Pamela Jaye Smith & MYTHWORKS |
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In This Issue:
What Kind of Love is That?!
Are You a Chimera?
How's It Going?
Articles/Books/Etc.
Coming Soon
Events
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Alpha Babe Academy
MYTHWORKS - Applied Mythology
Mythic Challenges - Create Stories that Change the World
Create Now - Empowering Youth through Arts Education & Mentoring
Center for Conscious Creativity - Creating a better future through Arts and Media
Entertainment Industries Council - Encouraging the Art of Making a Difference
BIRTH2WORK
RAISING FAMILIES
When Parents Lead, Children Succeed
Thriver Sisterhood - Helping Women Sexually Abused as Children Thrive through Drama Therapy
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FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION
Find out how Applied Mythology can work for you, your projects, your organization.
Free 20 minute consultation. Just mention this newsletter when you email to set up an appointment!
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What Kind of Love is That?! |
Love of Death & Destruction
Love of Land & Country
Love of Community & Civil Society
These days they are front-and-center in the headlines and in so many people’s first-hand experience.
Here are some perspectives on these three kinds of Love.
LOVE OF DEATH & DESTRUCTION
Life is precariously fragile yet also stubbornly persistent. People have survived rebar rods into their brains and signposts completely through the chest. Yet swallow the wrong way or slip on a pickle at the burger joint and it’s all over.
Our fascination with death and destruction may in part be our fascination with existence itself. The drive to know how things work, the desire to change things to our will, and the desire to control things can lead to willful acts of death and destruction.
Shiva is the Hindu god of destruction and transformation. Kali is the goddess of doomsday and death.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb” said about it, quoting from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one… I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”.
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A person’s attitude towards death depends greatly upon their belief about life after death. This belief affects their actions, from suicide bombing to gain entry into Paradise, to sacrificing themselves in moments of great danger so that others may live. Saints and martyrs willingly embrace death as proof and defense of their faith and in the “sure and certain hope of resurrection”.
And sometimes it is an expression of personal rage, confusion, and madness, perhaps sociopathy or psychopathy.
An exemplar is Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.
Unfortunately these days there are way too many examples of this type of Love in action, be it genocide, unjustifiable invasions and wars, and mass shootings.
There’s another mythic character that embodies what we see all too often.
WETIKO (Windigo) – “In its Native American meaning, Wetiko is an evil cannibalistic spirit that can take over people's minds, leading to selfishness, insatiable greed, and consumption as an end in itself, destructively turning our intrinsic creative genius against our own humanity.”
Similar concepts reside in the Japanese Amanojaku (consumption spirit). Recently the volcanic stone supposed to have imprisoned Amanojaku split – perhaps releasing the malevolent spirit some say.
What can we do about this?
As we’ve seen through the ages, stronger doses of Love of Land & Country and Love of Civil Society can go a long way towards countering and transmuting the Love of Death & Destruction.
Related Chakras - Root and Sacral
To read more about this, here’s our article at ScriptMag.
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LOVE OF LAND & COUNTRY
We have a specific, direct connection to the land because it is what we are made of, literally. The land is in our bones and in our teeth, as DNA evidence shows, as well as in our hearts and minds.
Ecologically speaking, the developed world seems to have lost touch with this basic Love of the Land. Too many, often with profit agendas, are refusing to admit that there may be troubles in paradise. Many apocalyptic stories are set against a damaged environment, for very good reason as the actual devastation continues.
Most cultures look back with yearning to some Golden Age when they were living in a better place and everything was better, from the weather to the crops to the neighbors (or the lack thereof). This idealization of the actual physical earth as the source of all that was well before and which could be well again engages some driven and sometimes desperate part of the human psyche that imagines and desires perfection. It can be the dark side of this type of Love.
Ecology and the environment motivate many people. “Tree-huggers”, deep ecologists, and land rights organizations stand up to rampant and often destructive development and these days they are getting more traction on the world stage and in the world courts. Then there’s the youth movement as exemplified in Greta Thunberg.
