3 QQ is an ongoing blog feature in which we ask authors who are joining Nora for an upcoming Turn the Page Bookstore signing some questions about their current release, upcoming books and anything else that strikes our fancy.
This Saturday, October 26, from noon – 2 pm, Turn the Page will be lit up with love and magic. Nora is signing Dark Witch, the first book in her brand new Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy. And she’ll be surrounded by magickal writers, including Tess Whitehurst, a feng shui expert and writer whose message is we are completely empowered to heal ourselves and others, to live bravely, and to experience the life of our dreams.
1. What was the evolution of your latest book, Magical Fashionista?
I had been practicing feng shui professionally for years, and writing books about it. And I see feng shui as interacting with your environment consciously in order to create positive change in every area of your life – as seeing even the most mundane housekeeping act as a way to experience joy and present moment awareness. But then one day it came to my attention that when it came to my wardrobe and self care practices, I wasn’t exactly interacting with them consciously in order to create positive change in my life. In fact, I was sort of dismissing them as unimportant – as simply one more thing on the to-do list. I had been working with the idea of healing my relationship to my body and sexuality, and when I read about the way that many survivors of childhood sexual abuse (of which I am one) disconnect with their bodies and feel uncomfortable simply being in their own skin, I realized that’s how I had been feeling, so I decided to change that. What I realized was that something as simple as washing oneself with love, or dressing oneself in fabrics and colors that feel good against the skin, can have a profound impact on everything we experience and an how we process the world around us. When we take the time to recognize ourselves as beautiful and treat ourselves like gold, magic happens. This is where the idea for the book originated, and as I wrote it, I had a great time interweaving the ideas of conscious fashion and self care with the principles of feng shui, astrology, psychology, and more.
2. You have two blogs — Magical Housekeeping and Magical Fashionista — which at first may seem to like two different streams of energy, but they aren’t. How are they similar and how are they different?
Magical Housekeeping focuses a bit more on the home environment, while Magical Fashionista focuses more on the hygiene and personal style side of things. And, there’s a lot of crossover in the concepts, because, as Kahil Gibran wrote in The Prophet, “Your house is your larger body.” My favorite thing to write and teach about is the point of power between the seen and unseen worlds – in other words, the way that we can lovingly interact with the everyday things in our physical world (like nature, our home, or our wardrobe) in order to create positive change in our spiritual and emotional world. Which, of course, in turn affects the physical world again – because everything is connected. And that’s what I call working magic.
3. Your other 2013 release is The Magic of Flowers. After the bounty of spring and summer, what are your favorite fall blooms?
Ahh, chrysanthemums and marigolds! I love fall blooms because they are all about bolstering our energy, shining light into the darkness, and illuminating our hearts even as the days get shorter and colder. Sort of like the holidays. Plus, I just love fall – it’s the best
Bonus Q — What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
Mmm, Allison’s Gourmet Artisan Vegan Caramels.
Even if you can’t make it to the signing, you can take advantage of Turn the Page’s Virtual Signing feature by ordering a book and having your favorite author personalize it for you before the event is finished.
And where else can you find Tess besides the blogs? Well she’s on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.