Parks, The Good Cop (Minotaur Books)
• Cindy Sample, Dying for a Daiquiri (Cindy Sample Books)

 The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award: Best historical mystery novel covering events before 1960

• Rhys Bowen, Heirs and Graces (Berkeley Prime Crime)
• Susan Elia MacNeal, His Majesty’s Hope (Bantam)
• Catriona McPherson, Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses (Minotaur Books)
• David Morrell, Murder as a Fine Art (Mulholland Books)
• Priscilla Royal, Covenant with Hell (Poison Pen Press)

The Squid: Best mystery set within the United States

• Sue Grafton, W is for Wasted (Putnam, Marian Wood Books)
• Darrell James, Purgatory Key (Midnight Ink)
• William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace (Atria Books)
• Hank Phillippi Ryan, The Wrong Girl (Forge)
• Terry Shames, A Killing at Cotton Hill (Seventh Street Books)

The Calamari: Best mystery set anywhere else in the world

• Cara Black, Murder Below Montparnasse (Soho Crime)
• Lisa Brackmann, Hour of the Rat (Soho Crime)
• Catriona McPherson, As She Left It (Midnight Ink)
• Louise Penny, How the Light Gets In (Minotaur Books)
• Jeffrey Siger, Mykonos After Midnight (Poisoned Pen Press)

By the way, I’m proud to say that two of the authors on this list are my Sisters in Crime, members along with me of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento Chapter of the national mystery writing organization. They are Lefty nominee Cindy Sample and Bruce Alexander winner Catriona McPherson—both talented, fun and terrific ladies.

More “bookings” on these pages—soon!

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Photo Credit:  Hooked on books © Leo - Fotolia.com

Aries Auntie: Learning Astrology through Children

© 2014 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

Robbie: "Look, Ma--one hand!"

Well over 40 years ago, my sister Janet and my brother Don made me an auntie with the birth of their children, just two years apart. Robbie was born to Janet on March 24, 1967. Dawn was born to Don and Rhonda on April 15, 1969.

At the time, I had not yet studied astrology. While I had more than a passing curiosity about it, I don’t remember ever thinking much about the fact that both these kids had Aries Sun. How poetic with the Aries penchant for being first that the child who first made me an aunt—Robbie— was an Aries. And as for Dawn, she was my first niece. How fitting they’d both be Aries, both of them firsts in my auntiehood, each in their own way.

Although I lived away from home in Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin while they were growing up in Chicago, I spent many a weekend and holiday with the kids. I adore children and loved spending as much time with them as possible. Our time together when they were little became even more precious to me over the years, since it was not in the cards for me to have children of my own. Back then, I remained hopeful. In fact, I remained hopeful till the cusp of my hysterectomy at 45.

Auntie Joyce and Dawn, 1970

What brought this up for me, lo these many years later, was a flash insight on something I learned from my Aries niece. She went a million miles an hour, especially in her tub walker while working herself up to Aries sprinter speed. But when her energy was spent, she fell into a deep sleep. This girl and sleep were best friends. This is a relationship it took her auntie till Social Security to “get.” I’m still chuckling at how she knew how to handle her Mars. When she was up, she was going in hyperdrive, but when she was running out of gas, she docked her personal spacecraft and snoozed. She went to bed relatively early and was up at the crack of her name, Dawn. While I’m still not jazzed about the front end of the morning, I’m becoming more like her as I’m finally gaining respect for my energy limits.

From Robbie I learned to lean into life, even if I might fall. His toddler stage was scary, as he’d lean far forward into his first steps without quite having his balance built up for the task. I watched him do this while holding my breath. I wanted him to succeed going forward but was scared he’d fall flat on his face and seriously hurt himself. Robbie, of course, was unconcerned. He made these moves with total glee, and I still appreciate to this day his fearlessness and Aries pure desire to put his goal first and to keep heading out, no matter if his legs could quite carry him yet.

Children often express astrological energies in a very pure form. If you get a chance, observe your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews. Their little friends, too. Do their charts and watch how they express their star maps in an uncomplicated way. This might indeed be one of the best ways to learn astrology—from the human beings that are still in touch with their starry beginnings, who carry past-life wisdom without realizing it, and who simply know how to be.

Joyce - age 3

And if you want to have even more fun, do what I did. Think back on what they taught you that has personal significance from their pure astrological self-expression.

Do you have a favorite picture of yourself as a child? What part of your chart comes through? Here’s mine.

I see a Venus Girl with something in Scorpio ... How 'bout you--in mine or yours?

Chiron, Marcia Clark and Other Thrills (and Thrillers) at Left Coast Crime

© 2014 by Joyce Mason

Cool Chironic necklace

What interesting times as I morph more deeply into my Chironic, hybrid career of being both a fiction and non-fiction writer. That’s on top of my other adventure in half-and-half: writer and astrologer.

