Acknowledgements

Here we are after a month of way too much chocolate and no snow on the ground. Winter forgot us but apparently summer scorch is not forecast in that manner. We shall see and in the meantime stock up on sunscreen and plan on sunrise stomps to keep the muscles working in the cool.

If you have a favourite writing or art link you would like me to add to the newsletter let me know in the Comments.

BOOKS

WHEN AGAIN THIS WAY I WALK
lindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings:

The lives of 1870’s Julia and modern Andie touch as each in her own time faces relational issues common across the ages as times change and people do not.

Reviews

Linda Gigliotti’s novel, When Again This Way I Walk, invites readers into the lives of two families, living in the same location but a century apart. The dual-timeline story begins when Andie gazes into the forest and experiences a life-like vision of a woman and girl of previous time. Throughout the story, we follow Andie, her family, and the choices and decisions each must make and the parallel issues that Julia and her family cope with. With touches of mystery and illusion, Gigliotti deftly alternates between eras to reveal how the lives and issues of these two women, and perhaps all of us time unto time, face similar challenges, experience the same joys, and struggle to discover our deepest truths (Judy Reeves).

-Judy Reeves is the author of Wild Women, Wild Voices: writing from your authentic wildness and A Writer’s Book of Days.

I had the privilege to be one of the first readers of Linda’s novel and from the first page I was drawn into the story and felt as if I was part of it, thanks to Linda’s extraordinary way of describing the scenery and the characters. A beautiful story about life, love, family, traditions and friendship with a twist of mystery and suspense. Linda sends you on a journey between the past and the present, reminding you that life is about being curious and courageous.

• Tina Mundelsee is author of Yoga Coaching: use your practice to resolve emotional baggage, master your mind & create harmony in your life & relationship and Think Happy, Be Happy – A Yoga Coaching Pocket Guide. As well Tina is life coach at www.tinastools.com

I just finished reading When Again This Way I Walk. I loved it. It’s so funny I have thought these very thoughts myself. You are so right, the sun will keep rising and settling long after we have danced our lives across the earth and it has risen and set long before we took our first breath. So many experiences, interactions, memories. What a wonderful story. Bravo to you.

– Jackie Wilkinson, avid reader

HOWMASTER: THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO BEAUTIFUL WORD CRAFTING – Revised Edition lindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings

OTHER GREAT READS

Check out Judy Reeves’ new memoir WHEN YOUR HEART SAYS GO (She Writes Press 2024) and others at

https://www.judyreeveswriter.com/ . Judy also wrote Wild Women, Wild Voices (NWL 2015), a book for those of us who must write and do it well. Check out Judy’s A Writer’s Book of Days (NWL 1999) for some great daily writing prompts.

Julia Cameron’s latest, The Daily Artist’s Way: 366 Meditations for Creative Living, releases this year on November 25. Julia is the author of The Artist’s Way series which changed many writing lives. I use this book every day and love it.

NOTEBOOK SAYS

My copy of Julia Cameron’s most recent work, The Daily Artist’s Way (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2025) arrived after a few snow storm delays. I love it. Check it out at https://juliacameronlive.com/book/the-daily-artists-way/ . Her meditations are an excellent way of keeping in touch with our creative inner kid who loves to write. Cameron’s tools work for writers and artists too. The key is to work consistently and avoid large lapses.

Prompts:

• The day you finally took the Christmas tree down.

• He watered every plant in the house. They were fake.

• You come home to your empty house and hear someone singing in the basement. You live alone.

• What the groundhogs did under the trees at 3:15 AM.

• What Winter said to Spring.

• It’s night and you are alone. A door slams.

• Write what you love about your job. Then start again with what you hate.

ART CORNER

Nicholas Wilton of art2life artists.com has one of his wonderful freebies coming with “The Creative Awakening Challenge: 25 Days to Create an Art Practice That is Easy, Joyful, and Opens the Door to Your Best, Most Irresistible Art” at https://pages.art2life.com/cvp/cac-organic-b/ .The Creative Awakening Challenge runs February 1–25, 2026, with access to all content through March 1. The challenge follows a simple weekly rhythm designed to keep you inspired and supported without overwhelming you.

