Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Sanctuary Times















I am now writing a weekly newspaper about our corner of the world. Very old school. I am putting it on google drive for now because I'm unhappy with other venues. I will post the links here every week.


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Saturday, October 15, 2022



















Yikes! It looks like I forgot to announce here the publication of Spirits, Spells, and Storytelling: 13 Days of Hallows the Old Mermaids Way. The 13 days begin October 21 and go through November 2nd. I'm not sure you could get the paperback in time for October 21st this year, but you could easily get the e-book. 


Here's from the back cover: Join Kim Antieau and the Old Mermaids for their annual celebration of all things wild and marvelous with 13 days of beauty, meditations, food, creative prompts, myths, magic, and Old Mermaid tales. All designed to celebrate Hallows/Samhain the Old Mermaids way.




Read more here...

Sunday, September 11, 2022

The Second Book of Old Mermaids Tales is Published!


I am thrilled to announce the publication of The Second Book of Old Mermaids Tales, a book 11 years in the making! It's filled with short tales about the Old Ems and the Old Mermaids Sanctuary. And it includes an introduction written by Mario Milosevic. 

Here’s the back cover copy: The Old Sea still calls to the Old Mermaids, but their adventures in the New Desert ease their heartache and keep them from missing their former lives too much. This follow-up to The First Book of Old Mermaids Tales is filled with just as much charm, wisdom, and good times as that much-loved volume of short tales. 

Join the Old Mermaids as they continue to build community, learn about their desert home, and welcome all to the Old Mermaids Sanctuary. The Old Mermaids always offer good company, lovely conversation, and spellbinding storytelling. Once you come for a visit, you won't want to leave. 

Available everywhere. Here's the Amazon link.


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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

The Annotated Church of the Old Mermaids


Church of the Old Mermaids celebrates its fifteenth birthday with a brand new edition of this beloved novel. A glorious celebration of life, love, friendship, and the power to change, Church of the Old Mermaids challenges us to find the good in others and ourselves. This edition is fully annotated by Kim Antieau and Mario Milosevic, illuminating the sources of the Old Mermaids and bringing new understanding and depth to this classic novel of souls adrift seeking a secure shore in a world of peril and uncertainty.

Myla Alvarez, novice, walks into the Sonoran Desert and begins telling stories about the Old Mermaids who washed ashore onto the New Desert when the Old Sea dried up. In this mystical new world, they lived, created, and walked in beauty. Myla finds sustenance and meaning in their lives and stories. But she worries that Homeland Security may discover the undocumented migrants she harbors at the Old Mermaids Sanctuary. When an old friend reenters her life, Myla begins to doubt herself and the wisdom of preserving the Old Mermaids Sanctuary. Will the Old Mermaids come to her aid?

Full of magic yet rooted in the cruel and beautiful realities of the border and those who live near it, this new presentation of Church of the Old Mermaids is sure to please both new and old readers of this unique and still timely novel.

This new edition also contains an introduction by Mario Milosevic and three essays on mermaids and storytelling by Kim.

A special book deserves a special cover and we are fortunate to have an exclusive and stunning  image by the extraordinary artist Charles Vess for this edition of Church of the Old Mermaids.

The Annotated Church of the Old Mermaids is available in paperback, ebook, and hardcover formats.


Read more here...

Sunday, September 12, 2021

The Old Mermaids Wisdom Cards & Guidebooks





"The Old Mermaids Wisdom Cards
are now available along with three different choices of guidebooks. I had wanted to do a tarot deck based on my novel Church of the Old Mermaids for years, but I finally realized the Old Mermaids needed their own unique deck that was not tied to any story but their own. The Old Mermaids Wisdom Cards combine my talents of storytelling and photography with the wisdom of the Old Ems. This is probably the favorite creative project I've ever done. I use these cards every day by asking 'What wisdom do I need?' and then pulling a card. It's always exactly what I needed to hear." —Kim Antieau

