Pre-order Rabbit's Song today! 

Safely in Redmond, WA from Burning Man today.  Trudy's and my publisher has posted the pre-order page for our upcoming picture book, Rabbit's Song, based on the song of the same name (on Blessings) written by Mama Dragon and me.  Pre-order your copy now, and Mama Dragon and I will read you a story...no, really!  All pre-orders from now through the book's release will receive your choice of the song which inspired the book or an mp3 of the two of us reading a story!  This is an exclusive freebie, only for the folks who pre-order the book.  Trudy and I will record the story mp3 at the end of this month, when I get back to Memphis, and then deliver it up to our publisher to send out to our pre-order customers.  Wanna be on that list?  Go buy our gorgeous little book!




It really is cute.  Our illustrator put a LOT of imagination into this.  I really am excited!

When one of my famous author friends asks me if I'd like to come to an event she's holding at a wolf sanctuary, essentially to sing alone and with the wolves themselves, I say yes. This occurred back in June of this year, and it was truly magical.
(Thanks again, Laurell.)

The Wild Canid Survival and Research Center near Eureka, MO is an amazing place, though the chiggers are fierce. It's also just a couple of exits down from my favorite place to get BBQ on earth, though the center is relocating to a larger facility soon. I spent an afternoon and an evening there on the summer solstice this year, watching wolves walk and hearing them howl.

I saw one of my dreams living, breathing, eating, and walking there. So it is, in effect, a place where dreams come true.

Back-tracking a little bit. Last summer, June 2007. I am getting my album Blessings printed, touring as usual, on a really funky sleep schedule, driving back and forth from the CD replication office in Memphis TN to my friend Flame's house in Jackson TN. My love and I spend an afternoon sacked out in her guest room, during which I had one of Those dreams. The kind which you suspect is actually a visit, rather than a dream. I will have one of these once a year or so, at least. I dream vividly on a regular basis, but the clarity varies. Often, when crystal-clear dreams which seem more like visits come along, I dream of animals or animal spirits. That day, I dreamt of a trio of giant foxes who walked on deer legs. Their ears were massive, and their eyes glowed in the dark forest, seemingly with a light internal, not external. I was terrified of attracting their attention, but I already had.

They LOOKED at me with a gaze so piercing and true, it gave me the willies right into near-consciousness.
Half asleep, I wouldn't get out of bed to go and pee, because I knew, if I opened the bedroom door, they would be there, and they would LOOK at me.

This was a big deal. Lots of fox medicine was coming my way last spring and summer, and I still may not have it figured out. I was seeing foxes everywhere, where I had never seen them before. My mother's driveway, for instance. Having a staring contest with me. Also, I kept receiving gifts of fox jewelry, fox toys--and yes, my beanie baby fox practice poi, which many of you have seen.

Like many other spirit animal guides I've had come into my life, I wasn't sure what to make of fox. And now this crazy dream.

By the end of June, I was comfortable with all the foxiness going on (not least because my oft-mentioned fiddle player Alec and I had had a good conversation about animal spirit guides while hanging out at an event in Ohio--I reassured him about having guides outside the typical totem norm, and he reassured me about the fox business), and I thought I had an idea what they were trying to tell me. I filed the information away, happy to have been pleasantly surprised by a new awareness of fox as a messenger and a teacher.

Fast forward again, to my visit to the wolf sanctuary. Just about exactly one year from my dream of the giant foxes.
That afternoon, I and three friends were given a tour of the sanctuary by staff member Pam, who's just the queen of cool (she let me set up my sound gear after taking us around to visit all the canids, and I had thought I wouldn't be able to do that until after 6pm that night). She brought us to visit swift foxes (too swift for photos, but I did get to see them for a split second), Mexican gray wolves (they howl in baritone, did you know?), red wolves (the only wolf native to my own home territory, and seriously endangered--they didn't come out to see us), African wild dogs (litter mates who we couldn't see at all in the grass until they lifted their lazy heads)...and maned wolves. Which are not true wolves. Nor are they foxes. They are a single genus in a single species, native to South America.

They look exactly like giant foxes on deer legs.

