Vampires, Witches, and Me Oh My!: Guest Post: Magick Words and Wyrd Tales by Bob Freeman

Today let's welcome Bob Freeman to the blog as he talks about weaving words and magick.

To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head – and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It’s an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that’s not the most important thing. It’s the work itself.” — Alan Moore

Storytelling and magick have walked hand in hand since the invention of language, when our forefathers gathered around campfires spinning yarns about the gods who populated the mysterious world around them. I have pursued the art of the tale since I was a child, weaving stories with the aid of plastic knights and dragons and trolls, cowboys, indians, and army men. In the end, it’s all about the unfettered imagination. It’s the essence of the Art. Imagining is the first part of the process, the spark that leads to something real, tangible, and altogether frightening.

“Literature, meanwhile, is so intrinsically involved with magic’s very substance that the two may be effectively considered as the same thing. Spells and spelling, Bardic incantations, grimoires, grammars, magic a “disease of language” as Aleister Crowley so insightfully described it. Odin, Thoth and Hermes, magic-gods and scribe-gods. Magic’s terminology, its symbolism, conjuring and evocation, near-identical to that of poetry. In the beginning was the Word.” — Alan Moore

What is Art, regardless of your medium of choice, but an Act of Magick? Do What Thou Wilt? Indeed… When I sit down to string words together, it is a conscious act of creation, destruction, and all points in between.

Odin hung on a tree for nine days to capture the magic of the runes and through their kenning new stories were told…

“The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them.” ― Neil Gaiman

I am in the business of world-building. I have tried to populate the stories that comprise the Cairnwood Manor series and theLiber Monstrorum with believable, albeit, fantastical characters, and the mythology involved in making everything gel is what either makes it work or not.

The cosmology of gods, angels, devils, demons, and the various monsters that reek havoc on the lives of the innocents as well as my werewolves and occult detectives has to sing with originality and stay true to the groundwork that I lay out.

It’s a lot to ask of people, to suspend their disbelief and wade into the deep end of my imagination, but when it’s done right, it’s a kind of magic. It’s all about creating a world that the reader can recognize from the start, but as you peel back the veil and allow them to get a glimpse of the preternatural clockworks underneath, that’s where the real magic begins.

Cast your spell. Weave some magick. Make it yours and no one else’s. And share it with the world.

Amazon Links for Shadows Over Somerset:

Kindle Version: http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Over-Somerset-Cairnwood-Manor-ebook/dp/B00L9UYHKE

Print Version: http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Over-Somerset-Bob-Freeman/dp/1941706118

About Bob Freeman: Bob Freeman doesn’t just write and draw occult detectives, he’s also a card carrying paranormal adventurer who founded Nightstalkers of Indiana in 1983.

A lifelong student of witchcraft, magic, and religion, Bob’s studies are reflected in his art, both as an author and illustrator.

Bob lives in rural Indiana with his wife Kim and son Connor.

He can be found online at occultdetective.com

Shadows Over Somerset Book Synopsis: Michael Somers is brought to Cairnwood, an isolated manor in rural Indiana, to sit at the deathbed of a grandfather he never knew existed. He soon finds himself drawn into a strange and esoteric world filled with werewolves, vampires, witches… and a family curse that dates back to fourteenth century Scotland.

In the sleepy little town of Somerset, an ancient evil awakens, hungering for blood and vengeance… and if Michael is to survive he must face his inner demons and embrace his family’s dark past.

Shadows Over Somerset is the first Cairnwood Manor Novel.

Author Links:

Website: www.occultdetective.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorbobfreeman

Twitter: @OccultDetective