When the Old Mermaids washed ashore on the New Desert after the Old Sea dried up, they were strangers in a strange land, alone and unprepared. The Old Mermaids did not let that stop them from finding a way to survive and thrive in their new home. Now, in The Old Mermaids Wisdom Cards, the Old Ems reveal the secrets of living life to the fullest in 65 lush cards featuring Kim Antieau's stunning photographs. The Wisdom Cards do not predict the future or tell you the ultimate fate of your soul. Instead, use the cards to find your true self right now, your true purpose in the here and now, and how to live with a wild and generous heart for the benefit of yourself and your community. The Old Mermaids found their destiny in a new world and so can you. We've given links to Amazon for the books, but you can buy the e-book or print books from any bookstore.

To see all of the choices of The Old Mermaids Wisdom Cards, go here. You have a choice of a tarot sized deck, a round deck, and a mini deck (and you can get them with or without a tuck box and with or without a booklet (the round and tarot sized editions).

For the guidebook, you have four choices: an e-book edition, a compact edition, a black and white edition, and the color edition. You can go here and see all editions by clicking on "see all formats and editions" which is right above the price boxes.
 






















Read more here...

Sunday, August 1, 2021

Magic, Myth, and Merrymaking: 13 Days of Yuletide the Old Mermaids Way



Happy Lughnasadh and Merry Lammas! Today marks the publication of our beautiful little book Magic, Myth, and Merrymaking: 13 Days of Yuletide the Old Mermaids Way. 

This is one of my favorite projects ever. It's gorgeous, and we had so much fun creating it. You get Old Em stories along with tips on how to celebrate and live the Old Mermaids ways plus Mario Milosevic wrote 13 poems for the book. 

From the back cover: "Join Kim Antieau and the Old Mermaids for their annual celebration of all things wild and marvelous with 13 days of beauty, meditations, recipes, creative prompts, myths, magic, and Old Mermaid tales. All designed to usher in the New Year with joy, creativity, and love. (This color edition is designed as a small beautiful gift for yourself, your family, and your friends: everyone in your life who appreciates beauty and celebration. A more economical black and white print edition is available as well as an ebook edition.)

It's available as an e-book, too, and there's also a black and white version. Just click on "see all formats and editions" to see it if you're on the color link.

P.S. Amazon is having trouble with its "view a sample" feature, by the way, but it should be fixed soon, we hope. And if you don't want to buy through Amazon, you can get it through any other e-book store or any indie bookstore via Ingram. The black and white version is more expensive through Ingram.


Read more here...

Saturday, May 29, 2021

All three Whackadoodle Times novels are now in one volume: Whackadoodle Times Galore. You can get the ebook or print copy through Amazon or any of your favorite bookstores.



Read more here...

Monday, November 9, 2020

The Old Mermaids Mystery School is Now out as a Book!



I have distilled the best parts of my popular online school (The Old Mermaids Mystery School) and created this book. Now it’s all at your pace, exactly when and how you want to dive into these mysteries. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:


Are you feeling overloaded? Surrounded by chaos? Or maybe you’re no longer sure what your purpose is. Perhaps you’ve never known. In a world of noise and chaos, The Old Mermaids Mystery School offers simple steps to connect with Nature, our true selves, and each other. 


In Mystery Schools from ancient times, the Mysteries were based on ideas that were hidden in plain sight. So it is with The Old Mermaids Mystery School. 


When the Old Mermaids walked out of the Old Sea and into the New Desert, changing their fin-ware into skin-ware, they brought with them not only their beautiful magical selves but entire skill sets which enabled them to thrive in their new and changing world.


Now their unique, practical, mystical, and poetic ways of being in and connecting with the world are here in The Old Mermaids Mystery School, a 13-Mystery self-directed program to help you explore ways to swim, walk, and dance with beauty, joy, and authenticity through all the days and nights of your life. 


Each Mystery in The Old Mermaids Mystery School features the wisdom of one of the Old Mermaids. You won’t find any dogma, religion, or exams here. Instead, revel in each of the 13 Mysteries, revealed to you over time, taking you from Sister Sheila Na Giggles’s practical steps on being in the here and now to Sister Faye Mermaid’s “The rest is mystery.”

