Goddess, Revisions, and Meditations

I *do* hope to write more about my epiphany about duality, once I figure it out more. I started a new book THE MYTH OF THE GODDESS: EVOLUTION OF AN IMAGE by Anne Baring and Jules Cashford. I'll let you know if anything comes of it.

Right now, I'm concentrating on finishing up a rather major revision for HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD, which is due at the publisher in May for a '10 release. For those that have been following this blog, you probably remember I wrote most of this over the course of two months as part of a contest with a fellow writer. As a consequence, it's a bit patchy and rough. I'm actually quite fond of this kind of revision, i.e. when large section are already written. But I'm finding it hard to find enough hours in the day, what with grocery shopping, sick kid, late-night field trips for school, and such.

Given all that craziness, I'm really glad that a friend turned me on to this web site: Meditation Oasis. I've been shamelessly downloading their podcast/guided meditatoins by the fist-full for use on my .mp3 player. I have to say, if you're at all the sort who, like me, has always wanted to meditate but usually end up falling asleep... these might be for you. I'm really enjoying them, at any rate, and I'm totally the sort to conk out when I try to do it without "guidance" as it were.

Duality Sucks

I've been a student at WitchSchool.com for several months now. Despite a heavy writing load this year, I've dutifully continued my studies and have even found time to read a number of supplemental books on Wicca and Witchcraft. (The nice thing, of course, is that my writing and my religious reading intersect in so many ways!)

As part of lesson seven, I think, in the first degree program, we're encouraged to do some research into Gods and Goddess -- their history, myths, lore, etc... and I think I'm all about reclaiming the Goddess as the All.

I "blame" those feminist Dianic Wiccans for this epiphany. I'm not sure Patricia Monaghan would consider herself a Dianic (though she seems to clearly be a feminist), but that book of hers that I raved about here before (RED-HAIRED GIRL FROM THE BOG) kind of blew open my head in terms of thinking about Earth as the Mother's body.

Her book made me crave more stories about the first Goddesses, which lead me to THE GREAT COSMIC MOTHER by Monica Sjoor and Barbara Mor, which is quite unapologetically feminist and Marxist. Truth is, we just happened to have THE GREAT COSMIC MOTHER laying around. Shawn and I have a compulsion to pick up any Goddess book we stumble across at used bookstores, so we actually have a number of books like that we haven't ever read, though we've had them in the house for years. (I'm sure none of you book-a-holics out there can understand that!)

Anyway, I gave up on the GREAT COSMIC MOTHER a hundred pages into it because it's very much one of those books from the 1970s that seems intent on reminding us every paragraph that the PATRIARCHY IS BAD!!! (As my friend Naomi would say, "Patriarchy bad! Wham! Wham!" as in the sound of being smacked by a two-by-four.)

Yet... in between the pages, and after I put the book away, my brain started percolating. And the basic thought I kept returning to is: duality sucks.

What's with all this division by twos anyway? Yes, yes, there's a sun and a moon, a day and a night, boys and girls, two eyes, ears, arms, and legs.... but when did one thing become the purview of gender? What I mean is: WHY is it that traditions, like the one I'm studying at WitchSchool, always give their gods the cool powers (IE, the Goddess is involution, darkness, the moon, quiet contemplation, while the God is evolution, manifestation, light, the sun, action!) I'm sick of it. It's all ONE.

And I've decided it all comes from the feminine. You don't get more manifest that birth, damn it.

Already Off to a Bad Start

For some reason I thought TODAY was New Moon, not, uh, this coming Saturday...and now I just feel dumb. But to be fair, the rest of the day started well. The weather is very... European today. The air is moist and chilled, but the temperature is a very mild 50 (F). Most of the traveling to Europe that I did with my family was during the cheaper winter months, so this kind of cool, wet, overcast, but warm enough day always reminds me specifically of Paris.

Anyway, Mason and I took a walk this morning before school. Mason mostly ran along Summit Avenue (near my favorite coffee shop where I was FORCED, I tell you, FORCED to stop because we ran out of coffee in the house). We walked on retaining walls and played, "don't step on the cracks." Despite the cold, wet wind, it was actually very nice. I found my vision sharpening, if you will. I noticed bird's nests and the vibrant colors of the painted lady houses we passed.

