Candlemas, or Imbolc as it is more commonly called, is a pagan festival of light. Themes of purification, initiation, and virginity dominate this sabbat. In the wheel of the year myth, the Goddess is recovering from her birth and seeing the “light at the end of the tunnel” at last, and the God is a… View more
I have a confession: I am in possession of a contradictory nature. Santa is something I’ve struggled with, but a battle I lost. Before I had kids I was determined that I’d never lie to them, and now I find myself bullshitting just to get through the day. “Don’t stick your hand in the cash… View more
The other day someone asked me, “Why do you write for teens? You don’t have any, and you’re not one.” and of course I bungled the answer, saying something like “teens need to know they aren’t alone” or some such, because talking about my work in real life is hard. It’s a good question though…. View more
Something I think about a lot, both on a spiritual level and a “hey that’s neat” level, is interconnectedness. How every little thing in our macro and micro existences is webbed together. Every choice creates a ripple. Not a single word can ever be unsaid; though I always let my kids have a do-over if… View more
It probably doesn’t make much sense that I live in a bustling vibrant city full of witches and weirdos yet still practice alone, but I have a social anxiety disorder so here we are. There’s really no reason I can’t tuck the kids into bed and leave them under the watchful eye of their dad… View more
When I was writing the draft for Elton’s Song, I played around a lot with different ways to cast circle, particularly with Astrid’s disability. She doesn’t want to burn her house down with a stray quarter candle, and her element is water. So I asked myself a lot of questions. Why do we often use… View more
I don’t often post my spells, mostly because I don’t do a whole lot of them, but I’ve been working on typing one up for you and thought that before we get there, I should cover some witchcraft 101. One of the reasons I don’t cast a lot of spells is because like anything, it… View more
I love my Wicce novels. If you have followed me here from my old blog, you’ll know I didn’t start out writing urban fantasy. Tir Rhaycorda Forsaken, my darling, is a massive epic set on a made up world, and I came to Namesakes looking for a project I could complete while the goddesses were… View more
Please, stop asking me to buy a bale. My friends are asking me, advertisements and media are asking me, even my kid’s school is asking me to buy a damn bale. For the most part I’ve been wearing a hole in the “hide post” button, scrolling on, or even getting halfway through an honest response… View more
There are two reasonably consistent themes throughout Wicca: One is that the Greater Sabbats of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain are associated with agriculture and the bearing cycles of animals; hailing from a time when people lived close to and worked with the land or they died. The second is that Wiccans are custodians of… View more
