Revisiting the Abandoned Project
How Holiday Mathis found a publisher for her novel gathering dust
“I believe in seasons.” —Holiday Mathis
Preview: Episode 63, Overcoming Creative Self-Consciousness with Holiday Mathis
When world-renowned astrologer Holiday Mathis told us that she was publishing a novel—a novel that had been sitting in a drawer for many years—we got excited. How many people have creative projects they have completed but, for various reasons, set aside? This is the episode to help re-excite you about an old project—an incentive to blow off the dust and see what flame that old passion might have to offer you now.
Holiday Mathis writes the daily horoscope for The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and hundreds of newspapers around the world. In her decades-long syndication she's published over 8 million words on luck, the stars and the human condition. She's also a multi-platinum selling songwriter with songs recorded by Miley Cyrus, Emma Roberts and more. Holiday is the author of several books including the upcoming How to Fail Epically in Hollywood.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
We were delighted to tell you about a podcast we love, The Moonlight Writers Club. It's a show for writers who value creative expression and have a drive to pursue their passions, yet their busy lives are often at odds with their desire to write. In season one, host Molly Thornton is taking a new look at Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, offering the best bits of the oft-referenced text in episodes that feel like a creative download made just for you.
Rosemerry:
Sometimes it feels as if we cannot survive what is battering us. And sometimes we see how it is an invitation to transformation. That’s at the heart of this poem by Rainier Maria Rilke, and it’s been strengthening me the way only poetry can.
I just watched the autobiographical film of musical playwright Jonathan Larson, Tick, Tick … Boom. Perhaps I am the last to see it, but I was struck by how powerfully the film depicted creative process—how often we are shot down. How the invitation of a rejection is to start again. How inspiration happens in the strangest place. The sacrifices we make for art. And how creativity brings people together. Available on Netflix if you missed it in the theater like I did.
Christie:
It was such a joy to receive my copy of The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, edited by Emerging Form guest James Crews. The book features poems by Rosemerry as well as some Emerging Form guests, like Danusha Lameris,Jack Ridl and Alison Luterman.
I was mesmerized by Vauhini Vara’s story about her sister’s death, written with the help of an artificial intelligence model that was being trained to write human-like text. “GPT-3 generates its own text based on the language it has been fed: Candor, apparently, begat candor,” Vara writes in The Believer.
From Dead or Alive in the (615)
i still have it
the kind of hope
that won’t stay buried
—Holiday Mathis
(to see the beautiful ebook of words and images Holiday created for the Brentwood Trail System, visit here)
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, we talk with Holiday about how a car in a park can become a makeshift room of one’s own, how she gained inspiration from dancers in Las Vegas and how when she was five, she received unforgettable advice about how to move in the world.
If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
What story do you tell yourself about your old creative projects?
What do you wish you could tell your younger creative self?