**Reposted for Raven Digitalis. Please help spread the word.**


Raven Digitalis is now taking PRE ORDERS for his new book SHADOW MAGICK COMPENDIUM!


* You will receive the book (ideally) before it hits shelves… inscribed to you personally, of course! (please say on PayPal which name to inscribe it to)

* Also, the FIRST 25 PEOPLE TO PRE-ORDER get a free loose incense from Twigs & Brews!! The blend will be a surprise, and will be intuitively picked


Please note that this book does NOT focus on subculture; its focus is magickal spirituality and some of its darker, yet positive, aspects. Here is some more info:


Shadow Magick Compendium: Exploring Darker Aspects of Magickal Spirituality (Llewellyn, SEPT ‘08)

Exploring the shadow—in its variety of forms—is not only safe, but is necessary for balance and healing. Raven Digitalis invites you to navigate inner and outer darkness and harness the shadow for spiritual growth. Shadow Magick Compendium includes ritual meditations for exploring past experiences, dispelling harmful behavior patterns, and healing a fractured soul. Learn how to safely perform fasting and other methods of self-sacrifice, learn about crosscultural mysticism, get in touch with your spirit animal, take advantage of the dark moon and eclipses, and learn the history of the Witch hunts. Discover methods of godform assumption, shamanic journeying, and the magick of the dying season. From astral journeying to sigils to dark herbs, you’ll find an array of magickal techniques to navigate the shadows and mysteries of yourself and the world at large.


Books are $18 retail. Shipping and packaging cost about $5, so $23 is the total. To PRE-ORDER your copy, please PayPal $23 to: Or, visit my website http://www.ravendigitalis.com and click ‘add to cart’ beneath the book’s description (to place it in your PayPal account). NOTE: OVERSEAS SHIPPING: add $11 (=$34)


OR send a check or money order to:

Raven Digitalis

P.O. Box 2666

Missoula, MT

59806

USA

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A friend of mine pointed out to me that today is the ancient Norse holiday of Walpurgis Night, a holiday celebrated on April 30 or May 1, in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. How appropriate to be celebrating the release of my vampire novel, whose main character is of Scottish decent, this week!


**From Wikipedia

The festival is named after Saint Walpurga, born in Wessex in 710. She was a niece of Saint Boniface and, according to legend, a daughter of the Saxon prince St. Richard. Together with her brothers she travelled to Franconia, Germany, where she became a nun and lived in the convent of Heidenheim, which was founded by her brother Willibald. Walpurga died on 25 February 779. She is therefore listed in the Roman Martyrology under 25 February. Her relics were transferred on 1 May, and that day carries her name in, for example, the Finnish and Swedish calendar.


Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from Pagan spring customs. In the Norse tradition, Walpurgisnacht is considered the “Enclosure of the Fallen”. It commemorates the time when Odin died to retrieve the knowledge of the runes, and the night is said to be a time of weakness in the boundary between the living and the dead. Bonfires were built to keep away the dead and chaotic spirits that were said to walk among the living then. This is followed by the return of light and the sun as celebrated during May Day. Due to Walpurga’s holy day falling on the same day, her name became associated with the celebrations. Early Christianity had a policy of ‘Christianising’ pagan festivals so it is no accident that St. Walpurga’s day was set to May 1st. Walpurga was honored in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration.


Read more about how this holiday is celebrated in various countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night

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Author Raven Digitalis participated in the 5 Questions, 5 Authors series of interviews I conducted earlier this year. Here, on MTV, he speaks further about his world of wicca and paganism.

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I recently had the pleasure of screening the new indie Texas horror film The Wild Man of the Navidad by Greek Productions. Below is my review for Fear Zone website! Enjoy!


