E.E. Warren's Blog

Banner of the Sêthar’vethra I've been busy writing Books 2 and 3 of the Virehnai Chronicles, and I'm having a total blast. I've come to the conclusion that I'm simply a glutton for punishment. Why I write multiple books at once, I don't know. I thought I was doing it in the Magic Abounds series to keep the stories straight. Whoopsie! Guess that wasn't it, after all. :) Book 2 is called "The Night Shift." That's what happens when you're trying to find the cause of a mysterious illness...

Cover of Not Quite Human, with blade known as "witchfang." Not Quite Human is finished. I had an absolute blast writing it, and I'm hard...

Virehnai Rune of Becoming It's out! It's finally out!!! The very first little nugget in the Blood and Eternity series. Tales of Blood...

This is going to be short. :) I'm hard at work putting Tales of Blood and Eternity on Amazon, so it's available for pre-sale. It's...

Front Cover! I've been having SOOOOO much fun writing these! Not Quite Human's about halfway done, and to start off the series, I...

Gratuitous cat photo. Bean, aka "Mischief," (black) and ChaosPixie (flame point siamese) Different for ME, anyway! It's been a minute...

My life took a radical turn the day I learned to read. It felt magical then, and I know the inherent magic that resides within our words even today, as an adult. It only seemed to get more magical as I started writing stories around age ten or eleven, and that sense of magic has never faded - even now, as the words and ideas I'm writing are being published for others to read.

I did something different with the third book in my Magic Abounds series. Radically different: While I see all writing as an act of magic, I consciously wrote a story as a spell.

Really.

In book three, "The Power Within Us," the final story ends, and then it closes with something a friend of mine wrote, that was very much like a poem that summed up quite neatly the lives of one of my characters. That character was entirely fictional, but her life could've been any of ours: tinged with sadness and loss, that in an act of mental alchemy was transmuted into something extraordinary. It should've been the end of the book - but it wasn't. The last, final story was called "A Last Little Bit of Magic - There You Are!"

Here's the intro to that story from the book:

"Eventually, if we take the time to look, we find ourselves among the books we read.  I know I have!  Who among us hasn’t identified with a beloved character, or found a truth that resonated, or heard words out of the mouth of a fictional character that rang true in real life?  We read, and we dream about what could be, and see possibilities. 

Here’s a question:  What if we could rewrite our own lives?  All of us start out our lives by marching to others’ tunes, and living by their rules, and at some point, we realize that we have a choice:  to continue along the path set for us, marching to someone else’s beat...or to rewrite how the story of our life continues from that moment on, as we both take and hopefully keep control of it.

What if this were a moment like that, but charged with magic?  What if you were a part of this story?  Would you want to be?  Do you want to be?  If not, close the book, you’re done, and I hope you enjoyed it. However, if being part of the story sounds like something you’d be interested in, come with me for a little longer on a bit of a journey.  It won’t be unfamiliar.  Ready?  Let’s go!"

And just like that, welcome to a story as a spell. The story that follows that intro, both appearing and written like any of the other stories that appeared in the book, was done consciously. It was meant to insert the reader and their OWN life story into my book. It was infused with intention - as an act of magic, from me, gifted into their lives, if they so chose to accept it. All they need to do is add their own intent and desire.

Truthfully, I waffled back and forth about whether to include it. Finally, I was persuaded by my own guides to put it in. (When I say 'persuaded,' translate that as 'told.' lol)

Why?

Because ultimately, all storytelling is a spell; it's magic. I had a blog earlier in the year called "The Power of Words" that came to be as a result of finalizing that 'story spell' after being told to include it. If you haven't read it, there's a link at the bottom that will take you to it, but the cliff notes version is this: Each letter you see is a sigil. Each word is a hyper sigil, and highly symbolic. Some words mean what we all decide as a society that they mean, and then additionally, each of us attaches our own personal meanings and symbolism to each of them. We can't help ourselves. It's how we're wired. There isn't really any information on the screen you're reading right now. It's all sigils and symbols. As I was told, I share with you: Whether it's your grocery list, or an ancient cuneiform tablet, what is written is merely a placeholder for an idea. Each word has its' own frequency in your mind, as you think it, and when you see it and and again when you read it. Words are containers: For power. For agency in our lives. For ideas which transmit power.

