Poetry Anthology Forming

The Magicians Dance Hall and 

Poetry Society's Book of Life

For a new anthology, the editors of the Fisher King Project are looking for well-crafted, imaginative poems that dance! Take us somewhere that moves us. We love ascents, descents, dances of praise, archetypal leaps, solemn processions, transformations. (Poems need not be ABOUT dance.) What is it like to live in our world? is the question. International poets are welcome to send original plus English translation.

Submission Dates: February 1 - March 31st, 2012.

Limited to online registration only at www.fisherkingpress.com

$10 reading fee: 1–3 well-crafted poems per submission.

NOTE: Reading Fees are non-refundable

Alternatively, in lieu of the $10 reading fee, you may purchase a printed edition of a current il piccolo editions poetry book from the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore, and in the 'comments' section during the check out process, input: Book of Life Reading Fee 

This will be a blind reading.

Previously Poems OK - a permission to reprint and a citation will be required. 

Only Poets selected for publication will receive a free copy of The Book of Life.

Advance orders for The Book of Life are welcomed. Estimated publication date is Oct 15, 2012 

Submissions sent prior to registering at the Fisher King Press online bookstore will not be considered. Once registered, you will be supplied with an email address to submit your 1 - 3 poems. 

Keep in mind that you will need to provide the following via email to complete the submission process once your registration is complete:

• Once registered, you will be supplied with an email address to submit your 1 - 3 poems;
• Subject heading of email should read: Poetry Submission
• Your contact info; 
• Biography of 50 words or less; 
• 1–3 well-crafted poems with titles.
• VERY IMPORTANT - Send the requested material in the BODY OF AN EMAIL - not as an attachment. Submissions not following this simple format will not be considered.

The Hero's Journey

From Enemy, Cripple, Beggar

The hero who searches for new paths in his heart and soul often lets hints and hunches guide him forward. Yet, he also needs to be equipped with courage to search beyond the boundaries of common ground and with humbleness towards the unknown that lies ahead of him. He must also carry a bagful of questions and concerns, curiosity and conflict, doubt and fear; “Every man hath the right to doubt his task, and to forsake it from time to time; but what he must not do is forget it.” Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain, p. 53.

Erel Shalit titles are on Sale now at Fisher King Press.

Mel Mathews is the author of a series of novels that portray a modern man's struggles (the Hero's Journey) as he goes against cultural and religious norms, and the grains of his upbringings, to emerge a renewed man guided by his own inner truth and hard-won wisdom.

Eros Book Tour

Planning is underway for a 2012 book tour for Jungian Analyst, Ken Kimmel, author of Eros and the Shattering Gaze: Transcending Narcissism.

This timely book reveals the pervasiveness of a culturally and historically embedded narcissism underlying contemporary men's erotic and romantic fantasies, that distorts their understanding of what it really means to love. The book is filled with tales of love and loss, from ancient myth, medieval legend, Western classical literature, and contemporary film. Its template derives from "The Tale of Psyche and Amor", and poignant clinical vignettes and dreams from Ken's thirty years of practice bring to life the major themes of narcissism and its transcendence.

Ken has developed a number of lectures and seminars based on chapters in Eros and the Shattering Gaze, focusing on such topics as:

• "The Burn-Wound of Eros - Transcending Narcissism"   
• "Predator Beneath the Lover" 
• "The Grail Wound"
• "Men's 'Split-Feminine' - Mother, Lover, Virgin, Whore"
• "Saturn's Wounded Eros"
• "The Capacity To Love: Transcending the 'Heat-Death' of Eros 

Here are what distinguished Jungian authors are saying about Eros and the Shattering Gaze:

". . . Attempting the rescue of authentic eros from its fear-driven shadow of predation is a work that will engage most of us at some point in our relational lives. We should be grateful for the insights with which this book is studded, for they can enlighten the labors of learning to love."

—John Beebe, author of Integrity in Depth

"A skillful and articulate interweave of the best of traditional views on 'relationality' and more contemporary critique. The vivid clinical vignettes bring the arguments alive and the result is a stimulating  and fresh take on this ever-timely topic. . . ."