Naturalists are people who not only love nature but love to be out in it, as do Stephen Maturin in the Master and Commander series, Grizzly Adams, and Jeremiah Johnson. The Australian Aborigines have a phenomenally close connection with the land, explored in both The Last Wave and Australia.
Ukraine. Yeah, well, just watch the news.
Some film examples of this Love of Land & Country are Lawrence of Arabia, Out of Africa, the Mad Max film series and the humans in Battlestar Galactica searching for their homeland -- Earth.
And let us not forget to always keep in mind and try to help remedy how we can the Climate Catastrophe, too.
Related Chakras - Lower & Aspirational Solar Plexus
To read more about this type of Love, here’s our article at ScriptMag.
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LOVE OF COMMUNITY & CIVIL SOCIETY
Civil society is a self-imposed structure held together by those individuals dedicated to its vision, which is to improve the living conditions and quality of life of the community.
Stories about communal activities were among the very first stories ever told; early cave art shows humans hunting in groups. The art was typically in places where groups of humans gathered to hear stories, and the flickering fires created the first animation art. See Werner Herzog’s illustrative documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams”.
In effective stories centered around the Love of Community we can see a very real danger that can tear apart or destroy the fabric of that Civil Society. In High Noon the town gives up its responsibility to support the sheriff, who is defending their town from the bad guys. The same thing happens with the League of Shadows in Batman’s Gotham. In the comedy In and Out, prejudice against gays threatens the otherwise close-knit and generally accepting community.
In these stories the quality of life in the community can often entail the protagonists fighting against profit-driven corporations and special interest groups such as big oil, big agriculture, big pharma, the weapons industry, etc.
Civil society is “We the People” in action.
The human species is by nature gregarious, though there are always hermits, misanthropes, sociopaths, and downright psychopaths. But for the most part people like to congregate and share their experiences of living and loving, suffering and hope.
Though it does not apply to loners, love of acceptance by the group is a powerful driver for most people, as exemplified in clubs, cliques, tribes, and gangs.
Isolationism does not support survival.
Out on the vast Great Plains of the American Midwest, most people wave greetings when meeting each other on the often empty highways, even if it’s just a raised finger (no, not that one; that’s for the freeways). A person never knows when they’ll break down out on that lonely road and need someone’s help. Unfortunately, this comradery seems to have gone away in many parts of America and the world.
Because the yearning for the lost Golden Age is universal, you find stories about the perfect community in mythologies all around the world.
In addition to Camelot, the British Isles also gave us the lost lands of Avalon and Lyonesse, sunk beneath the seas to the west. Hawaiians have a similar legend, as do the Hopi and the Aztecs. In the Bible the Promised Land is called the land of milk and honey. The Australian Aborigines’ Dreamtime is paradisiacal as are the origin myths of the African Bantu. The impressive ruins of Great Zimbabwe in southeast Africa are still not fully understood. Mohenjo-Doro in western India was the first planned city, with sewers and toilets with seats.
Other examples include Athens – the city-state that founded democracy and thrived for many hundreds of years. Tenochtitlan – the Aztec city-state, was also highly developed with aqueducts, steam baths, and astronomical observatories whose calculations remained unrivaled until the early 20th century. Singapore – their civil society was planned and enforced and has created a very prosperous city-state with a high quality of life. The Spanish town of Marinaleda is a thriving example of a civil society based on socialist principles.
However, that desire to ‘return to the past’ can also become regressive and toxic.
War typically results in the devolution of civil society, particularly for the losers. Too many times those dedicated to destroying civil society use rape, kidnapping, and beheadings to break down family and community structures.
Climate change carries with it the same potential for destruction, with mass migrations away from droughts, floods, extreme cold, heat waves, super-storms... they’re all happening now and all affect both local and extended systems of civil societies.
