June has been an extremely busy month. It feels good to finally be able to get back to my normal crazed schedule.

My first event of the year was Memorial Day weekend in Arkansas. I returned to the lovely land of Pyrth Annwn for WytcheHaven Weekend #10. As always, my hosts, the lovely Rio and the wonderful Brennan, went above and beyond to see to my comfort and needs. Since I was still weak from the events in the winter, I was surrounded by my own harem of burden boys. I didn’t have to lift, drag or haul anything. I was even reprimanded for raking leaves from in front of my book booth. I do do like being spoiled.

Early in June, I received word from the publisher that my first book, ‘An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child,’ was selected as a finalist for the 2009 COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources) Visionary Awards. Three finalists are chosen from all entries for each category. The winner for each category is announced at the INATS (International New Age Trade Show) West held in Denver, CO. This year’s Awards Banquet is on June 27th. I will be flying out to Denver to accept the finalist award and hopefully a winning trophy. I am very honored and humbled for my book to be chosen for this prestigious award.

My second event for this year was the St. Louis Pagan Picnic in mid June. (June 13 & 14) Now in its 18th year, it is the largest free Pagan event in the Midwest. St. Louis is in my backyard and personal stomping ground. It is always a pleasure to meet and greet all the local Pagan community members who over the last 5 years have gone from being strangers to fast friends.

Above is a copy of the coloring page installment for June. “O” is for Opet. An Egyptian Goddess, Opet is the subject for “O” in the ABCs of Lesser Known Goddesses. Please visit Magical Child Books’ (the publisher) web site to sign up for the mailing list and get the link to download your FREE copy. There are links to previous coloring pages for newsletter members there as well.

In addition to the newsletter, please friend me on LiveJournal, MySpace, GoodReads, LinkedIn or FaceBook. The publisher also has a fan page on FaceBook, become a fan today.

I recently gave myself a daily challenge with a 30 minute daily doodle. Watch my progress on my illustration blog.

As always, my books, ‘An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child,” “Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle,” “Watchers,” and “Rabbit’s Song,” are all available from the publisher, on my personal website – magickware.com, at your favorite online or brick and mortar bookseller and possibly even you local public library. I know times are tough all over, but dollar for dollar a book is one of the best deals for your entertainment budget. Consider buying one of the above titles for your family or friends. Or ask your local librarian to add them to the children’s section collection.

In closing, I thank each and everyone of you, whether you have purchased a book or not, for joining me on this wonderful and wacky trip of mine. It is because of your unending support that I am living my dream. Your friendship is a true blessing and I am honored to have it.

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I am finally moving back into the swing of things. Please join the Magical Child News mailing list for a brand new coloring page. Our ‘N’ addition to the Lesser Known Goddesses is the Goddess Nike. A winged Goddess, she plays a lyre at hero’s and winners celebrations.

This coming weekend, Memorial Day, I will be returning to Wytchehaven in beautiful Salem, AR. I am very excited to be going back to this private land. The Strawberry River and the howling of coyotes in the evening stirs something deep inside me. And this time, Mama Dragon, my co-author Trudy Herring, will be making an appearance there as well. We will have great fun telling stories of coyote, raven, crow and rabbit to all the kids, big and little!

I want to thank any of you who made a purchase to help me pay off some of my medical expenses. Every little bit helps. I still have several thousand dollars yet to pay off, so if you were planning on making a purchase for yourself or a favorite little one, not only will you be getting a quality Pagan kid’s book, but brownie points as well. Remember, put the coupon code into the shopping cart on check out to get a discount! http://magicalchildbooks.com

In other news, Rabbit’s Song received a 5-star review from the Midwest Book Review. A major review publication, MBR is extremely hard to get into. We were beyond thrilled when we heard the news. To read the review in its entirety, go to either the amazon or B&N page of Rabbit’s Song and scroll down to the reviews. You might even take a moment to add your own review of any of our books. It’s easy to do and helps spread the word.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend! Be careful to not get too much sun and I’ll see you next month!