I did not come undone right there in the sanctuary, but I could have.
It was a very strong epiphany that hit me, as I watched a female maned wolf walk slowly through her large enclosure, her massive ears turning, her beautiful black legs moving in deliberate dance steps--they walk with both legs on one side in tandem, not opposite. She was gorgeous, and she was straight out of my dream a year ago, the memory of which hit me in a rush.

My photos from that day are disappointing, as I was still depending on my old camera (no zoom whatsoever), and every shot had to be taken through two layers of fence--these were to keep us out, not to keep the wolves in. Most of what I have are 'find the wolf' shots, and you had to have been there with me in order to be able to spot them in my pictures at all. Other photographers have had better luck, and so if you do a Google image search for Maned Wolf, you get decent results.

I haven't been able to track down much folklore and such about maned wolves, though I haven't given up. They are endangered, nocturnal, and a bit hard to document, apparently. I have found one creepy tidbit--the one about people keeping their eyes as good luck charms--especially in light of how their eyes affected me in my dream. If any of you find anything further on maned wolves and folklore, please share it with me. Maned wolves are very special to me now, needless to say, though it's hard to devote time to solving the mystery of what I should learn from them when I can't find much for research.

Perhaps I'll go to South America some day, and seek out clues in person.

Photos By Ryan Nutick. 
This is partly paraphrased from another post and partly straight from the gut.  Tricky Pixie fans, read on.


Our fiddler and friend Alec and his wife Kore are about to lose their beloved and inspiring 30 acre farm. They are facing the F-word: Foreclosure. They have this month (August) to cough up enough money to keep the land and to protect it.

Alec and Kore's Farm, Fae Hollow, is one of the most amazing places we as a band have ever been. I can't imagine it belonging to anyone other than these two very special friends and colleagues of ours. Tricky Pixie is committed to keeping Fae Hollow in the family.

Their home and land are not the only things on the line, here. We're also talking about emu (emus?), horses, cats, chickies, llamas, and a peacock, not to mention the finest, noblest, best Jack Russell Terrier ever (that precious puppy on the cover of Alec's new album, A Familiar Promise, is Taiko, Chief Executive Pup).

That being the case, this is a really good time to buy any of Alec's or Heather Alexander's merchandise - in addition to the CDs, there's now a songbook of Heather's stuff. Tricky Pixie can certainly vouch for the top quality of the body of work that Alec and Heather share.
Additionally, Alec is working on other projects to bring in funds - threatening an "Adopt a Faery" program, among other things. Check the below websites for information:
Faerie Tale Minstrel
The Heatherlands

Please pass the word on to those you think might want to know, and buy Heather or Alec CDs, and look for a new album, as well as other clever fundraising ideas.

In honor of World Hoop Day, 8/8/08:

in the first few minutes of sitting still,
after figuring out how to use a hula hoop again
for the first time in roughly twenty years,
one doesn't really sit still.

the world is still moving, and this is not so strange. 
everything dances to the left and back around,
pulsing, but not really. 

                the sense of the world,

Beltana of SONA, Bellawyck, and Wolvenwold has fallen seriously ill and could use your assistance. She has contracted Guillain Barre Syndrome which is an illness that attacks the central nervous system. Beltana's prognosis is good but it will likely be quite some time before she is well. We, her friends and family, have this opportunity to band together and show her just how much we honor her committment and all that she has given to our community over the years. This is the time to show our support. Anything that you could spare would be of tremendous value in ensuring that Beltana's family has what they need during this difficult time. Remember the circle is always completed in time... the love you show will be with us all, always. :) Click Here so that you can show your love... all funds will be deposited directly into Beltana's PayPal acount.



There's no better network for feeling like a close-knit family, in spite of its vast range and thousands of members, than the Pagan community. Time and time again, wherever I go, I see those who walk the path aiding each other and receiving aid from friends they may only have known for an hour or two in real time. The fact is that the strong connections we make with each other at festivals, at workshops, in ritual, and, if we're lucky, in class or at work do not fade when a dire need arises, when loved ones are lost, when the cat needs feeding, etc. I have countless friends that I've made on the road, at a festival or around a sacred fire, who I trust with my life, who I know would drop everything to come to my aid if I needed help--whether or not I thought to ask for it. One of those friends is Bernadette Holzer, also known as Beltana, the lovely voice of SoNa and one of the siren-singers in the new vocal group BellaWyck.

