Become A Patron Of The Arts Via Kickstarter!

Did you know there are rewards for being a patron of the arts via Kickstarter?  If you pledge even $1 toward my campaign to fund the writing and publication of my novel, The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One, you can receive rewards like autographed copies of the completed book, one on one conversation with the author about her work, commissioned poetry by yours truly.  Rewards are based on the amount you choose to pledge. Of course, the biggest reward of all will be the uptic in your personal prestige when you become a patron of the arts.  Please click HERE to fund The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One.

Why Kickstarter Is A Great Idea For The Arts, Artists, and Democracy!

There was a time when artists and authors had patrons.  A patron was one who provided housing and income for the artist and her family.  Often it meant the artist created her art for a specific person, someone with enough wealth to afford the luxury of basically employing a full time artist or several.  Mozart had such an arrangement with the Duke of Salzburg.  He didn't like the loss of freedom which resulted from being employed by any one person, so he quit the Duke and struck out in his own.  He died in poverty, leaving his wife and child penniless.

Many artists and musicians, and some writers have been supported by churches who paid these talented people to do God's work by creating art that somehow illuminated the righteousness of God and the church that paid the artist's salary.

In other cases, artists have managed to get by on commissions and gifts from a number of patrons.  This did give artists more freedom of choice in their work than was possible when they were employed by single patrons.  Sometimes, it was enough to pay the bills, sometimes it was not.  For the most part, private and liturgical patronage of the arts has gone the way of the dodo.

Some artists manage to get by as academics.  If they are lucky, they manage to balance teaching with making art.  Unfortunately, teaching often becomes such a major time and energy suck that art falls by the wayside.

There was a brief period in American history when a limited number of artists could do their work with financial support from the government.  This has never been a huge boon to the arts in the US, as it has been in many, many other nations, but in the sixties, seventies, and early eighties, we had the start of what might have been a major lifeline for fine artists and authors here.  Thanks to politics and interference by big business, most of those avenues for funding artists and specific art ventures are on life support if they have any breath left at all.

For authors, there used to be a fair to middlin' chance someone with some actual skill and talent could land an advance to do their work from a major publishing house.  Unfortunately, publishing has become just another Big Biz that isn't real interested in fostering the careers of new writers.  To become a published writer now, you pretty much have to already be one.  Frankly, the industry has changed rapidly and painfully in the years since the internet altered the face of communications and publishing forever.

The internet has made it possible for literally anyone with access to a computer to become published.  That is good in a way.  More authors getting published means more quality work out there getting read.  Of course, it also means more schlock, but, in my opinion, wading through the schlock is a very small price to pay for getting to the good stuff.

Easy Access to publication has a downside too though.  There is little or no pay to be had by publishing online.  Real income still lies in publishing actual books though sometimes these actual books are available in Ebook format.

In order to publish books, many authors, including myself, have taken to self publication.  There is no shame in this.  Dickens was self published.  So was Shakespeare.  My own publishing house, Diva Press Publications, was born back in the nineties when I realized my work was worthy of publication but that I had neither time nor energy for seeking an agent who would then search for publishers on my behalf.  As an introvert, the idea of auditioning and schmoozing for representation gave me the shakes.  Diva Press was born when I decided face time with potential agents was more than I could take.

Even though I own the publishing house, creating books is not cheap.  It takes time and skill as well as a fair amount of materials.  A productive author needs to have the time and space and peace of mind that comes with knowing for sure the book can be completed before the writer runs out of money to pay the bills.

Old fashioned patronage and arts grants being pretty much things of the past, Kickstarter can fill in the gaps for many artists who need time and financial support to do their work.  Through small contributions, as low as $1, ANYONE can now be a patron of the arts.  In the bad old days, artists were indentured servants to the rich guy or gal who paid them.  Now, via Kickstarter, artists can have literally thousands of patrons kicking in to support the work they want to see completed.  This provides the artist with more creative freedom and lets anyone who wants to support the arts do so, regardless of income.  Kickstarter is truly democracy and the free market at their best.

Soooooo.... that is why I am funding the creation of The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One through a Kickstarter campaign.  This is YOUR chance to become my benefactor and patron of the arts.  Please click on the link below to learn more about my Kickstarter campaign and The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One.  To Fund My Work, Click Here.

Kickstarter Campaign Launched!

Donny Granger on the road.  Illustration by  Elizabeth Beronich Sheets.  

