Well it’s happened, and even though I thought I was prepared for it, that first rejection hit me like a slap in my face. I tried to be strong as I read the email from Samhain, the tears blurring my vision. There is was, thank you for thinking of us, but here is why we cannot except your story.

You write well and your world is interesting. However, I found your description and characterization of the vampires heavy-handed. Also, when we meet Nara we get a lot of history. This is both confusing—many names are introduced—and stops the forward motion of the story.

Okay. So at least I got honest feedback, right. It could have been worse, minor fixes according one of my most hard hitting beta readers who swore to stick with me to get through this too. You see like me she really believes Worlds Collide is a great story and needs to be told.

We had hoped to make the changes and resubmit to Samhain, I emailed the editor to ask if that was possible. I got a polite response explaining with her time constraints resubmission of this story was not possible. That did present the next question. Who could I submit the novel too that would be open to the rest of the series as well?

You see the challenge with this one is the first book in the Ancient Whispers series is a lesbian romance, while some of the others may not be. The lesbian couple from this novel will be a strong guiding factor in the other novels as well, but the blossoming romance in the next two books are both people strongly connected to this couple and are both straight. So finding a publisher willing to accept both lesbian and hetro paranormal romance in the same series without expecting it to be erotica.

In the end I believe in this series, and am too stubborn to let one person’s opinion beat me. So back in the trenches I go. I‘m determined to find her (my novel) a good home still and refuse to cave under the weight of one person’s view and some simple craft type fixes. You all will see Worlds Collide available one day and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

In June I started writing professionally. I stopped writing my fan fic and buckled down with a sink and swim attitude into novel writing. By August Natural Order was finish, 103,000 words of sweat and toil off to beta readers and the crit group. It went over surprisingly well for a first book, and I decided to name the series Daughters of the Goddess. The race of shape shifters (the Clan) I created touched me deeply, and I thought a lot about using the secondary characters in other stories as well…ooooooh the possibilities.

In August I played with ideas for different stories and by September I had begun on Ancestral Magic, book one in my Heartbeat of the Earth series. During this time I began also to work on my website and had a crazy notion on the races/culture I would deal with in my fiction, and envisioned connections to the element between them.

The Clan (fire as transformation connected to their ability to change shape), the Conclave (earth, they draw their power from the earth and work in harmony with nature), the Sacrosanct (my living vampires, creatures of life and death, so connected to the element of spirit), for water and air I have this concept of water beings suck like mermaids and sirens still working on those ideas, and for earth are my fae and godblooded stories (those also are a word in progress to be tapped into next year)

While I worked on Ancestral magic and the website, I did the final touches on Natural Order and sent it off to Creatrix Books in hope of them excepting it for contract. As a local feminist publisher with a taste for more spiritual based works, they seemed like a good match for my highly goddess spirituality and environmental based shape shifter series.

I was close to finishing Ancestral Magic when November came and I set everything aside to begin my Nanowrimo project called Worlds Collide. This is about the daughter of one of the shape shifters in Natural Order and introduces the Sacrosanct and their enemies the Bane, both living vampires in my created mythos. This was shorter than the other two books, ended up being around 60,000 word in the two and a half weeks it took to write it, but it’s fast paced and the characters came out very exciting and real. Even my pickest beta readers said the story drew them in.

I thought about submitting Worlds Collide to the Creatures of the Darkness contest I head Stardust Press was doing, but then it came to me. A story that crept in my brain and demanded I write it right then and there called Bloodstained Innocence. It deals with a man of the Clan and a Bane woman and a little girl in trouble that his goddess calls him to help. I gave into my pushy muse and in about two weeks I had that completed as well as the last several chapters of Ancestral Magic.

December became the moth of editing. With ADD and dyslexia, it’s an impossible job for me without several amazing beta readers poking me along. With ladies like Sheri M, Ev, Fran, and many others (all you will find mentioned on my dedications page under word doulas and amazing goddesses) I’d never have managed it. By late December Ancestral Magic was sent to Intaglio, Bloodstained Innocence was off to the CoD contest, and Worlds Collide had been sent to Samhain Publishing. Whew! I’ll tall you this, I hate writing synopsis and writing three in one week…iiiiicccckkk! But I did it and my babies were off into the world.

