The beginning of February, halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, marks the traditional Gaelic festival of Imbolc, a time to celebrate the coming of spring, the creative energy ready to emerge in the earth and in our lives.

Here is an image that went into the creation of the book cover for Bitter Magic, my novel about a 17th century confessed witch in Scotland. (this is not the actual cover.) The crow holds a rowan berry cluster. In Celtic myth, the rowan tree is a place of spiritual power and visions, and the crow has special significance as arbiter of the Otherworld. In Bitter Magic Isobel, the “witch,” meets a fairy man at the rowan tree, and she can shape-shift–turn herself into a crow.

Bitter Magic is with the editor now at Sunbury Press and will come out this August. Go to the bottom of my home page to sign up for my newsletter and get news of when to order the book: https://www.nancykilgore.com