by Christine | Observations
New Book! Scott Cunningham The Path Taken – Honoring the Life and Legacy of a Wiccan Trailblazer arrives in bookstores September, 2023. Pre-order your copy now!
Publishes in September 2023 from Weiser Books
Here is a bit from the Preface of this book. Enjoy!
If I had known my older brother Scott would be so beloved, so polarizing, so prolific, and would die so young, I, in my youth, would have taken notes. Kept all our correspondence. Taken more photos. Or perhaps had a cassette deck tape recorder going whenever we talked.
But I didn’t. So here we are.
Memories are, at best, crystal-clear images frozen in time. Sound, scent, sight, taste, touch, all right there, so vivid. At their worst, memories are foggy, amorphous, intangible things that no one can verify. A pity that all I have is my memories. . . but both my parents are gone, so it’s up to me now. Throughout this book I have added snippets of conversations. Most of them took place in one form or another. They are not word-by-word conversations. What they are is what memory has given me, whether through family repetition (stories told again and again), or what might have been said in a private setting that rings true.
The longer I work on this labor of love, the more snippets come to me. Bits of conversation. Colors. The heat of the day, or the cool of an air-conditioned hotel room, the scent of a city. I’m trusting these snippets and sharing them with you.
I am not an historian. I don’t have dates of his major life events written down. I don’t have salacious details of his deeply personal life (and even if I did, I wouldn’t share them). I have not memorized every one of Scott’s books. Hell, I didn’t even read most of them until after he died.
That’s a confession, by the way.
What I am is the younger sister who alternately adored him and ignored him; and he did the same with me.
This is where I need to tell you that, in reading those books he wrote, I saw a side of him I never saw in person, heard a voice I had never heard from him before. It both pleases me and saddens me. Pleases, because now all I need to do is pick up his books and he is there with me. Saddens, because I never got to see that part of him in real life.
So it goes.
It has struck me now that once I let this book out into the world, my memories won’t be my own anymore. They will be seen by you. Known by you. Filtered through your experience. My words, yes, but your internal translation.
A part of me is hesitant, now that I near the end of this journey.
I have to laugh. . . when I wrote that, I swear I heard Scott sigh and tell me to get on with it, already. So here I go. . . getting on with it.
From my heart to yours.
PREORDER NOW! <– Click that link!
by Christine | Observations, Writing
A year or so later…
Hello! It’s been a minute, yeah? Depression and a global pandemic stopped this girl from writing romance. Instead, I was working on my passion project – a book about my brother Scott. More on that in another post, but if you want the skinny head over to my other website where I share all the details (and more!).
I’m back to writing. My first anthology in a long time doesn’t have a romance in it from me – instead it’s a dark paranormal story called The Witches’ Revenge.
Preorder now!
The Soul Retrieval anthology is available for preorder – check it out! It’s available wherever you get your digital reading material. 11 authors exploring all your darkest paranormal dreams and showing you theirs. Join them on their journeys to the other side of reality.
Here’s a little bit of the story…a “sneak peak” if you will…
Present Day – The Storyteller
The college kids settled around the last bonfire on the beach before the new school year started, waiting for her to begin. The sun wasn’t quite down yet, and the sand still held the heat of the day. The waves added music to the evening.
Amarie smiled. They were all so young. Hopefully they’d learn something tonight that could save them in the future.
“Does everyone have snacks and beverages? Has everyone made a restroom stop? Because once this story starts, no one will want to leave before it ends.”
Brand grinned and lifted his beer. “We’re all good, Amarie.”
“You all know who I am,” she began.
“The Ageless Witch of the Beach!” someone yelled, laughing, and others hushed them.
“Ah, yes. The Witch of the Beach. I’m also your unofficial counselor. Your tarot card reader. Your truthteller.” Amarie settled more definitely on her pillows, crossed her legs, and set her hands on her knees. “I’m the one you come to when you know your friends are unable to help you, you don’t dare call the police, and you can’t bear to talk to your parents.”
At those words, a chill shivered through the crowd. Brand fed another log on the fire, and anticipation rose.
