Sandy Wright's Blog, page 6

Who I'm Fangirling at Left Coast Crime

​Who I’m Stalking (err, I mean Fan Girling) at Left Coast Crime
 
I’m headed to San Diego this week with four writer friends, to attend the annual Left Coast Crime convention. In addition to touring haunted cemeteries and other sites in the city, participating in a paranormal panel, and hosting a banquet table for readers, I’ve also picked out ten fellow LCC authors I’d like to meet and get to know. I’ve ordered one of each of their books to read and review on NetGalley, Amazon and Goodreads. I’ll also highlight my favorite books in the Pinewood News column this summer.
Here are my picks for 2010 (in alpha order): Mark Bacon – Marijuana Murders
Bacon’s series is set in Nostalgia City, a fictional theme park that re-creates a small town from the 1970s. Nostalgia City executive Kate Sorensen finds the body of a mechanic crushed under an automobile hoist in the theme park’s garage. Accident or murder? Will it impact Kate’s decision to become an advisor for one of two competing campaigns to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona?

Why I’m reading: The Marijuana Murders is the third novel in this mystery series set in Nostalgia City. I love the setting, the old/new juxtaposition, and the Arizona tie-in.
Reed Farrell Coleman – The Bitterest Pill (Jesse Stone series)
The opioid epidemic has reached Paradise, and Police Chief Jesse Stone must rush to stop the devastation in the latest thriller in Robert B. Parker's New York Times-bestselling series, now written by Reed Farrell Coleman.

When a high school cheerleader dies of a suspected heroin overdose, it’s up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it. The investigation has a clear epicenter: Paradise High School. Home of the town's best and brightest future leaders and its most vulnerable down-and-out teens. It's a rich market for Boston dealers looking to expand into the suburbs.

As he digs deeper into the case, he finds himself battling self-interested administrators, reluctant teachers, distrustful schoolkids, and overprotective parents . . . and at the end of the line are the true bad guys, the ones with a lucrative business they'd kill to protect.
Why I’m reading : I love the Jesse Stone books, and people are saying Reed Farrell Coleman is making the new books even better. NPR’s Maureen Corrigan called Coleman a “hard-boiled poet,” so I’m looking forward to finding out what she means. He’ a New York Times-bestselling author of thirty novels, a four-time Edgar Award nominee, and a four-time winner of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. I want to see what he’s all about.
Neal Griffin – By His Own Hand 

It looks like suicide.

The body of a young man has been found in the woods outside Newberg, dead from a close-range shotgun blast. The gun―his own―lies beside the body.
Certain things don’t add up for Detective Tia Suarez. Where did the fat envelope of cash in his pocket come from? Who called the police to report the body, then disappeared before the cops arrived?

The trail leads Tia to an institution for juvenile incarceration and to the leader of a local mega-church, a political and economic powerhouse in the region. Newberg’s mayor and the medical examiner keep trying to close the case.
 
But what if it isn’t suicide? What if this young man’s death is covering up something that will shake the town to its foundations?
 
Why I’m reading: Griffin paints a vivid picture of the difficulties of police work, in particular the harassment Tia endures from her male colleagues. Penned by a veteran police officer, this debut boasts the creepy, dangerous feel of actual street work. I’d like to learn police procedural from this pro.
Edwin Hill – Little Comfort

Harvard librarian Hester Thursby knows that even in the digital age, people still need help finding things. Using her research skills, Hester runs a side business tracking down the lost. Usually, she’s hired to find long-ago prom dates or to reunite adopted children and birth parents. Her new case is finding the handsome and charismatic Sam Blaine.

Blaine has no desire to be found. As a teenager, he fled his small New Hampshire town with his friend, Gabe, after a haunting incident. For a dozen years, they’re traveled the country, reinventing themselves as they move from one mark to the next. In Wendy Richards, the beautiful and fabulously rich daughter of one of Boston’s most influential families, he’s found the way to infiltrate the world of Nantucket summers and Brooks Brothers suits.

As Hester’s investigation closes in on him, Sam decides he wants her out of the way. And Gabe has always done with Sam asks…

Why I’m reading: Sleuth Hester Thursby is a unique new heroine, and the plot is described as “complex, dark, sometimes downright creepy, with a profusion of deeply conflicted characters.“ Definitely in my wheelhouse.  
I decided to start at the beginning of the series. Hill has a new book out this year, The Missing Ones, which continues the story and is getting great reviews. Both books were nominated for major awards, including an Agatha Award and an Edgar.
​Elizabeth Little – Pretty as a Picture  

Marissa Dahl, a shy but successful film editor, travels to a small island off the coast of Delaware to work with the legendary and demanding director Tony Rees on a feature film. The logline is familiar…Some girl dies.  But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it’s supposed to be. There are accidents and indiscretions. Half the crew has been fired, and the other half is threatening to quit. And no one seems to know what happened to the editor she was hired to replace.
 
Then she meets the teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie’s central subject. Before long, Marissa herself is also pulled into the investigation.
The only problem: the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished.
 
Why I’m reading: First, the setting explores our cultural addiction to tales of murder and mayhem by presenting us with a behind-the-scenes whodunit. Second, the book is a Crime Reads Most Anticipated Book of 2020. I want to see for myself.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Mexican Gothic 

He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to save me.
 
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her, Noemí Taboada rushes to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find.  Her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   
 
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade her dreams with visions of blood and doom.
 
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. 
 
Why I’m Reading: A horror novel set in 1950’s Mexico? Sign me up! This has all the ingredients of a good gothic novel. A scary mansion, a weird owner, a young woman threatened, creepy weather—even a cemetery.
Mexican Gothic releases in June.
​Jason Pinter – Hide Away

Rachel Marin is living an ordinary life as a stay-at-home mom with two small kids, making dinner for her husband every evening. Until an unspeakable crime shatters her life.
Some who are broken come back stronger, and ready to fight. Rachel Marin is such a woman.

She changes her identity and moves to a small town in Illinois, hoping to spare her children from further trauma…or worse. This time, she re-invents herself. She’s now a single mom working an office job, but conducting her real work—fighting criminals and delivering backdoor justice—in secret.

Her persistence makes her the target of both the cops and a killer. Meanwhile, the terrifying truth about her past threatens to come to light, and Rachel learns the hard way that she can’t trust anyone. Surrounded by danger, she must keep her steely resolve, protect her family, and stay one step ahead, or else she may become the next victim.

Why I’m Reading: Jason Pinter already has a bestselling series, the Henry Parker thrillers, and a standalone thriller. When he wrapped up that series, Pinter shifted his focus to the other side of the publishing business. In 2013, He launched Polis Books, an independent publishing company that focuses on crime fiction as well as fantasy and romance. This guy knows the writing industry.

