Taking · Notes: · Arin's · Journal

I just got a note from my editor: The contributor's copies of Out of the Broom Closet went out today, which means sometime over the next two weeks we'll be holding them in our hands and marveling at how beautiful they are.

The official release date is September 18, but you may be able to find copies on the shelves of your local bookstore a bit earlier. And if you can't, ask to make sure the store has ordered it. If they haven't, order one! These fifty stories cover a wide-ranging variety of experiences and provide a fascinating snapshot of people's challenges and epiphanies as they explore the world of alternative spirituality.

Publisher: Provenance Press (Sep 18 2009)
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1598698915
ISBN-13: 978-1598698916
$15.99 CDN, $12.95 USD

I just had a fabulous weekend at the Melange Magique Beltane Fair. Originally I was only going to be in town for the Saturday, but our out-of-town plans were rescheduled a few days ago and so I was fortunate enough to be able to stop by the Fair for a couple of hours on the Sunday as well.

I gave a one-hour talk about hearthcraft and The Way of the Hedge Witch early Saturday afternoon, and then participated in a panel discussion with other authors about writing and publishing. It was an absolute joy to sit on the same panel as Sian Reid, Judika Illes, and Brendan Myers, as well as local authors Greg Stroll and Rob St. Martin. It turned out that I’d met Sian previous to this event, only no one had told me her last name at the time. (“How many Sians can there be?” she laughed at me. “This is the Pagan community,” I said, “there could be any number of them!”) I met Judika Illes for the first time and we clicked immediately; she’s a wonderful, wonderful human being, and I so wish we’d had time to sit down and really talk with one another. It was terrific to see Brendan Myers again, and I wish I’d had more time to speak with him, as well.

Apart from a couple of instances where miscommunication occurred about certain things (I wasn't told about doing time at the signing table, alas, and didn't receive details about the dinner out on Saturday night in time to plan) everything went smoothly for me. The Fair was very well attended, and the energy in the building was just wonderful; everyone was happy and relaxed and it was a joy to be there. I’m always mildly freaked about large gatherings of people, and to deal with the minimum of stress associated with this sort of thing was a delight.

Thank you to all the locals who came out to hear my talk, and to all the volunteers who organized and help run the Fair. Thank you to the staff of the Melange, too, who sailed through the weekend of heavy client traffic with grace and aplomb, and to everyone who went out of their way to metaphorically hold my hand. And a huge sweeping curtsey to the lovely and talented Robyn, the store manager, who was the brains behind the entire operation and who should be very proud of the wonderful weekend.

Look what the very nice postal carrier brought me this morning!









I wasn't expecting this for another month. Which means, of course, that my perception of March vs April has been forcibly collapsed from the nebulous full-month-till-book-release-date I was working with to a much more realistic view. Hurrah!

This means that The Way of the Hedge Witch is shipping now or imminently, and should be on shelves in stores everywhere in about two weeks or so! Very exciting. Have fun spotting it in the wild!

I am proud to announce that September 2009 will see the release of Out of the Broom Closet, a collection of first-hand stories about the challenges of publicly identifying as Neo-Pagan. Fifty contributors share how they discovered their spiritual path, the obstacles they faced, the reactions of their colleagues, family, and friends, and the ongoing challenge of staying honest with themselves and the Divine. The range of experience in this anthology will inspire and provoke reflection on the part of anyone who has had to consider the consequences of sharing their faith. I'm honoured to be the editor of this collection, and to present the stories of these courageous and blessed individuals, many of whom are publishing for the first time. Also included in this anthology are established and well-known practitioners such as Ashleen O'Gaea, Brendan Myers, Erynn Rowan Laurie, and Gwinevere Rain.

Publisher: Provenance Press (Sep 18 2009)
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1598698915
ISBN-13: 978-1598698916
$15.99 CDN, $12.95 USD

As everyone who was not me predicted, the three-hour hearthcraft workshop I led on Saturday was a success.

