Momentary Magic: A Story Excerpt from Hearth & Heart 2017 Winter

        I couldn't tell at first that it was snowing. It just looked like a ripple in the fabric of reality, and the tiny flakes were more like mist than snow.
        The fire in the hearth flared up and burned brighter, and within seconds the ripple had become a full swirling snow storm, driven by the North Wind.
        I bundled up in layers of wool and dug out my pruning shears, intending to cut some greenery for the approaching Midwinter holiday. Then stepping out of my door into the swirling snow, I headed to the forest along the back end of my property, where years ago I had planted a Holly tree.
        I threaded my way carefully through the field, not wanting to even leave a footprint to disturb this work of nature as the snow began to transform the landscape. And as I drew closer to the wooded area, a curious thing happened. The swirling snow seemed to go into slow motion, and the North Wind seemed to calm. The world became very still. The usual local sounds had ceased, and even my footsteps seemed almost completely silent.


Full story available in the 2017 Winter edition of Hearth & Heart at Pegana Press

Momentary Magic i.e. Hearth & Heart 2017 Winter Edition

Ah, there you are!

Hello Reader.  Let me introduce you to Hearth & Heart volume 2   2017 Winter Edition.

A little book filled with short stories written in the spirit of Winter Tales.

It begins with a little flight of fancy called Yule which forms the prelude to the book.  It sets the mood for what's to come, and it begins, thus...

The season of Yule approaches! A light in the darkness. I hear it in the sound of sleigh bells and the tinkle of wind chimes tossed by the north wind. The muted sound of snow falling, a sound so faint there is nothing else like it...

What follows is a story called City of Embers.  A cousin, you might say to The Voice of Fire, which appeared in Winter Tales in 2014.  City of Embers was written that same year, and recounts a story of a city which appears in a fireplace.  Pure fantasy.

After that comes Road Work, a brand new story I wrote this year.  It was written to appear in Hearth & Heart Vol 3 2018 Autumn edition, but I have decided to suspend that publication for the time being, and wanted it to appear in what is perhaps my last edition of Hearth & Heart.

It tells the story of what happens when a bridge is opened up between heaven and earth.

The final short story is called Holly Magic and is a true story that reads like fiction.  To me those are the very best stories.  It brings in all the elements of Winter imagery.

There is one final story - a micro story called La Befana in honor of Epiphany, which appears on the back cover of the book.

I hope these stories find their way into your heart to warm you in the cold of the long dark nights of winter.   They are at Pegana Press.

May they bring you good cheer.

Hearth & Heart 2017 Winter Edition Preview

I spent almost the whole day yesterday, working on the template for this edition.  I'm close enough to say that it will most likely be ready to go to the copy shop on Monday.

Here is a photo of the main illustrations for City of Embers.  In three dimensions, the title illustration looks amazing.  Unfortunately, it will flatten out during duplication.  Hopefully it won't lose too much in the translation.

Throwback Thursday: Winter Tales

In 2014 I found myself in the unique position of having the time to write.  My life had been busy and chaotic as I scrambled to learn the book binding trade and to make space in our small home to house Pegana Press, the Bindery, my energy medicine practice, and SoundChaser Productions.  As the living space became smaller and the space we needed to conduct business in our house grew larger, I found myself growing more overwhelmed and disorganized.  All the boundary lines between work and personal time became blurred.

But then something happened to change all of that.  I injured my shoulder and could do nothing.  The pain was intense, and I would sit in front of the fire for hours.  Those days spent in front of the fire allowed me to quiet my mind, and stories began to come through.

Mike ended up printing three of them in a letterpress chapbook titled Winter Tales.  Below is an interview conducted by Mike which contains two short readings...one from The Voice of Fire (at the beginning of the recording), and one from Cup of Cheer (10 minutes and 33 seconds into the recording).  During the rest of the interview we talk about the stories.

I share this interview here in the spirit of the coming winter season.  Thank you for listening.  Winter Tales letterpress chapbook available from Pegana Press. 

Tea With Whimsy

One of the reasons I joined Patreon was to help inspire me and keep me disciplined to carry on with my writing.  I had allowed myself to relegate story telling to my lowest priority.  