So here I am at the closing of my first year of writing professionally with four books submitted and waiting… No matter what happens come next year I think the fact I did it makes me feel very proud. In fact, I dragged and old fantasy novel I started a couple years ago and have begun on looking at ways to salvage it. It was called The Dragon Stones, but since a friend just published a book this year by that name, I changed mine to A Question of Faith.

I stared this novel and then gave up on it because I believed then that I didn’t have the talent to write a novel. Well, after 4 of them in 6 month, I think now I just wasn’t ready then. I hope to next year to finish A Question of Faith and find her a home just like the others. I’ve also begun working on a cookbook based on the fifty or so dishes mentioned in Natural order as a price for contests when they book is released.

So I may be nearing the end of a very productive writing year for me, but my darlings, I’m just building up steam for what is to come. Hang on, I get the feeling next year as going to be one crazy ride.

In memory of those famiies who are missing thier sons and daughters taken from them in the war this year, I dedicate this video. Whether this makes you cry or get mad, always remember!

“Dear Mr. President”
(Pink, feat. Indigo Girls)

Dear Mr. President
Come take a walk with me
Let’s pretend we’re just two people and
You’re not better than me
I’d like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep
What do you feel when you look in the mirror
Are you proud

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why

Dear Mr. President
Were you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
How can you say
No child is left behind
We’re not dumb and we’re not blind
They’re all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You’ve come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye

Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don’t know nothing bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night
How do you walk with your head held high
Dear Mr. President
You’d never take a walk with me
Would you

*****

Merry X’mas George Bush you sadistic, bigited fuckhead!

Any artist who can laugh at herself and play along like this totally rocks in my opinion.

Move over Yugiho and Duel Masters there a new game coming through!!!!

I’ve seen tons of misperception in the Dianic faith today tooling around the my space blogs. In case you want to know the real story about the Diainic Goddess tradition, my tradition, accourding to a Dianic High Priestess herself heres the real deal.

The Dianic Wiccan Tradition

Author: Ruth Barrett
Posted: May 7th. 2004
Times Viewed: 17,577

(Contaning exerpts from WOMEN’S RITES, WOMEN’S MYSTERIES: Creating Ritual in the Dianic Wiccan Tradition, forthcoming from AuthorHouse in Fall of 2004)

I hope here to address many of the questions asked of me over the years about what marks or distinguishes our tradition as “Dianic” from other Wiccan traditions and Goddess- centered spirituality forms. In presenting this, I am well aware that the term “Dianic” has a much less defined meaning in many communities throughout the United States and abroad. There exist great numbers of women who either self-define as Dianic, or who are defined by others as Dianic, when describing Witchcraft that is women and Goddess- centered. Most often these women have no magickal or ritual practices in common, and while Dianics generally tend to be fairly eclectic in their practice, some groups are more eclectic than others, and many do not affiliate with the Dianic tradition’s foremother, Z. Budapest, or know the her-story of the tradition she revived. All the information described here refers to the Dianic tradition that emerged from the Z. Budapest lineage of which I am clergy, and not to the McFarland Dianics of Texas that are a co-gender Wiccan tradition based in Celtic Mysteries.

The Dianic tradition is a Goddess and female-centered, earth-based, feminist denomination of the Wiccan religion revived and inspired by author and activist, Zsuzsanna Budapest in the early 1970’s. The Dianic tradition is a vibrantly creative and evolving Women’s Mystery tradition, inclusive of all women. Our practices include celebrating and honoring the physical, emotional and other life cycle passages women share by having been born female. Contemporary Dianic tradition recognizes the greater or lesser effects and influences of the dominant culture on every aspect of women’s lives. Since 1971, the Dianic movement has inspired and provided healing rituals to counter the effects of living in patriarchy, and strive to understand, deconstruct, and heal from the dominant culture wherein we live and practice our faith. We define “patriarchy” as the use of “power-over” thinking and action to oppress others, either institutionally, or within the personal sphere of our lives.

