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.

Aries 9° (March 29)

Desperate for haircut. Also have to go to the storage space to get a clearer vision of what’s what. That last bit won’t happen. I visit Brad and the bank and try to get my dent pulled to no avail. Mushroom-onion pizza from Red Barn. I will be so full it’s beyond. I bolt back in time to speak to S. which goes really badly. I cannot win and I have to realize that this cutting off communication is going to continue happening. It just comes at such a bad time as I prepare to go to Boston this week. These bouts of embargo are really wearing on me hard and they plunge me into deep darkness and despair. 

I was born William Leone in Jersey City, which I now think lends me street cred, and I grew up in the suburb of Wyckoff, NJ. I graduated from Boston University with a double BA in French and English, with a Certificat des Langues et Lettres from L’Université de Grenoble, France, where I spent my junior year and first met my longtime partner with whom I shared a serious interest in astrology. I moved to Paris to join the staff of Passion magazine, then to New York City, where I worked as an assistant editor at Avenue, co-editor of DV8, and managing editor of The New York Social Calendarmagazines, collectively working with many top and up-and-coming journalists of the time. 

Simultaneously, I studied acting with Uta Hagen and was a member of both the Renegade Theater Company in Hoboken and Synchronicity Space in SoHo. I acted in a string of plays, including two on Broadway with the National Actors Theater, one in which I had no lines and one where I had a single one. I also appeared briefly in Ang Lee’s first film, Pushing Hands. Going where the love and, at least, some money was, I focused back on writing for publications, although it would ironically be my career as an astrologer which would see a repeated return to the stage and far fewer appearances on the small screen.

 Meanwhile, I contributed mainly fashion, entertainment and celebrity features to such newspapers as The New York Times (“Styles” section), The New York Observer, The Boston Globe (Arts section) the South China Morning Post, and magazines like InStyle, YM, Cosmopolitan, Paper, Stop, Detour, as contributing editor, and, ultimately, as executive editor at Wallpaper* in London where I spent the early aughts.

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 8° (March 28)

Will try to see if I can get dent out of car, otherwise I’ll call some body shops and arrange for tomorrow. I will let bookkeeper know I have more stuff and questions. Paying car insurance and credit cards. (I know this is boring stuff but these small survival things are best written down and this is good a place as any. Besides you’re not reading this.)

In effect, for the first time in my career as a humanistic astrologer, it is my intention to bottle and provide the many readers of my work, worldwide, some semblance of the care and guidance I have been able to impart to my clients in private consultation. Before we further explore the structure and content of Nextrology, let me offer some backstory, in biography form, opening onto what continues to constitute a successful press, promotion and marketing strategy and platform, with which I have uniquely positioned my brand status and appeal to date, as well as projects I currently have in the pipeline and plans I have for growing my audience as a solo author at this milestone moment in the creative development of my chosen craft and career.

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 7° (March 27)

Didn’t sleep much but happy that I’m just getting in bed early and hoping for it to happen. Very productive day of shopping, cleaning, cooking, chores. I noticed a dent in the new car. It might have happened in the supermarket parking lot. These things send me into an obsessive tail spin, but whatever. I am continuing on with the lawyer stuff. Finished watching House of Gucci, what a bunch of crap. Stopped in for a few small things at East End Market today too and spoke to Fran. The tradition of comedians hosting the Oscars, where they poke fun at these so-called “mini-gods” is the part of the antidote to the “vapid adoration”. The problem lies in a celebrities like the Smiths not being able to roll with it. Now, yes, some people knew of Pinkett-Smith’s condition, especially women who are more likely to have seen The View or other platforms where she has held forth about it, but I seriously doubt that Rock had any idea. He is someone who laughs at himself and his own shortcomings as a hallmark of his comedic craft. He is not the pompous ass that Smith is. He saw a woman in a bright khaki green rucked gown with a shaved head—the joke was visibly there. Jesters were set before the court with impunity to verbally cut their rulers to the quick. That is what comedians are paid to do at celebrity roasts and at the Oscars. That is their role. If Jada’s look was one of choice and not related to her medical condition, which isn’t in any way physically harmful to her well-being (though it may be emotionally or psychologically), there would be no issue. I trust Rock knew nothing of it. And even so, even so, Will Smith has no right to assault another human being in private or before millions of viewers. He could have waited and released a statement to the press, or rather Jada, who can stand up for herself, could have done so. And then Rock could have explained and likewise issued an apology for being ignorant of her situation, therefore insensitive and contrite. Instead they conducted themselves, well Will did, as someone above the law. So I say “mini-gods” status and “vapid adoration” begins at home.

