Notes from the Ink of the Lotus Blossom

What's this newsletter all about?
Readers are those who describe themselves as creative. It's for intellectual risk-takers, self-proclaimed artists, and Skullduggery readers. Its mission is to help increase creativity, productivity, and self-esteem.

It will also let you know about where I'll be giving book readings, lectures, or workshops.

Feel free to pass along this newsletter to a friend.

What's in this issue?
Celebrate Your Small Victories
Excerpt from Xavierite review of Skullduggery
Excerpt from Xavierite interview of Silvia Foti
Upcoming Creativity lecture and workshop
Upcoming book signings

Creativity Workshop -- How to Unleash Your Creativity
6 Saturday Mornings 10 am to Noon
May 17 to June 28
With Silvia Foti and Joan Cantwell
North Lakeside Cultural Center
6219 N. Sheridan Road
To register, please call (773) 743-4477

Read more about this workshop at the end of this newsletter.



Celebrate Your Small Victories in Your Creative Life

Recently I was watching a CNN special on how our US Army Green Berets were trained in the event they go into enemy captivity. The show aired a few weeks before Operation Iraqui Freedom began, and in light of current events, the segment still haunts me.

One aspect of the show focused on how the soldiers were trained to survive under grim conditions in enemy territory. They were instructed to focus on their small victories to keep up their spirits and to congratulate themselves on meeting those goals despite their gargantuan obstacles.

For example, one soldier who was trapped in Bosnia told the poignant story of how he alleviated his dry lips by squeezing out sweat from his sock and placing the moisture on his parched lips. He knew it was a small victory, but his pride in his ingenuity showed through and his victory was marked by high spirits. The method raised his morale, which he needed to survive.

As creatives, we lead double lives, often battling the everyday realities of paying real bills with a real job while marching forward bravely in our dream life. If we keep our spirits high we do have time and energy left over for our dream job.

How does a double-life creative keep her or his spirits high? For a writer, this means not focusing on the far-off goal of a best-seller list, but instead zoning in on a piece of paper and squeezing out some moisture from our parched pen to quench the thirst of our dry page, right?

Not necessarily. We need to look at that empty page in the proper context. We have a myriad of distractions tugging at us from our real life, and maybe filling that page is just too ambitious for now.

Sometimes our dream life tasks are only in preparation for coming in contact with that white page, and those preparatory tasks need to be celebrated more. The point is to keep our spirits high for the day when we can actually put pen to paper.

Since I'm most familiar with a dream life related to writing a mystery novel, I tried to come up with a list of tasks that I know I did before I put a pen to paper. With my first novel, I didn't even realize how important all those little tasks were, but this time around, I'm trying to celebrate all of them, to keep up my own spirits.

I offer you this list in the hopes that you can create a similar one related to your own dream life.

* Name a character.
* Find an icon or little statue to represent a character in your novel.
* Place the icon in your writing area, and feel the energy of it. Let it tell you something about the character.
* Decide on your murder victim.
* Research an aspect of violence.
* Sign up for a writer's conference.
* Join a mystery writer's group.
* Attend a mystery writer's local chapter meeting.
* Buy a book on how to write a mystery novel.
* Decide what your main character will wear during a key scene.
* Read another mystery novel.
* Attend a book signing of a mystery author.
* Read a book on finding a literary agent.
* Journal about your anxiety to write a mystery novel.
* Light a candle and pray ffor god's help to guide you in writing a mystery novel.
* Call upon an angel to sit on your shoulder and whisper a scene of your mystery novel in your ear.
* Do a collage of old magazine of an aspect of your mystery novel.
* Write out a wish related to your mystery novel and place it in a God jar.
* Write a letter to yourself. Pretend you're already a successfully published author who is giving you some good advice.
*Recall an emotionally vivid moment in your life and see how you can ficitionalize it, tailoring the moment to a scene in your mystery novel.
* Journal about someone you hate and stir those juices with a bottle of fiction to create the perfect villain for your mystery novel.

What small victories can you learn to celebrate in your dream life in the face of your everyday real life?

Unadulteratedly Yours,
Madame Foti

Excerpt from the Xavierite (Newspaper of St. Xavier University)
Wednesday, March 5, 2003

Book Review
SXU Professor in Print with "Skullduggery"
By Kristen Wajda
Features/Copy Editor

The crime: The first ever Mexican mayor of Chicago, Bernardo Morales, was murdered.

The suspects: There are many. Pro-cigarette groups, his opponent for the next mayoral election, Robin Dryad, and his lover, astrologist Maria de la Cruz, are all suspicious. But the prime suspect in this case is 29-year-old Alexandria Vilkas, a journalist who is guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Skullduggery is a quick-read drama about the Windy City and the political corruption that goes on behind its icy, locked doors. A Chicago native, Silvia Foti went to great pains to perfect her work. This project took seven years, during which time she toured City Hall, the Field Museum, Pilsen and a tortilla factory to create a realistic setting. In this she succeeded. Mayor Morales is reminiscent of the late Mayor Harold Washington who had to undergo similar racial and issue-based difficulties. As Alexandria progresses with her investigation, the reader is able to follow her steps straight down Archer Avenue, through Bridgeport and to the heart of Downtown.

The book is an easy read, filled with action from the very beginning with the mayor's death scene. Unlike many books that seem to end with the reader asking, "So what's the point?" this book has a gratifying ending.

Excerpt from The Xavierite
Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Murder Mystery Writer Talks About First Novel
Here Foti talks about being a writer, describes how she gets ideas and offers sound advice for aspiring writers.

