Tag Archives: writing

Fate Magazine Reanimated

When pre-writing the blog post on dining above the dead (something best done while walking the dogs), I was thinking about how it was perfect for Fate magazine.

Digression 1: Dog-walking is not all that meditative, because Something Always Happens, like this morning when they charged off through nine-inch-deep snow to try to catch some wild turkeys.

Digression 2: If the reporter were on the ball, she would re-write her story for Fate or another magazine. Get paid twice for the same work—that is the secret of freelancing.

So it occurred to me, crossing the gully between the county road and my house on Tuesday night pre-bed dog walk, that I had not seen a copy of Fate since last spring. Had it been sucked into the magazine death pool?

I checked the Web site, however, and it promised a new issue soon.

Editor-in-chief Phyllis Galde tells me, “The July/Aug is at the printer, and we will turn around immediately and get the Sept./Oct. one printed.”

She promises an “awesome” new Web site but complained that the Web designer and the printing plant crew were all sick with the flu.

So Fate is reanimated, I hope. I miss it. Where else can you get a good ghost story?

The graphic has nothing to do with the magazine. Just some Halloween cheer. You can get it on a T-shirt.

Gallimaufry with Snow

Snow has been falling all day, and I am working on a lengthy book review, so here are some links:

• Sannion has the best idea for a New Testament zombie novel, and everyone wants him to write it. Already, I would not look at the book of Acts the same again ever.

• Hrafnkell Haraldsson has produced a string of thought-provoking posts, so go read A Heathen’s Day.

• Witchdoctor Joe writes on “Samhainophobia Vs Samhainsensationalism.”

• The photo is part of our outdoor shrine.

• I have visited England twice but never been to Glastonbury. Still, I keep an eye on its thriving retail scene through this blog.

Harry Potter Fans not all that into Magic, Witchcraft

Glancing back at Oberon Zell’s sporadic blog, I see mention of the “Azkatraz” Harry Potter convention in San Francisco last July. (Scroll down to the “Escape from Azkatraz” subhead in Aug. 1, 2009 entry.)

The Zells took a vendor space for their Mythic Images business of New Age, Pagan, and Goddess-oriented images, etc.

But it was not a very successful show, as Oberon notes:

And that gets me to the second important lesson we learned: Harry Potter fans aren’t interested in Wizardry, Witchcraft, Magick, an online school, or anything that isn’t specifically and only about the Harry Potter stories and characters. The only successful vendor was the one selling licensed trademark Harry Potter merchandise—such as Hogwarts House patches and regalia, movie replica wands, Harry Potter games and toys—and pointy hats. I bought a really nice new one,as well as several books from the book vendors. And we sold two copies of the A Wizard’s Bestiary: A Menagerie of Myth, Magic, and Mystery by managing to convince some folks that the magickal beasts featured in the Harry Potter stories could be found in this book. This is true, and I do hope they’ll go on to read about other beasties as well.

I don’t doubt his observations. It’s not that the Harry Potter books “drive children to witchcraft,” it is more that some Pagan Witches hope that Potter-readers will wonder what real witchcraft is. Most, however, probably will not, having enjoyed the stories just as stories.

I Got the Whole Nine Yards, Scot Free

Nine well-known phrases whose origin most people get wrong.

10 Books That Don’t Get Enough Respect

Via Prof. Reynolds, Brian Francis Slattery’s “ten books that don’t get enough respect.”

And the only one that I have read is Little, Big, because I have been a John Crowley fan since high school.

Some of the others looks interesting. Nostromo is in the class of “always heard of it but never read it.”

Priestess Honored by Cherry Hill Seminary

Judy Harrow, Wiccan priestess and teacher, has been honored by having Cherry Hill Seminary’s online library named for her.

Don’t go looking for the libary yet–it is under construction. And it will be entirely digital, since Cherry Hill offers primarily online classes.

