What's Your Sign? The good and the bad.

 

JENN McKINLAY: After Deb's post about birthdays last week, we realized we didn't know when all of ours are. Weirdly, in the five and half years I've been with the group, it hadn't come up. Lucy has since added them to the calendar. 

I jokingly warned everyone that I'm an Aries and it got me to wondering what everyone else's sign in and do you think it accurately reflects your personality. I found this chart from UC Davis and I like it because it does the good and the bad. I have to admit that, yes, I do resemble that profile, particularly the "enthusiastic and confident" and "Impulsive and impatient" parts.

How about it, Reds? Do you match your sign?

RHYS BOWEN:  I’m a Libra and while I like being diplomatic and urbane, romantic and charming I do not fit the negatives. I have never been indecisive, in fact I could be said to make up my mind too rapidly. I am certainly not gullible or easily influenced and I’m not self indulgent ( I’m not saying I’ve never been a bit flirty). 

I’m on the cusp of Virgo but that’s not me either!  Actually I think I fit more with the Aries profile which was my mother’s sign, also both grandmothers!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So funny, I’m a LIbra, too, which would mean that Rhys and I are just alike.. And well, we’re not. Are we?  I might be  diplomatic, but not urbane. Romantic? Depends what you mean. Charming? Meh. Easygoing and sociable? No and no. Idealistic and peaceable? Well, that’s closer. I know my moon is in Leo, creative and enthusiastic, that seems right. I’m pushing being a Scorpio: and the “determined intuitive emotional” that’s right, too. And now, you can see, with me weighing all the possibilities here, and not being able to decide, that I am a perfect Libra.

DEBS: Hank, we all think you are enormously charming!!

LUCY BURDETTE: Poor Capricorns, we always draw the short stick. I mean really, we are “practical and prudent, ambitious and disciplined, etc.” and that’s supposed to be the good stuff?? I wonder if maybe I was supposed to be Aquarious, but I pushed out early? My friend Yvonne is also a Capricorn–we joke that we are earth-bound and loyal and we like to wear brown.

I once had an astrological reading done by Jessica Crispin, which was complex and astonishingly accurate, and gave good insight into why I went into psychology. She ended with giving me some things to read, which I need to track down now.

Meanwhile, here’s an interesting article about writing style according to your astrological sign: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/writing-style-astrological-sign/

It’s simply not true that all I need is a friendly pat on the back LOL!

HALLIE EPHRON: Looking at the definition of my sign, Pisces, the term WISHYWASHY comes to mind. Like those fish, swimming in two directions at once. I am not wishywashy. But I remember discovering once upon a time that Elizabeth Taylor is a Pisces, and she doesn’t seem particularly wishywashy either. Someone once told me that my “rising sign”(whatever that is) was Scorpio. Maybe that explains it.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m a Cancer, and boy, am I a real Cancer. Homeloving? Yep. Nurturing? Yep. Ruled by the stomach? Oh, yeah. Moody, emotional and prone to clinginess? When I was younger. (I think we all even out with age.) Do I literally feel better and happier in and around water? Uh huh. Everyone’s therapist? Oh, if I could only charge by the hour.

Cancers are people who, when they invite you for “Netflix and chill,” mean, “Bring your cuddliest blanket and get ready for a four hour Lord of the Rings marathon.” Also? Look at this list and be stunned and amazed at the awesome writing power of people who just want to stay at home and have feelings: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/155639.Popsugar_2021_4_A_Book_by_an_Author_who_Shares_Your_Zodiac_Sign_Cancer

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I've always thought I fit the Gemini profile pretty well.  I'm outgoing and chatty and interested in so many things. I hope I'm witty and eloquent and youthful! I am also, however, very easily distracted and that can tip towards scatterbrained. 

My Moon is in Cancer, however, and that influence seems to be pretty strong. I'm very home and place oriented and I really, really like time on my own. 

And Julia, if we're going to brag about famous authors who share our astrological signs, I can claim Arthur Conan Doyle AND Dorothy Sayers!

How about you, Readers? Do you match your sign?

From Stage to Keyboard: by Connie DiMarco

Jenn McKinlay: True confession -- I read my horoscope every day. 

