Spring Writing Update

Well, at least it’s officially spring in a couple of days. Looking out the window here in the Twin Cities it still looks like winter, with snow falling and the temperature in the 20’s. We got spoiled by last year’s early spring, though hopefully that more normal spring weather means that we won’t see a crippling midsummer heat wave this year.

The contract for book two of the Enochian series, Mastering the Great Table is signed and off to my publisher and I anticipate starting in on the editing process soon. This book will cover the angels of the four Watchtowers, and unlike Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy explores an area of the Enochian system that has been extensively worked with by many different magical orders and systems. It includes some of the most recognizable components of the Enochian magical system such as the Angelic Keys and Enochian Tablets. Like my previous book, though, it will examine these more familiar components from a perspective more in line with Renaissance grimoire magick than the synthetic approaches taken by magical orders such as the Golden Dawn. So far I’ve heard nothing back on my manuscript for Ipswich, a loose sequel to Arcana. As my novel is not selling nearly as well as Heptarchy, though, I can see where it makes sense that my publisher is giving priority to the next book in the Enochian series. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I hear anything about it.

A few months ago I submitted an article on EMF and evocation to a proposed anthology from Immanion Press. Unfortunately, that anthology was cancelled due to lack of submissions. I got some better news over the weekend, that the article I submitted for a forthcoming anthology on the Holy Guardian Angel from Nephilim Press has been accepted. This anthology is still being assembled and I don’t yet have a publication date or any other information, but again I will keep you posted on it and promote it here and on Augoeides as soon as it becomes available.

To wrap up, here’s an article from Salon explaining why we writers really do need to keep our day jobs. The author’s book made the Amazon bestseller list for a couple of weeks and made him a total of $12,000. That’s not precisely nothing – for an occult title I would be ecstatic to make that much – but it’s nowhere near enough to live on. People sometimes assume that a bestselling book makes an author millions of dollars, but this is most emphatically not the case. On top of that, most of us don’t wind up writing bestsellers. The author comments that up until his bestselling novel his highest royalty payment was $153. That puts me in pretty good company – my highest so far wasn’t quite that much, but it was close. The point is, those of us who write do so because we like to write, not because it’s going to make us rich. This is especially true of esoteric titles, for which the market is much more limited.