Guest Blogging...

See my pets (and those of my alter ego) at:
Riding with the top down: Tate Hallaway harbors vampire kitties

The Strange Thoughts of A Three Year Old

This is a conversation Mason and I had in the car the other day. We were listening to JACK FM and "Beautiful People" came on."

Mason: Who's singing this?
Me: Marilyn Manson, I think.
Mason: Is he a princess?
Me: [Long pause, while I consider this.] Sure, honey. He's a princess.

Now what possessed Mason to ask that particular question, I'll never know. But, you know, he might be on to something.

For Once, I'm Jealous of Her

Other Me got a huge article about Her in Strange Horizons. Not that you'd want to read it, but if you did, you could find it here: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2006/20060724/morehouse-int-a.shtml

What Makes a Witch?

I started reading Advanced Witchcraft by Edain McCoy, and, as with a lot of such books on witchcraft, she asked me to "...grab a pencil and write out your definition of an advanced Witch, or what you see as advanced Craft practice." I'm supposed to take some time to mediate on who I am and how I got here, where I want to be and how I want to get there, and why I want to be an advanced Witch.

Because being a retarded Witch seems like a bad idea?

See, this is why I never functioned very well in the few pagan communities I tried to join. I'm too sarcastic and... what is it my astrological chart says about me? "Your mind is deep, but rarely charitable."

I'm a self-initiated Witch, which means that everything I know about Witchcraft I taught myself. No one waved a wand, magic or otherwise, over my head and proclaimed me a Witch. Most days I'm perfectly okay with that. What others might think about my level of Craft (or lack thereof) doesn't usually get in the way of any of the "acts of love and pleasure that are Her ritual" that I practice in my daily life. The Goddess is still real to me, whether or not someone else thinks She should be.

But then there's days like today, when I started McCoy's book and she made it clear that she felt the only true path to becoming a Witch (despite being originally self-initiated herself) was being trained by a large coven. There are lots of references to remembering moments when your teachers taught you this or that, as if there was one shared path we've all trod upon, like a catechism. She makes a lot of references to the "ten blistered fingers" we all got by serving our masters.

This concept of a formalized path is so foreign to me that I don't even have a point of reference from the religion of my youth. I only know about catechisms through osmosis. I grew up in a mostly German/Irish Catholic town, but I was raised a Unitarian Universalist (a very liberal religion to start with), except not in a church, but in a fellowship. If you don't know what this is let me explain it at its most simple: we had no minister. A fellowship is structured not unlike a reading group. People get together. They talk. They have some snacks. They go home.

That was my STRUCTURED, ORGANIZED religion.

In fact, I didn't even know UU s had any kind of formal instruction until I moved to Minneapolis/St. Paul and discovered this crazy thing called a Unitarian church. With pews! With call and answer! With hymnals! With MINISTERS!! I mean, I knew we had a church building somewhere in Boston, the fabled First Unitarian Church, which I came to view as a kind of mystical Mecca, but I never once believed we had any kind of written liturgy or anything so formalized....

So, anyway, when you're raised to think "church" is sitting around in the meeting hall of an old folk's home with a bunch of other people (no one of them more vested with arcane knowledge than any other) talking, drinking coffee, and eating donuts, the idea that you need to be preached to from someone with an advanced degree in order to truly experience your spirituality is hard for me to grasp.

Learning from other people, I get.

Listening, I get.

Being receptive to experiences that come out of the universe, I get.

I also understand experts. In fact some days, I'd love to have a teacher like McCoy describes, which may be part of why I react so strongly when she assumes I should have had one. Especially since so far I've failed to find one. Utterly.

I thought I had a teacher when, several years ago, I joined a local branch of Reform Covenant of the Goddess. I think in the terms of New Age woo-woo I wasn't _ready_ to join a group like this. I had a lot of misconceptions about what it would really be like. I wanted a coven, and I got a ladies sewing circle (with attitude.) And, as those of you who know me, I'm a bit of a diva and an alpha personality. Humble newbie acolyte, I'm not. I lasted about two months, in which a lot of crazy magic happened, actually.