Now he’s shifted focus back to his own fiction, and he decided to tackle something different from his previous books. “For this one, I wanted to write a character I was unfamiliar with, where I could stretch myself.”

That character is Rachel Marin. “A lot of times, protagonists in mystery thrillers are kind of loners, they can go out and fight evil or hunt down killers, and they don’t have to answer to anybody,” he says. “But Rachel Marin has two small children. She can’t go out at all hours, fight crime and come back beaten and bloody. She has to make sure her kids do their homework, and make sure they’re safe.”

I’m rooting for this protagonist already.

I’m also going to take a look at his publishing house. David Putnam – The Heartless

Former LA County Deputy Bruno Johnson is now a bailiff in the courts, having stepped down from his role on the Violent Crimes Team to spend more time with his daughter, Olivia. Bruno fears his job decision may have come too late when he gets a frantic call to extricate Olivia from a gunpoint situation in a LA gang-infested neighborhood. His desperation escalates when he realizes Louis Barkow, a stone-cold killer awaiting trial, had orchestrated that deadly tableau.

When Barkow and three other criminals break out of jail and hit the streets, Bruno is plunged back into violent crime mode. Now, the agenda is personal—Olivia has become a pawn in the desperate chase of this sinister murderer. The walls are caving in on Bruno as violence escalates in his hunt for Barkow and his heart strings are stretched to the breaking point as he struggles to protect his daughter not only from the criminal violence swirling around them, but from Olivia's own impetuous life choices.

Why I’m Reading: I almost didn’t pick this one up for a number of reasons. First, I cannot lie, I don’t like the cover, and a good cover means a lot to me. Second, it’s the seventh book in a series. (Sigh. Guess I know what I’ll be doing for the next several months if I like this one…)

But David Putnam comes from a family of law enforcement, and he has done it all in his career. Narcotics, cross-sworn as a US Marshal, pursuing murder suspects and bank robbers in Arizona, Nevada and California. He did two tours on the San Bernadino County Sheriff’s SWAT team, and he also has experience in criminal intelligence and internal affairs. I’m sure his police procedurals will be authentic, with insider details only a real cop can bring to the page.
xandra Sokoloff  - Huntress Series

I’m starting with Book 1 in Alexandra Sokoloff's Huntress FBI series about a driven FBI agent on the hunt for that most rare of all killers: a female serial.
 
FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can’t believe is coincidental. His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of “accidents” and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial.
 
Roarke’s hunt for her takes him across three states. As he uncovers the shocking truth of her background, he realizes she is on a mission of her own.
 
Why I’m reading – I’ve read several of Sokoloff’s previous books, especially her “witchy” ones, and found them engrossing reads.
 
Then I came across an interview in which she described how she got the idea for the Huntress series. “The idea came to me at the San Francisco Bouchercon. One afternoon there were back-to-back discussion with several of my favorite authors: Val McDermid interviewing Denis Mina, then Robert Crais interviewing Lee Child. Val was saying that crime fiction is the best way to explore societal issues, and Denise said she finds powerful inspiration in writing about what makes her angry.”
 
Sokoloff said, “Write about what makes you angry? It didn’t take me a millisecond’s thought to make my list. Child sexual abuse, no contest. Violence against women and children. Religious intolerance. War crimes. Genocide. Torture.”
And then, she said, “Lee Child was talking about Reacher, one of my favorite fictional characters, and it got me thinking about what it would look like if a woman was doing what Reacher was doing. And that was it—instantly I had the whole story of Huntress Moon.”

She has certainly peaked my curiosity for the series. Heather Young – Distant Dead

A body burns in the high desert hills. A young boy walks into a fire station, pale with the shock of a grisly discovery. A middle school teacher worries when her colleague is late for work. By day’s end, when the body is identified as local math teacher Adam Merkel, a small Nevada town will begin its reckoning with a brutal and calculated murder.

The book examines the burden of guilt, the bitter price of forgiveness, and the debts we owe our dead, both recent and distant.

Why I’m Reading: I read her first book, The Lost Girls, and loved it. Heather Young turns her characters into living, breathing people you care about. Be warned though, she sometimes kills them off. This plot sounds just as twisty and interesting. The Distant Dead will release in June.

Valentine's Day Origins

February. Some think it’s the month whose primary virtual is that it is only 28 days long (or, rather, 29 this Leap Year).  Personally, I like it because it’s my birthday month.

But I’ve always resented having romantic Valentine’s Day fall just after my birth date. The dates get smooshed together and somehow, neither event gets the celebration it deserves.

Over the two decades we’ve been married, my husband and I have reached some compromises that work for both of us. He takes me to a dinner of my choice for my birthday (because Valentine’s is dinner so crazy to get reservations). We don’t do a cake anymore for my birthday because I’m diabetic and will pay the price the next day. But he still wants a cake for his birthday, so I get to ask for a substitute gift (this year I requested earrings or new tennis shoes).

Later that week, he buys me roses, or, even better, a rose bush, for Valentines. Since we live in Arizona, we can actually plant a rose bush in February, and the live plant appeals to my Earth Goddess nature.
​
How did Valentine’s Day become a “romantic” holiday? Legends abound because the history of this special day is shrouded in mystery. But here are a few possible explanations –and a bit of Valentine’s Day lore. 
​While no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome, where men hit on women by, well, hitting them. The holiday Lupercalia was celebrated from February 13-15 to honor the founder of Rome and to purify Rome’s women. The priests of Lupercalia struck the women, gently, we hope, with the skin of a freshly slain goat called a “februa”.  So our month is named after the skin of a dead goat. Anyway, the Romans believed this grisly ritual assured their females fertility and easy childbirth.

Another legend contend that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century of Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldier than those with wives and families, so he outlawed marriage for young men, who made up his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the Emperor’s decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, Claudius had Valentine put to death on February 14, now Valentine’s Day.
​
Another Roman custom of Lupercalia was the festival of natural “heat”—the sexual readiness that permeated nature, especially the wolves, or “lupa”. To celebrate, willing young maidens wrote their names on slips of papyrus, put them in a box, shook them up, and let young men pull out the names of their valentines. These couples paired up for the duration of the festivities. The names were equally matched by both sexes so nobody had to go home alone after the drawings. As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work, and it gained popularity throughout Europe. Handmade paper cards became the tokens-du-jour in the Middle Ages. And as Christianity spread, the original pagan fertility flavor of the day was replaced with celebration love with the now Saint Valentine functioning as the patron saint of love. 

Eventually the tradition made its way to the New World. The Industrial Revolution ushered in factory-made cards in the 19th century. 
Eventually the tradition made its way to the New World. The Industrial Revolution ushered in factory-made cards in the 19th century. And in 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City (my home town!) began mass-producing valentines. February has not been the same since.
​
Today, the holiday is big business: Valentine’s Day sales now top $18 billion. 