Please support me in the creation and production of my first full length novel, The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One. Previously, I have published poems, chap books, creative nonfiction, several plays, humor and erotica. I have also put in my time as a columnist, interviewer, and reviewer for a handful of publications. My work has appeared in several dozen publications, including Columbus Monthly, Pillowtalk, and Ubernothing. I need your help to make this next big goal achievable. Please visit the Kickstarter page for this project and donate to the fund that will make writing the book feasible. Your support is greatly appreciated. There are backer rewards to prove it!  Please click on the highighted text that follows to Support The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One! 

The Time Before Time, a Video Poem

The Time Before Time
by Stephanie Mesler


There was a time before I knew you
when I had not learned to love the sound of your voice,
stroked the curve of your back,
or breathed in your scent left on sheets before sunrise.

There was a time I yearned;
for what?  I did not know.
I sang the poet’s losses without cadence or rhyme,
flat like forgotten champagne the week after a New Year’s solo keening.

In the time before I knew you,
I lost myself in days and nights of self-examination,   
face to face with a mirror reflection,
she who deserved to eat her heart.  

The time before I knew you is time left behind,
past life that informs the here and now life.  
We share this journey’s dances, chartreuse samba and fuchsia bop,
barefoot in white sand, gentle wind our silken mantle.

In this time of knowing,
life is benediction.
I sing the poet’s canticle to joy,
meter in verse, orchids in my hair.

I kiss your mouth, adoring your arms,
worshipping at the base of your neck.  
On my knees, I take communion, chalicefuls of blueberry wine.  
I leave none for tomorrow.

Valentine Poems in Second Life Tonight

Please join me in Second Life for a reading of my poem cycle, A Woman's Life and Love, based on the writings of Adelbert Con Chamisso whose Frauenliebe Und Leben was set to music by such notables as Robert Schumann in 184O.  Tonight's event will also include an open mic, so bring your favorite love poem, original or borrowed, to share.  The reading will begin at 6:3O PM US Pacific Time.  

If you are a current member of SL, you may use the following slurl to get yourself to the event.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/UUtopia%20Alcott/137/44/601

If you are new to sl, opening an account is free.  Go to www.secondlife.com and follow instructions.  Email me, Freda Frostbite in Secondlife, for an event invitation.

UUtopia Sermon 2/9/2O12: Creation and Prayer

Following are the readings and sermon I delivered for the First Unitarian Church of Second Life this evening.

** The Word**

An authentic life is the most personal form of worship. Everyday life has become my prayer.
Sarah Ban Breathnach, author Simple Abundance


My longing for truth was a single prayer.

Edith Stein, Carmelite Sister


**The Sermon**



Prayer is not a highly regarded practice amongst UUs.  We are, on the whole, not a praying people, not in the sense that most people think of prayer anyway.  

We are sometimes good at talking about prayer, derisively at least.  Frankly, I think we tend to think we are too smart to pray.  We see it as playing at magic.  

We tend to think that when people pray they are trying to do one or both of two things, to make contact with the magic score-keeper on high and possibly ask her to grant us some favor or other.  

And I gotta tell you, when I was very sick a few years ago and people offered to pray for me, that’s what it seemed like.  

I hated that people were more confident in a possibly imaginary friend in the sky than in the well-respected and world-renowned surgeon who was to fix me.  

It really pissed me off that people thought I needed prayer.  

It pissed me off because if I accepted that prayer might be what could save me, then I would have to accept that I was very damned powerless indeed.  

I am not at all fond of feeling helpless or having others condescend to treat me like I am.  Praying for me back then smacked of hopelessness and condescension.  

My views have mellowed some and I am ready to talk about prayer, what it means to Unitarian Universalists and what it might mean to each of us.  

In researching this sermon, I looked up some UU words on prayer.  Mostly what I found were prayer and meditation services, rituals.  

There were also a few very traditional viewpoints on prayer firmly rooted in Judeo Christian practice.  UU churches grew out of Judeo Christian congregations, so that makes sense.   

I did not find any mention of prayer coming from congregations like the ones I have been part of.  

So, in this sermon, I am talking about the UU congregations that I know personally, including The First Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Second Life.

If you would like to see what I found online, visit http://www.uua.org/searchoursite.shtml?q=prayer

Many years ago, I took a course on prayer from the most Unitarian priest I knew at the time, though I would not then have known to call him a Unitarian.  

He is an Episcopal priest who takes a much broader view of god than many and who once told me he does not entirely understand or believe in the trinity.  

