Ceallaigh's Blog
...give up.
The latest Clarksworld Magazine editorial is an encouraging one for self-published writers. In it, Neil Clarke details some of the frustration the magazine faced at its inception; authors who wouldn't submit to online magazines, reviewers who refused to consider the magazine's stories, etc. He likens this early reception to the frustration independent authors presently face as they strive for respect in the marketplace and writes:
Here are the promised links to resources for physical worldbuilding. Best of luck in your writing projects!
Links
World Builders Home Page
Black plants 'could grow' on exoplanets with two suns
World-building and ConLangs
Pre-draft Research Bibliography
I've been thinking a great deal about what Paganism means to me and more directly about the relevance of the term 'Pagan' as a descriptor of my spiritual life. Paganism is a broad umbrella that shades a variety of budding faith paths, from Wicca to Aztec Reconstructionism (a blossom I find deeply troubling, given my recent research into Aztec religious practices). It boasts a host of non-Christian Gods and a burgeoning repository of historical, pseudo-historical, reconstructed and reinvented religious practices, including many that non-Pagans would call magical (ritual, spell-craft, tarot and the like).
I picked up an orphaned gosling in Margaree Forks today on behalf of Hope for Wildlife, and s/he is staying the night with us!
Here are some interesting gosling facts:
- Goslings can't regulate their own body temperature, so they need help staying warm. Hot water bottles or heating pads (on a low setting) wrapped in a towel are great for this. Make sure the gosling has a place to go if the heat becomes too warm! I like keeping a towel and heating pad in half of the gosling's space and a towel without a heating pad in the other half.
- Goslings like to eat chopped up grass and duck grower or chicken mash. Stay away from oatmeal. It expands a bit much in their little bellies. They also need plenty of water to drink. You can put some duck grower or chicken mash in the water, if you like. They like that.
Congratulations to Patricia Crosby, Renee' Booker and Kurt Bembridge, winners of The Ruin of Beltany Ring Goodreads giveaway! Your books will go out in tomorrow morning's mail from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Many thanks to everyone who entered!
The Kindle promotion went really well! 161 people downloaded The Ruin of Beltany Ring on Beltane (Get it? Beltany Ring? Beltane?), and nearly a hundred have entered the Goodreads giveaway so far. Not bad for a wee chapbook out there in the world!
Greetings Everyone,
Welcome to Issue #7 of my quarterly newsletter, posted to csmaccath.com and e-mailed to subscribers on Beltane 2013.
It's great when a story you've written years ago finds new friends. So is the case with "From Our Minds to Yours", which appeared in The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction: 13 Prize Winning Tales.
Ally Leja of Geek Inked Magazine has written a thoughtful discussion of the issues raised by the story and given it a positive review.
So, I was in Cape Breton yesterday doing pre-close house things and had two experiences I wanted to share.
The Post Office in Baddeck
I was in line behind this guy with a huge, oddly-shaped package he was insuring for thousands of dollars. He offered me the opportunity to cut in front of him if my business was brief, and when I politely declined, I asked him what was in the package.
He answered, "A wolverine and a grizzly bear."
I thought he was joking, but then he told the postmaster about the polar bear pelt that was stolen from his airplane luggage once. He really was mailing a wolverine pelt and a grizzly bear pelt, probably to himself, in Nunavut. I was gobsmacked, but I took it for the warning it was. Sean and I are going to have to be like wind and water, not earth and fire, as we integrate in this new place.
The Herring Choker
Modern Paganism has more than a few bloody roots. The early Celts practiced both animal sacrifice and human ritual killing1 and might well have engaged in ritual cannibalism under extreme circumstances, as historical and archaeological evidence attests.23 Elaborate human sacrifices were performed at the temple in Uppsala and elsewhere in Northern Europe as late as the 10th century AD, and there are well-documented accounts of animal sacrifice as well.45 The early Greeks may have engaged in human sacrifice or human ritual killing and certainly engaged in animal sacrifice.6 These are only a few among many examples, as students of pre-Christian religion well know, and they collectively represent a disquieting piece of theological history. However, while most Pagans will agree that cannibalism, human ritual killing and human sacrifice are better abandoned to history, the practice of animal sacrifice has been reconstructed by a few sects of the Pagan community.