The spoken word does the exact same thing...it also tracks back to the original frequency of your thought. The only difference between the spoken word and the written word is immediacy. You speak, and if you speak rightly, with intent, actions are set in motion. As an example, one of the earliest things many of us who were raised within a Christian structure learned was either out of Genesis (God said let there be light, and light was) or Hebrews (God spoke the world into being through the power of his words.) Most religions and traditions hold to the world being spoken or even sung into existence, and occult tradition holds that we speak our own circumstances into existence, also.

Writing? Writing - our words - can be eternal. When you want something that's important to be remembered...it often gets carved in stone. Whether it's a current monument to a hero or an idea...to an ancient obelisk, the writing on a temple wall or on a cuneiform tablet...it's preserved. If you are given the means to understand what is on a page or a tablet, it resonates at the same frequency in your mind as you read it today as it did 5,000 years earlier. It's like 'power in time-release form,' where suddenly you have the superpower of taking in and understanding the thoughts of someone who has long since passed out of existence.

So here's a bit of magic for you. Knowing the power inherent in our words and our thoughts, ask yourself a question: What story do you tell yourself...about yourself?

My favorite quote on this comes from The Oracle of the 7 Energies deck, by Collette Baron-Reid, from the STORYTELLER Card (which is my favorite, and holds much significance for me):

"Your destiny can be found in the way you weave together the threads of yourself in the world."

In other words, the stories you tell - particularly the stories you tell yourself about yourself - create your own magic and reality. You want a change? Start with telling yourself a new story about yourself.

This is a way of connecting to your true power. You make a choice, and your thoughts and story originate in your mind, along with it's associated frequency. Our words - however they appear, whether written, spoken or thought - are containers for power.   You already have everything you need to tell yourself an awesome story about you that not only weaves blessings and abundance into your life - but also broadcasts those blessings and abundance as your contribution of kindness and goodwill to the world at large.

The world being the dumpster fire it currently is can use all the kindness and goodwill it can get. Start with your own story, laced with magic and power!

Link to The Power of Words:

CLICK ME

P.S. To anyone who's read that final magical story from The Power Within Us: if you followed along, and you experienced anything that you feel tracks back to the story and how you experienced it, can you drop me a note at technowitch.book@gmail.com? I'd love to know!

Hi everyone! It's been a minute; sorry for that! I wanted to post something up to let everyone know that the oft-times alluded to Hearth, Home and Magic Podcast is finally coming to be, and to explain a bit about WHY it's coming to be. I'm somewhere between excited...nervous (it's a really public, forward-facing thing for an introvert to do, lol)...and if I was nervous initially about publishing a book? Well, this is THAT, but on steroids. If I think about it too hard, (TMI warning) I might barf.

There is now a 'bonus' podcast up, if you navigate to the PODCAST button on the menu bar above. It's also on Spotify, and my YouTube channel as a podcast. It's a little surreal to even say ANY of that. Think of it as a placeholder, for now. It's about my book TechnoWitch, published in 2021. If you've read it (or my blog), or you know me...you know I'm one of those early tech adopters. I love tech, I love my devices, and I love seeing what I can do, and see if I can find new uses for them. That's just...me.

I was on YouTube earlier in the week, watching some of the stuff I follow (The Why Files, The Witches' Cookery, Marie Coveley, Mama Eve, Linus Tech Tips, Skill Tree, and Nerdforge) when I ran across a random video on a new AI system I'd never heard of: Notebook LM. I like tech, and I'm not afraid of AI. As total transparency, I have no problem taking my own research, and feeding it into an AI system like ChatGPT and asking it if it thinks I've missed anything. Asking for suggestions, that is; not asking it to DO the work. Then I take what I find, and see if it resonates. If it does, I do more research...my own. What I don't do, and could never agree with are creators who use AI to do all the end-to-end creation of their products, with little creativity on their own ends. I see that as completely disengenuous. I'm a writer, and I was an artist for over 30 years. I did (and still do) take pride in what I can do and create. There's not much creativity in asking a bot to create everything for you, so you can generate a ton of content, cheap. Blech. But that's my opinion, and I digress.