Blessings,
Lyon

No Comments | Tags: free coloring page, Magical Child Books, Rabbit's Song, tour appearance

Mabon Greetings All!
Thanks so much for your continued interest in my books and career, I feel like I have quite the cheering squad at this point. So I am especially thrilled to share my latest news with you – I have just finished the art for my first collaborative picture book. Written by SJ Tucker and Trudy Herring, “Rabbit’s Song” is an engaging tale of mythical proportions. Trickster God comes to Earth to find animals to teach His lessons to man. Based on SJ Tucker’s wildly popular ballad by the same name off of her CD “Blessings,” this picture book the work of several years of intensive conversations between the three of us.
This book is truly a dream come true for each of us. For me, working with such talented and loving people has been a wonderful blessing. The combination of each of our talents has pushed me to create what I consider some of my best illustration work so far.

Meanwhile, the demand for An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child has been astounding. I realized when my child was born in 1994 there was a need for Pagan children’s books in America, a need that is only just beginning to be met. When An Ordinary Girl was first released in 2005, there were hardly any books for the young Pagans. I receive frequent emails from parents thanking me for giving them a tool to help explain their Paths to their children. I am happy to report that there are now several more Pagan children’s books available. I hope that this small trickle will increase to fill this niche with quality books for our youth.

AN ORDINARY GIRL, A MAGICAL CHILD
Written and illustrated by W. Lyon Martin
Magical Child Books — Trade Picture Book – Available NOW!!!

An Ordinary Girl follows Rabbit, a young Pagan child through the wheel of the Year. Readers follow along with her as she celebrates Wiccan holidays, rituals and spells.

The next book in the series “Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle,” is an interactive picture book. With hidden pictures in the main story, children get to help a friendly squirrel gather acorns for the coming winter, all the while learning the basics of a Wiccan nighttime Full Moon gathering.

And don’t forget my latest book:
Based on a poem by Kelley Magee, “Watchers” is a bedtime story filled with subtle Pagan symbols in the illustrations. The hero, Thomas, is worried about the eyes watching him in the dark. He hatches a plan to capture them only to find out what he fears is really there to protect him.

All books are available on the publisher’s web site: http://magicalchildbooks.com , amazon and other online book stores or your favorite book seller.

At Magical Child Books you can see inside pages of the books, read reviews and even find teaching guides.

Plus, as a special bonus for people placing pre-orders for Rabbit’s Song, you will receive a MP3 file of Trudy and SJ reading the story. This is a limited time offer and is only available for those placing pre-orders for the book.

Freebies:
Remember the monthly coloring pages are archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/magicalchildnews/ . Now that the art for Rabbit’s Song has been delivered to the publisher, I’ll be sending out the next ABC Lesser Known Goddess in the series.

Visits:
To invite me to speak at your school or event, learn more at http://magicalchild.handcraftedpagan.com/workshops/ or email me at lyon@handcraftedpagan.com.
To view my current schedule of events, go to http://magicalchild.handcraftedpagan.com/bio/appearances/ .

Bright Blessings,
Lyon

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July is half way through. Time just seems to go faster and faster as I get older. To the left is a portion of the newest installment for the free coloring pages at Magical Child News. This month features the letter J and the Goddess is Jerah, a Semetic Goddess. Sign up for the yahoo group mailing list to download this and previous free coloring pages.

I joined a new blog group this week called Watercolor Wednesdays. The members have to be watercolor artists doing children’s book illustration. Every Wednesday we receive a prompt for a new painting. This week’s prompt is “this little piggy.” We are to let our imaginations run wild, and mine is working over time. So much so I haven’t been able to decide what to do yet.

Work on Rabbit’s Song is moving along smoothly. The rough layout for the cover has received approval and I am busy finalizing all the changes and tiny details. The publisher will be making the book available for pre-order as soon as the cover receives final approval. The authors and I will all be appearing together in Tennessee for a pre-release party. All the books pre-ordered before the mid October event will be signed by all three of us. I am very excited about this.

