Showing results by author "Linda A Lavid" in All Categories

Every fable begins with an image—three Tarot cards drawn at random—and what follows is both mysterious and deeply human. In this luminous new collection, Linda A. Lavid transforms archetypal symbols into brief, spellbinding stories that explore love, loss, courage, and renewal. Each piece begins with Impressions and Conflict, then rises into the Fable itself, closing with a distilled reflection—Lesson in the Leaves. Together they form a mosaic of meaning: tales that feel timeless yet personal, ancient yet immediate. Whether or not you know Tarot makes no difference. Each image is ...

What if making abstract art wasn’t about technique or talent—but about finding yourself along the way? Unlocking Abstracts is a poetic and practical guide for creatives seeking meaning, play, and presence through the language of abstraction. No art degree required—just curiosity and a willingness to begin.

We are all collectors—of things, of memories, of selves we used to be. From childhood treasures to digital tabs, from egg cups and paperclips to emotional fragments we can't quite release, Curating Collections explores the deeply human impulse to gather, hold on, and make meaning. Blending poetic nonfiction, memoir, metaphor, and reflection, this book is a love letter to what we keep and why. With tenderness and wit, author Linda Lavid invites you to rummage through your own life's keepsakes—both tangible and intangible—discovering how they reflect your identity, longing, and growth. ...

Welcome to Woodberry Lane, where the gardens are overgrown and the bodies are freshly inconvenient. Meet Hattie Moon—a woman of a certain age who talks to her dead husband, solves murders, and still believes a good shortbread can fix just about anything. Along for the ride: her best friend Muriel (she brings the whiskey), a son who thinks “downsizing” means putting his mother in a home, and enough quirky characters to keep the rumor mill spinning at full tilt. Inside, you’ll find three mysteries with more twists than a bag of pretzels. There’s scandal, some bodies, and the ...

What do a ladder and a cat have in common? Or grief and a slice of apple pie? Welcome to Weaving Metaphors, a soulful and surprising journey into the art of seeing meaning in the everyday. With warmth, wit, and a touch of midnight musing, author Linda A. Lavid invites you to explore unlikely pairings—two random nouns at a time—and discover how they connect, clash, or conspire to tell us something deeper about life. Part journal, part creative practice, and part spiritual whisper, this book is for thinkers, feelers, wanderers, and anyone who believes the world is more than it seems. Each...

There are several aspects to writing fiction. Rendering what John Gardner in The Art of Fiction describes as a 'vivid and continuous dream' is a complicated affair. Story is created from the imagination of a writer, who in turn must translate it onto a page of symbols so that another person can read, absorb, and experience the story in a similar fashion. It's a remarkable process when you think about it. In On Creative Writing the process of writing fiction is demystified and cut in palatable bites to help any writer who has the passion and mad desire to tell a story. Reviews: Bitten by ...

101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self is a primer to illuminate the landscapes within and beyond. Easily explained and specific, 101 Ways to Meditate, supplies a wide selection of processing, imagery, release, and inspirational meditations to make meditative practice life-affirming, insightful and fun. A 31-day journal is also included. Whether to explore metaphysical questions, experience higher awareness, or come to terms with the mystery within, meditation serves. This book was a finalist in the 2011 Global E-Book Awards.

Murder in the Pachysandra introduces Hattie Moon, an elderly widow, who steps out of her dusty world of cat hair, mixed-up days, and rambling conversations with her dead husband, to solve the murder of her paperboy Jason Meeks. She, along with her friend Muriel Manning, unravel clues the police have missed. Suddenly, the amateur sleuths find themselves swirling in a deceitful, troubling world of marital infidelity, drugs, the dark web, and a diabolical force that hovers, ready to pounce.

The Lure of Chianti & Fava Beans: How to Write a Killer Mystery is for writers. If you are a new writer (bravo!), this primer on mystery writing presents the basic building blocks that must be considered before your story is started. If you are a writer who wants to expand into mysteries or have a mystery subplot in your current work, this manual explains the critical details in fleshing out a great story. Also included are fiction writing basics.