—Andrew Samuels, author of The Plural Psyche

". . . The contemplative and self-reflective reader who seeks to grasp the full measure of this rich manuscript can expect to gain substantially in both knowledge and inner maturation."

—Mario Jacoby, author of Individuation and Narcissism: 

The Psychology of Self in Jung and Kohut 

If your society or institute is interested in planning a program over the next two years, contact Ken at kenkimmel@comcast.net for a formal proposal and resume.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

• International Shipping.
• Credit Cards Accepted.
• Phone Orders Welcomed. Toll free in the US & Canada: 1-800-228-9316 International +1-831-238-7799 skype: fisher_king_press

The History of My Body - New Publication

Just Published,


The History of My Body


by Sharon Heath

A twist on the traditional coming-of-age story, The History of My Body is young Fleur Robins' own telling of her quixotic attempts to save her beloved grandfather amid a hectic household composed of a crusading pro-life father with a distaste for actual children, a helpless wreck of an alcoholic mother, a middle-aged nanny with all the finesse of a Mack truck, a flatulent ex-nun, and a peripatetic population of babies saved from "the devil abortionists." Is Fleur autistic or gifted? Most people find her more than a little odd, with her penchant for pinching and flapping, fondness for fanciful word play, and preoccupation with God and the void. When Fleur fails to revive a dying baby bird in her father's garden, she sets in motion a series of events that thrusts her into the center of a culture war over the reach and limits of the human imagination.

About the Author
Sharon Heath writes fiction and non-fiction exploring the interplay of science and spirit, politics and pop culture, contemplation and community. A certified Jungian Analyst in private practice and faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, she served as Associate Editor of Psychological Perspectives and Guest Editor of the special issue The Child Within/The Child Without. She has given talks in the United States and Canada on topics ranging from the place of soul in social media to gossip, envy, secrecy, and belonging.

In addition to the paperback edition, eBook editions are available from the Apple iBookstore, Amazon Kindle, Google eBook Store, and Barnes and Noble Nook.

Tips for Accessing your Creative Spirit

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking makes for a fine companion to Lawrence Staples’ The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness. If you are looking to tap into your own creative spirit, both of these fine publications will help.

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking
by David Bayles and Ted Orland
ISBN 978-0961454739. Trade Paperback, 122 pages

What is your art really about?
Where is it going?
What stands in the way of getting there?

These are questions that matter, questions that recur at each stage of artistic development - and they are the source for this volume of wonderfully incisive commentary.

Art and Fear explores the way art is created, and the reasons it often does not get created, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing Free Will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.

The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness by Lawrence H. Staples.
ISBN 9780981034447 (ISBN 10: 0981034446) Index, Biblio, 100 pp., 2009.

Who we most deeply are is mirrored in our artistic work. Our need for mirroring simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from our creative callings and relationships. It is one of life's great dilemmas.

Artist's block and lover's block flow from the same pool. Often, we fear deeply the very thing needed to create original art, to experience intimate relationships and to live authentic lives: we are frightened by the impulse to be fully revealed to ourselves, and to others, as this most often entails exposing the unacceptable shadowy aspects of our humanity and risking rejection.

Mirrors in all their manifold guises permit us to safely see and experience ourselves in reflection and become better acquainted with the rejected, ostracized aspects of our personalities. Creative work is one of the few places where we can truly express and witness lost aspects of our authentic selves.

Within us a treasure beckons. This is what we spend our lives pursuing. What slows and distracts us is not the object we long for, but where we search. To find this precious gem, we must eventually return to our own creative spirits.