As one may imagine, a state as wild and riddled with outlaws as Texas has given birth to more than a few twisted tales of the strange. Miles and miles of sparsely populated plains covered in the gnarled corpses of thorn covered mesquite, prickly pear cactus and dry gray tumbleweed has lent itself well to the cultivation of myths and legends born of superstition and moonshine. No matter how we attempt to civilize the massive state, its restless spirits simply will not be tamed and the rough, iron-willed people who inhabit its small towns have become the story-keepers, passing down the terrifying myths from one generation to the next… CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REVIEW ON FEARZONE.COM!

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Marcus F. Griffin is a prolific author and has penned critically acclaimed works in a wide variety of literary genres. He is author of the nonfiction book Advancing the Witches’ Craft (New Page Books 2005), and the forthcoming literary horror novel Slaughter. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and writes a monthly feature column for Ghostvillage.com, the Internet’s most popular paranormal website. He is also a regular contributor to Circle magazine and the UK’s Paranormal Magazine. Marcus lives with his wife in northern Indiana in an enchanted home located on their sanctuary, which is known as Nevermore Gardens. Marcus is represented by agent Denise Dumars of the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency.


1. What drives you to write?

I’m a word junkie. There’s no other feeling in the whole world like seeing your work in print. I’m driven to discover the untapped worlds and characters dwelling in my subconscious and my imagination. I’m driven by the work of taking a good idea and turning it into something exceptional. Nothing is more satisfying than transferring thought to page and sharing it with the rest of the world.


2. What do you consider to be your most significant accomplishment?

Learning how to use the keyboard on my computer. My wife tells me all of those strange symbols are called “letters”, but I am slow to understand. Okay, in all seriousness my most significant accomplishment was getting published in the first place. I was offered a bona fide publishing deal with New Page Books (the very first publisher I queried) a whopping three days after they received my proposal and sample chapters. Needless to say, as a result I developed a very skewed vision of how the publishing game really works. My second book (a blending of fiction and nonfiction) has thus far amassed an impressive stack of rejection letters. Beyond getting published, however, my most significant accomplishment to date is completing my very first novel, which is a work of literary horror. Writing and perfecting a full-length work of fiction was tough enough, but even harder still is the waiting game while my agent pitches it to editors. If I can get through this process without ripping my hair out or having a nervous breakdown, I’ll consider it my most significant accomplishment by far.


3. Outside of writing, what are your other passions/interests?

I enjoy performing paranormal investigations with my team of ghost hunters know as WISP (Witches in Search of the Paranormal) and snuggling up on the couch with my wife to watch movies.


4. What is your advice to young writers/first time authors?

Write, rewrite, polish, super-polish and then do it all over again. First impressions are extremely important, as you will have only one shot at impressing a literary professional. If you can afford it, hire a personal editor to go over your work before submitting it to a publisher or an agent. An editors “fresh eyes” will see what’s really written on your pages, not what you think is written. A top-notch manuscript and query will get your foot in the door. A mediocre effort will get it slammed in your face. Pay at least as much attention to your synopsis as you do your manuscript. If you cant hook an agent or publisher with the synopsis your precious sample chapters will find their way to the recycle bin unread. Submit your work and grow a thick skin. Chances are you’ll be rejected many times before landing an agent or a publishing contract. Keep submitting and don’t give up!


5. What do you want the world to remember you for most?

This ones easy: I want to be remembered for having the creepiest fracking gravestone on the face of the planet. Seriously. Very few horror authors will ever reach the dizzying literary heights attained by the likes of Clive Barker, Anne Rice and Stephen King. Most of us will be sentenced to the morass of anonymity for all time. If you can scare the living shit out of someone after you’ve died, well, that’s something worth remembering!


More information about Marcus F. Griffin can be found on his MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/marcusfgriffin.

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Stan Nicholls is the author of over 20 books, most of them in the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres, and he has written for both adult and young readers. His books have been published in more than 20 countries. The Orcs: First Blood trilogy - Bodyguard of Lightning, Legion of Thunder and Warriors of the Tempest - are probably his best known titles, and are worldwide bestsellers.


