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I couldn’t be more thrilled about the way my inaugural Australian launch is rolling out.  Here’s a photo of Vivian Rising right on the new fiction table at the entrance of Borders at the Canberra Centre.  My publicist says the same is true for the big Dymock’s George Street store in Sydney, too!  At Dymock’s, you buy one copy of Vivian Rising and get another copy free—to share with someone you love.  How cool is that?  Here’s their web link, where Vivian Rising is featured in the “We Love…” section.   Thank you Simon & Schuster Australia!  I heart you.  Thank you Australian bookshops and readers!  I heart you, too.  Let me know where you’ve spotted …it’ll be like Where’s Wally.  I’m feeling so patriotic, I may even give Vegemite another go.  No. N

On the eve of my Australian launch, I have to say I’m more excited than I’ve been in half a dozen years at the idea of a new book coming out.  Normally, I’m more likely to feign thrill in answer to the question:  “Aren’t you so excited?”  Sure, I love what I do.  But the reality is, by the time the book actually comes out, you’ve gone through so many ups and downs with it, so many edits and perfection-seeking proofreads (now was it “e.e. cummings” or “E.E. Cummings”? The latter, you might be surprised to know), so many boiled-down-to-a-sound-bite summaries and cover quotes, interviews and appearances that the book’s as much a part of your everyday life as your husband is:  now of course you love him, but do you get excited every time he comes home?  And so.

My month of cozying up with astrology has come to an end, and I’m so happy to have once again opened this door to self-insight.  It turns out I am completely incapable of tamping my expectations when a positive prophecy is forecast, and thoroughly capable of ignoring the more negative indications.  As always, I’m shocked at how many predictions were spot-on.  Also, integrating these readings into my daily routine, I’ve taken more time than normal to sit back and look at the big picture, and how all the little loose ends of my life may ultimately come together.  This can only be a good thing.  I’ve just spent some time in Florence and Rome, and I was so taken with what I took away as man’s—our—importance, when seen through the breathtaking frescos, and under the watchful eyes of doting angels and saints.  I could easily understand the appeal of looking at life through such a meaningful, complex hierarchy; I was certainly seduced myself—lighting candles for my most cherished hopes, and thoughtfully contemplating hopes and concerns in the staggering hush of St. Peter’s.  In its own unique way, astrology brings to us this same sort of bigger picture feeling, even while it creeps up so intimately in the quite personal issues of our own individual lives—as Viv would say, Unus Mundus! This has all led me to a new specific strain of curiosity, taking me all the way back to Renaissance Italy and modern day New York.  When the resultant novel gets underway, you’ll be the first to know!  I have two in the queue first, so I’ll have to be patient and satiate myself in the meanwhile with lots of fascinating reading and research.

Okay, halfway through my mission, I was just about to say I was so over the whole thing when, bam!, another reading hits me with its articulate insight.  Is it just that when we need to hear something that astrology seems its most powerful?  Or are we just more finely tuned at those points to hear things we might otherwise ignore?

Looking forward, it’s the start of a new month, and I’ve been eager to see what Susan Miller has to say about my November forecast…it’s been so long since I indulged!  She’s not up yet, though, so I’ll have to get back to you on that.  In the meanwhile, I did some checking elsewhere, and sticking with the business theme, the language and parameters my horoscope used helped to build on something I’ve been thinking about lately:

Oct 20^th

I’m not sure if it’s astrology overload, but over the last few days, nothing at all in my horoscopes has struck me.   I compared my usual source with my reading from The Post.  Their themes seem to jive:  Do your own thing; don’t try to fit in with the crowd.  Bored with astrology as I might be at the moment, I have to say I like this thought.  It’s something I’ve often had to remind myself about through my life.  I remember graduating from college, working for a worldly, sophisticated woman—the likes of which I’d never before encountered—and the way she’d write frenzied post-its to me in our telephone meetings:  Tone down the Queens accent! I was mortified.  Even while, I thought, F-U!  I’m from Queens, the embarrassment of sounding unsophisticated stayed with me.  Today people often remark I barely have a New York accent.  How sad.  I must have phased it out over the years.  Little did I know that being that girl from Queens was my hallmark—the thing that made me stand out in the WASPY magazine industry.  Back then I was just trying to fit in.  Youth!  Wasted on the young…

Oct 15

Pisces

“You can’t square a circle, nor can you pour a quart into a pint pot. Some things just are as they are. No matter how much you might wish they were rather different, it is unrealistic to expect them to change. There are, this weekend, some situations and processes over which you have great power and influence. You won’t recognise these, though, while you are bemoaning a set of circumstances that you regret. Give your energy and attention to the positive possibilities and soon, you won’t notice the sources of frustration. The cosmic blueprint of your life was written in code across the sky at the moment you were born.” – Jonathan Cainer

Pisces

October 14

“Some arguments simply can’t be won. Some phenomena can never be quite satisfactorily explained. Some processes, situations and people simply baffle us, the more we try to think about them or understand them. How dull life would be if it were any other way. In your current quest for an elusive butterfly, you need to proceed gently and carefully. If something makes no sense, don’t get frustrated; just be patient. If there is something you truly need to know now, it won’t be long before you find it out.” – Jonathan Cainer

Pisces Horoscope from Jonathan Cainer

October 13:

“You simply can’t appreciate daylight until you know what it is like to stare into the darkness of a long night. Happiness means little if it has not been preceded by a certain amount of sorrow. Think of all that has made life so difficult lately. Did it really have a point? Was it all necessary? Couldn’t certain problems have been avoided? These are unanswerable questions that will only exhaust and distract you, if you continue to ask them. Ask instead, ‘Where next?’ And, then, be inspired by the obvious answer! Now is the right time for you to take an in-depth, up close and personal look at your life.”

OCTOBER 12

PISCES DAILY HOROSCOPE:  What goes up, must come down. But what if it then goes back up again? And then, down again? And so on? Then, of course, it’s a mistake to view it as something going up or going down, just because that is what it happens to be doing at this particular moment. Instead, it should be seen as a bouncing item. Imagine looking at a yo-yo and saying, ‘Darn, it’s up. I wish it was down’. Before you have formed the thought, it has shifted position.