A few of the topics explored in THE CREATIVE SOUL include:

• THE CREATIVE INSTINCT 
• OUR UNIQUE IDENTITY 
• SOME ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY 
• SOME PREREQUISITES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS 
• GIVING VOICE TO THE MANY LIVES WITHIN 
• DREAMS AND ACTIVE IMAGINATION AS TRIGGERS TO CREATIVITY 
• CREATIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE 
• ART AND THE QUEST FOR WHOLENESS 
• THERAPY AS ART 
• FEAR OF SELF-REVELATION BLOCKS CREATIVITY 
• INTIMACY AND CREATIVITY 
• CREATIVITY, GUILT, AND SELF-DEVELOPMENT 
• CREATIVITY AND LONELINESS
  

The Creative Soul, along with many other worthy publications can be purchased at the Fisher King Press online bookstore.

Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada, International +1-831-238-7799

The Creative Seed

The Seed of a Creative Life

by Lawrence Staples,
author of The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest and Guilt with a Twist: The Promethean Way

Active imagination is a technique developed by C.G. Jung to help amplify, interpret, and integrate the contents of our dreams. When approached by way of writing, active imagination is like writing a play. One takes, for example, a figure that has appeared in one’s dreams. Usually, these figures express a viewpoint quite the opposite of one’s normal conscious view. Sometimes it is a male or female, shadow figure. At other times, it may be a feminine, anima, or maternal figure.

One starts to converse with the figure in writing. One challenges the dream figure and lets him/her challenge the dreamer. The dreamer asks the figure why he appeared in the dream. He asks the figure what it wants from him. Then, the ego, like a playwright, puts himself as best he can into the figure’s shoes and tries to express it and defend its viewpoint. There ensues a dialogue between the writer and the opposite figure in his dream or piece of writing. With practice one can become accomplished at expressing both viewpoints, just as a playwright does. One gets better at this the more one does it.

The technique of active imagination tends to detach the qualities and traits that are first seen in a dream or in a story as belonging to external persons, and coming to see them as belonging to one’s self. Active imagination, then, helps the writer become conscious of his opposite qualities by forcing him to give voice to figures, like shadow figures, that carry qualities opposite those of his ego. These qualities personify the rejected opposites that are present in the unconscious. This technique helps recover them and make them available to the ego and consciousness without necessarily having to act them out.

Following is an impressive and rich example of the power of this technique to affect and even shape our lives. It’s an active imagination done by Mel Mathews when he was in his late thirties. He was an extremely successful salesman who was, nevertheless, unhappy with his work and life. Despite his high income, work had lost its meaning for him. He had entered Jungian analysis in order to help him out of his suffocating existence and find a new and different way. He had a powerful dream that he took to his analyst. His analyst suggested he do active imagination with one of the figures in the dream. His is a beautiful example of active imagination that led to much more than a dialogue. It became the seed of a creative life that grew and flourished into a wholly new career. Out of his active imagination came a novel, LeRoi - Book 1 of The Chronicles of a Wandering Soul series, which was then followed by several other novels, including Menopause Man and SamSara.

The power of the active imagination is seen in the fact that it unearthed in Mel some deep hidden spring of creativity that suddenly gushed forth. Apparently, he had been living a life of suspended animation that lay there until some psychic prince awoke it. He had the following dream:

A woman was sitting in a diner, in a booth smoking. “Excuse me, I wonder if you could put your cigarette out?” I asked. She ignored me. A few minutes later she lit up again. I stood up, walked around to her booth, grabbed her pack of smokes and the ashtray and walked out the front door. I dumped the ashtray and stepped on her lit smoke; then, I dropped her pack and stomped them as well. I walked back inside, slammed the empty ashtray down on the coffee counter and sat down. A petite pony-tailed brunette walked up with the iced tea pitcher to refill my glass. “Can I have some more ice please?” “Sure,” she answered, “I’m sure (Flo) the boss-lady will be out in a minute,” the brunette said, as she turned around with my ice. “What does she want?” “You’ll have to ask her yourself.”

Mel discussed the dream with his analyst who suggested a dialogue with the boss-lady.

Following is his active imagination with Flo, the name of the boss-lady. This brief dialogue is to his novel what an acorn is to an oak tree. This brief dialogue apparently contained all the genetic codes necessary to make a novel just as an acorn has the genetic codes that lead to an oak tree.

