Tag: art

Book Review: When Things Go Missing by Deborah J. Brasket

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology18 Comments

I rarely get to read for ‘just’ pleasure; and for that reason, it’s lovely when I get around to sit with a good fiction novel. Thankfully this season I was able to read another delightful book just before this one called, “The Fox Wife,” by Yangsze Choo. That said, I was able to read these books back to back–which IS a rare luxury! For that reason, I was happy to see how beautifully this novel by independent author, Deborah J. Brasket, “fit in” next to the New York Times Bestselling author’s book, The Fox Wife. There is no comparison, really, for these texts are different in genre and style; and, I am not a seasoned book review writer– but I’m really impressed by being able to sink into When Things Go Missing with the same feeling of compelling interest and turn-the-page excitement! The reason and inspiration for me writing this book review below is because Deborah’s novel was excellent. I’d like to help her bring her novel to a wider audience. I want to assist authors who are inspiring, such as herself. To do this, I will also suspend my regular astrology post to the “second tier” priority. That will be coming out soon, hopefully! For those of you who have enjoyed my astrology posts: thank you. It means a lot to me that you are a reader here. This is what we writers live for: to be read! That’s the reason for the gift and labor of love in writing anything–especially a novel–such a huge undertaking!

Book Review: When Things Go Missing by Deborah J. Brasket

When Things Go Missing is an engaging and quietly suspenseful novel that draws you in through its characters as much as its unfolding mystery. Deborah J. Brasket’s language is deeply descriptive, making the scenes easy to picture, and the emotional nuances easy to feel. The imagery is vivid enough that the world of the book forms around you almost automatically.

One of the strengths of the story is how it allows you to get to know the characters organically through the plot. Their personalities and motivations reveal themselves through the choices they make, the subtle clues that arise, and the creative passions that guide them. The interplay between the mother sending her enigmatic photographs and Cal’s artistic inspiration creates a compelling parallel — one that adds emotional texture and a sense of layered meaning.

The pacing is steady and immersive, carrying a gentle momentum that keeps you invested without rushing. Her novel’s organizational style, with each chapter heading labeled for the character and the symbolic theme, makes it easy to read even if you have a lot of interruptions around you! Brasket’s tone is thoughtful and nuanced, inviting both concern and curiosity for the characters as their lives intersect with mystery, memory, and creativity. It’s the kind of book that quietly pulls you deeper, where the atmosphere, relationships, and artistic elements all work together to create an absorbing reading experience.

Overall, When Things Go Missing is a satisfying blend of subtle mystery, artistic reflection, and emotional resonance. It’s a novel that lingers after you close it, not because of dramatic twists, but because of the vivid imagery, human depth, and quiet beauty Brasket brings to every page.

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Thank you, Deborah, for adding to my experience of my Thanksgiving Holiday! I knew when your book came out at the Autumnal Equinox, and you shared that in your comment, that it would be a great fit for me! Wishing you so much continued success with your novel.

3-D form study

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology, Libra31 Comments

She’s 6 and her form explorations are underway. The heart is the most anterior (anatomy language here guys, that’s my “home language.”) part of her vibrant artistic piece.

You can say “it stands out.”

I feel like the background hearts are connected to circuitry. I see an eye-ball/beach ball with the excitement of forms (circle, square, triangle!) and the inspiration of color delights the eyes for all of us. Her art has all the machinery of a developing, growing, and vibrant mind. She explored moving “off the page.” She’s an explorer.

Proud mama.

I thought this would make a wonderful Autumnal Equinox— “Welcoming the Sun into Libra ♎️ Celebration of Art – Post!”

🎨🍂🍂🍁

We have a prolific maker here.

🍁

May your season be filled with coziness and beauty! If we get to enjoy the balance of the moment, let’s celebrate it.

💗

Sink into Earth with this Taurus New Moon

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology10 Comments

I have no doubt that my message for today’s New Moon will be aligned with the gardeners and nature lovers. I’ve been reaching out to Luna for the message and she’s been very clear that with the strong energies of Mars/Pluto opposition, all the Aries placements still in effect, and that challenging aspect of Saturn and Venus conjoined with the North Node, we’ve never needed to be sunk in with nature more.

