Aries 19° (April 8)

Today is a waste. S. and lawyer get on Zoom and say they only have half an hour. And then they say they want to eviscerate the agreement. It is an ambush we walk right into. 

Though I haven’t written a book for print publication since 2010 with Cosmic Coupling, my brand has continued to expand in the ensuing years. For instance, that book was recently optioned by CM Productions (“Peaky Blinders”, “Nurse Jackie”) and is currently being developed into a television show, while I am “living IP” and a writer-consultant on the project. Taking out the two pins: As an arts project, Starsky + Cox introduced a limited fine-jewelry collection called AsterCast, which was carried by designer boutiques and touted in the press by Vogue, InStyle, The New York Times, New York Magazine and other major publications. AsterCast has recently received investment and is soon to be relaunched in collaboration with British jewelry designer Alice Cicolini. For the last fifteen years, I have written and performed scores of live, solo and duo, astrologically themed musical-comedy shows, staged at prominent venues like  Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Dixon Place, Ars Nova and The Zipper Factory in New York City, the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, and The Art House, Provincetown, where I now make my home. It is here that I founded the non-profit Afterglow Festival and an off-shoot series at A.R.T. both of which ran for a decade, producing shows by over sixty performers including John Cameron Mitchell, Taylor Mac, John Kelly, Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Cole Escola, Joey Arias, Penny Arcade, John Kelly, Erin Markey, Tori Scott and Desiree Burch. All the while I also yearly published twelve weekly horoscope ebooks by zodiac sign under the title(s) Haute Astrology, and I have continued to contribute to, and be covered by, major magazines and newspapers. I’ve also earned degrees from the London Faculty of Astrological Study, where I first received my diploma as a humanistic astrologer many moons ago. Mainly, as my bread-and-butter career over the years, I have been conducting my astrological consultancy in private practice with clients, which is what ultimately inspired me to write this new book.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 18° (April 7)

Today was productive if not a bit weird. I can’t really recall much of it.

There are many names on the above list who are also private clients of mine—for reasons of confidentiality, I can’t reveal exactly who. What I can say is that: J.K. Rowling aka Robert Galbraith thanks me in the acknowledgments of Troubled Blood for helping with the astrology bits in her book, as does Eleanor Catton, in her Man Booker Prize-winning novel, The Luminaries, for inspiring her characters, which she drew from the chapter profiles in Sextrology. Needless to say, there are many opportunities for notable endorsements for Nextrology; while, as mentioned, my work has also been praised by other top astrologers, and I would certainly solicit their seals of approval as well. And speaking of mutual admiration societies, I have created content for Kylie Minogue in her record releases. For years we collaborated with Marc Jacobs, doing events together at his stores in various cities, most notably for a full two weeks at his Bleecker Street shop. As we did at many aforementioned book launches, we offered what we called our “Cosmic Clinics” providing quick-and-dirty, on-the-spot astrological readings to guests and customers—we then performed this service as a form of entertainment for private and charity events alike, teaming with top event planners like, most often, Bryan Rafanelli. This is something I continue to do and will offer in promoting Nextrology. I have also collaborated with and/or created content for MAC cosmetics, W Hotels, Chandelier Creative, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia, Sephora, Coco de Mer, Neiman Marcus, J. Cricket, Marlo Marketing, LaForce & Stevens, Swissquote Bank, Tim-Scapes, and many other creative companies. In my experience, cross promotions translate to book sales.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 17° (April 6)