I think I need to get out more....

Today also promises to be a good day because last night my friend and fellow writer Sean M. Murphy came over and critiqued my latest novel, HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD, which is due at the publishers in a couple of months. I'd written a very rough frame very quickly and I needed some professional help... er, as it were. Anyway, last night we had an awesome brainstorm session and I really feel ready today to conquer the draft and make it a real novel, Ghepetto.

Wish me luck.

Awesome Poetry

This is from GODDESS COMPANION by Patricia Monaghan (my new favorite writer on pagan/Goddess subjects:

I am the goddess, mistress of the land.
It is I who created the unbreakable laws.
It is I who divided earth and heaven.
It is I who charted the stars.
It is I who set the moon and sun overhead.
It is I who ordered the tides.
It is I who brought men and women together
and I who created all the mysteries.
It is I who made justice stronger than wealth,
and I who designed penalties for evil.
It is I who first created mercy,
and I who metes it out.
I am the queen of the earth and wind and sea,
queen of the thunder, queen of the sun.
Only I can overcome fate.
Only I can overcome death.

-----Song of Isis, Egypt

It is I who added the emphasis, but today with all the economic injustice that's being practiced that line really sang to me.

Spring Equinox Eve

My household is a twitter with the excitement of the impending spring equinox. The eggs are decorated. The altar is set. Birds are chirping excitedly just beyond the windows. The cats nap happily in a pool of sunshine on the porch. And this morning, in my back yard, I had a face-to-snout encounter with Peter Rabbit, himself, the grand old hare.

I was headed out on garbage detail, and I whipped open the garden gate. There he sat: a huge, powerful, old rabbit. He, of course, bolted the instant he saw me. But when I calmly explained that I wasn't a predator and meant no harm, his ears twitched, and he stood still, pretending, of course, he was an invisible rabbit-shaped stone.

Being the sort I am, I left my garbage bags there and went to do some other outside work, thinking he'd scatter if I left him alone. Nope. He was still there when I returned with a bag of leaves (and garbage! yuck!) that I'd raked from the front boulevard and street gutters. Very slowly, I took the leaf bag and one of the abandoned garbage bags back to the alley. He watched me with large, beady eyes, but must have figured his old stone-trick was working, because he didn't budge. I bid him farewell since I had more to do out front, but when I came back with a second bag... he was still there.

I finally decided it was chilly enough out that I needed to finish up and go in, so I snuck the remaining bags past him. He finally left some time after I returned with the broom that I retrieved from the garage to sweep the dirt from the sidewalk.

Seemed auspicious, don't you think?

Gardening Dreams

Despite frost on my window shield this morning, the scent of spring is finally reaching the frozen north. Mason still has to wear boots to school, but now it's mostly to keep his toes dry while he stomps in the muddy puddles. There are still a few recalcitrant piles of dirty ice and snow in my back yard, but more and more ground is peeking through. At Crossroads this morning, I even saw a few, brave green sprouts of hosta (or perhaps tulips) poking through the ground.

I'm starting to look at seed catalogues in earnest. This year I'm planning two new gardening projects. The first one is a meditation/memorial area in the spiral herb garden. There's a section of deep shade near the neighbor's garage wall that Shawn has been considering for a mediation garden. Since very little grows in such dense shade, we're thinking about laying some paving stones and filling in much of the rest of the area with ferns, hostas, and perhaps a few native, woodland flowers like Virginia bluebells, jack-in-the-pulpit, and Dutchman's breeches. Shawn would also like a few bleeding hearts and other shade tolerant flowers to soften the area. We've got a Japanese lantern for decoration, and we're going to buy a bit of bamboo fencing to soften the neighbor's garage wall. She also wants a glider rocker out there, though we have a bench that says "Sit a Spell" courtesy of our friend Sean.

I took this photo of the area in late February, and I've been taking shots every now and again to get a sense of the light and "feel" of the space.

The other big gardening project I'm considering is planting a boulevard garden. Thanks to a lot of trees, we really don't have a lot of hot, sunny spots for flowers and Shawn would love a cutting garden. I'm thinking that the boulevard might be just the place, especially since Saint Paul actually encourages boulevard plantings and has published a guide on how-to, which I picked up some summers ago.