In the class taught by the reverend Cameron Miller, now of Buffalo, NY, prayer was very loosely defined as any sort of conversation with god.  

We defined conversation very broadly.

When Cam Miller spoke of a conversation with god, he was indeed saying that it was a two-way conversation with a listener on one end and a teller on the other.  

Class members understood that the listener and the teller often swap roles..  In other words, we agreed that sometimes we hear god and sometimes god hears us.  

I should say at this point that we also defined god pretty loosely.  

Some people really believed in god as a solo entity with a life of its own.  

Others meant something closer to “higher power,” while others were referring to the collective consciousness of all humanity.  

Some of us saw nature and god as being one and the same.  I think we all saw god as either non-gendered or multi-gendered.  

In the interests of complete transparency I will tell y’all now that I DO believe in god.  I am a theist, in the very broadest possible sense.  

My god is made up of everything and every one, is multicolored, multi-gendered and eternal, at least in the sense that as long as there are living beings, there will be god.  

I believe god is ever active and ever present.  I do not believe god is omniscient or omnipotent, nor do I believe god to be all goodness and light.

In the class, we categorized all prayer into three types:  centering prayer, breath prayer, and intercessory prayer.  

Prayers of intercession are the ones in which god is asked to intercede on the supplicant’s  behalf, to grant favors or healing, to give guidance.  

These are the prayers we UUs are most likely to deride.  They sound like magical thinking to those of us who like to believe we are intellectuals.

Centering prayer is meant to prepare one for the other types of prayer.  It slows us down and helps us empty our minds of extraneous thoughts that might make calm and clear “conversation”  impossible.  

Many churches, including UU churches, use centering prayers at the start of worship to call the community to quiet so that a shared experience can begin.  

Here, the sound of our temple bell and the phrases we call ”opening words” are a centering prayer.  For me, as preacher, the readings before the sermon become my centering prayer.  

Breath prayers were defined as very short, sometimes repetitive prayers that clear the head of all other thought.

Taize prayers and Buddhist mantras fall into this category.  Breath prayers have the affect of slowing the heart beat and focusing our minds.   

Contemplative prayer can be a type of breath prayer, though often contemplation morphs into silence,

the state I have heard monks  at the monastery/abbey of St.  Julian of Norwich in Waukesha Wisconsin describe as a state of openness to god’s voice.  

I would like now to add that I think meditation can be its own form of prayer.  It could fall into the centering and breathing prayer categories.  

But I think it is something more dependent on physical involvement than the others.  

In other words, I think one can do a breathing prayer or a centering prayer without really using one’s  body to make it happen.  

That is not to say that there are not physical results from centering and breathing prayer.  What I mean is that, for meditation to work, we have to really control our bodies as well as our minds.  

In the class on prayer, I think it might have been the first day, Miller asked all of us if we pray and how we pray.  

I responded that, other than listening to the prayers offered in church on Sunday mornings,  I did not.

I explained that I feel silly praying especially since my version of god is not very likely to be sitting by the phone waiting for my calls.  

I also explained that I have a hard time shutting down my brain for the other types of prayer.  My brain is always in motion.  Always.  

After a moment, Miller told me I was wrong.  He insisted that I do pray.  I was equally insistent that I did not.  

Then, he pointed out that I am a musician and an author.  He had heard me sing, watched me rehearse.  

He had read some of my writing.  Miller and I had on a few occasions discussed the writing process.  “When you make music or poetry, when you tell stories, you are praying.”

I thought it over and realized he was right.  In  that moment,  prayer was redefined  in a way that was meaningful to me.   

So I added another type of prayer to the list on that day.  I call it creative prayer, but I certainly did not invent it.   

I think it was St. Francis who said “Those who sing pray twice.”  So the concept has been around at least that long.  

I work full-time now as an author and poet.  When my writing really works, I am hardly involved at all.  It’s like I open a spigot and words flow out.  

I get the privilege of typing them up and then editing them into something resembling art.  

Same with singing.  When I am at my best on stage, I am hardly present at all.  

I am an introvert who burrows in while something bigger than myself struts the boards hitting the high notes.  

I would also say that sex is a kind of creative prayer.  It is an activity in which our minds open to the universe and to our own cores.

By listening to and accepting what we find there, we create something that was not there before.  

I am not talking about baby-making necessarily but about the creation of something that has life of its own type, a relationship between two people and the world around them.  

