Coffee Quote of the Month–November 2009

No coffee can be good in the mouth that does not first send a sweet offering of odor to the nostrils.    -- Henry Ward Beecher

Soul Cakes

In many European countries, the idea of “Souling” became an acceptable alternative to pagan Samhain rituals for Christians.  Souling was a visiting custom carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. The soulers visited houses, sang a song and collected money, food, drink.

A common ‘treat’ for soulers were Soul Cakes. Traditionally a gift for the spirits of the dead, they became a tithe paid to soulers who then pledged to pray for the souls of those who had passed to the Otherworld.

The cakes took many different names and shapes – from simple shortbread to fruit-filled tarts. Generally, a soul cake was made with whatever grain the community had available.

Soul Cakes

You’ll need:

Two sticks butter, softened

3 1/2 C flour, sifted

1 C sugar

1/2 tsp. nutmeg & saffron

1 tsp each cinnamon & allspice

2 eggs

2 tsp malt vinegar

Powdered sugar

Cut the butter into the flour with a large fork. Mix in the sugar, nutmeg, saffron, cinammon and allspice. Lightly beat eggs, and add to flour mixture. Add malt vinegar. Mix until you have a stiff dough. Knead for a while, then roll out until 1/4″ thick. Use a floured glass to cut out 3″ circles. Place on greased baking sheet and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while the cakes are still warm.

 

Origins of All Hallows Eve

Samhain (Scots Gaelic: Samhuinn) literally means “summer’s end.” In Scotland and Ireland, Halloween is known as Oíche Shamhna, while in Wales it is Nos Calan Gaeaf, the eve of the winter’s calendar.

The origin of Halloween lies in the ancient Celtic religious celebration of Samhain (summer’s end). One of the two greatest Druidic festivals (Beltane is the other), Samhain marked the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half.

As with other holidays of the Celtic year, October 31 marked a mystical time when the usual barriers between our world and the Otherworld thinned and stretched allowing contact between human beings and the fairy folk and/or the spirits of the dead.        

Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry of celebrations from Oct 31st through November 5^th, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery.

With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints’ Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, or Hollantide. November 2^nd became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all who the departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven.

Samhain is the Celtic new year celebration. Beginning on the evening of October 31 (the Celts counted their days from sunset to sunset, just as the bible does), the festival would last three days (perhaps longer).

In the country year, Samhain marked the first day of winter, when the herders led the cattle and sheep down from their summer hillside pastures to the shelter of stable and byre. The hay that would feed them during the winter must be stored in sturdy thatched ricks, tied down securely against storms.

 Those destined for the table were slaughtered, after being ritually devoted to the gods in pagan times. All the harvest must be gathered in — barley, oats, wheat, turnips, and apples — for come November, the faeries would blast every growing plant with their breath, blighting any nuts and berries remaining on the hedgerows.

Peat and wood for winter fires were stacked high by the hearth. It was a joyous time of family reunion, when all members of the household worked together baking, salting meat, and making preserves for the winter feasts to come. The endless horizons of summer gave way to a warm, dim and often smoky room; the symphony of summer sounds was replaced by a counterpoint of voices, young and old, human and animal.

Fire is a central element in all the Druidic celebrations. All hearth fires were put out and new fires lit from the great bonfires. In Scotland, men lit torches in the bonfires and circled their homes and lands with them to obtain protection for the coming year.

In early Ireland, people gathered at the ritual centers of the tribes, for Samhain was the principal calendar feast of the year. The greatest assembly was the ‘Feast of Tara,’ focusing on the royal seat of the High King as the heart of the sacred land, the point of conception for the new year. In every household throughout the country, hearth-fires were extinguished. All waited for the Druids to light the new fire of the year — not at Tara, but at Tlachtga, a hill twelve miles to the north-west. It marked the burial-place of Tlachtga, daughter of the great druid Mogh Ruith, who may once have been a goddess in her own right in a former age. 

