Monday, June 13, 2011

Litha Update and Upcoming Appearances

Dear Friends:



Its been a cold season so far and everything in the garden is delayed.



Before Eostre I went through an unprecedented two week flurry of editing activity with my editor Kel from Acorn Publishing regarding my upcoming book Pagan Religions: A Manual for Diversity Training. He assured me that was finishing the editing and this unusual level of activity for him seemed to indicate that he was serious. A few weeks later I noticed that the book had been posted on Indigo/Chapters for advance sales at: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Pagan-Religions-Manual-Diversity-Training-Kerr-Cuhulain/9780971005068-item.html?cookieCheck=1

This took me by surprise as I hadn’t been told about this. Now Litha is on the horizon and as far as I can tell we’re no further ahead. It has been a lengthy and frustrating process and I thank all of you that have been waiting for this book for your patience.



My new book Modern Knighthood: Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself and the World has been out on Smashwords.com since December as an e book, but now it is coming out as a print on demand book at Amazon.com. I’m just waiting for the review process to be completed. This book completes the cycle begun with my earlier Llewellyn books on Warrior philosophy, Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick and Magickal Self Defense. This is the first and only book to relate the concept of Pagan knighthood, which is all about personal empowerment and self mastery. Modern Knighthood brings all of the philosophy of the warrior together into a new tradition that outlines the cycles of training that interlock with the cycles of the seasons that lead the student to each of these initiatory experiences. Modern Knighthood outlines the 13 Precepts and Code of Chivalry of knighthood, including seasonal cycles and rituals. If you’re tired of being the victim and want to take charge of your life, you need this book.



The other book, which is published under my mundane name, Charles Ennis, is Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens. This is a collection of ancient recipes adapted for the modern kitchen, organized into the 8 Sabbat seasons and presented with a brief description of their history. The oldest recipe in there is over 6,000 years old. If you’re looking for recipes for your Esbat or Sabbat, this is the book for you. This is a Smashwords e book.



Some of you are unfamiliar with e books and have been asking me if you need readers like Kindle, Koobo, etc to read it. Smashwords offers multiple download formats, so of course you can easily download these books to any available readers. If you don’t have a reader, you can also download these books to your computer as text files or PDF files to your computer, so you can print a hard copy if you so desire. Or you can download the reader software (free downloads) to your computer to download the other formats.



A few weeks ago I attended Write On Vancouver and submitted manuscripts to an editor: This is the first books in my swords and sorcery fantasy as well as the first book in a paranormal romance. I’m already 20,000 words into writing the second book of that paranormal trilogy and about 10,000 words into book two of the fantasy trilogy.  



I’ve created a new blog for my fantasy writing which I invite you to check out: http://caennis.wordpress.com/ I’ve posted a lot of free information there for writer’s looking for information for their fiction, including police procedural information and a lexicon of the occult with over 13,000 entries. I’m now on Goodreads.com, so if you’re a reader and want to be part of that community, I invite you to check it out and see what I’ve got in my virtual “library”.



I will be coming to Ottawa, Ontario, on the Labour Day Weekend this year for InFest to teach classes and conduct an Armoring ritual. I will also be attending the Sacred Well Congregation Convention in Texas October 13 – 16 to teach, conduct an Armoring, and connect with military Pagans at Lackland AFB. I will be appearing on the Blogtalk “Pagans Tonight”  hosted by Oberon Zell and Ariel Monserrat on Wednesday, June 15 at 10 PM EST:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/witchschool/2011/05/25/pagans-tonight



As I mentioned in my last note: Our Order of Scáthach has been approved as the sponsors/organizers of Vancouver Pagan Pride 2011. We’ve received approval of the Hawthorne Park site from the city of Surrey. The event will take place Saturday, August 13th at that location, between 9 AM and 6 PM. If you’re interested in participating by doing a ritual, lesson, performance or you intend to set up a merchant’s booth, please check out our web site at: http://vancouverpaganpride.wordpress.com/ You’ll find all of the contacts there to get you set up.



Just a reminder to anyone interested in studying with us in the Order of Scáthach: We’ve changed our mentoring system so people who want to study with us can check out our mentors on line at our training blog and choose one to work with. We’re also doing Skype conference calls for our on line students to improve their learning experience. Of course, if you're living here in British Columbia or in one of the other locations that we have preceptories, you can train with us face to face.



We’ve been taping lessons to put on the training blog and this led us to create our own YouTube channel. All of the lessons of the Order of Scathach’s training cycle have been uploaded as mini video lessons now: You can visit them through the links on our training blog or go direct to our new YouTube Channel, “Order of Scathach Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhum



And finally, our youth group, Scathách Kids, is now fully operational. Please check it out at: http://scathachkids.wordpress.com/



Hope you have a wonderful Litha.



Kerr Cuhulain
Grand Master
Order of Scathach