In the same way that making art changes the world, so does making love.  

I am NOT saying I am not responsible for the work I do, nor am I saying that some magician on high does the work for me.  

Hell no, I work very damned hard at what I do.  But when I am best at it, I leave my head and open myself some.  

I tap into something that I think is intrinsic in all of us, some natural and communal phenomenon, something that is truly and deeply Human, the something that many of us call god;

I allow that something which is not magic at all but wholly and completely Human in its composition, not that it actually has solid composition, come out into the world in the solid form of art.  

Mozart talked about how he rarely composed a thing, that his music was born whole in his head and he was the scribe.  You can see it in the manuscripts he left behind, hardly edited at all.  

The same happened to Jack Kerouac when he created his masterwork, On The Road.

Kerouac wrote the novel in one sitting consuming only coffee, stopping only to use the restroom, the novel being typed on rolls of paper towels fed into the typewriter by his wife who endured throughout the process.  

Mozart would have called that genius.  Others call it divine inspiration.  Joan Haverty, the second of three Mrs. Kerouacs, might have called it obsession.  

I call it willingness.  A willingness to let what is inside out, no matter how much it hurts, further willingness to face it all again in the editing process,

willingness to hear and validate through art  that natural and communal core we all share, whether we name it god or something else.  

Last weekend, I got to thinking hard about prayer in the lives of the people I know and the people who would be hearing this sermon delivered.  

I was thinking specifically about prayer as creative energy, creative process.  

My daughter, another author,  is a self-proclaimed atheist.  I let her get away with such extremism only because she is young.  

In youth, we are all extremists.  She will grow up and moderate her ideas about god and religion.  

My partner is a rocket scientist who has said he is an agnostic.  That’s a very honest and humble approach to theism, in my opinion.  

He also says that he does not pray.  Hmmmm.  I beg to differ.  

I have watched the man work through technical and mathy issues on various projects.  Sure, its science and math.  

It’s also creative process going on.  What happens when he problem solves is more than just dry factual mechanics.  

Some of the most creative people I know do not consider themselves creative types.  They see themselves as technicians only.  

I think they fail to see and recognize a part of their own work process.  No one makes something of nothing, no one.  

I decided to ask some personal friends and some complete strangers to define themselves as creative types, nature-ish/physical  types, or as techies.  

Then I asked them to tell me if they pray and, if the do, how they do.  

There were a lot of very interesting responses.    One of the more fascinating came from someone who said,

“I never do anything that I would characterize as "prayer". Occasional meditation, but nothing directed at anything.”  

I found this response particularly interesting because this friend is someone whose First Life work I think is pretty creative.

He is someone I know in Second Life who is anything but non-creative here.   

In SL he  has definitely made something from nothing.  He is an artist in this virtual world for sure, a techie artist, but an artist nonetheless.  

Another interesting response came from a woman I have known for 15 years.  She is a writer too, also a web techie sort of professional.  

She told me that she prays all the time, that life itself is prayer.  

She hit on something I had been sniffing away at.  I think we ALL pray ALL the time.  

I think we are always in communication with something we cannot define, something that is not separate from us but is wayyyy bigger than we could ever be on our own.  

I believe that even my daughter, the avowed atheist, is praying every minute of every day.  Life itself is a creative process so we are all engaged all the time in creative prayer.  

I imagine some of you disagree.  That’s okay.  One does not need to call it the same thing for it to BE the same thing.  

I am not going to engage in a battle of semantics over how we define prayer.  

For me, prayer really is that continuous conversation with all that is and ever will be, that which I choose to call God or Goddess.  

I am going to ask that all of us gathered here take a few moments to discuss our attitudes toward prayer and people who say they pray.  

I would like us to be honest with ourselves about how we respond when people tell us they are theists and that they pray to god in one form or another.  

So now I turn the floor over to you gathered here tonight.  Please discuss the following question.  How do we, as UUs, see prayer and those who pray?  

**Discussion, if there is to be any**

The Smell of Fury In the Morning

The Smell Of Fury In The Morning
by Stephanie Mesler

If you have a gripe with the size of my ass,
an aversion for Rubens and Big Mama Cass...
If I stoop to offer my nethers at last,
I suggest you don’t gaze on it, just take a pass.

It’s not very likely it’s love I will give.
when I bend to your rudeness, I won’t forgive.
If you breathe what comes forth, you’re unlikely to live.
Your comments and gestures you will misgive.

