Out Now: Rook Chant

Few things make a writer happier than a gorgeous book cover and this one's a beaut, thanks to the ever talented Queen of Everything, S. L. Johnson. You may recognise the image from a photo I took: how rare for a writer to have a hand in the book cover! Rook Chant brings together a wide variety of publications that have appeared in various places.  I've had people asking me to send them pieces that are no longer available or available only in academic journals or otherwise hard to obtain. Everything from Anglo-Saxon witches to Alan Moore, Finnish magic and charms.

Blurb: Collected Writings on Paganism & Witchcraft by award winning author, K. A. Laity. This collection represents a wide range of pieces touching on the breadth of her interests in paganism and witchcraft. It includes everything from short pieces for pagan/spirituality journals like The Seeker Journal, The Beltane Papers, Circle and New Witch, papers delivered at academic conferences or published in academic journals as well as a few reviews and translations of old magical texts.

"Laity is a very remarkable sorceress indeed."
          ~ Elizabeth Hand, author of Waking the Moon

"ROOK CHANT is a delicious in-gathering, a magpie's nest of shiny new things about subjects old, gnarled and powerful. Sit with it, relish it and be bound likewise into a breathing tradition that puts Potter et al to shame. It is a charm well-sung and a talisman."
          ~ H. Byron Ballard, Asheville's Village Witch and author of Staubs and Ditchwater: a Friendly and Useful Introduction to Hillfolks' Hoodoo

Buy it on Amazon -- and of course any help you can give on getting the word out, clicking "like" on Amazon or agreeing with the tags, would be most appreciated. The biggest hurdle writers face these days is to be heard in the cacophony. Thanks! Click the picture for Amazon US:





Or get it at Amazon UK, Amazon De, Amazon Fr, or Amazon It (anyone I missed?).

On Tour with the QoE & Marko

Next week, I'll be back to regular posting, but for now, here's a nice picture of my guests. We'll see how many photos they let me post :-) probably better when they get over the jet lag. Yes, a picture at Spanish Arch is required of everyone who sets foot in Galway. Tick that box!

Know-vember: Lovely Dundee

We're taking a brief detour from people to get to know a city: Dundee. I haven't been to Scotland for decades! What a delight to return. And I had never been to Dundee, so it was all a pleasant surprise to me to get to know the land of McGonagall.

The Tay gives the city its distinctive flavour and the Gulf Stream provides its unexpected warmth. And the haar! The thick fog nearly kept me from leaving Scotland (which I wouldn't have minded at all).

Speaking of unexpected warmth :-) I found the locals to be very friendly: Mark, my native guide, showed me the ropes in his town and made me feel right at home.

It wouldn't be Scotland without a tribute to Robbie Burns. The statue sits outside the McManus, Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum.

And one of the attractions at the museum is the Tay Whale, who hangs over the main exhibit hall.

One of the delights of the city are all the whimsical sculptures. These penguins appear around the back of a church near a shopping centre.

What better way to honour Captain Scott, whose ship the RRS Discovery can be found docked on the Tay (more penguins there!).

But here's an impish monkey playing with the letters on the signboard...

And here's DC Thomson's famed Dundee residents, Desperate Dan and Dawg with Minnie the Minx.

The star may be the fabulous Dundee Dragon...

But how wonderful is the Lion and the Unicorn clock? See it in action here.

Britannia tops a building that was once a bank; Mark showed me a Ladbrokes, too, that had been a bank and had a gloriously baroque ceiling. We were probably the only people to look up at it for some time. Everyone else had their eye on the screens and their betting forms.

And here on the same building, perhaps Abundantia, the goddess of prosperity. Given the hard times Scotland's facing at present, more offerings should be left at her feet.

The Howff, Dundee's beautiful city cemetery: a gorgeous and peaceful place.

I will have to take more photos here when I go back; I know my cemetery-loving pals will appreciate them. Great history.

The beauty of a chance photo. I don't know why I like this snap so much, but I do.