 

The Old Mermaids offer you peace and sanctuary and a chance to thrive no matter where you find yourself in your life’s journey.


You can get it at Amazon or at any of your favorite bookstores.


Read more here...

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Whackadoodle Times Three


Brooke McMurphy's infamous and bawdy adventures come to a conclusion in this poignant and funny third book in the Whackadoodle Times series. From the cover: Disasters both natural and unnatural plague Brooke during the week she must deliver the script for the latest installment of her zombie movie franchise. Epic lightning storms strike the landscape, her intimate life is made public, her daughter may be trying to ruin her, she discovers she has no place to call home, and she finds solace in an old friend: the bottle. As her life melts down, with no prospects for relief, Brooke turns to the one thing that has any possibility of saving her: her epically dysfunctional disaster of a family. It's available as an e-book at your favorite e-book stores and on Amazon or through your local bookstore. Here is the Amazon link for the e-book and print version.


Read more here...

Kim and Mario Build a Labyrinth and So Can You


We moved to cherished land in 2019, and one of the first things we did was to build a full Chartres-type labyrinth in the bullpen in the Big Corral. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of our life. Mario did the figuring which was absolutely essential. We've documented how we did it in Kim and Mario Build a Labyrinth and So Can You, so you can do create own. Plenty of photos and diagrams to help you out. 


Read more here...

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Killing Beauty

My novel Killing Beauty is out. I hope you'll take a look at it. It has been many years in the making. I had the idea 15 years ago when a mentally ill woman from Clark County drove into Skamania County in Washington where I lived, drove her children into the forest, and shot them. It was such a stunning and senseless act, and I wanted to understand it. The story didn't end with the murders. Her husband, who apparently was not mentally ill but "just" religious, wouldn't bury the children at first because he believed God would revive them. Finally, after two months, he allowed the burial. I was haunted by this crime and another in my community.

Years before these murders, a young woman was raped and murdered in the forest. The young man who did the killing said something just came over him, and he had to rape and murder her. To me, that is absolutely terrifying. Could that really be the truth? I talked to people in my town who knew the kid. Apparently he was known to torture and kill animals. But no one had done anything to stop him? That was stunning to me.

When I was a teen growing up in Michigan, a classmate of mine was murdered. She was someone I admired immensely, and I learned of her death when I was babysitting and listening to the news one night. Bill Bonds mispronounced her name and described vividly how she had died. I almost lost my mind. I ran around the house trying not to scream. The world tilted. And I don't think it has ever untilted. I phoned my dad, and he came and sat with me until the parents of the children I was babysitting came home.

I believe murder and other acts of violence and betrayal can affect communities for decades, maybe forever. I think these events reverberate through time and space, perhaps. In any case, I wanted to write about how these acts of violence can affect the individual and the community. In Killing Beauty, the town is dying. Which came first: the violence or the end of a viable community?

I hesitated to write this book for a very long time. I didn't want to do anything to exploit someone else's tragedy. I didn't want to "cash in." Then one day I talked to a friend of mine about my reluctance. She said, "Kim, it happened in your community, so it happened to you, too. You get to decide how to deal with it." I knew she was right. Of course I had a right to figure out how to deal with it. Writing fiction is how I do that. So I wrote Maternal Instincts, the first part of this book first, as a standalone novel. Then I wrote Beauty Falls and realized it was all one novel.

I wrote Killing Beauty from the viewpoint of a retired cop, Katie Kelly. She was part of a group of teens who went out to the woods one night, and one of them was killed. Katie lived the rest of her life trying not to think of that night—and trying to keep everyone she knows or meets safe. And she has esssentially kept life at bay. And then one day, everything begins to unravel for her and her community, Beauty Falls.


Read more here...

Monday, December 10, 2018

Answering the Creative Call Workbook

I've created a fabulous workbook to go with Answering the Creative Call. It's got all the text of the original with lots of blank and lined pages for your creations.