I have also been known to consult runes, tarot cards, and one time a 

psychic. She told me not to worry and that everything would work 

out. That was enough for me, I never needed to consult another 

psychic again. Right? Anyway, when I saw the Zodiac Mysteries 

hit the shelves, needles to say, they were immediately added to my 

TBR pile! They're wonderful! And their author, the fabulous 

Connie DiMarco, is here with us today to tell us how they came to 

be.

Connie DiMarco: A big thank you to Jenn 

McKinlay for  inviting me over to visit the 

Jungle Reds! I’m thrilled to be here today 

among such a fabulous group. 

Tail of the Dragon, Book 3 in the Zodiac Mysteries, has just been released.  The mad round of blog tours and events has (almost) come to a close and now, with a little breathing room, I find myself giving a lot of thought to the crazy business we are all involved in.  The ups and downs, the disappointments and frustrations.  And of course, the thrill of holding your very own book in your hands or spotting your magnum opus on a Barnes & Noble bookshelf. But the truth of it is that getting published can be a real pain in the zorch! 

JENN: Pain in the Zorch!!! I love it!

My wonderful agent several years ago tried to sell the Zodiac Mysteries, but no publisher would bite. One reason I’m sure was that I had no resume as a writer.  In fact, I had never written a thing or even thought about being a writer.  Crafting a thank you note or a little message on a Christmas card took all my ingenuity and focus.  The thought of staring at a blank computer screen, wracking my brain for clever ideas seemed an excruciating form of mental torture.  I swore I’d never step into that.  

My first love was acting, from the time I heard a soap opera on the radio at the age of six.  I was entranced.  I wanted to live in that world.  And eventually I did -- for a lot of years.  A few people who know about my foolish past have remarked, “How exciting! Wasn’t it exciting?”  I’ve replied, “Uh . . . .”  How can I explain to anyone that the work is sometimes an E-ticket ride, but the life is anything but.  If sweating blood for the next job, anxiety attacks, and waiting for the phone to ring is exciting . . . then maybe you’re meant to be an actor (?). 

It was boredom that kickstarted my venture into mystery writing.  The epiphany happened one day in a Hollywood parking lot in 105-degree heat. I was playing a receptionist in a miniseries who helps an undercover FBI agent posing as a Muslim terrorist fill out a job application for a rabbi who is in fact a terrorist himself.  If you’re confused by this description, no worries.  So was I.  Over the years under my professional name, I’ve played all sorts of moms, divorcées, nurses, secretaries and waitresses, even a hooker or two.  That particular day, I was in a state of narcoleptic ennui.  Bored stiff.  This was not art.  I was merely advancing the plot.  That’s the day I decided to head home as soon as possible and start writing my mystery.  (Did I mention I’ve always been a lover of mysteries and thrillers?)  

As an actor, not only are you a social leper at a party because everyone knows you’re just looking for the next job, but in a working situation, you have no control.  Not on a set and not on a stage.  You only have your part, one cog in a great wheel.  But (lightbulb going off here) as a writer, you can create and control everything.  You build your own world, just the way you like it.  

August 2018

So that’s how my crime-solving San Francisco astrologer was born.  The early rejections didn’t bother me.  I already had a Ph.D. in rejection – three decades of chewing fingernails, sitting in LA traffic, A/C on stun and makeup melting onto my lap for the jobs I didn’t book.  But I was undaunted.  I wrote the second book in the series and then the third.  Still nothing happened.  The Zodiac Mysteries languished.  Julia, my crime-solving astrologer wasn’t solving any crimes, nor did she have any clients to speak of.  In the meantime, I wrote several books in the Soup Lovers’ Mysteries but I hadn’t given up on the Zodiac Mysteries.  Those stories were still dear to my heart.  

Fast forward several years. Once again, my dauntless agent tried to sell the series.  But still there were difficulties.  One editor said, “A religious cult that takes over the city?  Oh no, we can’t touch anything like that!”  (The Madness of Mercury)  Another said, “Astrology? Oh, I think that’s way too complicated for our readers!”  (All Signs Point to Murder)  And so on . . .  But, at least no one said, ‘She’s a terrible writer.’  There was hope yet.  

Then finally, the clouds parted, the stars aligned.  A publisher actually wanted the series!  Not just any publisher, but Llewellyn/Midnight Ink.  How perfect, how appropriate, I thought.  The publisher of all those astrology books I had been perusing for years.  Who knew I be able to create a unique character from all that wealth of information? 

