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Book Review: The Witch’s Bag of Tricks by Melanie Marquis

By Amazon, Books & Authors, Paganism, ReviewsNo Comments
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View on Amazon.co.uk
 The Witch’s Bag of Tricks is not a book for the initiate or new Witch.

It’s a book for the knowledgeable and experienced Witch. Witches who’ve reached a learning plateau and were spells have began to lose their effectiveness. (We’ve all been there.)

In The Witch’s Bag of Tricks Marquis covers:

  • Magick’s Seven Functions: Giving Energy Initial Purpose, Transforming Energy, Combining Energy, Separating Energies, Containing Energy, Releasing Energy & Redirecting Energy
  • Increasing your Power Potential
  • Removing Blocks to Great Power
  • Discovering Affinities
  • Spiritual Development
  • Psychic Spell Work & Psychic Development
  • Three Aspects of ESP: Perceiving the Whole, Perceiving the Parts & Perceiving the Connections
  • Magickal Development
  • The Difference between Charms, Spells & Rituals
  • Positive Binding Magic
  • Imitative Magick
  • Prosperity Magick
  • Love Magick
  • Advanced Defense Magick
  • Principles of Defensive Magic – Containing, Binding, Banishing & Shielding
  • Mood-Lifting and Luck Magick.

Marquis’ writing style reminded me of one that you would read in a magazine. This made The Witch’s Bag of Tricks feel superficial.

This wasn’t helped by Marquis trying to cover a large number of topics in the one book. There were parts of the book I would have loved Marquis to explore in more detail.

Reading The Witch’s Bag of Tricks was a pleasure. It reinvigorated my love of learning in the Craft – which is no small achievement. It’s great to see a book on the market and aimed at practiced Witches. I hope to find other books like this.

So far I’ve found the following books useful for an experienced Witch: Advanced Witchcraft by Edain McCoy, Witchcraft: Theory and Practice by Ly De Angeles, Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions by Dorothy Morrison.

The Witch’s Bag of Tricks is available to buy on Amazon and at all good bookshops.

Review soon,

Antony



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Thursday 18 October 2018

Book Review: The Outsider by Stephen King

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
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View on Amazon.co.uk
 How can a man be in two places at once? When a child is raped and murdered, this is a question Detective Ralph Anderson must find an answer to.

Terry Maitland is a pillar of the community and is accused. There’s eye witnesses placing him at the scene. His fingerprints and DNA evidence found on the victim’s body. But Terry has a airtight alibi.

The Outsider is a perfect investigatory and suspense novel, complete with King’s usual supernatural edge.

The plot is full of intrigue and written in a way that fills the readers head with theories and questions. It includes plenty of utterly gripping action scenes.

The Outsider is written in third person perspective. But it has some great transcripts of witness interviews and emails spattered throughout the beginning and middle sections of the book.

The pacing of The Outsider is quick and builds suspense brilliantly.

All of the characters feel completely real; all have different personalities, flaws and have different ways of handling the situations they find themselves in.

Characters include:

  • Ralph Anderson – The tall, logical and realistic Detective.
  • Jeanette Anderson – Ralph’s wife and confidant.
  • Terry Maitland – Suspect & English Teacher.
  • Marcy Maitland – Terry’s wife and mother to two children.
  • The Peterson Family – Frank is the child raped and murdered. The impact of the tragedy on the family is shown along with the subsequent tragedies that follow.
  • Yunel Sablo – Lieutenant in the Police Department, he assists in the investigation.
  • William Samuels – The District Attorney with unruly hair.
  • Howie Gold – Maitland’s Lawyer.
  • Alec Pelley – A retired state Police Detective who works for lawyers defending criminal cases.
  • Holly Gibney – A woman who runs a company called Finders Keepers. Holly mostly does repossessions, retrievals, bail-jumpers and finding of lost pets. But there’s a hidden depths to Holly including her past experience with the seemingly inexplicable. Holly is a character of mystery and one the reader will yearn to learn more about.
  • Jack Hoskins – A troubled Detective in the Police Department.
  • Claude Bolton – Claude is a recovered drug addict and former criminal. He works in a strip club as a Bouncer. He’s kept himself clean and out of trouble. But trouble could be finding him.
  • Lovie Bolton – Claude’s adorable old mum, even more vulnerable due to her COPD and oxygen requirement.

