Women’s Voices Anthology now out

I have a few cool things to announce this month. On a whim, I submitted Touched to a Young Adult Novel Discovery Contest offered by the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. The contest asks for the first 250 words and the title of your novel; but the grand prize gives the winner the opportunity to submit their manuscript to a YA literary agent and a free writing course. It was mostly a spur of the moment thing, but I have just as much of a shot any one else. They’ll announce winners in February 2010.

I received news today that the Women’s Voices in Magic anthology is now in print! Order a copy of the book online through either amazon.com or the publisher. Please note that Immanion’s US fulfillment team won’t have copies in hand until the latter half of December, but they’ll keep track of pending orders.

A Change of Pace

Now that I’m finished with my NaNoWriMo novel this year, I’ve been itching for a change in pace; a small project to get me back into short form writing. So, I spent 4 hours today writing another pagan essay.

When “Pop Culture Grimoire” came out and I saw my name in print there, I wanted more opportunities to write for the pagan community. I dream that one day I’ll have a whole book on tarot out in the stores. A few months ago, my friend Lupa put out a call for submissions on totem essays. It’s for an anthology Megalithica Press plans on releasing sometime next year. I briefly considered the idea but figured that I didn’t know much about what she wanted. She had read my tale (and excitement) about having been published and prompted me to go ahead and contribute something.

The Beltane Fire

A few months ago, me and my friend Michelle were at Bed, Bath, and Bondage (Beyond). We were shopping for a few kitchen utilities. I stumbled upon a box of “Everlasting Tealight Candles” and immediately had to have them. These tealight candles are watch-battery operated and perfect for leaving unattended in the outdoors. Which makes them perfect for festival camping. There were 26 or so in the box and I had visions of lights making a festival campsite cozy and inviting and fun. Not to mention visible when stumbling back to camp after a fun night of dancing, burning and laughing.

We used them, not all of them, but we DID use them during Beltane festival last weekend. I put two on the makeshift dining table; two sat on the table Ember brought with her; I put two in our hotel motel; and I gave one or two to Ember for her tent. They gave off some light Friday and Saturday and all was good.

Speech Honoring Mother Earth

Bee yan ilti’, shima’. You have spoken, my mother. That you, the Earth, above and below, are the embodiment of us all. As with the beat of the drum, you breathe life into us all. From the soil came the trees and the animals, and from the soil you have made us, the people. Each of our tribes are different, with beliefs and lifestyles that differ from one another. And in this difference we are also the same, one person, one voice, giving thanks to a mother that has raised us out of the kindness of her heart.

A c i d T e s t

December 11, 1996
Soc 360

He pulled the cassette tape case out from the inside of his jacket and for the first time in my life I got to see what a hit of acid truly looked like. All my friends were doing it, talking about it and loving it. It all made me curious and now my turn had come. No bigger than the tip of a pen’s cap, the tablet was black and square. And I thought all forms of acid were paper based. For only five bucks a hit, it was sitting right there, awaiting my purchase.

“This is the best the market has to offer,” he told me. “Two hits of the regular stuff is equal to one off the blotter. They call it Black Pyramid. And I’ve seen people do some kooky stuff while on this.”

Native American Religions: An Overview

September 30, 1995
History 408

There are more than 300 known Native American tribes living on the North American continent. Each with their own unique world view, belief system, rituals and ceremonies. The Indians of the great Pacific Northwest are no different. These indian’s traditional beliefs are seen within ancient mythology and stories. These stories teach certain attitudes, values and they speak of creation and why things are the way they are. Throughout the daily activities of the indians they used objects they felt were sacred representations of their beliefs. Their spiritual lives intermingled with the daily rounds. This essay attempts to place some of these practices into context, but by no means is it an exhaustive source for all Pacific Northwest Indian religious traditions (or within the nation-for that matter), it is just a smattering of ideals, objects, rituals and positions they saw fit to include in their spiritual teachings.

The Wishram : Then and Now, An Ethnohistory

August 27, 1995
Hist 408

First discovered in 1775, by Bruno de Hezeta, later named by the American Robert Gray in 1792 (Lang 1992 : 4) the Columbia River was the most densely populated in Indian tribes (Zuker, et.al. 1983 : 6). Among these people were the Chinookan Wishram who lived on the Washington side of the Lower portion of the river. This paper documents the ethnohistory of these peoples and utilizes a three section format first introduced by David French in his article “Wasco- Wishram.” This article recorded and categorized the Wishram cultural changes occurring within society and divided their history into three parts : the period from 1750 to 1858, 1858 to 1920, and 1920 to the present (which at that time was 1961). Inter dispersed among these descriptions I will go into further detail depicting the major historical events that could have lead to these changes.

Lovecraft’s Key of Destruction

November 18, 1996
Engl 499

Not much has been written on what many scholars call Lovecraft’s dreamlands fiction, from which The Silver Key is taken. The major reason is that Lovecraft, himself, wrote many letters to friends and fans describing what his fiction was all about. However, The Silver Key is a horror story in that it describes how science distracts and misleads us. The story calls the notion of reality and all that defines it into question and describes the ways that it attempts to distill knowledge and reality into a one single thing. There are two ways Lovecraft does this. The first is described in how the dream state can prove more real than a waking state. The second is that science also contributes to the destruction of the imagination, and thus the human spirit.

Getting the Pieces of the Puzzle to Fit : Create Experimental Prose Using Words

Writing a story is a lot like putting together pieces of a puzzle. The words become the individual pieces that are connected to form sentences. Although there are many different types of words and ways to assemble your story, there is only one real way to make each piece fit to match your final image of what you want your story to say. Building the puzzle of a story requires knowing what language is and how it works to create meanings.

Language gives us the ability to communicate with one another. It translates ideas, thoughts and images and can either be written or spoken. Words comprise our written language and are the tools writers use to construct fiction. Language gives the image of the story we have in our heads that fresh twist or spark. Using language we can write anything and everything. Using language is like putting together that jigsaw puzzle. It sounds simple, but if you ask most writers they will tell you it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Sight Within the Lighthouse Walls

November 19, 1995
E 389

In this world there are many different ways of interacting with others, Nature, and life. In To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf examines two very different ways of viewing life. The first reflects an interaction with life through direct communication with others. The other reflects the experience of living through sense and artistic style. Set in turn of the century Britain, the novel attempts to find the best way to interact in a quickly changing world. The novel is a journey which takes the reader through each type of personal development to come to the conclusion that survival within a quickly changing world the latter must be developed. Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, two characters within the novel, reflect each one of these types of interaction. Whereas Mrs Ramsay is a model spokesperson for the first type of development, Lily represents the artistic, introverted path to discovery.