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Courtney Ann LaFaive

@calafaive

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FOLLOW THE SIGNS @uiowapress
writer of woo and whales
mostly pics of mediocre bowling scores

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✨ What a pic of Linda (a woman who believed in doppelgängers, leprechauns, and the power of love) and what good fortune to be able to share my thoughts on fantasy, illusion/delusion, and the biographical genre. Thank you @literaryhub for giving my thoughts a space to linger and play. Link in bio. 🩵💛💜 by @calafaive

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5 months ago

What a delight to see Rachel Syme’s brilliant review of FOLLOW THE SIGNS in The New Yorker’s special fiction issue! Thank you @rachsyme for such insightful and generous words, @villanaart for the wonderfully cosmic art, and the team @newyorkermag.

“Goodman didn’t live forever, but she got the next best thing: a passionate biographer.”

Available in print and online. Link in bio. 🌟 by @calafaive

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4 months ago

Linda Who??? 🫣

Courtney Ann LaFaive takes us through the life of America’s pop astrology foremother, Linda Goodman: a bathrobe-clad divorcée from West Virginia who turned the zodiac into pop gospel. Before Co-Star and TikTok astrologers, there she was, the first astrologer to chart on The New York Times Best Sellers list with ‘Sun Signs’.

Her life was plagued with misfortune and she steadfastly refused to make herself legible to mainstream culture, remaining a perpetual outsider and dying impoverished and alone. Despite this, Goodman’s legacy is all around us, in the plainspoken language we are now familiar with when talking about our zodiac.

Read more about the life and legacy of Linda Goodman inside Worms 11: Faith & Worship, available now. ♌️♉️♊️⛎♈️♍️♏️♑️♎️♋️♐️♓️ by @calafaive

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7 months ago

Yes, I changed my name. No, I did not get married.

LaFaive is my mother’s maiden name. Looking to Old French, it could be from faie or faive, meaning “beech tree.” It could also be from la fave meaning “the broad bean,” as in someone who farms beans. It could also have something to do with hay.

So much cannot be undone; a name cannot erase only reorient. For me, LaFaive is a form of time travel, an invitation towards innocence.

I want to make some metaphor about beans and hay and growth, but it would flatten what is for me a true moment of triumph. Thnx for witnessing 🌱🌱🌱 by @calafaive

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19 hours ago

This is the game I am always playing: spot the dolphin.

Extra points awarded in proportion to how far you are from the ocean (greater distance = greater points). Extra points if the dolphin is actually a whale upon second glance. 🎰

So far, I’m still in the lead. 🤞 taken in Middlebury, Vermont by @calafaive

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Want to learn more about the woman who popularized Astrology in the U.S.?

FOLLOW THE SIGNS: SEARCHING FOR LINDA GOODMAN, AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN ASTROLOGY QUEEN by Courtney Ann LaFaive is out now from University of Iowa Press!

"Astrology’s popularity in the US has ebbed and flowed," LaFaive writes, "with the twenty-first century experiencing another boom in interest as Millennials and Gen Z have discovered astrology just as their parents or grandparents did during the 1960s and ’70s. But this time, instead of listening to the musical HAIR or reading Linda’s books, they’re embracing astrology via Chani Nicholas’s Instagram page (@chaninicholas) or Jessica Lanyadoo’s podcast (@ghostofapodcast). They’re using astrology to envision new ways of relating to gender, power, and identity. . . . While Linda laid admittedly imperfect groundwork, we would not have American astrology’s contemporary resurgence without her."

To learn more head over to @volumeone, where Evelyn Nelson interviews LaFaive about Goodman's influence, astrology as a tool for self-discovery, and how, frustratingly, headlines discredited Goodman following the death of her daughter. by @calafaive

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3 months ago

How do we provide students living in rural spaces the permission they need to write about their experiences? Courtney Anne LaFaive gives us the tools. by @calafaive

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5 months ago

💫 Happy pub day to FOLLOW THE SIGNS by Courtney Ann LaFaive 💫

If you have ever been asked “What’s your sign?” you have Linda Goodman to thank—or blame. America’s first New Age celebrity, Goodman’s 1968 book, SUN SIGNS, sold over 60 million copies, while the advance for her second book, LOVE SIGNS, broke an unprecedented $2.25 million. And yet, while Goodman was teaching the world how to search the skies for clarity, her gaze was fixed upon her own dark, mysterious pursuit.

