Saturday 30 November 2013

20 Questions with Author, Samaire Provost

Here we are again, the second in our series of 


Small Songs - 20 Questions Interviews...


This month we are looking at Author, Samaire Provost.



20 Questions

1. What are you best known for? 

Thrilling stories

2. How did you get involved in your line of work? 


I've been writing since I was 10, been an avid reader all my life.


3. What advice would you give someone just starting out in the same line of work? 

Write a lot. Read even more.

4. What was your last project? 

The third book in my Mad World trilogy. It's called DESPERATION.

5. What’s next? 


A new book, a vampire thriller, due out by Christmas.

6. Name a person in the same line of work as you who you admire


Stephen King

7. What one thing would you do if you knew that you could not fail? 


Become a best selling author known for her great stories made into movies.

8. How do you want to be remembered? 


See #7


9. What do you love/enjoy most about your work?

It's very autonomous. I get to create stories and worlds and I am my own boss.

10. What was the strangest or funniest incident you've experienced 


Once my husband and I were kissing in a mall and some woman came up to us and told us to stop, that there were children present.

11. What do you do in your spare time? 


Spare time? What's that?

12. Who inspires you? 


My imagination is inspired by so many things. I read voraciously and I am inspired by my two favorite authors: Neil Gaiman and Stephen King

13. Describe yourself in 3 words 


Giddy Imaginative Author

14. Favourite colour 

Green

15. If you could have dinner with any 3 people alive or dead who would they be?


Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Ray Bradbury

16. What would I find in your refrigerator right now? 


Food of various sorts. Diet Pepsi

17. What is the last book you read? 


"Twentieth Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill

18. What is next to your bed at the moment? 


The current book I'm reading: "Dr. Sleep" by Stephen King

19. What would your one “can’t live without it” item be?


Ice, I love crunching it all day long. 

20. Favourite Season


Winter and Christmas

***
Samaire Provost is a novelist living in California. Author of the Mad World Trilogy:


check out her books on Amazon worldwide, in both Kindle and Paperback formats.

If you would like to be interviewed for the Small Songs Blog then you can contact Arietta here 
or via her Facebook page

Monday 18 November 2013

Bibliomancy, Rhapsodomancy, Stichomancy & Bookcase Poetry

Divining for Poetry


[From Wikipedia] According to the 
Oxford English Dictionary,[1] the word Bibliomancy (etymologically from biblio- "books" and -mancy "divination by means of") "divination by books, or by verses of the Bible" was first recorded in 1753 (Chambers' Cyclopedia). Sometimes this term is used synonymously with Stichomancy (from sticho- "row, line, verse") "divination by lines of verse in books taken at hazard", which was first recorded ca. 1693 (Urquhart's Rabelais).
Bibliomancy compares with Rhapsodomancy (from rhapsode "poem, song, ode") "divination by reading a random passage from a poem".

I have always used forms of bibliomancy for divination purposes and also as a means of sparking ideas and inspirations for my own writing, so I was intrigued and inspired yet again, when I found out about the Sorted Books project.

Started in 1993 but with no specific end date, and using books from personal, private and public collections the idea is simple...  Searching though piles of books, finding particularly inspiring titles, and then putting the selected books into a sequence which is photographed, and when read from the top or the bottom creates a lyrical, poetical, aesthetic.

Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aimed to examine that particular library's focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library's holdings. At present, the Sorted Books project comprises more than 130 book clusters and conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian’s playful photographic series is available now from  http://www.chroniclebooks.com/sorted-books.html

Pictured above: A Day at the Beach

Pictured above: Primitive Art


And so I thought I would have a quick go myself, but being short on time I thought I would try to create something using just the books within arms reach

(which in the house of a bibliophile is quite a few) 

And this was what I came up with...

Growing Up Pagan - by Arietta 

Growing up Pagan:
Magical tales,
Listening to trees
Ramblings and rhymes
Celebrating life
Ancient ways
Beneath a mountain moon

I rather like the outcome and I feel that this will become quite an addictive habit, and a useful tool should the dreaded writers block hit...

...So give it a go and please please please do share your creations with me

***
P.S...

Here are the links to the books I used should you want to look at more than just their spines...



Wednesday 13 November 2013

Repost from... Pagan Parenting UK: Magick Milk

I wanted to share this poem with you, I don't think it needs anything by way of an explanation or introduction, but suffice to say that it is about motherhood and in particular, breastfeeding...

Magickal Milk

At first the tearful hungry infant
Suckling at the engorged breast
Leaves me tearful, fearful, tired
Will this tiny succubus ever be fed? 

But days and weeks to months they blur
And babies grow and live and learn
My goddess given gift of a child
Is sustained by this magick milk of mine

The bond grows stronger and we wonder
At the child before us now
He is walking, jumping talking
With messy curls upon his head

Year one done we journey on
Learning, growing, all the time
And still this sacred special liquid
Keeps him healthy all the while

Year two passes all too fast,
Babies are not made to last
Here he is, my little lad
With a smile so like his Dad's

And so year three arrives with fanfare
Cake and candles, gifts and friends
But in my heart there is a burning
This is where my baby ends

No more magick milk for Ozzy
He is not a baby now
I must not be seen to feed him
He must drink milk from a cow

I just wish that they would tell you
When you start upon this path
To treasure each and every feeding,
For they vanish all too fast

So though my breasts are full and heavy
The time has come for us to stop
tears of sadness fill my eyes now
I have to let my baby grow up


Original posted on Pagan Parenting UK: Magick Milk 13/11/13

(C) Arietta Moon / Small Songs
13/11/13

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Tuesday 12 November 2013

Book Review: Kitchen Witchcraft, By Rachel Patterson.

Kitchen Witchcraft, By Rachel Patterson.

This book is part of the Moon Book collection called "Pagan Portals" 

On the surface you might think that this book has nothing to offer the experienced craft practitioner but I can guarantee that there will be a nugget of gold to be found by all who read it

As I have come to expect of a book published by Moon Books, this book is well presented and well written, the author has a personable style and writes with familiarity over formality, a quality I enjoy in this kind of book. The reader feels as though they have popped in for a cuppa at Rachel's house and are being given a little tour of her kitchen and garden. 

I would recommend this book to those taking there first steps into kitchen craft as it is in my option one of the better guides available, and for others with more experience in kitchen craft I would still recommend it, especially if they own other Pagan Portals books and wanted to add to their collection.

This book should live somewhere easy to reach, once you start using these techniques for a more Magickal life you will dip back into these pages again and again.