The Outsider is totally addictive, I couldn’t put it down and read it in a few sittings. The Outsider is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Tuesday 4 September 2018

Book Review: The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
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 If you like any sort of fantasy fiction then The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins is a must read novel that you’ll love.

The Last Days of Magic is set in the past where Ireland is the last magical stronghold in the world.

But it is under threat. The Vatican is determined to wipe out all creatures and men with magic. All creatures and men with magic came from fallen angels mating with humans. The Vatican believes that this is against God’s will.

In Ireland you have the Morrigna (twins that wield the power of the triple Goddess and are born when Ireland is in a time of great need) Sidhe (faeries), Druids, Witches, Sorcerers and the formations. The formations are hostile creatures that live in the water around Ireland and have kept it protected from invading ships.

But a plot is underway for King Richard in England to conquer Ireland, supported by the Vatican.

The Last Days of Magic mixes mythology, magic and fantasy wonderfully. It’s a gripping story, with a wide range of compelling characters, that is easy to read, captivating and thoroughly enjoyable.

It’s a novel about how Ireland falls to the English and the Vatican and the parts played by the magnificent characters which includes:

  • Aisling & Anya – twins and aspects of the triple Goddess.
  • Liam – Aisling & Anya protector. His mother is Sidhe, his father human.
  • Brigid – High Priestess of the Order of Macha.
  • Conor – Aisling’s love interest.
  • Jordan – Marshal/Vatican Representative.
  • Najia – Jodan’s lover and a Witch.
  • Ty – A fascinating creature and character. Immune to all spells and enchantments.
  • Richard – King of England.
  • Isabeau – Queen of France and Grand High Sorciere of a Coven.

The Last Days of Magic is an average length novel and this meant it had some restrictions.

First character growth felt like sudden jumps. This was due to the time hopping required in the average length novel to cover the scope of what Tompkins wanted to cover.

Second that only snip its from the war between the Irish and English were written about. Again for the same reason: the large scope of the idea being fit into an average length novel.

Tompkins could have turned his idea for The Last Days of Magic into a series of novels. I would have bought, read, enjoyed and recommended them all – due to Tompkins well thought out plots, brilliant description, completely real characters and engaging writers voice.

The Last Days of Magic is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Sunday 26 August 2018

Wonderful Websites – Music & Radio

By Amazon, Music & Radio, Technology, The WebNo Comments
wonderful-websites-image This is the ninth blog post in a series titled Wonderful Websites. The first focused on general health and can be read here. The second focused on mental health and mental illness and can be read here.

The third post focused on shopping and can be read here. The fourth focused on money and can be read here.

The fifth focused on gigs, shows and theatres and can be read here. The sixth focused on paganism and can be read here.

The seventh focused on gay culture and society and can be read here. The eighth focused on TV, Online Streaming & Films and can be read here.

Here’s Wonderful Websites for music & radio:

1. YouTube – It’s great for discovering new music. You can watch official music videos or lyrical videos. Plus YouTube will automatically find related videos.

2. iTunes – Podcasts – I love a good Podcast. Podcasts are like prerecorded talk radio shows. Two I enjoy are Desperate House Witches and The Gay Agenda.

3. iTunes – A quick and convenient way to buy and download music. I dislike the restrictions Apple are placing more and more on the music you buy through their store.

4. BBC iPlayer Radio – The great way to listen to and catch up any BBC radio station.

5. Gaydio Radio – If you like dance music you’d love Gaydio. I listen on the odd occasion. However a wider variety of music and some discussion programmes would better represent the diversity in the gay community.

6. Spotify – I got a Spotify Preimum free trial with a phone contract a number of years ago. I loved it. But when the free trial ended the £9.99 per month was in my mind too expensive for a service that you get nothing tangible from.

I tried the free version but the advertising was too frequent and quickly became too irritating to stand. So I don’t use Spotify at all now.

7. Heart Radio – I’ve recently discovered Heart Radio thorough hire car and courtesy car radios as my car has been off the road (see It Comes in Threes).

8. Smooth Radio – I like a bit of Smooth radio as it helps me relax. Even if they do repeat the same tracks far too often.

9. Amazon Music Unlimited – I’ve never tried Amazon Music Unlimited. I bet it’s great if you have Amazon devices such as the Amazon Echo.

Are there any music & radio websites that you think are useful that aren’t on the list? If so leave a comment below and let me know.

In the next post in my Wonderful Websites series I will list great websites for technology.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Monday 16 July 2018
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