I thought it had been three years since I've led a class or workshop, my brief presentation at Hamilton Pagan Pride Day 2008 aside, but I realised that it's been more like four. I felt really rusty, and quite anxious about how it would all go. I deliberately over-prepared in order to have a couple of extra modules available to switch to, depending on how the topics of discussion went. I try to do that as a rule, because every class is unique and follows different bits that interest them. In the end I didn't use any of the extra modules, because the group really focused on a few topics that took off in discussion.

Avalon Naturel, the meeting space in which I gave the workshop, has a wonderfully welcoming and comforting energy. I learned that the Avalon regulars are as equally comforting and welcoming. There were, to my astonishment (and, yes, initial panic) over twenty people crowded into the single room, some in chairs around the edges, some on mats on the floor. And they talked, bless them; they responded when I tossed questions and discussion topics out, for which I was heartily thankful, because nothing kills a workshop quicker than attendees who don't respond. Respond these excellent people did; I had people talking to me throughout the break and afterwards, telling me how much they'd learned, both beginners and experienced people assuring me that I was making sense to them, giving them new ways to think about things or the opportunity to share their own techniques and ideas. I loved it.

It went so well, as a matter of fact, that less than halfway through it I was already thinking about what I could give from my existing slate of workshops for them. I'd been tentatively sketching a pregnancy workshop, but one of the co-directors told me that the Avalonians tend to be of below or beyond childbearing age/mindset so there probably wouldn't be much response. But the other co-director in attendance caught me after most people had left and proposed co-leading a workshop around Harvest, which got us both very excited as it expanded and evolved into two different things.

So yes: A success, and the Avalonians are going to have a hard time getting rid of me. We have an informal agreement for me to show up one evening next month for a kaffeeklatsch type of thing once the hearthcraft book is out, so people can buy the book and I can sign them and we can all talk about lots of stuff instead of just what we can cover on one subject in three hours. (I sold every one of my previous books I'd brought except one, and signed dozens more people owned and brought along with them. Good grief.)

I know I always feel better after I've given a workshop or class, which is part of what gets me through the prep and anxiety leading up to the event. Part of that post-workshop feeling is relief, part of it is the sense that I've accomplished something, and part of that is coming away with what the attendees have given to me in the form of energy and interaction and appreciation. I came away from this one feeling so much better than I'd expected to feel that I amused myself. And frankly, I just sat back and let myself enjoy it for the rest of the weekend.

So thank you, Avalonians! I had a wonderful time, and your response meant so much to me. I can't wait to actually share the book with you all next month.

Hello, and a slightly belated Imbolc to you all!

Spring is coming, and that means the spring books are getting ready for release. In just over two months, The Way of the Hedge Witch will be in bookstores! Not only that, I've recently taken on the editorship of an in-progress anthology collection of first-hand stories about people's experiences with Paganism called Out of the Broom Closet. That's due out in June 2009, so I suddenly have two projects being released this year and a lot of work to do in the next month.

Earlier I mentioned that I did an interview with Leah R. Patterson, editor of the BellaOnline.com Wellness division. Part One of the interview has now been posted, so click on over and read about our discussion of The Way of the Green Witch. I'll link to the second half of the interview when it's published, too.

And finally, in my guise as mild-mannered freelance writer, I had the honour of doing a private interview with Neil Gaiman earlier this week, author of the Newbery Award-winning The Graveyard Book and well as the multiple award-winning short novel Coraline, the film adaptation of which is being released in North America on 6 February 2009. The first half of that interview has been posted at Frames Per Second Magazine, a publication focusing on animation in all forms; the second half of the interview should go live tonight. I also did the fps review of Coraline.

There; you've had a surfeit of links, and a quick update concerning what I've been up to. Enjoy the ever-increasing moments of sunlight as we travel towards the vernal equinox!

A happy new calendar year to everyone! I still haven't gotten a newsletter out, but hey, you have the occasional update via this journal. There hasn't been much to report for the past few months. No, still no news on the Pagan Pregnancy title, but thank you all for your continued interest. I'll be doing an interview with the Wellness division of BellaOnline.com this month, so when that's posted I'll let you all know and provide the link.

Yesterday I started working on the page proofs for The Way of the Hedge Witch, so I saw the layout for the first time. It's a pretty book; I love the interior design, and there's a nice illustration repeated at the beginning of each chapter. It's going to be the same trim size as The Way of the Green Witch. You'll get to see it for yourselves in April.