This one, too: I call it "£25 Pink Moon" in honour of Nick Drake's lovely song (although clearly it's the sky not the moon that's pink >_<). This was about twilight on Guy Fawkes Night. We went over to Baxter Park to catch the fireworks. A crisp clear night and quite beautiful.

Inevitably, people ask about haggis. The "Scottish" shop in the airport had piles of it. There it remains. I was not tempted. The green labels indicate "vegetarian haggis" -- no, not sure what's in it.

I wasn't able to resist these coasters though. Pleased I already knew these words, though that's probably mostly due to Terry (thanks again for being my chauffeur, by the way). Thanks to Mark and his boys for a warm welcome. I had a very lovely time.

It's been a good week: I was art! And look, I had an insect named after me! Here's Kate with Irfaan, as photographed by Ayub at the Butterfly World Project (a wonderful place that's helping preserve those beauties). Life is good.

Know-vember: S. L. Johnson

Yes, it's herself -- fresh from a triumphant debut gallery show opening this past weekend, it's the Queen of Everything and fabulous artist, S. L. Johnson. I'm not just saying that because she designed the lovely Cult of Kaity logo or the cover of the forthcoming collection, Triumph of the Carpet Beetle, or made me look gorgeous in her art show :-) No! I love her work and I love her, she's amazing. I persuaded her to take a break from her furious working and socialising schedule to answer my questions (albeit somewhat enigmatically).

1. What's the first thing you do upon waking in the morning?  

Open my eyes....   

2. What's a song you might be persuaded to dance to? 

"Motorhead" by Motorhead 

3. Where in the world do you live?

My own little.   

4. What's a great night out for you?

Good friends, drinks, music, art.   

5. What's a great night in?

Good friends, good food, good chat or movies.  

6. If you were offered an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Iceland. 

7. What book do you wish everyone would read so you could talk about it?

Promethea or Alice In Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass.

8. What movie makes you cry?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Every damn time. 

9. What makes you laugh?

Wit. Slapstick.   

10. Are there fairies at the bottom of your garden?

You need to ask? 

And you're a big fan of The Fall, right? [ducks] Hee hee hee! 

Publications: High Plains Lazarus / Fear and Loathing in Deptford

I'm pleased to let you know that the zombie anthology, Rotting Tales, is now available from Pill Hill Press and it features my short story "High Plains Lazarus" -- obviously influenced by spaghetti Westerns as well as Joe R. Lansdale his own self, but with a mystical twist.

The book will be available on Amazon soon, but until Thanksgiving, Pill Hill will be selling the collection for a discounted rate of $15.49 so if you're thinking of picking it up, that's a great reason.

The story has a funny history, having been written at the last minute as I headed off to Trinoc-con one year and hated everything I'd ever written (it happens) and so started writing something just for fun. It was a big hit, with one exception: I'd only got half the story written. People were ready to kill me for stopping in the middle, but that's all I had. I finished (and read the rest the following year at Trinoc-con) and sold it to an anthology, who then proceeded to slowly reel out the days while contributors waited, and waited, and were reassured that it was coming, it was coming -- and then after two years, they just stopped responding. Sigh. Unfortunately, that's the life of small publishers. I'm glad it's got a home at last.

Over at the Women's League of Ale Drinkers, where the first issue of the journal is available for a mere 99¢ (such a bargain!), you can get the lowdown this week on our design director, Stephanie Johnson AKA the Queen of Everything, editor Vicky Squid and, er, me. We'll be getting to know many of the contributors to the first issue throughout the month. Enjoy!

WLoAD #1 and a Book Trailer Review

Hey kids, get yourself a fine publication for just 99¢! Yes, it's the inaugural issue of the Women's League of Ale Drinkers journal featuring some wonderful art by pal Stephanie Johnson (who designed the whole issue) and a whole lot more -- like my long unplaceable story, "Fear and Loathing in Deptford," in which I imagine how Christopher Marlowe's last night might be if he wrote in the style of Hunter S. Thompson (albeit with Elizabethan sensibilities). I got lots of compliments on the story from editors who nonetheless did not buy it because it was too this or too that (too obscure, too much strange vocabulary, and -- oh no! -- even some Latin!). Check out the table of contents for more delights including some familiar names.