First sign: a starling got trapped in the altar room in my house. We have four cats and the altar room is our upstairs sun room. Somehow, a starling got in (through the flue in the basement?) and managed to spend a good portion of the day flapping around wounded, though not killed by the four fanged predators, in one particular room. I managed to capture it and brought to the wildlife rescue center. I told the person who had been assigned to mentor me in this group, and she told me that starlings are symbols of group activity. My response? What was I supposed to make of a wounded "group activity" on my altar? (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this starling showed up the very DAY I started doing the work assigned to me by RCG.) That seems like a pretty straightforward BAD sign. She said, "Well. Maybe you should focus on the fact that it was rescued."

Meanwhile, my horror movie spidey-sense was tingling. And as it turns out, I was right and the Goddess isn’t so subtle after all. Not more than two days later I got into a clash of personality with the high priestess/group leader, which ended in me getting asked to leave. The last group ritual I did with them was Samhain, and as part of that, they had people pull cards from a Tarot deck as their "message." Mine? The High Priestess. Seemed clear to me that I was supposed to go off and do my own thing.

So I did.

Only now I'm struggling to advance my craft. Every once and a while I think I need to try another group. We have a CUUPS (the Unitarian Universalist pagans) group in town, and I should probably consider trying out their rituals, but after my experience with RCG I'm a little gunshy about asking the Goddess for another group.

Yet, on days like today, I feel like I need one in order to grow.

Ego-Surf Gem

So, I was out ego-surfing today. The sun was shining and the wave were high...

Anyway, I came across this website, http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/ which I recommend to y'all. They wrote a very nice letter to me, which you can find at http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/tall-dark-and-dead-by-tate-hallaway/. But, generally, I thought it was a cool blog, and one worth passing along.

Face Recognition Fun

Okay, if you have a lot of time on your hands I well and truly recommend this site: http://www.myheritage.com/face_recognition.

I ran this photo of myself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And got a 73 percent match to Namie Amuro:

 

 

 

 

And... (drum roll, please)... John Belushi.

AWESOME.

I *bleeping* love this site.

Success Stories...

..about me.

I got this note from my editor this morning:
"TALL, DARK & DEAD remains on the bookstore bestseller lists--
#22 on Bookscan's fantasy trade paperback bestseller list
#23 on B&N's romance trade paperback bestseller list"

Plus, my agent informed me yesterday that she sold British rights to Tall, Dark & Dead, Dead Sexy, and Bloody Smashing (tentative title for the as-yet-unwritten book 3 of the Garnet Lacey series) to Headline/Hodder for a modest (but not insubstantial) lower five-digit figure.

Today Britain, tomorrow... the World. (crossing-fingers.)

Underworld (2003): My Opinion

Plot summary provided by IMDb:

"A war going on for centuries between vampires and Lycans/werewolves, never seen by humans eyes, until one of the werewolves by the name of Lucian (Michael Sheen) finds out about one human that can bond with vampire blood and Lycans blood, Michael (Scott Speedman). Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is the vampire Death dealer that finds out why the Lycans are following Michael and falls in love with him. Kraven (Shane Brolly) is the leader of the vampire house after Viktor (Bill Nighy) dies and wants Selene by his side, but she is a wild cat to break."

Again, I read a lot of the viewer's comments and I have to say I'm surprised by the number of people (okay 2 out of several pages, and I only read the first few pages) complained that one of the reasons they didn't like the vampires in this film is because they had reflections in mirrors. Okay, I can respect all the of the viewers who complained about the constant night, the continuous rain, and the blue, BLUE filter cast on everything (my cousin Jonathan and I speculated that perhaps this film was supposed to take place in Helsinki in the winter, since there never seems to be daylight. Our other possibility, Seattle during the spring, since it was, in fact, constantly raining, I'm not sure there was a dry moment in the film.) But, you're mad because the vampires have reflections and cast shadows?

EVERYTHING casts a shadow. EVERYTHING has a reflection. Dead or alive. Next time your gerbil gives up its ghost (and they die, a lot. I had gerbils for several years until I realized that a two-year life span was going to kill my very sensitive and rodent-loving heart), put it in front of the mirror or out on the pavement in the noon sun. You will see that being dead makes no never mind to shadows and reflections. Okay, you're saying, but vampires are magical. Yes, I agree, but they still wear clothes. The clothes would have a reflection, unless like Superman vampires have some kind of personal ionic field of "alienness" that makes everything within inches of his flesh also invulnerable (which, frankly, makes more sense to me than the undead's clothing suddenly lacking a reflection. Turning invisible along with the Invisible Woman, that can be explained; not having a reflection, harder.)