That's not why I am here today, though! I am here in one of my rare appearances to tell you that the cover of Solitary Wicca for Life has been redesigned! Yes! It was a surprise to me as well, but such a lovely one to find in my in-box this morning:

Isn't that lovely?

And now, back to work on those proofs. Have a terrific day, everyone.

I just updated the web site. The FAQ is finally live, the front page has been updated with news, there's a page for The Way of the Hedge Witch (yay!) with appropriate links added all over the place.

No, there still isn't a new release date for Pagan Pregnancy. Believe me, when I know, the entire world will know!

Hello all!

The Hamilton Pagan Pride event was fabulous. I love all the organizers and have expressed my wish to be adopted by their community. They agreed pretty readily, so things must have gone well on their end too! Not even rain halfway through my workshop dampened the festival-goers' spirits.

A huge thanks go out to everyone who attended my workshop there, too. They were amused to hear that they were the alpha group for this material (no, not even beta -- I'd never presented it to anyone but my editor before!) and were thoroughly supportive.

Still no news on the pagan pregnancy book. Thank you yet again for all the support that's rolling in about it. You and I know it's needed, which is why I wrote it, after all. Publishing moves slowly, though, and works about two years in advance. As it was cut from this fall's list, it might be a while before they find a place for it. You know that I'll make a huge announcement pretty much everywhere once I know anything about it.

The Way of the Hedge Witch is coming along nicely in the publishing process, though! The official release date is April 1, 2009, so circle the date on your calendars and pre-order, pre-order, pre-order! Pre-orders are what tell a publisher that a book has a confirmed buyer base, and are part of why the pregnancy book was cancelled.

The next workshop has officially been booked! I'll be presenting a three-hour workshop on hearthcraft on March 7 2009 at the Avalon Naturel Centre in Dorval, QC. The cost is $40 per participant, and you can sign up at the Avalon web site.

And here's what some of you have been waiting for... the cover of the new book!

I love it.

In other news, I've set up a newsletter that's supposed to be monthly but hasn't officially begun yet (something on next week's to-do list), which you can sign up for here although it will often reiterate the information I post here on LJ, and I've finally got a Facebook page; stop on by if you're in the neighbourhood.

Have a terrific Samhain!

I'd like to thank everyone for the supportive and encouraging comments about the pregnancy book! I promise to pass along news as it comes. Things are still on hold right now, but The Way of the Hedge Witch is well on its way to being released next spring!

I'm currently preparing for our trip to Hamilton ON this weekend, where I'm a guest speaker at the Pagan Pride Festival along with Selena Fox. The workshop I'll be presenting there is a basic outline of hearthcraft, the focus of The Way of the Hedge Witch.


Once upon a time when I prepared lectures/workshops, it went something like this:


1. Oh my gosh! I’m not going to know what to say at all!

2. I know, I’ll outline it extensively in point form.

3. That can’t possibly be enough to fill ninety minutes. I’ll add more.

4. Oh no, we’re going overtime! I’ll try to squeeze the last trillion bits of info into the following five minutes.


Now it’s more like this:


1. Oh my gosh! I’m not going to know what to say at all!

2. I know; I’ll put handy book extracts on a couple of pieces of paper.

3. Oh my gosh! There are TEN PIECES OF PAPER! With wall to wall type on them! This will never work!

4. I will reduce it to point form. Even if I think I won’t remember what to say.

5. I’ll bet this would take an hour and a half to cover. I should cut more out.

6. I AM GUTTING MY LECTURE! This will never work!

7. Maybe I should aim for a half-hour lecture, then it will actually fit into an hour.

8. I cannot possibly choose what to leave out!

9. Oh, fine. I’ll cut those three pages.

10. This will never fit into an hour.

11. I give up. I’ll use these two pieces of paper, and we’ll just go where it takes us.

12. I should probably print this out…


Note: I am currently around step seven and step four. Yes, at the same time.


Back into the fray! I'm looking forward to seeing those of you who will be at the Pagan Pride Festival in Hamilton this Saturday on September 13. Check out their website for more details!

