I’m having a wonderful time at the Australian Fairy Tale Society Conference, listening to wonderful presenters including amazing author Kate Forsyth and wonderful glass artist Spike Deane. I even survived speaking about The Swan Maiden, and was so touched by the lovely response. I made a little presentation about the faery tale elements in a lot of
Yule : Winter Solstice : Rebirth The winter solstice falls around June 21 or 22 in the southern hemisphere – this year it is on June 21 – and around December 21 or 22 in the northern hemisphere – you can check the timing for you here. It’s the longest night and the shortest day
Litha : Summer Solstice : Fruition The summer solstice falls around June 20 or 21 in the northern hemisphere – this month it occurs on June 20 – and December 21 - 22 in the southern hemisphere. (Check your times here...) It’s the longest day and the shortest night of the year, with the sun
What Is Your Favourite Faery Tale? We will be discussing that and a whole lot more at the Australian Fairy Tale Society Conference, which starts this Friday night, June 5, and runs for three days – and for the first time it will be online, so people from anywhere in the world can attend! Although
Book-A-Week – May books read May was a month for extraordinary books. Blackbirds Sing by Aiki Flinthart and Phosphorescence by Julia Baird are two of my favourites this year, but the rest were awesome too! I loved the novelisation of The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson (26 of 52). I listened to the audiobook (narrated by
Bookings are now open for the 2020 virtual conference of the Australian Fairy Tale Society! This year’s theme is Magic Mirrors: the Seen and the Unseen. Schedule for the conference at the bottom of this post. This will be a conference unlike any other because we will be able to have people from all over Australia
I’m honoured (and, to be honest, a little shocked) to have been nominated for the AFTS Award for Inspiration and Contribution to Australian Fairy Tale Culture for my new book The Swan Maiden, alongside amazing artist Lorena Carrington and my all-time favourite author Juliet Marillier. Lorena exhibits her gorgeous artwork, created the lovely book Wiser Than Evening, and
Samhain : First Day of Winter : Death Samhain, the festival of the ancestors and the dead that marks the beginning of winter, falls in early May in the southern hemisphere and early November in the northern hemisphere – and on October 31 in popular culture, where it is celebrated as Halloween. This year in
Beltane : First Day of Summer : Growth Beltane, the festival of love and fertility that marks the end of spring and the start of the heat and energy of summer, falls in early November in the southern hemisphere, and early May in the northern hemisphere. In 2020 it falls on May 4 or May 5 in the
Book-A-Week – April books read April was a strange month for everyone. Like many I’ve been struggling a little to write, and for a while I was having trouble focusing on books too. But when social media got too much, I retreated to my book shelves, and devoured a bunch of books – so many
I can’t even remember how I stumbled across English author Menna van Praag’s first novel, The House At the End of Hope Street, but I bought it in hardback not long after its release in 2013, and really loved it. Since then I’ve read her other four magical realism novels as soon as they came
The online launch of The Swan Maiden is on now! You can buy the ebook and paperback from Amazon here. You can buy the ebook from other retailers here. Or you can buy the book from me and I will sign it and post it out to you, complete with a pretty bookmark, and a free
Book-A-Week – March books read As I get ready for the online launch of The Swan Maiden on April 1, it’s no surprise that my March was filled with faery tales, and faery tale-inspired books. Although first I had to read and re-read my book a few times (11 of 52), ha ha! Then I
Lucy Cavendish is a writer and a witch and an oracle reader and creator, and a surfer and a nature lover. We first met in the nineties in magazine circles, as we’ve both been journalists and editors, but we reconnected in 2002 when I interviewed her about her gorgeous Oracle Tarot deck. Since then we’ve
You’re invited to a Faery Tale Launch Party – online of course, in these strange new socially distanced times. It’s all happening HERE – bookmark the link, or click Going to get notifications. K. A. Last is launching Chasing Neve, her Snow White reimagining, and I’m launching my original Australian faery tale The Swan Maiden.
The Selkie A faery tale within the faery tale... From The Swan Maiden: An Australian Faery Tale Once upon a time, there were seven beautiful seal sisters. They loved each other dearly, and lived a happy, peaceful life. They loved swimming in the crystal clear ocean together, playing in the swell with passing dolphins, heading
Countdown to The Swan Maiden Launch... Selina Fenech is an amazing artist – her stunning paintings grace the covers of the Into the Mists and Into the Storm Trilogies – and also an incredible writer. She’s the author of the beautiful fantasy series Memory’s Wake, and the intriguing Empath Chronicles, and is currently working on
I’m about to launch a new book! The Swan Maiden is an original Australian faery tale, inspired by the beautiful black swans in my local park, who I’ve so loved watching as they raise their adorable cygnets each year. It’s my first post-Mists fiction, and after six epically-long books in that series, it’s a little scary to
Mabon : Autumn Equinox : Harvest The autumn equinox falls around March 20 or 21 in the southern hemisphere – in 2020 it falls on March 20 in Australia and New Zealand – and September 22 or 23 in the northern hemisphere – in 2020 it will fall on September 22. It’s characterised by the
Ostara : Spring Equinox : Blossoming The spring equinox is celebrated around March 20 in the northern hemisphere – in 2020 it falls on March 19 for most of the US and Canada, and March 20 for Europe – and around September 22 in the southern hemisphere (in 2020 it will fall on September 22