And, WTF? I don't understand why this particular characteristic would make or break a vampire film for someone. I mean, one of the two who commented about the shadows/reflections, said that s/he was disappointed because the vampires didn't bite. That, to me, is a legitimate reason not to like a certain fictional portrayal of a vampire. For a lot of people, myself included, the bite is essential to vampirism. And, let's face it, when done right, biting is sexy. And vampires should be all about the sexy.

But, the rest of it – staking, shadows, turning, reflections, daylight tolerance, etc. – is all up for debate as far as I'm concerned. Given that Bram Stoker's Dracula walked around in the daylight, I don't see the need to follow Nesfaratu (the movie) in terms of its vampire lore. If you wanted to get into a fist fight about it, I think a person could make a pretty serious claim that Stoker's Dracula is the definitive answer on that one, which makes all the vampire movies that show daylight sizzling the fiends "wrong." And you don't see a lot of people complaining about that (myself included – I actually kind of like the night restrictions, because it makes for a puzzle to be conquered for the author of vampire stuff.)

Vampires have such a diverse and various set of "assumptions." One of the things I look forward to when watching a new vampire film or reading a new vampire book, is how the screen/writer is going to play with the usual mythos and, correspondingly, how they're going to explain their vampires and their vampire's various restrictions/strengths. I like most answers. I am less fond of "vampire as separate/parallel species," but I have enjoyed those stories, when done right. And, all it usually takes for me to consider something done right is a plausible back story.

I'm not entirely sure how vampires were explained in Underworld (because I actually missed the first half of the film), but I really enjoyed the idea of werewolves as the day-time guardians (slaves) for the vampires. The werewolves were clearly, to me, the heroes of this first film. As someone on IMDb pointed out, this film is either consciously or unconsciously about class. The werewolves are working class in appearance and dress and, as it is revealed, back story (and, therefore, in my opinion, much more likable); the vampires are aristocrats. More than that, the vampires are the former slave-owners. Slave-owners = bad.

There were two star-crossed lover stories in Underworld, which is, as Shakespeare knows, always a crowd-pleaser. First, Michael our human turned wolfpire or vampwolf (half werewolf, half vampire) and Selene the death dealer (vampire), who, OF COURSE, is later sent to destroy him. The second is Lucian's (head were) back story, in which we discover he was a slave who loved the master's daughter. To be absolutely and perfectly honest, this kind of love story always appeals to me.

The part that confused me was actually the main plot. I gathered that the werewolves were attempting to find Michael because he was the descent of the human line of the father of both the vampires and the werewolves and wanted to specifically turn him into this hybrid. (Note: I also liked this sort of Biblical, Son of Abraham, Son of Isaac thing, where both weres and vamps come from the same people, even though they now are bitter enemies.) What I missed (or couldn't figure out) was what purpose he would serve, exactly. A lot was made of the fact that he would be stronger than either weres or vampires, but I wasn’t sure to what end, since, quite clearly, he didn't want to be party to this underworld war at all. Perhaps Lucien realized his was the far more sympathetic story and figured Michael would agree to fight on their side when he heard it. But, thing is... a vampire from the other side, Kraven, was involved in this plot to find Michael and turn him.

I wondered if maybe mating vampire and werewolf was meant to be some kind of symbol of unity, embodied physically in Michael. A kind of, "look, we really can get along, even if it’s only on the cellular level. So, let's stop all this silly fighting." Except Kraven was not presented (at least in what I saw) as sympathetic in any way. If he was trying to lead his people to peace, I didn't see an evidence of that agenda in the way he acted (in the last half of the film, anyway.) Plus, his name sort of implies that he's the villian.

What I will say about Underworld is that it made me want to read the novelization of the movie so that I could see if any of my bigger questions are answered. The universe is compelling enough that I intend to put Underworld: Evolution on my rent-it Netflix list.

So is that a recommendation, Tate? I don't know. Probably not. But, if it I had the chance to see it again for free, I would. Take that for what it is.