I have some not-so-great news for those of you who have been waiting anxiously for the pagan pregnancy book.

I’ve just found out that Pagan Pregnancy: A Spiritual Journey From Maiden to Mother was one of the two titles cut from my publisher’s fall list, because advance sales and pre-orders weren’t high enough. Two had to go, and mine was one of them. My editor is storming offices and tiger-taming magnificently, and has managed to get the sales and marketing department to agree to put it on hold instead. At the moment the most obvious option is to retitle it, making it more general and less specific to get it out from the niche-y complaint they had about it, which in turn may bolster sales to the big chains in the US. Sales and marketing suggested altering the content as well but neither my editor nor I think that necessary, as it’s already pretty broad.

I am strangely sanguine about this. I regret that a solid book that can really help people in a certain position might not see the light of day, but it’s not over yet! If changing the title, the back cover copy, and maybe the introduction will help get it out there, then I’m all for it.

So if you were looking forward to buying it at the end of the summer, you’ll just have to wait a little longer until such time as they decide to reschedule the release. Unless something major is done in the next month, I can’t see any changes being applied in time to maintain the release date.

There has been so much positive feedback from so many of you about this book since I announced that I was writing it that we're going to keep working to make sure Pagan Pregnancy: A Spiritual Journey From Maiden to Mother gets published at some point. Thank you all for your support; it means so much.

Gentle readers, the book tentatively titled The Way of the Hearth Witch: Rituals, Spells, and Practices to Bless Your Home is finished!

Everything was pretty much there as of yesterday, so today was a day of crossing Is and dotting Ts. All chapter numbers have been corrected, both in chapter headings and in the text (I realized two days ago that there was a chapter missing that needed to be there); all the proper coding and formatting has been inserted; I caught some things that I had to handle (I tend to leave notes to myself in the text, and once a couple slipped by me and were caught by a copyeditor -- oops!); I took some things out, popped others in, and made sure my bibliography actually listed the books that I suggested people should read throughout the text. The final word count stands at 60,141. (There are 6,328 words languishing in my file of deleted material, to give you an idea of what’s come out of the book in the past few days.)

I just wrote my cover letter, and sent it all off to my wonderful editor. And now I suspect I’ll wander around the house aimlessly for a couple of hours, because I do not remember what Life Without Book is like.

The past few days of angst aside, I've really enjoyed working on this book, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the design and layout and cover wrap it all up next year in spring 2009.

In my post-book surreal state I thought I'd show you the state of my desk now that everything's over. It's no longer as tidy as the photo essay in early March showed it to be!

I'll clean it up in a day or so.

Hurrah! This has been an extraordinarily good mail day. Aside from a couple of goodies in the mailbox, the Fed Ex man just came and gave me the box of the newly redesigned Way of the Green Witch!

So here you are, folks, they exist. The pattern on the green background is much less pronounced in real life; less like grass and more like a hand-rubbed finish, if that makes any sense.

Let me know if you start seeing the new cover on store shelves. They ought to be shipping with the new cover now, of course, but it takes time to sell through existing stock.

Ladies and gentlemen... the new cover for The Way of the Green Witch:

My editor says it should start shipping under the new cover this April.

While work on finishing the writing of the hearthcraft book progresses towards the first deadline, work on finalizing the Passages: Pagan Pregnancy book is wrapping up.

The final step of the book-creation process for an author is to review the page proofs or galleys. In the past I've done this with a printed set that the publisher sends to me via courier, marking it with a red pencil and couriering it back to them. This time, however, the project manager sent me a PDF file. It's exactly the same as printed set, just in electronic format. I can make notes in a text document and send it back via e-mail, or I can print out the specific pages in question, mark them up, then fax or mail them back. This is going to be an interesting exercise!

But the real reason for this post is to tell you how beautiful the design of the book is. I wasn't worried about the interior design -- so far they've all been lovely -- but opening this file today was like receiving an unexpected gift. I can't wait for it to ship in July so you can see it too!