Civil society in action doesn’t have to be a democracy like America. It can be social democracies as in some European countries, it can be village groups, clans, tribes, neighborhoods in big cities, rural communities, etc.
It’s about individuals accepting personal responsibility and engaging with the group to bring about the greater good for the greater number.
Related Chakras - Aspirational Solar Plexus, Throat and Ajna.
To read more about this type of Love, here’s our article at ScriptMag.
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MYTH TIPS
What individuals or groups from current times, history, media or myth can you cite who have been driven or inspired by one of these Loves:
Death & Destruction
Love of Land & Country
Love of Community & Civil Society
For the first you might name Voldemort, Darth, and their ilk. And unfortunately too many actual real-life examples. What's the trigger into this mode? Look up the Zimbardo Experiments for some insights. And think how they apply today.
For the second -- Some cultures have a cooperative approach to land. Others privatize. When do the rights of individual 'owners' infringe on the rights of the commons? Who gets to decide?
And the third -- When does nationalism slide over into dangerous tribalism? Can you see it coming? Can it be deflected? Look into the processes of Failed States.
For more on these types of Love, see our book SHOW ME THE LOVE! - All Kinds of Love for All Kinds of Stories.
http://pamelajayesmith.net/products/books/show-me-the-love/
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Chimeras are creatures composed of disparate parts of other creatures.
Some you can find in ancient art such as the lion-eagle-human figures in ancient Assyria, or the half-human/half horse centaurs of Greek mythology, winged humanoids found in myths around the world, and mermaids found in the lore of many cultures.
Given current explorations into the DNA of many different creatures, science has shown that a significant number of contemporary humans carry the genes of Neanderthals. And that our supposed ‘racial’ differences are not really that, given the inter-mixtures and the superficiality of the concept of ‘race’.
We are all hybrids of some sort.
What’s that mean to you? Well, certainly it could spur a more connected point-of-view to our place in the whole of humanity.
And Life on all levels.
It could also inspire your exploration into the classic ArchePaths of the Warrior, Magician, Scientist, Clergy, and Lover.
Often we are on one Path more than the others, but most of us will shift among them at various times.
A current example is Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As an entertainer he was on the Magician Path of creativity and the arts. As President of Ukraine he stepped onto the Warrior Path. And in the last few months has been a valiant example of the Warrior/Regent resisting the Russian invasion, inspiring thousands more to do the same.
When we more consciously know about the aspects of the various ArchePaths we can use them more effectively in our own lives.
To learn more, visit our ArchePaths page. And you can even do a one-on-one consultation with your own Personal Mythologist.
We also offer a download of a seminar on the “ArchePaths for Art”.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Constellations – many of which are chimeras.
All Good Fortune to you as you explore your own ArchePaths!
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BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS
“A body at rest tends to stay at rest.
A body in motion tends to stay in motion.”
Isaac Newton’s 1st Law of Motion
Can’t move forward?
Everyone’s got a great idea but we often don’t know how to get started. Having a mythic framework can really help.
Or maybe you’ve reached a point where you don’t know what to do next with the plot. A fresh pair of eyes plus time-proven mythic structure can offer choices aligned with your vision and goals – and that can help you advance your project.
Want to develop out that great idea you've either come up with during Covid or have had for a long time now?
Our Brainstorming Session can help you solidify your inspiration and sort all those great ideas into workable form.
“Suffice it to say, if you’re on a quest to bring your work to the next level and then get it out to the world in the most appealing (buyable) way, make sure Pamela Jaye Smith is on your brainstorming team from the beginning!” Reece Michaelson
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PITCHPROXY for Your Project
Got a story almost ready to pitch?
Besides recent requests from a couple of well-known production companies for the proposal and scripts, we've recently submitted the Pilot Script to two companies for our TV series proposal "Operation Magic Fire", a limited series inspired by Norse myths, set in Afghanistan.
