Rumer has it...
April 18, 2022
April 8, 2022
From Blogging to Vlogging
'Tis been ages since I've reported back here, so I thought I'd share what in heck I've been up to the last couple of months!
New YouTube subscribers are so very welcome at my little corner of cyberspace. 😊
~Rumer
October 14, 2020
NEW RELEASE: Myths, Mothers, and Mystics!
A goddess brings a statue to life
so it can become the sculptor’s wife.
A mirror reflects more than what should appear
as a holiday toy spreads less cheer than fear.
New tech revolutionizes reproductive
rights
while ghost hunters fill an innkeeper’s night with frights.
And just when she falls out of love’s blinding
spell,
a tattoo artist checks into a haunted hotel.
In this speculative fiction collection, feminism
meets folklore, fantasy, and science fiction as Rumer Haven shares some of the
more random yarns she’s spun over the past decade. From ancient Cyprus to
modern Sedona, Myths, Mothers, and Mystics tells the tales of women who
must find—if not fight—their way against the natural and supernatural.
AVAILABLE ON KINDLE + IN PAPERBACK!
November 27, 2019
Creative Woo-riting, Part 4
So. I knew I wanted to write a scene about a tarot reading, but it felt too contrived if I were to hand-pick the cards myself. As the designer of the story, I obviously could've just selected the tarot cards with meanings coinciding with exactly what I wanted to convey. But where's the fun in that? If there's one thing I've learned about the tarot, it's that it's a lot wiser than me--even if it's only unearthing answers that I already know anyway! Sometimes we don't consciously know what is best, even if on some subconscious or unconscious level we do. So, I decided to leave this one to the cards and, honest to God, shuffled and drew a few at random, with the intention of unlocking the message my protagonist, Ellie, needed to hear.
This is what resulted:
And here's how I interpreted and wrote it into "Revolve Her"...
[...]
“Which brings me to this wretched morning,” she says, “when I woke with a thumping headache, empty stomach, new vegan holster”—she lifts her purse from where it hangs on her chair— “and a dash of wishful thinking, which must have brought on a psychic break indulging a sick fantasy I never actually had.”
October 11, 2019
Creative Woo-riting, Part 3
As mentioned in my last post, to get an initial, intuitive peek at my main characters, I conducted a tarot reading. Because...why not? I knew I wanted tarot to feature in the story somehow, so it felt appropriate to use it as an actual tool in crafting the story.
In my previous post, I shared the reading results for my protagonist, Ellie. Today I'm sharing another cursory character sketch using the same method. Once again, I used Ethony Dawn's Story Tarot Spread and the Tarot of Haunted House deck to learn a bit about my secondary character Beverley:
So, yeah. For the record, a tarot card can be very, very clear on that point. 😆
I wouldn't say I took the heat level that far in the story, but I did appreciate getting the go-ahead for some sexual tension if I wanted it! And as for Beverley, this exercise genuinely did help me begin to shape her in my mind, to get a sense of what her own conflict might be.
How closely did I follow this in the story? Read it and find out! 😃
"Revolve Her" is available in the Paperback Writers anthology at Amazon: http://getbook.at/PaperbackWriters
October 8, 2019
Creative Woo-riting, Part 2
Dr. Robert has spun Eleanor round like a record. He rocked her world in the UK, then turned it upside down in the US. Hot, dry, sunny Sedona, Arizona is nothing like the London she left behind for love. And now, on her own, Eleanor — Ellie — isn’t sure where she belongs.
She’s not the only lost soul, however, when someone else’s violent past traumatizes her present. Unsure whether the threat only lives in her mind or if a spirit actually lurks in her motel room, Ellie seeks the aid of a psychic medium named Beverley. Unfortunately, Ellie’s life takes another turn for the worse when Beverley’s own troubled history comes around to haunt them both—and this time, it’s definitely not Ellie’s imagination. That revolver is real, and it’s taking aim. But who is it for?
Riffing on the song titles and lyrics of the Beatles album Revolver, “Revolve Her” spins a supernatural tune of its own about a woman who knows where she comes from and will decide for herself where she’s going.
