A lot of people in LA have shrinks. Some people have more than one shrink. Some dogs here have shrinks and I probably need one too, because yesterday at Venice Beach, I hired a psychic adviser, a woman who is shifting my energy path and guiding me towards a state of enlightenment. Why this desire for transformation? I hear you ask. You are already so calm and centered.

It began with a simple Tarot card reading (the kind of thing we do in LA in our relentless search for spiritual answers to cosmic questions). It was all going well until my psychic turned over The Eight of Swords.

Okay. So it’s not exactly the Death card but there aren’t any bunny rabbits on there either. Apparently, the ‘eight’ represents ‘a yin energy, unlocking the ties that bind and finding your voice’. I was sold, because it’s one thing to be a writer and a completely different thing to talk about what you’ve written. I struggle for that voice.

How do you distil two years’ work into the few seconds you might have at a dinner, before someone loses interest or the waiter launches into the specials? I need a good sound bite to the inevitable question; “So… what’s your book about?” Tolstoy may well have answered, “I’ve just written a tragic love story and am currently working on an idea around war and peace.” At which point I might have asked him how he found the time to do that, what with him having thirteen children (I only have two and I need a psychic adviser).

While I think it highly unlikely that a woman down on Venice Beach is transmitting on some metaphysical frequency, I do have absolute respect for anyone who can get me to part with cash for something so intangible. I am also reminded that with enough imagination we can create something out of thin air, just like Svetlana, the aerialist who took our breath away on a cotton-filled cloud swing on Saturday night. A story well told has the power to take us somewhere we have never been before. It may not translate to a sound bite, but we all have a unique voice, we just have to find it.