I’ve decided that watching the scale inch up over the summer has got to end. I got my bike out of the basement and dusted off the cobwebs yesterday morning. I rode out to the post office and back in the morning. It actually felt kind of good to be doing something just for me. In fact it felt so good that I decided to ride the bike down to A Visual Impact in the afternoon to get my hair cut. (Check out the logo — I designed it for them.) I arrived at the shop without incident, got my hair cut and started on my way home. I took the main drag home (fewer hills) instead of taking the side streets I traveled on my way downtown. That was a mistake. Not only was the traffic heavier, the folks in the cars seemed to think they needed to honk their horns at me as they drove past. The side of the rode is not in good repair, so it was tough going. I gritted my teeth and struggled on until I cam to the rail road tracks. The tracks cut across the road at an angle. I was attempting to pedal my sorry self across them and avoid the worst of the potholes and road debris when a car swooshed by rather closely with horn blaring. It startled me and I took my eyes off the road momentarily to see the car rush past only to have the front tire of the bike catch in the track and get stuck. Needless to say, I kept going and my bike didn’t. OW! I now have a nice pair of matching road rash on my right knee and left leg. I wear leather biking gloves, so my hands are undamaged. A good thing because I used them to stop my face from landing in the gravel by the side of the road.

Suffice it to say, I won’t be traveling that section of road again!

No Comments | Tags: art nouveau, free coloring page, girl, Goddess, line art, semitic

If it’s been a while since you’ve been by, you’ll notice the web site has a completely new look. Things have finally slowed down enough for me (or maybe I am getting more organized?) to spend some time updating and redecorating the place. I could be in nesting mode or something, I have been renovating and painting the real life house as well.

Since I am an artist and not a programmer, some of the things I still want to do are really giving the old brain pan a work out. I will get them figured out eventually. After all, other people have managed to get such things done on their sites, it’ll just take me while to get that light bulb going off over my head. Now that’s an image.

I am so thrilled with my progress through my to-do list for this week. I have managed to cross off nearly all the items I needed to get done. The last item on the list is the pencil rough for Rabbit’s Song. When I finish it up it will be scanned into the computer and sent to the people who need to approve it. I am half way there, so getting it out by Thursday should be no trouble.

On Friday I head out to Ozark Avalon for a very full 4th of July weekend. The land’s wardens are being handfasted on the 4th. On Saturday I will be giving a craft workshop of Sparkling Spiral Mobiles. On Sunday morning the very popular Family Story time is to occur. I have been rereading and memorizing some of my favorite childhood animal myths and adding the re-tellings to my line up of picture books. The kids love to be read to. I am just amazed at their faces when they hear new stories. I am reminded why I became a picture book author in the first place.

The only thing I didn’t do this week was check my calendar for appointments on Monday. So, all things being equal, I forgot about an appointment yesterday. Der. My daughter was scheduled to have her braces removed. You think she might have remembered as it was her mouth. Oh well, I was able to reschedule for next week. I had better NOT forget again.

Also next week, I have an appointment for an interview. I will be heading into the city to have my entrance interview for Voices for Children to be a child’s advocate in the court system. I’ve spoken to the director several times on the phone, she said I most likely will be accepted into the program. Training starts in August.

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Spring is just around the corner, and after the snow we had this year, I am just about ready for it. In a little over a week Ostara will be upon us. This year will be especially powerful as the Full Moon falls on the following day.

This month’s coloring page; the “F” installment of the Lessor Known Goddesses ABCs will feature Flidais, an Irish woodland Goddess. I will be drawing that out this afternoon, so expect your new coloring page by week’s end. It usually takes me several days to get the page perfected.

Speaking of “perfected” my third picture book “Watchers” is currently in production. I put the finishing touches on the last painting on Saturday evening. It took me slightly longer than I anticipated since I had two very important occasions to celebrate last week. One was my daughter’s birthday. Rabbit has turned 14. It’s so hard to believe that the little girl from my first book is all grown up (almost) but she’ll be off to high school next year. We celebrated with my elder daughter, the younger son and the two grandchildren and a nephew. We ate Mexican.

The other bit of news, which will actually mean something more to you that my daughter’s birthday is the next book. I have joined forces with SJ Tucker (http://www.skinnywhitechick.com) to illustrate her marvelous mythological tale “Rabbit’s Song.” She co-authored the story with her dear friend and High Priestess Trudy of “In the House of Mama Dragon” fame. We expect the book to make it’s appearance in about a year.

