PBP :: B is for Blood

Blood plays such a very interesting role in magic, whether real or imagined by others.  I've heard some fantastic stories of what witches, wiccans, and pagans do with blood in their rituals.  Things that range from drinking it to using it as a lubricant for sex rites, and everything in between.

Blood has always held a fascination for me, particularly my own blood.  I don't faint at the sight of blood, nor do I necessarily find the smell nauseating unless it's a large amount that's been left to rot and get heated up by the sun.  But that's a rare situation for me, which I'm quite thankful for.

PBP :: B is for Beltane

Let me preface this post by saying that BD, my other half, celebrates all the sabbats and lunar phases with me when we remember to, but we're not a coven, nor are we romantically involved. When you consider that Beltane is known, at least partially, as a sabbat dealing with sex and love, it's one of the harder sabbats for me to celebrate as a solitary. But I still manage to celebrate every year.

Today, I'd like to share how we celebrated Beltane this year.

PBP :: A is for Animals, Part 2

When I'd initially planned to do a two-part series on animals, I'd wanted to use this second post to discuss the animals I'd seen on my trip to Oregon the first weekend of March 2012. Considering that we're currently in the middle of April 2012, that idea is clearly moot. But I think I'll still work off the basis of that idea, rather than the specifics.

Whenever I travel, I see more wildlife than expected. While some animals and birds are seen on a regular basis, I have learned never to expect to see them. If I expect them to appear, like it's an obligation on their part, they don't show and I tend not to see them for a while. And I've learned to accept that, because it's not an obligation on their part to show themselves to me.

Sneak Peek :: "Myth"

Note :: This was originally written on 30 October 2010.  It's just a little something in the Laikhostra universe I've been working on for the last 10 years now.  Maybe a little more info on them will get people interested in my little universe…

Last night's interview...

It didn't go too terribly bad actually.  We did have a couple of instances of a moment of awkward silence where everyone seemed to be waiting to see who'd jump in first.  Nothing entirely unexpected though, as that seems to happen at least once every time I do a group interview of some sort.  Really hope that the information we gave will entice people to come check us out when we do our public launch during International Day of Femslash an the FemSlashCon 2012, both of which take place over the weekend of 14-15 July 2012.

I'll be going back to listen to the interview again at some point, just to make sure I didn't sound like a total ditz.  I've done interviews with Allaine before, under my fannish pseud, but last night's interview seemed...  different somehow.  I can only guess that it had something to do with being the first interview I've done under this professional pseud of mine.  It kind of legitimized everything, you know?  Made it much more immediate that I'm really starting to follow the professional path finally.

If you're interested in listening to the podcast, feel free to check it out over here.

Long Time...

Yes, clearly my grand plans for getting caught up on the Pagan Blog Project posts this month have gone completely awry.  I'll blame it on the fannish projects that I've been finishing this month.

Given that there are only 2 days left to the month, I highly doubt I'll get all of those posts done and posted before the end of March.  So that plan will get shifted over to April instead.  I should still be okay to get everything finished by the end of the month without overly inundating you with the posts.

I'll also be posting a handful of story snippets/sneak peeks of my Laikhostra novel in progress.  These are more for learning about the characters and the world, rather than bits of the actual novel itself.

And now, I'm off to prepare for the interview tonight about Tales of Ryh'na.  I hope you'll tune in and join us.

-- Sadie

Femslash4Fans Radio Tonight @ 10pm EDT: Tales of Ryh'na

I haven't talked a whole lot about this here, and I do apologize for that, but this is a big project that several of us have been working on since FemSlashCon 2011.    Tonight, we get to discuss this shared story world that we've collectively created, the first solely femslash shared story world, and we'd love to have you join us as we talk about it.  I will definitely be talking more about this project as time goes on, that's for sure.  *g*

Below is the press release that allaine77 sent out about the show.  Below that is a link to the Tales of Ryh'na site and information. 


Shared Story Worlds - the Creators of Tales of Ryh'na

http://tobtr.com/s/3012927

The theme for F4F Radio this month has been talking about the changing ways in which the Internet is allowing writers and filmmakers to create, as well as the ways in which fanfic authors are becoming something to encourage, not just put up with. Having first spent time discussing "transmedia storytelling" with guests Christin Mell and Bridget McManus, tonight we'll be looking at a similar phenomenon, the "Shared Story World" (SSW). In an SSW, a detailed "canon" background is created for a brand-new universe. Then the universe and background becomes public property, made available to anyone who wishes to use it for artistic expression - writing, art, video, etc. One such SSW is the upcoming "Tales of Ryh'na" (TofR), a world which merges sci-fi and magic as space age colonists clash with the native population of a new planet. Of course, since we're talking about TofR HERE, you can count on it being QUITE open to stories involving lesbian relationships. If you needed further proof of that, consider the people behind this project, four of whom will be on the show. Jojo Stratton is a SSW veteran who has written fan fiction for numerous lesbian pairings and was involved in the last two FemslashCons. QH Fletcher was also an organizer of FemslashCon 2011, as well as the prominent writer of femslash Quiethearted for "Devil Wears Prada" and "Rizzoli & Isles". Carson D. Fletcher is an award-winning writer in the Stargate SG-1 fandom who talked about her Sam/Janet stories on F4F in 2010. And A. Sadie Timm, well, if I told you what her psuedonym was, you'd know you've been reading her femslash fanfic for years, and you might have even heard her on this show before. My guests will tell us all about TofR, where it got started, and what their ambitions are for the project.

Don't forget to tune in!

Sincerely, Allaine
Femslash4Fans Radio
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/allaine

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-- Sadie

PBP :: A is for Animals, Part 1

This was originally supposed to be posted yesterday, but I gave myself a kind of internet ban for the day.


I've always had some kind of connection to animals. It seems like there has always been some kind of animal in my life. By the time I was 15yo, there had been 4 dogs, 1 cat [very temporarily], and countless fish in aquariums. And that's not including the dogs my extended family had. To this day, I can usually gain the confidence of neighborhood cats. Dogs adore me and want to jump up and give me kisses and love.

As I grew older and began my research into various branches of the pagan path, I was comforted by the fact that a love of animals seemed to work hand in hand with the vast majority of what I was looking into. And i'm not just talking about the whole idea of the witch with her black cat familiar, either. I remember reading once about frogs and toads being used as familiars. In the early 2000s, I got myself a Pacman toad and jokingly stated that with him and my cat, I was then a proper Witch. Actually, now that I think of it, since coming out of the broom closet, I've owned cats, frogs, snakes, rats, and mice. All purported familiars for witches. I hadn't actually thought about that before.

An old random question from my profile

I decided to fill out my profile a bit today, and thought I'd get a new random question there.  But I liked the original one I'd listed, so decided to put it here for posterity.

Can you cast a spell with magic markers?

You can cast any spell you like with magic markers, as long as you want them to be permanent spells, or you plan to burn them. And if you cast those spells on your walls, they're permanent until the drywall/wood/brick is removed and destroyed.

Testing... Testing... Is this thing on?

Clearly my previous attempts at getting this blog off the ground and keeping it updated regularly have failed.  If you need proof of this, just look at the fact that I last posted anything here on *squiints* 20 October 2010.

Wow!  That's pathetic!

I have been having some organizational issues across the board recently, so have decided to just start over with a clean slate in a lot of things.  This includes this blog.  Hence me writing this post to serve as a kind of re-introduction of sorts.