Folkbyte April 2025

Welcome to the April 2025 edition of the Folkbyte newsletter! Last month's edition went out without a hitch, though I've had one report of difficulty logging in from a Folklore & Fiction archive researcher. I think the problem has been resolved, but please know you can always reach out to me about these sorts of things and expect a personal response. Sean and I worked hard to make certain the archive remained available on the new website as a resource for storytellers, and I want you to be able to use it.

A Bit of Preliminary Housekeeping

This is a repeat of last month's housekeeping note, so if you've read it already, you can safely skip it. I'm including it one more time in this edition for OG folks who might have missed last month's newsletter.

If you had access to the Folklore & Fiction archive on the old website: You simply need to log in at https://csmaccath.com/user with your current username and password to request archive access again. Select "Apply For Archive Access?" on the form provided and enter a sentence or two in the "Reason For Archive Access" box. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours for me to approve you, so do reapply at least a day before you need to use the resource. Please also note that you will be able to manage your subscription options for the Folkbyte newsletter on this form.

If you were only subscribed to the Folklore & Fiction newsletter: You have an account on the new website now. If you want to apply for access to the Folklore & Fiction archive or change your subscription options for the Folkbyte newsletter, please choose a password by visiting https://csmaccath.com/user/password and follow the instructions under "Reset your password."

Thanks very much!

Dispatches from the Word Mines

March was a busy month, and April is going to be busy as well, so (deep breath) here goes:

The Storyteller's Guide to Folklore

I have an offer of publication for The Storyteller's Guide to Folklore. This offer is from an independent press, and I also have an agent seriously considering the manuscript, so I'm in the endgame of my search for a good home for my book. I can't write any more about either of these because I haven't signed a contract yet, but I will tell you that both the independent press and the agent are stellar, and I would be fortunate to work with either of them. I'm honestly over the moon about this, and I'm grateful to all of you who have so patiently waited while I finished my degree and sought a publisher. Now I need to shift into high gear and complete the book. I'll keep you posted when I have more news on this.

The Folklore & Fiction Ballads

I wrote on social media that I wondered if anyone would get my minimalist, story-forward homage to traditional English and Scottish ballads. Well, I needn't have worried. Matt Thompson at Critical Hit Parader has written: "She provides sparse musical accompaniment via simple percussion and the drone of a shruti box. This provides plenty of room for her character-oriented vocals, whose melodies contain surprising pitches that draw my ear to the lyrics."

There was also this absolutely lovely post from Florgoth on Bluesky:

You can find The Folklore & Fiction Ballads on Bandcamp or wherever you stream music. (But my musical and scholarly liner notes are only available on Bandcamp, FWIW.)

"Art as Resistance, Folklore as Magic"

I was recently interviewed by mentor and friend Andreas Kornevall for The Hagstone Podcast, which is part of The Northern Spirit House project. We talked about folklore, music, storytelling, magic, politics, and the climate crisis. It was good to flex my artistic, intellectual, and spiritual muscles in the company of a fellow Pagan storyteller who knew how to guide the conversation in good directions. You can watch the interview here.

Rebecca Buchanan Interviews Me for Forests Haunted by Holiness

I was also interviewed by editor and friend Rebecca Buchanan for Forests Haunted by Holiness, which is part of the excellent Pagan literary journal Eternal Haunted Summer. She asked about my PhD convocation, both of my EPs (the first one is Shatter and Rise), my new partnership with Storybilder (more on this below), and the other projects I have in the queue. You can read the interview here.

I've Partnered With Storybilder!

I'm delighted to announce that I've partnered with Storybilder to produce a series of articles for new writers at the intersection of folklore and storytelling. It's early days on this project, so I don't have any more to tell you just now, but I'll keep you posted on it.

The Long Hidden Friend

I've just turned in a critical introduction for a new edition of the classic Pennsylvania Dutch grimoire The Long Hidden Friend, to be published by Hyldyr Publishing. I don't have a publication date for you just yet, but I do have a gorgeous cover to show you. Here it is:

Reykjavik Bound

Last, but not least, I'll be in Reykjavik later this month to attend the Sorcery In Iceland symposium organized by The National Museum of Iceland and Hyldyr Publishing. I'll tell you all about it next month.

Last Month on Social Media

Last month I published the first three videos in a six-part series on the folkloristics of charms and curses. You'll find them on YouTube, here:

• Folklore of Spellcraft: Charms I
• Folklore of Spellcraft: Charms II
• Folklore of Spellcraft: Charms III

This month, I'll conclude with three videos on the folkloristics of curses and then put the series on hiatus for the rest of the year. I had intended to continue on, but now that I have an offer of publication for The Storyteller's Guide to Folklore, I really need to focus on completing the book in good time. Besides, these little educational videos of mine are just a sliver of the information you'll get from the book itself! That said, I really do like making them. They give me something folkloristic and hopefully useful to say once a week. So I'll re-evaluate my schedule at the end of the year and see if I have time to bring them back in 2026.

From the Folklore & Fiction Archive

In February 2019, I released the second Folklore & Fiction dispatch and the first to discuss the folkloristics of traditional narrative and belief. The topic was myth and the ways it might be utilised in storytelling. Here's an excerpt:

One fairly straightforward way to utilize existing myths in your writing is to embed them in it. Sheri Tepper does this to good effect in Gate to Women's Country when she embeds Euripides' play The Trojan Women in her novel under the title Iphigenia at Ilium. Tepper's use of the play is central to the world she creates and the characters who inhabit it, and rightly so. Myths are precious to people who believe in them as commentaries on the sacred, and I would argue they are also precious to people who do not believe in them as commentaries on human belief and behaviour. This means they are narratives of consequence that have the power to affect human consciousness and conduct both individually and collectively.

You can read the whole dispatch here.

Final Thoughts

That's all for now. I'm off to brew another cup of tea (Earl Grey Creme from The World Tea House) and get some lunch. It will be Beltane before you hear from me again, so I'll wish you blessings of the holy tide and leave you with a good, Pagan groove from Faun titled Walpurgisnacht.

Yours From a Chilly Cape Breton Spring,
Ceallaigh