Uranus is also still in Taurus in process of wrapping up its stay. From July 7, 2025 for the next 7 years, Uranus will ingress Gemini and fill the mental plane with communications, logistics, innovations, disruptions, and more. Fortunately Jupiter has been transiting Gemini and paving the way for Uranus, setting up a good vibe. Jupiter is known to be the great benefactor of the zodiac. Next month the Sun will be in Gemini and that will further light up that area of the Zodiac and this will all be in preparation for Uranus to transit there by July.

For now, we have dedicated moments to reflect on this New Moon in Taurus and set our intentions to focus on what grounds us, brings us deeply into ourselves, and most opens us for those unique and intuitive messages from nature and from spirit. It’s essential at this juncture to take a break from media—even just a small sector, or reduce its time.

For your meditations:

Here are some words from Rosemary Gladstar, one of the most renowned Western herbal pioneers,

Take a moment. Open a jar of herbs that perhaps you grew and dried yourself… draw in a long deep breath… and if you pause awhile with the plant, it can carry you forward into the future.

Let the plant speak to you—not with words, but in the way that only plants know how.

Let’s enjoy the ineffable this New Moon in Taurus. Gaze at the stars, sink your feet in the dirt or the sand. Roll down a hill in a meadow, blow off the seeds of a dandelion. Make dandelion wine. I have some tinctures that I am ready to strain, and the birds song has been especially poignant.

Another fitting way to celebrate the phases of the Moon in relationship with the Sun, valuing the cycles that nature gives us— those that repeat—and let us know that we do have a regularity in life, there is consistency, pacing and calm: Celebrate with music, drums, piano, whatever speaks to you. Perhaps you love the sounds of harp, accordion or trumpet. Enjoy the moments of non-verbal, enjoy the spaciousness of sound and sing or imbibe the air and earth with your voice.

I hope this post has stirred some calmness and pleasure within you. Let me know in the comments if this new moon is touching your natal chart and which houses! I’m happy to help with a consult in the future years when I open up more time in my schedule.

For now I will leave you all with some beauties:

My deepest wish is for all beings to experience happiness and be free from suffering. 🙏🏻💕

It’s not an idyllic wish. It’s grounded in a desire for the progress of moving in the that direction, for peace and kindness to flourish in the lives of all. This wish will continue to flourish no matter what circumstances show up or appearances of the world would submit that we are not gonna end up there, well and wise.

None of our Earth journeys are in vain, purposeless or random.

Mitakuye Oyasin

“To All My Relations”

Of Loss and Faith: Pisces New Moon

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology26 Comments
New Moon in Pisces

This is a highly spiritual and artistic chart that could have us floundering in experiences that threaten our ideals while simultaneously strengthening them. We could be in a moment of crisis or loss, fear could be setting in. Or, we could also be deepening our faith in a higher power or more omniscient mind beyond our own. This is a time for engaging and summoning in resources that make miracles, where we suspend our overgrown and innate ability to disbelieve everything in the face of momentous change and unknown.

Pisces ♓️ is all about uncharted territory so a chart so focused on this sign is almost an oxymoron “focused on the unknown.” This is an objectless awareness. We are confronted with all the mysteries of connection and loss at this time. That also makes this time highly transformative and deep. We can become more meditative around our ideals and use our spiritual connection to divinity to stay afloat.

Moon squaring Jupiter can have us reflecting a bit in a fun house mirror: objects can also appear bigger, smaller or more contorted than really exist. Our aims might be out of sink with our realities, or conversely it might be time to call on more heavenly and otherworldly resources to make us into the more that we need to be in order to face our “not enoughness” that is often triggered with a transit like this. Don’t fall for the illusion that you are not enough. With the help of higher power and your faith and belief, you can be surprised by your repletion: even more than enough! You are stuffed.

Mercury conjunct Saturn in sextile with Uranus in Taurus will probably have us scaling down. We can question more about restrictions (Saturn) in how we navigate (Mercury) and communicate (Mercury). With the sextile to Uranus there’s more awareness around what’s unique and what stands out as a persistent weirdness infiltrating our regular constructs of reality (Saturn) and day to day (Mercury) .

Losses abound during such a transit.

There might be immense grief around crumbling, dissolving (Piscean) securities. There could be much personal loss as well. This is a time to have unshakable faith. It’s a time when faith is also the most challenged. You can’t really have one without the other. We are tested as a sort of “rite of passage” to supplant our fears and concerns with right action, complete clarity around our values, and realistic, tempered idealism. Make a plan, chart a course, and get really real with your transcendent self. If you came to the planet to self-actualize then “get to it.” Mars is now stationed direct in Cancer, the momentum is moving forward. The inner world (Pisces) is more important than what you see in the world manifesting at this time. Explore the divine within and know. Be still and know.

