(This post first appeared on Substack: Writing Magick with Maggie Sunseri. Click to subscribe.)
Introducing Me
I wish I could remember the login for my very first ever blogspot blog I created back in, I want to say… 2010? I was ten-ish years old and ready to tell the world about my cat (to be honest, I still like to tell everyone about this cat), my super cool fish tank that got overrun by hundreds of snails reproducing asexually, and how Lois Duncan answered the letter I wrote her and I couldn’t wait to be a famous author just like her some day. Looking back, I absolutely adore that my weird little ten-year-old self was obsessed with Duncan’s many mystery-thriller young adult books. From her, I not only developed a love of reading and writing, but also an obsessive fascination with the supernatural. Her books were unique because they blended crime and thriller plots with more spiritual, otherworldly elements like astral projection, witchcraft, and psychic phenomenon. That’s right! This gal was writing fiction about astral projection in the late 70’s. AWESOME.
Back to the point. (See? I promised I’d be all over the place. It’s fun and exciting not to know what’s coming next, isn’t it?) I’ve been attempting consistent blogs, journals, diaries, novels, and all manner of writing projects my whole life. I managed to squeeze out a couple young adult dystopian romance novels when I was 15-17, but with the advent of increasing school stress, then a chaotic college life filled with travel, mistakes, more mistakes, and an insane workload, I not only lost my ability to read for fun, but also to write. The one thing on this earth I knew in my bones I was meant to do.
Enter: Covid-19. My plans to go to Amsterdam the summer of 2020 and take a course at the local Uni in human sexuality, followed by an anthropological field study on alternative sexual practices and communities—otherwise known as kink, polyamory, and BDSM—was cancelled. And I was devastated. I was going to gallivant around Europe, my absolute favorite thing to do, and interview people about weird sex shit. That’s literally the dream. I had a grand vision of a beautifully written ethnographic paper, that was so interesting and enlightening that it got published in a journal… but then March 2020 hit and my campus was sent home. All summer projects for my scholarship were soon cancelled, as borders were closed to Americans. For the first summer of my college career, I was stuck in America with nothing to do.
Then, I remembered: I’m a writer! And I like to read things that aren’t academic journals and nonfiction books for class! I hadn’t realized just how much magic had drained from my life until Covid forced me to face myself and reconsider… well, everything. We can get into all of that later, but for now all you need to know is that I decided it was time to write again. I started reading fiction. I told the Universe my plans and begged for the floodgates of inspiration to open back up.
Soon, the beginnings of The Lost Witches of Aradia story wasn’t just trickling in… it was POURING. Characters began to take shape, and they started telling me all about themselves—their dreams, desires, loves, and hates. Once they realized that I was finally listening and ready to put pen to paper, they literally would not shut up. They kept me up well into the night with their incessant yapping. Annoying. But also amazing. As ideas flooded through for scenes, dialogue, and setting, I realized this series was going to be a long one. And it was going to be like nothing I’d ever read or written before.
The Lost Witches of Aradia is a story about hope. And it’s a story that changed—and quite possible saved—my life. I’m in love with this story, and I cannot wait to share more. For now, you can check out Book 1’s blurb here. Book 1 was finished last autumn, and books 2 and 3 were finished shortly after graduating from Centre College with a degree in Anthropology/Sociology this summer. The current plan is for Book 1 to be published in early January 2022, with Book 2 in February, Book 3 in March, and Book 4 in April. Later release dates TBD.
This story also taught me the kind of community I want to build, and after months of just thinking about it I decided it was time to make that dream a reality, too.
Thus Writing Magick with Maggie Sunseri was born.
Introducing: Writing Magick
I don’t know about you guys, but man am I tired of the anger. The utter cruelty and nihilism and contrarianism and pessimism and every ism, ever. There are plenty of things to be angry about, and perhaps rightfully so. But I think we all need places to go that aren’t so toxic and draining. That’s what I want this substack to be. I’m not talking about good-vibes-only toxic positivity. I’m talking about a community of like-minded people who want to talk about the most beautiful, strange, magickal, and inspiring parts of life. Because at the end of the day, it really is a miracle that we’re here at all.
I want to talk about that weird sex shit I didn’t get to study in Amsterdam—like where do kinks come from? Is BDSM inherently patriarchal? Why are humans so freaky? I want to talk about spirituality—like what’s the difference between lucid dreaming and astral projection? How do tarot cards really work? What does it actually mean to be a witch, today? What’s up with Gen Z’s latest obsession with astrology? How can we be mindful and loving in a divisive, cold, and hateful cultural climate?
And, of course, I want to talk about writing. All art is magick, quite literally. It’s the channeling of something beyond physical reality to create something new—something that has the power to change not only minds, but also the collective cultural, institutional, and social structures of our world. I want to talk about the art that moves us. The art that crushes us. I want to share my own writing and artistic process, and why I truly believe that stories are as important to our well-being as oxygen.
If any of that sounds remotely interesting to you, YAY! Hit that subscribe button and I promise to feed you content more consistently than I did with my snail blog. I guarantee one post a week, though twice a week is a definite possibility. For now, this is all free! However, if you end up loving my content and are desperate to support my indie writing career, feel free to head on over to my Buy Me a Coffee page here.
(This post first appeared on Substack: Writing Magick with Maggie Sunseri. Click to subscribe.)
