Winds of Change

The appearance whirlwind is nearly over for the year, with only the Real Witches Ball over Samhain weekend and a workshop/book signing at Philosophers Stone in Kalamazoo Michigan left on the slate for 2005. As fun as it has been getting out and meeting everyone, I must admit that I’m looking forward to taking a short break before getting to work on my next book. And what will be the topic of my next book? Well, it’s a bit early to let the cat out of the bag, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to allow you a small glimpse inside the sack.

New Page Books, the publisher of my last book Advancing the Witches’ Craft, were fascinated by the unique approach that my wife and I take towards running and teaching a coven, so in a nutshell, that will be the main focus of my next work. This book will be a bit more mainstream than my previous works (without being fluffy), because all indications have led me to the conclusion that the magickal community as a whole isn’t as ready for the heavy-duty advanced texts they’ve (supposedly) been asking for. The sad truth is that the large retail chain booksellers and (surprisingly) the majority of metaphysical specialty shops tend to either avoid or keep low stock of advanced texts, simply because they don’t sell as well as mainstream titles do. As a fledgling author, this has left me in the undesirable situation of either going mainstream for a time, or risking the real possibility of fading into obscurity before I’ve established myself as a force to be reckoned with. The bottom-line is that if I don’t write mainstream books for a while, I run the risk of being blackballed by the major booksellers and pagan publishers. Bookstores wont stock my titles if they don’t sell; publishers wont sign me to deals if I write books that don’t appeal to the masses.

I will admit that because of this I have considered (and in some ways am still considering) packing it up and calling it quits as a pagan author. I refuse to write books that I don’t believe in, and it boggles my mind and weakens my resolve when I see some of the crap that’s being offered on the pagan market selling ten-to-one over serious works. Is candy-coated made-up crap and twisted-demeaning sexual texts really what the majority of the pagan population is interested in reading and learning from? I have to tell you, it’s really starting to look that way to me. Sorry for jumping on the soapbox, but this has been troubling my mind and spirit for quite some time now. While there are many wonderful and enlightened pagans out there, I have also met quite a few that make me ashamed to number myself in the pagan ranks. Unfortunately, that’s the name of the game with any large group, spiritual or otherwise, and (for awhile at least) I will keep writing for, and believing in the true seekers and enlightened few.

Fox

New Beginnings...

The time has come for me to get off of my metaphysical butt and start doing something with this journal! The last few months have been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, highs and lows. Many wonderful and not so wonderful things have gone down lately, and I must admit that I’m feeling spiritually lost at the moment. Ok, maybe not so much lost as neutral. That’s as good a word as any to describe how I am feeling. My first book is doing well, but not quite as large a reception as I had hoped for. The magickal community has been bitching about a lack of advanced text for years, but interest in spell-books, Wicca-Lite, and general fluff-bunny 101 books remain high and are still overshadowing serious advanced work. A mystery…

I met many wonderful people, publishers, shop owners, and authors at this years INATS show in Denver. Everyone from New Page books turned out to be simply wonderful. The author highlights were Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Christopher Penczak. Oberon is a hoot, and even though we had very little time to talk at the show, Christopher and I have had many conversations via e-mail and are hitting it off well. Chris won some well-deserved awards for his books at the show, and I look forward to spending some one-on-one time with him at a future event.

My family has had a few bad financial setbacks over the last few weeks and things are very tight for us right now. I have had to cancel several appearances because of our current situation, which I am understandably unhappy about. I hope to make them up once things have tuned around for us, but for right now traveling too far from home is an impossibility.

On the upside, I have a wonderful new project in the works! I have been asked to do a monthly feature column for Ghostvillage.com by site owner and fellow author Jeff Belanger. The feature is entitled The Witchcraft Connection: Metaphysical Investigations Into the Paranormal. I have assembled a team of highly trained Witches to help me with investigations, and we have had some pretty interesting results so far! The team is called W.I.S.P. (Witches in Search of the Paranormal). My column and the teams archived investigations can be accessed at: http://www.ghostvillage.com/resources/index.shtml
A busy day ahead so I should be going for now. More soon! Fox

Coming Soon!