Return of the Living Dead... Jenny jennyg@compuserve.com Wed Mar 10 11:57:01 1999 Hi Everyone,*p*Okay. I'm alive. Sort of (though, as the thread title suggests, I occasionally have my doubts <g>).*p*This has been an amazingly long hiatus, and I apologize profusely. The last of the "five moves in fifteen months" did a number on me, I'm afraid. I won't bore you with a lengthy recital of my headaches. I'm NOT going to say, "I think life is calming down, now, and I should be able to post regularly". (Every time I say that, I seem to jinx myself!)*p*But I am now settled in West Linn, Oregon (near Portland), in a wonderful house that has flying squirrels. My library is fully unpacked and on the shelves, for the first time in two years. And I've explained to my husband that I love him dearly, but if he moves me again I'll consider it grounds for justifiable homicide. <g>*p*On a more positive note, I finally feel like I'm making some progress on the professional front. I did an article on recent developments in the study of historical witchcraft, for the Pomegranate (a wonderful, scholarly Pagan magazine). Their web-page is*p*http://www.interchg.ubc.ca/fmuntean/*p*and you can find a copy of my article there, on-line. (It's in the Lammas '98 issue). There's not much there that Old Timers from Summerlands will find surprising, but you still might enjoy it.*p*Well, it turns out to have been a water-shed article for me. Richard Smoley, the editor of Gnosis, enjoyed it and reprinted part in the Winter issue of Gnosis (still on the stands, I think). I just got a note from the publishers of SageWoman, and they'd like to re-print the part Gnosis didn't use (the main article, what appears on the Pom's page). Finally both the Covenant of the Goddess and Isaac Bonewits asked permission to reprint it on their web-pages. So I'm suddenly getting a lot of premium face-time!*p*I also did my first public speaking, at Pantheacon in San Francisco last month. (The talk was on the same subject, and I'm writing it up for another web-page.) *p*And the best news is, I finally have an agent. As anyone who's tried to publish a book knows, the industry has some nasty Catch 22's. Most big companies won't consider un-agented manuscripts; most agents won't consider unpublished authors. Well, a friend, Chas Clifton, managed to convince his agent to look over one of my manuscripts (on Gaelic Goddess-lore). And -- after a looong review process and a re-write -- she's decided to represent me. So I've got high hopes that I can sell this within the next year or so. This agent has done wonders for Chas!*p*So despite the fact that I'm nearly plucked myself bald the last few months, I have to admit that things are going well. *br*