So before you make that ignorant crack,
a remark so foul you cannot take back,
I suggest that you measure the price for attack
from douche bags like you who lack a real sac.

There are times when a man ought to just look away;
Head for the door without delay!
Best not to find out the price you will pay
for rudeness directed at hips that can sway.  

Boom shuck a lucka and boom shuck a lay!
Shut your fat lip and get out of my way!
I’ll flatten you soon with the scent of the day
If you’ve not the sense to just go away.  

Preaching Thursday

The avatars of those gathered some time ago at a weekly service in UUtopia, Second Life's Unitarian Universalist Region.  Yep, we all wear cartoons when it's Thursday Go To Meeting Time in UUtopia but I promise there are real people driving those cartoons and I guarantee the words, music, and community are real.



I will be preaching Thursday the 9th of February in  UUtopia, Second Life's Unitarian Universalist region.  My avatar's name is Freda Frostbite but her words are all mine and I take responsibility for them in both worlds.  As with all UU congregations, we welcome everyone to attend services in SL.  We would love to welcome you into our virtual family and into our very real circle of friends.

If you would like to attend tomorrow night's service and already have a Second Life account, please IM Freda Frostbite to be given a landmark so that you can find the service.  OR you could use the following Slurl to take yourself to the Worship Center in UUtopia.   http://slurl.com/secondlife/UUtopia/69/77/26

If you are new to SL, it's free to join.  You can go to https://secondlife.com/  to create an SL account.  Then, if you would like help learning the ropes so that you can attend the service in UUtopia, leave me a comment on this blog and we will figure out a time when I can meet you inworld.

My topic for tomorrow night's service is prayer.  The service will start at 6:3O PM Pacific Time.  Preservice music will begin just after 6 PM Pacific.

Monday Haiku Throw-Down!

I spent much of today writing and editing a sermon to be delivered Thursday online at The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life.  Now I am ready to play.  I'll go first!

Chocolate pie and
hot brewed Earl Gray are perfect
companions in bliss.


Now, post yours below and I will respond.

Doing Extremely Unscientific Research on Prayer Habits

I am working finally on this week's sermon.  Please take a moment to answer one or all of these questions in the comments below or by sending email to stephaniemesler@gmail.com

 For all my friends who make art-- by art, i mean visual arts, dance, music, literature, drama, all of the fine arts -- do you pray and, if you pray, HOW do you pray?


Now the same question for my outdoorsy or athletic pals-- do you pray and, if you pray, HOW do you pray?


And now my scientist and techie buds-- do you pray and, if you pray, HOW do you pray?


And, please if I have missed the broad classification that could define who and what you are, please tell me your classification and answer the question --  do you pray and, if you pray, HOW do you pray?


Thanks all!

A Novel-In-Progress, Putting it Together

That is the den wall after I spent an hour or so organizing my notes on the novel-in-progress, The Ballads of Donny Granger, Book One.  Yesterday I wrote more than 3500 words which amounted to a coupe of long chapters.  At the end of that time, I realized I needed to get my thoughts for the outline of the novel organized and displayed in some way that will help keep me on task.   This method lets me put each significant event in the story on its own card. then I can put them in whatever order I want them, moving as the story line develops and I see what works. In the case of this novel, there are specific places I want my hero to go on his journey and specific adventures I want him to have. I know where he will start and end but what happens when is in flux. I actually used post it notes for note cards and they are on the wall where I can move them around easily. I also printed out maps f the places my characters will be and put them on the wall too. it helps me visualize everything. As I know what specific characters and settings look like drawings or photos of them go up too. 


I will soon be launching the Kickstarter campaign for this project.  Watch this site for information about that and please consider contributing.  

Literary Open Mic In Second Life Tonight!

Just a reminder that tonight is our monthly Literary Sharing Circle in UUtopia. Please come to share or to listen. Original works and favorite works welcome. Read whatever you would like to share with those gathered. If you are uncomfortable reading but have something you would like shared, I will be happy to read your selection for you. Limit 3 poems per round or 7 minutes of prose, fiction or non. The event will end after 60 minutes total, so get on the list early! We will gather in Mask's Bridge Cafe over Uutopia at 6:3O PM SLT on Wednesday the 1st.

For those who do not know, UUtopia is Second Life's Unitarian Universalist region and SLT is the same as US pacific time.  If you have an SL avatar and would like to join us, please do.  If you are a stranger to SL but would like to give it a go, IM me and I would be happy to help you get started.