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Aug. 23rd, 2011 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupagreenwolfSo...about that big book-related bit of news that I've been dropping hints about for a few weeks now...
You know how I've alluded to writing a new book? One on totemism? Well, this one's a bit different.
See, when I started to come back to writing early this year, as I felt the grip of grad school begin to loosen just a bit and I could breathe (metaphorically) again, I found myself wanting to try things I hadn't tried before. All the time I've been writing pagan-ish stuff, it's been for a more advanced audience, people who already had the basics of totemism and magic and nature spirituality down to some degree or another. Which I've had a lot of fun with; I still love to experiment, and am still trying out new things with the intent to share them with others down the line.
However, one of the things that my time in grad school, and my budding career as a counselor, has taught me is the value of being able to reach more people. Even back in 2008 when I first considered going to grad school, one of my main reasons was to be able to expand my cultural role as a shaman beyond just people who would deliberately go see some white chick calling herself "a shaman". I found a lot of value in being able to reach well beyond the neopagan community into the broader community around me.
And I also found that coming back to my writing, I wanted to do the same thing. I'm not writing about counseling, but I am attempting to make my writing accessible to a wider audience. I feel, as I always have, that I have something worth sharing, and why keep it to just a small, inner circle?
There's a certain level of unhealthy elitism in paganism that says that if you're buying beginner's books, it's just until you can get to the "real" stuff. And I admit I bought into that. I still think that writing beginner's books that all resemble each other is bogus, and it behooves authors and publishers to at least come up with something original with each new iteration of "here's the basics". And yes, I still rail against totem dictionaries.
So I'm writing a more generally accessible guide to animal totemism than my earlier works; the working title is Neopagan Totemism. No dictionary, and it will be structured so that someone who may never have encountered the concept of totemism may be able to use it. I'm planning a few prewritten exercises and rituals, not as "You must do this!", but as "Here, if you've never done this before, and you're not comfortable writing your own material just yet, give this a try". And while some of the concepts will be familiar to those of you who have read some of my other works, I am trying very, very hard to not just make it a rehash. Since it's still going to be based in my own work and experience, it's inevitable that I have to cover some of the same ground to give context, but writing the same book all over again is just defeating my purpose of trying to write something new.
This will be a challenge for me, to be honest. I can write things for people who are experienced, but I actually have trouble trying to just write the basics. I was advanced enough when I first started writing that I had long stopped thinking about the basics instead simply taking them for granted, and trying to explain them to someone with little to no previous understanding? Way tougher than I thought.
One final kicker--it's not going to be through Immanion/Megalithica. They're awesome, I still love them, and I still want them to publish my works for my more specialized audiences (and yes, they're publishing Engaging the Spirit World, which I hope will be out sometime next year). Instead, for this book, I have a one-book contract with Llewellyn, who has an excellent platform for the generalized audience I'm trying to reach with Neopagan Totemism. Long before I decided to contract with them, I had a long email exchange with Elysia Gallo, one of their acquisitions editors, and I talked to some authors who have published with them, including some who have published with other companies including Immanion/Megalithica. In all the good conversations I had, I decided that this was a great publishing option for my newest endeavor.
So my manuscript's due to be turned in the middle of October. There are a whole bunch of other things that will need to happen after that point; Llewellyn's process in a lot of ways differs from Immanion/Megalithica's, but I made it clear that I want to be as much of the process as I can; I'm used to being involved in a small press where I wrote books, I edited other people's manuscripts, and I did layout and promotion for everybody's stuff, mine and everyone else's. So I can hardly just take a hands-off approach even if I'm only the author this time around!
Will I make my goal of writing a beginner's guide to totemism that doesn't suck? That remains to be seen, since the manuscript isn't even finished yet, and I'm not even entirely sure what it'll look like when I'm done with it done. But the proof will be in the readership, and how well people understand and utilize the material. I'll be especially curious to see what those of you who have read my other books think, and I'm looking forward to the feedback.
So, yeah. That's the big news in book-writing I've been dropping hints about for a while. Those of you who have not collapsed from heart attacks are welcome to ask any questions, and I will answer to the best of my ability (As with any of my writing projects, encouragement and cookies are also appreciated :D )
You know how I've alluded to writing a new book? One on totemism? Well, this one's a bit different.
See, when I started to come back to writing early this year, as I felt the grip of grad school begin to loosen just a bit and I could breathe (metaphorically) again, I found myself wanting to try things I hadn't tried before. All the time I've been writing pagan-ish stuff, it's been for a more advanced audience, people who already had the basics of totemism and magic and nature spirituality down to some degree or another. Which I've had a lot of fun with; I still love to experiment, and am still trying out new things with the intent to share them with others down the line.