So, there's a bit about the story, which was largely inspired by The Beatles in subtle and unconventional ways. And also unconventionally, I decided to consult tarot cards for ideas on characterization!
Using Ethony Dawn's Story Tarot Spread, I laid out the following cards from the Tarot of Haunted House deck to get some insight into my story's protagonist, Ellie:
August 31, 2019
Creative Woo-riting, Part 1
In a previous post, I talked about how 2018 wasn't the most stellar year for my writing. For pretty much the entire year, I was blocked, so I seized it as an opportunity (if not took it as a sign) to step back and incubate in self-care and mystical study for a while. At the very least, all the stuff I've learned will make it into my future books! But it's all truly been transformational for me as a human being in general, and I think I needed to fill my cup in that respect before I could go back to being a writer, too.
In any case, to get to the point, when authors Morgan and Jennifer Locklear invited me to contribute a short story to the Paperback Writers anthology last year, I panicked that I wouldn't seize on an idea in time, given the absolute standstill of 2018. So, I felt I needed to get more serious about intention-setting and committing to follow-through. I began on the first evening of a new moon with a tarot spread, seeking advice on writing this story--and meeting its deadline. The oracle card I drew at the end of the reading as a final word (from the Sacred Rebels deck) was this:
"Bring it into form." Uh, yep! Definitely the kick in the pants that I needed to get out of my writer's block and start manifesting ideas on the page again. By this point, my writing muscles were almost in atrophy, so just the image of this card was revitalizing and inspiring to see.
My next step was to conduct a new-moon ritual adapted (okay, totally ripped off) from Kelly Fitzgerald at The Truth in Story. The original video doesn't appear to be available anymore (or at least I can't find it), but, basically, she approached intention-setting using geomancy and the Wildwood Tarot. For this, she used a book box (which you can still get a glimpse at in this video: https://youtu.be/DXFbZtKH0WU), and I myself have ended up using a little wooden box with a hinged lid, like what you could store a tarot deck in. And whereas Kelly filled her box with normal sand, I found garnet sand from a Scottish seller on Etsy that is absolutely gorgeous and just the vibe I need. In the sand, you place stones in the shape of a geomancy figure that best expresses your intention. I take it a step further by using onyx rune stones that themselves represent the gist of what I'm after. In this case, the geomancy figure I chose was "The Way" (a straight line of four dots) to represent the path (and movement) forward, and the runes essentially reflected clarity, creativity, inspired communication, and a fruitful outcome.
Next, at the four corners of the box lid on the left-hand side are representations of the elements--a tealight for fire, feather for air, stone for earth, and a small cup of water for, well, water (for my cup, I use a seashell that I collected on the Cornish coast along with the feather and stone). Between these elements, you can then lay one or more tarot or oracle cards that likewise embrace the spirit of your intention. Like Kelly, I've opted to use the Wildwood Tarot, which I supplement with the Celtic Lenormand deck to get even more specific about my intention. The cards I chose for this one were also concerned with forward momentum and hitting my writing target with creativity and skill.
I meditated on this intention for two moon cycles, I believe, and I wrote like I hadn't written in well over a year! The ideas came to me fast and furious, and I rediscovered my drive and joy. It's not so much that I cast a "spell" to make this happen; the process simply compelled me to get specific about my goal and to remain focused on it. Even when I wasn't meditating before this ritual box (repeating my precise intention over and over like a mantra), just a glance at it would remind me of what I needed to do, and every time I saw it, I felt the power of its motivation. I even took a photo of it for when I was writing on the road, just in case I needed to see it to believe in it again. To believe in myself again. And yeah, okay, I suppose I do also believe that in sending an intention out into the universe in this ritualistic, repeated way--and putting an earnest effort out there to back it up--the energy and inspiration I needed were sent right back to me.
I must say this was a very moving process, and I think the story that resulted--"Revolve Her"--is all the more unusual and special for it. So, it's no surprise that now that I need to re-edit What the Clocks Know, I just did this ritual again at the new moon yesterday. Same tools, different intention (ergo different cards, runes, and geomancy figure).
We'll see how the upcoming cycle plays out, but, in the meantime, I'll be back here with more creative woo-riting. Enjoy the weekend, my lovelies!