Weird Fiction Review #7 by Centipede Press

Weird Fiction Review by Centipede Press is an annual journal that I look forward to getting (and being in) all year.  My poem, Nitokris, which is based off of the character from H. P. Lovecraft's Under the Pyramids and in Lord Dunsany's works, appears in this latest issue.

"The Weird Fiction Review is an annual periodical devoted to the study of weird and supernatural fiction. It is edited by S.T. Joshi. This seventh issue contains fiction, poetry, and reviews from leading writers and promising newcomers. It features original stories and essays by Steve Rasnic Tem, Mark Howard Jones, Jonathan Thomas, John Shirley, Nicole Cushing, Jason V Brock on David Bowie, a fabulous essay on the Micronauts by Chad Hensley, an article on Jack Finney by John C. Tibbets, newly discovered artwork by John Stewart, a lengthy illustrated piece on artist Mike Ploog by John Butler, a terrific new interview with William Hjortsberg by Dave Roberts, and much more."

Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice Issue

My little poem, Venus, dedicated to the goddess as well as the planet, is featured in the Winter Solstice issue of Eternal Haunted Summer.  Enjoy!

Poems
Antlered Mother by Hayley Arrington
Artemis and Orion by Evelyn deShane
Brigantia by Hayley Arrington
The Cailleach’s Season by Jennifer Lawrence
Chor-Hani by Kim Malinowski
Horses of the Sun by Steven Klepetar
Kingly by Jennifer Lawrence
Krampus by Cynthia Anderson
Leda / Medusa / Persephone by Lynette Mejia
Lessons From the Goddess by Heddy Johannessen
Lunatic Moon by Angelica Fuse
Misrule at Yule by Sally Nemesis
Persephone Crosses the Styx by Neile Graham
Psyche’s Lamp by Sandi Leibowitz
Sacrifice by Brendan McBreen
Sappho and the Woman of Starlight by John W. Sexton
Spanning Years by Nick Carter
Spell for a Friend by Adele Gardner
Väinämöinen Sings by Jennifer Lawrence
Venus by Ashley Dioses
Whitchman by Liz Tetu
Wild Huntress by Robert Beveridge

Fiction
New Servant of the Hive by Gary D. Aker
Prometheion by Allister Nelson
Sepulchre for the Stolen by Gerri Leen

Interviews
Deborah Davitt, author of The Saga of Edda-Earth series

Reviews
Arc of the Goddess by Rachel Patterson and Tracey Roberts [reviewed by Evelyn deShane]
The Encyclopedia of Norse and Germanic Folklore, Mythology, and Magic by Claude Lecouteux [reviewed by Erin Lale]
Fairycraft: Following the Path of Fairy Witchcraft  by Morgan Daimler [reviewed by Evelyn deShane]
The Goddess in America: The Divine Feminine in Cultural Context edited by Trevor Greenfield [reviewed by Caroline Moran]
Icelandic Magic: Practical Secrets of the Northern Grimoires by Stephen E. Flowers [reviewed by Erin Lale]
Listening For Their Voices by Jennifer Lawrence [reviewed by Shannon Connor Winward]
When God Isn’t Green: A World-wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide by Jay Weller [reviewed by Erin Lale]
Witch’s Moonstone Locket by Marsha A. Moore [reviewed by Juli D Revezzo]

 

Holy Day of Saint Lucy (Luciadagen)

On Tuesday, Dec. 13th, Kyle and I celebrated Luciadagen by baking lussikatter or Lussi Cats.  Lussikatter are buns usually made with saffron, wheat dough, and currants.  I don't like currants so we used cranberries instead.  They are then made into cat faces or into S shapes which represents the body of the cat.

(Before baking)

(After)

Saint Lucia is a complex figure with a multifaceted history. A bringer of light (in the form of a crown of candles) on the erstwhile darkest night of the year (according to the old calendar), she is sometimes called a witch, a leader of the Wild Hunt, and even has ties to Lilith and is a consort of Lucifer. The Luminous Stone edited by Michael Howard and Daniel A. Schulke, a book of essays on Lucifer in witchcraft, touches on Saint Lucy or Lucia and her ties to these matters.

(Kyle made Isthar and a goat [right] and I made a stag without eyes at first.)

(I decided to add the eyes.)

I also made three offerings of lussikatter in the shapes of two ravens and a stag head for my two patrons the Morrigan and Odin and then to Cernunnos for this time of year. 

(We got the recipe out of this book.)

(Shapes!)

(So I only had a rooster cookie cutter so I tried to form two of them into ravens.)

(Here are the two ravens and stag on my altar.)

(Close up.)