​Just remember: A romantic overture is not a command performance. You don’t have to break the bank buying jewelry, candy and flowers for your beloved. There are so many other ways to celebrate!

For example, I decided to make the holiday a learning opportunity, by attending “Valentine’s Day Chat with a Coroner.” I’ll spend the evening hearing stories of cannibalism, murder and other examples of love gone wrong.

Warms my little black Valentine’s heart.

Hope your day brings you everything you desire.
Blessed Be.

Imbolc - The Quickening

The Festival of Imbolc commences on February eve, or January 31, and concludes February 2.

Imbolc has three major associations: the veneration of fire and water, the quickening of new life in the womb and world, and the lactation of ewes. So it is both a fertility sabbat (along with Ostara and Beltane) and a fire festival (followed by Beltane, Lughnassadh and Samhain).

The association with fire comes from Imbolc’s place as the midpoint between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Celtic in origin, this sabbat celebrates the midpoint of the changing season. It is referred to as “The First Light” and marked by the traditional lighting of candles, signifying purification, inspiration, and growing light. 

Fire is also representative of the Goddess Brigid in her aspect of patroness of smith craft.
Another aspect of Brigid is healing, represented by the well. On Imbolc, processions were made to her sacred wells, which were adorned with greenery, signifying the return of spring. Devotees would circle the well deosil, or sunwise, before drinking the waters in order to bring good fortune.

 Another translation of Imbolc is “in the belly,” referring to intrauterine fetal movement, also known as quickening. 

This is Brigid’s third Imbolc aspect, goddess of childbirth. She is associated with cattle, and Imbolc is the time just before birthing in the early spring. The presence of lactating ewes was of great importance to early Celts, as it often meant the difference between life and death. Ewes only lactate when there are lambs to nurse, and in the intensity of February’s cold, lactating ewes meant humans had milk, cheese and butter.

With its theme of preparation for birth, Imbolc has evolved into an auspicious day for rituals of rebirth as well. It is a time for reflecting on the nature of initiation and the evolution of the magical path. Traditionally at this time, witches are initiated, or the Wiccan “Year and a Day” training begins.

On Feb. 2, the secular world acknowledges Groundhog Day, when the arrival of spring is determined by the presence or lack of the groundhog’s shadow. Ever wonder why a shadow (sunny day) means more winter and not the other way around? It’s a modern weather divination that echoes Celtic folk beliefs. It was believed on Imbolc, the crone goddess Callieach’s grip of winter begins to loosen. She goes forth in search of kindling to keep her fires burning and extend winter a little longer. If Imbolc is rainy, she will find nothing but damp twigs and give up. But if dry kindling is abundant, she has plenty of fuel to feed her fire and continue winter.

In short, Imbolc is the seed that starts the whole wheel of the year turning once again. After the spark of Yule, the hard work of beginning another year occurs at Imbolc. The whole year stretches before you. You have the power to mold it into whatever you desire.

Imbolc serves as an “opening” of a season. Most of the activities and symbolic actions at this time are to sweep away the old in order to welcome in the new. The main thing that must be done again now, just as we did at Samhain, is to purify our houses and our souls so that we carry love into the time of spring planting and new birth.

Be aware that this is rooted in serious sympathetic magic, which is simply using an item or act associated with what you are trying to manifest. The premise is if we humans are healthy and strong in our actions, intentions and habits—so will the fields and flocks and offspring be. If we are cleansed of rancor and fear, and use feasts like Imbolc to teach our children cleanliness and order, the soil and the womb will be wholesome and ready for seed. 

Here’s some simple candle intention magic for you to try this week for Imbolc. It’s called Illuminating the Cauldron . Source: The Wiccan Year by Judy Ann Nock.
Fill your cauldron with dark earth. Take nine taper candles and plant them in the earth in a spiral pattern, beginning in the center and continuing clockwise (deosil). With each candle, contemplate a different aspect of Imbolc.

Light the candle in the middle first, picturing the first light penetrating winter’s darkness.With the second candle, welcome the spring and picture the great wheel of the year turning to the halfway point. The cauldron is the womb of the goddess, the “belly” of Imbolc.Think of the magic of the beginnings of life and all the possibility contained as new life emerges as you light the third candle. Each new dawn is a clean slate that can bring you closer to realizing your dreams.Imaging the circumstances surrounding your own physical birth as you light this candle. Picture your relationship to your biological mother as a reflection of your relationship to the divine mother. All of us need mothering in one form or another. By facing your own vulnerability, you are preparing yourself for rebirth.As you light the fifth candle, focus on the lessons your spiritual path has taught you. There are intimate truths that you have discovered. Give thanks for those challenges met and knowledge gained.This candle represents the unknown, the lessons that lie in front of you and all the things you have yet to learn.Light the seventh candle and meditate on all the things you wish to change. They can be material, physical, or spiritual. Use your magic to make a positive impact on your life.The eighth candle represents the things you most need to heal. These include the physical ailments of yourself and of others, the suffering of the planet, rifts in relationships, and more. Invoke healing into your life and make room for it to begin. Release old wounds and past hurts. Take responsibility for your health in a new way. Focus on the best possible outcomes for situations that are beyond your control or influence.As you light the ninth and final candle, welcome inspiration into your practice. Ask the goddess to illuminate her presence in a new way. Sing. Write a poem in her honor. Use the energy of the season to assist you in manifesting your magic in a tangible way. Create a charm, or a new blend of incense. Whatever you choose, ask goddess to inspire you so you can show her beauty in your work.  Namaste people!

Happy Imbolc.
​
Next week we’ll talk a little about the roots of Valentine’s Day.

New Year Purification Ritual

Last blog I outlined a 31-day decluttering list. Did you try it? If so, how is it going? If you haven’t started, don’t worry, there is still time to make some major inroads in organizing your personal spaces and your life.

I’m continuing that theme this week, with a purification spell that come from northern Europe. To begin anew, the old must be clear away. That’s why we began by clearing our physical space.

Now it’s time to organize and purify your thoughts, and manifest your desires in spellwork. Here is what you'll need:

​A sheet of white parchment paper.
Pen with red ink.
White 7-day day votive in glass.
Birch branches (or any local tree you enjoy).
Violet oil or your favorite perfume.
A safe place to burn your tree branches when you’ve finished the spell.
 
Start by drafting a short plan of what you want for this year. Remember, this is the time of the year when we boldly fantasize about the future, thereby attracting it to us!

Start by drafting a short plan of what you want for this year. Remember, this is the time of the year when we boldly fantasize about the future, thereby attracting it to us!

Using white parchment paper and red ink, write down the things you want this year, being as specific as possible.

If you don’t already have a home altar, find a place to establish one. Often people instinctively make a special spot for important things in their lives. There may be pictures of loved ones, or a special crystal   or piece of art. You just need to now recognize this space as special and sacred, and clean it up a bit.
Next, get an item used by peasants since ancient times—a candle, preferably white, and in a glass that will burn for 13 days and nights.