Flo: Howdy.

Mel: Hi.

Flo: Purdy hot day, huh?

Mel: I can stand the heat. It’s the stray cigarette smoke that sets me off.

Flo: So that gives you the right to run off one of my regulars.

Mel: I asked her to put it out.

Flo: Did you ask her or did you beat around the bush with some rude indirect comment?

Mel: Lady, I don’t know who you are or what’s on your mind, but I really don’t need any more crap today.

Flo: Well kid right now you’re in my diner and you’re runnin’ off my patrons.

Mel: Oh great.

Flo: I’ve dealt with your kind for years so let’s just cut to the quick.

Mel: Look, lady, I’m sorry if I offended anybody here, but I’ve got some problems. My MG is broken down across the street.

Flo: So what?

Mel: Things just aren’t falling into place today.

Flo: Would you like some chocolate milk little boy, or how about your ass wiped? In this café, the world doesn’t revolve around you.

While the creative process is different for each individual, one can sometimes discern similarities. The seed that unleashed Mel’s creative process was a dream and a few sentences associated with the dream. His process bears some resemblance to the process by which Isak Dineson created her work.

Mel Mathews' development as a person and a writer is a wonderful testimony to the power of creativity to shape our lives and connect us to our souls. His dream and the dialogue that flowed from it to create LeRoi is an incredibly rich and impressive example of active imagination, as I understand it. His experience of active imagination is one of the most powerful examples I have ever witnessed. His dialogue with Flo seemed to unearth for him a huge reservoir of suspended animation that poured forth into the world and continues to flow. Actually, "Flo" and "flow" do seem somehow related. Mel's experience is enough to encourage therapists not only to use active imagination with their clients but also with themselves."

The Creative Soul and Chronicles Book 1 LeRoi

Fisher King Press publishes of an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

• Credit Cards Accepted.
• Phone Orders Welcomed. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada. International +1-831-238-7799. skype: fisher_king_press 

Copyright © 2010 Fisher King Press. Permission to repost or reprint is granted, with a link to: http://www.fisherkingreview.com/2010/11/seed-of-creative-life.html

a Snappy Reading Mystery Thriller Filled with Wisdom and Wit: Sulfur Creek

by Mel Mathews

Drawing from a depth of knowledge and feelings, Thad McAfee masterfully delivers first-rate storytelling in Sulfur Creek. Twelve year-old Anna Marie Cochran has lost her life on the railroad tracks at the Sulfur Creek crossing in a small Midwestern town. Much as the little stream meanders across the countryside, the lives of the mourners who have gathered from afar twist and turn before a heinous crime is uncovered.

For twenty years Sonny Mac has avoided his past. This successful corporate man has had no need or desire to return to his origins to face those old ghosts. But now he is called upon to support a childhood best friend and his grieving family. The local Sheriff, the Railroad Police, and the Coroner are quick to deem the case an unfortunate accident. But things just don’t add up to Sonny Mac, and he manages to drag his best buddy’s younger sister, Emmy Lou Cochran, into this amateur detective case that soon turns into a passionate love affair.

Unsettled by an incomplete accident report, Colonel Rupert Mason of the Ohio State Police decides to pay a visit to this small community and junior State Policewoman Rebecca Steen, the reporting officer who arrived on scene soon after the incident. At a small social gathering, Sonny Mac by chance meets Rupert Mason and expresses his unsettled sentiments about Anna Marie’s death to the Colonel, and from there on, things seem to unravel for the complacent Sheriff and the unsavory Railroad Police investigator, while sweet Emmy Lou helps to finally exorcise Sonny Mac’s old demons.

For those who enjoy a snappy reading Mystery Thriller filled with wisdom and wit, Sulfur Creek is highly recommended.

Mel Mathews' book reviews have appeared in many syndicated publications. He is the author of the Chronicles of a Wandering Soul, a series of novels that portray a man’s struggles as he goes against the grains of his upbringings and emerges as a renewed man who is guided by his own inner truth and hard-won wisdom.

Permission to reprint this article is granted.