Before taking up writing full-time in 1981, Stan worked in specialist sf bookshops, including Dark They Were & Golden Eyed and Forbidden Planet. A journalist for national and specialist publications, and the Internet, he was for six years the science fiction and fantasy book reviewer for London listings magazineTime Out.


His current project is a return to the Orcs universe with a new trilogy entitled Orcs: Bad Blood, and the first volume, Weapons of Magical Destruction, is due for publication later this year.


1. What drives you to write?

I’m not sure I know. Actually, I’m not sure I want to know. When I was a journalist and interviewing lots of people, I found that creative types were often reluctant to look too closely at what you might call the spark. This was particularly true of comedians for some reason, who seemed to think that if they scrutinised the radioactive heart of their talent they’d lose whatever it was that made them funny. I can understand that. As a writer you think you’re consciously in control of what you’re doing. Mostly you are, but there’s a small secret place, some part of your id or whatever, that contributes to the process. It’s the intuitive centre, the well where the ideas come from and where the associative leaps take place. The last thing you want to do is poke it with a stick.


2. What do you consider to be your most significant accomplishment?

Professionally, I suppose it was becoming a published author. Maybe more importantly, it’s staying published. That’s the hardest trick. Publishing’s a volatile business, and every writer knows that even if they’re doing well today they could be out on their arses tomorrow. You have to regard it as being possibly transient. There was a time when publishers stuck with an author until they built a following. The world’s changed. Now there are all sorts of commercial pressures on the industry that mean an author has to make a mark much quicker, and to be viable financially. That’s particularly tough on newcomers. Who knows, I might be hitting you for the price of a cup of coffee the next time we speak. There are areas of my personal life, to do with family and others close to me, where I hope I’ve accomplished something. Just the usual stuff really, the sort of things that might approximate to you appearing to be a decent human being. But accomplishments should be thought about once you’ve stopped trying for them. I hate it when people say “In my day … ” It’s your day until you die. I think you should keep trying to achieve your dreams up to that point. So it’s a premature question. At least, I hope it is …


3. Outside of writing, what are your other passions/interests?

There’s a life outside writing? Like most writers I probably do too much of it. If that’s possible. Just recently I made a pact with my wife, Anne, who’s also a writer and knows what it can be like, that I’d try to achieve a better work/life balance. In practical terms that means taking off the odd Sunday and having something resembling a social life. One problem is that it’s not really work if it doesn’t feel like work. When it’s going well, writing’s more of a joy than a chore. The other thing is that writers are by nature solitary, in their own heads people, who tend to prefer living in imaginary worlds and conversing with their made-up characters to interacting with the living. The correct term is sociopaths.


What do I do when I’m not writing? I like walking, particularly in lush English countryside, and I’ve a bit of an attraction to trying to capture it honestly through photography. I’m interested in history, and can usually be lured into a museum or historic pile. I enjoy art, partly because it’s a talent I wasn’t issued with and I admire anybody who can draw a straight line freehand, let alone paint a masterpiece. I read, of course, though hardly ever fiction when I’m writing my own. So not much fiction getting read these days.


4. What is your advice to young writers/first time authors?

The most honest advice is probably “Don’t do it.” Unless you like rejection, uncertainty, complete financial insecurity and a workload that’s likely to be heavier than anything else you’ve ever done. But of course aspiring writers don’t want to take advice like that. I didn’t. So assuming that you want it bad, and you do have to want it very badly indeed to get over the hurdles, you’ll discover that there really is no magic bullet. If you want to be a writer, write as much as you can. Couple that with reading greedily, to learn from others. The old adage about “One per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration” must have come from a writer, because it’s so true. So work hard, grow a skin as thick as a rhino for the incoming slings and arrows that’ll inevitably be flung at you, and if you make it through and see that first book published, don’t expect the Earth to move.


5. What do you want the world to remember you for the most?

I suppose being remembered at all would be a small triumph. As somebody who tried to do his best, perhaps, as a writer and as a man.


More information about Stan Nicholls and his work can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/stannicholls or on his personal website www.stannicholls.com.

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