HOW DID SHE know I was feeling frustrated and cranky about the way things are unfolding? How does that woman do it, month after month, year after year guiding us through her exquisite celestial navigation? Don’t know who I’m talking about? Have you read your July TSP horoscope?

Mine is right on target. I am itching for a fight. You can read it here, if you like, or better yet, read your own.

So what to do? Well, thank goodness I saw this piece in The New York Times about women and exercise, and I’m taking her advice and ramping up my own output, lest I punch someone in the nose. I particularly like what the writer says about punching someone – or not – and how exercise can be the bridge to the not, and will now do as the Times prescribes.

What about you? What’s in your stars for this hot month, and what do you plan to do about it?

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THE MIDDLE ROAD. Not a place I know well, am prone to explore, or even feel comfortable navigating. That’s not the sister I am. Never have been. And yet, that’s what I’ve just been told to do. What to do?

The advice this month from the TSP astrologer and pal, Sheilaa, is that I hove to the middle place. I’m not sure I even know how. An Aries and a redhead, I am all about extremes, even when being so exhausts and depletes me. Though as I age, I am also all about taking the wise counsel that is offered by the sisterhood. So I’ll try. Though I’m taking suggestions as to how one does this.

Yes I am.

And I had to look no further than TSP sister Paige, for some great reading tips on how another redhead and Aries is attempting to find the better, gentler, calmer place to live.

Thanks, sister.

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MAKING A LIST. That’s my duty, according to Sheilaa, everyone’s favorite astrologer. And it’s advice I’m comfortable with, since I love making lists. What does Sheilaa have in store for you? Are you brave enough to look?

In her April, 2011 predictions, Sheilaa reminds us that we are in another Mercury Retrograde. During the last one I lost my kitchen. Totally. To water damage, right down to the studs and bare floor, and it was the grace of sisterhood that got me through the project.

Now Sheilaa suggests for me a prioritized list, and I’m good with that, since if you know me at all, you know how I love my lists. In fact, I have an entire category here on my blog devoted to them.

Check it out. And check out what the stars have in store for you.

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I’M IN FOR some necessary change. And you know what? Good for me. I’ve been feeling a little stuffed up recently, and not just in my nose with the ongoing winter in the northeast, but in my life. And necessary change is just what is called for, or so says Sheilaa, our TSP astrologer, whose predictions are always spot on. Have you read what she has to say about you?

I’m an Aries. No surprise, with my red hair and fiery nature. Did you know I write about red hair here? And that fiery nature? Well, I’m a memoirist, and maybe this piece is the very best place to read up on just how hot it can get around here and whose job it is to cool me down.

Sheilaa tells me that my wildest dreams will come true, but only if I do the work. Such a  great challenge. Speaking only of my professional life and my wildest dreams, as well as my efforts to achieve those dreams, all this will be given a real outing this year as my book on writing memoir comes out this June, published by Grand Central. And between now and then (and for a good long time after that) you can find me and that book on Twitter (mroachsmith@twitter.com), on Facebook (The Memoir Project), teaching at The Chautauqua Institute as well as at The Arts Center of the Capital Region, and launching a new how-to-write memoir website.

Follow along by watching this space, sisters.

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SISTER SHEILAA SAYS that I am to take some time out this month and “visit a zoo, botanical garden or butterfly reserve.” How convenient, since guess who will be speaking at just such a venue in February?

Margaret, that’s who. That would be big-sister Margaret, whose new book is out this month, and who will be making many speaking engagements, including one at the Berkshire Botanical on Saturday, February 19^th. I am so glad that this is my February prediction, since it serves as a great reminder to me to get my tickets to the events, as well as a reminder of just how spot-on Sheilaa is each month in her predictions here on TSP.

Want to come along and do the sisterly thing and listen in? You can. Make your reservations now and join us as we celebrate the new book, Margaret, and the promise of spring.

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FOR SOME PEOPLE it’s Wheaties that get them going. For the sisters of TSP, it’s Sheilaa, our sage and guide, our sister in all things astrological. This woman can get you going every day by telling you where to go in the very best way. Don’t know Sheilaa? You simply must meet her.

This year, Sheilaa’s predictions tell me that I must “take a stand and commit to building or manifesting a long held dream or idea.” I’m ready. She goes on to assure (warn?) me that, “the unexplainable twists and turns of good fortune will accompany and assist you when you least expect it.” I’m good with that, and with her admonition that I “be willing to relinquish outmoded beliefs and ideas.”