Can you tell I'm ready for Spring?

Up for a Lammy!

The anthology PERIPHERY was just short-listed for the 21st Lambda Award in the lesbian erotica catagory. My alter ego has a short story, "ishtartu" included in that, so a round of applause goes out to her... er, me!

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has finally come to Minnesota.

Friday I complained about my car door being stuck, and over the weekend temperatures climbed into the 50s (F). You've got to love Minnesotans: a little sun goes straight to their heads. I saw FOUR young men in shorts. Despite patches of unmelted snow, Mason and I broke out his bicycle and we zipped around the block. We took a walk up to Ax-Man (a surplus store that is well worth the visit if you're ever in Saint Paul -- they have all sorts of funky remaindered things like parts of baby dolls, electronic bits and pieces, to things like an iron lung and a dentist's chair.)

I also put the finishing touches on my Ostara altar. WitchSchool is having a contest and I can hardly resist a little friendly competition, so, of course, I had to enter. The picture is a bit blurry, but here's what it looks like:

I made almost everything... including painting the stencil on the altar cloth. I have this great book of Celtic knot work stencils and I photocopied the goose knots and goose from there, cut it out with the exacto (which I finally found! Thanks Shawn!), traced it onto the cloth (an old shirt), and painted over the lines with puffy fabric paint. Here's a close-up:

Do I Live Here? (And Why?)

Sometimes I wouldn't be able to find my own a$$ if it wasn't attached. Today, all I really want is an exacto knife. I know Shawn has one. I *thought* she kept it with her scrapbooking stuff, but it's not there (or... I didn't see it.) I want the exacto because I'm working on my Ostara altar cloth. WitchSchool is having a competition and I have never been able to resist competitions. Shawn, being the crafty one, also has a book of Celtic knotwork stencils which I did find, and I discovered an awesome knot of geese which I think would be cool for the border. Now all I need is an exacto. Can I find one? No.

In the why do I live here news, I'm sick of my car. Any day we wake up and it's freezing (as in 32F/0C) or below outside, one or both of the front car doors freeze shut (or won't latch, depending on the whim of whatever demon has bedeviled my car). Do you know how many days are below freezing in Minnesota? A lot. Yesterday (or maybe Tuesday) morning, in fact, I had to do the classic Minnesota winter hairdrier trick before I could even leverage my keys in between the door the frame to pop it open. I was funny the first hundred or so times, but it's becoming an every day thing... and deeply annoying.

What's frustrating is that, honestly, for Minnesota... this isn't that cold. I'm okay with the idea that I might have to run an extension cord from my garage to the street when there are -40F wind chills, but at 32F many Minnesotans start talking about heat waves and we all smile a bit brighter as the icicles start melting in the sunshine. 32F is a good, warm day for March, damn it. I shouldn't have to be standing outside with a hairdrier pointed at my car door lock. That's just... annoying.

Deeply annoying.

Especially since outside of this one quirk, Steve (our car) runs like a dream. It's even vaguely green, since it's flexible fuel and could run Ethenol if any gas station nearby carried it any more. If it wasn't silver -- a color I find very boring, and it seems to be difficult for other motorist to notice -- it'd be fairly perfect. Except the door thing.

At least spring seems to be coming. I mean, hell, it's warm out (32F)!! And I had a gardening dream last night, even.

A Bit of Me Elsewhere

I did an interview about publicity over at Writerly So. Check it out.

On-Line Murder Trial Class

****PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED AND ENCOURAGED!!*****

Announcing the Heart of Carolina Romance Writer's April Online Workshop: April 2009 Workshop
How to Try a Murder
Instructor: Lucinda D. Schroeder
When: April 1-30, 2009
Cost: $20 for HCRW and CRW Members, $25 for All Others

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Before your protagonist can break the rules, she has to know them! Learn the facts about legal procedures and how they can go awry. To thicken the drama in your story, stir in entrapment, illegal searches, tainted evidence, tampered juries, and badgered witnesses. Lucinda Schroeder, a career federal agent and author, will give you countless ideas on how to cause trouble before, during and after a murder trial. Don’t be guilty of missing this class!