These are available in candle shops and are safe to leave burning. I found mine at the dollar store, and bought two so they'd be sure to last the full 13 days. 

Place your list of wishes on your altar under the 13-day votive candle (that you have anointed with violet oil or with your own perfume). Smear a little of your own saliva on your list to link it to you. 
If you can, find some birch branches and place them on your altar also. Birch twigs are the northern European touch.

If you can’t get birch twigs, don’t worry.  Use shed (not cut) branches from another tree, the nature magic is strong with all trees.

Take a hot shower to open up your pores. While naked, go to your altar, take your tree branches, and gently (gently, please, this is symbolic stimulation, not sadomasochism!) slap them against your neck, saying:
“I purify myself against defeatist thinking.
I purify myself from old patterns.
I purify myself from my past.
May my spirit come into new life.
As the sap come into the tree.”

Then slap the twigs against your solar plexus, saying:
“I purify myself from loneliness.
Love will come to me, like the new life of the Mother.”

Finally, slap the branches against your feet, saying:
“I purify myself from inertia.
Vitality will come to me, like new life from the Mother.”

If you wish, you can dress now. Beginning in the east and moving clockwise, go to each corner in your house and beat the twigs against the walls, the furniture, your bed, your desk, and so on, driving out the old year’s leftovers.

Then burn the twigs in a fireplace or outside in a firepit or bonfire.
There is no need to repeat this nightly, simply meditate on your candle. In 12 days, when your 13-day candle is almost burned down, burn the parchment paper in the last of the flames.

You have now been purified and are ready to receive the blessings to come in 2020. 
Blessed Be!

NOTE: Thank you to Zsuzsanna Budapest’s book, Grandmother Time, for this spell. Such a great author! She is greatly missed.

30 Days of De-cluttering

​If you’ve like me, with the New Year comes the urge to clean, purge and de-clutter. So here’s a chart to get your house back in tip-top shape after a hectic holiday season. It’s a ‘baby steps’ approach, so no need to feel stressed. 
1. Clean out your fridge. If you’re starting a new diet, this is the time to get rid of junk food and sweets. Cleanse the shelves and bins with warm, soapy water. Restock with healthy options. 

2. Clean out your pantry. Purge expired, stale and unhealthy. Then make it pretty and organized—no more mystery shelves.

3. Clean out one closet. I’m tackling the hardest first, the clothes closet, Marie Kwando style, taking everything out first, eliminating anything that I don’t like or haven’t worn in the last 2 years. Then a thorough vacuum, cleaning and reorganizing. For me, this will be a 2-day chore.

4. Empty the junk drawer. We all have one. What’s in there that you really need? Eliminate everything else or put in its rightful spot.

5. Go through your movie collection. If you’re feeling ambitious, go through music CDs also. You still have cassette tapes? Be honest: when is the last time you listened to one? Take those fossils to Goodwill or your favorite donation site. Hey, don’t feel bad. My husband still has a reel-to-reel player and music. I’m working on him.
​
6. Organize your Tupperware. Match lids. Eliminate anything without a lid, scratched, scorched or otherwise marred. They’re not healthy.
7. Find a dozen books you can part with. I challenge you! You can give them to friends, sell them to a used book store, or take them to Goodwill. Just get them out of your home!

8. Clean out your purse and your wallet.

9. Clean out your makeup drawer. I date my stuff with permanent marker when I buy it, and throw out expired stuff. One year for lipsticks, eyeshadow and pencil liners, six months for powder, makeup and mascara.

10. Purge your bathroom cabinets. If you’re like me, you try a lot of stuff and only like a few things enough to re-use. Throw that shit away! Also dispose of all expired medicine and other  items.

11. Go through your inbox and unsubscribe to 5 email blasts.

12. Organize your linen closet.
​13. Clean your car (inside and out). Does your car look like this? Seriously, bet you're not popular in the car pool.

14. Clean/organize 2 kitchen cabinets.

15. You’re on a roll! Clean and organize 2 more.
16. Donate unused accessories – jewelry, hats, scarves etc.

17. Clean out and donate kid’s unused toys.  18. Do you have donation boxes sitting in your garage, waiting to go to the proper charity? Set aside a day to actually deliver them!

19. Likewise, do you have boxes of items to be put up on an auction site (probably because they’re too expensive/nice to donate)? Set up that auction site (eBay, Poshmark, Etsy, Offer Up, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, Craig’s List etc.). Take pictures of your inventory to sell, and load up that site! Think about all the money you will make from it.

20. Clean your computer desktop and change the background for the New Year. Organize items into folders, and back them up.

21. Organize photos and memorabilia. Discard what now doesn’t seem as important or special.

22. Clean all blinds

23. Clean those neglected baseboards

24. Organize and donate unused board games and electronics
25. Clean ceiling fan blades

26. Clean out kids’ closets and dressers. Give to friends, donate or sell what no longer fits.

27. Replace air vents/filters.

28. Clean light fixtures and replace burned out bulbs.

29. Clean and organize garage.

30. Clean any remaining parts of the house (vacuum and dust)
​31. Celebrate a job well done! I'll bet your house looks great. And do  you feel lighter?

A cluttered house can feel like a burden,  not a joy. 

My New Year resolution for 2020 is to the left. Here's to having a home that feels beautiful!

December Full Moon

I’ve decided to start writing a Full Moon blog each month, and the last full moon of the year and the decade seems the perfect time to start.
​
December is a busy month. This month can fly right by us if we’re not careful. But as December—and the decade—quickly draws to a close, try to pause and recognize the passage of time.  
This Thursday, December 12, when the full moon arrives in Gemini, will be a shining opportunity to say goodbye to your stories of the past, and to free yourself from any stresses, burdens, or anxieties that you no longer wish to carry.

The December moon is called Full Cold Moon or Long Nights Moon, and it’s associated with harsh cold and extra hours of darkness as we approach Winter Solstice on December 21.

This isn’t your average moon as it opens the numerology 12-12 portal. The number 12 is at the very end of the numerology spectrum, and it offers us the opportunity to wrap up one life stage before moving forward. This number is like a curtain call. It gives you a month to get your affairs together so you can benefit from the next decade’s windfall.  

This portal complements the Gemini energy. Gemini is the sign of the twins. Ruled by Mercury, you’ll find talk is cheap. So be prepared to face your vulnerable, insecure shadow self. You may find out the hard way if you’ve been walking the walk or not.

December full moon is the triple conjunction of Venus, Saturn and Pluto. This triple conjunction forces challenges involving love and/or money, pushing those areas to a crisis point. Will the outcome be good or bad? It depends. Capricorn energy will allow you to question your perception of self-worth. Pluto’s power will force you to regurgitate everything you’ve buried that makes you feel unworthy. And Venus conjunct Saturn will make you crave more affection, and in turn cause you to turn cold and mean more easily if you don’t get it. If money is tight, events may force you to liquidate assets and learn to budget.