My Take on "The Forsaken"

The IMDb database gives this for a plot summary:

"Sean (Kerr Smith) is driving cross-country to deliver a vintage Mercedes and attend his sister's wedding when he picks up a hitchhiker, Nick (Brendan Fehr), who just happens to be a vampire hunter, tracking down a group of youthful vampires that feed on unwary travelers. As the plot thickens, they run into Megan, (Isabella Miko) who has been left for dead by the vampires. As they use her as a lure for the vampires, Sean becomes attracted to her. Further complications ensue when Sean is infected with the vampire virus. He, Megan and Nick must race against time to kill the vampire leader (Jonathon Schaech) to stop Sean from becoming one of the undead."

I scanned through some of the user comments (of which there are a ton, especially given that I'd never heard of this film) while formulating my own thoughts about this movie, and I have to agree with the general assessment that this film doesn't entirely suck, but it's not especially good either.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

The things I liked included the character of Nick, the vampire hunter. He was just kind of a dude, you know? In fact, I found myself pleasantly surprised when this easy-going, beer-drinking oaf ended up being the keeper of the arcane knowledge. I really liked the fact that Nick's vampire hunting skillz weren't in the realm of superheroic at all – no Buffy-esque ninja staking moves. As far as I could tell, he had The knowledge, a gun, and "the cocktail," which wasn't actually for hunting vampires at all, but for keeping their victims from turning.

Vampirism as "sexually transmitted" disease is hardly a brand new idea in vampire fiction, but this was the first time that I'd seen it combated with drugs, specifically pharmaceuticals originally formulated to help HIV patients survive longer. I couldn't decide, however, if this detracted from the film or made it cooler. Thing is, vampire as disease isn't terribly sexy. Especially after Nick informs us that "the drugs don’t work, not forever. The only way to cure the disease is..." (drum roll, please) "...to kill the head vampire." Okay, maybe it's supposed to be some kind of CDC metaphor for Patient Zero or whatever, but it didn't really work for me, alas, since the whole must-kill-the-big-baddie is such a cliché.

Then there was the origin story, which make no sense whatsoever. According to Nick (who never tells us exactly how he found this out) eight French knights go into some horrifically bloody battle and must make a pack with Satan to survive. They eat one of their colleagues (as some sort of Satanic bonding ritual?) and become the first immortals with a taste for blood. They wake up the next morning so ashamed of their deeds that they hide from the light of day, and, what, I guess then are shamed into flames the next time the sun hits them or one of their offspring? (Talk about a bad blush! They don't just feel like their cheeks are aflame, they really ARE on fire!)

The disease metaphor gets completely forgotten, and people like me who think far too hard during action films, are left wondering, "So, then at what point is their bite an 'infection'? Who is the first infector? Satan? If that's the case, could these HIV drugs kill Satan? Is he corporal? Does the Ultimate Bad Guy even have blood? Shouldn't the local exorcist also want some of these HIV drugs to cast out other minor demons? Or was it the first guy they ate the one who was diseased, and if so, with what? Is vampirism our own Mad Cow disease fraught with the warning, don't eat other people, it will just lead to diseases that embarrass you to death?"

And when you start thinking like that, it ruins a perfectly functional action film.

Postpartum Novel Depression….

So the book is off. I just sent the paper copy to the publisher this morning. Now I'm having that strange postpartum ennui I get right after I deliver.

Part of the problem is that I just spent several months in high-production mode. I wrote every night from eight or nine in the evening until midnight. Now I have nothing to do with that time. I've been watching a lot of TV and movies (including two vampires ones: I finally saw Underworld on cable at the in-laws and then on Saturday I watched another Sci-Fi Channel original vampire film, this one called The Forsaken.) But, the shine is already wearing off on that.

So I have writing ennui.

I could start the next Garnet Lacey novel. I've written outlines/synopses for the next two, but I have a weird superstition about that, which is that I don't like to start the next novel until the contract is at least being negotiated (preferably only after the contract is in the works.)

Alternate-me was invited to submit a short story to another anthology, this one about paranormal sleuths, which is right up my alley. I even have an idea, so that's probably what I’ll work on next. Of course, however, when I sit down to write I just sort of stare at the screen like I've forgotten how to write.

*sigh*

Wanderers Go Wandering Again: Mercury Goes Backwards, Jupiter Forward

...At least that's how it looks from our vantage point here on Earth!

I got a new "Astro Alert" from Astrology.com. So here's what's in store for us all:

As Jupiter turns direct in passionate Scorpio on July 6, you are ready to take some significant steps forward in your life. But wait! Mercury also turns retrograde on July 4, so it will be essential to do a thorough review of your plans before you get too far ahead of yourself.

