Dear Friends,

Litha and Summer Solstice Greetings to one and all. My spring has been amazing and jam-packed full of any number of excitements.

It's been a while since I last wrote you, but it's not that I haven't wanted to. I have been busy with my book tour and promotion for what is now three picture books, just for Pagan kids. To the two books that came out in January (An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child & Aidan's First Full Moon Circle) my newest book Watchers has joined the line-up this month http://shop.handcraftedpagan.com/ . I have been all over the MidWest this spring, and it's been a soggy experience. Every single camping event had a deluge of rain, high winds and the oceans of mud that followed. At one event we also were subjected to hail the size of golf balls and threats of a tornado touching down. Luckily, for us anyway, the tornado hit some 25 miles southwest of our location. Still, the wind was pretty heavy and several merchants had their tents blown away, including me. I had packed up all the merchandise the afternoon before, so the tent was all I lost. And my luck held because when I went to the store to buy a replacement they were on sale at 35% OFF. Gotta love a bargain!

Most recently, I have been hard at work on my next picture book. This one called Rabbit's Song by SJ Tucker http://www.skinnywhitechick.com/ and Trudy Herring http://www.summerland.org/ is scheduled for release to the general public in January, but SJ, Trudy and I will be having a pre-release party in October at the Festival of Souls in Tennessee. It is most likely the only time all three of us will be together.

In anticipation of some of the art, I went to the Wild Canid Center http://www.wildcanidcenter.org/ this week. One of the animals in the book is a wolf, and another is a coyote. The Wild Canid Center houses wild wolves for rehabilitation and re-release into the wild. My daughter, SJ, K Wiley and I all had a private tour of the facilities and got to see the wolves in residence. It was very awesome being so close to the wild brothers and sisters. Later that evening SJ was scheduled to appear with Larell K Hamilton in a benefit book reading and concert. We used the free time in the afternoon to help K and SJ set up for the evening, then all 4 of us headed out to get a well deserved and tasty dinner. The SJ and K were to head back to the Canid Center for the show. My daughter and I were planning on picking up some cat food and heading home. During dinner, SJ surprised us with two tickets to the sold out show. Can you say "WHOOT!!!"? So we all headed back to the Canid Center, listened to Larell read the first two chapters out of an upcoming book, walked down the property to howl with the wolves and then headed back to an evening of musical entertainment with SJ. It was an amazing experience, and made even more so by the whole unexpectedness of being there in the first place.

Tomorrow, I am getting up at 4 a.m. to head out to Oklahoma, for the Litha FireFest http://www.ikempire.com/Litha2008.htm . I catch a plane for this one. The new weight limits for luggage are pretty small. So, I've spent most of the morning trying to pack as much as I might need into one tiny suitcase trying to make sure I have everything without going over the weight limit. This is not easy to do when packing books! Fortunately, children's books are not as heavy as adults' books. I managed to get everything I need into the bag in under the 50 lb limit with a bit of wiggle room to spare.

For those of you with kids, or just childlike in nature, please visit my publisher's web site http://magicalchildbooks.com/ and sign up for the monthly newsletter http://paganchildrensbookpublishing.info/newsletter.html . Once a month or so, I create a free coloring page for download. The current theme is ABC Lessor Known Goddesses. The June Goddess starts with "I." All the previous coloring pages are archived, so you can still download the other letters.

Here at Magickware, http://www.magickware.com/magickware/index.php?main_page=products_new I have found some new products to add to the line up. One new product, "Goodness Spray" has already sold out. Check back in a month or so to see if it is back in stock. It is a great tie in to the Watchers story, empowering the little ones to face their fears of the dark and things that go bump in the night.

Also in is a large cotton Triquetra tapestry in silver, gold and black.

A brand new line of jewelry recently became available so I now have in stock the entire Greenwood line from Starlinks. The names of the lead free sterling pendants are as follows: (Some even feature crystals.)
•Green Man •Wood Witch's Wand •Flight of the Goddess •Acorn Faery • Stag Lord •Tree Runes •Elf Heart •Dragon Tree •Herne the Hunter •Celestial Hare •Mushroom Fairy •Moon Stag and •Sword in the Green. As you can see by the names the line is quite diverse, and as beautiful as is sounds. Visit Magickware to find out which one is your favorite.

One more new item has been added to the children's section. It's a 1-1/8" pentacle charm pendant on a 16" cord. An inexpensive first necklace for the little ones.

Until next time--
Love and Light
Lyon