“This is fantastic, Pamela Jaye, and just the kind of guidance and insight I so need. You got this concept instantly, and I have a perfect path forward. I am excited to start putting the ideas to work. This all has been fun, and anything from here is gravy.” RC Long
We can craft Pitch Materials for your projects, too. Plus give you guidance on Target Acquisition and Pitch Coaching. Or do it for you if you like.
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LINKS TO SERVICES
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Here are some people and organizations who seem to be making progress for the betterment of all.
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“A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then our feet are always in the water.”
Fisher Ames [1758-1808]
Speech in the U.S. House of Representatives (1795)
THE BOTTOM-UP REVOLUTION: Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity – Rob Kall, founder OpEdNews.com
STEM – She Can Stem
Ethical Markets – Hazel Henderson
LOST SCIENCE – Indigenous Science with Neil deGrasse Tyson & Dr. Jessica Hernandez
DECOLONIZING WEALTH – indigenous wisdom to heal divides and restore balance
THE LAUNDROMAT – movie
Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas star in this humourous and revelatory movie that uncovers and explains how money gets laundered, hidden, and hidden again and again. It’s based on a book about the Panama Papers expose, by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. While the facts are maddening, the presentation is way-smart and wacky-clever.
What groups do you see making positive changes for people and the planet?
How can you better spread the word about them?
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Governments – Structures that will last as long as the under-taxed can defend themselves against the over-taxed.
Bernard Berenson - from THE CYNIC'S DICTIONARY
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“Art is a moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.”
- Emma Thompson from The Sense & Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries
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THE ILIAD
Sing, Goddess, of how
brooding Achilles' mood swings
caused him to act out.
Haiku from “Haiku U. – From Aristotle to Zola, 100 Great Books in 17 Syllables” by David M. Bader
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PATHETIC FALLACY – What is that? Well, lots of definitions come to mind these days. Most quite pithy, not all kind.
It is however a concept in the Epistemology and Logic arena of philosophy. Basically it’s anthropomorphism: attributing human feelings and qualities to nonhuman animals or objects.
E.g. “The school building was ecstatic to see the children returning again.”
Do check out the very amusing examples of this and other over-writing at the annual Bulwer Lytton Awards, where “www” means “wretched writers welcome”.
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Articles, Books, Podcasts, Etc. |
The Royal Society Open Library
The independent scientific academy of the UK (the oldest one in continuous existence) is dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity. An excellent source of authoritative information on anything science.
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“MAGICAL SEX – Create and sustain amazing sex in four simple steps”
This new book is from award-winning authors Judith Claire & Frank Wiegers – both are counselors and coaches with years of successful practice and interesting backgrounds in a number of diverse fields.
It offers an engaging combination of professional observation, anatomy, neuroscience, and personal experience – all made accessible and understandable. Stir in their uplifting and encouraging attitude and you’ve got the perfect recipe for Magical Sex.
For thousands of years some of the information in Magical Sex used to be top secret, available only to initiates of the ancient sacred systems while most humans muddled through with insufficient or incorrect and often repressive dictates about sex, meant to keep them ignorant and controlled. Thank goodness Judith Claire & Frank Wiegers have now made it available to all who seek the enlightened and joyful experience of aware, thoughtful, considerate, aspirational, creative and yes, ‘Magical’ union with another.
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Kat Kronenberg’s children’s books are wondrous explorations into the minds and hearts of various animals who want to be more than they are – and who encourage us to do the same.
Her trilogy of enticingly illustrated books is DREAM BIG, LOVE BIG, THINK BIG.
I have all three and am personally inspired by the positive message they bring to all.
Get the books for children in your life, and read them to enrich your own life.
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Stressed out? Who isn't....