 

Karen Abend’s Sketchbook Revival 2026 is officially on the calendar. Please put a big star next to April 11, 2026 and check it out at https://www.karenabend.com/

As well I look forward to a time of learning as I dig into Jean Haines’ atmospheric style and her videos at https://watercolourinspiration.com/en-ca?mc_cid=4a63f06528 .

And another of Charlie O’Shields’ offerings: https://doodlewash.com/february-2026-art-challenge

Until next month,

Linda Gigliotti

https://lindagigliottiwriter.com/

It’s that time of year again. You know, darker and colder which to me is anything below 0C. Our long sunrise stomps are in hibernation as walking happens during later daytime and only for short excursions. The only thing we don’t have to whine about is snow as that has yet to befall, pun intended.

The other day I stood before the wardrobe and noted the predominance of red shirts and sweaters. We shall have to fix that before the neighbours, you know, the ones who love to peer out their windows, report I am Tomato Woman.

The next newsletter will come after Christmas so in the meantime I wish you all a happy and blessed season.

BOOKS

WHEN AGAIN THIS WAY I WALKlindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings:

The lives of 1870’s Julia and modern Andie touch as each in her own time faces relational issues common across the ages as times change and people do not.

Reviews

Linda Gigliotti’s novel, When Again This Way I Walk, invites readers into the lives of two families, living in the same location but a century apart. The dual-timeline story begins when Andie gazes into the forest and experiences a life-like vision of a woman and girl of previous time. Throughout the story, we follow Andie, her family, and the choices and decisions each must make and the parallel issues that Julia and her family cope with. With touches of mystery and illusion, Gigliotti deftly alternates between eras to reveal how the lives and issues of these two women, and perhaps all of us time unto time, face similar challenges, experience the same joys, and struggle to discover our deepest truths (Judy Reeves).

-Judy Reeves is the author of Wild Women, Wild Voices: writing from your authentic wildness and A Writer’s Book of Days.

I had the privilege to be one of the first readers of Linda’s novel and from the first page I was drawn into the story and felt as if I was part of it, thanks to Linda’s extraordinary way of describing the scenery and the characters. A beautiful story about life, love, family, traditions and friendship with a twist of mystery and suspense. Linda sends you on a journey between the past and the present, reminding you that life is about being curious and courageous.

• Tina Mundelsee is author of Yoga Coaching: use your practice to resolve emotional baggage, master your mind & create harmony in your life & relationship and Think Happy, Be Happy – A Yoga Coaching Pocket Guide. As well Tina is life coach at www.tinastools.com

I just finished reading When Again This Way I Walk. I loved it. It’s so funny I have thought these very thoughts myself. You are so right, the sun will keep rising and settling long after we have danced our lives across the earth and it has risen and set long before we took our first breath. So many experiences, interactions, memories. What a wonderful story. Bravo to you.

– Jackie Wilkinson, avid reader

HOWMASTER: THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO BEAUTIFUL WORD CRAFTING – Revised Editionlindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings

OTHER GREAT READS

Check out Judy Reeves’ new memoir WHEN YOUR HEART SAYS GO(She Writes Press 2024)and others at

https://www.judyreeveswriter.com/ . Judy also wrote Wild Women, Wild Voices (NWL 2015), a book for those of us who must write and do it well. Check out Judy’s A Writer’s Book of Days (NWL 1999) for some great daily writing prompts.

Julia Cameron’s latest, The Daily Artist’s Way: 366 Meditations for Creative Living, releases this year on November 25. Julia is the author of The Artist’s Way series which changed many writing lives. I can’t wait for my copy to arrive.

