Julia speaks to my heart. I hear my own common sense talking. Her occasional burst of song and giggle frees me from being too serious. Each week gave me a reason not to be "blocked". I have always known it is my own doing to avoid creating. Imagine..not fighting with my spouse and instead going into my "art room" and creating. Thank you Julia.

Three years ago, I received 'The Artist's Way' along with companion book 'The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal' as Christmas gifts. A car accident had turned my life topsy-turvy. These books were meant to pass the time in between physical therapy sessions, but they did so much more than that.

Today, along with the above two books, I purchased 'The Vein of Gold' and read it about 9 months ago. I recommend all three books highly. First, get 'The Artist's Way' (doesn't someone owe you a gift, a favor, a random act of kindness even???) and while any plain notebook can be used for morning pages, I believe you should splurge and buy the companion book. You could have done that yesterday, but lucky for you there is still today. Don't wait for tomorrow. Time is your most valuable commodity. Really.

Jenna Fisher (Pam from "The Office")recommended this book on her myspace.com blog and I sent it to a friend of mine who writes plays. Some of the ideas seem a little out there, but hey, whatever works!

The practical advice in this book could help a person through an initial stage of getting out of the rut of low self-esteem, and the exercises Cameron gives are strictly structured, but fun. While it's unlikely that the book will be able to help a person to become an artist, it can certainly help a person to become more enthusiastic about life and, possibly, to find more of a sense of purpose and zest in life. Yes, this book could help a person to 'jump start' their dead battery.

So why do I give this two stars and a 'caution'? Here it is: over and over again, the author suggests that, when we follow a 'true' creative path, 'helping hands' tend to suddenly appear to guide us and 'synchronicity' tends to arrive on the scene to bring us serendipitous opportunities we never dreamed of or didn't expect. Well ... sorry folks, but life isn't always like that. Good, focused artistic people with a sense of purpose and drive can get crushed by illness, accidents, or lack of funding or support. Brutal and mean people without any spark of positive creative energy about them can make enormous strides and step on anyone in their way. I expect we have all, sadly, observed this in our lives -- we've all seen it happen. Sometimes, we have great luck in our lives, and sometimes we do not ... Sure, it's great when we are lucky, but I don't think it's wise to promote an idea that following this author's programme will increase the likelihood of good luck coming our way so that our lives will suddenly take off out of nowhere in a flurry of unexpected success and happiness. This is pretty naive -- and it's dangerous. By all means, we should live with joy and courage, and trust our creative intuition, but this needs to be grounded in reality and an understanding and acceptance of life in all its harshness and gentleness - the complete package, for all it is worth.

Another disturbing point: this book puts forward a kind of 'you shall know them by their fruits' attitude -- in other words, if someone is poor and unsuccessful, it is because they are just not being honest with themselves, not believing in themselves, or not having the guts to follow their star. The book suggests that if these unsuccessful people were being truly creative and following their true path, they would be receiving (sometimes out of nowhere, unexpectedly and mysteriously) all the help they need to reach their goal. This is nonsense. Compassion begins when we realise just how random life can be, how precious, and how ephemeral. Maybe knowing this is the beginning of a true artist's way.

I tell all my clients to buy this book. Julia Cameron designed it to be a workbook that is followed individually, but I did this book with a group of 8 other women. Ten years later, four of us still meet on Wednesday nights to empower our future artistic creations. Two years ago I had a photography show with one of the other women. I do not think this would have come about without the wisdom of the morning pages and the artist date.