Read more here...

Sunday, September 16, 2018

The Old Mermaids Oracle

The Old Mermaids Oracle guidebook which was originally only available to novices of The Old Mermaids Mystery School is now available to all. This small guidebook is for your use once you make your own set of oracles. Or you can use the book itself as the oracle by asking a question and flipping the pages until you stop on an Old Mermaid entry.

You can easily make your own set for your use, but if you want me to make a set for you or someone else, I will gladly do that. I will choose the materials—usually shell, but I can use gemstones or river stones if you prefer. I will make a set just for you (or someone else). If you want multiple sets or if you don't live in Canada or the U.S., contact me for prices for 1-5. If you don't want to pay by paypal/credit card, contact me. kim at kimantieau dot com.




Read more here...

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Kim Antieau Photography

I did a rehaul on my website. Mostly because I mistakenly deleted it. Ha! But you benefit. Kim Antieau Photography is up and running, and all photos are 25% off until July 15th. Enjoy!



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Sunday, September 17, 2017

The Old Mermaids Datebook 2018

This year is the 10th anniversary of the first publication of Church of the Old Mermaids, my most popular novel to date. In celebration of that, we created the Old Mermaids Datebook 2018 which is filled with my photographs, quotes from the Old Mermaids, and whimsical celebrations. Also this fall, Green Snake Publishing will publish The Second Book of Old Mermaids Tales. AND on February 1, 2018, The Old Mermaids Mystery School begins. (More on all of that later!)



Read more here...

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

15 Tales by Mario Milosevic

Mario Milosevic's new short story collection, 15 Strange Tales of Crime and Mystery, is chock-full of his brilliant, weird, quirky, mysterious work. Some of these stories have been published before—notably some from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine—and some are brand new. And the cover photograph is by me. (In fact, my Facebook peeps recommended I use that photo for a cover when they first saw it last year. And now we have!) I hope you'll check it out.


Read more here...

The Salmon Mysteries Workbook

Yay, yay, yay! I've put together a workbook for The Salmon Mysteries. We created a place where you can write, draw, collage while celebrating the Mysteries. We're going to create a Facebook private group so together we can participate virtually as well as...non-virtually. If you're on Facebook and want to participate, watch for my announcement about it. In the meanwhile, you can go here to purchase The Salmon Mysteries Workbook and here to find a little more about it.


Read more here...

Monday, April 10, 2017

My Photography



In-between working on about four different novels, I have also been working on my photography. Knock wood, I'm learning and getting better all the time. I've chosen about 400 of my 24,000 plus photos to post and sell on smugmug, a user-friendly outlet for people who want to buy photos. I hope you'll check it out here. 


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Thursday, April 28, 2016

Stepping Out and In


Every time I contemplate writing something, I feel almost mute—and a bit sick to my stomach. I have been writing since I could, telling stories through pictures and then words for decades. Yet lately, I have felt surrounded by people screaming and distorting and being generally...inhumane...and I haven’t want to jump into the fray. 

Most of this feeling came as a result of me spending too much time on social media, I know. But in real life, too, I kept encountering one bad actor after another, usually accompanied by an unleashed dog or sitting in a vehicle that was too close to the backside of my own vehicle for my comfort.

I realized not long ago that I had lost almost all faith in my fellow humans. My own natural and life-long compassion and empathy disappeared. I began responding aggressively and angrily to those who were behaving badly. Given where I live—in a country where a lot of people have guns—I figured if I didn’t get myself under control, I was going to get myself dead—or badly hurt. So I stepped off.

Aahhhh.

Most days, I stepped onto the trail at a nearby refuge.


What a relief it has been. I have subjected myself to very little news. No advertising, little news, no social media. I took thousands of photographs of cottonwoods, ospreys, woodpeckers, great blue herons, finches, red winged-blackbirds, and many ducks and turtles. I soon began to sleep better, my anger dissipated, and my compassion and empathy began to return.