NOTEBOOK SAYS

Happy to say I am at work on my newest offering and this time I am not getting ahead of myself and confusing the issue with notes all over the place. I was in the laundry room where I found a thing of incredible value. On a slow day such as this in our laundry room the place is mine alone and the only sounds are from the washer. Water flows in as the machine’s drum beats in perfect rhythm to the movement of pen over page. Sounds such as these and those of the air conditioner or early morning traffic provide comforting back up almost like music. You have to pay attention to songs whereas mechanical audio makes its own music with no input from our notice.

Another place to write is the bus such as the Greyhound we rode across province. The sound of motion with the feel of comfort kept the words flowing. Are we there yet became that was a short trip.

Prompts:

• What NoteBook and Pen do while Writer sleeps.
• What the neighbour kid found when his dad told him to rake the leaves after which that parent told him to put it right back where he found it and don’t tell anyone.
• What you saw that night you got up and looked out the window.

ART CORNER

Colour choices really do reflect the artist’s soul as Nicholas Wilton indicates. Not everyone loves red (imagine such a thing!) and whatever you see coming out of your colour choices could reflect the spirit of your inner artist. Want to find it? Check out your choice of decorative colouration. What first attracts you to a garment in the store? Is it style or colour? What is your favourite in your painting palette?

OTHER GREAT SITES TO CHECK OUT

Nicholas Wilton is a master in his teachings about colour and the way your art reflects your soul. Look through his site and sign up for his Sunday Vlog. Art2Life Artists | Facebook and https://www.art2life.com

Check out Karen Abend’s art community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SketchbookRevival and sign up for her great newsletters.

Don’t miss https://doodlewash.com/ with Charlie O’Shields, of Creator Doodlewash®, founder of World Watercolor Month™ (July), World Watercolor Group on Facebook, and author of the Sketching Stuff™ books.

Until next month,

Linda Gigliotti

Books

Racing in the rain. The scent of petrichor and wet autumn leaves. The freedom of “raindrops falling on my head,” as B. J. Thomas sang in 1969, while our grins widen as we face the sky. Surely the passing drivers think we’ve lost our senses. We care not as our pace speeds up. Ah, the blessings of a soggy fall day.

It was dry on a recent trip to my favourite thrift store that snagged me a witch’s hat that screamed out violet trim. I had to try it on of course but then they told me I have to supply my own broom. Oh well it likely will be too cold to fly anyway.

Have a happy autumn and cuddle in with creative endeavours.

BOOKS

WHEN AGAIN THIS WAY I WALK
lindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings:

The lives of 1870’s Julia and modern Andie touch as each in her own time faces relational issues common across the ages as times change and people do not.

Reviews

Linda Gigliotti’s novel, When Again This Way I Walk, invites readers into the lives of two families, living in the same location but a century apart. The dual-timeline story begins when Andie gazes into the forest and experiences a life-like vision of a woman and girl of previous time. Throughout the story, we follow Andie, her family, and the choices and decisions each must make and the parallel issues that Julia and her family cope with. With touches of mystery and illusion, Gigliotti deftly alternates between eras to reveal how the lives and issues of these two women, and perhaps all of us time unto time, face similar challenges, experience the same joys, and struggle to discover our deepest truths (Judy Reeves).

-Judy Reeves is the author of Wild Women, Wild Voices: writing from your authentic wildness and A Writer’s Book of Days.

I had the privilege to be one of the first readers of Linda’s novel and from the first page I was drawn into the story and felt as if I was part of it, thanks to Linda’s extraordinary way of describing the scenery and the characters. A beautiful story about life, love, family, traditions and friendship with a twist of mystery and suspense. Linda sends you on a journey between the past and the present, reminding you that life is about being curious and courageous.

• Tina Mundelsee is author of Yoga Coaching: use your practice to resolve emotional baggage, master your mind & create harmony in your life & relationship and Think Happy, Be Happy – A Yoga Coaching Pocket Guide. As well Tina is life coach at www.tinastools.com

I just finished reading When Again This Way I Walk. I loved it. It’s so funny I have thought these very thoughts myself. You are so right, the sun will keep rising and settling long after we have danced our lives across the earth and it has risen and set long before we took our first breath. So many experiences, interactions, memories. What a wonderful story. Bravo to you.