Whenever Mercury goes retrograde, the most important point to remember is that it will now prove tricky to make informed decisions about the future. Mercury retrograde periods are notoriously well-known for communication snafus as well as difficulty and/or lapses in decision-making. Yet with Jupiter also turning direct, no time will be better for looping back to old contacts, reviewing ideas and rethinking ways of optimizing your schedule.

So be careful what you say to old contacts, I guess.

Answering the Charges of Anti-Catholicism

A reviewer on Amazon.com posted this:

"First of all, why hasn't anyone mentioned the SEVERE anti-Catholic viewpoint in this book? And don't get me wrong, I'm not Catholic, I'm not even Christian, and I certainly don't mind a good Church bashing on occasion when done appropriately, and I absolutely love a good vampire and/or witch story, but I was STILL offended on behalf of all Catholics. Hallaway created a world wherein the Vatican runs a hit squad of witch killers. Once they identify you, they murder you, viciously, in cold blood. The Church was depicted as hypocritical (using their own witches in order to kill other witches), insane (psychotic obsessive witch killers showing absolutely no intelligence - just passion for murder), and full blown evil (attempting to create a race of master, day-walking vampires in order to continue killing all witches - and likely all other vampires and probably a few humans who just don't like the Church). If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Tate was either a lapsed Catholic with a personal vendetta against the Church, or someone who stopped reading history at the Inquisition - and didn't pay much attention to the facts even at that. I don't mean to come across sounding like a Catholic apologist, but come on! Her depiction of the Church was so vindictive, it made me what her real agenda was.

My only real agenda ever is to write a ripping good yarn. Honest.

That being said, I don't want to dismiss the concerns this reader has for the biases she's perceived in my book. I will say that she's absolutely correct that I made the Vatican the villains in Tall, Dark & Dead. Another reader (on LiveJournal, not on Amazon.com) pointed out, and correctly so, that I also had my Vatican agents misusing Last Rites.

If Doctor Freud could get his hands on me, he'd probably decide that I do have some kind of deep-seated issue with Catholics. All my writing, even that in my much-referred to alternate life, has some passing reference to Catholics or Catholicism. My extended family are all Catholic. I grew up in a small Wisconsin town dominated by German and Irish Catholics. I went to three years of a Catholic grade school. Both of my parents are lapsed Catholics (for the record, I, however, am a lapsed Unitarian.)

None of this, however, has made me a Catholic-hater (at least outside of my fiction. Clearly something is going on in the subconscious of which I should try to be more aware of in future books.) In the alternate-me books, I worked very hard at not having any anti-relgious overtones, and am happy to count priests (both active and ex) in my fan base. Admittedly I wrote this book a lot quicker.

My reasons for making the Vatican the villains in TD&D had much more to do with the contemporary fantasy feel I wanted the book to have. And it probably does reveal something dark and ugly about me that when I asked myself, "Who, in this day in age, is most likely to have an organization devoted to stamping out witchcraft?" I answered, "I know, how about the people who brought us the Inquisition?" You know, thinking about it, perhaps I should have chosen a more fundamentalist religious sect – the sort who are still actively burning books, etc. – but I made those folks the villains in my last set of books (and talk about something I need to GET OVER.)

Plus, despite what the Amazon.com reviewer implied, I actually like the history of the Catholic church (about which I've read extensively while doing research for my other-me's books). Church history is so fascinating and rich, and full of heretics and dissenters. Perhaps, however, I am a victim of the Catholic mystic. The same misunderstanding of modern Catholicism that has people, by the droves, willing to believe that the Vatican is actively trying to take out Dan Brown's hero for uncovering "truth" about Mary Magdalene. People who can see Illuminati-level conspiracy in the bureaucracy of the Catholic church, simply because it's so ancient and so big.

I don't want to be one of those people.

While I can't fix the problem in TD&D, I (*knocking on wood*) will have the opportunity to correct it in following books. In the proposal for the third Garnet Lacey book I have Matyas and his mother returning (after a somewhat successful exorcism). Matyas has a close working relationship with the Order of Eustace, and I can use him to correct Garnet's assumptions about the witch hunters. Keeping in mind that all of the information about the Order comes directly from Garnet, I can have Matyas tell her, for instance, that, despite what she's heard and what she believes, the Order isn't officially under the aegis of the Vatican and, in fact, may be a splinter group of heretics who still consider themselves Catholic, but who are not. That way their insane evilness makes more sense. I can write in any number of ways for them to get their funding, etc., which could help distance their evilness from modern Catholicism.