Here I was, minding my own business watching videos on YouTube, and one of the suggestions that came up discussed the various uses for Notebook LM, by Google. It said you could feed your research into it as pdf files - multiple, multiple sources - and it could aggregate it for you. Do I really want a bot doing all my research? No. Am I for anything that will save me some time and point me in the right directions, and help me see if I've forgotten something? Uh...yes. Why yes, I am.

So imagine my complete and utter shock when I uploaded the pdf file of my book TechnoWitch into Notebook LM to 'kick the tires' and start looking for research directions for TechnoWitch 2.0, and it offered to create a podcast discussion for me about the book. Curious, I hit the button, Notebook LM chugged for a minute, and gave me a play button. I was astounded to discover two AI people, having a DISCUSSION about my book.

It blew my mind.

I listened with glee...I mean, they were talking about what I worked really hard to create, right? Simultaneously, I was also a little horrified. These aren't real people. If you aren't completely aware that this kind of technology exists, you might be fooled into thinking they're real, much like how you can't trust video or photos you see anymore (lol, ALWAYS count the fingers; it's the first thing that messes up!) I was somewhere between chair dancing on my sofa, and crying, because it sounded so amazing. I even called my husband to come from the back of the house into our living room, and made him listen to it, poor thing. All he wanted to do was get a little rest after his rehearsal earlier!

Why was the moment so emotional for me?

It was simple: I'd had two offers to appear on podcasts right after TechnoWitch came out, and despite the fact that it could've helped me get the book more visible, and be helpful with marketing - - I was too petrified to appear on either of them. Even a couple of years down the road, I've been inching slowly toward having a podcast - teasing it, even as I tried to summon up the courage to DO it...

...and here one was.

What it did was illustrate to me the power of the medium. So let me tell you straight up. The "Bonus Podcast" that's currently sitting on my Podcast pages, wherever you listen to them - are two AI characters, talking about my book, based on the text of the book I wrote. I couldn't be prouder of it. I hope you listen to it; enjoy it, even. Know that it's not real - but the work that went into it very much was.

And know this, too. It made enough of a difference in how I viewed my OWN material that my sister and I are going to do it for real...real voices, real people, and real research as it's needed...

...all because an AI bot showed me what it could look like...and the inherent power in it.

I think there's a little bit of magic in there.

P.S. If you have ideas for or about TechnoWitch 2.0 - opinions, novel ways you use technology in your practices...or topics you'd like to see covered in the next book, email me at technowitch.book@gmail.com, or leave a comment. Several people told me back then that they really hoped for a 'grimoire.' If you want to know more about the topic, I recommend that you check out my friend Amy Blackthorn, and her friend Natalie Zaman's book, called Social Media Spellbook: 366 Ways to Get Witchy on the Web, available on Amazon! TechnoWitch is also available on Amazon, in print, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited! Links to both books are below. Thanks again!

TechnoWitch: Ancient Wisdom, Digital Tools

https://a.co/d/5Zvd0ku

Social Media Spellbook:

https://a.co/d/0F9PVjX

When I had the idea for the whole 'Magic Abounds' series, the first bits of it were written in 2015, and I confided to my dear friend Jimmy way back then that I dreamed of a day when I was an author...and we actually talked about collaborating. If ONLY. I would've loved that scenario. We always made a good team.

The first book, "The Magic Within Us" didn't come out until 2020. That five years between the idea, and the fruition of it was fraught with oooey-gooey drama. Jimmy left this earth behind, along with my childhood bestie, my dad...and one of my sisters came pretty damned close. Too close. It took that five years for all of us to to get life back on an even keel.

Four years later, I'm writing full time. I'm so grateful, and blessed for the path I'm on, and for everyone that's read any of the Magic Abounds series, not to mention all the people in my life. I can't help but wish the people who left us could be here to share it with. I know they're around...but it's not the same.

What's next?

There's still more stories to tell within the context of "Treasure Trove." I don't know what the new series will be named yet, but I've already started putting bits and pieces of it into place, and some of it's already been teased into Power Within Us. Despite saying never again...Treasure Trove and it's cast of characters will be back. Aside from that, I've got a science-fiction book that's already written and being edited.

