Marilyn Flower
Writer, poet, & Sacred Fool!
Marilyn Flower lives at the intersection of Humor Avenue and Satire Street. Much of her poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction illustrates her mantra: Laugh the change you want to see!
About Me
Marilyn Flower is an author, playwright, poet, and proud resident of Oakland, California. Humor is her first and favorite language.
Be it political satire in her forthcoming novel, or zany commentaries for MuddyUm on Medium.com, laughter is her way to stay in top physical, emotional and spiritual shape for crazy times such as these.
Besides “writer,” Marilyn answers to “sacred fool” and “prayer warrior.” She studies clowning, improv, and all-round feistiness at Stagebridge.org, the premier senior theater school which happens to be right down the street.
Fellow clowns, John Cleese and Roberto Benigni share an October 27th birthday with her, though they got there first.
She’s a top writer in humor, satire, and poetry on Medium.com where she has her own publication, Humor! Authenticity! Magic! She’s also a contributing editor to Middle-Pause, as well as interviewing guest speakers for their podcast STOMP!
With a little or a lot of humor, she writes about health, recovery, writing, mid-life issues, and the body politic. Her posts appear daily on Facebook.
She adores being a daughter, sister, aunt, and great aunt which pries her away from the laptop and keeps her in shape.
Read
Just Released!
There’s no one right way to develop characters for your fiction. Some methods are logical and linear, giving you a basic bio or trait list. Other methods are open-ended and playful. If the latter is your cup of tea, Marilyn Flower’s Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction is right up your alley.
In this short ebook, Marilyn shows you how to blog as your characters, create collages of them, and use the Enneagram’s nine personality types to not only depict them but hear their unique voices. Actually, she doesn’t just show you, she demonstrates using examples from her own novels. The only hard part is figuring out which technique to try first.
Do you have a bucket or life list yet?
If not, why not? Or do you have a list, but haven’t done anything on your list?
Why not? Are you too scared? Too old? Too busy? Too whatever? If so, this book is for you. In Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On: How to Do the Thing You’re Too Old or Scared to Do, Marilyn Flower shows you how to make friends with fear so you can move forward.
She shows you how to break what feels overwhelming into bite-size bits, gather information, and get organized to take obvious next steps. This little book also contains a worksheet so you can capture your ideas and track your progress. Marilyn does the process right along with you, so you have a companion for your journey.
Bon voyage!
Featured
LAUGH
Say No to Yoga; Say Yes to Noga!
The ancient art and spiritual practice of saying “no.”
I went to my first “noga” class today.
Noga is the ancient art and spiritual practice of saying “no.” Bet you didn’t know that saying no is an ancient art and spiritual practice. Let me break if down for you. We’ll start with the ancient art.
You’ve heard of yoga. All kinds of Asanas or poses designed to contort the body into variations on a pretzel. You’ve seen the gravity defying pictures of a man doing a plank in mid-air, suspended by one hand. Or the lady with her feet around her ears. Physically impossible, right?
Right! That’s why they invented noga for the rest of us.
Pray
The Mystical Poetry of the Lord’s Prayer in its Original Aramaic
The shimmering sound that touches us.
Given all the uncertainties we’re facing right now as a nation and as a planet, one of the key spiritual tools we can call upon is prayer.
Some people pray spontaneously flowing words from their hearts. Some people find great comfort at times like these with traditional prayers that have stood the test of time.
One of the most beloved is the Lord’s Prayer. It has a familiar cadence that many of us can recite by rote without focusing on the meaning. But given this was one of Jesus’ main teachings about our relationship to God, perhaps it’s worth a deeper look.
Love
You Didn’t Tell Me You Changed the Rules
But you did tell me you love me, just not in words.
I was used to the old rules —
say you’re sitting on my left,
so I look past you left-ward,
scanning for a shiny object or person.
Look over there, I’d say, pointing.
and while you look, my spoon or fork
darts over your plate
quick as a lizard nabs a fly,
and grabs a bite of your cake, ice cream, or pie.
