Coastal Magic Convention Report: Part the Second

So, when last we left our intrepid heroine, she was suffering through a warm Florida sunset on her way to dinner with fun companions. It's a hard knock life, I say.

So...I'd been looking at the place we ended up going to dinner, since you could see the side of it from the hotel, but hadn't made it there last year. It was quite the experience! (I may have gotten 4-year-old-at-Disney excited. Just ask Lucienne. No, on the other hand, don't.) I present...Joe's Crab Shack (I highly recommend it if you happen to be in Daytona Beach).

The view from the beach.

The view as you walk down the pier toward the restaurant.

Inside. A very sensible suggestion. Which I followed, of course.

Princess Alethea's bib said: I got 99 problems but my crab ain't 1

 I had a bib too. Our waiter created each of them individually. I forget what it said. I was distracted by the seafood boil pot Alethea shared. It was heaven!

To make the evening even more amusing, about halfway through dinner all the waiters stopped what they were doing and went to the sides of the room, where they proceeded to do a synchronized dance. It was hysterical. In fact, the service, the food, and the atmosphere were stellar. I can't wait to go back next year, if I'm at the con.

Dancing waiters for the win!

 We were all stuffed, so the five of us shared this insane S'mores dessert. Heaven. We might have had to be rolled back to the hotel.

Friday night was also the dance party mixer, where Lucienne dragged me out onto the floor to dance a couple of times, gimpy knee and all. Lots of people dressed up as their favorite novel or movie characters. I loved these costumes so much, I dragged these two out into the hall so I could take their picture!

Author Graylin Fox and blogger Chelle Olson

 Lucienne wore her goddess costume from the afternoon, but I just wore, you know, clothes. Which apparently meant I should be attacked by a dinosaur. Yeesh.

Really, Lucienne? We can dress her up, but we can't take her out. And no, I have no idea where the dinosaur came from.

Can you tell we were having fun?

Thankfully, there are no pictures of my dancing. The bad knee did not add to my gracefulness, although it held up pretty well considering the insane amount of walking I did during the con.

Saturday morning started with another beautiful sunrise. A girl could get used to this.

The view from the 15th floor. Look, off in the distance, it's Joe's!

 First thing that morning I took part in a fun panel called "Remaking Mythology," with Alethea Kontis, Asa Maria Bradley, Lucienne, Gail Z. Martin, and Eric Asher.

Then I snuck out to the beach again for a while. Sigh.

My happy place.

Bare, sandy toes! No snow! My happy feet.

 Saturday lunch was a fun event called "Lunch with an Author," where readers got to sit and chat with the author they signed up to dine with. Then there was the group book signing.

Lisa Kessler and Princess Alethea looking adorable as usual.

Lucienne's gorgeous and charming husband Peter Wheeler rode his motorcycle in for the day to join us.

Afterward a bunch of us staggered back to Bubba Gump's to grab a late dinner (the book signing went until 7:30). Later that evening was Game Night, where authors hosted a table at which people could come and play a game with them. Lucienne brought Cards Against Humanity and we stayed up way too late having way too much fun.

Sunday morning Lucienne and I did our (now traditional, apparently) Mythology Jeopardy game panel. So much fun! I think you might be seeing a theme here. Now you know why I went a second year and may well go back next year as well. SO MUCH FUN and all the good peoples!

Which one of us is Alex Trebek?

All too soon I was on a plane going home, and back to this:

NOT ocean. Unless you count an ocean of snow.

But also back this, which makes it all okay.

Yay for great cat sitters! I'm not even sure the cats missed me.

All in all, another great event(hotel renovations aside, and that was really just an annoyance). Jennifer Morris, who puts on the con, does an amazing job. If you can, I'd highly recommend going next year. I hope I get to do it again. Maybe I'll see you there!

Back from Vacation and Some Announcements!

Hi all! Sorry I haven't been around, but, well, I haven't been around. First I was off to RWA in NYC, and then I was back for less than two weeks before taking of for a long-awaited family reunion vacation in Cape Cod. It was my first real vacation in 34 years, so I was really looking forward to resting and relaxing on the beach, eating lots of seafood, reading books, taking a major family picture together, and hanging out with lots of family, some of whom, like by favorite cousin Peter and his charming wife Mariana, I hadn't seen in over ten years. (Their boys, Alex 11, and Misho 9, were a hoot!)

