Why Your Value Isn’t Tied to Productivity
What If Your Value Had Nothing to Do with What You Produce? Imagine a world where your worth wasn’t measured by how much you achieve, how many hours you work, or how productive you are. What if your value was simply in your existence? In a culture that glorifies busyness and ties success to financial gain, It’s a radical idea. But what if this belief is not only incomplete but also deeply flawed? The Productivity Trap In Western culture, success is often synonymous with money. Whether it’s climbing the corporate ladder, selling art, or running a business, the underlying message is clear: your value is tied to what you produce. Even at a smaller scale, we’re judged by our usefulness. Are you contributing? Are you achieving? Are you doing enough? This mindset keeps us on a relentless hamster wheel of busyness, where rest feels like a luxury we can’t afford. …
My Journey of Autistic Self-Discovery Expressed in a Surreal Music Video
My AI art music video below, set to a song about a late-diagnosed autistic discovering their neurodivergence, illustrates the first chapter of my book Psychemagination: Into the Underworld — where myth, art, and introspection meet, not only to tell my story but also to help you find your own way into discovering who you really are. But the Psychemagination story doesn’t begin—or end—with the book. Psychemagination is a living creative exploration, a multi-modal journey into the depths of self through myth, introspection, and art. It takes form as prose, poetry, visual storytelling, and AI-generated music videos. Not all of it fits between the pages. Some of it sings. Some of it dances. Some of it flickers across the screen in images that speak where words fall silent. The story first emerged two years ago as a series of videos set to my husband’s music. Those early pieces were heartfelt, but…
Begin the Journey: Into the Depths and Heights of Being
The journey begins. The short work of videoart below illustrates the inciting incident for my book ‘Psychemagination: Into the Underworld,’ the moment when my sister suggested that our whole family was autistic. Set to an original song and visionary AI art, it invites you to follow the Psychemagination series – illustrated books and videos about a contemplative, neuro-affirming path of healing and transformation—using the expressive arts, imaginative meditation, and modern psychological insight. But Psychemagination isn’t just a book series—it’s a personal and universal journey of exploration of our psyche through the expressive arts. It’s looking into ourselves and expressing what we find through writing, art, music and dance. The act of putting our inner world outside ourselves helps us to process what we find. The Psychemagination books combine my story, written in lyrical prose, and my art, plus introspective art exercises for you, so you can also take a journey…
Book trailer blooper reel: Is it as funny as I think it is?
Some time ago, my daughter, her boyfriend and I took some shots for a book trailer for Lethal Inheritance. The footage sat aside for several months until the time was right for my daughter, a Communications Media Arts (ie film and television) student, got around to doing something with it. She began working on it recently and though the actual trailer is still unfinished, she has put together a blooper reel. We had a great time shooting the footage, and I literally rolled around laughing when I saw the bloopers. I guess it will always be funnier to someone who knows the people in it, but I think you’ll find it worth a look. This video was edited by the same person who created and directed the Indie-cision documentary, a light-hearted look at the issues involved in the self vs traditional publishing quandry. Did you enjoy the bloopers?
A different kind of book trailer
We all know what the usual sort of book trailer looks like (see the second video below for an example) but here’s a different kind of thing. It’s the really soft sell, aimed to grab people’s attention with humour. Why am I posting this as part of the Celebration of Indie Excellence? Because I just put it together, think it’s really cute and figure you would enjoy it. Also because perhaps it symbolised the kind of creativity that Indies authors represent. The video is just for fun. I’m not really expecting it to sell books. It’s shot in my garden, using the animals that live there in the staring roles. I’m the voice-over. I hope you enjoy it. It’s 1 minute and 20 seconds. Here’s the revamped traditional style trailer for You CAn’t Shatter Me. This one is 1 minute. Do you like them? If so, could you pop over…