I spend the morning doing yet another surgical edit of the lawyer documents. Then I race to the dentist which is fifty minutes away. Living where I do sometimes feels like living in Montana or something—one gets used to traveling long distance for even mundane reasons. I stumbled upon a post by someone I loved about a high-school sweetheart that was located in another state. It’s so weird to me that a person in their late 50s would post something about a love affair that happened when they were sixteen. As if it was a road not taken. It’s fucked up. And to put it on social media? Good lord, lady what are you thinking. Between that and all the posts of ones own face are we not expected to think of you as a narcissist? I don’t know how we wouldn’t. Imagine if I posted something about me and some girl I knew in high school in such a weird fashion. OMG. Anyway, back to reality. I am pretty much sticking to the mushroom barley soup I made and will eat it at both meals. I will take a gummie for the first time in days—my doctor actually says gummies are not good for your heart! That it’s actually better to smoke the weed, which isn’t great for your lungs. The best deal apparently is the vaping thing. I rather not do any of it at all. Well I did go to the dentist and get a pretty good teeth cleaning. I wonder if anyone has ever done a scientific study on the percentage of dental hygenists who pathologically require a captive audience at whom to babble about their lives (e.g. the fact they “run hot” and can’t sleep with covers on, their six-year old’s obsession with feet, their love of Mexican food, their insistence that Las Vegas and Disney World are tied for the “best place on earth”, their fondness for certain tequilas, how they can’t afford a battery powered light on their head and how they have to cope with getting snagged by the less-expensive electric cord apparatus, and how their rolly chair doesn’t roll right) every sentence followed by nervous laughter, not to mention a pause from actually doing the teeth cleaning one has signed on for (and on and on) albeit fairly inaudibly due to the whirring water spray of “ultra-sonic” cleaning device, and even extra so given they are still wearing a muffling face mask. “Do you want to close your mouth? Your jaw seems to be shaking.” Um yeah I’ve been in this open-mouthed position for 30 minutes and you’ve only cleaned a quarter of my mouth!!!! Anyway managed to get back in time to work for another solid hour with the lawyer—I spent three on my own in the morning. I can tell you right now: I have done all I’m going to do.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 16° (April 5)

Working with Mike for hours and hours, trying to get this thing into some kind of shape. I’ve decided to have Greg for dinner on a whim. Well, we know I’m lonely. I’ll make my miso-molasses salmon with ginger and scallion, wasabi mashed potatoes and bok choy. I’ll grab as much from the boutique fishmonger but I will have to go to the supermarket as well. I see these wanton wrappers in the produce fridge. I flip it over and there is a recipe for crab rangoons. I will make them. I’ve bit off more than I can chew starting so late. I have to cook and shower and clean the house and I’m making crab rangoons? What is wrong. Anyway looking forward to hanging out as he is a good friend and we have a lot in common. I need to make some much needed changes and frankly I’m on it. Greg brings vermouth and olives and a fool for dessert. I suddenly realize I have a lot of food in the house. I did quite enjoy the martini I must say. I have a weird spasm in my tongue this past week and I think I’m going to stroke out. But not really. What I think it means is that I am severely run down. And I don’t want to be. I want to figure out my life. That thing that happened someone smashing into my car. I feel somehow it is a sign. Like I was identifying so much with the new car—the first car I’ve ever bought for myself—but that would suggest that I expect a slap in the face for even the slightest sign of happiness from the universe. And I know that can’t be the case. Not really. I also do understand the limitations of what might transpire on the platonic front—and that episode with that awful man G.F. over the weekend was something of an eye open. You see there is this seventy- (or eighty-?) something man from NYC who spends time in Provincetown. He used to be an admitted criminal, now he is a decades-long “sober” person. In truth he is a twelve-year-old girl lodged in a wizened body. He is a fop and a sycophant and he hangs around the fringes of the artistic community, specifically among the fellow AA crowd; and he went on the attack against me nearly a decade ago when I had a falling out with a close friend. Like many close friends I’ve had over the years, this fellow was/is a malignant narcissist who doesn’t really like anybody, not even his inner circle (because he doesn’t like himself), but because of his status in the design/art world he has millions of follows, foremost among the gay mafia that make up the hordes traveling from Manhattan and other cities to Provincetown, either as second residents or as annual holiday makers. Those who know this crowd know the magnitude of its sprawling population. The point is that not only did our friendship necessarily cut, despite my trying to make cool it, and keep it, in a less intense form, which my then friend took as an insult, like a monarch would a knave, but he poisoned that giant pool of mafioso against me, which means many poisonous rumors in the form of his damaging opinions of me. One such piece of evidence of such treatment would be this elderly criminal dandy, G.F. taking the liberty to post on social media that, in effect, the throngs of those we know in common have all taken to blocking me on social media (which isn’t true because my numbers remain the same) because I have a “personality disorder.” Mind you I have met this person maybe twice in my entire life. Then he private-messages me with probing questions about my sexual life and identity. Shocking. Well, you can guess who blocked whom. In a time of cancel culture, in a place like Provincetown, which is a junior high school in geographic and architectural form, it’s main drag likened to locker-lined halls, the alienation, snooty and snippy, is palpably, unambiguously, demonstrably real. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 15° (April 4)