For those who have asked for the series in audio books, I'm working on it. Watch this space or my FB/Instagram for updates on that front.

And...I'm working on a store. There's been a little icon for it (non-functional) up in the upper right of my main page for several years now, but it didn't seem like there was a good time. I'm also starting up a Patreon, which I wanted to do before. That was another project that just never seemed like there was a good time for it.

Sometimes when you write, you're not writing only for an audience; you're writing what you need to be paying attention to, yourself. I know I do! Half of my ideas come straight out of my dreams, and what doesn't come from that comes from someplace deep inside. Sometimes I write and when I read it back later, I'm stunned by the fact that it's not just a story in a book I'm writing; it's something my brain wants me to see and pay attention to. I'm time-challenged, and always have been, plus I have ADHD. I'm easily distractible, and one of my mom's jokes about my 'time challenges' was that some day, l'd probably be late to my own funeral. So big surprise that half the time what comes out of my brain is about time.

My big lesson and take-away (personally) from the Magic Abounds series is that there's no time like the present. Time slips through our fingers, fist-fulls at a time. Do the thing that will make you happy. Remember to call the people you love but don't always see. Don't forget to do nice things for yourself, particularly if it's your turn in the barrel, and things aren't where you would like them to be, or are facing challenges. And don't forget...don't let others write the best chapters of your life for you. Grab the pen out of their hand, and write yourself amazing. If they don't like it? That's their problem.

Life's short, my friends. There's no time like now.

The Power Within Us is available now on Amazon, in print and for Kindle.

'Steampunk Hourglass' courtesy of Adobe Firefly, 2024.

This year's New Years' Resolution was to do blog posts weekly. (sigh). You can see how THAT's went. It's been another case of "Life is what happens while we're making plans."

For those who have read the first two books of the “Magic Abounds” series, you’ll know that the main thing that I always put in them is the Egyptian saying on tombs all over Egypt:  “Say my Name, and I will yet live again.”  It’s true.  While most who read my books note the love my characters have for one another, and the fact that they’re basically all one great big family – the other overriding theme of my series -  surprisingly – is death.

If you’re from a western-style culture, death doesn’t get talked about until it has to be.  The topic makes people uncomfortable.  No one wants to think about the people they love leaving us.  No one wants to think about their own exit from stage “life.”   No one knows what to say to someone who grieves – particularly those who suffer incredibly traumatic losses.  My sister Missy was telling me about a client she spoke to recently who, due to varying reasons, lost thirteen family members in the space of nine months, including a sibling and both parents.  How do you comfort that kind of loss, when it feels like everything’s gone, and nothing remains in your own life but memories and ashes?  Our society isn’t equipped to deal with it.  We say things, but in truth, we scurry away for fear we’re next.

We celebrate births, and most folks celebrate the anniversary of another trip around the sun. Yet, we nearly all refuse to talk about death.  It’s one of our primal fears as human beings, that harkens back to a time when the darkness without a fire, along with hunting for our dinner could spell ‘not here anymore.’  They didn’t know what to call it.  Our ancient ancestors only knew ‘here today, maybe not here tomorrow.’   Where did the others go when they aren’t ‘here?’  That was one of the ways that anthropologists knew humanity was developing culture: they began having funerals and burying/honoring their dead. Then, even as now, some were more frightened of death and the dark than others.

Like taxes, death is one of the inescapable facts of life.  You’re born.  You live (hopefully you live a full life and do everything you’re here to do, and learn all the lessons you’re meant to, and you love everyone around you with unabashed passion and joy), and then you die.  You shuffle off the mortal coil and join your ancestors…and maybe haunt the people you love because you love them. (That’s what my family does, anyway.)

When I said that life gets in the way of the plans we make, whether it’s obvious by this point  or not, I’m including death in there too – after all, it IS a part of life.  Right after “The Magic Around Us” was released, my mother’s sister, my Aunt Mary, took ill unexpectedly and ended up in the ICU.  We thought she would die, and somehow, miraculously, she pulled through her health issues, went into rehab for two weeks, and then finally got to go home.  Happy dance!  The very next day after getting home?  She passed away, joining my mother, grandmother, and others from the long line of tenacious women I come from.