My first Left Coast Crime was quite a thrill. LCC is a conference of mystery writers that moves from city to city on the West Coast annually. My 46 minutes of fame occurred when I spoke on a humorous mystery panel (the first 45 minutes). The second was a one-minute “elevator” speech, introducing my novel at a new authors’ breakfast. I got laughs at both, particularly when I likened the Crystal Ball costume gala in my book to a cross between a Star Trek convention and a New Age revival meeting. I think I accidentally stumbled onto a new marketing phrase.

The synchronicity that amused me most, though—and I know it will bring you a smile, too—came by way of the necklaces worn by Kendel Lynn, moderator of our humorous mystery panel. Kendel’s another individual with a hybrid career, both a terrific writer and publisher (Henery Press). She was wearing three items on a neck chain: a round watch, a round K for her first name, and a skeleton key. The K fell right over the key, making it look exactly like a Chiron glyph. I read the “omenclature” as, “It’s time for Chiron.” The hybrid part of Chiron’s repertoire of meanings became clear as the conference rocked on and I got home to various blog and book feedback.

As I’ve let go of a portion of my astrological writing to make room for fiction, some of my better Astro-ideas are emerging. I am blogging less, but I feel like my posts are meatier—and judging by the unprecedented volume of traffic to this blog lately—they are hitting home. By feeding my hunger for fiction, I actually keep myself from getting too stuffed and burned out on writing about astrology and related topics. As usual, Chiron gets my vote as the astrological archetype of the Millennium. I also saw the hybrid trend at the conference with many forms of fiction merging with mystery almost seamlessly. The Crystal Ball is mystery blended with visionary/metaphysical fiction. I saw so many blends of topics and other genres with mystery; I began to see mystery as the table salt of what writers cook up. It goes with everything. And our diet is so full of it, a book almost doesn’t taste right if it doesn’t have at least some mystery in it.

Radical Virgo Marcia Clark

Another thrill at the conference was seeing the extreme makeover of Marcia Clark, the prosecuting attorney at the OJ Simpson “trial of the century.” My friend and fellow astrologer, Gregg Castellucci, and I followed that circus to the point of becoming unwitting trial groupies. I can’t tell you how many charts we spun throughout the proceedings. When the verdict came down, we were on the phone together in our separate homes in separate cities, a hundred miles apart but figuratively squeezing each other’s hand, praying for a conviction. We were convinced OJ was guilty. Marcia, obviously, was too, considering the title of her memoir about the proceedings, Without a Doubt.

After knowing her in 1995 as an overworked, overwrought and completely exhausted center of attention, to see Marcia now is to see the phoenix of her Scorpio Rising in all its glory. She is upbeat, positive and simply radiant. She shines like her Leo stellium, and she looks just like her Wikipedia picture—much younger than her actual age of 60. She is no longer working as a prosecutor, something she ultimately gave up for the sake of balance in her life, particularly while raising her two sons. There’s a fabulous video from Oprah’s OWN network of Marcia telling the story of her transition from prosecutor to novelist.

Click to enlarge

In her new incarnation, Marcia now writes a mystery series about Rachel Knight, “a Los Angeles D.A. … a tenacious, wise-cracking, and fiercely intelligent prosecutor in the city's most elite division.” There are now three Rachel books, starting with Guilt by Association. Marcia Clark is currently producing a movie of the same name not yet released, starring Julia Stiles as Rachel Knight.

I saw Marcia on two panels, and she was an inspiring role model. I thought you’d enjoy this update and look at her chart. Marcia is a great example of the many lives we live within one life. So much more is possible with today’s extended life span at a time where interconnection brings more opportunity than ever.

Research: Book #2

Some of the most fun I had was revisiting one of my favorite places on the Monterey Peninsula, Asilomar Conference Center, a place that has a cameo in my next book. Turns out a dear astrologer friend of many years was raised in the area since he was three weeks old. He has given me so much material on the local color; I can’t wait to recreate my fictitious Monterey small town and the evil goings-on in stark contrast to the breathtaking beauty of this special place of John Steinbeck, sea creatures and Monarch butterflies. I plan a return trip for more research, maybe  for the annual Butterfly Parade and Bazaar in early October to welcome the Monarchs back to Pacific Grove.

Happy Homecoming

I came home to a wonderful review of The Crystal Ball by Donna Van Toen in the NCGR Memberletter. If you’re not already a member of this fine organization, I recommend it highly. Highlights from Donna’s review:

“Once you pick this sweetheart up, it’s hard to put down … Absolutely delightful.” 
~ Review of The Crystal Ball, NCGR Memberletter

The cat and house were in one piece when we got back, and my decision to write mystery novels feels better than ever. I’m already planning to attend Left Coast Crime 2015. The next one's called Crimelandia, and it takes place in Portland, March 12-15, 2015. LCC is now my favorite writing conference with its egalitarian flair—first novelists were treated the same as NY Times best-selling authors—and its purpose as a conference for both readers and writers.

If you read or write and love mystery genre, plan ahead to join the party in Portland a year from now.

~~~

Photo Credits: Kendel’s necklace by Joyce with Kendel’s iPhone; Marcia Clark © Larry D. Moore, Wikipedia common license