(if you wish tho view the rest of the article you can find it at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=uswi&c=trads&id=8451

You can also buy Ruth book on rituals within the Dianic Tradition Women’s Rites, Women’s Mysteries by visiting
http://www.templeofdiana.org/ruthbook.htm

For many of us, decorating a Christmas tree is our favorite part of the holiday season. If you’re one of the more than 30 million people who put up a live tree this year, you might want to consider extending its usefulness once the season ends. Instead of tossing your perfectly shaped pine or fir into the garbage where it will only end up in a landfill, try one of these creative recycling avenues:

1. Throw it in the water. Christmas trees make great habitat for fish. Just toss it in your pond or stream. If you don’t happen to have a fishin’ hole on your property, contact local conservation groups. In many areas, they’ll pick up the tree and toss it into an appropriate pond or stream for you.

2. Keep it on your land. Trees can provide lodging for all kinds of critters besides fish. If you have a suitable place on your property to let a tree decompose, it can become a nursery to insects, fungi and possibly even amphibians and reptiles. Or consider keeping it in its stand and placing it out of doors as a bird sanctuary; it will provide our feathered friends much-needed protection from wind and cold. You can even enjoy a second round of decorating by adorning the tree with enticing bird food:

Suet smeared in the branches
Pine cones coated with peanut butter and bird seed, then hung from branches
Strings of popcorn, cranberries or raisins wrapped around the tree
Hanging fruit slices

3. Use it in the garden. Trim branches off and place them over perennial beds to reduce frost heaving caused by freezing and thawing. Then use the trunks to create sturdy, homemade trellises or tomato stakes.

4. Toss it in the stove. Use a few dry branches as kindling to start your fires.

5. Keep it in your community. Many communities have tree recycling programs that turn everyone’s old trees into valuable mulch. If you are unable to try any of the above ideas, contact your Public Works Department to find out if they will collect trees curbside or from a central drop-off location. Or visit Earth911.org to find a local tree recycler.

I think Santa Claus is a woman….

I hate to be the one to defy sacred myth, but I believe he’s a she. Think about it. Christmas is a big, organized, warm, fuzzy, nurturing social deal, and I have a tough time believing a guy could possibly pull it all off!

For starters, the vast majority of men don’t even think about selecting gifts until Christmas Eve. It’s as if they are all frozen in some kind of Ebenezerian Time Warp until 3 p.m. on Dec. 24th, when they - with amazing calm - call other errant men and plan for a last-minute shopping spree.

Once at the mall, they always seem surprised to find only Ronco products, socket wrench sets, and mood rings left on the shelves. (You might think this would send them into a fit of panic and guilt, but my husband tells me it’s an enormous relief because it lessens the 11th hour decision-making burden.) On this count alone, I’m convinced Santa is a woman. Surely, if he were a man, everyone in the universe would wake up Christmas morning to find a rotating musical Chia Pet under the tree, still in the bag.

Another problem for a he-Santa would be getting there. First of all, there would be no reindeer because they would all be dead, gutted and strapped on to the rear bumper of the sleigh amid wide-eyed, desperate claims that buck season had been extended. Blitzen’s rack would already be on the way to the taxidermist.

Even if the male Santa DID have reindeer, he’d still have transportation problems because he would inevitably get lost up there in the snow and clouds and then refuse to stop and ask for directions. Add to this the fact that there would be unavoidable delays in the chimney, where the Bob Vila-like Santa would stop to inspect and repoint bricks in the flue. He would also need to check for carbon monoxide fumes in every gas fireplace, and get under every Christmas tree that is crooked to straighten it to a perfectly upright 90-degree angle.

Other reasons why Santa can’t possibly be a man:
- Men can’t pack a bag.
- Men would rather be dead than caught wearing red velvet.
- Men would feel their masculinity is threatened…having to be seen with all those elves.
- Men don’t answer their mail.
- Men would refuse to allow their physique to be described even in jest as anything remotely resembling a “bowlful of jelly.”
- Men aren’t interested in stockings unless somebody’s wearing them.
- Having to do the Ho Ho Ho thing would seriously inhibit their ability to pick up women.
- Finally, being responsible for Christmas would require a commitment.

I can buy the fact that other mythical holiday characters are men………
- Father Time shows up once a year unshaven and looking ominous. Definite guy.
- Cupid flies around carrying weapons.
- Uncle Sam is a politician who likes to point fingers.

Any one of these individuals could pass the testosterone screening test. But not St. Nick. Not a chance. As long as we have each other, good will, peace on earth, faith and Nat King Cole’s version of “The Christmas Song,” it probably makes little difference what gender Santa is.

I just wish she’d quit dressing like a guy!!!