Q: Where did your idea for the book come from?
A: I've been a lifelong Chicagoan and I knew for my first book, it would have to take place in Chicago. I set it on the Southwest Side since I grew up here and lived here all my life. I wanted to make it a murder mystery, so I asked myself "Who should I kill in Chicago?"

Thinking this book would never get published anyway, I decided I'd start right at the top and kill the mayor. Then I had to decide what kind of mayor he will be. I created Chicago's first Hispanic mayor who was very popular, but who had a lot of enemies.

From there it became a matter of imagining what could happen. I also researched what did happen when we had Chicago's first black mayor. It was established Harold Washington died of natural causes, but in my book of fiction, I asked myself what if a mayor doesn't die of natural causes? What if he's murdered?

Q: Was it at all difficult to write the sex scene in chapter 12?
A: It was a very difficult scene to write for me, but in some ways I'd been thinking about that scene for years. That scene is somewhat of a political statement against how most sex scenes are portrayed in Hollywod and other works of fiction.

It took me years of married life to realize that what happens in film or in most fictional books doesn't necessarily happen in real life for many women. It also took me years to notice that most sex scenes are written by men.

Since I had that "political" angle to it, I burdened myself with a message that I wanted to relay while I was trying to entertain the reader. As an aside, my sex scene starts on page 69, which I thought was a hoot when I noticed it.

Q: Where did your interest in and knowledge of the Crystal Skull and the myths that surround it begin?

A: I've always had an interest in the supernatural, in our connection to God, and in what happens to our spirit after we die. In the early 1990s, I was reading a nonfiction book of crystal skulls, which I found fascinating. Crystal skulls are very real, and what I portray in Skullduggery comes straight out of my research on these very interesting artifacts.

Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
A: Don't wait for the perfect time. There is no such thing. Just start and keep at it. Also, most writers have to do something else to pay the bills, and that's not the end of the world. Just keep your compass pointed North to your writing and get back to it as soon as the time is available again.

Creativity Workshop--How to Unleash Your Creativity
6 Saturday Mornings 10 am to Noon
May 17 to June 28
With Silvia Foti and Joan Cantwell

North Lakeside Cultural Center
6219 N. Sheridan Rd.
To register, please call 773-743-4477.

Silvia Foti, a mystery novelist, and Joan Cantwell, a wellness coach, have teamed up to offer a workshop in Chicago on how to unleash creativity. Everybody has creativity, but for many it is blocked. Silvia and Joan will explain the process of creativity and how many people have buried it deep inside themselves for several reasons.

With participants, they will work through a variety of exercises to help unblock and unleash creativity. Their purpose is to help as many people as possible unleash their creative gifts to the universe.

Silvia and Joan will run the workshop for six weeks as a pilot program for $45 per person. It will be held at the wonderfully inspiring location the North Lakeside Cultural Center in Chicago, which overlooks Lake Michigan.

6 Saturday mornings 10 am to Noon May 17 to June 28
1. May 17 -- Beginnings
2. May 24 -- Young Self
3. May 31 -- Creativity Monsters
4. June 7 -- God
(June 14 -- No Class)
5. June 21 -- Power
6. June 28 -- Rewards

Joan Cantwell, RN, MA, CJAE
Joan Cantwell is an accomplished wellness coach, artist and expressive arts instructor who recently left an 11-year corporate career to pursue her passion of bringing the creative process into health. She now runs her own business called Mindful Living Productions. She teaches Art Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy at Roosevelt University. Visit her at www.joancantwell.com.

Silvia Foti, MSJ
Silvia Foti is out with her first mystery novel Skullduggery. It took her 10 years to write and publish this novel, and in the process she learned a great deal about creativity, how it is blocked in so many people, and how it is possible to unblock and unleash it. She runs her own freelance writing business called Lotus Ink and teaches public speaking at St. Xavier University and English composition at Daley College. Visit her at www.silviafoti.com.

North Lakeside Cultural Center
6219 N. Sheridan Road
To register, please call (773) 743-4477.

Of Dark & Stormy Nights XXI--Mystery Writers of America
Saturday, June 14
Holiday Inn Rolling Meadows on Algonquin Road

Silvia Foti will be leading a one-hour workshop during this conference on "How to Kill a Creativity Monster and Stay Out of Jail"

A one-hour session will focus on issues and techniques often connected to crativity blocks--"monsters" from our childhood or adulthood who told us we're not good enough and who made us believe in their negative vision of ourselves. Was it writing teacher? Or was it your mother? How do we kill these "monsters" and stay out of jail?

The session will introduce emotional detecting techniques to investigate our past to help us determine our blocks to creativity, such as automatic writing, sharing emotional scar stories, and visioning. We'll also talk about the concept of creativity, how we all have it, yet how many of us are afraid to access it.

Upcoming Skullduggery Signings
Saturday, April 12: 1-3 p.m. Sanctuary Crystals 5524 Cal Sag Road (Rt 83) Alsip

Saturday, April 26: 11 am to 1 pm: Books a Million, 8331 Golf Rd.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003: 7:30 to 8:30 pm Healing Earth Resources, 3111 N. Ashland Avenue. Will be speaking on crystal skulls.

Monday, June 16: 7 to 8 p.m. Transitions Book Place, 1000 W. North Ave. Speaking on unleashing creativity and how that played into writing Skullduggery.

Book readings & workshops
Contact me at lotusink@aol.com for hosting a book reading on Skullduggery at your favorite bookstore or book club, and for doing a lecture or workshop on unleashing your creativity.

Story ideas and letters to the editor
Do you have a question or issue on creativity you'd like Lotus Ink to investigate? Wondering what experts or other lay creatives have to say about a question on your mind? Send your story ideas to lotusink@aol.com

Feel free to pass along the Lotus Ink Newsletter to a friend.

Bloom Like The Lotus