Watchers is now available for pre-order on Amazon or through Magical Child Books web site (http://www.handcraftedpagan.com/shop/ ). All books purchased through the Magical Child Books’ shopping cart will be autographed, so make sure you let me know who to make the autographs out to when you order yours. Books will be shipped as soon as they arrive.

In other news, “Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle” will be featured in New Age Retailer in Shelf Life – Early Lessons due out in the Spring 2008 issue. Plus, after a couple of set backs, and scrambling to find a qualified teacher, I am proud to announce that the promised teaching guide (http://handcraftedpagan.com/magicalchild/aidanguide.html) for “Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle” is now available on my web site. The teaching guide covers all US school based curriculum requirements and includes a moon based craft at the end. Perfect for home schoolers and Moon Schools. My undying thanks goes out to Natalie Zaman, a NJ Certified Teacher (English K-12), of Broomstix.com for stepping so gracefully into the gap left by my previous guide writer.

If you haven’t heard of Broomstix before, it’s an e-zine for Pagan kids (http://www.broomstix.com ). It comes out around each Sabbat and includes all kinds of wonderful stories, crafts and activities. I will be the features author in their Litha issue. More on that in future updates.

Those of you in the St. Louis area I will be making several appearances:

March 30 1:30-2:30 pm
Story time for families (Free)
Pathways 11419 Concord Village Avenue, St. Louis, MO
call (314) 842-0047 or visit http://www.pathwaysstl.com for direction

April 5 All Day
Spirit Awakening (April 4-6)
The Days Inn, Alton, IL
visit the web site for details http://www.spiritawaken.org/
I’ll be doing book signings all day and giving a workshop – Sacred Art: Creations for Worship and Healing
Also appearing are Ellen Dugan and Mickie Mueller, among others.

April 8 7-9 pm
Sacred Art: Creations for Worship and Healing ($15 pre registration required)
Pathways 11419 Concord Village Avenue, St. Louis, MO
call (314) 842-0047 or visit http://www.pathwaysstl.com for direction

And finally, I am on both myspace and covenspace. If you are there, send me a friend request!

Bright Blessings,
Lyon

Watchers, Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle and An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child
Magical Child Books – http://handcraftedpagan.com

No Comments | Tags: children's books, spring, tour

Whatever posessed me to believe that making booksigning appearances was glamorous?

I went to the Northwest Indiana Pagan Pride day last weekend. Frankly, I am still recoverying from the ordeal. Now don’t get me wrong, the event itself was wonderful, the hosts gracious and the public attentive and flattering. It was the 5 hour drive that became a 12 hour nightmare that was the problem.

Portage is a smallish Indiana town outside of Gary, which as it happens is south east of Chicago by about an hour’s drive. According to map quest the trip wuld take me 4 hours and 45 minutes. Completely doable even by my drive-a-phobic standards. Things were going just fine until I hit just outside of Gary. Then EVERYTHING came to a screeching halt. And stayed that way for the rest of the afternoon and on into the evening. We are talking about a stretch of about 5-6 miles of highway. No one was going anywhere. 4:00 dragged into 7:00 and inch by inch I went from exit 1 to exit 2 where all traffic was exiting the 4 lane, rush hour Friday evening, clogged highway. And I had to pee. BAD. Really, really bad. My poor bladder is still sore!

I finally crawled off the highway with all the hundreds of other cars, trucks and trailers and inched my way to the first service station hoping to relieve myself. Not happening. There had been so many other people with the same desparate need the place’s sole toilet had broken. I took in the situation with as much grace as I could muster given the circumatances, but the woman behind me was not so understanding.

She was certain it was all an evi plot against her personally. She berated the woman behind the counter for not having a separate facility for women. Then she berated her for not having a working facility. All the while the shop keep apologized for the unfortunate breaking fo said facilities. Finally the irrate woman came to the realization she was NOT going to get to go to the toilet at this place. In a huf she proclaimed loudy for all to here. “Well, if I can’t use your bathroom, I’m not buying your gas!” I had to laugh.