On this particular refuge trail, I encounter so many kind and interesting people. We stop and talk to each other about the weather, the watershed, the birds (and other wild life). Not everyone wants to talk, of course. I passed one older gentleman almost every day for a couple of weeks. At first we just nodded to one another. Then after several days, I said hello, and he answered me likewise. In another day or two, he smiled as he said hello. Then one day, we stopped and talked to one another about the birds we had seen that day, and then we continued on our separate ways. 

A couple of times I have encountered people with dogs on the trail or about to get on the trail. (No dogs are allowed on this particular trail. It’s critical habitat.) In my recent naturalist training, the ranger had suggested that we make everyone feel welcome and safe at the refuge. I have remembered this each time I’ve met someone with a dog. 

One woman was looking for water for her dog. (Actually, she had borrowed the dog from a friend—so I guess that’s why she hadn’t brought water!) I offered her my water. As I poured water into the dog’s dish, I asked her all about the dog. Honestly, I didn’t care. I was just practicing being kind. Sometimes it does take practice.

 Once I encountered a group of young people with a dog. I stopped and said hello. “How are you doing? Hey, you probably didn’t realize it but this is critical habitat, and no dogs are allowed here.” The young man with the dog said someone had just told him, and they were leaving. I didn’t scream at him and point out prominent signs about no dogs on the trail—in fact, I didn’t even THINK about screaming at him. 

No screaming. No meltdown. All was well in River City.

I also haven’t had any road rage incidents lately. If someone tailgates me, I move over as soon as I can. If I can’t move, I imagine being surrounded by protective runes. (Hey, some of you pray. Some of you curse. I throw out runes or Celtic chants.) I’ve also started listening to audio books again. I guess that makes me a distracted driver, but I think it makes me a better driver: Listening to a good book keeps me from focusing on the asshat on my tail.

I have been doing my library work, too, and researching two novels. I won’t mention which ones just in case nothing ever comes of the research. I’m enjoying the research even though I’m not actually feeling any urge to write.

Right now, it’s important to me to try and disengage from as many of the cultural smokescreens as I can as I try to figure out what’s true (and real) in my life and in the world. It’s always been important to me to know the truth. I don’t mean that in some pompous or naïve way. I want to know what’s true. What’s real. I have always believed there is so much we don’t know. I think much of our full potential gets dampened or wounded or never realized because of cultural constraints: by what our culture tells us is so, what advertising tells us is so, what social media tells us is so. What we’ve been told doesn’t make it necessarily so, of course, but we don’t always understand this.

No matter who we are, we are affected by the culture—by the cultures of our family, friends, school, church, country, work. They want us to stay a part of them, they don’t want us to change, they don’t want us to rock the boat. This isn’t because of any evil intent. It’s about survival of the tribe. Flying the coop or living up to our dreams or full potential doesn’t maintain the status quo.

I know this sounds vague. It’s late. I’m tired. Maybe I can’t make it sound concrete. It’s like a fish who has lived its whole life in a fish bowl trying to talk about what it would be like to live in an ocean, I suppose.

I believe every decision we make—at least every important decision—is influenced by our various cultures. I believe illness and health and how we get well (or don’t get well) is influenced by our cultures. Scientists now know that our gene codes are only a small part of what makes us healthy or ill. They are learning from the study of epigenetics that our environment, including our cultures, can change and does affect our health.  

During this respite from social media, I have been trying to get well, something I’ve done for nearly every day of the last 30 years, so I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes us ill and what makes us healthy. I want to know the truth of what ails me so I can be well. 

Actually, I just want to be well. Maybe the truth doesn’t matter. 

Just bring me wellness. 

As you know, the musician Prince died last week. When Mario first told me, in an offhand way, I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. I was certain I had heard it wrong. How could Prince be dead? He was younger than I was. And he had always seemed so...like himself. He seemed to go his own way, to understand himself and his talent. I have chaffed at the constraints of my culture, but I have never thrown it off fully, not in a healthy way. Prince seemed full of himself. I’ve always felt that the world would be so much better off if each of us was full of our true self—not the self created by cultural constraints.