The deadline for the hearthcraft book has been revised to April 11, to reflect the week I'm going to lose to the page proofs and some of the time I lost to handling the edits and rewrites of the pregnancy book in January and February. Finishing the hearthcraft book while reviewing page proofs and having both due back on the same date was a recipe for potential disaster, so I'm glad the conflict was avoided.

This is my office. It is currently a mess because I am writing one book to deadline, just finished the copy-edits of another, there is a sick toddler/preschooler in the house, my husband is away at rehearsals or performances most evenings until the Savoy opera he's stage managing is over, and I am trying to whack away at Gounod and Faure on the cello whenever I have a spare moment. Oh yes, and I am fighting the recently diagnosed fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue thing that makes me choose between tidying up or writing.

For some reason, I thought a photo essay about the place where I spend a lot of my time might amuse you.

( Photos this way! )

I'm never quite satisfied with my office; I always feel that it's missing something, or not quite right. It never matches what I visualise it could become. Part of that is the fact that I live in it so much that it never has the chance to rest and become something; I'm always moving things around and reorganizing. It looks and feels quite different at night as well, and when the sun is shining. I would love a comfy chair in which to curl up and read, or even better, a chaise longue! But there's no room for it.

Well, there you have it: a brief snapshot of a place in my life. It will be different tomorrow, and the day after that too, of course, and once the hearthcraft book is done I'll be changing pictures and books to focus on something different yet again. And come spring, there will be flowers and boughs of buds, too.

I just received a message from my editor at Provenance Press. She told me that The Way of the Green Witch is selling steadily (hurrah!) and that they're reissuing it with a new cover!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am about this. Hearing that a book is selling steadily is always good news, but to hear that the cover is being redone made my week. I am less than fond of the Way of the Green Witch cover; I was disappointed with it when they showed me the final version and suggested several other possibilities, including some of the very different original cover they proposed for it, but without success. The new cover is being finalised right now, and as soon as I have a picture of it I'll share it with you. I'm so excited!

My editor is also pushing for a reissue of Solitary Wicca for Life with a new cover. Updates as events warrant!

Ladies and gentlemen, the cover of the upcoming Pagan Pregnancy book:

Isn't it lovely?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Solstice, and I wish you all a successful, peaceful, prosperous, and healthy 2008!

A blessed Samhain to you all! And to help celebrate, I have some excellent news to share.

First: The pregnancy book has an official title, ISBN, and release date! Pagan Pregnancy: A Spiritual Journey from Maiden to Mother (ISBN-10 1598693972, ISBN-13 978-1598693973) is scheduled for an August 2008 release, which means it ships mid- to late-July. It's listed as available for pre-order at all major on-line bookstores, but please take the time to tell your local independent bookshop that you'd like to order a copy of it. They'll be more than happy to do so for you.

Second: I've just sold a new book! It's about hearth and home magic, and the title isn't fixed yet so I'll be referring to it as the hearthcraft book. It will probably appear sometime in 2009. I'll share updates about it as they happen.

Best wishes for the upcoming year: may it be prosperous, peaceful, joyful, and successful for you all!

I received some wonderful news this morning. It seems that all three of my books have gone into second printings at some point or another!

I knew that Solitary Wicca for Life had a second printing six months after it was published. I expected Power Spellcraft for Life to reprint at some point because it sells well, but I had no idea when that might because it had the largest print run of the three. The Way of the Green Witch book had the smallest print run as it was a more specialized title, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to reprint for a while.

Well, today I got the total sales-to-date figures for all three of them, and as sales of Power Spellcraft for Life and The Way of the Green Witch outnumber the size of the original print runs, they must perforce have reprinted. In fact, all of them seem to have sold an average of one and a half times their original print run so far. That's very respectable for the period of time for which they've been available, and noteworthy for New Age titles.

If you're curious, Power Spellcraft for Life is the most popular title, but not by a wide margin: to date it has only sold 13 more copies than Solitary Wicca for Life!

It's thanks to readers that authors receive excellent news such as this. My deepest appreciation goes out to every one of you who has bought one of my books over the past two years. Collectively, you made my Monday morning. No, to be honest, you made my whole week. Possibly my month.

I couldn't keep doing what I'm doing without you. Thanks.