Of course, as is the way of these things, nothing went exactly the way I'd hoped... (seriously, what on earth made me think that a vacation with my family would be relaxing?!) But it was still a great trip, mostly because of the time spend with those I love, and my dad did an amazing job of finding a house big enough for all of us, only a mile away from this:

Harwich Port Beach

 No picture with the whole family, alas, because a number of folks refused to get their pictures taken, but here is one of me with my cousin and his family. Misho is pulling a goofy face, as usual.

Alex and Misho, Mariana, Peter, and me

One selfie with me and the glamorous Mariana

 I didn't get to eat all the seafood I wanted to, sadly, but I did have lobster a few times, including this amazing lobster BLT. Yum!

And on the one rainy day, we all trouped into nearby Chatham and had fun picking up souvenirs. Lots of this are going to friends and the cat sitters, but I did pick up one thing in particular with a giveaway in mind. Can you pick out which item it is?

Hint: look to the right side...

Mermaid!

Look, it's a towel with a mermaid on it, just like in the WICKEDLY WONDERFUL books! Which reminded me that I had been promising to give away the lapis mermaid necklace I made in honor of the book. So I guess we're having another giveaway, with Wickedly Wonderful prizes!

Of course, in order to have a giveaway, we should have something to celebrate, right? So how about the COVER REVEAL for the next novella, Wickedly Ever After! Tune in Monday, for both the cover reveal and the giveaway. In the meanwhile, happy Feline Friday, and here's another ocean picture just because.

Alex and Misho, clowning around on the rocks.

Everyday Food Magick: A Magickal Spring Salad

When I was asking people what they wanted to hear about here, Ekaterina said she'd like to see some "nice and easy recipes with magical elements inside." Here you go, Ekaterina!

Most of us have issues finding time to do much serious magickal work in the midst of our hectic lives (me included, alas). One way to get around the problem is to integrate magick into some of your everyday activities, and one of my favorite ways to do that is with food.

I’m pretty sure that this is something our witchy ancestors did, too. That picture you always see of a witch stirring a steaming cauldron? You probably thought she was concocting some kind of exotic potion, right? Nope—stew. Or possibly porridge. Of course, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t muttering a spell over the cauldron anyway.

How to you take your regular food preparation and turn it into something magickal? The same way we do any other magick: with intent, focus, and belief.

Say you want to add a little prosperity magick to your breakfast and you have oatmeal in your cauldron—er, pot. As a savvy witch, you know that oats are associated with prosperity. So as you stir them, you concentrate on your intention to bring out that quality in the food, focusing on imbuing the oatmeal with prosperity-drawing properties with each swirl of the spoon. Believing that your magick will work just makes it more powerful. Adding a little maple syrup will give it an additional magickal “oomph” and also as a bonus, make it taste even better.

One of my favorite spring salads uses fresh veggies, fruits, and herbs of the season, many of which are great for prosperity work, with a little love magick thrown in (because who couldn’t use  more love?). It is fast and easy to make, pretty to look at, and very good for you. Plus it is delicious. It is one of Blue Moon Circle’s most requested spring feast dishes, and I often eat it a few times a week when the spinach and strawberries in my garden are ripe.

The ingredients include baby spinach (prosperity), topped with sliced strawberries (love), basil and/or parsley (love and protection), sunflower seeds (luck and success), and a sprinkling of candied pecans or almonds. All it needs then is a little light vinaigrette (I just use olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but you can use whichever dressing you prefer), and voila! Magick on plate!

 

I would like to read more about some nice and easy recipes with magical elements inside. - See more at: http://deborahblake.blogspot.com/2014/05/curious-about-my-readers.html#sthash.6mplvsRq.dpuf

I would like to read more about some nice and easy recipes with magical elements inside. - See more at: http://deborahblake.blogspot.com/2014/05/curious-about-my-readers.html#sthash.6mplvsRq.dpuf

I would like to read more about some nice and easy recipes with magical elements inside. - See more at: http://deborahblake.blogspot.com/2014/05/curious-about-my-readers.html#sthash.6mplvsRq.dpuf

California Trip--Pantheacon report

Pantheacon 2011 Report
[Note: This is the report I did up for my pal Rebecca at The Magical Buffet blog. She is kindly letting me post it here too, so I don't have to write it up twice!]

I don’t much like crowds. Or traveling. So why do I haul my witchy butt across the entire expanse of the country to go to Pantheacon? Because it’s worth it.

Pantheacon is the largest gathering of Pagans/Witches/Wiccans and assorted Heathens in the country, with well over 2,000 people attending over the course of four days in February. (I heard a rumor that they hit 3,000 this year for the first time, but I don’t know whether or not that’s true.) It is held at the beautiful Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California, where they give you a warm chocolate chip cookie when you check in. Yum.