Opposing forces such as work versus home, or what you need versus what you want, create inner tension and drain your energy.
​
This moon will highlight areas in your life where you feel you should be achieving more success. This can be somewhat self-loathing energy. But you can turn that to productive energy if you weave gentle, affirmative loving words into your self-talk. Be easy on yourself, and remember that what’s boiling to the surface largely based on your own perception of reality. 

Tap into the other side of Gemini’s twin energy by looking at your flaws with an eye to improvement. Expressing and examining your shortcomings can be an opportunity for powerful growth.

The December 12 full moon influence last for two weeks up to the December 26 solar eclipse. This also means it is the final moon phase of the current eclipse cycle which began with the July 2 solar eclipse. Any serious issues in your love life or finances may have been simmering for two weeks, to as long as six months. 
This full moon has special significance for women and women’s issues, since Venus has astrological rulership of woman, and the full moon is conjunct with the female warrior star, Bellatrix. Because Venus is between Saturn and Pluto, two male dominants, she’s under intense pressure and is in turn giving women the power and courage to fight back. Keep an eye globally on political, social and legal cases involving women’s rights, domestic violence, abortion etc. Serious challenges are reaching a crisis point and must be dealt with. Hard choices have to be made.

Unfortunately, the Venus squeeze may also have a concentrating effect on your own male/female relationships. Use your subconscious awareness to take an impartial and balanced look at your interpersonal life. You will clearly see the relationship dynamics or negative feelings causing disharmony. By the way, a social media detox would be a good tonic this month to bring clarity.

Tarot Card for December Full Moon – 9 of Swords
This card is a wake-up call.
​
Your past may have caught up with you or something you thought you’d dealt with and finished. Alas, it has resurfaced once more, bringing all its unpleasantness with it. This may be on a physical level, but more likely is the return of some inner demon or past nightmare. It has thrown your mental equilibrium out of balance. Work with the natural world to get past this dark night of your soul.

Full Moon Healing Crystal – Snowflake Obsidian
This is a stone of purity, providing balance for the body, mind and spirit.  It calms and soothes, making you receptive before bringing your attention to ingrained patterns of behavior, and then gently releasing emotional blockages.  This stone teaches you how to value mistakes as well as successes. It’s associated with divine guides and guardian spirits who are always watching over you and pulling you close in a protective embrace.

Next week I'll share some present day holiday traditions that date back to Celtic times.

​Until then, have a blessed Full Moon!

NaNoWriMo Novel Finish or Bust

I posted this blog several years ago, as I was about to finish my first novel. Here was my new, aspiring author story, and my update on current book:
 
NaNoWriMo.
 
If you're a working author, or an aspiring one, you have probably heard of this annual writing contest.
 
Several years ago, I eagerly signed up for my first NaNo contest. I retired that year and took a couple of online novel writing classes to jump into my third career. I had the first half of a detailed story outline finished by October and thought I was going to write the Great American…well, you know.
 
I got through 22,000 words that year before I ran out of outline--and ideas.

If you've never written a book, that's about 90 pages. Not bad for a month, actually, but I wasn't going to make the 50,000-word magic number needed to get the "Winner!" banner on my NaNo page.
 
Discouraged, I didn't finish the last week of the event. Ninety pages in in the first twenty days of November days wore me out, especially the last week, when my family began to grumble about dust on the furniture and ask, "what about Thanksgiving, and Black Friday sales?"
 
The next year, undaunted, I signed up again. The challenge was addicting.
I only wrote 7,000 words and quit.
 
But throughout the next year, I edited and polished the 29,000 words I had, and added another 20,000 thousand more. I'd written and polished enough, in fact, that I started entering the first chapters in writing contests, and began to win a few.
 
The summer of the third year, my budding book, Song of the Ancients, won first place in the prestigious Pacific Northwest Writers Contest. I attended the conference in Seattle, pitched my book to agents and editors in attendance, and got a request for a full manuscript. "Is it done?" The agent asked. "Sure is, just over ninety-five thousand words," I lied.
 
That fall is when I learned what it's really like to be an author.
 
I came home from the conference in a panic. I had just committed to send a full manuscript to an agent, when in reality it was barely half-finished. I wrung my hands. I cried. I berated myself for not telling the truth.
For one day, while I unpacked.
 
Then I went into my home office and started writing. I mean, really writing. I wrote all morning, took a break to eat and shower, then wrote again. Some nights, when the words flowed, I'd write until 3:00am. Then I'd get up in thee morning, spend some time with the family, do the breakfast dishes and a load of laundry, and start again.
 
I wrote the second half of the book, a little over 50,000 words, in four weeks.
 
And that, folks, is the same thing people commit to do each year for NaNo.
 
Granted, you don't have to turn your NaNo manuscript in to an agent. In fact, please don't. Editors and agents cringe at the increase of manuscripts they experience after NaNo ends.
 
None of those books are ready for publication. In fact, mine wasn't ready either, and that agent rejected it. But she did make enough comments that I decided to send it to a professional content editor.
 
Armed with his 40-pages of content comments (yes, he gave me a lot of feedback. He suggested some major POV consolidation, pointed out places where the action sagged, some passive voice, and, most importantly, showed me the places where he, "was tempted to skim.") I was positively rearing to get to re-writes during NaNo Year Four. 
 
But…according to Nano's website, you aren't supposed to do that. You're supposed to start fresh on a brand-new story for your thirty days of literary abandon, not work on an existing piece.
 
Screw that! I had a novel I had sweated over for nearly four years, on the brink of becoming something publishable. I wasn't about to switch storylines in mid-stream.
 
Note: Even though the NaNo mods tell us to play by the rules, they also say that the main objective of NaNo is to encourage people to follow their dream and write. They shake their finger at you with one hand, and nod their blessing with the other. It's a game, for heaven's sake.
 
So I rode the Nano wave of enthusiasm and re-wrote all November. It was glorious. I knew in my bones the book was improving. I also realized during re-writes, that my antagonist was all wrong, and completely revised him as well.
 
I only counted brand-new passages in my word count that year, so I didn't come anywhere close to the 50,000 goal. I just wrote. Tightened. Re-read and wrote more. Continued through December and January and February.
 
By March, the book was ready.
I contracted Kim Killion at Hot Damn Designs, and she concocted this beautiful cover.
 
Song of the Ancients published in May. Yes, you can find it on Amazon.
 
FIRST FOOTNOTE:
Five months after Song of the Ancients was published, I suffered a stroke in my left frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls speech, creative thinking, and all the functions grouped under the category of "higher level cognitive reasoning."
 
