I am extremely excited to announce that this past week, I contracted with a wonderful voice actor named Emily Mount to produce audiobooks for my Seven Sisters of Avalon book series. This is an eight-book series that takes place in post-Arthurian Avalon, sort of a “what happened after The Mists of Avalon” story. The first book, The Daughters of Avalon, sets up the story and each of the seven books that follow focus on one of the priestess princesses of Avalon as they go out into the world to liaison with rulers of the seven great kingdoms in hopes of protecting the Goddess-worshipping people of Britain.
I started this series in 2013, having said for years, “I can’t write fiction.” I felt like the book series was channeled, with each of the main characters sending their stories to me. There were times, such as in the book Aster of Avalon, that I would be typing a mile a minute and realize the character was no longer talking to me. “Do you want to write your story or my story?” she would say. Lily of Avalon was difficult to write because the main character is schizophrenic and inside her head was a confusing and sometimes terrifying place to be.
I finished the final book, Violet of Avalon, in 2023 and it was an incredible feeling to write “The End” and know it really was the end of me telling the stories of these girls. I finished the series. I imagined all along that I would George R. R. Martin this story and never get it all published, but suddenly, there it was, tied up into a beautifully dove-tailed story.
My oldest son, Joe Humphrey, also a writer, was a huge influence on the second half of the series. He talked me through not only some of the difficult parts of the books where writer’s block had me stuck but also helped me to birth the entire story arc, which ended up being completely different than I thought it would be.
Stephen King says in his seminal book, On Writing, that to successfully navigate a truly good story, you have to be willing to “kill your darlings.” This was a tough bridge for me to cross because there were several places in the series where I literally wept because I realized that a character I loved had to die for the story to present with any kind of authenticity.
I ran into another glitch when one of my editors pointed out that I used the same name for two different characters in two different books. Since the second book had not yet been published, I started the ol’ find and replace to rename one of the characters and the entire cast of the series had a fit in my head, insisting that it was a common name of the time and of course there would be multiple people with the same name. So, in it stayed.
When writing Jasmine of Avalon, I got approximately 2/3 of the way through the book and got stuck like I have never been stuck before. No matter what I did, the story just would not move. Finally, after weeks of struggling with the blockage and a long talk with Joe, I realized that the problem was that I was writing the last three books out of order, so I had to delay Jasmine and write Dahlia of Avalon instead. Once I changed the order, the writing flowed almost effortlessly.
It was quite a journey with these amazing, complex, strong, and dynamic characters. I hated leaving them behind with their story done but I knew in my heart I had served them well and told their story the way they wanted it told. There were certainly times when it was a hard story to tell. The hardship and brutality most of the faced was challenging to think about, much less put to paper.
Each story is based on one or more classic fairy tales or popular stories but told in a more adult fashion. Their stories follow everything from Snow White to Mulan to Frankenstein and Scheherazade, plus many more. In was interesting to research not only what painfully little historical information we have about the late 6th century but also learning about the different versions of these familiar stories. I watched seemingly endless movie renditions, read original versions, and tracked as many interim retellings as I could.
I had not considered audiobooks until Joe mentioned it and I wondered why I had not thought of it before. I felt uncomfortable reading them myself because of my strong Southern US accent, which I felt would be incongruent to a story where all of the characters are British, Scottish, or Irish, so I needed a narrator. Joe walked me through the process of setting up a call for auditions and I patiently waited for the right voice to come along… and she did.
If luck is with us, we should be able to complete the series in a year. Since Emily is one person and is reading all eight books, it will take a while. For now, she has started working on the first book and I am so excited by what I have heard so far. I will keep you posted on when it releases.
In other worlds, I noticed a huge spike in the number of my clients who request protection work and felt I should come up with some new ideas for how to help clients better protect themselves.
Eric and I already have Fiery Wall of Protection spray, powder, and oil, a Protection bath, and barrier tools like brick dust and black salt available through our website at www.crossroadsoccult.com. I decided that instead of reinventing the wheel, I would amp up some of the items we used to offer in the shop.
Our most popular protection tool was the railroad spike, which we anointed with Fiery Wall of Protection oil and suggested that clients plant one in each of the four corners of the property where they live, then sprinkle a barrier powder between the four spike to make a protective grid around the home.
It works great, but then I thought how great it would be to amp up the power of the spike, so I used trance-induced spellwork to design a spike embellished on three sides, that the client can hang next to the most used door in their home:
These are custom made items, specified to the client’s needs. I use demon head pods, charms, amulets, bones, taxidermied rooster feet, beads, and gemstones. The spikes are approximately 7” long and I anoint each one liberally with Fiery Wall of Protection oil.
To order one of these, please email me so we can talk about what you would like included on the spike. The cost is $35 each, which includes shipping.
Another popular protection tool with our clients is the mirror box. The mirror box is literally a box lined with mirrors. The user dedicates an effigy to the person they wish to contain and then put the effigy in the mirror box so the person is forced to face what they have done. In addition to this self-awareness, a mirror box can also contain any energy the person is sending to the client because the mirrors reflect the energy back to the source.
If the person has done nothing, nothing happens to them. This is often combined with a binding spell to keep the person from causing harm to the client.
My thought was to combine the two, so I made this:
This is a combination mirror box and binding coffin. It comes with six effigy babies, a poppet made from Spanish moss to hold the effigy tight, mirrors for the effigy to consider what they have done, and a small clothespin for the user to attach the person’s name on a small piece of paper. (Yes, those are teeth…to put a bite into the spellwork.) There are two rusty nails under the poppet and the set also includes a small pack of GTFO banishing herbs and a small pack of magnetic sand which the user can sprinkle in the bottom of the coffin to draw in the person and hold them there. Close the lid and they are bound as well as locked in a mirror box. Again, if they did nothing wrong, nothing happens to them.
The Combo Mirror Box and Binding Coffin and the Railroad Spike Protection Ward are specialty items and are not included on the website. These are made individually, so if you are interested, email me (drrasbold@gmail.com) for more info. These are $40 each including shipping.
To learn more about Protection Magic, check out the Primal Witchcraft class on Protection Magic: https://crossroadsoccult.com/classroom/primal-witchcraft-protection-magic/ This page is password protected. The password is: PWProtec2020
(Let me know if you have any trouble signing in)
As always, I am active on the Green Egg Blog, writing three posts a week under “Tarot Talk,” “Stone Magic,” and “Herb of the Week.” Last week also had blog posts with information on Beltane. Be sure and check out the Crossroads Occult Facebook page for new posts several times a week with various classes and other fun info. Want to know more about CUSP (Climbing Up the Spiral Pathway), the spiritual path Eric and I developed thirty years ago that helps you to manifest positive life changes every year? Check out the CUSP link below.
Make sure you practice good self-care, set healthy boundaries, and surround yourself with people who love, support, and respect you!