This was my third Pantheacon. I first went in 2008, after my Circle, Coven & Grove came out. I had such a blast, I went back last year, and then again this year. My traveling companion from my first visit, my step-daughter Jenn, loved it so much, she actually moved to San Jose after last year’s con, so one of my perks was getting to spend some time with her. I also got to meet up with my fiction-writing partner, Lisa DiDio, who lives in Northern CA and took the train down to stay with me. We had a blast together.

On the official side of my visit to Pantheacon, I got to go to two great workshops (they literally offer HUNDREDS over the course of the 4 days, including classes given by such Pagan notables as Starhawk, and everyday folks who are willing to share their wisdom with others); a fabulous chanting workshop with the amazing Margot Adler, and a lovely, healing Pagan Death Passages ritual with the also-amazing Selena Fox (I had lost my beloved grandmother less than a week before PCon, so the timing was perfect).

Both these ladies are wise and warm and gracious, and I was beyond pleased to be able to spend a little time in their company.


I also took part in two Llewellyn events; a “Meet the Authors” and 110 Year Anniversary celebration (with cake) on Saturday night, and a Publishing Panel on Sunday morning. [I met a great new Llewellyn author, Melanie Maquis, at the Meet the authors event…you are going to want her new book, Bag of Tricks, when it comes out in June. I’m reading an advance copy right now, so I can write a blurb for it, and it is fabulous!]




I also led a workshop of my own, called “Spiritual Spring Cleaning.” There were about 80 people attending, and we had a great time. Raised a lot of good spring cleaning energy, too!

Of course, no trip to Pantheacon would be complete without spending time with my wonderful Llewellyn editor, Elysia Gallo. This year, Lisa and I decided to look for a really fun place to go out to dinner that first night, and we ended up at a Moroccan restaurant called, fittingly enough, Moracco’s. We dragged Elysia out with us, along with my step-daughter Jenn and her friend Madeleine. And, oh, man—the food! If you are even in San Jose, you have to track this place down. It was some of the best food any of us had ever had. We got a variety of things and put them in the middle of the table to share, which made it both cheaper and a lot more fun.



The deserts alone made it worth the trip. And the company was as good as it gets. We had a blast.



That’s Jenn, Lisa, me, and Elysia at Moracco’s.

All in all, it was another great Pantheacon. I got to see old friends, make some new ones, visit with authors I admired, meet a few of my fans in person (some of whom I’d already “met” on Facebook or Twitter), eat some great food, and even learn a thing or two. It was worth pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to do it, and I recommend it highly to anyone with the slightest interest in Paganism. Bring an open mind, as much energy as you can muster, and a few dollars to spend on goodies in the Vendors room. (Pagan chocolates…that’s all I’m saying.) And if I’m there next year, be sure to come on over and say hi!

Duck! Or, it's all research when you're a writer.

I spent all day Thanksgiving cooking, even though it was just me (and the cats). But I figure that since I'm working on a "foodie" romance, it's all research :-)

Here is the duck that was the centerpiece of dinner.

50th Birthday Report, Part Deux

Thanks so much to everyone who sent me birthday wishes on Wednesday. I was positively overwhelmed by the outpouring of love. You all ROCK. Heck, if I'd known it was going to be so much fun to turn 50, I would have done it years ago :-)

On Wednesday evening, three of my best pals took me out to a wonderful dinner. Here we are:



That's Bobbie, Ellie, the birthday girl, and Chris. We had a fabulous time (even though the waiter knocked over the wine!)

Here is my beautiful meal:



The girls gave me some amazing prezzies:



The roses are from Chris, and Bobbie made me the adorable frog prince (so I'd have a date).



Chris also gave me a lovely assortment of "foodie" gifts, to go with the fabulous local beer one of my artists gave me. And Bobbie knitted this gorgeous scarf.



Ellie, who is my "partner in crime" (she and I started The Artisans' Guild together) is a potter, and gave me some pottery of hers I'd been eying (in my usual subtle fashion, she said pointing and nudging)



After dinner, we went back to my house and shared a bottle of champagne, some wonderful dark chocolate-chili cookies Bobbie made, and watched a hysterical tape of a Robin Williams HBO special from a few years ago. We laughed until we cried.

In the end, we had a wonderful time. And we may have gotten just a little silly...



All in all, it was the best birthday I ever had. Thanks to everyone!