To find reliable relief from the stress, anxiety, and overwhelm that seem to be plaguing us all these days, check out Aurora J. Miller's neurophysiology hacks at Instagram.com/aurorajmiller and on her website https://aurorajmiller.com/
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Dog-lovers listen up –
“TERRIERS IN THE JUNGLE” – a new book from Georja Umano
This unusual ‘memoir’ offers adventure, love, exploration, fun, danger, bravery, and special insights from two dogs’ points of view as they travel with their human mom and grandpa from California to Africa to help save elephants and inspire other humans.
Whether marveling at their ability to communicate with other species (including some people) or pondering the big questions of life and immortality, terriers Romeo and Roxie take us up close and personal on their engaging journey of discovery.
Pick up this book and go along with them for a sometimes wild, always charming, and ultimately heart-warming ride. Along the way you too may be inspired to “Be more elephant!”
There is even an Addendum listing various individuals and organizations doing conservation work for animals and our world.
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Past MYTHWORKS newsletters available here –
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MUSIC – Royalty Free
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https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mentor-youth-now-a-guidebook-for-transforming-young-lives-jill-gurr/1107746863 |
Jill Gurr was a stellar Mentor. Her CREATE NOW arts programs for at-risk youth has touched over 50,000 young people.
Many professional creative artists have served as Mentors over the 25 years since Jill founded the organization.
Unfortunately Jill passed away unexpectedly, but her legacy lives on.
If you're interested in volunteering for Create Now, they have many events and opportunities to do so.
https://createnow.org/
If you want to do one-on-one mentoring on your own, her book MENTOR YOUTH NOW is a great guide-book.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mentor-youth-now-a-guidebook-for-transforming-young-lives-jill-gurr/1107746863
Giving back is not only rewarding for those involved, it helps keep Creativity flowing and growing, and we all can benefit from that.
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ART FOR ALL
MUSIC – Royalty Free
IMAGES from Paris museums -- 100,000 images online for unrestricted public use!!!
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A treasure trove of books, movies, songs, and cartoons.
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Our Mythic Challenges consultations offer Mythic Themes, Archetypes, and Symbols to help you 'Create Stories that Change the World'.
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Email to schedule a FREE 20 minute discussion on how we can assist your message goals.
Story services include Brain Storming, Consultations, Coaching, Book Planning, Editing, and Writer-for-Hire.
Mythic Tools work for any style, any genre, and any platform, from printed book to Virtual Reality.
!!! MAKE GREAT MYTHS !!!
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The KURULTAI Series
Pamela Jaye Smith
"We are all just dreamers, looking
for the right place to wake up."
History repeats itself so that everyone has the chance to be and do everything.
A group of souls intertwine lives through time and space in varying roles and relationships. Lovers now, warriors another time, parents now, siblings then, who kills whom, where is betrayal, where loyalty?
And always the battle between the Darkness and the Light. How can you tell who's on which side when the players in the KURULTAI keep changing between lifetimes?
As these individuals reincarnate together again and again in diverse times and places, sometimes they can access their other past or future lives, but sometimes not. The mission of the KURULTAI is to help humanity evolve and save the world.
But first they must wake up and realize that. Then they must find the means to overcome the Darkness...and those among them who serve it.
Available soon from Pallas Press.
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Speaking of designer plagues and botched delivery systems -
Read for Free –
THE OOPSIE MEMOS
Kaye G. Gregory
Men are from way, way beyond Mars.
Women are from the place that decides who gets sent where.
Toxic Masculinity…
Testosterone Poisoning…
The Culture of Rape…
Sometimes it seems like some people are of a totally different species from the rest.
How did it come to this? Theories abound.
The Oopsie Memos explain how it really happened.
One is a high-ranking diplomat, the other a much-decorated military commander. These two old girlfriends, both proud and headstrong, formerly very close but now estranged by time, distance and differences of opinion are forced together to resolve an extremely dangerous situation: the wrong men in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Pay the Piper, Dancer, and Other Stories |
by - Pamela Jaye Smith, Geffrey von Gerlach, and Kaye G. Gregory
Two of the pieces placed in the semi- and quarter-finals of the ScreenCraft Short Story contest.