Excitement! Art for Art: Free Verses! — Fiesta Estrellas (DAY 1- REBLOGATHON)

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology11 Comments 
Welcome to my ReBlogathon for November. This is my blog celebration of 11 years of blogging! We kick it off here, today, as DAY 1. I have also joined forces once again with the most wonderful blogging pepper group in the world: Cheer Peppers. This month we will all blog for 30 days (for me it might be even more!). For me personally, I didn't have the time for a proper celebration in March when my blog turned 11, and then I "rebirthdayed" my blog in August 2022--Now, I finally get to celebrate: That's how celebration goes: Celebrate when you CAN! 

This post is all about the publication of my first poetry book (2017)-- See the attached Reblog. At the time, I swore I would never write another. But, I think I shall 🙂

"Free verses" is a play on "free verse." It's the type of poetry that doesn't follow a format. Since my book is called "Art for Art" its only purpose is to share the heart in a format free fashion. In fact, The format is so free that it isn't even "free verse," it's "free verses." Like multiverses, universes-- the latin versus means "to turn."  So maybe my poetry took "many turns" in sharing my heart. It certainly was an exploration, one that led to the birth of my wonderful daughter. But, you'd have to read it, to know it and see that. To feel it.

It's time to GO BACK and look at things anew...

I feel immense gratitude for everyone who was with me on this book journey, all my fellow bloggers who I love and connect with. I was absolutely not alone. Michael Mark and Ra Avis were ‘beyond words’ supportive and deserve special mentions. Another poet and marvelous human Kai Coggin inspired and supported me in this endeavor, too. I hosted a poem of Kai’s way back in 2014. You must absolutely read her poetry and check out her website. This was before Kai became ‘Big Big’ and she is an educator with a heart of gold. Go find her. In the post, in the comments, I elaborate on the cover art created by artist & friend, Debbie Graul. Ironically, words can not express the importance of the birth of a book, nor what such a book could foreshadow, foretell, or clear away room for in one’s life…

Write that book! It will open you up for more 🙂

Finally, for extra credit. There’s a little “nesting doll” link for my “blog post within the blog post” if you read my original 2017 post, where I end with crickets. Can you find that post? Comment about it if you dare.

It is no surprise to me that I am hearing crickets as I type this right now…

Cover Art by Debbie Graul, Cover Design by Ka Malana Praise for Art for Art Hello dear friends & welcome new followers! I am delighted to share with you that my 1st book of poetry is published and available. It’s available immediately at the CreateSpace eStore. It’ll be able at Amazon.com in 3-5 business days (now […]

Excitement! Art for Art: Free Verses! — Fiesta Estrellas

working it out

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Artworks, Creative Writing, Creatrix4 Comments

science has this passion

to discover,
or re-discover

it depends

on who is looking,
what is personified.

but,

when being the butterfly
(or chuang tzu?),

feeling the metal pin slice
through dried wings,

and the suffocation of
entrapment,

that is, having to be a ‘thing’

as on a shelf, labeled, glassed,
obtainable,

found a niche,
now perform well…

if you are a butterfly under glass,
then play dead.

takes the fun and the
joy out of the science of

discovery, out of the
playtime of role-play

and temporary assignments,

exploration, even quantum theory.

we all know nightingales
like to be free, as do

butterflies and whispers

poems don’t love

to be scrutinized nor analyzed
for their psychic material

poems are more like butterflies

than psyches, more like butterflies
than like freud

than like rorschach,

than like LSD.

a poem is not an neurotransmitter,
nor a stimulated receptor, nor the electrical stimulus,
nor calcium

but it can affect you.
social media affects dopamine,
like crazy!

check your ventromedial prefrontal cortex

maybe a non-sequitur, but all things
have namable parts that don’t add up
always, but are still whole processes,
like healing
rarely makes any sense,
exactly

albeit the words are happening

thick, fluid, magical,

ungraspable.

untouchable-tangible

symbols have not 1:1
correlation-symmetry
more like 1: ad infinitum

we, who need to be free
take our freedom

in the moments of our breath,
use dashes, and make dashes,
or take our time,
on purpose.

find truth in
chuang tzu, in

freud, even, if necessary…

poetry as word
isn’t fake, nor outrightly
understandable.
it doesn’t have to be beautiful!