The upstairs neighbor is here and now I feel kind of grateful that I’m leaving and will be in a free-standing cottage. Morning meeting with team A-S. I want things to remain simple and not get overly thought out and unduly delayed any more than they already are. It is quite bizarre to be engaged with openly and friendly and such by someone who otherwise isn’t speaking to you. I’m pretty garlicked out from last night and really can’t bring myself to mange much. I end up eating the leftover Caesar just to keep the garlic alive in my life. Later in the day I’ll make barley and put the soup fixings together minus the actual stock. Mainly I am just trying to get caught up sipping red wine. It will be a very productive day in all, plowing through all that needs plowing through. All this said I know that I am in a deep, spiral of depressingness. I could cry all day so trying to stay busy. It’s very tough I feel so, so alone. I didn’t cultivate much in the way of friendship outside of the coupledom you see. I’m not much hearing back even from the usual suspects. I don’t know what to say about it all. The upstairs neighbor has a very heavy foot.

Over the years, I have guested on countless podcasts and terrestrial and satellite radio shows, both here and abroad, on SiriusXM in particular, as well as on other television programs, mainly on MTV and VHI. Kelly Ripa has twice featured my books on “Live!” once most vividly in a lively exchange with Anderson Cooper whose mother Gloria Vanderbilt was a vocal fan.  Becoming that “word-of-mouth phenomenon” was no accident, despite my perhaps making it look easy. My books launched at Barneys New York (with Sextrology-themed windows designed by Simon Doonan, who also endorsed the book on its back cover), Fred Segal in Los Angeles, MAP in San Francisco, Louis Boston, Colette in Paris, Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh and Dublin, Selfridges and The Cross in London, Septième Étage in Geneva, Vestibule in Zurich, fashionable venues where we could attract notable friends and fans including NO NAMES who wrote a song, Goodbye Pisces, inspired by Sextrology,crediting this fact in her own book, Piece by Piece. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 14° (April 3)

Brunch at Sonsie. Fig and prosciutto pizza. A fairly relaxing ride home, eating more pizza on the way. I will end up watching all my recorded shows and then taking myself for mussels and Caesar. The strangest thing happens. This woman at the bar is pretty heavily flirting with me. She tells me how handsome I am. She is also in divorce mode. She is probably tipsy. I’m sipping Malbec. She talks about needing Botox and reveals she’s 56. She tells me her name and it is the same name and spelling as you know who. Then she kisses me on the mouth. It was absolutely bizarre.  I do need to start focusing on income, but for now I’m pretty good. Going to be a tough transition leaving here in less than a month. 