Later that day, the day Prince died, I wondered what I would have done with my life had I been able to truly know what I wanted. Would I have been a writer? I had wanted to be a writer for almost as long as I could remember. I was good at it, and I liked the accolades I got when I did it. Was that the reason I had become a writer?

I let my mind wander. I asked myself: What would I be now if I could be anyone? What would I do if I could do anything and be good at it? 

One word floated into my head: healer.

Healer?

What? No, that couldn’t be right. The thought of being a doctor or a nurse was repulsive to me. Not because there’s something wrong with those professions: I just wouldn’t be good at it. I’m queasy. I don’t have a strong stomach. I pick up symptoms easily. 

Yet I had studied folk healing for almost twenty-five years. I had even practiced some of what I learned. Sometimes I felt like I had helped people; sometimes I had no idea. I was even able to help myself a few times. But with the big thing that had ailed me for so many years, I was helpless. And I was still sick. After a while I thought, who gives a shit? If I can’t help myself, what good is it? If it was real, I’d be well. So I didn't’t believe in it.

I believe in what works: whether it’s a god or a medicine, a job or a relationship.

Because if it works, then it’s true.
And even if it had worked for some people, why hadn’t it worked for me?

Why? Why? Why?

Ugh.

Anyway. It was strange, odd, unexpected: healer. Did I really want to be a healer when I grew up?

I’m not sure what it means. Maybe nothing at all. I don’t really know what this post means. Maybe nothing at all. It’s almost as if words are new to me. Again. 

Whether I suddenly become a healer, tinker, tailor, soldier, or baker, I know I need to continue to step out. I don’t want to be the witch at the edge of the village, alone except when people need her. Nor do I want to be the one in the middle of everything stirring up trouble and feeling completely burned out. Somehow I need to balance out my despair over what is happening in the world with the joy of living in this beautiful world. I need to find my place in this old world.

Now, every morning I go outside and stand in my bare feet on the cold wet grass. I imagine my roots going down into the ground to wrap around the roots of other trees growing in the area. And then I reach my arms up into the sky and imagine myself eating light, just like the trees. This always makes me smile. And it feels...chilly and thrilling. 

I realized today it’s not just other people I’ve lost faith in. I’ve lost faith in myself and my abilities. I need to regain some trust and confidence in myself again, in my ability to be in this world as a whole, hale, healthy, true being. Maybe as I wash away the influences of the culture, I will become full of my true self.

Wouldn’t that be something? 

If I could do that, I guess I would be a healer. 

  


Read more here...

Monday, February 1, 2016

Queendom: Feast of the Saints

Queendom: Feast of the Saints is now available!

From the cover: Kim Antieau dazzles readers with stunning tales of our world in novels like The Jigsaw Woman and The Gaia Websters. She does it again with Queendom: Feast of the Saints, an epic saga of empire and family brought to the brink of destruction. 

Hundreds of years after The Fall, life in the nation state of Queendom remains idyllic and lively. The royal Villanueva family and their troupe of servants, led by Queen Reina, all live and work at the Hearth, the mysterious stone building created before The Fall. 

All is well in this paradise for creatives until a new chef arrives to practice the Unified Field Theory of Spices and the former queen returns with ambitious and disruptive plans of her own. Both women harbor secrets that could shatter the Queendom. 

Meanwhile, those exiled to the Hinterlands begin to threaten the country. When disaster strikes, Reina, along with her soothsayer advisor, must rally the family, the downstairs staff, and all of the Queendom to save the nation from ruin. 

A seductive tale of love and betrayal as well as an examination of the illusory nature of paradise, Queendom: Feast of the Saints begins a majestic series sure to satisfy Kim Antieau’s current readers and win her many more.

(Publishers Weekly reviewed the novel here. Print copies are available through Amazon, and you can pre-order the e-book edition at any of your favorite e-book online stores.)


Read more here...
 
All work copyright © Kim Antieau 2008-.