Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rose & Juno. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Rose, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I taught literature, creative writing, and theatre arts in public high schools for over a decade, and overall, I relished it. Although I’d always written poetry, stories, and metaphysical texts as a hobby, writing was just my personal, spiritual practice–like breathing or loving–and part of a life worth living. Writing occupied much of my free time but was not my occupation. Teaching teens to discover the joy of reading the classics and honing their distinctive voices as writers and performers was deeply satisfying.

Or at least it was, until the day I received that fateful call from my school administrator informing me that the Arts and all English electives would be cut from the program, with teachers now mandated to teach entirely to standardized testing given at the end of each year.

I was in shock.

It took me a few weeks and much soul-searching to decide, but I resigned my teaching position and began writing full-time, eventually interning and working in publishing to better learn the industry. The choice was difficult, but now my books and decks touch a far wider audience than I ever could have reached in my classroom.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Known professionally as Rose & Juno, I write the edge between eerie and enlightening.

Philosophically, I see that all we mortals are fools…fools of infinite possibility…stories still being told…myths made flesh.

I write for people honest enough to admit their foolishness (and not take themselves too seriously), a resource for those willing to question themselves, their suppositions, and their assumptions today…to forge a better tomorrow. For those who are not yet what they could be.

Two roads into the woods of truth diverged to create novelist Rose Guildenstern and cartomancer Juno Lucina. Why Rose Guildenstern? Why Juno Lucina? Why fiction AND cartomancy? And why not choose one pen name?

Well, people prefer different ways to truth…

For truth through fiction, Rose writes novels: Disturbing novels. Insidious novels. Novels that bump around in your head and soul into the middle of the night, making you doubt everything but wish to live life more fully.

My debut, “Iago’s Penumbra: A Metaphysical Novel,” was published in May of 2023 by the REDFeather MBS imprint of Schiffer Books. Rooted in the works of William Shakespeare, Iago’s Penumbra is a metaphysical novel about love and the darkness that redeems us — a retelling of chilling lies to scare us so that we, at last, perchance stop lying to ourselves. It’s a metaphysical primer in story form. Available in print, audiobook, and eBook formats wherever books are sold.

For truth through cartomancy, Juno is known for two award-winning tarot decks “The Healing Tarot: 78 Ways to Wellness” and “The Kingdom Within Tarot” along with a comprehensive tarot book “The Alchemy of Tarot: Practical Enlightenment through the Astrology, Qabalah, and Archetypes of Tarot,” all published by Schiffer. I’m most thrilled to share with you Juno’s newest project, “Frame This Oracle: A Tool to Deepen Your Card Readings and Reframe Your Perspective,” soon be released on October 28, 2024, by REDFeather/Schiffer.

It’s a spiritual companion and pocket philosopher, unlike anything else, but what I suspect we’ve all been searching for in the marketplace and to make sense of the world today.

Whether you prefer to find your truth in stories or in the cards, pick the persona you prefer. Let’s craft lives worth living…together.

And beware: the things I write might just change your world.

Forever.

www.roseandjuno.com

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of putting yourself out there as a creative is the dreaded negative review. When I received my first negative review as a published author, I was devastated. Where did I go wrong? How could the reviewer have missed the core of my work so completely? What should I change about my craft…my message…myself to fix the problem? Should I even be a writer?

Fortunately, I meditate. During my daily practice the next morning, I decided to do a Metta meditation: first for myself as an imperfect writer, then for the negative reviewer, and finally for all the readers in present and future time who might read my work and dislike it.

Metta meditation is a practice in loving kindness, wherein you focus on yourself or another person, repeating positive phrases that express kind intentions and cultivate emotions like compassion and appreciation. This morning, I prepared the following phrases to repeat as I concentrated on each of my chosen subjects:

•May you be well.
•May you be happy.
•May you be free from suffering.
•May you find what you need to grow in your own distinctive journey.

…and the revelations during this meditation knocked my metaphysical mindset into an entirely different framework, not only with regards to my own resilience as an author but perhaps even more importantly how to benefit from the dreaded bad review.

Today, I welcome negative reviews. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the positive ones, but I’m grateful for each and every critique that my work receives. How and why, you ask? Because this is what dawned on me during that pivotal morning meditation:

•Reviews reveal more about the person writing the review than they do about the author or the work itself.

•Positive reviews teach us who our intended audience is and offer us the opportunity to consider what we might want to keep doing the next time we create. (NOT what we did “right.”)

•Negative reviews reveal who is NOT our intended audience and offer us the chance to mull over what we might want to change next time we create. (NOT what we did “wrong.”)

•When you read a negative review of your work, ask yourself: Do you really want this person reading and reviewing your work? Probably not. So, now you know one less person (or type of person) who is not your intended audience.

•Remember the old marketing adage: when we try to reach everyone, we reach no one. Instead of viewing reviews as reflecting your work (whether positive or negative), view them as reflections of your prospective audience. Your people. The better you know the information revealed in all your reviews, the better you’ll be able to reach even more of your people.

•Focus on agreement and opinion trends across reviews rather than individual likes and dislikes. Consider the feelings that your reviewers express in response to your work and decide if that is, in fact, the feelings you want your work to invoke.

•As you hone your ideal (dare I say niche?) audience, ask yourself: How you want your people to feel when they visit your website, social media, etc. Encouraged? Hopeful? Entertained? Thoughtful? Disturbed? (Hint: should be like what you want them to feel when they explore what you create.)

And the more you discover your people, your audience, your community, the more resilient you–and by extension what you create–will become!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When I was young, I had so many ideas. I created so many drawings. I wrote so many pages. I danced so many dances. I improvised so many original scenes and songs. I immersed myself in the pure love of every creative act, convinced imagination flew from my fingertips and marveling at everything in this wide, wacky, wonderful world.

Eventually, I settled on a few (as opposed to all) preferred art forms and drilled in deep to learn them. I went to school, studied diligently with different teachers and techniques. I haunted libraries, lost count of all the books I read, recorded all my wanderings, and imitated all I loved in the hopes of honing my craft.

I listened to and emulated “the experts” assiduously. Reverently. Quite seriously. I sold my creations. These creations won awards, but as more and more was achieved, less and less was gained with each successive triumph.

And, after years and years of work and practice and success, I began to lose my prior passion. Where once I felt inspiration, now it all felt trite. Where once I perceived brilliance, now only shown the simple. Where once I dreamed of possibilities, now I nightmared monstrous monotony.

And in losing the wonder, I started to lose what I called my very “self.”

At last, desperate and empty, I retreated (or perhaps “returned” is the better re-word) to the wonder of my youth. I shed the rules, the boundaries, the opinions, and the community. I stopped writing books and returned to, word by word, simply drawing the sunrise. Praying at high noon. Writing the sunset. Dancing at moonrise. Singing the midnight.

I went to the woods not to find life, but to lose it. And I, at last, remembered myself in my solitude.

The greatest resource for creation—when all feels lost, or stale, or busy, or stuck—is solitude.
It is only when we stop avoiding the Void that the (re)Source can create through us…again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.roseandjuno.com
• Instagram: @rose.and.juno
• Facebook: @RoseandJuno
• Youtube: @RoseandJuno
• Other: https://linktr.ee/rosieguildie