Because I do want to fix this perception. It's most certainly too late to make things up to the angry Amazon.com reviewer, but, my mother always told me, it's never too late to try to do the right (write) thing.

My Two Favorite Words in the English Language...

..."THE END"

Yes, this means I finished last night. Now all I have to do before sending the sucker in is some polishing.

A great big huge sigh of relief.

Home Stretch... and Fun News

I have one more scene to write, then I'm done. Part of the reason this process at the end has been so slow is that I'm also doing some revisions at the same time. It's a strange thing, but despite having written several books now, I still am very anal about sending in the best product I possibly can. It's my job, you know? More than that it's my career -- my vocation.

Fun News... Tall, Dark & Dead has gone into a second printing. Never in all my life has this happened for me. To say I am thrilled would be an understatement.

Also... my editor emailed me this yesterday: "We talked about the cover for DEAD SEXY today. The publisher really praised the cover of TALL, DARK & DEAD and said we wanted a similiar look for this one. The scene we chose is the one where Garnet is taking a ritual bath in preparation for casting the love spell, Barney [the cat] glaring at her. Everyone was very enthusiastic about this idea!"

As am I... It sounds really cute!

Back to writing! And stop bugging me, Rick! [BIG TEASE] Oh, and Rick, your buddies in Iraq have been sending my alternate persona a lot of fan mail! Thanks for sending those books. I may not be into our reasons for being there, but it's fairly awesome to get "UNCLASSIFIED" email from the International Zone.

Sounds of Silence

Book due in a matter of days... can't break to blog... must keep writing.

Uranus/My-anus!

Here's the lastest "Astro Alert" from Astrology.com (because I _know_ you were wondering):

"Rest up while you can! On June 19, Uranus turns retrograde, bringing his flair for the unusual to a planet near you. Until the ruler of rebellion returns to direct motion on November 20, you may notice an increase in personality transformations or oddball news reports; indeed, the conventional wisdom for the next few months is 'Expect the unexpected.' Now, those of you with well-worn PDAs and perfectly up-to-date planners might find that advice less than reassuring. But the key to success these days is to go with the flow. That mind of yours is brimming with untapped talents and innovative ideas, and Uranus is bound and determined to set them free!

Uranus established his reputation as our solar system's renegade long ago. But this planet is very much a rebel with a cause, namely humanitarianism, creativity and breaking with tradition. During his retrograde journey, that energy -- which typically plays out on a more collective scale -- is focused inward. Is there a cause you want to get involved with? a pottery class you've had your eye on? a certain bohemian side of yourself that you haven't seen in a while? Seize this chance to celebrate your individuality and move beyond the status quo.

Of course, a period known for erratic, unusual behavior might not be the best time to act on every brilliant idea. But these upcoming months are your golden opportunity to think outside the box in ways that the 9-to-5 world of convention doesn't always allow. Experiment with new modes of expression to find the one that suits you best (pens, food, clothes, music ... no doubt you have ample tools all around you). By late November, you may find that you're ready to share what you've learned with the world."

Keeping up with the Hallaways

A very brief interview with me appeared on the Oshkosh Word Nerd blog: http://bkwriter.blogspot.com/2006/06/author-answers-with-tate-hallaway.html.

And, if you’ve ever wanted to ask yourself deep and meaningful questions about Tall, Dark & Dead, we’re having such a conversation at Coffee Time Romance (you have to register to join, but it’s free) http://coffeetimeromance.com/Boards/. Sample question (just in case you think I'm kidding): "After discovering what she/Lilith did, Garnet panics and decides to hide the bodies (with the help of her vampire ex-boyfriend Parrish) and flee the scene. What do you think might have happened if she had decided to go to the police instead? What would you have done?" Questions like this one will be asked an answered for the entire month of June!

Did I mention that I'll be at Dreamhaven Books & Comics on Tuesday, June 27 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm? This reading is sponsored by SASE: The Write Place and is free and open to the public. Dreamhaven is located at 912 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN. For directions/information call (612) 823-6161 or check out their website at http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/. There is free parking available behind the building. Come see me do my thang in full regalia.