SPEAKER BIO
Lucinda D. Schroeder has a BA degree in Criminology and is a retired federal agent who worked in the field for 30 years. She is also the author of "A Hunt for Justice," a creative non-fiction based on one her cases. Lucinda uses her writer’s perspective to focus on legal and administrative procedures that writers can best exploit for plot twisters and added tension. She also has a multitude of true stories that are sure to stir your muse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Cost for the workshop is $20 for HCRW and Carolina Romance Writers members, $25 for all others. All fees payable in US dollars only. The workshop will run from April 1-30. Registration deadline is March 25th 2009. Once registered, you will be subscribed to the workshop loop prior to and for the duration of the class. To register, please visit the HCRW website at: www.heartofcarolina.org and click on the Online Workshops page.

You may pay by check made out to HCRW or by credit card (via Paypal on the site). PLEASE NOTE: You do not need a PayPal account to use PayPal and you may pay by credit card through PayPal. However, if you want to join this class, but prefer to pay by check or money order, please print the registration form and send your check or money order made to payable to HCRW in US funds. The mailing address is:

HCRW Online
PO Box 811
Louisburg, NC 27549

You may contact the coordinator at : HCRWonline@heartofcarolina.org with questions. If you pay for a workshop and do not receive an invitation to join the workshop loop by the first of the month,please contact Elizabeth at HCRWonline@heartofcarolina.org. Cancellation and refund policy: No registration fees will be refunded. All payments for a workshop must be received by the registration cut off date. Late payments can be applied to a future workshop of the applicant's choosing. If a workshop does not have 10 students enrolled by the first of the month, the workshop will be canceled and registration fees will be applied to a future workshop of the applicant's choosing. Hope to see you in class!

Heart of Carolina Romance Writers ~ RWA Chapter 114
Jodie Pearson www.heartofcarolina.org President,
Heart of Carolina Romance Writers RWA® Chapter 114
Raleigh, North Carolina

Oh, hi... How Long Have You Been Standing There?

So, I've actually been busier than you'd think. First of all, I had a lot to say about something someone said at MarsCON both at Wyrdsmiths and on Livejournal.

Then I had a crazy lady show up at my house and either try to scam me or sell me something... I'm still not entirely sure.

Oh, and then Realms of Fantasy magazine was pulled from the ashes of a firey grave... though that has nothing to do with me, it's just cool.

And I wrote a lot.

You?

Sex Scene Writing On-Line Class

**Permission to forward granted and encouraged**

Yosemite Romance Writers is proud to present their online workshop for April.

Date: 4/6 - 5/1/09

Workshop title: Creating Effective Sex Scenes

Writing about sex in our stories is often a literary mine field. You can easily find yourself caught up in clichés, aphorisms, and euphemisms. You might end up romanticizing or depersonalizing sex, or find the genuine emotion connected with it so difficult to capture that you exaggerate or pull away. This four-week course gives you a lot of strategies and tips that make it unnecessary to fade to black. You learn the key elements of a well-crafted sex scene and how sex in your stories can enhance and promote character, plot, and theme. You also learn how to use language that is sensory, specific, and thoughtful to create scenes you love (and others will too). By the end of the course, you have in hand one-to-two new scenes.

About the instructor: Jessica Barksdale Inclán

Jessica Barksdale Inclán's debut novel Her Daughter's Eyes, published in 2001, was the premier novel published under New American Library's new imprint Accent. Her Daughter's Eyes was a final nominee for the YALSA Award for the best books of 2001 and best paperbacks for 2001 and has been published in Dutch and Spanish. Her next novel The Matter of Grace was published in May 2002 and was re-released in a mass market version in May 2004. Her third, When You Go Away, came out April 1, 2003. Her fourth, One Small Thing, was published April 2004, and has been published in Dutch and Spanish. Her fifth, Walking With Her Daughter, was published in April 2005. The Instant When Everything is Perfect was published in February 2006. In June 2006, she published the first in a trilogy from Kensington Books. When You Believe was followed by Reason to Believe and Believe in Me. Being with Him--the first in a second trilogy, was published February 2008 and the second, Intimate Beings, is due out October 2008.. She is a 2002 recipient of the CAC Artist's Fellowship in Literature. Inclán teaches composition, creative writing, mythology, and women's literature at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California, and on-line creative writing courses for UCLA extension. She has studied with Sharon Olds, Anne Lamott, Kate Braverman, Grace Paley, Marjorie Sandor, and Cristina Garcia. Her short stories and poems have appeared in Rockhurst Review, Hotwired, The Salt Hill Journal, Free Lunch, The West Wind Review, The Prairie Star, Gargoyle and many other journals and newspapers. Her short story Open Eyes was given first prize by Sandra Cisneros for El Andar magazine's 2000 writing contest. She co-edited a women's literature/studies textbook Diverse Voices of Women (Mayfield Publishing, 1995). Ms. Inclán has degrees in sociology and English literature from CSU Stanislaus and a Master's degree in English literature from SFSU. Ms. Inclán lives in Oakland, California and is currently at work on her next novel.