In the hospital I showed the neurologist my new book. "I don't know what I'll do if I can't read or write," I told him. "It's such a big part of my life and who I am."
 
He told me that might be exactly what would save me. "A non-writer might be using this much…" He held his palms apart six inches…"for vocabulary and creative thought. But you use this much." He extended his palms another ten inches.
 
First, I will always love that doctor. I thought about his words often during my six months of recovery and therapy. By Valentines' I was writing emails. By March I could compose a blog, re-learn my passwords, and figure out how to post the damn thing (although, to be honest, I can't blame all of my technology fumbling on the stroke).
 
For the last year I've been back to work on my next novel. The working title is Crescent Moon Crossing.
 
Second Footnote:
So here it is 2019 and I’m back at National Novel Writing Month to finish Crescent Moon Crossing—once again writing the second half of an existing novel. For me, that is approximately 35,000 words.
 
It’s going to be a steep climb to get the novel draft completed in November, but I’ve learned some lessons from these years competing in NaNo:
 
1st – If you want to be a professional writer, you MUST write new novel words every day. I’ve struggled with this. I write every day. Some days it’s my blog, or critiquing other writers’ work. Granted, many days it’s work on my own novel, but even then it’s not always new pages. I tend to edit as I go. My critique partners tell me two things: “The chapters you bring us to critique are so polished!”  And then, when they find how long I’ve been working on them, it’s, “So just finish the damn thing. It’s a first draft, girl.”
 
2nd –When it comes to NaNo, re-read rule number 1.
 
3rd –Don’t stop writing until you’ve hit 2,000 words each day. Confession time. For me, that adds up to full-time work. I average 300 words and hour, unless I’m sprinting. It my output doubles.
 
4th – Do an hour of writing sprints EVERY DAY!
 
5th – When NaNo ends, don’t back away from that keyboard!  Honestly, I won’t be able to write 6-7 hours a day in December. That’s just life. But I will commit to completing one scene or 800 words EVERY SINGLE DAY except Christmas Eve and Christmas day. That commitment will get Crescent Moon Crossing completed by New Year’s Day.
 
What a nice gift for 2020.

Dumb Supper

One of the most touching and memorable Samhain celebrations I’ve ever attended was what’s known as a “Dumb Supper.”
 
It was so memorable, in fact, that I incorporated my experience into a scene in my first book, Song of the Ancients.
 
Samantha Danroe, the main character, is just dipping her toe into witchcraft, so she is experiencing all of this for the first time. Enjoy! Maybe you’ll want to hold your own Dumb Supper this year for your ancestors--
 
When Samhain night arrived, I was ready. I had a picture of my mother when she was about my age. She was photographed from behind, walking on the ties of a railroad track, her hands reaching out to the sides for balance. Just as the picture was snapped, she had turned her head to smile at the photographer – my father, I assumed. It was my favorite picture of her. When she died, I framed it and placed it by her casket at the funeral. Tonight I had also selected one of her sable hair paint brushes and a charcoal pencil, to represent her artistic talents, and tied together with a black ribbon.
 
The ramada was already half-full when we arrived, and several dishes of food lined the center of the feast table. Rumor and I added our tureen of spicy pumpkin and squash soup and homemade bread, placing it next to a platter of ham and roasted turkey.
 
The next table was labeled “Ancestor Altar,” and held offerings brought to honor loved ones. I excused myself and walked over to add Mom's picture and art supplies to the altar. A book open in the center said "Ledger of the Dead." Several names were already listed on the open page. I added 'Nancy Campbell, beloved mother' below the other names, surprised to notice my hand trembled. Is it possible she will actually show up? And what does one say to a ghost? Should I tell her what's been going on in my life, or can she see my day-to-day activities through the veil? Mom had been polite, but cool, to my husband. I had a feeling, if she'd been alive, she would have supported my decision to get divorced. Actually, she probably would have seen the signs of his infidelity, and urged me to file sooner. Mothers are preternaturally wise when it comes to their children.
 
The back of the altar was lined with unlit votive candles. I lit one for Mom and turned around to look for Rumor. She was standing in the clearing, talking with Nuin, so I walked along the feast table to see the unusual decorations and calm my jittery mind.   
 
At the head of the table was the spirit chair, shrouded in black satin. The side chairs were empty, each with a place setting of black dishes and goblets. A glowing black candle and a vase of black roses and bittersweet sat in the middle of the empty seating arrangement. Further down, a length of shimmering black fabric hung suspended from the ceiling of the ramada, puddling on the table and dividing it in half.
 
Past the veil, the other side of the table was set with white china, white candles and white flowers. I looked down the table and mentally reviewed what I knew about the dumb supper. We were to sit on the white side, our ancestors on the dark end. The entire meal was to be conducted in silence, in respect for our ancestors who could no longer speak.
 
Someone pulled a chair out beside me. Startled, I looked up into Nicholas' dark eyes. He motioned for me to sit. I began a comment, but he touched his finger to his lips and gave me a stern frown. Oh, right, I corrected myself.
 
He took the chair to my right and handed me a slip of parchment. Thankfully, Rumor had reviewed this part of the ceremony with me, so I knew what to do. I wrote a simple prayer for Mom and handed the paper back to Nicholas. He rose, walked around the hanging veil, and slipped each of our prayers under a black plate.
 
As we passed the serving dishes around the long table family style, and ate our silent meal, I stared at the luminous half-moon just rising above the tree line, and thought about my mother. She had been blessed with a unique connection to nature. Neighbors marveled at her green thumb. Her garden grew vigorous and lush each year, producing enough vegetables to feed the families up and down our street.
 
Unfortunately, she was less comfortable with people than with plants. She hated going to Dad's office parties; small talk was painful for her, even among friends. But her artwork was mesmerizing and always accepted into the city's juried art show. People would stand in front of her watercolors with happy, glazed expressions. Afterwards, they reminisced with her about a particular location in a painting, although I never heard her tell them where she had painted the scene.
 
By the end of our meal, my impressions of Mother had shifted. Before tonight I had thought of her as kind but shy, never one to shine. Now I wondered if my opinion was superficial. When she wanted, she could fold and knead a person's perception like warm dough between her hands. Was the quiet, solemn-eyed woman just the façade she wore for this world? Were there other faces I had simply never noticed? She dressed as a gypsy every Halloween, and the neighbor children gathered around her for stories, not candy. She had the odd habit of fanning playing cards out on the table, studying them one by one, when she had to make an important decision. What else had my childish eyes missed? Did she practice witchcraft without me knowing? What would Mother think of this bizarre dinner in her honor? My eyes filled with tears. Yes. She would approve.
 
After eating, we joined hands in silence. Nicholas squeezed my fingers. I studied his profile, wondering who he'd thought about during our silent meal. Who had he loved and lost?
 