Opposite of a Ghost Vortex?

As I watched a scruffy-looking doppelganger of "New Kitty/All Ball" slip into our garage, I suddenly had a thought. In the book GRAVE'S END the author talks about a "ghost vortex" which, I gather, is a kind of dead thing magnet on the spiritual plain. Anyway, given the number of stray cats who seem to find our backyard especially comfortable, I asked myself, "Do you suppose there’s some kind of thing like a ghost vortex, only in reverse -- a hey-this-is-a-great-spot-to-hang-out-you-living-thing vibe?"

Or do I just have some funky past life cat karma to deal with?

Grave's End

Have you ever seen a ghost?

I think I have. When I was going to school at Augsburg, the college bought up a number of houses in the neighborhood and had them demolished to make way for a parking lot. However, one of them was picked up and moved to a new location by its owners. One early morning during this elaborate house-moving process, as Shawn and I were headed off to our respective classes, we both saw a figure of a woman in the upstairs window. It was just a flash, and she was gone. When we asked each other about it, we both described her looking sad, and I thought that by the way she had her hand on her belly she was pregnant. Shawn said she hadn't wanted to say anything, but she’d gotten that impression too. Was she a ghost? Someone living saying a final good-bye to the house? Who knows?

Then there was that Halloween visitor to our house who passed through the kitchen and up the stairs that are no longer there. That one was a fast-moving ball of light about the size of a quarter, but three of us saw it.

While up at the cabin this past weekend, I read a friend's copy of Elaine Mercado's GRAVE'S END, which is billed as a true life story of a haunted house. It's a very compelling story. What makes this particular account so engaging, I think, is the fact that Elaine, the author, begins very much as a skeptic and stays one quite a long way into the memoir. She and her husband are constantly trying to come up with rational reasons for the paranormal events. Also, she talks about how the family got used to a lot of the phenomenon and how, since it wasn't a constant every day occurrence (outside of the feeling of being watched), they tended to forget about it in between episodes. It took her something like fifteen years to finally admit her house was haunted and to pursue having it "cleansed."

Throughout the book, she is just a regular person who happens to have all this weird crap happening in her house.

I think GRAVE'S END would be a good book for someone who is curious and open to the idea of ghosts, but who doesn't already believe. I guess my feeling about ghosts can be summed up this way: while at Augsburg an English professor asked us if any of us believed in the possibility of witchcraft (or something like that), and I said, "Hell, yes. I believe in the POSSIBILITY of anything."

What about you? Any ghost stories out there?

Full Moon at the Lake Cabin

I have to confess something. Despite practicing Wicca for nearly a decade, I have only rarely done rituals outside. I suppose that's like saying I’m a Catholic who never goes to Mass, but there you have it.

I understand the appeal now. Despite chilly weather (it was in the Fifties, if not colder,) having a fire going in the fire pit, the moon rising through the tall pine trees was amazing. Plus, when we talked about being between the worlds, it was true – we did our ritual at twilight, a time between day and night, and while standing on land that was between land and water.

Generally, the cabin was amazingly relaxing. It's owned by a friend of ours and is located in a small lake town in northern Wisconsin about two hours from the Twin Cities. It's one of those resort type communities, where, despite the pine trees and lake view, you can see your neighbors and still hear the hiss of the highway from across the lake. Yet, it's surprisingly peaceful. I don't know what it is about having water on your property, but it does seem to change the dynamic. It's like all those other people kind of disappear and all you focus on is that View, on the sound of waves crashing on the shore, and the haunting sound of a loon's call.

Mason loved it. Every moment was, "Can we go down to the lake? Can we go kayaking?" (Yes, my three year old LOVED the kayak and he learned how to say it.) Plus, our little city kid got to see purple martins, tree frogs (we briefly caught one), and a multitude of insect life (like daddy longlegs, water striders, crickets, and, of course, the Minnesota state bird, the mosquito.) We have most of those beasties in our own backyard, but, like cooking outdoors, somehow seeing them up at the cabin made them seem more wild, more Natural.

The whole weekend was a kind of Sabbath, a time out of time, where the focus was on family, friends, and leaving work at home. Shawn, in fact, insisted that I leave my laptop at home, and though now I feel terribly behind on finishing the book, I think she was right. It was good to take a true break and stand between the worlds.