All of this fits with my plan to publish my next book. More on that later, except to say that you can pre-order it here.

If you have not read Sheilaa’s predictions for the new year, it’s not too late. Resolve to do so today, and every month, here at TSP.

We’re all benefit from the wisdom of our sisters, sister.

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WHEN SHEILAA SAYS there is a once-in-lifetime major transformational shift in my life, I listen. I do. And why not? Sheilaa knows. Don’t know Sheilaa? That would be Sheilaa Hite, the TSP astrologer, who writes this month that I need to get out in front of an unstoppable force and do something. Do what, exactly? Well, I’ve got a few ideas.

I remember the first time I read an astrology column. On vacation with my family in Mexico City, I was thirteen, and reading the local English-language newspaper, and spied the column.

“What’s this?” I asked my parents, both newspaper people.

Raised on The New York Times, I was not familiar with such journalistic endeavors. No one in my household read astrology columns, and certainly not in our daily newspaper of record. Both my parents made disparaging remarks about such items which, of course, served only to solidify my astrology column addiction then and there. I love them. I admit it. And while I do not plot my life by their advice, I do find in them a singular, heightened delight that I get nowhere else.

For instance, I love the archetypes of humanity that are called to mind while reading these columns, and have frequently defaulted to using astrology books when trying to fill out a character in my memoir writing. And while I’ve written about this before, it always bears repeating, since memoir writing is so DIY, and everyone should be glad to get all the help we can get.

So, since I am cooking up some new book ideas right now, I am doing the requisite research. And research at this stage of writing is a funny thing, looking – at least to this writer – like long walks in Manhattan (last week, while in NYC, hosting live radio), long walks back at home with my dog, days spent poring over photos at The New York State Archives, flipping through the pile of books set aside last year in anticipation of needing just this kind of inspiration, and, of course, reading widely, including things like astrology columns.

What are you writing?

Try starting your day with Sheilaa, and what she has to say about your life.

It might jumpstart something for you.

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SIBLINGS–TWO PEAS IN A POD, RIGHT? Often the differences are like night and day, and the similarities can be so exact that it’s hard to tell where one ends and one begins. As the first article in a series on synastry, the branch of astrology focused on relationships and compatibility, TSP astrologer Sheilaa Hite compared our charts…just in time for Marion’s birthday today. You can read the whole story here.

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THE FOUR FOUNDING sisters of TSP lunched right before New Year’s to talk of this and that and, of course, of our new astrological sister, Sheilaa Hite. Paige cooked, which made everything perfect, that is, until Margaret looked up from her soup to ask, “What sign are you?” and Paige and I—both redheads—just stared at her. I mean, c’mon, it’s obvious. Isn’t it?

It’s just the eensiest bit possible that all Aries think that everyone who has ever met us has carefully listened to—and memorized—every single little thing about us, but certainly we expect this of a sister.

Mind you, I couldn’t come up with Margaret’s astrological sign if you paid me in crocodile sling backs, but being the younger sister, as well as an Aries, I’m not responsible for knowing it, right? I mean, let’s do keep to our types, sisters, even in this new year of change.

This idea of type is crucial to those of us writing about family. While you know your sister almost too well to write about her objectively, we know her not at all; identifiable types will bridge that gap of understanding. For readers to understand what she wants, as well as what she needs, we must witness her both going through events and reacting to those events in certain identifiable ways.

But here’s the catch: most of her motivation and background should remain unsaid. It’s her reactions we’re after. Much like my earlier post on characterization, we want to watch what she does, not see what she looks like. What did my sister send me in the ice storm? What did I do when she Christmas-re-gifted me her Blackberry?

When dealing with my sister, I zip right back into my ram suit and butt my stubborn head against all her opposition.

Some would argue that these Roach-sister responses were true to our astrological types, and whether or not you believe in astrology, trust me when I tell you that to writers, archetypal behavior is a gift in helping develop our characters. And we’re giving it to you here at TSP, via Sheilaa Hite’s new column, regularly.

Me, I leap away from Aries type when writing, taking all the help that is offered. When dealing with my sister, I zip right back into my ram suit and butt my stubborn head against all her opposition.

You? See if reading Sheilaa’s predictions for 2009 for both you and your sisterhood help you illustrate a “She Said, She Said” dynamic in your life. Start now, get it down on paper, and you could make the deadline for a radio essay or newspaper op-ed for that high emotional red-letter day honoring St. Valentine.

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