What if magic isn’t found in dusty rituals or strict traditions, but in the shimmer of everyday life? In Kindling Magic, Linda A Lavid invites you to rediscover wonder through the lens of chaos magic—a playful, creative approach that celebrates personal experience, intuition, and imagination. Blending stories, folklore, psychology, and practical exercises, this book shows how magic is already alive in your hands, waiting to be kindled. Inside you’ll discover: Moments of wonder—personal testimonies that reveal how awe, synchronicity, and memory can shift perception. Tales and ...

The Mystery Writer’s Cat is a practical, no-nonsense guide to writing mysteries that work. Linda A. Lavid, author of the Hattie Moon Mystery series, lays out the essentials with clarity and wit: how to build a victim, stage a crime scene, craft a sleuth, and keep readers chasing after clues, evidence, and red herrings. Structured around key building blocks, the book guides new and seasoned writers through plotting, character development, timelines, and the all-important reveal. With diagrams, exercises, and straightforward advice, Lavid shows how to shape a mystery that is both fair to ...

Beneath every veneer, beneath the person who is you, there are secrets, never acknowledged, never told nor shared. It is your sexuality, and mine, a compendium of dark influences, of seeds sown, of lost fleeting moments that run us wild, ragged. Ever constant, we deny our nature of want, desire, guilt, shame. Ever constant, we succumb to the subterranean pull of pleasure and pain. It is here where the story begins. Welcome.

Quigley Tree drops out of college. At age 23, she's been a complete failure. If she doesn't do something soon, her life will careen into a deep, dark, irrevocable void. Tick Tock. That soon is now. From the publisher: Five-Star Review from Readers' Favorite by Lorraine Cobcroft: Quigley Tree, the protagonist of Linda A. Lavid’s novel of the same name, is a young woman with an odd name. A college dropout from a dysfunctional home, and recently escaped from a relationship with a narcissist, Quigley needs to find a new place to live, quickly. A unique idea sets her on a path to find ...

Transcending Fables is the luminous final volume in Linda A. Lavid’s Fables Trilogy — following Summoning Fablesand Illuminating Fables — and a cornerstone of her Chronicles of a Wandering Mind series. In this concluding exploration, Lavid traces the evolution of storytelling from its primal origins beside the fire to its rebirth in the digital age. She begins where language itself began — with the night voice that comforted the tribe — and follows story’s long arc through myth, scripture, morality, printing, and algorithm. Each chapter reveals how narrative both shapes and ...

From Twig to Spark is a journey through humanity’s oldest art: storytelling. Gathering three books from The Chronicles of a Wandering Mind series—Summoning Fables, Illuminating Fables, and Transcending Fables—Linda A Lavid explores how story first rose from the need to survive, how it grew into myth and morality, and how it continues to evolve in the age of the machine. Through essays, fables, and reflections, Lavid follows story’s transformation from breath to inscription, from oral imagination to written word to digital pulse. Each part rekindles our shared flame of wonder: how ...

A life-long bachelor and company president takes the plunge with a company secretary.

Hattie Moon, a modern-day Miss Marple, is thrown into a mystery close to home when her son Howie, gets engaged. While his bride-to-be is charming, Hattie learns the woman is a widow who lives with her mother and sister, who are also widows. Naturally, Hattie becomes concerned...as she should.

His name is Ed Mees. He's dying. He doesn't want to tell his story, but I'm here nevertheless. To write down what he says, to interpret what he means, to listen, to hold him if necessary. Although, I'm hoping it won't be necessary.

Writer Linda A Lavid reads excerpts from popular books published before 1930. Commentary follows on aspects of style that can be used, or duly forgotten, in today's writing world. For contemporary work, she reads her own stories and discusses her take on writing in today's world. Great Readers make Great Writers!

Writer, Opiner, Linda A Lavid, reads excerpts from successful books written before 1930 and comments on: historical aspects, writing style, and takeaways.