At all the turning points of the Celtic year, the gods drew near to Earth at Samhain, so many sacrifices and gifts were offered up in thanksgiving for the harvest. Personal prayers in the form of objects symbolizing the wishes of supplicants or ailments to be healed were cast into the fire, and at the end of the ceremonies, brands were lit from the great fire of Tara to re-kindle all the home fires of the tribe, as at Beltane. As they received the flame that marked this time of beginnings, people surely felt a sense of the kindling of new dreams, projects and hopes for the year to come. 

The Samhain fires continued to blaze down the centuries.  In the 1860s the Halloween bonfires were still so popular in Scotland that one traveler reported seeing thirty fires lighting up the hillsides all on one night, each surrounded by rings of dancing figures, a practice which continued up to the first World War. Young people and servants lit brands from the fire and ran around the fields and hedges of house and farm, while community leaders surrounded parish boundaries with a magic circle of light. Afterwards, ashes from the fires were sprinkled over the fields to protect them during the winter months — and of course, they also improved the soil. The bonfire provided an island of light within the oncoming tide of winter darkness, keeping away cold, discomfort, and evil spirits long before electricity illumined our nights. When the last flame sank down, it was time to run as fast as you could for home, raising the cry, “The black sow without a tail take the hindmost!”

Even today, bonfires light up the skies in many parts of the British Isles and Ireland at this season, although in many areas of Britain their significance has been co-opted by Guy Fawkes Day, which falls on November 5th, and commemorates an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in the 17th century. In one Devonshire village, the extraordinary sight of both men and women running through the streets with blazing tar barrels on their backs can still be seen! Whatever the reason, there will probably always be a human need to make fires against the winter’s dark.

Samhain was also a significant time for divination, perhaps even more so than May or Midsummer’s Eve, because this was the chief of the three Spirit Nights. Divination customs and games frequently featured apples and nuts from the recent harvest, and candles played an important part in adding atmosphere to the mysteries. In Scotland, a child born at Samhain was said to be gifted with an dà shealladh, “The Two Sights” commonly known as “second sight,” or clairvoyance. 

At the heart of the Celtic Otherworld grows an apple tree whose fruit has magical properties. Old sagas tell of heroes crossing the western sea to find this wondrous country, known in Ireland as Emhain Abhlach, (Evan Avlach) and in Britain, Avalon. At Samhain, the apple harvest is in, and old hearthside games, such as apple-bobbing, called apple-dookin’ in Scotland, reflect the journey across water to obtain the magic apple.

Later, Christian elements came into play, as All Hallows’ Day (all Saints’ Day) and All Souls’ Day contributed their own unique traditions to the core, such as trick or treating (collecting “soul cakes” on All Souls’ Day) and dressing up in frightening costumes as protection against evil spirits. It bears noting that at no time, either in the druid religion nor in the Christian, was Halloween connected with the devil or devil worship.

(from Holiday Traditions by Mara Freeman, www.celticcallings.com)

Coffee Quote of the Month–October 2009

No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee’s frothy goodness. 

~Sheik Abd-al-Kadir

Coffee Quote of the Month–September 2009

Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis – a good hot cup of coffee.  –Alexander King

Coffee Quote of the Month–August 2009

“After all, coffee is bitter, a flavor from the forbidden and dangerous realm.”  — Diane Ackerman

Coffee Quote of the Month–July 2009

“It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write. ”

 

~Ernest Hemingway

 

(…Amen!)

The Right Words at the Right Time

I recently had several of those incredible moments where someone I admire or respect says just exactly what I needed to hear–even though I had no idea I needed to hear it. 

Giving credit where credit is due, I’d like to share those wise words. Perhaps they will speak to you in some significant way.

I happened to be at a writer’s conference last month, just a few days after receiving a representation agreement from my agent, Jennifer Schober (Spencerhill Associates).

