these last weeks

The last three weeks or so have been pretty intense. There was the lead-up to my trip. And then there was my trip. I saw most of the people I really wanted to catch up with this time around, with one glaring exception. I got to spend a lot of time with my goddaughter and her baby, which was really lovely. I got a lot of time at Powell's Books, which was also great. And I got some good family time as well. I flew back home two days before Hurrican Sandy hit. I am thankful my flight was Saturday, not Sunday or Monday! But the storm means that this last week has been a weird one. There's been so subway service in my neighborhood for nearly a week now. A good portion of the system is up and running, but not my train. The office was closed due to lack of power all week, so my partner-in-crime and I have had a staycation. I know it's weird to talk about it like it's a holiday when so many people's lives have been just devastated by this storm, but that's the way it has felt. We got very lucky in coming through the storm unscathed. Today and tomorrow I'll be putting together a pile of items to donate to victims of the hurricane, and my office will probably be open on Monday. And that will be madness.
I gave myself a couple of lazy days at the beginning of things. The last couple of days I've really tried to be productive though. I'm purging the apartment again, and trudging through some freelancing work, and trying to get some novel work done as well. We also did ritual for Samhain on the 31st, just me, my partner-in-crime, and two friends. It was a nice evening, and a good ritual. Samhain is one of the two times of the year when they veil between the worlds is thinnest, so it's a good time for divination as well as contacting spirits. It's also our New Year, so the four of us wrote New Year's resolutions down and burned the slips of paper in a white votive candle. Did anyone else out there do anything exciting for Samhain?
I have two books to report, but absurdly, I can't remember what oen of them was. I know I finished a book just before my trip. But for the life of me I can't remember what it was. So when I figure it out, or when I give up on figuring it out, I'll report it on my recent reading.
A couple of strange dreams last night. First, I was at some sort of boarding school and was getting ready to leave, I think to catch a flight, but then my ex-girlfriend showed up. She was in mourning because her mother just died, so I decided to stay with her. There was something about a boy I was supposed to be meeting . . . something about him and a walk in the woods . . . it's all faded though. I also dreamed that I was still nannying for the family I used to work for, and while I was out with the kids Neil Gaiman called their apartment and left a voice mail for me. The gist was that my writing is good and I should keep at it. Then I left to go somewhere, and had my face done up, and was wearing some sort of weird spacesuit type thing, but the thing I was on was sort of a roller coaster. And someone passed me a gizmo to remove my makeup, only instead it screwed up my face so half of it was all saggy and veiny and unresponsive and awful. And I panicked about it, and they said they'd tell me how to fix it if I did something for them, but I don't recall what that was. The previous night I remember flashes of dreams. I was walking somewhere with Laura Bourgeois, out of a school building, and from an office there I'd retrieved a doll named Lettuce that was important to me for some reason. There was another dream about a baby I was holding, though it wasn't my baby. And I know there was a third dream, but I can't recall what it was. . . .
Anyway. I need to shower and get some work done. Blessed Be, everyone, and I hope you're all doing well.

Happy Samhain!

Happy Samhain, everyone! Tonight I will lift a glass of wine in honor of my friends, my family, and those who have passed on. I will set out a place at dinner for the spirits of my loved ones, and invite them in to join us at our table. I'll do a long ritual with candles, incense, and herbs, where I give thanks for the good harvest this year, speak with the dead, do divinations for the coming year, and cast out what bad habits and weaknesses I can.
Samhain is one of the two times of the year when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, which is why it is for communing with the dead and divining the future. In the myth cycle of the god and the goddess, this is when the god dies and the goddess mourns for him, but knows he will be reborn again at Yule. so it's a serious holiday, but not too serious. There will be pumpkin pie, and wine, and good conversation. And I can't wait.
Blessed be!

my honey bear is half full

Strangely, I have a cough. I don't feel ill in any other way. The cough has been present for three days or so, now, and I am already tired of it. Yes, before you ask, I am drinking loads of tea with honey in it, and taking my vitamin C.
Anyway. Slowly making progress on editing my novel and sending it out to readers for some outside input. I took on some freelance again recently, after doing the mother of all copyediting projects in September, so there's that. More money is good. And one of the projects is something I've been excitedly waiting for.
Samhain is right around the corner, all of a sudden! I need to sit down and have a good think about how I'd like to celebrate it this year. (I don't know if you all remember, but last year, my partner-in-crime and I fell asleep on the couch for several hours just after dinner, which sort of knocked out any ritual we were going to manage that evening!)
One book, quickly: 56) Kraken by China Mieville. Quirky, British, sort-of-surreal urban fantasy. But distinctly not what you think when you hear the phrase "urban fantasy." I don't want to say any more, for fear of spoilers when I may be giving this to someone as a holiday gift, so I'll just say that it's wildly different and interesting, and definitely worth reading.
There are other books percolating in the back of my brain. I managed to ignore them while writing the first draft of my YA superhero novel, but now they're creeping up into my forebrain again, whispering to me their stories. Can't I just take a few months off to go live in a remote location and write them all? Sigh. Soon enough, I suppose.
And now, back to the work, as there is far too much of it for me to shirk any more this afternoon.

Happy Samhain

Happy Samhain, everyone! This is the pagan New Year, and we'll be celebrating in style with a nice dinner and a quiet ritual at my partner-in-crime's apartment.
Samhain is also the time of the year when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, so the dead can visit the living. We'll be saying some words for a couple loved ones who departed this year, and may well set places for them at our meal as well. This is the final harvest festival before we really dive into winter, so dinner will be seasonally appropriate food, along with some wine and/or mead. Milk and honey offerings for the fey folk, and carved pumpkins outside to frighten evil spirits away. Samhain is one of my favorite sabbats.
Blessed Be, everyone!

Happy Samhain!

I wanted to do a nice long rambling post today about this holiday, what it means to me as a pagan, etc. However, work got the better of me. I just finished proofreading the spring/summer catalog for one of our imprints, and now have to run home to throw something costume-ish on before heading out for the night. So, have a good weekend, and a lovely Samhain, and I'll do that long rambling post as soon as I have the Internet in front of me again!