Tea With Whimsy was a story I began writing on September 15, 2013 because I couldn't sleep at night.  It was a way to lose myself in a story.  To sooth my mind, and keep it from cycling through a to do list which was keeping me awake.

I stopped writing for nearly two years, and decided Patreon would help get me back on track.  And while it did get me writing and creating constantly since joining in mid August, I still have not gotten back to work on Tea With Whimsy, which is the story I love to write above all others.

So now I'd like to share the very first lines of Tea With Whimsy, which began with a post I titled...

A Bedtime Story I Tell Myself

It's after Midnight, and I find that I can not sleep.  So I slip out my front door and into the night.  My feet find the way for me...They read the ground...They know it even through my shoes.  And my spine stretches up and up into the night air.  I grow taller as I walk.

My feet take me off the paved road and onto the road not paved.  The road that has grass growing between the tire tracks, and around me in the darkness I get glimpses of four legged folk.  Some are wild and some live with people.

On I walk.  The night air tickles my nostrils with scent of green and earth and water...some fragrances come stronger in certain places, like the spot along the road where the fragrance of cedar stands out stronger than it had been, or where the road comes close to a small stream and the smell of the water comes to you even before the song of the water reaches your ears.

I look back, and I see Coyote following behind me.

I laugh at him and he laughs back.

And Owl laughs too, because he gets the joke.

And a little rustle of laughter rises up from the land around me in the stones and the plants and the water and the wind.  And the frogs decide this would be a good time to resume their song.

Ahead in the darkness, I can see the dim moonlight glow off a white picket fence.  My hand finds the latch and as I step through the gate, the clouds part to reveal the face of the waxing moon nearly full, lighting the grounds of the cottage which is Whimsy's house.

And at that, I practically trip over her bent over there in the path gathering herbs in the moonlight.



I'm tired -- more later...

Do frogs sing after midnight?  You bet they do.


And that was the beginning of Tea With Whimsy.  I hope you enjoyed that little tiny bit of it.  I enjoyed writing it.  Night after night, I would post a little bit more whenever I couldn't sleep.  And always it would relax me and help to heal me of insomnia as I would write.

Later, as it became a growing story, I stopped blogging it and began to write it in earnest as a full length book.  Then for some reason, I no longer remember, I stopped and just never got back to it.

But I'm ready to pick up the threads again and hopefully see it through to the end.

Momentary Magic

I'm considering changing the title of my zine from Hearth & Heart to Momentary Magic.

This is an example of the type of story that appears in Hearth & Heart.  I would appreciate some honest feed back to the following questions.

1.  What are your favorite genres?  (for example:  weird, fantasy, mystery, horror, suspense, etc.)
2.  Who are your favorite authors?
3.  In which genre would you place Stories To Be Carried?
4.  Would you read more stories like Stories To Be Carried?

Please feel free to respond in the comments below.

Stories To Be Carried

528 words

I saw a woman on a dusty road one day. The sun shone hot, and there was the smell of berries and pine trees in the air and the drone of insects, and no other sound was there but for my own breathing as I labored to climb the steep hill we were both on. She was walking down the hill, and she had strapped to her back an enormous basket. And as I approached her, I could see the basket was hanging with the open end downward.
She greeted me, and I her, and then I asked her about the basket.
"It was for the stories I gathered," was her answer.
"But it's upside down. You've lost your stories, " I said with deep concern.
"Well, they weren't really mine, you know," she said leaning in and placing a hand upon my arm as if to reassure me that it was quite alright.
And then her eyes left my face and looked off into a distance which I could not perceive, and she spoke.
"There was a time gone by, when I would collect all the stories I would come across. And whether they spoke of beauty and joy, or they spoke of tragedy and pain, it was all one and the same to me, for each story would wring my heart until it felt like it would burst within my breast.
"And because I gave them my attention, and allowed them to touch my heart, they would cling to me, until I had to find a basket large enough to hold them all.
"And still I went my way in the world, gathering more stories, until my basket became heavy with them."
She paused and looked at me. She made a deep satisfied sigh, and her face resembled that of a child, though she seemed ancient.
I looked back at her eagerly, and I waited for her to continue.
"One day, they just became too heavy to carry. So I simply turned the basket over, and allowed them to escape."
"But didn't they want to stay with you?" I questioned.
"They were old stories. They had grown sleepy. I don't know if they even noticed being loosed."
I pondered this a moment and she continued.
"Now when I meet a story, I can look it in the face, acknowledge it, get to know it even, before I continue on my journey. It's nice to be able to say to a story, "I see you" and then be able to part ways rather than picking it up and carrying it with me."
After a moment of silence, she sighed happily and spoke again.
"I've enjoyed our talk, but I must be on my way," she said gesturing to her path which led down the hill.
I turned to watch her go, and could see other women in the distance making their way up the hill, and all were carrying baskets of varying shapes and sizes.
I knew what I must do. I reached behind me and removed my own basket. Then turning it over, I watched the stories tumble out like colored marbles.