My book trailer for Pelzmantel received a review over at 1st Turning. I'm learning a lot from people's comments -- things that never occurred to me. It's hard when you know the story inside out to think about how to introduce it to someone unfamiliar with it. Feel free to add your comments as well. I need all the feedback I can get as I'm starting to think about the trailer for The Mangrove Legacy: whatever will that have?

If it's Tuesday, this must be...

So this is how the whole of September has felt: me as Durga with at least eighteen arms and too much to do and people standing in my way who need a good poke with a sharp stick.

Where's my lion? Or tiger! I will take either.

Part of it is the normal start to the semester: the first week of classes hits like a steam engine out of nowhere even though I know exactly when it will arrive. Somehow I always seem to find myself standing on the tracks. While this is supposed to be my "pseudo-sabbatical," administrative tasks for myself and for others (writing tenure letters for two folks today) have taken up an awful lot of time. The hope is that October and November will actually be writing intensive times for the non-fiction project, but argh! So far there's been no progress on that.

Not that I haven't got writing done: just not what I planned. And there's editing to do, too. Fortunately, the editing for Kit Marlowe's first publication -- the novella "The Big Splash" -- went swiftly. My editor had few changes and a couple of questions re: period slang (it takes place in 1929 London) -- she also said it was "hilarious" which made my day! The big editing job is getting to The Mangrove Legacy, Kit's next publication. I haven't had much time to work on that comic Gothic novel, but I have to make it a priority now.

I do have a new publication, though it will be of interest to fewer of you: a review of Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre and the Limits of Epic Masculinity in the latest issue of The Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures. Oh, and Stephanie wrote nice things about me over at WLoAD: the journal looks like it will be fabulous!

All right: back to work!

Speaking of Ale

My mug came in! At Mahar's you get your very own mug once you have tried 125 different beers from around the world. Oh sure, it took me four years to get here, but way cool :-) Etched into the glass is the logo designed by the fabulous Queen of Everything, Stephanie Johnson, for the Women's League of Ale Drinkers.

Yes, I'll be writing up my weekend with the romance writers, with luck tomorrow, but it's been an insanely busy week already and whew! Not sure when I can find a moment to breathe. Though, yes, I did find a moment to have a couple of beers with my colleagues, but that's networking!

Who is Kit Marlowe?

Happy St. Urho Day!

As the delightful flaming grasshopper (courtesy of the fabulous Stephanie Johnson AKA The Queen of Everything) indicates, today is St. Urho Day when we commemorate the famous Finnish leader who chased the grasshoppers from the vineyards with the cry,

“Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!”

[Roughly, "Grasshopper, grasshopper, hie thee to hell!"]

Don't forget to load up on Grasshopper Hellfire merchandise from the Raven and Wombat Tea Party! And let's not hear any murmurings about the authenticity of this saint or his holiday -- take my word as a Finn and wear your purple and green proudly!

WLoADed: QoE

Drop over to the Women's League of Ale Drinkers to see the latest profile: our very own fabulous Queen of Everything, Stephanie Johnson. She has been responsible for an amazing amount of arresting images! It really tickles me that vague notions of mine have emerged from her keen imagination as glorious logos that serve as candy to the eyes.

I'm thinking of making every Tuesday WLoADed day, so pass along the names of fantastic female artists who might like to join the ranks of the League. We love all kinds: writers, artists, musicians, designers -- let us know about them!

Join the Cult of Kaity!

The fabulous Queen of Everything, Stephanie Johnson -- my co-conspirator in the Women's League of Ale Drinkers, the gathering place for creative women -- designed these fabulous labels for my fictional cult's official drink, Stargrove Citrus. The cult idea sprang from a silly conversational thread on Facebook, as often happens (though oddly there were no fainting goats this time). I love how Stephanie can be inspired by chance remarks and come up with such evocative visions (like our Bison Power line of gifts and the St. Urho Day logo). N.B. "Kaity" is pronounced, like "Laity," with three syllables.

Now all I need are some followers -- and a crown!