Inspired by reading MRWG Alumna, Louise Reynolds’ novella (‘An Outback Christmas’) I decided to slant my original post about the MRWG’s Christmas party celebration to include the importance of reaching out at Christmas time to old and new friends.
Why did Louise Reynolds’ novella influenced this blog? Giving and receiving is a major focus of Christmas, yet Carrie Holt (from ‘An Outback Christmas’) had closed her heart and the weather seemed to physically maroon her also. The downpour that cuts her off at her remote station also strands two others. They are in such need she has to begin giving. That opens the door to her receiving a much better Christmas than she could have imagined. The romantic novella touched my heart because it dealt with the real pain of being alone at Christmas and in the healing process my joy seemed equal with Carrie’s.
It’s a time of year that everyone seems full of cheer and yet there are undoubtedly many who find all that cheer oppressive. Even the heartiest celebrator among us has memories of Christmases past that involved people who for one reason or another aren’t around anymore.    

​ I believe happy Christmases past are gifts to be enjoyed. Cherish the memory of those times and connect with how grateful you are to have had those times in your life. At the same time being open to more good times this year lets the cheer part in. Perhaps you don’t have any happy Christmases to warm your memories but being shut down prevents you from having joy in your life. Being open to the idea that you can have your share of the cheer this year might involve acceptance that it is different to how you imagine it. This could help make a connection to the giving and receiving side of Christmas.

Many group organisations celebrate with a Christmas party. The Melbourne Romance Writers Guild's was such a lovely celebration of our shared passion in romance writing but also our friendship. Perhaps some in our group will be having a quiet Christmas Day but they’ll have celebrated the season with friends. Also they’ll have given and received a Christmas present in our Kris Kringle. I received  pretty mirrored letter blocks that spell out HOPE. 

We have members who’ve been coming to the MRWG Christmas Party for years and years and new members who’ve recently joined us. You wouldn’t have known the difference as we all tucked into our communal food table. Each dish was appreciated and the donor thanked and complimented. After the conversational buzz had died down a little we had a reading event. Some of our members read two pages of their writing in the spirit of giving to the group. The listeners received the story offered and showed their appreciation with heart warming applause.

The Melbourne Romance Writers Guild wishes you all a very cheerful Christmas. 

This post is a mini workshop I delivered to the MRWG a couple of months ago. I love angel cards. I like shuffling and laying out the cards in a spread. The gorgeous paintings are beautiful and inspiring in themselves. They also have an message of self love and confidence and are reflective of different phases of life and of the emotions which drive decisions and behaviour. Angel cards can suggest an area that requires focus or an activity that would be beneficial. For example. Cards indicating some quiet time or spending time outdoors in nature. In writing romance these cards could be viewed as the heroine needing to take time for reflection or regroup. (More on that later.)

Angel cards have a new age focus in their approach.  For instance they tend to reflect the idea that that we are responsible for the life we create. Whether you agree with that idea is unimportant in this instance because it fits with writing romance stories that are character driven rather than plot driven. Our heroes and heroines are supposed to be powerful in their lives and drive the story. A romance novel I enjoy reading is one where the journey of the characters includes growth in self awareness and confidence and ability to see their mistakes and correct them.

There are lovely illustrations on the cards which invite the imagination to activate. When looking at a card for little while you may come to notice some particular feeling or aspect of the card. The colours may give you a sense of meaning. You may look at a card containing baby angels playing together against a blue sky with clouds. Light heartedness may be your impression or it could be cheekiness. It depends on where you are in your story and what is going on in the scene you are inquiring about. People love to read romance, all romance promises a happy ending. How that is reached is what, I believe, gives the reader hope and satisfaction on finishing a book.
To draw cards you can shuffle the deck till you feel like stopping and take the cards from the top or you can fan them out and select cards from the fan. Angel cards are larger than normal playing cards so shuffling end to end may be easier. You can draw a few cards for inspiration on where the story may go. I can show you this better than explain it in theory so I’ll illustrate a card draw for myself.

When thinking about where to go after the end of chapter two for my WIP. I held the heroine in my thoughts and shuffled then drew the following cards from Doreen Virtue’s, Daily Guidance From Your Angels deck.
Already established in my story is the heroine who is a ballerina with a secret baby. The hero has come back into her life and they have now got to try and work out how they can parent their child and deal with the fact that they had a holiday romance but live on separate continents.

The first six cards I pulled from the top of the deck after shuffling were: Have Confidence; Child; Creative Project; Acceptance; Play and Change in Direction.

































The Confidence card is spot on. My heroine has confidence in herself issues. There is already a child in the picture and her childhood is definitely rearing its head. So I’ve interpreted the Child card as needing to keep focus on that. She’s a ballerina so the creative project might need to be identified. A ballet she’s rehearsing for perhaps. The Acceptance Card suggests to me that it would be important to have a scene that shows her accepting the hero as being a part of her baby’s life. The Play card indicates that this scene shows bonding and makes the reader want to barrack for this almost family. Change in Direction can be a call to the heroine to want to change her plan and maybe be consider a reconciliation and be a full time family.

There is no set number of cards to draw you just keep going till you feel like stopping. One or two might do the trick. I think what is valuable about using the cards is that they have the ability to inspire specific details or an overall theme, suggest what struggles a character may be facing and how they can get to the heart of the matter. You can do a draw for each character and see where there are links and clashes.

You can buy Angel cards from most new age/crystal shops, the Theosophical Society shop in Russell St, Melbourne and Big W costing about $20-$30 per deck. Each deck of Angel cards is slightly different in the way they deliver their message.  There are card decks based on advice from Ascended Masters, Fairies and Archangels so it’s good to browse through several decks, if possible, to see which ones appeal to you. An alternative is to make up a series of cards for yourself using pictures and insightful phrases topics or potential conflicts.

The Angel cards aren’t meant to override good story structure and craft but can be a useful  tool for sparking your imagination. Studying a card or spread of cards can help you focus and enter a kind of meditative state conducive to creative inspiration. My approach to the purpose of angel cards is that they help us to better love and understand ourselves, facilitating personal growth along with daily guidance. I believe this can be applied to creating romance novels which are about two people’s journey of falling in love with each other and growing through overcoming obstacles in order to be together. Good Luck and happy creating.