It continues to be my marketing strategy to position myself, now as a solo act, in the same aspirational manner, building on the press and promotional opportunities that have long cast me in this light. I see myself as that Daily Beast columnist, wholly more NPR than zoo radio, like some (my friend) Ari Shapiro of astrology, smiley but ever so slightly superior. This is my niche, narrow but fathomless. I have proven, as have the healthy backlist sales of my books, that if you shoot high with astrology, the trickle down is endless and you never run out of steam. The subject has always been a target for skeptics, of course, and it’s all too easy to be poked fun at and pooh-poohed in my position—it is, in fact, inevitable,, and I’ve had to develop a healthy sense of humor about myself, not to mention real comedy chops—pin in that, too. Back in the day, I was a regular featured guest on Chelsea Handler’s show, “Chelsey Lately”, and being sharp as a tack with her own dark and superior personality, it was a pretty perfect match. Both our brands are decidedly high/low—besides, she called me “a funny little nugget.” With Nextrology, I will be conscious of raising the status of the subject all the more, and I’ll be seeking out similarly sophisticated show hosts. For years, I’ve said my goal is to be on “Real Time” with Bill Maher, who is the biggest skeptic of subject matter like mine. Still to be able to debate the viability of astrology with someone like him, hell-bent on debunking it, would provide a fun and funny challenge and opportunity.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 13° (April 2)

A little breakfast bagel from Pavement and then lazy day. I ate leftover Tiki Masala. Spoke with Joel from Symphony about spaces today. It is really cold out still and I don’t feel that motivated so I’m just going to go downstairs again to eat. I’m still being given the silent treatment and I am looking forward to seeing Harrison’s friendly face again. I will just let him order for me. 

Not only were publications writing about us, they also wanted columns and features from Starsky + Cox. Under the auspice of the brand I have contributed to scores of, mainly Condé Nast, publications worldwide, as well as to Elle, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan. I created regular horoscope columns for Allure, Vogue (France), Bolero (Switzerland), Star, Image (Ireland), Glamour (Germany) Style.com, and, most notably (and, you might say, ironically) The Daily Beast. It was always part of my marketing strategy to have a presence in print in countries where we had sold foreign rights to our books, in particular, and to make a splash with live appearances and staged events, often with stylish brand-partners, exclusively at top designer shops in major American, UK and European cities, which would appeal to the fashionisti and some famous faces on our guestlists whose attendance would prove to be PR gold.

As you peruse the press quotes I’ve provided, you’ll notice the jet-setting “fashion insiders” angle of course. Then there is the frank, forthright “sexpertise” hook associated with the books and brand—sex does sell. Still, at the core of the brand, and what comes through in the press praise, is that my work is serious metaphysical business; yes, it can be fun, but it is never frivolous. And what really sets my astrological writing apart is the fact that I combine the cosmic with the chic, and the comical, and the erotic, and even with literary and social criticism, linguistics and pop culture. This is what makes the work inimitable. Just as the brand itself is aspirational, the authorship residing in a rarified world inhabited by some proverbial in-crowd, the books launched at lofty designer shops and swank hotels, so too does the style and content of the writing dangle itself aloft, daring readers to digest some intricate ideas, despite any  sugarcoating on my part, inspiring them to new heights (and depths) of understanding the subject of astrology as a means of better understanding themselves and those around them. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 12° (April 1)

Panicky ride to Boston. I’m so not used to this. Stopped for gas and breakfast in Orleans. I need to log even small expenses these days. The doctor visit was mixed and then had a little lunch at Cornish Pasty which is so delicious. Tiki Masala! Picked up some room supplies at Eatery. Meeting professor from B.U. and Emerson, picking brains on theater/venue space. I feel almost incapable of doing this kind of work which is maybe why I should push myself to do it. I will get email address for Gene so I can send him and Ken my thoughts. It is all doable. I just have to get back to the doing. A bite at Uni costs a fortune but I haven’t been on any kind of vacation for so long. Still no word from the chefs I suggested should come for dinner. 

My experience living and working in publishing and fashion and television and theater as well as public relations and branding, in New York City in my twenties and thirties, seasonally haunting London, Paris and Milans, all contributed to the extraordinary success of Sextrology. Both the style and the content of the book were consciously designed and created to reflect the gritty-glamorous world in which we lived and thrived. Though the pen names were originally put in place for purposes of anonymity, now they would become larger-than-life avatars fashioned to pack a PR and promotional punch in the press and broadcast media, as well as with public appearances, events and, ultimately, live performance. My social circle was made up of many stylists who could dress us in designer wear; writers and editors poised to publish stories on us, PR people to stage events and public appearances and arrange cross promotions with hotels and luxe products. We were not your grandmother’s astrologers—Vogue tagged the brand “brilliant and sexy”—and though I am now of a certain age, I still do my best to act and look the part and remain on brand.