Hope you enjoy them!
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Coming Events
To book Pamela Jaye for events or workshops, contact us.
Keynote, Seminars & Workshops
Online Classes, Coaching, Retreats
Private Courses available with extensive feedback and one-on-one conversations via email, Zoom or phone.
Regular asynchronous group classes include feedback on exercises.
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Los Angeles Film School
Contributor -- Program Advisor Committee
LA Film School’s Digital Filmmaking Program
The LA Film School offers a wide-ranging comprehensive program that includes both creativity and craft for new filmmakers who’ll engage with global media creators and consumers.
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Asynchronous courses - do it on your own time and schedule. Written Lessons posted Mon-Wed-Fri. Post your Exercises any time on the Lesson comments page if you like. Instructor responds to posted Exercises Thu & Sat.
SAVVY AUTHORS offers lots of varied courses from quite good instructors. Do visit their website and see.
-- ALPHA BABES --
May 30 – June 26, 2022
Learn how to create characters who embody Wisdom, Courage and Compassion, whatever their gender identity or expression.
Who are they? Why are they important?
How can you create stronger, more dynamic characters with this information?
How can you use it for yourself?
$30-40 for the entire course
12 lessons over 4 weeks - includes Instructor feedback
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My blogs for Savvy Authors --
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It’s Back!!!
LA Web Fest
November 10-12, 2022
Los Angeles, CA
Founded by the amazing Michael Ajakwe, the LA Web Fest was the original and inspired dozens more WebFests over the years around the world.
PJS, Michael Ajakwe, Young Man Kang
With Michael’s passing the Fest was down, but is now back, headed by Young Man Kang.
If you’ve a web series to enter – please do. If you enjoy web series – please do come watch them with us. Plus panels and presentations.
It’s always a fabulous and impressive collection of creativity from around the world in many different styles and genres. Always enjoyable, always fun.
Hope to see you there in November.
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JAIPUR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The prestigious Jaipur Int. Film Festival draws entrants from around the world. For ten years I’ve been honoured to be one of the judges for the screenplays and films and they continue to attract quality creative works. I look forward to seeing the films from this year’s group of scripts.
Do consider entering your script and/or film for next year's Festival.
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Even if your story takes place in a remote village or on another planet or dimension, you can touch upon global issues and universal archetypes that readers in many other places can relate to - while still keeping your story unique to you.
So get your Story a Passport and give it wings to travel round the world! Our Brainstorming Sessions can help you do just that.
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PITCHING YOUR PROJECTS
There are lots of on-line PitchFests going on all the time, plus many listing services like Virtual PitchFest, InkTip, ISA, Stage32, Greenlight My Movie, and more.
We can help you get your story ready to pitch, be it a Story Consultation, writing the Pitch Materials for you depending on your project -- [Logline, Pitch, Synopsis, Market Appeal, Series Bible, Pitch Deck], selecting the target companies most appropriate for your project, or Pitch Coaching by Zoom or in person.
Email us for more details.
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ONGOING
Story consultations and coaching for all media and genres - from initial brain-storming to private classes to detailed feedback and suggestions.
Personal Myth Consultations -- Who are you? Who and what do you want to be? What's your ArchePath? What myth are you currently living? Understand your Personal Myth and empower your life.
Email for a Free 20 minute consultation on how we might work together to enhance your creativity and accomplishments.
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Give us a call and use the Free 20 Minute Consultation to discuss how we might help you craft your own creative projects using Mythic Themes, Archetypes, and Symbols.
Mythic Tools work in any genre, any style, and any platform from novels to features to web series or XR, from fiction to non-fiction to message media.
Pamela Jaye & the MYTHWORKS Team
323-874-6447
email
MYTHWORKS
Mythic Challenges
Alpha Babe Academy
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