Maya gathered the prayers from under the plates and burned them in the flame of the candle, catching the ashes in a container. While the Priestess finished our memorial, I closed my eyes, blinking away tears. Of all the strange things I had been asked to do in these last weeks, communing with my mother's spirit in silence for an evening was the easiest. I had dropped my guard completely, suspended my rigid, rational beliefs, and allowed myself to be comforted by the thought of her spirit joining me at the table.
 
I fingered my tears away and looked down the candle-lit table. Most of the diners had their heads bowed, and a few were dabbing at their eyes or sniffing quietly as they composed themselves. 
 
Except for Nicholas. He was watching me. When I met his eyes, he squeezed my hand again and nodded, his eyes bright with unshed tears.
 
When we left, stopping by our ancestor's plate on the way out to nod goodbye, I wondered if such a ritual would be comforting for families who had lost loved ones in recent tragedies around the world. So many dead, so violently and abruptly ripped from the land of the living. What of their souls? Are they still staggering, lost between the worlds? Have they found rest? Did they have a chance to say goodbye?
 
I kissed my fingertips and caressed the back of an empty black chair. "Blessed be all," I whispered to those souls as we silently filed past the row of vacant seats.
* * * * *
Have a magical Samhain, Halloween, All Souls. May the spirits be gentle and abundant.
 Blessed Be.
 
 

Bringing Your Shadow Side to Light

Everyone has a shadow side, the side we don’t want to show the world. The things we don’t like, can’t feel, can’t do, do too much of feel shame about, can’t tolerate.

Over the years, these behaviors, thoughts and things are hidden—they are our shadows. But they also what makes us whole.

Carl Jung studied man’s shadow at length. His theory is that when we are not willing to embrace all of our psyche, we will end up splitting parts of ourselves off. These parts, if left unacknowledged in the unconscious, will manifest internally as harmful inner voices (the Inner Critic), or externally as projections, blaming the inner nastiness we avoid onto other individuals or groups of people. Because, you know, as long as we are blaming others, we aren’t taking responsibility for our own shadows.

Something else that most of us have tucked away in our shadow is our feelings about death, dying, and our own mortality. Whether we want to or not, there’s a deep need for us as humans to recognize the spiral of life, death, and rebirth.
And that brings me to Halloween. This holiday allows you to literally live and play inside your shadow. You can dress as your darker side or lighter side. You can pick a gender side to act out. You can try out your power side. Or your latent naughty child. The trick is to learn more about yourself while playing.

So while the veil is thin and ghosts abound, I invite you to embrace your shadow. Attend to the part of you that never gets a look in.  Do it safely, and creatively, do it with consciousness, without harming yourself or anyone else.

This spell puts a twist on “traditional” pumpkin carving by creating the face of your shadow self.

Perform the work on Halloween evening.
​​How to Find Your Shadow

For this part of the spellwork, you will need a hollowed-out pumpkin (or an artificial one with the top cut off), carving tools, and a pen or sharpie marker.

Find a comfortable place to sit alone for a while. Turn off your phone, kiss your loved ones goodbye for a bit, and close the door.

Sit down and feel the ground beneath you, feel some deep breaths in your belly, and have a little check-in. How are you?

Run your mind back through the last week or two. Were there any points during that time when your shadow/inner critic made an appearance? Choose a moment.

Take yourself back to the memory and replay it. Where were you? Who was there? What was said? How were you feeling? Frightened? Angry? Passive-aggressive? Filled with hate, jealousy, sadness. You get the idea.

What were your shadow’s words in this moment? Replay the scenario and listen to your shadow as if it was a voice of another being, speaking about you (i.e. “You are…” “You’re not…” “You always…” “You should…” “You can’t…”). Choose a few shadow critic phrases and repeat them over and over in your shadow’s voice.

As you listen, notice which part of your body feels activated, this is where your shadow lives. Breathe into that part of you, keep repeating their phrases.

Now imagine your shadow as a creature that lives inside of you (not a person).

What’s it like? Does it have feathers, scales, claws, legs? How many legs? Wings? What’s its face like? What are its eyes like? How about its mouth? What size is it, and how is it sitting/standing? Look around. What is its home like? How does it move? Does it scuttle, slither, slide, fly? When it reaches its full height how big is it? Once you have a clear picture of your shadow critic, draw its most important characteristics AND attitude on your pumpkin. When you have the drawing the way you want it, carve it into the pumpkin.

Releasing Your Shadow

For this part of the spellwork, you need:
1 white candle
Scented anointing oil (clove, cinnamon, any scent of your choice) mixed with olive oil.
Protection incense (sage, copal, sandalwood, sweet grass, cinnamon, evergreen)

Anoint your candle with the scented oil, then roll it the incense.
Light the candle in your pumpkin to signify the light inside that will guide you through the darkness, and that despite any darkness, you are pure light in your heart.

Release your shadow critic into the pumpkin. You can’t kill it (it’ll just come back in another form!).

Come back to the ground beneath you, come back to the breath in your body, back to the room you are in. Take a look around at the familiar surroundings, touch something soft, something warm, to bring you back to here and now.
Take a good look at your shadow in your pumpkin, while it absorbs the cleansing light of the anointed candle. Feel what you feel. Place it somewhere that you can see it for the rest of Halloween night. You can make an altar for it if you like.

Keep coming back to it, noticing your feelings each time. You may want to journal your changing thoughts and feelings. Your curiosity is a vehicle for change.

After 24 hours, you can make the choice to keep displaying your shadow or set it free, making sure you leave it in the light. Some people leave their shadow in Nature (tree, stream, a park). Some took theirs home and put them in their gardens, so they could watch them gradually de-compose. Follow your instinct, do what feels right. Be sure to dispose of your pumpkin and candle also, in case it contains remnants of your shadow.

Until next week, Blessed Be. And have fun decorating!

Samhain: Run Toward the Dark

Halloween. Samhain. My favorite holiday. Seeing the orange and black Spirit stores pop up overnight in the strip malls brings a maniacal smile to my face. Yes, it’s true that Halloween’s a monster of an industry. But it’s more than that. It’s magic in the truest sense. A time when all bets are off, and we can act out--children and adults--without restraint or fear of judgment.

This holiday is the dark aesthetic blended with romance, myth, and rebellion. When the leaves change and the evenings go chilly, I’m transported back to running the neighborhood with my pals in Zorro capes, witch’s hats, and black cat costumes complete with swishing tail. I recall a knot of children screaming on a front porch when the homeowner, a normally mild-mannered adult, opens the door in full wolf’s garb and growls, “Do you dare ask for candy?”
 