 

Season of the Witch edited by Amanda M. Lyons by J. Ellington Ashton Press

I have just received a copy of Season of the Witch edited by Amanda M. Lyons by J. Ellington Ashton Press.  I have four poems in this; Lover's Witch, originally published in Weird Fiction Review #5 by Centipede Press, Ligeia, originally published in Spectral Realms No. 2 by Hippocampus Press, Winter Witch, originally published in Winter Horror Days Anthology by Omnium Gatherum Media, and Witch's Love, also originally published in Spectral Realms No. 2.

Table of Contents

THOU ART NAMED A WITCH by Toneye Eyenot

Witchy Woman by Todd Misura

Blood Brine by William Bove

Witch by Matthew Cash

Stirring the Pot by Essel Pratt

Lover’s Witch by Ashley Dioses

DANCE OF THE GOAT by Toneye Eyenot

The Birth of a Witch by R. E. Lyons

Blood by Brian Barr

Conflagration by Sharon Higa

Ligeia by Ashley Dioses

The Sea Witch's Child by Sebastian Crow

Knight Pride, Witch Heart by Brian Barr

Eight Words the Witch’s Creed Fulfill by Tina Piney

QUAKE, FLOOD, FIRE by Toneye Eyenot

Winter Witch by Ashley Dioses

I Promised You a Show of Blood by Andrew Bell

Order of the Hidden Moon by Kevin Candela

Summer Vacation by Roma Gray

Witch’s Love by Ashley Dioses

Love you to Death by Samantha Gregory

The Sweetness Worth the Price by Dona Fox

A Weekend with the Powells by G. Zimmerman

Yablonski’s Bargain by Roy C. Booth and William Tucker

Nightscapes by Amanda M. Lyons

History of the Sorceress

(Ashiel by Steve Lines)

Kyle and I wrote a poem collaboration shortly after we got together.  It was entitled Sorcerously Twined and had three parts.  And that was how the Sorceress and Sorcerer manifested; their names, Ashiel and Xyre, would come later.  Sorcerously Twined, with all three parts, has 5,432 words.  It was originally published in an online zine called Dark River Press, where Kyle was a poetry editor for a time before it closed.

Sorcerously Twined tells of a Sorcerer who is in love with a Sorceress who was not in love back.  The Sorcerer planned to kill himself with a poisoned brew he created using plants from her garden, only to find out that by drinking it, he would be connected to her.  Their fates would be entwined.  If he died, she would as well.

In order to fix this, the Sorceress came up with a plan to summon a demon in hope that the demon would cure them.  At the same time, the Sorcerer recites a love spell.  The demon refuses to help and tells her that only they can fix their mess.  The Sorcerer finds his own spell that could save her but he would still die.  He does this and as he lies dying, she finds him.  His love spell had begun to work slowly and she instead, reverses the spell to die in his place.

Devastated, the Sorcerer searches her tower to find a way to bring her back to life.  He finds her grimoire opened to the page of the demon and he summons him.  The demon requires the Sorcerer’s soul in exchange for allowing him entrance into the Otherworld to find her soul.  Meanwhile, the Sorceress in the Otherworld awaits to be judged and reincarnated into her next life in a temple that she designed from previous lives.  Her life memories grew fuzzy yet a smell of rosehips reminded her of the Sorcerer and the poison he made.  She immediately began to scry for him.

The Sorcerer finds a guide to lead him to the Sorceress yet when they are about to part, the guide’s price is simply to eat a mushroom he procures.  The Sorceress saw this through her scrying mirror and knew this to be a trick.  Eating anything in the Otherworld binds their soul there.  The Sorceress then sent a servant of her own, oblivious to the servant’s own agenda, and the servant stopped the Sorcerer from eating the mushroom in time.

Unbeknownst to the Sorceress, a hoard of fae were ordered by the servant to kill the Sorcerer and guard the Sorceress’s temple.  A powerful demon, Vanth, then appeared to the Sorceress to tell her that her time had come to be judged for her next life just as the servant took the Sorcerer to Vanth’s abode.  Vanth had grown jealous of their love and she sought to kill the Sorcerer and send the Sorceress to her next life before they could be reunited.

After the Sorceress’s judgement, she found the servant, knowing the servant called the hoard, and interrogated her.  The servant revealed all and the Sorceress raced to Vanth’s temple.  The Sorceress saved the Sorcerer and they raced back to the portal between worlds before it closed.  Unfortunately, only the Sorcerer made it through.  The Sorceress used all her power to push through to the other side yet only as a wraith and she helped defeat the demon. The Sorcerer, however, was fatally wounded and died.  The story leaves off hinting that they may meet in another life.  

Diary of a Sorceress belongs to her and shows a few various insights into her life and her thoughts of this Sorcerer.  The Crimson Tome also might have sprung from a few seeds in this poem.  Aspects from this one long collaboration have found their way into both our collections.  This poem was the beginning of the Sorceress and the Sorcerer.            

(Illustration by Jesus Rodriguez)