I've known Bel since I was twenty-two, and I'm a better person for having such an amazing Valkyrie Faery sister. I met her at my first-ever Pagan event, which was Dragondance 2002, out on the land at Wolvenwold--Bel is a land steward there. Since meeting her, I have sung with her, sat up around the fire all night with her in all sorts of weather, chased her around the country a bit, as she has me, danced with her, laughed with her, proudly done ritual with her, and more. A short while ago, she asked me to be her beautiful daughter's Goddess-mother. (Fairy-godmother, she later named me, when I started walking on stilts!) Of course, I said yes.

I'm a little sick of bad news today, as I've found out within the past 24 hours that a dear and close friend lost his father this morning and the world lost George Carlin yesterday. There's a third whammy in the mix, as these things do so often love to come in threes--at least it feels that way from here. Brother Sede called us while we were driving across Kansas yesterday, en route to Colorado Springs, to tell me that Bel has been hospitalized, and that she is paralyzed from the neck down.

Bel is young and brave, but I am having difficulty not worrying about her, her husband and her daughter, her sister and her mother, and her brother-in-law (my Mandolin Holy Man, incidentally), who are all dear to me. She is currently being cared for by hospital staff in Springfield, MO. They have begun treatment, and though Bel is currently paralyzed from the neck down, she is still able to breathe on her own and is in good spirits. That said, you can imagine the financial hell of medical bills which are already stacking up. This is what's really got me worried.

For now, I'd like to ask that any of you who have energy to spare please send it in Beltana's direction. I am doing the same, since I cannot be there in person to kiss my friend's cheek, play her a song, brush her lovely hair, or distract her toddler. Bel herself is a Reiki practitioner, and I know that she welcomes any love and healing that comes her way in this freaky, frightening time.

If you have the ability to send money to Bel to help out, please click the link way up there at the top.  If you do not, please send love to Beltana and her immediate family. She's not out of the woods yet, but we can show her the way. Thank you.

Hear Bel sing at her MySpace page.

The hurting comes, and the hurting stays.

The wheel's gonna turn and our hearts disobey.
We will stand if we're the last ones standing,

to send you on your way with love.

I'll not make it home in time, not for the first time, not for the last time.
But it's not about me. So it's all right.

Instead, I'll stand from where I am, and I will sing all day.
And I will do my tiny part to send you on your way
with love.

How I hope you know that we'll miss you when you go
and how we'll hold you dear when you return.
The wheel's gonna turn
our hearts will disobey
but for love of all who love you
I will sing all day
and sister you will go your way
with love.

Go gentle, as you've always gone.



This Sunday, June 1st, from 3-7pm, Summerland Grove will hold a Crossing Over for Mallorie Gareis at the home of Rhyno in Bartlett. Bring a dish for potluck afterwards.

My sweet heart, who turns 33 today, and I will be unable to attend. Instead, it is our hope to give a memorial fire dance in Mallorie's honor at Festival of Souls this October. If you plan to attend FOS in Memphis this year and you'd like to help out as a safety or be part of the performance, leave me a comment here.

It is, in this case, two counties in my home state.  It was, just a few days ago, an F5 tornado, which is no joke.

Just as in the case of the two twisters that hit my home town last February, there were no deaths in Stuttgart.  I will take a tornado with no deaths, if we have to have such an increasing number of tornadoes each year, as it seems.

You can help, if you so choose, by following this link to KATV and the Neighbor in Need Fund.

The rivers are down, somewhat, here in Arkansas.  I am home in the house of my childhood for a couple of days, recharging, and I am grateful for this time and this place.  I wish you all well, and I hope that you are in a safe place yourselves, tonight.

• As if there weren't enough networking site candy kicking around to rot your teeth...I've been creating new ones on the web.  Please feel free to visit any one of them, as they're all different.
  