– Jackie Wilkinson, avid reader

HOWMASTER: THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO BEAUTIFUL WORD CRAFTING – Revised Edition lindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings

OTHER GREAT READS

Check out Judy Reeves’ new memoir WHEN YOUR HEART SAYS GO (She Writes Press 2024) and others at

https://www.judyreeveswriter.com/ . Judy also wrote Wild Women, Wild Voices (NWL 2015), a book for those of us who must write and do it well. Check out Judy’s A Writer’s Book of Days (NWL 1999) for some great daily writing prompts.

NOTEBOOK SAYS

My new work in progress (WIP) taught me a few things. I have a habit of making notes. Copious notes. Sometimes in different notebooks. That of course does not write anything into the manuscript. No, it only makes us find excuses to do it later. What to do instead:

• One page at a time. Not the entire work at once like putting your entire spaghetti dinner including salad on the plate and trying to eat it that way.

• The notes are only notes. Ignore most of them.

• When you see the same notation made on several little blurbs you know you are repeating yourself. Throw it out. Make a cup of tea and go back to the WIP.

• Stay in numerical sequence. No jumping from page 59 to check page 17. That happens in the second draft.

This month’s prompts:

• The red stuff that dried on the wallpaper that covered the door in the pantry was not berry juice like they said.

• He looked in the mirror and saw a mask that he had not put on his face. He screamed and the lights went out.

• The witch who dropped her broom high over the hills on a moonless night.

ART CORNER

Consider making and painting all your Christmas cards this year. Did I say something wrong?

Coming is the time of year I will really appreciate all those reds and oranges painted earlier. Out the window however ….

Paint a winter scene.

OTHER GREAT SITES TO CHECK OUT

Nicholas Wilton is a master in his teachings about colour and the way your art reflects your soul. Look through his site and sign up for his Sunday Vlog. Art2Life Artists | Facebook and https://www.art2life.com

Check out Karen Abend’s art community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SketchbookRevival and sign up for her great newsletters.

Don’t miss https://doodlewash.com/ with Charlie O’Shields, of Creator Doodlewash®, founder of World Watercolor Month™ (July), World Watercolor Group on Facebook, and author of the Sketching Stuff™ books.

Until next month,

Linda Gigliotti

https://lindagigliottiwriter.com/

DOOTSY DOODLES

Autumn usually peeks in during the first or second week of August long enough to stick its tongue out and leave for a few weeks. This time it cackled at us in mid-July although summer continues with no colours turned and temperatures still around 30 Celsius. Let’s enjoy the hum-roar of early morning traffic and the whir of air conditioner into the hot afternoons while we hope fall won’t come back. Or maybe get lost. Or something.

BOOKS

WHEN AGAIN THIS WAY I WALK
lindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings:

The lives of 1870’s Julia and modern Andie touch as each in her own time faces relational issues common across the ages as times change and people do not.

Reviews

Linda Gigliotti’s novel, When Again This Way I Walk, invites readers into the lives of two families, living in the same location but a century apart. The dual-timeline story begins when Andie gazes into the forest and experiences a life-like vision of a woman and girl of previous time. Throughout the story, we follow Andie, her family, and the choices and decisions each must make and the parallel issues that Julia and her family cope with. With touches of mystery and illusion, Gigliotti deftly alternates between eras to reveal how the lives and issues of these two women, and perhaps all of us time unto time, face similar challenges, experience the same joys, and struggle to discover our deepest truths (Judy Reeves).

-Judy Reeves is the author of Wild Women, Wild Voices: writing from your authentic wildness and A Writer’s Book of Days.

