Jaime Mathis and The Words

I write to create a world that I want to live in. It wasn’t always obvious that writing was an alchemical act, I just knew something happened when I put words on a page. As a nine year old, I received my first diary and the initial passage read simply. “Dear Diary, today is my birthday I am 9.” The words are unremarkable, yet when I go back and read them today, I notice my rough printing in orange pencil later gone over with blue ink pen to preserve the words. They halt and stalk over the page, youth pouring out of every hooked “j” and squiggly ‘l’. This surprises me. I remember feeling so advanced, so fluent as I wrote the events of the day. Words are Magic. The act of writing brings stories to life that would never breathe air if left in the imagination. Humans on the moon. Machines that can think. A world without war. In the first two examples, books preceded the actualization. People have always been dreamers and writers are a conduit for carrying the impossible

Sugar is one of my favorite things. Perhaps you can relate. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve being pumped full of red licorice and butterscotch buttons at my grandparent’s house. The sound of the mechanical crank on their hand-twist gumball machine makes my heart pound to this day. What bliss to feel sugared butter ease its way down my throat. What joy as soft licorice gave way between my teeth. Over time, the expression of love itself became linked to sugar. “Sweet-heart”, “Honey”, “Sweetie-pie”; all these phrases meant acceptance and warmth. Chocolate for Valentine's Day equaled adoration.  As I surfed social scenes, I began to realize I was not alone. There were a plethora of words allowing others to feel love through a sweetooth. The first time I heard someone say, “Give mama some sugar.” I knew I’d found my phrase d’etre. It solved everything. Starting my period? Give mama some sugar. Feeling despondent over my lack of disposable income? Mama. Su

For Thanksgiving week, my boys and I rented a house on airbnb in Kirkland, Washington so Tobias could work in the Redmond office while America feasted. We had Thanksgiving a week early in Portland for many reasons, but mostly so my sisters and their husbands could celebrate it twice. Also, because my Danish husband still works for Europeans and they don't celebrate Thanksgiving at all. Kirkland, Washington has many qualities to recommend it, not least of which is Cafe Juanita , which serves seductive Italian food. But this is not a tale of delicious meals nor a commentary on cultural differences. This is a story of holiday miracles and technology. Namely, my Nokia Lumia 1020. Let me state for the record that I am not good with cell phones. I drop them, lose them, scratch them and most of all, am certain it's not healthy to be in constant contact with cellular radiation. The only reason I own one is because I have a child and a husband who occasionally require instant

The first night that Daylight Savings kicks in is a magical time. After a full day of light, the darkness falls suddenly, closing in around the open hours of summertime. Crisp air starts its blunt slice through lungs and all I want to do is build a fire. I've had dreams of bonfires and festivals greeting the shifting seasons, but the closest I've come was a last minute invitation to a Samhain ceremony with some witchy friends in Los Angeles. Granted, that was a powerful experience, but I've been looking for something practicable and accessible that I can bring to my family. This year, Tobias crafted a simple and poignant ceremony to welcome in Autumn. After Espen was bathed and jammied up, we bundled him in a cozy blanket and headed into our back yard. Darkness shrugged around our shoulders and called our eyes into the trees. A fire was burning, solitary and vibrant in the rain soaked night. We walked the path we'd made that summer to the special spot where our un

Back in the 1960's it was not uncommon for farmers to employ dowsers, or water witches , when choosing spots to drill a well. My dad Jim recalls watching dowsers follow their forked rods during his summers at great uncle Elmer's farm in Molalla, Oregon. Dowsers held the y shaped forks in upturned palms with the root of the stick facing the sky. When water was near, the root would incline downwards. Dad showed me this with the dowsing rod he inherited from Elmer years later. I guessed it made sense, using something that was living or once living, to point out the location of a life-giving substance. However, I was not expecting to have my 15 month old baby perform the same function on our trip to the Languedoc this summer. We arrived in Carcassonne, France for an 11 day stay in Vernet-les-Bains at the foot of Mt. Canigo, sacred mountain of Catalonia. My plan was to visit as many of the portals in the Venus Magic Square as possible and experience the ancient energies. To

The Finale You've put words on a page. Thousands of them and hundreds of lines. Take a minute to look at the word count at the bottom of your screen. Yes. You did this. And just like standing on top of a mountain after months, perhaps even years of diligent practice and conditioning...after you snap your photo, you have to return to base camp or risk hypoxia, exposure or death, depending on the heights you have ascended. Finishing the first draft of your first book is likewise exhilarating so snap a picture! Then put the camera away and come on back because life still needs you to participate in the next phase. There is a phrase in Vipassana meditation that becomes a mantra over the ten days of silent meditation . It Rises and Falls . The meaning is meant to remind the meditator that whatever the sensation, thought, feeling, or physical experience, it will eventually end. In the West we say, "This too shall pass." Everything is temporary, the only permanent thing i

Part 2 Not to be a stickler for organization, but it's important when you're embarking on a long journey. It's helpful to think about writing a book in terms of a getting a college degree. Even if you go full time and take maximum credits or challenge every class, it will still take you a certain amount of time to get through all the material. Just so, now that you've been doing your Morning Pages faithfully for at least a month, you can see how much material is generated when you write a certain number of pages every day. The average novel length hovers between 75 and 90 THOUSAND words which means that you'll be typing or handwriting A LOT. I recommend you chose whatever form is the most fluid for you. Just remember though, you'll need to transcribe all your handwritten pages onto the computer eventually, so my vote is for the keys. Especially with your first book. It's important to have carrots of accomplishment at regular intervals and now is not re

Part 1 Yes, there are parts and I'll tell you why. It takes more than a good idea to make it onto the NYT best-seller list. There is an old saying that goes, "If you're going to eat an elephant, do it one bite at a time." The reason I am writing about this at all is that I have managed to write three books so far and I'd like to spare you the decade it took me to figure out and execute the steps necessary to have something you can hold in your hand that has words and your name on it. Writing is like any other sport, activity, or subject you can get better at. The one thing we all say but rarely do is apply the adage, "Practice makes perfect".  This means that you need to work out those writing muscles, namely, producing content. When I look at writers who struggle to crank out one sentence a day or who show up at the page and stare for hours, I imagine a marathon runner who spends his/her time looking at their running shoes and standing in place...or

It's not just a life philosophy, it's my new book! In all honesty, I wrote this to cope with the uncertainty of moving to a completely new country (Denmark) and finding out I was pregnant around the same time. When all else fails to make sense of the unknown, play is the best way to face it. This book is just plain fun and a way to grapple with the new and strange through playing with language and story. For the purely content-philes out there, a few highlights: -If you are curious about how Denmark managed to save nearly all its Jews during WWII or the Danish Resistance, this could be your book. - If you like a good drama, labradoodles and Portland, Oregon, you're on the right track! I'd love to hear any feedback or questions you have so don't be shy, hit me with your thoughts, outrages, and suggestions. Check it out  HERE !