Copyright Rita Tortorello 2014 May 30
This story appeared in Hearth & Heart Volume 1 2015 Summer Edition

Thank you for reading and for your feedback.

Raining

We're having a rainy afternoon in the South Puget Sound area.

The cats are snoozing, Mike is reading, and I am working on our income tax return.

Seems like a good day to write instead, but someone's gotta do it.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go...

Here's a page from Hearth & Home vol 1 Summer.  I really do have more of them to release, but this one is the only one that made it to print so far.

12 Days of Dec. ~ Day 4 #Zine Feature: Hearth & Heart by @RitaTortorello https://t.co/Nj4WSin1i8 #nature #stories pic.twitter.com/E1tLKorCcn

— Sweet Candy (@SweetCandyPress) December 5, 2015

eeeee!  I can't believe it.

Now, I really do wish I hadn't been too busy to get the next two editions out.  Weeeellll, better late than never.  I guess I'll just have to add two more things to my list of priorities.

THANKS SAGE! for featuring my zine.

Hearth & Heart Autumn 2015 update

________________________
Hearth & Heart Autumn 2015
cover mock up

I was hoping to have this edition out by now, but things keep happening to delay.  I have almost the whole thing ready to go, but I needed to reproduce 4 major images and I'm not satisfied with the quality.  I guess I need to find another printer.

Zoë is another reason.  I have decided not to use that stupid over-sized cone on her, so that means that from time to time, I have to remind her not to start exploring her wound site, while it heals.  She's doing amazing.  I actually got some sleep last night.  I feel lucky that I work from home, because it allows me to be present with her.  One less thing to stress about.  And one thing I know from experience working in energy medicine with my own animals and with others, is that our human stress over our loved ones, slows down their healing process.  My analysis is that it causes an interference pattern in your psyche, which inhibits your ability to "see" your sick animal as healthy.  (Or to use the more familiar language of Abraham-Hicks, --You won't be a vibrational match with that outcome.)

I got some amazing insight into the physiology of a cat, while doing Zoë 's session last night.  It was so magical, that I might try and find a way to share it in story form.

I'm also doing some book binding work right now.  Pegana Press is releasing The Golden Key by George MacDonald with illustrations by Charles Van Sandwyk.  (hopefully by the end of September).  Visit the link to view photos of the book.

Well now it's off to work I go.

Hearth & Heart Autumn Edition

I'm just about ready to release Hearth & Heart Volume 1 2015 Autumn Edition.  This quarterly zine is filled with short stories, and images, as well as some surprises.

The Autumn Edition 2015 features 3 short stories, an essay, and a poem.  Story titles include  A Fairy Tale from 1969, Smile!, and There Be Giants.

Genre: Magical Realism

This zine will be available at Pegana Press Books  as well as at my Etsy shop  A Charmed Enchantment in about a week.  Only about 3 weeks later than I had hoped to release it, but considering my relationship with Time, I did pretty well.

Zine Complete

I'm excited to announce that Hearth & Heart is finally complete and on sale now.

You may find it on the Pegana Press website by following the link below.