The thing is, it was a carefully crafted marketing strategy to position the brand as such: “The duo behind Sextrology, a wildly popular astrology tome whose straightforward attitude has been embraced by the chic set” (Vogue), and “the favored astrologers of fashion insiders” (Elle), “Starsky + Cox’s popularity with the hipperati has made them household names” (Marie Claire). And the strategy worked—we became “a word-of-mouth phenomenon” (Time) who scored a “marketing triumph” (Vanity Fair), all under our own steam. A slew of press ensued, and I herein provide a smattering of “praise,” (below) from myriad publications including all the Vogue(s), Time, O, Us, InStyle, Marie Claire, GQ, Elle, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Observer, The Times of London, (the front page of) The Daily Telegraph, (the cover of) The Scotsman magazine and The New York Times “T” magazine—in this case, actress Robin Wright was pictured wearing pieces from our own AsterCast fine-jewelry collection, which is currently being relaunched—pin in that.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 11° (March 31)

Very early morning client. And then Tim will come over for coffee, which is nice. He always makes me feel happy. Then I will pack for the weekend. Tires. I go into town for test and pizza on opening day. Some good news. I return to car and find it smashed. This is not my week. Poodle lefties for lunch. I will have mussels and Caesar for dinner

In short order, the column caught the eye of a wunderkind publisher with his own imprint: Rob Weisbach with whom we were already friends, was singing the praises of the Teen People horoscope to us one day, gobsmacked when we revealed that we are Starsky + Cox. Knowing me as an experienced writer and editor in my own right, he promptly offered us a deal for a twenty-four chapter, his-and-her formatted book for a decidedly adult market wherein we could explore the sexuality of the signs along with all other aspects of personality. Thus, the concept of Sextrology was born, and as it gradually took form, we were conscious of the fact that it would break the mold of what an astrology book, and its authors, for that matter, could be.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Aries 10° (March 30)

Going to try to get over the pizzalalpolooza by having some brown rice and avocado and green beans and chick peas today and try to find some normalization in all this. Some proposal thoughts:

As my partner worked in fashion, traveling regularly to Paris and Milan, I focused on runway reporting and field producing episodes in those cities for “Fashion Television” and “Ooh, La La” (both produced by City Television, Toronto). As a celebrity writer, I mainly interviewed and penned features on UK and European actors, directors, designers and artists—Jean Reno, Helen Bonham Carter, Peter Greenaway, to name but a few.

I mention all of the above because it sets the scene for my success as an astrology writer. For fun, my partner and I would offer astrological readings to friends—editors, stylists, designers, models, journalists et al—traveling the same modish circuit. After long days in the fashion trenches we would read friends’ charts for free or complimentary coupes de champagne. Word got out and we were soon approached by industry folks we didn’t know, traveling on expenses, one in particular who was named top editor of a new magazine called Teen People and offered us a monthly column. It was meant to be the first teen magazine for both boys and girls; and we already theorized that males and females of the same sign were really different characters, so we decided on a “His and Her Horoscope” of twenty-four blocks of text, satisfying Teen People’s mandate as well as our own. 

Enter the shared his-and-her byline, Starsky + Cox, as I certainly didn’t want my editors at “serious publications” to know I was moonlighting as a teen magazine’s in-house astrologer. Being the seasoned writer in our duo, I necessarily penned the column and, subsequently the many columns and features for myriad other publications that would follow. The new teen glossy and our column were a huge hit, and not just with youngsters. At the time, Ellen DeGeneres joked that God’s waiting room had just two magazines, Teen People and Guns and Ammo, pretty much summing up the whole of the population. Adults, and those we now call influencers, were secretly reading the magazine’s horoscope, just as I was secretly writing it. 

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2022 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.