CHS blurbs thusly:

A Wiccan priestess since 1977, Harrow founded Proteus Coven in 1981, and held several leadership offices for Covenant of the Goddess, on both national and regional levels, including National First Officer in 1984. She founded the Pagan Pastoral Counseling Network in 1982, and served as the first editor of the Network’s publication. Harrow co-created a successful workshop series, “Basic Counseling Skills for Coven Leaders,” which grew into a series of intensive workshops for Pagan elders on a range of topics. She also founded the New York Area Coven Leaders’ Peer Support Group, and served as Program Coordinator for the first Mid-Atlantic Pan-Pagan Conference and Festival, as well as several other Pagan gatherings.

I would add that Judy has been preaching about the need for professional counseling education for coven leaders as long as I have known her, and she followed her own advice.

She is also the author or editrix of Spiritual Mentoring: A Pagan Guide, Devoted To You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice, and Wicca Covens: How to Start and Organize Your Own.

One bit of bibilographic essay writing missing from that list is her contributions to the 50th anniversary edition of Gerald Gardner’s Witchcraft Today. Since we are still waiting for a scholarly biography of Gardner, her two essays included in that edition, “Looking Backward: Gardner’s Sources” and “Looking Forward: Gardner’s Hunches,” should be read by everyone studying Wiccan history.

On the Road

I leave today for the annual CESNUR conference on new religious movements, to be held this year in Salt Lake City, so you know which not-so-new-anymore religious movement will be heavily discussed in the presentations.

My paper is a thrown-together mess, but at least it has me thinking about how it could become the introduction to a book that I could write—or co-write, perhaps. More on that as it develops.

Concentration and Its Enemies — II

I blogged recently on concentrating on one’s work in an online world … wait, I have to check some blogs … OK, I’m back.

At John Tierney’s blog the discussion continues. All sorts of perspectives:

Fortunately, I am able to focus, but one of the reasons is because I have schizophrenia, although now it is in remission

What are the dogs barking at?

Another commenter says,

I sometimes find that low-volume, rhythmic, bass background sounds (e.g., the thrumming of an airplane’s engine, some examples of techno music) help me to concentrate, or, at least, to concentrate on material that doesn’t require my full attention.

I concur. (movie reference–got to look it up.) An iPod loaded with “trance” or some techno music can indeed put me in a bubble where I can get some kinds of work done.

Hey, look, a kitty!

Concentration and Its Enemies

When I compare working at home now to the last time I did it (1990-1992), I can see the difference in three letters: DSL.

When email meant dial-up and Compuserve charging me by the minute, I monitored my online time carefully.

Now concentration comes harder. Sometimes I work in the guest cabin, because it has no telephone — not even a cell-phone signal — and of course no Web access.

Furthermore, says Winifred Gallagher, author of Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, “multitasking is a myth.”

“You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it’s either this or it’s that.” She points to calculations that the typical person’s brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime.

“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she said. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing? You’re constantly making choices, and your choices determine your experience, just as William James said.”

A Boy and his Dog

Jason Pitzl-Waters blogs on the PanGaia-newWitch merger, a sign of the times.

I knew the announcement was coming but decided to respect the publisher’s embargo, something that I prided myself on not doing back when I was a reporter in a two-newspaper city (which now feels like saying “back when I rode for the Pony Express.”)

For those of you who read the newest–and last–PanGaia and the article “The Brightest Lights in Our Sky: Today’s Most Influential Pagans,” let me say that I am humbled to be included.

And the “friend” in the photo is Jack. Chesador’s Hardscrabble Jack, to use his full name, which no one ever does. He will, however, answer to “Jack–yes, you, damn it–do you see any other Chessie named Jack?”

Today was his thirteenth birthday, and M. and I toasted him with champagne at dinner.

In about two weeks, I will be at the Florida Pagan Gathering, where I am scheduled to give a couple of talks, which prospect is fairly terrifying. Must write, must write.