Trial by Fire Book Party!

Date: June 27, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: Books, Busy Squirrell, Covencraft, family, The Book
Comments: 2 Replies

 

Pics from my party! We’ve been in a little bit of a pickle here in Calgary with some flooding. Luckily for my friends and family, we are mostly unaffected. SO PARTY IT WAS! There was TONS of yummy food and CAKE with my book cover screened on the to icing. I got a JUMBO SIZED poster of my book cover and signed books for friends and family.

And of course my latest obsession, Apothic Red Wine. YUM.

I’m still eating cake. WHAT?? IT WILL GO TO WASTE IF I DON’T EAT IT. I’M DOING A SERVICE

My sister, Ann, did the theme in colors of fire – Red, Orange and Yellow. there were some GORGEOUS flowers and you’re all getting pic spammed. [IDK what she’ll do for book two, which is tentatively titled ‘Counter Hex’ – what color is a hex?]. She put on QUITE a show and graciously offered up her house. Jennifer, my other sister, assisted with planning food I think. Darren, my bro in law, stepped in to arrange a cake when our original cake place was flooded out due to the flood situation in southern Alberta.

It was a GREAT time! I admit, I get nervous around a lot of people, even when they’re all people I know! I was a little scared and slightly anxious before the party so I made a beeline for the wine as soon as I arrived. Once I got chatting, I relaxed. Signing books was a bit nerve-wracking and I made two or three spelling errors. ONE ON THE WORD ‘AUNTIE’ [for my fam – omg, I’m SUCH A DORK]

I was so touched and honored to have all my friends and family celebrate with me! the only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been the addition of those that have passed on. I know they were there in spirit.

 

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Trial By Fire [Covencraft Book 1] Available now!

Date: June 25, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: Books, Covencraft, The Book
Comments: 5 Replies

I’m super excited that today is the release day of my book, Trial By Fire [Covencraft #1]!

draft2

Trial By Fire [Book 1]  – Available NOW @ Amazon.com, Amazon.ca Amazon.uk [TBA], Barnes and Noble
[published through Fable Press]

Read the first chapter free on wattpad!

Jade leads a structured life:

  • Routine job
  • Caffeine addiction
  • No serious relationships.

And now, she can spontaneously set things on fire with her mind.

Well… perhaps “normal” was never in the cards for her. As she questions her own sanity and spirals out of control, a man appears on her doorstep and tells her that, like him, she’s a witch.

Pulled in all directions, her unbridled magic draws dangerous attention and Jade wonders if she’s made the worst mistake of her life by joining a coven, or if she’ll even live long enough to regret it.

If you like it, remember to feed the author. I eat reviews on Goodreads and Amazon 😉

You can also enter the giveaway on goodreads!

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New Short Story – Persephone Rising – Link and Author notes

Date: June 23, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: writing
Comments: Leave a reply

I’ve posted a new short story, Persephone Rising!

If you are interested, some author notes:

The idea came when I was reading a submissions post on a publishing blog asking for dark fairy tale type stories. They were looking for some more… intriguing takes on heroines. So I started thinking about what I could write. I’ve always loved Greek Mythology so I wanted to do something there. But, one of the things that has ALWAYS troubled me about many classical tales is the victim-type role that women tend to play. I wanted to write something where the heroine wasn’t a victim, and instead was more proactive about her choices.

Having previously written a fanfic story based on some elements of the underworld, I was drawn to write about Persephone. Instead of a maiden naively picking flowers and then kidnapped by Hades, I wanted to write a Persephone that had always been drawn to dead things and possibly pursued Hades when she met him.

I was also interested in portraying more of a grey-sexual Persephone. Please note, my writing is only intended to be one of many viewpoints and is a work of fiction, so I have interpreted the definition as I needed to make the narrative work. I welcome commentary and constructive criticism. Bashing, flaming, spamming and hatred is not welcome.

I’ve commissioned some art for this story and hope to have it posted soon!

Concrit is love! Play nice in the sandbox!