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 6° (March 26)

Finally dug into the new agreement and had a phoner with S which was great, pinpointing exactly what needs to be done and when.

Working, once again, along binary lines, Nextrology is comprised of twenty-four chapters, one for each of so-called sex signs—Aries Man, Aries Woman, Taurus Man, Taurus Woman…and so on. As I’ve often been asked since the writing of Sextrology: how do I account for trans people and gender fluidity? The simple answer is that trans men are men and trans women are women, so it’s up the individual of a certain sign to decide with which “sex sign” they identify. And if a person is gender fluid, I recommend reading both the man and woman chapters of their sign—to be honest, I recommend everyone read both chapters of their sign in any case as gender is fluid for all of us to some degree, and there may be elements of self that ring true in the chapter pertaining to one’s so-called opposite sex sign. Which brings us to the larger question: how to read this book? 

In the case of Sextrology, readers of course beeline to their own chapter because, let’s face it, there is an inherent narcissism to popular astrology wherein one can indulge their desire for self-discovery and revelation, not least so on the subject of one’s own sexuality. Secondly, Sextrology has voyeuristic appeal, inviting deep dives into the psyches of partners, would-be love interests and even friends, who might read bits from the book aloud to one another, say as fodder for cheeky dinner-party fun. Similarly, albeit more thoughtfully, the reader of Nextrology will read and re-read their chapter first, making real or mental notes of the prescriptive matter, especially, practicing any exercises and performing any experiments suggested in the text. Likewise, Nextrology then becomes a reference manual of sorts for sorting out other people in your life born under whichever sign, whether, too, just for giggles over dessert and digestifs or, taken more seriously, as a go-to guide for helping loved ones, as well as yourself, gain insight, from my original astrological perspective, into core strengths, motivations and senses of purpose requiring bolstering, as well as limiting thoughts, habits and recurring patterns needing perishing.

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 5° (March 25)

The day will end with a wee bite at Fanizzi. Mussels, mashed and Caesar sans croutons. Tried chatting with D+N but they are in Delhi and the WhatsApp wasn’t really working. Have a client in the late afternoon who is based in London so it will be evening her time. 

Funny that the zodiac has never dropped out of human consciousness. Even though astrology, which was bound together with astronomy and remained a serious subject of study dating from the founding of the first medieval universities through to the Enlightenment, was at that point discredited as “non-scientific”, still the zodiac found a new way, if a novelty one, to remain a feature in popular culture, continuing to draw our interest, beckoning us to decode its true purpose and potential meaning in our lives. You might say that, as a “living” mandala for existence, the zodiac, like some other fabled “ring of power” has a will of its own, wanting to be be found where it has remained for millennia, right under our noses.

Of course, there have always been small circles of esotericists, to coin a term, who explored the more arcane reasons for the zodiac’s persistent presence and purpose in our lives, but never in modern times has the zodiac been employed as a practicable mainstream system for self-improvement or personal fulfillment, but for one exception: Friends, clients and audience members have heard me joke for some years, now, that: The zodiac, with its twelve signs and astrological houses, is in fact “the original twelve-step program”. But, in all seriousness, I encourage you to compare AA’s twelve steps with that of the energies and attributes of each of the corresponding twelve signs and the myriad aspects of their astrological houses, I think you’ll discover their similarities to be in no way specious or mere coincidence, specific notions of  “higher power” notwithstanding. One suspects the architects of AA borrowed rather directly from the zodiacal system and based its program in large part upon 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.