  A few fans alerted me to the existence of Paganspace.com, and it would be silly not to have a page there:  http://www.paganspace.com/skinnywhitechick
  I don't have a lot of stuff up on Paganspace yet, but soon, soon I will send music in to 'paganradio' there, which seems to run on my profile automatically. 
  
  Lastly, and this is the big announcement of sorts, I created last night a Myspace page for The Lost Girls Pirate Academy:  http://www.myspace.com/lostgirlspirateacademy
  Next on my list is creating a Tribe for the Academy on Tribe.net, but for now, Myspace will hold down the fort.  It's our dream to launch lostgirlspirateacademy.com very soon, also--and all of the sites we create, Myspace or otherwise, will hopefully serve as a forum and as a trading post for fan art and fiction about Wendy, Green-eyed Sue, and their crew.  We have a good bit of stuff to share already, but we want more!  Know that you're welcome to share how the Wendy Trilogy has inspired you with me, especially as a comment or a story or drawing or other form of awesome creative output.
  
  If you're lost at sea about all this, I'll explain briefly:
  On my albums Sirens, which I released in 2006, I included three songs about what might have happened, had Wendy chosen to become a pirate instead of sticking with the Lost Boys and staying the proper little mother figure.  The three songs take you through Wendy's difficult transition to pirate as Hook's adopted daughter--he double-crosses her, of course, but she catches him in the act and, with the help of Tink and Pan, she 'inherits' the ship and the crew.  Gradually, Wendy replaces the crew with Lost Girls handpicked by Peter Pan.  Green-eyed Sue is the first to arrive, and Mr. Smee is the last to go. 
  
  There's more, of course. 
  I'll post the songs themselves to the Lost Girls Pirate Academy Myspace page today so that you can hear them if you haven't heard them before. 
  
  For now the Wendy Trilogy can be heard on Sirens or on the Tricky Pixie Live album.  I plan, by the end of the year, to give the Trilogy its own single/EP, called Pirate Girls, which will also include the Academy's new Alma Mater (up on Myspace right now), and perhaps a few other choice nautical songs.
  
  The Wendy Trilogy is so beloved by so many people across the world at this point that I am quite happy to give it more attention, and to breathe new life into it by getting the Academy project going.  We've got t-shirts, stickers, an official logo, exclusively commissioned art by Amy Brown depicting the Academy's two saucy founders (shown in this entry, and used by gracious permission), many many stories of how the songs have touched one person or another, and one rollicking bit of fan fiction so far.  Please, if you want to be a part of this piratical adventure, do!  Feel free to get in touch with me with your music, stories, and art.
  
  

This weekend I was flown to Seattle by a group of conspirators, to be the birthday surprise for a whole pack of delightful Aries folk. 

It worked.

Somehow, the surprise stayed a surprise until the very last moment, and I think that the squeeing noises could be heard for several miles.  The kind volunteer karaoke DJ stepped aside and allowed Betsy and me to play a concert for the crowd at the party.  During our second set, Andrei gave Kevin, Betsy, Lauren (the keeper of the conspiracy) and me certificates that made us official members of the Freepeople House.  Too much love for one building.  What an amazing night!

As a side-effect of all this delightful surprise-manifesting, Alec, Betsy and I get to perform as Tricky Pixie tomorrow afternoon.  We get to play together before July?  Talk about spontaneous release of yet more positive energy into the forgiving world!  If you feel like joining us, I have the show info posted on my website, at the top of the page:  http://www.skinnywhitechick.com
You can also see the band website here.

From my dear tribe-sister Ginger's blog, on creation stories:
"I think we will find that these encrypted stories have much more to tell than can ever be imagined at the moment and that even the shape of letters forming words may take us to new levels of understanding one day.  The greatest teachers taught in parables. Even here, teachers knew that universal truth must be encoded to be preserved. It doesn’t matter if you figure it all out as long as you are completely happy and fulfilled. If you are, then you have already gotten to the place that these writings are trying to take you."

I've had so much joy in the past twenty-four hours.  Is it possible to have too much?  Is it possible that each moment of happiness experienced by any one person is ultimately union with the divine?  I think so.  And I'm grateful.