Bridie's Diary, from the #Lesbian #Diaries Series

Last month I brought you Ariadne's Diary. This month we've got Bridie, and the books couldn't more different.

Ariadne's Diary is pretty porny, about a young woman crushing on an older one. Bridie's Diary is about an older woman crushing on a younger one. So maybe they're not so different after all. I guess the difference is tone rather than content. Both contain plenty of sex, but Ariadne strikes me as more smutty, whereas Bridie is more literary.

Or maybe the tone of both books is exactly the same. Authors are terrible judges of their own books.

All I know is that, at this point in my life (midlife), I identify with Bridie far more than Ariadne.

I'm glad things work out for her. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that her future's looking bright by the end of the book.

Bridie’s Diary
by Giselle Renarde
Series: The Lesbian Diaries
Book: 2

Bridie never expected to find herself in this position at midlife: leaving her husband and moving to the ends of the earth, purchasing her childhood home, falling in love with her tenant...

Ness is everything Bridie is not. She’s young and bold and artsy and trans. Bridie can’t fight the attraction. It’s addictive. It’s overwhelming.

But when Bridie’s best friend shows up to remind her what life was like when they were lovers, she’s torn between fresh possibilities and familiar passions. Will Bridie choose the old or the new? Or will life choose for her?

Lesbian fiction from award-winning queer Canadian author Giselle Renarde.

Get it from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/987942?ref=GiselleRenardeErotica
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Fgi5DwAAQBAJ
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/bridie-s-diary
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZJSPY4F?tag=dondes-20
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bridies-diary-giselle-renarde/1134377075?ean=2940163374076

Radish readers can read the serialized version here: https://radish.app.link/eNqKBykw50

The Magician and Me #Tarot #Writing #MidlifeCrisis

from Modern Witch Tarot by Lisa Sterle

I'm coming home to things I loved as a teenager. Tarot is one of those things.

When I can't sleep, I listen to tarot podcasts. One night, I listened to a podcast about calculating your birth card. I knew about significators--cards you use to signify yourself or other people--but I'd always used the card associated with my astrological sign as mine.

My birth card (Major Arcana card you get to by adding down your birth date, month and year until you have a number that's less than ten) turned out to be... The Magician.

I wasn't feeling particularly magical when I made this discovery. This past year has been full of grief, depression, anxiety, and plenty of other deep feelings. I've been in midlife crisis mode, big-time. I've made sweeping changes and questionable choices.

Where work is concerned, I wondered: "What is the point?" My books are still selling, but only the old ones. When I write something new, I can't seem to convince more than 3 people to buy a copy.  It's disheartening, it really is.

Life felt like something that was happening to me, not something I was actively engaged in. When I was numb, I didn't care whether I lived or died. When my feelings came back, I had too many all at once. Too many emotions, too strong. What's preferable? Feeling too much or feeling dead inside?

When I realized The Magician was my birth card, it opened up something inside me. Couldn't have come at a better time, because I was really starting to feel like I had no control over my life. Huge choices and life events all seemed to be in other people's hands, and I felt like I was just waiting for others to make a move so my life could finally begin.

The Magician doesn't wait around. The Magician makes things happen. He is me. I can manifest my will here on earth! I can do it!

One of the tarot podcasters I listen to and love is constantly saying that nothing's fixed in stone--if you don't like the direction your life is going, you can change it. For some reason, that had never occurred to me. I felt like I just had to wait around until something happened, and hope it was something good.

The Magician card convinced me that I have a part to play in my own life. I don't have to feel like everyone else is running the show (though, realistically, I still do, most of the time). I have the option of making choices and acting on those choices. I can choose which direction I want my life to go.

Even that much is progress. A few months ago, I felt like I had no life left in me.