May 25 - 28 was HPF’s Wisdom in the Woods. The entire family was invited and I was billed as an “Honored Guest Speaker.” I am still getting used to that title. It does feel good to get such recognition so early in my publishing career.

We arrived late afternoon on Thursday the 25. The drive out was uneventful and there was no getting last because my husband drove. He has been to Kansas before and was a returning camper to Heartland, even though it’s been a decade since his last visit. I was just content to be a passenger for this event.

When we arrived there was a small mix up as to where we were staying but it all got smoothed out very quickly. Heartland is one of the largest events in the MidWest. There were approximately 800 people in attendance at this years Festival, many of them children. I did notice that there was a different demographic from the early events I attended back in the late 80s. We are “growing up” as a group. There were a lot more age groups represented at this event than at the ones I went to years ago. I can’t help but be excited about the growth and change in the community that I saw.

HPF organizers are AMAZING. We felt like royalty the entire weekend, as they saw to our every need. I cannot thank Patrick enough for all his time and patience with this newbie author and my family. Even with a snafu with scheduling workshops and their locations, everything ran so smoothly, if you hadn’t known about the mix up, you wouldn’t have noticed anything was amiss. I really liked the way the changes and additions were announced. Notices were posted in every Port-a-pot so no one missed seeing them. (Unless of course, they held it in all weekend!)

Both my workshops were well attended. I only had minor stage fright by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around for my second workshop. I might even become good at this! Plus, Amethyst Camp had attendance for the evening meetings every evening. Thanks to Cy the Drum Guy we had an amazing geodesic dome to hold them in. I even got to sit in with Dorothy Morrison, MR Sellars and Kristin Madden when they held their workshop So you want to be a Pagan Author. Unfortunately, the workshop ran longer than I expected so I had to skip out early so I could get some lunch and prepare for my workshop, and I missed seeing Skinny White Chick perform at the musicians tent. I was told that she again gave my book a mention. Thank you, SJ! You rock!

Saturday morning at about 10:30 I was asked to do a live interview on the air for the Pagan Radio Network which was broadcasting during the entire event. I showed up at the sound stage at 11 and was promptly seated at a mike and put on air. Yikes. That did make me a bit shaky, indeed. Later in the weekend a listener sought me out to tell me that she liked what I had to say. I am glad she did because it’s all a blur now!

Aside from the overwhelming heat, the event was marvelous. I wish I had been able to have a bit more free time to attend the other presenters’ workshops and browse through the stalls full of wares. The only down side for me the whole weekend was the passing of my grandfather on Saturday afternoon, which due to poor cell phone reception, I found out about on Sunday morning. There was a rough patch for a while as I was ushered around to find a cell phone with a strong enough signal to call my brother in Florida to find out what happened. After the intial shock of the news, I was able to continue my day until we left after my afternoon workshop.

No pictures this time. I remembered that I had forgotten my camera about halfway through Missouri.

I will definately attend Heartland again. The entire event was wonderful, if you are in the Kansas City area during any Memorial Day weekend, this festival is definately on the the to-do list!

May 4-7 saw me at Our Haven Nature Sanctuary’s Beltane Gathering in French Lick, IN. The weather was cooperative, although the evenings were cool. I battled with my covers most of the weekend as they slipped off of the air matress more often than not. Brrrr…

I managed to find the campgrounds with only a minor wrong turn that ended up being someone’s driveway instead of the gravel roadway. The grounds for Our Haven are lovely and if I hadn’t been working all weekend, I would have liked to wander off into the woods and gotten myself lost there.

The organizers, Roger and Michelle, (see photo) were very gracious and set me up in their own campsite where I promptly became a source of endless amusement for their two elder children, a three year old and a five year old boy. I felt like a mother duck with the two boys following my every move throughout the event. I also got to hold their newest child, a lovely daughter, for small snatches of time. As with all new babies, she was subject to lots of oooing and aaahhing from many folks who go gaga over little ones.

Late Friday night SJ Tucker, aka Skinny White Chick, and her crew showed up after a hair-raising drive from Denver. SJ, as always, put on a magnificent performance and even told folks to buy my books during her show. Thanks SJ! You’re the best!

After the music there was the nightly fire circle with drumming. Drumming and dancing went on all night, every night until the sun started to rise the next morning.

Sunday before I left, the presenters and the performers were interviewed by the Pagan Radio Network (Interview at Our Haven). It was my first interview done on a mike, and I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be “loud” enough. I did fine though, said my bit and hit the road for home. Sometimes trying to coordinate the schedules of four people can be a bit overwhelming, my husband’s traveles and mine coincided this particular weekend and I had to rush back to Missouri to be in time to have my X drop off my daughter for bedtime, since the next day was a school day! On the way home, I did indeed get lost finding the highway and ended up going about 10 minutes out of my way before deciding to turn around because nothing looked familiar. I was exactly 20 minutes later on arrival than I had planned and the X and daughter were sitting in his car waiting for me. Oh well. You do what you can.

Manelqua, the head man at Our Haven, invited me back for a future date, but when is at this point undecided. I had a relaxing time and enjoyed the people I came in contact with.