Hi All!

Well, I'm back from the sunny West Coast and all I can say is that Pantheacon was GREAT! If you ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend it. The energy was amazing, and they estimated that over 3,000 people were there over the course of the long weekend. That's a lot of Pagans!

My step-daughter Jenn and I flew out from Albany on Friday morning at the crack of before-dawn and arrived at the wonderful Doubletree Hotel by noon. (Time change, y'know.) We were met later by my friend Caere who drove in from Arizona to join us. (Sorry about that new transmission...)

I met some amazing people: Elysia and Jen from Llewellyn (in person is WAY better than over the phone, you both ROCK), and some wonderful authors, including the fabulous Ellen Dugan, the dashing Christopher Penczak, the adorable Raven Digitalis (how is it possible to be both Goth and adorable? I don't know, but Raven pulls it off), the awesome Z. Budapest and the inspiring Diana L. Paxson. It was also a treat to meet, albeit briefly, Mary Greer (author of the best books on tarot), John Michael Greer and Raven Grimassi. What an amazing company of folks to be among!

My presentation "Spiritual Spring Cleaning" went better than I ever could have hoped, with 60 people in attendance (not bad for 9 AM on a Saturday morning--thanks to everyone who hauled themselves out of bed to come after a late night of partying!). Jenn and Caere (aka "The Entourage") helped me cope with the unexpected numbers, and we all had a lot of fun. [I even got to meet one of my online pals from paganspace.net. Heya Ladylion!]

Saturday night we had dinner with Ellen Dugan, then went to the Llewellyn Author's Happy Hour, where I got to mingle with many of the great authors mentioned above. I'll be posting pics as soon as I can. Then Sunday morning was the presentation of the Pagan Fiction Award contest, where I was thrilled to find out that I'd won Third Prize! As a bonus, I got to finally meet Anne Newkirk Niven, editor-in-chief of the Pagan magazines Sage Woman, Pangaia and New Witch. (She even kidnapped me unexpectedly...but that's another story.)

After that, I had a fun interview with Don Lewis and his wife Debbe of witchschool.com--the interview can be seen at some point on magicktv.com (not sure when).

Sunday afternoon Jenn and I left the Con and flew to San Diego to visit briefly with my family and dabble our feet in the Pacific Ocean. Then on Tuesday morning we flew back to the not-so-balmy Northeast, bringing back with us a few seashells, some amazing memories, and in my case--one hell of a cold/flu. Ah, those West Coast germs. Still, it was a great trip and well worth the germs and the jet-lag. Hopefully we'll be back again some year.