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Calgary, Southern AB Flooding

Date: June 22, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: random
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I live in Calgary which is currently under a State of Emergency for flooding. I’m VERY fortunate to live in an unaffected area. My neighborhood is safe and dry. However, a lot of Calgary is flooded. The downtown core is evacuated and the last I heard, power may not be restored there until the middle of the week. The good news is that it appears all of the emergency planning and safety measures were successful. I’m very proud of my city! If I understood the news cast last night, the power transformers were shut down in the core before they could blow, and they won’t be turned on again until they are dry. If they had blown, it would have been a lot longer.

So far the city has stated that volunteers are NOT needed, although I believe they do project that volunteers will be needed for clean up in the coming weeks and months.

If you live in the area, stay safe out there!

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Dad – Seven Years later

Date: June 16, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: dad, family
Comments: Leave a reply
You're in the army now!

You’re in the army now!

The above pic is of my dad when he was in the Greek Army. I’m not sure of the year. Check out those pants! The beret! The mustache!

He died August 2006. After seven years, I wish I had something profound or helpful to say on the topic of his passing.

Death sucks. No two ways about it.

It’s tough because we all want there to be something profound and helpful to say, don’t we? When someone suffers a loss we’re all just praying we have that one kernel of wisdom that will help them through. The only thing I’ve learned is that sometimes there are easy or better ways for people pass over, but it’s always going to suck. If you had a good relationship, a bad relationship, an impartial one – something will shift in you and won’t ever be the same.

I’m very fortunate – I had a great dad. Seven years after his passing and I’m tearing up just writing this, like it was yesterday. Sometimes it feels like it was. Sometimes it feels like it’s been forever.

After seven years, I wouldn’t say I have wisdom but I do feel like I’ve learned some things.

1. He wasn’t just ‘mine’ to lose – it probably sounds so obvious, but it really through me for a loop seeing my dad’s friends distraught at his passing. His surviving sisters were just gutted – gutted in a way that I could appreciate but felt like couldn’t express myself. They’re Greek, and so expressing emotion is more… allowable (?) for them. Friends of his from when he first came to Canada told us stories about my dad when he first came here and it was so strange realizing that these people, who were kind of like strangers to me, had lost something too. My mother as well lost a husband and a partner.

2. I was so lucky to have my sisters and my mum –  I felt like with all these other people who had lost something, my sisters understood the same loss I had felt.

3. I hate when people won’t or can’t talk about the dead – I hated when, for the first couple of days, months, years I would bring up my dad and people sometimes seemed to ‘freeze’ – like the didn’t know how to respond. I understand it, but I hated it. Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean he’s not still a big part of my life. My feelings for my dad and my relationship with him didn’t die the same day he did. To me, not discussing him is a disservice to his memory.

4. It still sucks.

5. It’s not fair. Some people don’t even like their dads or have really shitty dads but they’re still alive. It’s cruel and it’s mean to think it but I do.

6. Father’s day still sticks out. Although I prefer to think of him or remember him on Father’s day or his name day or his birthday rather than his death date. His death date was the ‘least’ part of his life, yanno?

7. Everyone dies. As he used to say, “When St. Peter is calling, there is no ‘take a message’.”

I guess it all sounds pretty maudlin and depressing. I don’t mean it that way. But if anyone stumbles across this post after just losing their dad, all I can say is – It sucks, man. It really does. You learn to live with it and that’s okay. You’ll be okay.

 

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Update on Book 2! [Covencraft]

Date: June 10, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: The Book, writing
Comments: Leave a reply

 

I’m at 11500 words on book two! I’m currently guestimating 85000 words for book 2. Book 1 [Trial By Fire] was 84000 so I figured 85000 was a fair guess.

I’m a visual person and NEED TO SEE THE GRAPH, so I love word count meters. I do have a title for book 2 but I’m keeping it close to the vest in case I change my mind. But seeing as I’m HORRIBLE at keeping secrets, I’ll probably let the cat out of the bag at some point.

 

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OH THE HORROR!

Date: June 9, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: random
Comments: Leave a reply

I love horror. I love the creeped out feeling I get when watching it or reading it and the way it just LINGERS in my brain for days afterward.

But, I’m not necessarily a fan of just slash and gore. I like some slash and gore flicks but not the overly gratuitous ones. Basically, if you’ve got NO plot and it’s just scantily clad women running around screaming and getting hacked to bits, I’ve no interest.