Deadline to register: 4/5/09

Fee: $20 YWR members; $25 non-members. RWA Membership isn't required; Anyone can take our courses.

Where to sign up: You may register online at our website. Please click the Pay Now button and follow the instructions for Paypal, then EMAIL us at Workshops@YosemiteRomanceWrtiers.com to Confirm. You may also YRW at YosemiteRomanceWriters@YosemiteRomanceWriters.com. For any other Questions.

Thank you for considering our workshops!!

Sandra Marlow Vice President, YRW Yosemite Romance Writers http://WWW.yosemiteromancewriters.com

MarsCON Schedule

I'm going to be in attendance (mostly as my alter-go, however,) at MarsCON this weekend. It will be at the Holiday Inn Select in lovely Bloomington, Minnesota, where there is still several inches of snow on the ground.

Here is my annotated schedule:

Friday, March 6
9:00 - 9:45 pm
HOW TO SURVIVE A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

A small group of people, who have made it be their hobby to think about what to do when zombies infest the world, share their knowledge with those who are willing to accept it. Instructions on locations, weapons, and specific situations will be explained with questioning throughout out the whole thing.
With Brian LaBounty, Jr., Kevin Berg, Erik Pakieser, Lyda Morehouse[1]

Saturday, March 7
Noon - 12:45 pm
BROAD UNIVERSE RAPID-FIRE READING

A series of twelve minute readings by Broad Universe members. BU promotes work of women SF/F/H writers
Catherine Lundoff, hoest: Kimberly Long-Ewing, Lyda Morehouse, Catherine Schaff-Stump[2]

Saturday, March 7
1:00 - 1:45 pm
GOOD THINGS IN SMALL PACKAGES

Small and medium press publishing for sf/f/h writers and readers: what's out there? What are the differences between presses that do POD (print on demand), ebooks, and small print runs? What's in it for writers? For readers?
Catherine Lundoff (mod); Roy C. Booth, Rob Callahan, Lyda Morehouse, Bryan Thao Worra [3]

Saturday, March 7
3:00 - 3:45 pm
TRUE BLOOD TO TWILIGHT

Vampires in literature, films, television, comics, and games (Radio perhaps?)
Cythnia Booth (mod); Jeanne Cavols, Jessie Berg, Roy C. Booth, Lyda Morehouse, Jason D. Wittman. [4]

Saturday, March 7
10:00 - 10:45 pm
THE DAY STAR WARS DIED FOR ME

Come discuss with your fellow panelists the day the Star Wars saga died for you.
With: Ben Ellis, Romeo Azar, Lyda Morehouse, Roy C. Booth, Cynthia Booth. [5]

------

End Notes:

[1] It should be noted that I am not at my best any time after, say, eight at night. Also, I'm not actually a zombie expert at all, and so the "questions" part will probably be me.

[2] I'm currently thinking about reading a short segment of my short story "The VanBuylen Effect" which appeared in the 09 issue of Tales of the Unanticipated because it's, like, the only SF I really have.

[3] I signed up for this panel to get the scoop on the small press deal, since I'm going to have a novel published by a small press for the first time this fall (provided, of course, I finish it on time.) I'm also hoping to provide, if necessary, the counter point of someone who's had years of experience with a New York publisher as well.

[4] Vampires! Finally!

[5] Another late-night-out-of-my-element panel for me, but Romeo is awesome so I may drag myself back to the con in order to have this conversation with him.