Chinese Zodiac

So that’s how the Zodiac Mysteries finally saw the light of day.  That’s how Julia Bonatti was born, with clients who bring murder to her doorstep. And I couldn’t be happier to have created my own world.  Is getting published still a pain in the zorch?  Yes, it is, but it’s a whole lot more satisfying than anything else I’ve done in life.  I wouldn’t trade being part of the mystery community for anything!  I just wish I had started sooner.  

So, Reds and Readers, the obvious question is -- what's your sign?

Are you a believer in astrology or no? 

Here's description of the latest Zodiac Mystery: Tail of the Dragon

A rare astrological event could help San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti avoid a deadly destiny:

Julia Bonatti loves the freedom of working for herself as a professional astrologer. But after receiving several unexpected bills, she considers a temp job offer from her old boss a stroke of luck too good to pass up.

On her first day, the posh law office becomes a crime scene when one of the partners is found dead. Julia discovers that a series of death threats have been sent to several employees of the firm, and she uses her astrological expertise to discover possible motives. But before she can convince the authorities of what she knows, the killer strikes again. Will Julia unmask the culprit before he, or she, takes another life?

Praise for the Zodiac Mysteries

All Signs Point to Murder

"Di Marco crafts an intricate, twisting plot and layers on the astrological details that fans of psychic mysteries so enjoy."―Booklist

Believing in good fortunes...

HALLIE EPHRON: I have a confession: I read my horoscope every single day and I save fortunes from  fortune cookies. I'm an opportunistic believer in their predictions -- I listen when they say what I want to hear.

Sometimes the advice is completely useless, as with this recent warning in my horoscope:
* Avoid snap judgments.
Yuh, right. As if I could.

But more often than not, there's something I need to hear, once I've twisted it around so it's meaningful for my writing life. Like the fortune I got when I was waiting to hear back from my agent on whether a publisher wanted my first standalone novel NEVER TELL A LIE: "If your cookie is in 2 pieces the answer is yes."

It was! A few days later I had an offer. The little slip with that fortune is scotch-taped to my printer.

Here's what my horoscope said one day when I was stuck in the mushy middle of my work in progress:
* Just keep in mind that your current growth phase isn't finished; you simply have a chance now to move a project along at your own speed by taking a good idea and developing it further.

When I lost the Mary Higgins Clark Award:
* Working with amazing people doesn't have to rob you of your self-esteem.

When I was thinking about exhuming a character I'd excised from an earlier novel and inserting it into my work in progress:
*  Reconnecting with someone from your past is possible as amorous Venus turns retrograde this week. Yet it's best not to expect that history will simply repeat itself.

A day when I was planning to outline a new book:
* Don't be cocky and think that everything you imagine will unfold according to your plans. Just allow your daydreams to flow without analysis; you will have plenty of time to make sense of it all later on.

The day I finally get a decent Kirkus review:
* Just don't let your confidence grow into arrogance because you're still likely to encounter a little turbulence along the way.

And the best writing advice I ever got came from a horoscope:
* Go ahead and set your sights on a far-off galaxy, strap on your seat belt and prepare for blast-off. if you experience self-doubt, remember that he who hesitates is lost. Ultimately, you can figure out a way to make it all work.

Here's the fortune I got when I was down in the dumps and considering giving up writing:

* You will succeed in a far out profession

(I saved that one, too.)

So, Readers and Reds, your assignment for today: Go find your horoscope or crack open a fortune cookie and let us know what useful bit of advice it has for you, or maybe it just gives you a good laugh.

If you haven't got one handy, here's the horoscope page in the LA Times. (Mine begins: Nurturing others comes naturally to you, especially today...)

 

What do you mean that's not my sign?

JAN: Have you heard the latest? They've completely revised the astrological chart.

Apparently since the Babylonians plotted zodiac signs according to birthdate and which the constellation the sun was "in," our planet's alignment has altered. Over the years, the moon's gravitational pull has caused the Earth to wobble on its axis. This created about one month deviation in the stars' alignment. (this reported in StarTribune.Com)

In other words, when astrologers used to say the "sun" was "in" Pisces or Aries, they often were "off" by a couple of weeks. This could be just one reason why NOTHING they said was going to happen in my life actually happened.