A week after my Aunt Mary's unexpected trip to the ICU, my mother-in-law Beth suddenly took ill (they found her unconscious on the floor, that's how suddenly) and she, too, ended up in an ICU at the same time as my Aunt Mary.  Different states, different hospitals, different situations that brought them there.  Like my Aunt Mary, Beth nearly died in the ICU, and somehow managed to pull through.  Like Aunt Mary, she made it to rehab, and was looking forward to going home.  Unlike Aunt Mary – Beth never got the happy dance of seeing her home again.  She was on a ventilator, and out of it half the time. That fateful day, she was awake. When she heard that they were going to put in a trach, and connect the ventilator to it – she had the strength of character and the deep love of her life the way it was to let the doctors, my husband, and my father-in-law know – emphatically NO.  She wanted life on her own terms, or not at all.   The doctors removed the breathing tubes and the ventilator, according to her wishes, made her comfortable so she wouldn’t be in pain, and we all sat around her bedside, playing music from Gordon Lightfoot (her favorite), talking about good memories we all had, trusting that she would continue to hear all of it.  She drifted away from us, surrounded by love, joining her own ancestors.

Death is easy.  It’s like a garment that you remove when you’re done with it, and then you move on.  Death is only hard for those who REMAIN. It points up all those uncomfortable questions that we’ve been facing since we hid in caves and next to bonfires to beat back the darkness and fear. What happens when we die?  Exactly where do we go?  Does life carry on in the ‘great somewhere’ or is it like the darkness of space, surrounded by nothingness?  Nobody knows, no matter what they say.

It's not just a ,mystery,. It's ,THE, great mystery of our all our lives.

The questions we have about death and what lies after are the prime reason any religion exists. Sure, they’re all about how we should live our lives while we’re here, but their main reason for existing in the first place has to do with ‘how we’ll spend our eternity’ after we aren’t here.  At some point, it all comes down to belief, regardless of what belief system we choose.  Any religion is meant to give us comfort and direction in the face of fear, and the unknown - and death is the biggest unknown any human being will ever face.   We are here.  We have our lives and live them: we can affect change.  However, when all's said and done, whether we’re rich and famous, or poor unknowns –  death is the equalizer.  No matter how rich or poor, as any number of songs say, none of us gets out of here alive.

All that to say this:

Nobody knows how long we have while we’re here.  Tomorrow isn’t a given. Don't forget that.

Did you wake up this morning?  Take a deep breath and give thanks to whomever you owe your thanks for the privilege of drawing breath another day.

Do you have people you love?  Hold them close and hug them whenever you can.  Tell them you love them often.  If you don't live with them, call them randomly out of the blue. You can’t tell them you love them too many times!  Get together with them as often as you can manage.  Don’t take time for granted.  Funerals and celebrations of life shouldn’t be family reunions.  All too often, they are.

Finally, Let's talk about You. Are there things you want to do?  To see?  To be?

Do them! Even if you think you’re not thin enough, good enough, pretty enough or have time enough. When, truly, will any of us ever be “enough?”  Enough for who??  What the f**k are we waiting for?  Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick....  When we get to the end of our days, and look back at the lives we’ve just exited, we’ll regret not doing some things.  Working isn’t one of them, but all those things we really wanted to do or be, but didn’t?  Yeah, we’ll regret those.  Head off the regret now.  Don’t save your living for later.

DO say the names of those who have left often.  Talk about them.  Tell their stories.  Remember them out loud, and with other people who love and miss them!  Love them, even if they’re not here.  We don’t or can’t really know for sure where they are but love is always the better path to take.

'Steampunk Stopwatch' Image elements courtesy of Adobe Firefly, 2024

We have a finite amount of time here, and it’s not governed by a clock.  It’s a stopwatch.  We don’t know who holds it, or what prompts them to hit the button that signals our exit.  The only thing we can do – the only thing we ever COULD do – is live.  Live out loud; extravagantly…exuberantly, with as much love and joy as we can muster.

As for my Aunt Mary, and my mother-in-law, Beth?  Tenacious, amazing women, both of them.  All hail the travelers.  Somewhere, they are both in the arms of those who came before and loved them, and those who are still here send them love to follow along behind.  Both are surrounded by love.