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Getting to Know the Bees
I’m spending my week at a bee identification workshop, learning about the diversity of Missouri bees and how to identify representative species. Mike Arduser, Missouri bee expert, is teaching the workshop. I spent a day collecting with Mike last summer, when he completed a survey of wild bees at two of Kansas City Missouri’s…
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Living in A Time of Giants
2016 was a hard year for a lot of people, myself included, but despite the general wailing and gnashing of teeth out there in the interverse, I can’t help but feel that 2016 was, on the whole, no better or worse than 2015. To be fair, 2015 was a pretty bad year for me.…
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Midwinter’s Eve
Happy Winter Solstice, Everyone! To accompany your midnight meditations, here’s an excerpt from one of my favorite scenes in Eolyn; a glimpse into the revelry of Winter Solstice, as traditionally celebrated by the mages and magas of Eolyn’s world: AS MIDNIGHT APPROACHED, the musicians quieted their instruments. Mage Corey’s guests convened in a circle at…
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The Witch
“She cannot be a witch, he tells himself. Witches do not study philosophy; witches do not practice scientia nova. She belongs to a new age, a future he longs to be a part of.” – The Witch of Cologne, Tobsha Learner This week’s post has a double purpose. It’s a continuation of my Halloween reflections inspired by Tobsha Learner’s…
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The Inquisitor
For a second, Carlos wonders what this man would look like under torture, whether his face would retain the same luminous quality. The thought excites him – the execution of power always does – and his sense of inferiority fades. – Tobsha Learner, The Witch of Cologne For a while now, I’ve been promising a series of…
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Not-So-Benevolent Sexism
The night I watched Hillary Clinton accept the Democratic nomination for president, something shifted inside of me. More than shifted; there was movement of seismic proportions. A complete re-ordering of my internal universe. Until that moment, part of me believed that this was impossible; that as long as I lived, a woman would never be nominated…
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War and Peace
Anyone else find themselves wishing November were here so we could get these elections over with? In my case, I’ve been watching the current presidential race since summer 2015. I remember when Sanders and Trump announced their candidacies; I thought both of them unlikely to get very far, for entirely different reasons. The Trump bid seemed…
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Swords and Shadows
I want to express my deepest thanks for everyone’s support during last week’s post. I’m always shy to share personal matters on my blog, but your responses moved me deeply and were a great help in getting me through the week. I’m back home now, moving forward with new projects and old ambitions. And…we are…
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Cover Reveal: Sword of Shadows
Happy Summer Solstice! I’m celebrating today with the cover reveal for SWORD OF SHADOWS, Book Two of THE SILVER WEB. As part of the cover reveal event, today and tomorrow only, the Kindle edition of the first book in the series, EOLYN, is FREE! Download your copy and discover the power of the magas today. About Sword…
K.R. Gastreich, Author
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K. R. Gastreich, Author 