Folkbyte Newsletter September 2024


Hello, lovely people, and welcome to the September 2024 edition of the Folkbyte newsletter. This month, the Seven of Pentacles is the newsletter mascot for our wee crow's focus on filling his nest with shiny things. The counsel this card offers is to focus on long-term projects that have the greatest potential for success, and I'm working hard to wrap a few short-term projects so I can do just that. Here's all the news on offer this month.

Dispatches from the Word Mines

Three Short Projects

I've written the introduction for a new, illustrated collection of German Romanticist Ludwig Tieck's folk horror short fiction. Published by Hyldyr, the book is titled Dark Forest Longing: Tales of Folk Horror & Nature Mysticism, and it launches on September 21st. I should have a cover and purchase links for you next month, but meanwhile, here's a short video I made about the ways Tieck inspired me to think about animism, the natural world, and the climate crisis.

I'm presently writing another introduction for Hyldyr, this one for House of the Wolfings by William Morris, which was among J.R.R. Tolkien's inspirations for The Lord of the Rings. Hyldyr has already released Morris' companion novel, The Roots of the Mountains, with a new introduction by Tolkien's great-granddaughter Ruth Tolkien. You can look at selected pages from this beautiful book and buy a copy on the Hyldyr website, and I'll have more information for you about House of the Wolfings in due course.

I've just completed and turned in a review of Stories of the Past: Viewing History Through Fiction by Chris Green for the Journal of American Folklore. It will appear in the journal sometime next year.

The Storyteller's Guide to Folklore

By now, it's no secret that I'm seeking a traditional publisher for SGF. I spent the latter part of July and early August writing a book proposal, and I have a number of queries out with agents now. I've already heard back from one agent with a request for proposal and sent it on to her, so that's encouraging. I also had a productive exchange with a Canadian textbook publisher about distribution and remuneration issues in academic publishing, and as a result of her good counsel, I've decided not to submit SGF to academic presses. That said, I'm completely comfortable self-publishing this book if it's the right thing to do. I'll be teaching with SGF for a long time, and I want it to be available for storytellers who need it, so I'll be weighing all my options for this book before I sign a contract.

The Folklore & Fiction Ballads

I recently discovered that my favourite rendition of Matty Groves, which I sang for the "What is a ballad?" edition of the podcast, is unique to Fairport Convention. So I've returned to Bertrand Harris Bronson's The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads for inspiration in putting together a version of my own. Right now, I'm playing with transposition, since I have some understandable hesitation about singing a ballad about murder and cuckolding in a major key. (I mean, there's a dying infant in one of the versions! Can we have a minor key, or at least a creepy mode? Honestly.)

Lead On, Wild God

Something fairly profound happened to me in August, and I wanted to share it with you. An old friend and meditation teacher I haven't heard from in years wrote to me out of the blue and gave me a ballad she found in her beloved sister's things, a woman who died in 2021. She said I could have it and do with it what I wanted. It's a beautiful lyric about the choice we make to live in the pain of our past experiences or live in hope for the future. So I'm honoured to announce that Karen Louise Grieve's ballad, titled "Four Young Maidens," will debut in Lead On, Wild God late next year.

My Social Media Coach

For a long time now, I've felt like Bilbo Baggins on social media; spread like butter over too much bread. I don't like to post without purpose, and chatting overmuch online saps my creative strength. I was discussing the matter with fellow writing professionals on Slack in late June, and a colleague recommended Lauren Jernigan to me. Lauren is a social media coach with a decade of experience in marketing for publishing companies, and she gave me a ton of professional advice about how to be an author and musician online. As a result, I've deactivated my BlueSky and Mastodon accounts, and I'm posting primarily on Instagram now, though I do still post on my Facebook page when it's important. If you're working on developing a professional social media presence, do give her a shout.

September's Open Access Dispatch and Podcast from the Folklore & Fiction Archive

Those of you who have an account at folkloreandfiction.com don't need this information, but rest of you might be interested to note that I'm now providing open access to a dispatch and podcast edition every month. For the month of September, that edition is "What is a conspiracy theory?", which was originally published in August 2020.

Remember though, that the Folklore & Fiction archive is a free learning resource for storytellers, so if you don't have a website account and want one, you can sign up for it here.

This Month in Instagram

I've begun to post reels and slide shows about folkloristics for storytellers to Instagram, and here are the highlights from August:

Well, that was a full newsletter! I'll close with a few photos I took last month of the Old South Haven Road and the salt marsh across from our homestead, where we go walking with Maddy. See you in October.

Blessings,
Ceallaigh

Where to Find Me Online

Folklore & Fiction Archive and Newsletter: The first five years of Folklore & Fiction dispatches and podcasts are still available at www.folkloreandfiction.com, and you can access them by signing up for a free account here. You can subscribe to the Folkbyte newsletter here as well.

Social Media: I post about folklore, music, Nordic animism, and writing on Facebook (@csmaccathpage) and Instagram (@csmaccath).

Everything Else: For links to my EP Shatter and Rise, my radio drama "The Belt and the Necklace" and everything else, have a look at linktr.ee/csmaccath.

folkbyte

Greetings! I'm Dr. Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran. I hold B.A. in Celtic Studies from the University of Toronto, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Maine, and a PhD in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. I'm also an author, poet, and musician under the name C.S. MacCath. My long-running Folklore & Fiction project integrates these passions with a focus on folklore scholarship aimed at storytellers, and I bring a deep appreciation of animism, ecology, and folkloristics to my own storytelling. You can find me online at csmaccath.com, folkloreandfiction.com, and linktr.ee/csmaccath.