When I say I like horror, I find a lot of people start reccing me slash and gore flicks. Really sexist and BAD slash and gore flicks.

Did I mention the sexism? Because it bears repeating. Several times. [But that’s a WHOLE OTHER POST].

I feel like these days, true horror has gotten or is getting lost in the slash and gore. I don’t want to be grossed out or just bombarded with blood. I want you to horrify me! I want you to terrify me! I want to be DISTURBED ON A PROFOUND LEVEL [while in the safety of my home, usually in my jammies, watching through the slits of my fingers as I cover my eyes].

If I have to watch a film clutching a rosary or I’m nervous to turn the lights off at the end of the night, that’s a good horror flick.

If I sit there watching as some [again] scantily clad buxom women gets chopped up – that’s not horror.

Some of the best horror I’ve read or seen has NO GORE. The classic example is always Hitchcock’s Psycho, wherein we only see a small trail of blood going down the drain. That’s it. He didn’t have to show me all the blood and keep pushing my face in it going “LOOK SEE THE HORROR??? DO YOU SEE IT??” He just had to set it all up – music, lighting, story, acting – and then let my brain fill in the rest, knowing that my brain will supply all the horror needed, and better than he could. Because each person’s brain will fill in the worst thing for them.

So! Here are some of my faves* – these are by no means the only ones I’ve liked, but these have stuck out in my head and I remember them all very vividly.

The Evil Dead [1981 original] – a classic. It’s got what I [and a lot of people] refer to as the ‘submarine’ element – people trapped in a place they can’t get out of. AND! it’s got something creepy in a basement. Toss in the Necronomicom and I’m SOLD.

Saw – I saw [lol] this movie by myself in the theatre when it first came out and to this day I remember when it ended and the credits started rolling, my mouth was completely dry. I’m pretty sure I sat there immobile and just… unable to look away or even swallow the entire time.

Poltergeist – I still watch this every time it’s on TV. You CARE about the family and what’s happening. You know Carol Ann is in that house but what is in there with her? How will they get her back?

A Nightmare on Elm Street – I only saw pieces of this movie and never saw the whole thing until I was in my teens but as a child I knew there was something about a boiler room and a guy named Freddy and I was terrified. I was scared of this movie before I even saw it. I also really liked Wes Craven’s New Nightmare which was a meta mashup of the Freddy mythology and just so good.

In the Mouth of Madness – I loved some of the imagery in this film. Sam Neill in a room covered in hand-drawn crosses [even on Neill himself], when Julie Carmen is forced to read the book and then starts bleeding from the eyes, when they’re trying to leave town and they just keep being forced back.

Lord of Illusions – I admit, I watched this during my HUGE Scott Bakula crush days. But I stand by it! It’s also got some great imagery. There’s also that thin dude in the creepy pants, the illusionist Swann, Famke Janssen and the sword dropping scene!

The Thing – I also classify this as a thriller [which can be crossed over with horror or separate from]. This one also has the submarine effect – people trapped somewhere they can’t leave – and then they start not trusting each other. IS ONE OF THEM THE THING?? it’s a great story device when your characters are all paranoid and anxious but it’s hard to maintain without exhausting your audience and I feel this movie does it well.

Ginger Snaps Trilogy – I just love these movies. They made me fall in love with the werewolf trope/genre. I find them fun too, but in a dark way. But I think they show the best part of horror – the effect it has on family or bonds between people. I highly recommend them. I also watch these whenever I catch them on TV.

Films by Roger Corman and Vincent Price loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s work – The Raven, the Fall of the House of Usher, the Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death, the Tomb of Ligeia [THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, how I love you!] – I love them all. SO EPIC! So creepy!

I’m sure I’ll think of more as soon as I hit post, but those are the ones off the top of my head.

*As a side note, I’ve left out horror-dark comedies from this post as I feel they are a special category all on their own to be enjoyed [films like Shaun of the Dead, Army of Darkness etc]

 

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Trial By Fire [Covencraft] – a ‘Fanmix’

Date: June 2, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: Books, Covencraft, The Book
Comments: Leave a reply

As mentioned before, I write fanfiction and am part of fandom. One of the things that often accompanies someone’s story is a song mix or people will make fanmixes to go with a fic or for a character. I’ve discovered many treasured favorite new songs through fanmixes! I decided to make one for Jade. I may add to this as I find songs that fit. I hope to have one for Paris, but I fear if I start listing songs now, I’ll give too much away!