By the time I got past all that mess and into my hotel room it was half past 9 already. Luckily there was a resturant right in front of the hotel. I had a yummy catfish dinner and had the place to myself because the bar side had live music happening and it seems like the band’s entire compliment of friends and family had turned out to cheer them on.

By the time I had finished my meal I was so loopy that I subtracted the tip from my bill instead of adding it. The poor waitress had to chase me out of the resturant to get me to fix my math error.

So who thinks life of a traveling author is still glamorous?

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This was my first trip to the lovely state of Iowa. The wonderful people from IPAN invited me to give workshops and do a pre-release reading from my upcoming book Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle (available at Magical Child Books for pre-order), at their annual Iowa Lammas Fest held in a cozy little camping area in the Cottonwood Reservior in Coralville, Iowa. The event went from Friday Aug 3 at noon through Sunday Aug 5 until noon. A ritual was held each day, there were lots of workshops given on Saturday, and musical preformances for the evening’s entertainament. and of course the wonderful vendors with an assortment of wares for attendees’ shopping pleasure.

The workshops I gave were called:

Crafting the Children’s Circle which was scheduled at 9:30 am and lightly attended. My husband tells me if I offered hot coffe along with the workshop in my early morning appearances, I’ll have better attendance. I’ll have to fugire out how to make a coffee pot work without electricity, since I haven’t mastered that trick quite yet.

Bringing Ritual into your Everyday the second workshop was better attended. People are actually awake in mid afternoon. We had a very spirited discussion on what ritual is and how to move from a mundane place to a more spiritual one in our daily activities.

Late afternoon brough the reading from Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle. Since the book is not yet done, I read from the art I am preparing for publication. All the kids under Jr. High age attended. From their reaction, I am confident that Aidan will be a big hit with kids when it is released.

I had a great time at Lammas Fest and hope to be invited back sometime in the future. I highly reccomend this event for your first foray into the world of Pagan retreats. It is rather intimate, has a secure campground close to civilization while still being remote enough for a private feel. The three day event was perfect for celebrating the first of the Harvest Sabbats and a great way to end the summer events for me.

My next appearnce is scheduled for September 25th at the 10th Annual Pagan Pride Day to be held at Woodland Park in Portage, Indiana from 11am to 5 pm.

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WolvenWold was host to Soule Feste 2006, Elk Creek, MO. It was the perfect ending to my first year of being a published, touring book author/illustrator.

The grounds were lovely. Even though the owners have been there a number of years (8 if I remember correctly), they have done a lot of work to reclaim the pasture areas and wooded lots to native plant life. Once you get off the graveled entry drive there is little if any human intervention in evidence. Camping is where ever there is a clearing in the brush. There are two “buildings” of sorts which house toilet facilities. After a summer full of port-a-pots and public restrooms that were often less than clean, these out houses were very refreshing. Let me explain. Each bulding is a rough built cabin-like room. Inside is a seated area under which a bucket resides. This is where you sit and do your business. After you make your deposit, there is a large barrel of sawdust with an old can on the other end of the room, you fill the can with sawdust from the barrel, cover your deposit in the bucket and walah. All done! When a bucket becomes full, a staff member removes it and places an empty one in its place. All the full buckets are emptied into a composting bin somewhere else on the grounds. The whole operation was truly amazing and what’s more it DIDN’T smell.

The festival itself was very laid back, workshops happened in a lazy way and everyone was very calm, except for one very young Paganite who didn’t like being put down for sleep unless Mama was with him.

The only drawback to the entire weekend was the unseasonalble cold weather. I was not prepared to be sleeping in a tent where I could see my breath puff out before me. I, unfortunately, forgot to pack my warm sleeping bag and ended up piling on every article of clothing in my possession at night to stay warm enough to sleep.

I did manage to get a picture from this event, although it was at the tail end of the weekend, so we are all rather disheveled from the proceeding days of camping. Of course, everyone was miles taller than I am. All except little Bela who is almost 2 now. )

I am now in the studio for the remainder of the year, my first appearance of 2007 is planned for early April. WooHoo. Then I get to start with the packing and unpacking all over again.

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