On this one extraordinary night, we willingly run toward the dark, rather than away from it. We grope in through cornstalks, brittle and bleached white like bones in the light of a crescent moon. We pay to scream with strangers in dark haunted houses, stuffy with billowing fog.
​
Wait! Listen: I think I hear something scratching outside. Halloween awaits. Let’s have some fun. You coming?
Make a Samhain altar.
​Go right now and do this. I’ll wait…Be sure to display it somewhere you’ll see it every day. Include photographs and mementos of loved ones and pets. Add a skull or bones and some soft candlelight. It doesn't have to be elaborate...it's the sentiment that counts.

Read One Book about Witchcraft or your particular brand of paganism. Listening to an audiobook totally counts. Visit a Cemetery.
​If you go on November 2, you may get to witness a family’s Dia de los Muertos graveside celebration (see below).

While you're there, have a conversation with a resident. If you don't have a family member there, pick someone with the same last name, and ask them about their lineage. Or, talk to a stranger.
It's polite to leave a silver coin at the graveside as thanks. Go Ghost Hunting.
​Many Arizona towns have places reputed to be haunted: Bisbee, Jerome, Prescott, Tucson, Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tombstone, and the Grand Canyon are just a few. I’m sure your state does too. Sign up for a tour and try your hand at paranormal investigation. The tours often provide you with detection equipment, and bring your digital camera to capture orbs, shadows, apparitions and other phenomena. 

Stay at a Haunted Hotel.
Lots of hauntings are reported at this popular ghost location, including former patients when the building was a hospital, and the hospital’s former maintenance man, Claude Harvey, who was killed by the building’s faulty elevator. That old elevator, now repaired, is still running people up to their rooms today. Grand Hotel
Jerome, AZ
used to be an asylum. 


One of my personal favorite haunted hotels is the Vendome in Prescott AZ. The entire B&B is charming, but room 16 is said to have a permanent ghostly resident: a cat.
 
One of the most famous in Arizona is Bisbee’s Copper Queen Hotel. Julia Lowell was a prostitute in Bisbee in the early 1900s; she favored Room 315 at The Queen when plying her trade. Sadly, after being rejected by the man she loved, she took her life. Today, her restless spirit lingers, appearing in 315, now dubbed the Julia Lowell Room, most often to male guests. She smiles and whispers, even dances seductively at the foot of the bed. 
 
Google your area and make an October reservation. Binge Watch Your Favorite Halloween Movie.

My all-time favorite is Practical Magic. But you may be partial to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Or House on Haunted Hill, The Shining, or Sleepy Hollow. And yes, I’d highly recommend binge-watching all eight Harry Potter movies this month.

Go Outside and Bathe in the Moonlight.
​
Howl at our beautiful orange Hunter’s moon! Celebrate With Loved Ones Passed.
​In Mexico, death is to be celebrated, and November 1 is Dia de Los Muertos, a national holiday. Every home has an offrenda, or offering altar. Offerings consist of a wash bowl, razor, and soap so the traveling spirit can use to clean-up after the journey.

Pictures of the deceased are displayed along with personal belongings and toys for children. Candles help light the way for the spirits: pink for love, white for hope, and yellow for celebration. Favorite foods are also placed on the altar to help nourish the traveling souls. While the dead may not actually eat the food, it’s believed they feast on the smells.

Try to have the offerings also double as the four main elements of nature — earth, wind, water, and fire. Use bells or movable or light-weight items such as tissue paper cut-outs (wind,) a bowl of water, candles and copal incense (fire) and food (crops, earth). Finally, add a calacas, a whimsical skeleton, and a sugar skull, so the living have something tangible to represent their loved ones’ spirit.

Dress a Black Candle
with your favorite oils and herbs, and light it on Samhain night.
Deal a Tarot Spread. 
Samhain is also considered the perfect time for divination. Here’s a fun reading called “Haunted House.” In dreams, a house often represents you, the chambers and passages symbolizing your own inner dwelling place. So light your candle, open your mind’s creaky door, and peer into the darkened corner of your own Halloween haunted house!
Shuffle your favorite tarot deck in your usual way. Lay out seven cards as follows: 
1  The Forbidding Foyer: What has been trying to enter your life (for good or ill) that you have been warding off?

2  The Perilous Parlor: What aspect of yourself do you need to spend more time getting to know?

3  The Lurid Library: What lore or study is calling to expand your esoteric knowledge?

4  The Atrocious Attic: What neglected treasure should you dust off and use now?

5  The Chilling Cellar: What should be stored away and allowed to ripen for future use?

6  The Ghostly Garden: What needs to be weeded out?

7 The Twisted Oak Tree: What needs to sink roots and deepen?

Now, draw one more card for a message from an otherworldly visitor to your Haunted House. Boo!
Visit a Corn Maze.
The corn maze is the epitome of Halloween and Samhain, the last harvest season.

Mazes have become popular tourist attractions and a way for farms to create additional income. Many are based on artistic designs such as movie characters or current events, and some are even created to tell stories or to portray a particular theme. Most have a path, which goes all around the whole pattern, either to end in the middle or to come back out again.

In Arizona, my annual go-to spot is the 10-acre maze at Schnepf Farms. Last year, my son resorted to GPS on his phone to get us out. If you’d like a real challenge, navigate by moonlight instead of flashlights. Or combine the maze with a really scary haunted house and visit a really scary haunted house or other attraction.

Play Some Tricks.
Do something extra for trick or treaters.

Over the years, I’ve set up a Severus Snape Potions Lab in our garage, complete with Veritaserum (hot cider in a carafe surrounded by fog). The whole family has dressed up and posed in the front-yard cemetery display, rising up to greet trick or treaters as they come up the driveway. I’ve done tarot card readings at the local Halloween carnival; thrown chicken bones for divination around a neighborhood fire pit after we put the kids to bed; read palms by candlelight.

You have a latent talent buried within. Unearth it this Halloween. 
Practice Psychometry.  
This is the ability to sense or “read” the history of an object by touching it. Impressions may be images, sounds, smells, tastes, even emotions. 

 A practiced  psychometrist can hold an object—an antique glove, for example-- and be able to tell something about the history of that glove, what the owner was like, what they did and even how they died. Perhaps most importantly, the psychic can sense how the person felt - the emotions of the person at a particular time. Emotions especially, it seems, are most strongly "recorded" in the object.

Don’t believe me? Try it at your Halloween party. Have each guest bring one or two items that have a strong history and sentimental value. Take turns exchanging tokens. Hold one in your hand and relax. Share the impressions you get, and let the owner tell you how close your information was at the end. If you’re having trouble picking up information, silently ask yourself questions to help trigger information such as, “how many owners has this object had?” “Where was this object purchased?” “Was it given as a gift?” “Did a male or female give you this object?” And so on. You may be surprised at the accuracy. Make a Will.
If you don’t have a will or living trust, do one this month. Why is this activity in my Halloween list? Our society spends most of its time trying not to think about death. Halloween, on the other hand, celebrates death. It fills our imaginations like no other day. Take advantage of that openness. Get it done. Then make a point to review and update if needed on future Halloweens.