1. The Trick is To Keep Breathing – Garbage
She’s not the kind of girl, Who likes to tell the world, About the way she feels about herself

2. Crawl – Artificial Joy Club [I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS BEING THEIR ONLY ALBUM]
Wake up, sugar, sugar Come down, smell the coffee, Drink your fears, Taste your problems
3. Born in a Flash – Mother Mother
Photograph, Looking down at me, I’m looking at the past, Something about my family
4. Blindness – Metric

What it is and where it stops nobody knows, You gave me a life I never chose, I wanna leave but the world won’t let me go
5. Believe – The Bravery
I am hiding from some beast, But the beast was always here, Watching without eyes, Because the beast is just my fear
All the remains of a cadaver of days, I keep hidden away, keep them there just in case I want to visit that place and blow the dust from the bones, Off a body of years that I leave all alone

Dear little girl, (there’s) so much hurt, For such a young age. Trapped inside a pretty little lie, Your body’s betrayed.
Don’t you mess with a little girl’s dream ‘Cause she’s liable to grow up mean

I lost my friend Near the water And I loved her Though she left me [author note – this will be more revealed in books 2 and 3]

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Interpreting Fiction, songs and other creative works

Date: May 26, 2013
Author: margaritagakis
Categories: Books, writing
Comments: Leave a reply

I’ve a friend in a really awesome band. Her name’s Chantal and she’s in a group called the Lovebullies. She has this one song called Here Comes the Boy. This is a replica of a conversation we had once:

Me: Hey, you know that song? Here Comes the boy? What’s it about?
Chantal [pauses]: What do you think it’s about?
Me: well, I think it’s about this girl that’s in love with her best friend but her best friend is in love with this guy who treats her badly. But the first girl, the one that’s in love is like, he’ll never treat you as well as me.
Chantal: [silence]
Me: soooo, is that what it’s about?
Chantal: it’s whatever you feel it’s about.

I immediately was confused. I argued with her, “BUT WHAT’S IT ABOUT???” and she just kept saying that it was about whatever I thought it was about.

This FLOORED me. I was so befuddled. How could Chantal make this song, this art, and not want to tell me what it meant? It made me think a lot about my own writing and how when someone asks what my book is about, I want to go on and on and on and tell them EVERYTHING that EVER crossed my mind while writing.

That conversation really stuck with me. I think about it a lot when I read reviews/interpretations of songs, writing and other art. I makes me wonder what the original artist thinks of their own work.

I’ve read some essays on Jane Eyre [previously noted as my fave book ever] and how the character of Bertha Mason has MANY interpretations – she’s society’s view on sexuality in women, she’s Charlotte Bronte’s psyche trapped in the attack, she’s the representation of all women persecuted for their lifestyle.

But it makes me wonder if maybe she’s just a crazy lady in the attic. Or maybe she’s all of those things above and more including a crazy lady in the attic because Charlotte Bronte would say, like Chantal did, she’s whatever you think she is.

This also leads me to a post a saw on Tumblr and I wish I saved the link. If I recall correctly, an art class had been charged with art for the Great Gatsby. One of the pieces done showed Gatsby with no hands and the art teacher commented how this was so symbolic of him reaching for things that he lacks the tools to even grasp or touch. However, the artists in the class leaned over to one of his classmates and said something like, “Actually, I just can’t draw hands.”

So again, I wodner, when we interpret art, how much of ourselves are we projecting on the piece. Is that the function of art? To be what the interpreter wants or sees?

Joss Whedon reportedly said “All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet — it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.” I find I think about that statement a lot. With my book coming out [June 25! Another SHAMELESS PLUG!] it makes me wonder what people will think about it and how they may interpret scenes, dialogue and characterization. Or if they’ll just read it for fun and not look any deeper. How will I react?

Obviously, I don’t have any answers, but it all makes me think about music, writing, art and how we view those things and what we attribute to them.

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