But rest easy, corrections are being made. Dates have been changed, a new constellation has been employed, and a 13th sign of the zodiac created: Ophiuchus, or Serpentarious, the serpent holder, is now wedged in between the old Scorpio and Sagittarious signs.

My daughter, who alerted me to this important news development, was excited because she's no longer a Sagittarius but a Ophiuchus. She's happy about this because the new definition of traits (which if you reread carefully could be applied to anyone) predicts a career as doctor of medicine, and she just happens to be applying to medical school.

But I found myself really disturbed. I am no longer an Aries but a Pisces. What? I've spent my entire life trying to be headstrong and strident, and now I'm supposed to be wishy washy?

Sure its balderdash, but it's balderdash that I took pretty seriously when I was say, 13 or 14 and trying to figure out who I was. I was ruled by MARS that's who I was, a bullheaded ram not a freaking ideological FISH.

Plus the book my girlfriend had on the Zodiac, which became our eighth grade bible, was written by an author unabashedly biased in favor of fire signs. So of course, I liked being a "fire" sign, which helped explain why I wasn't such a great swimmer and helped to justify all my swearing at my brothers.

But even as a grownup, I took an odd satisfaction in the fact that both my children were fire signs (Leo and Sagitarious) as if that were critical to our relationship. Now that my daughterï has been redefined as a Ophiuchus, that's shot to hell.

So here's the link to check out your own birthdate and new Zodiac sign. http://the-red-thread.net/ophiuchus2.html Does s this shake anyone else's self image? Or if you can you adapt?

HALLIE: ACK! I've always been a happy swimmy Pisces, secure in the knowledge that I shared that sign with Elizabeth Taylor. Now it turns out I'm Aquarius? How can this be? I mean, that's patently absurd. Can you say: Nonsense!

JAN: Cheer up, Hallie, maybe Elizabeth Taylor has be reassigned, too.

ROBERTA: Oh no you don't...this is totally unacceptable! I've been a Capricorn all my life--stable, ambitious, dogged, a lover of the color brown--no way I can adjust to a new sign now! Some of my friendships are entirely based on sharing the Capricorn sign--just think what might happen if we all had to slide over to Sagitarious...

RHYS: Interesting. I've never felt myself to be a true Libra. That love of balance and seeing both sides.. you should have observed me during the healthcare debate. No Libra in evidence there. But I'm certainly not, pardon the expression, a Virgo. My daughter is one and is all sweetness and light and flowing garments. Maybe I could have drifted into Scorpio--yes, I do have a sting in my tail, I suspect.And my best friend, who can read my mind, is one. Ah, so maybe there's some truth after all. But I don't want my husband to stop being a Sagitarius and become an Ophi-whatsit. No way!

JAN: If I could get the flowing garments, I might consider switching to Virgo.

ROSEMARY: I don't know why I care...but I do. I am not Ophiuchus - which sounds like a skin disease - interpreter of dreams, vivid premonitions, tax assessor, snake charmer, highest fame and legend coming after death and worst of all -

wearer of plaid.

I am Sagittarius - straight shooter, strong thighs. OTOH I don't mind the part about attracting good luck and fruitful blessings, a seeker of peace and harmony, intuitive.

HANK: Oh, please, certainly, I'm probably a perfect Libra. I'm a reporter, right? Fair, balanced, searching for justice and truth, flexible, tolerant, mediator, peacemaker, able to see both sides of anything . You know, to the nth degree, to the degree of having to discuss everything up one side and down the other. And being able to see eerything as a possibility. It's a good thing, pretty much, well, most of the time. I've alwys been comfortable as really, the semi-predictably indecisively decisive Libra. (You know, pretty much. But I could see how it might happen another way...) But now they wanna make me a VIRGO? A perfectionist, prissy, critical Virgo? Well, okay, it could happen. But isn't that a perfect Libra response??

JAN: It is a perfect Libra response, Hank. Which makes it unanimous. We reject this new astrological chart on very practical, logical grounds. I predict an international ground swell of protest. A new quasi-political/or is it philosophical movement. Stick-in-the-Original-Signs Unite! Anyone else want to join us?

Please come back tomorrow, when I talk about robberies gone bad, and Wednesday, when Hank interviews Simon Wood.