Attack of the Killer Blogosphere

Some are born bloggers, some achieve blogdom, and some have blogging forced upon them….

Kicking and screaming, or at least meeping and moaning, I have allowed

lwood

 to drag me into the great wide blogosphere. Wish me luck, everyone.

So as I understand it, this is the place to let friends know what’s going on in one’s life, which might save time checking in at future meetings, since almost everyone I know seems to be on LJ.

My editor at Viking (the good one, not the one who tried to rewrite my last book there and take out all the magical scenes) finally sent her revision requests for Ravens of Avalon just before Christmas (hahahahaha). What with one thing and another (for much of which, many of you were present), I finally got at it last week. Fortunately, her suggestions are along the lines of filling in information that got lost when I cut the MS to fit the 140,000 word length limit, improving continuity, catching logic gaps, and the like. This is the kind of editing an author needs, and appreciates if she is wise.

So I’m happy about that, and I would have it done by now, except that the friend I’ve been helping out over the past year is now in the hospital, and is not expected to live. I won’t go into details, but given the situation, this is not a bad thing– she has brain cancer, and until about two weeks ago, was not in pain, although she was growing steadily weaker. But she could not have continued to live in her apartment anyway, and didn’t want to live if that became the case.

It has been an interesting relationship. I’ve been doing her shopping and taking her to doctors’ appointments a couple of times a week, and generally serving as her external hard drive. I wrote a lot of RAVENS while sitting at the Cancer Center waiting for a treatment to start or end. Losing her will leave a hole in my life, but it will also relieve me of a heavy responsibility (well, except for dealing with her cat and her possessions). Now my job is to help her to let go, and go….a shift from support system to priestess.

Fortunately, she left directions on what she wanted done. It occurs to me to suggest that all of us who are involved in what we tactfully describe to our straight relatives as “alternative” religions should do the same. Whether or not the dead actually care, it is a great favor to the living, who are often too upset or confused by the event to think straight, and appreciate directions. A “magical will” should include directions for disposal of the body (burial or cremation? where? how?), memorial service (who conducts it, what readings, songs, etc.), and what you want done with all your ritual jewelry and magical tchotchkes (I could probably supply the entire Troth clergy program with amber). I’m going to suggest that the Fellowship of the Spiral Path post a form for this on our website and offer to keep them on file so your heir doesn’t have to figure out where you stashed the document. Maybe I can get something of the sort into Our Troth II as well.

Now all I have to do is put my money where my mouth is and write up my own…