The Corgis Have Landed!

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Welcome to Pride Street. Where corgis run, men are in love...

and murder is just around the corner!

Exciting news! I'm launching a brand new cozy paranormal series on Kickstarter! We've already jumped past three stretch goals and the corgis are off and running!

The books feature two cute corgis—Klaus and Marsha—two men in love, and a ghost from the 1980s. If you like a little mayhem in your cuteness, this series is for you!

A big thank you to everyone who has already backed and spread the word!

The rest of you can check it out here: Pride Street Paranormal Cozy Mysteries.

On Lightening Up

And Listening to Wasps and Bees

I periodically pause, tune in, and pull a rune to ponder. Off and on lately, I’ve been getting Ansuz. It looks like a capital F with the cross bars pointing down. I often interpret Ansuz as the rune of communication. Of listening and speaking. Of being a channel for the Gods, or the cosmos, or whatever else needs to come through us.

Given that I’m a communicator for my living, and that characters speak through me all the time, it is no surprise when I get this rune. But to get it repeatedly? That tells me I need to listen to something in particular.

That rune is part one of this story.

Part two? That’s the bees. And one wasp:

I’d been out watering the garden and harvesting some vegetables before the day’s heat hit. I paused to watch the bees pollinating the false pennyroyal, a low, spreading bush with small green leaves and little purple flowers. The bees love it.

They buzzed around me, happily at work, as I squatted near the bush, and snapped a photo.

Around ten minutes later, I was folding laundry while on a phone call with a friend. I felt something on my neck, and brushed my hand across it. I figured it was just my necklace, but it being spider season, you never know.

A bee dropped onto my bedspread. “Sorry, I need to call you back, there’s a bee on my bed,” I said.

I grabbed a small container from a bedside table, the bee crawled inside, and I took it back to the bush to set it free.

A few days later, while watering the garden, the wasps were pollinating the vegetable patch. Both the bees and wasps love the droplets of water from the hose, so I wasn’t surprised to see increased activity as I watered. But then a wasp flew right at , likely heading for the nasturtiums and herbs one bed over. I dodged, thinking it had past by.

Then I heard buzzing. Very close buzzing.

The wasp was caught in my curly hair.

As gently as I could, I batted my curls and the wasp released, and flew on its way.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I cautiously began to pick lettuce, wasps and cabbage butterflies still alighting here and there. As I crouched, I saw a wasp on a long lettuce leaf, drinking some water. I very carefully snapped its photo, picked the lettuces not near it, and headed back inside to work.

That afternoon, while in the passenger seat of my partner’s car, en route to get groceries, a bee flew through their open window, and right at me, again. My window was closed. I quickly opened it and let the creature out into the air.

That’s when it came to me: I needed to listen to the bees. So, over the next week, I paid close attention to the pollinators in the garden. The bees. The moths. The butterflies and wasps.

What did they have to teach me?

To lighten up.

Specifically, to work and move and live with lightness. A lighter heart. A lighter touch. A lighter mind.

So I’m practicing that. And when the news gets to be too much, or I start to tense up around my to do list? I take a breath. I remind myself to live with greater lightness. To move with expansiveness. To breathe.

I remind myself to enjoy life as it comes, even when the world is crumbling and there is so much work still to be done. If I can do that work with a lighter heart? Everything feels better.

Thank you runes. Thank you bees (and wasps).

I appreciate the lesson.

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Sigils for a Waiting World

Part One: The Well

Over the course of the next few months, I’ll be sending out sigils to help us navigate these times. These sigils can be used to help us focus and help spur us toward action.

What are sigils? They are symbolic signatures. A maker’s mark is a sigil. So are certain corporate logos. Sigils invoke intention and can also be used to evoke certain qualities in the world.

Magic workers use sigils for many things: to help them study, to manifest justice, to kindle creativity, to help find a better job, to slow down, to speed up, to open to spaciousness, or to buckle down.

This first Sigil for a Waiting World is one from my book Sigil Magic for Writers, Artists, & Other Creatives. It’s called The Well:

Deep below the earth and above the ground, the well is a place where two worlds meet. Wells both literally and figuratively give us the water that we need. Without enough water, our cells dry out. There isn’t enough oxygen to power our brains. Without enough water, eventually we’ll fall asleep. Although dreams are important, in order to create, we need to be awake. When we’ve been too busy, too distracted, working too hard, doing too much for others, or numbing ourselves, it is time to refill the well. We’ve run dry. Invoking the well calls inspiration to ourselves by reminding us that, just as the artist inspires others, the artist needs to be inspired. The well also shows us that is the artist’s job to bring that which rests deep in the soul up toward the light of day.

I’ve used The Well when I need a respite. A break. Or when I need to deepen my vision or my understanding.

These days, The Well reminds me to slow down, breathe, and take some time for contemplation. When the world feels literally on fire, it’s easy for us to feel like we need to catch on fire, too. We race around, waving our hands, trying to do something, because clearly, something must be done.

And yes. Something must be done. But getting frantic with it is not helpful. In a crisis, we must act decisively, not from confusion. And in an ongoing—or what I call “rolling”—crisis? We must pace ourselves for the long haul. The world’s problems are not going away, but we might burn out and need to go away ourselves.

That’s where The Well can help.

Stop reading for a moment and go get a cup or bowl. Fill it with water.

Then settle in. Slow your breathing down.

Gaze into the water. Let your attention drop into your belly. Keep breathing, even more slowly still. Then ask, “What do I need to learn from The Well?”

Sit in quiet contemplation. Let yourself be as quiet inside as you can. Don’t worry about stray thoughts or random sensations or emotions. Allow your attention to deepen, and your body, mind, and emotions to relax.

Just be with the water. Dive into The Well. What insight awaits you?

Stay with this meditation for a few more breaths, or a few more minutes. Then breathe across the surface of the water. Ask for what you want or need.

Drink deeply from the well. You don’t have to finish it all at once. Sometimes, small sips are exactly what you need. You can drink the rest as you go throughout your day, or simply over the next half hour.

Draw an image of The Well on a card or scrap of paper or take a picture of it with your phone. Post it where you can see it or save it into notes so you can find it easily.

And when you are ready to greet the world in all its beautiful, messy, heartbreaking glory? Let the sigil help you. Draw it. Look at it. Inscribe it over a cup of water. Drink it in.

And remember: Whenever you start to feel frantic or overwhelmed, you can return and refresh yourself at The Well.

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You can find Sigil Magic for Writers, Artists, & Other Creatives at your favorite bookseller, or request it from the library.

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