Local Announcement -- Copyright Workshop

Tuesday March 10, 2009:
Who Owns What? Learn about permissions and copyright

On Tuesday, March 10 at 1 PM, the Twin Cities chapters of the National Writers Union and the Professional Editors Network will hold a free workshop abou t permissions and copyright and other intellectual property issues concernin g writers and editors.

Location: St. Louis Park Library, 3240 Library Lane, St. Louis Park. Two attorneys—Debra Kass Orenstein and Kenneth Kunkle-- will explain copyright and permissions.

Literary property lawyer Debra Kass Orenstein is in private practice representing writers, publishers, and agents all over the country. She has worked in the legal departments of Harper & Row (now Harper Collins) and McGraw Hill and was General Counsel to the Lazear Agency in Minneapolis. Attorney Kenneth Kunkle’s practice focuses on legal issues affecting creative professionals. He assists his clients with a variety of matters, including copyright, trademarks, licensing and general business issues.

Please join us for this FREE event! For more details about the Twin Cities National Writers Union, visit www.nwu-tc.org For more details about the Professional Editors Network, visit www.pensite.org

TGI-March!!

February 2009 is going to always be remembered in my household as the month everyone was sick. We started off the month quite nicely with a poetry party in honor of Brigid, but after that, everything pretty much went to hell in a hand basket.

The very day of our party, Mason got sick. Turns out he had strep AND what the doctor described as a "macho" cold. That took him (and his mom, Shawn, who is susceptible to ANY virus that comes into the mere vicinity of her) out for at least a week. Then, in my fool hearty way, I mocked the virus's ability to take me down. "Ha," I bragged on my livejournal, "I have the constitution of an ox. It'll never get me!!!"

Famous last words, no?

So I, who so rarely get sick, was completely knocked on my a$$ for a week and a half.

At some point in here, Shawn fell down our stairs, hurt her back (she's always had a bad back -- a herniated disc(k?), and got a migraine that last ten days (the worst she's ever had.

The calendar changed, and POOF! We all got better.

I have never been happier that it's March in all my life.

My project for today is to get back on track, and I can't say it's started out all that well. I headed off to the gym this morning after dropping Mason off at school and discovered that I'd forgotten to repack my tennis shoes. As I didn't think I'd get much of a work out done in snow boots, I gave up and went home.

So now I'm sitting in front of the computer gathering notes for the next book project (Honeymoon of the Dead is in the hands of a beta reader: SMM, whom I hope to get some good advice about ASAP), which is the small press project for my alter ego. I had a brilliant flash about it last night, and that is that I'm planning to try to make it read like a faux memoir. I just read a really great memoir by Patricia Monaghan called RED-HAIRED GIRL FROM THE BOG, which I devoured in three days (very unusual for a slow-reading dyslexic like me) and I thought, "Hmmm, normally I despise the form of memoir, but maybe this is the structure I've been needing. Because then I don't have to tell things in chronological order!"

Wish me luck. This will be the sixth time I've re-started this novel.

How-to Write Pirates! (On-Line Class)

***Permission to Forward***

Class: Bringing Pirates to Life
Instructor: Cindy Vallar
Dates: April - May, 2009
Registration Deadline: April 1, 2009
Fee: $10/HHRW members, $20/others
For Registration Form: http://heartsthroughhistory.com/classreg.htm
FMI: HHRW Campus Coordinator: classes@heartsthroughhistory.com

Class Description: Peter Blood in Captain Blood, Long John Silver in Treasure Island, and Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean conjure up images of buried treasure, black schooners, wooden legs, eye patches, vibrant parrots, walking the plank, and swashbuckling swordsmen. Are these accurate portrayals of pirates? Some are, some aren't. This workshop explores the differences between the reality and mythology of piracy, and how writers can create believable characters that fit within historical parameters. We will look at why individuals became pirates, who's who on a pirate ship, the rules governing pirates, individuals who interacted with or encountered pirates, and other aspects of maritime life an author needs to know to write a pirate romance. Cindy enhances the workshop with a timeline and three resource bibliographies - maritime, storms at sea, and piracy. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss 2 character profiles - one a major character, the other a minor character - and the type of ship the characters might use in the novel. At the end of the workshop, Cindy offers to provide a free edit of a chapter from participants' manuscripts involving pirates.