“Tonight, I am going to tell you the story of the Man of Three Faces.” She looked around. “You might have heard of him by another name, but we shall call him Trey, for he was the third of his name, and was very proud of being third but at the same time, chafed at what he perceived as neglect by his wealthy parents. So much so that he moved away right out of high school, refusing all help, and eventually lost touch with them. When our story starts, he no longer knew where they lived or what their phone numbers might be. All he was certain of was the amount deposited in his account each month from his trust fund.”
A girl’s voice piped up. “Isn’t he the one who…”
“Hush, Penny.”
Amarie smiled. “Many of you know only part of the story. Some of you know absolutely nothing of the story. I am one of the few who know the whole story, and I’m about to spill all the secrets this summer night. I’m going to have to condense it some, as it spans years. Are you ready?”
At the murmured assent, she took a breath.
“Once upon a time, there was a woman. There was Trey. And there was a chain of events that put these two together. There was another man, as well, who comes into play in our story, but this story is not a romance.
“The woman was called Grace Thompson. She worked from home in data processing, data analysis, and transcription for authors. She had very little interaction with the public, but she was well paid and enjoyed her work.
“Which was perfectly fine, you see, because she did not trust people. She did not trust her own intuition either, so she was working on honing that part of herself. In fact, she was training herself in works of magic and divination, spell casting and tarot reading, for the sole purpose of feeling more comfortable within herself and while dealing with other people. She wasn’t a joiner, but she did join a small coven in order to learn from a person, rather than books.”
“Then one day,” Amarie continued, her voice deepening, “she received an email containing an audio file to transcribe that both disturbed and called to her, in a quite specific way. This is what happened.”
Thank you for reading! I hope you pick up the anthology and finish out the story. Find out what happens to Grace and Trey.
by Christine | Writing
Behind?
It can be difficult to keep up. We all know this, and yet we all feel guilty when we fall behind. When others are doing more than we are, which makes us feel we’re not “worthy”.
I’ve been panicked and behind for most of the past three months, and I have come to the realization that panic does not get the work done. Panic does not foster creativity. Panic does absolutely nothing to forward the situation, whatever it may be.
Please understand me, I’m not talking anxiety or panic attacks, those monster things that grab you by the throat and make it difficult to speak or move or breathe. I’m just talking about your garden variety panic.
ANYWHO…Breathe. Let go. If your situation is like mine, it’ll resolve itself in due time. Or maybe you need to shift your priorities. I’m not sure, but I do know that life is too short to always feel behind, and feel bad about it.
THE BIG PUSH!
Today is the day all the authors in the Rite to Reign box set are making a big, concerted push to get pre-orders. There are so many wonderful novels in this set, all in one place – and all for a limited time (three months total, I believe). So if you were on the fence about getting this box set, look at it this way. It’s less than a dollar, all these books are in one place, and getting them individually will cost you a LOT more, and maybe some of these books won’t be put out again.
So what do you have to lose? NOTHING, of course! Grab that box set. I promise I’ll make you my new best friend if you do!
And don’t forget about the Scavenger Hunt – it’s open until November 3rd, I believe. Go HERE to get the story from me, and make sure to check out the links to the map!
)O(
As always – thanks for listening.
by Christine | Contests, Writing
EDITED TO ADD: Kaisquared4 has won my prize!
Welcome to the Scavenger Hunt, brought to you by the authors of Rite to Reign. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Christine Ashworth, and my contribution to the box set is The Hidden One, Book One in the Covenant of Witches series.
Here’s the map to ALL of the authors in the Scavenger Hunt!
SCAVENGER MAP – CLICK ME!
All of the authors in the Scavenger Hunt want you to win prizes…and you know what? It’s easy! Just fill out the form below, and you’ll be entered to win today’s prize – a small altar cloth, and a Calling the Ancestors Candle and Ancestors Room Spray set by Dorothy Morrison, Witch Extraordinaire. Sorry, only US entries for this prize.
For those of you outside of the US, you could win an e-copy of the 3rd Extended Edition of DEMON SOUL.
(I seriously love both of these covers…)
Well, that concludes my giveaway! But don’t worry, there are new prizes every day. Click HERE for tomorrow’s author!
And if you haven’t done so already, pre-order your copy of Rite to Reign!
Thanks so much, and Happy Scavenging!
)O(