However, one of the things that my time in grad school, and my budding career as a counselor, has taught me is the value of being able to reach more people. Even back in 2008 when I first considered going to grad school, one of my main reasons was to be able to expand my cultural role as a shaman beyond just people who would deliberately go see some white chick calling herself "a shaman". I found a lot of value in being able to reach well beyond the neopagan community into the broader community around me.
And I also found that coming back to my writing, I wanted to do the same thing. I'm not writing about counseling, but I am attempting to make my writing accessible to a wider audience. I feel, as I always have, that I have something worth sharing, and why keep it to just a small, inner circle?
There's a certain level of unhealthy elitism in paganism that says that if you're buying beginner's books, it's just until you can get to the "real" stuff. And I admit I bought into that. I still think that writing beginner's books that all resemble each other is bogus, and it behooves authors and publishers to at least come up with something original with each new iteration of "here's the basics". And yes, I still rail against totem dictionaries.
So I'm writing a more generally accessible guide to animal totemism than my earlier works; the working title is Neopagan Totemism. No dictionary, and it will be structured so that someone who may never have encountered the concept of totemism may be able to use it. I'm planning a few prewritten exercises and rituals, not as "You must do this!", but as "Here, if you've never done this before, and you're not comfortable writing your own material just yet, give this a try". And while some of the concepts will be familiar to those of you who have read some of my other works, I am trying very, very hard to not just make it a rehash. Since it's still going to be based in my own work and experience, it's inevitable that I have to cover some of the same ground to give context, but writing the same book all over again is just defeating my purpose of trying to write something new.
This will be a challenge for me, to be honest. I can write things for people who are experienced, but I actually have trouble trying to just write the basics. I was advanced enough when I first started writing that I had long stopped thinking about the basics instead simply taking them for granted, and trying to explain them to someone with little to no previous understanding? Way tougher than I thought.
One final kicker--it's not going to be through Immanion/Megalithica. They're awesome, I still love them, and I still want them to publish my works for my more specialized audiences (and yes, they're publishing Engaging the Spirit World, which I hope will be out sometime next year). Instead, for this book, I have a one-book contract with Llewellyn, who has an excellent platform for the generalized audience I'm trying to reach with Neopagan Totemism. Long before I decided to contract with them, I had a long email exchange with Elysia Gallo, one of their acquisitions editors, and I talked to some authors who have published with them, including some who have published with other companies including Immanion/Megalithica. In all the good conversations I had, I decided that this was a great publishing option for my newest endeavor.
So my manuscript's due to be turned in the middle of October. There are a whole bunch of other things that will need to happen after that point; Llewellyn's process in a lot of ways differs from Immanion/Megalithica's, but I made it clear that I want to be as much of the process as I can; I'm used to being involved in a small press where I wrote books, I edited other people's manuscripts, and I did layout and promotion for everybody's stuff, mine and everyone else's. So I can hardly just take a hands-off approach even if I'm only the author this time around!
Will I make my goal of writing a beginner's guide to totemism that doesn't suck? That remains to be seen, since the manuscript isn't even finished yet, and I'm not even entirely sure what it'll look like when I'm done with it done. But the proof will be in the readership, and how well people understand and utilize the material. I'll be especially curious to see what those of you who have read my other books think, and I'm looking forward to the feedback.
So, yeah. That's the big news in book-writing I've been dropping hints about for a while. Those of you who have not collapsed from heart attacks are welcome to ask any questions, and I will answer to the best of my ability (As with any of my writing projects, encouragement and cookies are also appreciated :D )
no subject
on 2011-08-23 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-08-23 04:37 pm (UTC)This might be too much work or be too distracting from the book's point, but including various cultural and historical examples of totemism, animal magic, what-have-you would be interesting. It may also be reassuring for those outside of the white, teenage Wicca-like stereotypes that Llewellyn seems to focus on. Having a history lends weight to the concepts for some people.
Maybe you could throw in the "Animals as gods" idea too, like what you mentioned in your blog. Not just Egyptian, but even Celtic deities (before becoming humanized via Interpretatio Romana) were also shapeshifting beings that took on animal forms quite often. Or as "contemporary" gods, where instead of working with deities like many Neopagans do, they work with totems instead as the divine force in their lives.
I'm not trying to be presumptuous by the way, these are just what popped in my head while reading the post.
no subject
on 2011-08-23 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-08-23 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-08-23 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-08-23 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-08-23 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-08-23 10:39 pm (UTC)Just an idea, but perhaps in place of the usual dictionary, some sort of worksheet that can be filled out with information about an animal to help the reader come to their own conclusions about the lessons a Totem has to offer? "What does XXXX mean?" seems to be the most common question for beginning totemists.
no subject
on 2011-08-23 11:45 pm (UTC)And yes, I still rail against totem dictionaries.
I was going to write something about this here, since I've recently come to change my mind re: totem dictionaries, but I think I'll write an article instead.
no subject
on 2011-08-24 06:33 am (UTC)