Beltane 2015 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue #15 of my quarterly newsletter, posted to csmaccath.com and e-mailed to subscribers on Beltane 2015.

In Print (and Mostly Free):

"Sing the Crumbling City" is available now in Mythic Delirium Issue 1.4 and was the featured story for April 2015 at Mythic Delirium Books. You can still read it there for free, so do go check it out. Here's a taste of the tale:

“Seiðkona! Sing the crumbling city to itself.
Foretell the tale to travelers and witnesses.
Remake the march of days; mend the starry plain,
and bring oblivion to the blight Skuld forgot.”

"Grandmother Mælkevejen's Belly: A Novelette of the Lodhuven" is also available now for Kindle and Audible, and the Kindle edition is free through May 5th. If you do pick up a copy, might you consider leaving a quick review? Thanks ever so, and here's a taste of this tale as well:

The dancers waited in a fleshy knot at the center of the room, swaying like a solar prominence rising out of a chromosphere. The drummers’ hands descended in Third Prime; thump-thump, tap-tap-tap, and the dancers spiraled out in Fibonacci. Thump-thump-thump, tap-tap-tap-tap into Fourth Prime, and they lifted their hands, rolled their hips and fell into Pi. Gryph stepped forward, his jembe heavy between his legs and slapped the rim loud and fast, a Fifth Prime signal to begin the polyrhythm. Aris' emerald feet flashed, and her dancers followed; female and male, Chlorophylloids, Amaurotics, Ecdysials and Mules, a representative few of the many afflicted branches on the human tree. The rhythm split into four. Two Shunts knelt in the hourglasses of their horizontal drums and held the First Prime heartbeat with skeletal hands. It was all they could manage, but like most of their people, they were fierce in the face of their frailties. The other drummers divided the primes between them as the dancers locked arms, whirled in a circle and sent their orange robes whipping about their knees. Several minutes passed. Hands and feet darkened with heat, and they all fell as a single being into the no-mind of perfect cadence. Gryph signaled again, and the drummers transitioned to Fifth Prime monorhythm together. The dancers fanned out, spun in place, forced the Bodh entheogen from belly to blood to brain where it uncoupled flesh from spirit. Then their bodies dropped to the floor, and their souls journeyed down into Grandmother Mælkevejen's belly.

Finally, I've recorded some audio for The Ruin of Beltany Ring: A Collection of Pagan Poems and Tales and made it freely available via Soundcloud for listening and downloading. Hope you enjoy it.

Forthcoming:

"C is for Change" is well on its way to publication in the B is for Broken Alphabet Anthology with a gorgeous new cover and a release date of May 26th. Even better, you can enter to win a signed ARC on Goodreads, which you should totally do because signed book, yo. You'll find that cover to the right.

Appearances:

On the evening of April 17th at the St. Michael's Parish Hall in Baddeck, I participated in a benefit for The Puffin Awards for Literary Excellence, an annual short story contest for high school students in Victoria County. Bill Conall, Mona Anderson and I read from our various work, and Kate Oland and Bill Conall performed two of Kate's gorgeous songs. I wish the Puffin Awards every good thing and hope it continues to encourage young writers for a long time to come.

Interviews:

Piper Perry at the Pagan Writers Community reached out to me in March and offered to feature my work in the PWC Author Spotlight. My thanks to Piper and the whole PWC crew for making such a generous offer! You'll find that interview here.

Rebecca Buchanan of the excellent Eternal Haunted Summer interviewed me in March for its Spring Equinox 2015 issue. Thanks very much, Rebecca! You'll find that interview here.

Finally, A. L. (Alex) Butcher at Library of Erana interviewed me in April on the topics of narration and writing. Many thanks, Alex! You'll find that interview here.

Announcements:

As you know, I've been a contributing writer to Rhonda Parrish's ongoing anthology series based on the letters of the alphabet. To date, my short story "N is for Nanomachine" has appeared in A is for Apocalypse, and my novelette "C is for Change" is forthcoming in B is for Broken.

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be contributing to the next volume as well, entitled C is for Chimera! You can read Rhonda's announcement about the anthology here.

Vegan Resource of the Quarter:

I have four words for you. Vegan. Lemon. Meringue. Pie. That's right. I said vegan meringue. You're never going to believe what it's made from, either. I can hardly believe it myself. Here's the recipe: Vegan Lemon Meringue Pie

That's all for now. Thanks for reading! I'll be back at Lughnasadh.

All the best,
C.S. MacCath

In Print

"Sing the Crumbling City"

In a city that is, spacetime fissures gape like ravenous grendels in the landscape. In a city that might have been, a traumatized girl can close the mouths of these monsters before they ever open, if only she will sing. Between them, a trio of musicians play as if all life, everywhere, depends upon the song. And it does.

In Print

"Grandmother Mælkevejen's Belly:

A Novelette of the Lodhuven"

A troupe of drummers and dancers use an entheogen to track the whereabouts of two vessels rumored to be trapped in the event horizon of a supermassive black hole, while the science director of a great string engine tries to force them out of its path.

Forthcoming

"C is for Change" in

B is for Broken

Three broken people; a monk bearing a terrible scar, a warrior facing a terrible sorrow, a woman hiding a terrible past face a relentless army so hard to defeat it might as well be invincible. Find out whether or not they survive in "C is for Change."

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