I had the privilege to be one of the first readers of Linda’s novel and from the first page I was drawn into the story and felt as if I was part of it, thanks to Linda’s extraordinary way of describing the scenery and the characters. A beautiful story about life, love, family, traditions and friendship with a twist of mystery and suspense. Linda sends you on a journey between the past and the present, reminding you that life is about being curious and courageous.

• Tina Mundelsee is author of Yoga Coaching: use your practice to resolve emotional baggage, master your mind & create harmony in your life & relationship and Think Happy, Be Happy – A Yoga Coaching Pocket Guide. As well Tina is life coach at www.tinastools.com

HOWMASTER: THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO BEAUTIFUL WORD CRAFTING – Revised Edition lindagigliottiwriter.com – Linda M. Gigliotti’s writings

OTHER GREAT READS

Check out Judy Reeves’ new memoir WHEN YOUR HEART SAYS GO (She Writes Press 2024)and others at

https://www.judyreeveswriter.com/ . Judy also wrote Wild Women, Wild Voices (NWL 2015), a book for those of us who must write and do it well. Check out Judy’s A Writer’s Book of Days (NWL 1999) for some great daily writing prompts.

NOTEBOOK SAYS

The Power of Notebook Entries

My more arrogant days had me believe memory would serve

my writing as well as it does for what you said to me the

evening of October 14, 1956. Not. Right away two huge

observations cackled at me. The first is that as soon as you get busy your brain brings the task at hand to the fore and

everything else gets pushed to incidental. The second issue is that having an acute memory serves no one because others won’t believe us anyway. Just try and convince someone they really did say or do a thing on that day beyond their remembrance and see what happens. Write ideas down. Carry a pocket size notepad, the kind with no hard cover and curly wireto stick you in the eye every time you look down. Ideas happen all the time but there’s only so much the brain can hold so we have to take notes. Now all I have to do is explain to the income tax people what those squiggles are on the back of the form. Everything has story value. You might have to stand on your head to view life and then write exactly what you see. Record details the way they happen and that moment stays alive in the pages of your notebook or journal ( HowMaster, 15).

Prompts:

• 5 Write about lying on the beach. You fall asleep and wake with the sun in your face. Everyone is gone. You check your watch and see that it is only 1:45 PM.

• You leave early for your early morning walk. You get home and the door is open. Then you hear a loud crash from the kitchen.
• You’re asleep in the empty house when the sound wakes you. The shuffling comes towards you.

• Write a short story entitled The Day the Lilies Wept.

ART CORNER

A friend blessed me with oil pastels. She says she doesn’t want the kids writing with those on walls and floors and knew I probably would avoid that. She hasn’t known me that long.

Then I had to find the right kind of paper since the coarseness of watercolour pages left a lot of tiny squares all over the work. Next I tried a pad of paper with gesso. To be truthful I did not read the cover so I ended up with something I hope I can donate. In a bit of a snit I tried my sketchbook and was rewarded with beautiful intense colour. As well I found it comforting to move the pastel across the page and watch those gorgeous shades happen.

It blew me off my chair when I found I can replicate. First I take a picture and then go to my sketchbook and copy it with pencil while I look back and forth between that and the photo. Then I prop the sketchbook in front of me and get out the watercolour paper where I copy my drawing with brush and watercolour. That system works Every. Single. Time. Inasmuch as I prefer atmospheric works to realism the actions of brain and hand know where to place what I paint before it goes atmospheric.

OTHER GREAT SITES TO CHECK OUT

Nicholas Wilton is a master in his teachings about colour and the way your art reflects your soul. Look through his site and sign up for his Sunday Vlog. Art2Life Artists | Facebook and https://www.art2life.com

Check out Karen Abend’s art community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SketchbookRevival and sign up for her great newsletters.

Don’t miss https://doodlewash.com/ with Charlie O’Shields, of Creator Doodlewash®, founder of World Watercolor Month™ (July), World Watercolor Group on Facebook, and author of the Sketching Stuff™ books.

Until next month,

Linda Gigliotti

Books