Free now through Saturday on your local Amazon while I’m working on episode 5: When a new burlesque club opens in Dundee, the owner calls on Hecate Sidlaw to deal with some strange attacks — by a skeleton! She and her familiar Henry need to get to the bottom of the magical threats, if she…
Tag: witchcraft
Supernatural Scotland
Friday’s voyage to Edinburgh was a delight. I attended the IASH workshop ‘The Supernatural in Early Modern Scotland’ (thanks to Cailleach’s Herbarium for the alert). It was a bit tricky finding the Institute due to both construction and its rather hidden corner, but I only missed the very beginning. I thought I might feel a…
Walpurgisnacht Freebie
As usual, I’m giving away my much reprinted story ‘Walpurgisnacht‘; click the link on the name if you’ve not read it yet and you can download a PDF of the tale. And watch out for witches flying off to the mountains tonight!
Witches: September Gallery
Sometimes living in hipsterville has its benefits: September Gallery is definitely one of them. They only opened last year but they’ve already won a fan in me with this show. Witches brings together a variety of powerful works by women. Marjorie Cameron‘s name drew me in, but there were other pleasures to enjoy. It was wonderful to…
Call for Submissions: My Wandering Uterus
The fabulous Byron Ballard (forensic folklorist & village witch) suggested putting together an anthology of women’s travel writing to be called My Wandering Uterus. And while I continue to say, ‘No more editing jobs!’ somehow I have been roped into this project. So here is the call: We seek essays, stories and poetry about your…
Sounds of Dundee
I’ve put up a recent field recording that I made in Dundee last month. On Peter Street just off the Murray Gate there’s a little passage way where you’ll find the Grissell Jaffray memorial, a blue plaque and pair of mosaics. She was the last witch executed in the city. I just hung out for…
#FolkloreThursday Freebie: Hard-Boiled Witch 2
Click the picture: today only, get Hard-Boiled Witch 2: Toil and Trouble for free — then pick up the others for just 99¢/99p each. Celebrate #FolkloreThursday by following the hashtag on Twitter or dropping by their Facebook page. Hecate Sidlaw finds herself caught between a wannabe witch and one of the oldest hereditary powers in the…
Preston Manor: Doreen Valiente
During my London week I took one day off to run down to Brighton: the first set of pictures from the Doreen Valiente exhibit at Preston Manor can be found here. Next to the exhibit itself, I enjoyed the gardens where I was waylaid by a couple of cheeky magpies (two for joy). Here’s my…
#FolkloreThursday Freebie: Rook Chant
Click the picture above to get a free ebook copy of my magical miscellany Rook Chant. What a lovely cover S. L. Johnson created from one of my fortuitous photos in Galway. I miss the rooks. Don’t hesitate — the offer’s good today only. Be sure to catch up with all the fun lore at…
Walpurgisnacht
Tradition now to repost this story which appears in Unquiet Dreams. It’s been reprinted a few times. One of these days, I should do an audio version… Walpurgisnacht Walther knew. But he could not resist, what ten-year-old could? Every year was the same. Grandmother Dunkelhaus would shake her finger at him and warn, “Walpurgisnacht, the…