Occult Garden Parties

Welcome to the Summer (Lammas) edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. Navigation links for the Hop: Previous blog / MasterList / Next blog The subject for this Tarot Blog Hop is whether or not changing one's name, changes one's vibration enough to change one's destiny. Let's just say that I have been a guinea pig for this theme--given that I am now known more by one of my pen-names (professionally and socially).  Why I had to use a pen-name as a writer When I first become interested in becoming a writer, I studied the careers of the writers who inspired me. Many of them used pen-names--my favorite being Robert Heinlein, who used three besides his own name (Anson MacDonald, Caleb Saunders, and Lyle Monroe). Heinlein used his pseudonyms for branding purposes, to sell stories of lesser merit (at a discount, of course), and to allow himself to sell more material without seemingly flooding the market. Therefore, in my universe, a writer is allowed to use as many pen-names as

I have been asked these questions more than once, so I am just going to post the answers here for everyone to see.  What is my planned occult book production schedule? What order are the planned books going to be published in? And what is the basic format going to be? Let's start with the last question first, shall we? Planned format of upcoming occult books The planned format is a series of fifty-thousand word books, divided up in five ten-thousand word sections. The style will be the more humorous conversational tone that I have adapted over the last couple of years.* And the focus for the most part (with a couple of exceptions) will be the what one of my critics call "Wiccanifying Golden Dawn"--which should be described more as "borrowing Golden Dawn toys and tools for the use in Wicca."** The series of books (which will be published under the umbrella series name-- Occult Garden Parties ) are going to take the form of ebooks as well as printed books d

Service A loaf of bread. That is why I ended up enlisting in the New Egyptian Allied Astronautics and Support Services. A stale loaf of bread. There is a myth that people join the armed services because they are patriotic. Maybe after getting your head stuffed with lessons straight from the Ministry of Doctrine and Enlightenment, if you are a citizen of the Holy American Protectorate; art from the Ministry of Art and Humanity, if you live on one of the Free American Islands; field trips to see the war debris that litters the Ring of Defiance, if you happen to live in the Free City-State of Denver, maybe after that you might be a patriot. Maybe then, you will join for patriotic reasons. That was not me. The closest thing I got to being patriotic was the annual block party celebrating armistice. I like watching fireworks, especially the Catherine Wheels and Thor Hammers. The only thing I like better on Armistice Day is the food. Of course, that was because of my home life.

Welcome to the Spring Equinox Tarot Blog Hop. Or as I like call it--"Reading Tarot with the help of a cat." For those who are reading more than just my blog, here are the links that you need to navigate the rest of the Tarot Blog Hop. Previous Blog   Master List Next blog  Without further ado. . . For this Tarot Blog Hop, we were given two topics—for those who have two blogs—or as I am going to call the topics, “The bread that surrounds whatever my muse wanted to write about.” And while I have another blog—I am no longer supporting it with new posts because my writing style has changed—so both topics are going to be done right here. It is not ambition—I just like to talk. The first topic was "Out of the whole deck, what card or cards would you say represent you either professionally or personally? As always these are just guides, if your muse wants to play about and take you on a journey that is perfect, as long as its within the refrain of the topic, be

Welcome to the first Tarot Blog Hop of the 2019 season. Can you believe that this is the beginning of year eight for this community of awesome bloggers and Tarot/oracle readers? A big round of applause for our little community of writers. Navigation Links for those who are hopping along with us (also at end of post) Previous blog Master List Next blog Are you a fan? Our new fan group on Facebook  One day when loading the dishwasher "Gee, mister writer-man, where do you get your ideas? How do you come up with wonderful ideas to delight young and old? And does it come in a convenient six-pack?" Some days, I need to write and I have no idea what to write. The key to writing a big enough backlist to make a living as a novelist is to write every day. Every day. Every damn day. Even when you have no clue what to write next. And then there are those days when not only do you need to come up with ideas for yourself, but you need an idea (a writing prompt) for on

This year is going to be a very busy year for me. I have a boatload of projects that I want to work on. Far more than I can reasonably plan on finishing--but what else is new? Because giving Ancient Egyptians rockets is a neat idea. The project that is closest to completion is Astronauts and Snakeheads (original working title: Mercury Forty-Two). And this is a big surprise; given that at this time last year, it was even thought of yet. Two years ago, I decided to do a relaunch of my career. Over the last decade, the book market has changed--in the sense that Amazon is now the biggest pimp of books in the world. Authors, both indie and traditional, now have a better idea of how to turn the current sales environment to their own advantage. Many of the front runners in the current market have written books about the best practices that they are using. Originally, I expected to be much further in my reinvention of myself at this point. But my mother-in-law's death delayed thi