In 1973, Goodman’s daughter was found dead and the police declared it a suicide; Goodman believed otherwise. She spent years depleting her fortune, chasing down leads that might uncover the real truth about her beloved daughter’s death. Headlines criticized and discredited Goodman, ultimately overshadowing the revolutionary nature of her work.

Reading Goodman’ astrological wisdom decades after its heyday, LaFaive contemplates the redemption of Goodman as a literary and spiritual figure, all the while reckoning with her own impulsive forays into love and relationships. FOLLOW THE SIGNS asks what it means when facts become stranger than fiction and who we become when we must walk away from those we love. by @calafaive

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5 months ago

Want to learn more about Courtney Ann LaFaive’s FOLLOW THE SIGNS? Here’s what early readers are saying 💫🪐🌗✨

If you have ever been asked “What’s your sign?” you have Linda Goodman to thank—or blame. America’s first New Age celebrity, Goodman’s 1968 book, SUN SIGNS, SOLD over 60 million copies, while the advance for her second book, LOVE SIGNS, BROKE an unprecedented $2.25 million. And yet, while Goodman was teaching the world how to search the skies for clarity, her gaze was fixed upon her own dark, mysterious pursuit.

In 1973, Goodman’s daughter was found dead and the police declared it a suicide; Goodman believed otherwise. She spent years depleting her fortune, chasing down leads that might uncover the real truth about her beloved daughter’s death. Headlines criticized and discredited Goodman, ultimately overshadowing the revolutionary nature of her work.

Courtney Ann LaFaive first discovered Goodman’s books as a teenager. Reading her astrological wisdom decades after its heyday, LaFaive contemplates the redemption of Goodman as a literary and spiritual figure, all the while reckoning with her own impulsive forays into love and relationships. FOLLOW THE SIGNS asks what it means when facts become stranger than fiction and who we become when we must walk away from those we love. by @calafaive

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6 months ago

miss you.
wanna go to the beach with you. wouldn’t care if I got sunburnt and forgot all my questions about menopause. wouldn’t care if we missed the last bus home. only care to be with you.

happy 70th birthday. ✨💕 by @calafaive

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8 months ago

🌗 Revealing the cover of FOLLOW THE SIGNS by Courtney Ann LaFaive 🌓

If you have ever been asked “What’s your sign?” you have Linda Goodman to thank—or blame.

America’s first New Age celebrity, Goodman’s 1968 book, SUN SIGNS, sold over 60 million copies, while the advance for her second book, LOVE SIGNS, broke an unprecedented $2.25 million. And yet, while Goodman was teaching the world how to search the skies for clarity, her gaze was fixed upon her own dark, mysterious pursuit.

In 1973, Goodman’s daughter was found dead and the police declared it a suicide; Goodman believed otherwise. She spent years depleting her fortune, chasing down leads that might uncover the real truth about her beloved daughter’s death. Headlines criticized and discredited Goodman, ultimately overshadowing the revolutionary nature of her work.

Courtney Ann LaFaive first discovered Goodman’s books as a teenager. Reading her astrological wisdom decades after its heyday, LaFaive contemplates the redemption of Goodman as a literary and spiritual figure, all the while reckoning with her own impulsive forays into love and relationships. FOLLOW THE SIGNS asks what it means when facts become stranger than fiction and who we become when we must walk away from those we love.

🌗 Out May 12th, 2026 🌓

“LaFaive’s writing immediately hooked me, and once I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down. This story doesn’t just illuminate Goodman’s life or entertain you—it stays with you long after the final page.”—Jessica Lanyadoo, astrologer, coauthor, ASTROLOGY FOR REAL RELATIONSHIPS: YOU, ME, AND HOW WE ALL GET ALONG, host, GHOST OF A PODCAST

#jessicalanyadoo #astrology #astrologyreading #lindagoodman #ghostofapodcast by @calafaive

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9 months ago

Many thanks to @themissourireview for publishing my essay “Cockroach Bay” in their online BLAST series. ✨ This essay is about loneliness, non-lovers, mold, broken feet, and, yes, cockroaches. I was going to spare you a cockroach pic, but they found the most glamorous pic of a cockroach I’ve ever seen, so I had to share. 🪳🪳🪳link in bio! taken in Florida, USA by @calafaive

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10 months ago