A simple Samhain Spell and Ritual

Happy Samhain, all! (Or Halloween, to those who don't celebrate.)

Blue Moon Circle held our ritual and feast last night, and had a wonderful time. I thought I'd share our simple ritual with you, in case you needed a little inspiration. As always, we had candles to light in honor of our ancestors and anyone we'd lost in the past year or so. (Sadly, with four of this, that added up to a lot of pets this time.)

The Samhain altar, all set up and ready to go

 Then we made corn dollies. You can find easy instructions on YouTube, but all you need is the husk off an ear of corn, and some string or twine, and a pair of scissors.

Corn dolly prep

The finished dolly!

Because Samhain is considered to be both the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year, we each wrote one one piece of paper what we want to let go of, on another what we wanted to bring in, and a blank paper for the gods/universe to fill in for us. Then we tucked those papers into the dollies' skirts. (If it hadn't been raining, we would have tossed them in a bonfire. Instead, they're going on our altars.)

Then we said this spell:

The old year goes, the new year comes

It’s Samhain time again

Raise your voice and beat the drums

The old year’s at its end

Letting go of what’s behind

To welcome in the new

Clear away the ties that bind

To all the things you rue

Open up potential’s door

Let the bonfires burn

The new year brings us joys galore

As now the seasons turn

May you have a blessed Samhain and a wonderful new year!

BOO!

 

COVER REVEAL! Dangerously Divine

DANGEROUSLY DIVINE is the second in the Broken Rider series, and features the eldest of the three Riders, Gregori Sun. It won't be out until November 2017, alas, but in the meanwhile, here's this to hold you over. I think they did a pretty good job of making Sun look the way he was in my head. (If you're looking for the longer hair and Fu Manchu mustache mentioned in the earlier books, they're gone, because Reasons.) The story takes place in Minnesota in winter, as you can see.

So, what do you think? Do you love it as much as I do?

He IS dangerously divine, isn't he? And they even got his red Ducati on the cover!

Dangerously Charming Two Week Report and Giveaway

It's hard to believe, but DANGEROUSLY CHARMING has been out for two weeks!

Still pretty shiny

 People have been asking me how the book is doing, and to be honest, the answer is: I think it is doing well, but it is really hard to know for sure. Mind you, I was pretty happy to see this on day two..

Getting to #106 in the SF & Fantasy/Fantasy/Romantic category for Kindle was definitely great. Sales are down a bit since then, of course, now that the first release rush is over (have you gotten your copy yet?) but the reviews are starting to come in, and most of them are pretty good. The bad ones are hardly making me cry at all. If you've read the book and loved it, could you put up a review at Amazon, Goodreads, and/or B&N pretty please? You would have my undying gratitude.

I thought we'd celebrate with a small giveaway: a $10 Amazon gift card. If you haven't read the book yet, you could use it to buy a copy (or catch up with the Baba Yaga series, if you need to). Or, you know, anything else you want, or even buy a copy for a friend!

Thanks so much for making the last two weeks such a success! And keep an eye out, because I should have the cover release for DANGEROUSLY DIVINE, Gregori Sun's story, any day now...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Busy Sunday Catching Up

Good grief. The last two weeks just flew by. How is it the middle of October already? It seems like it was just the 2nd, release day. That was a busy day and week. Then I had visitors for the next week (more on that tomorrow, if I have time). Which means that today was the first day I had to catch up on All the Things. Needless to say, there is still a lot to do (revisions of the second Rider novel are on the agenda for the rest of the evening), but this was what I did today.

Made pesto out of the last of the basil to come out of the garden (a week ago, with the help of pal Ellen). We pulled everything out and put the garden to bed, since the nights are turning frosty, even though the days are still pretty warm.

Pesto-making supplies....it looks like a lot, doesn't it?

All that made three little jars. But still, yum in the freezer.

 Then I Skyped with my friend Kathy (you know, until Skype died on us...I think we broke it talking about politics).

Hi Kathy!

 Then I cleaned the pellet stove, so it was ready to go when things get even colder. Messy job, and tough to do when you can't kneel, but I found a stool that helped. Look how clean!

As a break from that fun, I did some government paperwork for the shop online. (The NYS-45 quarterly form, in case you were wondering. No, I didn't think so.)

No such thing as a day off

Then I used up most of the bumper crop of eggplant (also harvested when we put the garden to bed last week) and made a huge pan of eggplant parm. I guess I know what I'm eating this week...

More yum

 Which I then ate some of, supervised by Magic the Cat.

Hey, I earned that beer!

 Guess who got to be in charge of the remote?

You want to watch WHAT?

Now I have about two hours to spend on revisions before I go to bed. Tomorrow I have an appointment before work at PT and then one after work with an orthopedic specialist, since the knee seems to have stopped improving. I'll try to post some pictures of the week of visitors after I get home, if I'm not too fried.

What did you do this Sunday? And, um, read any good books lately?

RELEASE DAY! Dangerously Charming is here!

It's here!

Are you as excited as I am? I hope so.

I know I've been doing a LOT of promo for this book, and I promise, after today, we're going back to cute kitty pictures and stuff like that, but bear with me for one more day of shouting about this book I'm so proud of, okay?

In case you missed it, I'm doing an informal Release Day party on my Facebook Author Page (you're following me there, right?) from 3PM-9PM today, October 4th. I'm giving away all sorts of goodies and generally sharing my joy with whoever shows up. Will you be there to help me celebrate?

Here's a couple of links you might want to check out, in the meanwhile:

For a fun look at Day’s adventures, there is a short-short story over at Literary Escapism

http://www.literaryescapism.com/49061/on-the-cmcon17-beach-one-wild-ride-by-deborah-blake

Plus I have a guest post and giveaway at Fang-Tastic Books http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/2016/10/guest-blog-and-giveaway-dangerously.html and you can read the first chapter and enter the giveaway over at The Qwillery http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2016/10/excerpt-from-dangerously-charming-by.html

If you wish you could hang out with me in person, here’s a link to a video interview I did at Shelf Addiction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHJCTr5v9gI

AND Amazon has the print version on sale right now for $6.29, for those of you who like a bargain. Here are a few of the buy links:

Barnes & Noble |Amazon |Penguin

If you do buy the book, I hope you’ll post a review on Amazon, B&B, and/or Goodreads when you’re done, since those reviews are a big part of what gets other people to read the book.

Thanks to all of you for all the encouragement and cheering about this book. It means more to me than I can say. Happy Release Day to us!