Hearth & Heart

Hearth & Heart vol. 1 2015 Summer Edition

Embroidering the Fabric of Reality

Have I lost touch with reality?

Oh, most assuredly I have!

It blinks in and out, changes shapes and colors, sights, sounds and smells.

It spins out of control and knocks me off my feet at times.

Actually it isn't possible to lose touch with reality entirely.  We are it and we are in it.  It is only possible to lose touch with someone else's translation of reality.  But we always have a firm footing in our version of what that is, even if it changes from one moment to the next.

So said the writer of today's current version of my reality.

Have I lost touch with reality?

Why do you ask?  Haven't you ever?

Of Ice and Mountain Slopes

"And in my dreams, I travel with them to realms inseparable from the stars."
--Where the Snow Folk Live

Where the Snow Folk Live is one of three short stories found in Winter Tales available from Pegana Press Books.

Where the Snow Folk Live from Winter Tales available at Pegana Press

Winter Tales Ships Today

Winter Tales by Rita Tortorello available through Pegana Press

Winter Tales is complete and shipping out to new homes world wide.  I'm excited to see this book finally going into the hands of readers.

Limited to 50 copies, hand set and letter press printed by Mike Tortorello at Pegana Press in blue ink on snow white paper.  This book is bound as a chapbook and sold through Pegana Press Books.

It is my first published work, and I am proud to join the community of self published authors who are creating a new way to present their written words to the world.  I'm excited to be living in a time when we have the option to change how authors, artists, and musicians are received, making it possible for them to find their tribe of people who appreciate what they create.

I am the author of Winter Tales, which consists of three short stories inspired by Winter and the elements of Fire and Ice.  As the other half of Pegana Press, I also had a hand in the making of the physical book.  I do the binding at Pegana Press, and this book, because we wanted to keep it simple, is bound as a chapbook using a combination of blue flax linen and glacier blue silk threads to sew the cover of French Canson paper of soft gray, reminiscent of late afternoon shadows on snow with ornate cover title in blue ink and a glimpse of sparkle.

The three short stories contained within can best be described as magical realism.  Which is really just the ability to notice and interact with the magic which takes place in everyday life.  The Voice of Fire was inspired by listening to the Fire.  Try it and you'll see what I mean.  Where the Snow Folk Live was inspired by the land which is home to the Yeti.  And Cup of Cheer is the most magical of all.  Life on Earth from the perspective of that which fires the sky-the Northern Lights.  As I said earlier, all inspired by Fire and Ice.  The mystic spirit of Winter.

Stories like these exist to remind us that life is filled in every moment with magic which hides itself in ordinary things, but seeks to gain our attention so that we may awaken from the repetitive hypnotic trance of modern life and see through a different lens.

Stories tell themselves all the time--to all of us.  Sometimes, we hear.

Winter Tales

Cup of Cheer

Cup of Cheer is one of the short stories from Winter Tales.  The setting for this story is an inn on the frontier that borders "the land to the West and the land to the East".  Not only is the frontier a threshold between worlds, as all borders are, but it is the departure point for the narrator of the story.

A page from Cup of Cheer which appears in Winter Tales from Pegana Press

This is the final week end to get Winter Tales at the special preorder price.  This letterpress chapbook is limited to 50 copies and will be released on Monday January 19, 2015.  You may order your copy at Pegana Press Books.

Listen to excerpts read from Winter Tales in this discussion.

Where the Snow Folk Live

From the letterpress chapbook, Winter Tales available from Pegana Press

Where the Snow folk Live.  They are as elusive as a dream.  They strike fear in the hearts of most.  A tale inspired by the search for the Yeti.  Winter Tales

The Voice of Fire

Do you ever sit in front of a fire, and listen to the song it sings?  Have you ever hearkened to The Voice of Fire?  A story of magical realism by Rita Tortorello.  One of three short stories in Winter Tales available through Pegana Press.

The Voice of Fire from Winter Tales available through Pegana Press.

Here is a page from the letterpress chapbook, Winter Tales.  Special preorder price is available through January 18, 2015 at Pegana Press.


You can listen here to an excerpt read by the author.