Bio: A retired librarian, Cindy Vallar began researching pirates in college while working on The Rebel and the Spy, a historical novel about Jean Laffite and the Battle of New Orleans. She is the Editor of Pirates and Privateers, a monthly column on the history of maritime piracy. She also reviews piratical and maritime fiction and non-fiction books, and maintains an annotated list of the best piracy and maritime sites on the web. She is the Associate Editor of Industry for Solander, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society, and writes the "Red Pencil" column where she profiles authors and compares a piece from their published novels with an early draft of that work. She also reviews for their journal, Historical Novels Review. She is a freelance editor and an editor for Wings Press. She belongs to the Historical Novel Society, the Texas Coalition of Authors, the Laffite Society, the Louisiana Historical Society, the National Maritime Historical Society, and the Red River Branch of Clan Cameron. She is the author of The Scottish Thistle, her debut historical novel about Scotland's Rising of 1745, and Odin's Stone, a romantic short story of how the Lord of the Isles settled the medieval feud between the MacKinnons and MacLeans on the Isle of Skye. She invites you to visit her award-winning web site, Thistles & Pirates (http://www.cindyvallar.com/), to learn more.

Past Workshop Participants' Comments:

Your course presented what I as a writer wanted to know about the times-not just straight history. - Judith Hanes

Your course has been extraordinary to say the least. Thank you for the extensive information and feedback you've offered. - Kathleen Kirwood, His Fair Lady (Signet)

Your ability to put a lot of information in a succinct and entertaining fashion is truly amazing. - Elizabeth Bryant

I use a lot of what I learned in your class in pirate history presentations that I give for groups of seniors and at public libraries. - Claire Britton-Warren, Tales of the Seven Seas Pirate Reenactors

This has been one of the most awesome and informative courses I've ever taken. I feel like I could be a pirate. - Judy Soifer

Format: Course is conducted via Yahoo Groups email with lessons and Q&A

Dolly Domestic

This is "Flo" (as in Ice Flo) that Mason and I built in the back yard today. The temperatures were reported to be in the 40s, and I can believe it. So the melty snow was perfect for building this fabulous snow lady. (She's got a GREAT hat, no?)

Then I pretty much did in my entire dolly domestic quotient by baking and decorating spring cookies today as well.

Finally, Waxing Moon!

I've really been feeling the various moon phases in terms of writing this year. Last night, I actually started really thinking about my book again and I realized, looking at the moon calendar in the bathroom, that it was NEW MOON. Weird, huh?

In other news, I swear Hotmail eats my really thoughtful responses to my WitchSchool Study Group questions. One of the mentors on the list asked if there was anything about Wicca that we could change, big or small, what would it be and why. (An excellent, thought-provoking question, IMHO). And as I was falling asleep last night I thought about what I wanted to say. I wrote this wonderful response this morning about how, in the beginning of Silver Ravenwolf's book TO STIR A MAGIC CAUDLRON she tells this story about a guy who phones her and is looking for help with somekind of magical / psychic attack. She asks him what daily devotions he's doing, and he replies with a stunned: uh, none. She's righteously indignant about this, but the story always left me wondering why. It's not like the spiritual aspects of Wicca are emphasized at all -- particularly in the "beginning" or introductory books. In fact, Ravenwolf herself doesn't really bring up the subject until her second big "how-to" book. (TO RIDE A SILVER BROOMSTICK being sort of her first one.) If you skimmed most beginning Wicca books, you'll likely see tons more spells to get you stuff entries than ones on how to live a compassionate, decent life....

So what I said I'd like to change was that sense that Wicca is mostly a "what do I get if I burn this particular color of candle" instead of a "how do I become a better person more in touch with the divine" kind of gig.

It was really nice and thoughtful and...

Hotmail seems to have eaten it.

Grr.

NYT Best Seller!

According to Toni LP Kelner, MANY BLOODY RETURNS has done it again; we debuted at #29 on the NYT Trade Paperback Best Seller List! Go team!

This is one of those successes that I really wish I could say I had more to do with, but I can only hope that half of the people out there who read the book for Charlaine Harris or Jim Butcher or whomever else they really bought the book for reads my story and thinking, "Hmmm, not bad. I'll have to go look for something else by her."