not all poems want to be
delivered with song

but you can see an internal
frequency,

even a trapped butterfly

may effect chaos theory
for theories are more easily

affected than are

the winds, with the momentum
of, say, a hurricane numbered 5.

my prayers were heard,
even when i didn’t pray

the way, i was expected to, with
the authorized format, given to me

by those who would punish me,

by those who would punish anybody,
by those who do not know self-love.

chuang tzu is not my god/goddess,
i reject capital letters right now
except for this one,

Process –

but even so, i yearn for another
language, to facilitate this meaning

***********************************************************************
This poem was written in the attempt to recover the creative adolescent
archetype, when expression was honestly exploring and feeling like the systems of the world were restraining forces, rather than assisting and engendering forces, a great questioning. It’s about being awkward, and being as a poem at the same time. When poetry didn’t have to be about rhyme or song, tradition – nor be didactic in any way. When poetry was about experimentation and “finding oneself” in the world. When poetry was about the journey and not the destination.

Also, this is integration work, and not meant to be viewed as a polished piece, final product, or current commentary. This is art-in-action.

Finally, once I found a coffee-shop, where at the readings, the host’s poetry sounded surrealist/da-da, and I felt like I fit in there at times.

Nude Sculpture and Pisces Full Moon September 8th

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Astrology17 Comments

Ka Malana ~ Regional Governor's School @1996It’s a full moon in Pisces on Monday and there’s a sense of aloofness to my energy these days. I want wrap myself in the energies of autumnal ART, as she guides me inward to my spiritual hearth. I am happily introverted, turned within to face my experiences, which seem to me to reach beyond any necessary words or the desire to write.

It’s been a while since I’ve sculpted with clay, but maybe even 16-year-old-me (who sculpted the nude in the picture above) wants to share this message:  pick up some clay, start with what you got – the only limit IS your imagination. [Therefore, clay is not necessary.] Your imagination is the KEY to unlocking the door to limitless expansion, if you dare to harness the faith and the courage to see your vision through.

This is a very old sculpture of mine.

(Although the photo looks blurry, this orange-y color is the true color of the fired, yet unglazed clay.)

Want to Play? Kokology, a Game for Self-Discovery

On By Ka Malana - Fiestaestrellas.comIn Transformation10 Comments

Image

Kokology is the study of kokoro (“mind” or “spirit” in Japanese). It is a game of self-discovery that was designed by Isamu Saito. We are about to play it!

Directions: read the exercise below and leave a comment with your own response to what follows in the story.  Once I have 3 comments/responses (or until I get back to my computer)—I will post the responses/meanings to the kokology game in my comments section.

The Game Begins:   Welcome to My Parlor

In the human unconscious, spiders hold a place of fear and respect that’s entirely out of proportion to their tiny size. Perhaps it’s their skill in hunting, their patience when lying in wait, or their ability to weave devious webs to trap their prey. Whatever the reason, spiders evoke a strong mixture of feelings in us all.

Imagine you are a spider, sitting at the center of a large web you have spun.

You will need a pencil and paper for this one—to record your answer (or you can describe with words what you pictured in the comments section).

1). Draw a picture of your web and the number and types of insects you have trapped in it.

2). You move to make a meal of one of your pray, but somehow it frees itself from the web and escapes. As it hurries out of reach, the lucky bug says something to you. What are its parting words?

 

****************************************KEY************************************Kokology’s Key to “Welcome to My Parlor: The spider is one of the great hunters of the natural world. Your impressions of life as a spider show us something about how you see your experience as a hunter in the wilds of love. 1.) The number and types of bugs you drew corresponds to your own love conquests. The web represents your strategies and techniques for luring others into your clutches, while the types of bugs you caught reflect your opinion of your former lovers. Was it a single common housefly? A lovely butterfly that only leaves you hungry afterward? Perhaps a fat, juicy caterpillar? Or maybe an unappetizing mass of mosquitoes, roaches, and worms wriggling as they await your approach? Some spiders will eat anything. 2). The parting words of the bug that got away are your memories of rejection in a failed conquest. Let’s face it, we’ve all been shot down at one time or another–this game shows the words that hit closest to home. “You’ll never catch me, you ugly old spider!” Ouch. “Better luck next time!” Well, thanks for the encouragement, anyway. “Hooray! I’m free, I’m free!” Okay, you’re free. But you don’t have to be quite so happy about it, do you?”