The key note speaker was the award winning and much acclaimed writer Jess Walter.  His speech was inspirational on so many levels that I could only begin to do it justice if I could publish the entire text, and even then it would be a poor substitute for those words on that day. But, one single phrase was burned into my psyche, inscribed on my writer’s soul so that I will never forget:

Tell yourself your own writer’s story and celebrate each and every success along the way.

Well, maybe not an exact quote, but the heart of it is there. In that instant I understood the great importance of standing in a single moment and however briefly, celebrating its glory before it had passed. It never comes again–finishing that  first full draft, pitching to that first agent, saying the words “I am a writer” and owning them for the first time, and yes, signing that representation agreement.

Wow.  Thank you Jess, for saving me before I let that one slip by without the rousing ‘huzzah’ it deserved–even if it was only in the privacy of my own mind.

Months before that, I had the privilege of talking with literary agent Karen Solem (Spencerhill Associates) about my writing.  It was an incredibly valuable discussion which ultimately led me to where I am now.  Many things were said in that discussion, but one comment in particular helped me to understand my own creative process more clearly than ever:

Creativity happens in the subconscious 

Wonderfully simple and succinct. Even out of context it is profound.  That comment was actually part of a bigger piece of advice she gave me on how to approach some major revisions. I understood the new objective but had no idea how I was going to achieve it. Her advice to me was to relax and let it go, and to trust that the answer would come–probably while I was taking a shower or walking in the park. She was right, and I will never fear writer’s block again. 

The last little nugget of wisdom I will share is something best-selling author Jayne Ann Krentz said during a presentation she gave earlier this year at a bookstore event. This was her answer to a question, posed by someone in the audience, who asked her where she got her story ideas:

Writers see a story in everything  

The gospel, I say. That sums it up, at least for me. And if I hadn’t known before that instant, really known it beyone a doubt, I knew it then. I’m a writer!

Coffee Quote of the Month — June 2009

It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.

–Dave Barry

One Author’s Journey–Finding an Agent

Last October I placed my manuscript, and my hopes and dreams,  into the hands of an interested agent. Three weeks passed.  And then two more.  Much consuming of chocolate, coffee, and a particularly fine Shiraz commenced. Followed by nail-biting and erratic mood swings. Thanksgiving came and went. And then, finally–a response.

It was not the response I had hoped for, nor was it the response I had feared. Instead, it was something different–and, ultimately, better. Better because, after all, it’s all about writing the best book I can write.

Not rejection, and not acceptance, but rather re-direction and an invitation to re-submit. An invitation I eagerly accepted. Armed with suggestions and insights, I got to work.

Now mind you, these were not minor revisions. Edit out most of the first 100 pages. Re-focus, re-work, refine. Re-construct a three book concept into one book with a sequel (in consideration of current economic conditions). Heighten the tension, pick up the pace, develop an even MORE larger than life protagonist.

Whew. Three months later (two months longer than the one month turnaround I had originally promised), I had a new and much improved draft. And once again, I sent my precious off.

Now, even though I knew it would take time, a month at least, for the agent to get to my submission, I opened my email inbox every morning to a chorus of heart palpitations.  Three weeks a response appeared…love your book, when can we talk.

Swoon. THUD.

It took another two weeks to work out the schedule details–illness, travel, et al. but almost six months to the day after I first clicked ’send’, I became an agented writer.  Two weeks ago, today. 

In those two weeks since the representation agreement was signed, sealed and delivered, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the years it took for me to get here. Every author’s journey to publication is unique, and my path has certainly taken twists and turns. I’ve even driven right off the road a few times. And, there are still miles to go.

I recently heard best-selling author Bob Dugoni a writer’s association meeting last week talking about the three Ps of success: Persistence, Perseverance, and Patience.

I agree–it takes all three of those virtues. And one more thing. A deep, soul searing desire. How bad do you want it?

The answer had better be something pretty close to ‘more than air’.