FROM THE HEART WITH GINI RIFKIN

Sunday, November 3, 2013

BOOKS AND BREWS, A GREAT SUCCESS

Thank you Jessi, and all the wonderful people at Farr Library in Greeley who made ReadCon 2013 possible. What a great experience.

And thanks to my sister for fearlessly driving us to parts unknown (we only go a little bit lost!), and for manning the camera, and sharing the adventure.

It was fun to meet other authors and readers, getting to know what genre they preferred, if they leaned toward E-books or paperbacks, etc.

We met several celebrities there. They were really good about us Paparazzi-ing them.

"Hi Edgar, my name is Virginia, just like your wife."

"Ooooh, Fabio, my hero."

"Forget Scarlett, stay with me Rhett."

All in all a spectacular time......and I didn't even try the brew! Heard it was very good with lots of interesting "flavors".

www.ginirifkin.com

Monday, October 28, 2013

Blessed Samhain and Happy Celtic New Year

Samhain, my favorite night of the year.

Welcome to my circle.

Let all who stand within it be here of their own free will,

and accord in peace and love.

Samhain, pronounced Sah-ween, Sow-win, or Sow-wan (your choice, there aren’t a lot of Ancient Celts around to ask!) had its beginnings as pre-Christian festival of the dead. It was also the beginning of the New Year, and so the wheel turns.

Samhain became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people. Pope Gregory the 1st, suggested rather than wiping out Pagan holidays, they be converted to Christian Holy days. It didn’t work too well for Samhain.

November 1^st was soon called All Saints Day, and in the 9th century, the church tried again to supplant Samhain with a Christian feast on November 2nd called All Souls Day. But nothing stopped the traditional beliefs, and customs lived on in new guises.

All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed meaning sanctified or holy), gave rise to the night before being called All Hallows Eve, which became Hallow Evening, which became Halloween. And so Samhain was transformed into Halloween.

The modern day customs we carelessly practice are not modern at all. The wearing of costumes, for instance, and roaming from door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and about, along with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like the very creatures they feared, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This practice called mumming, is now called trick-or-treating.

But although we only play at wanting to see monster on Halloween, it is best to remember that on this night, the veil between the worlds is thin, and spirits are roaming in earnest. The gates between the worlds are open wide. And while we seek the Ancient Ones, with open hearts and open hands to honor our beloved dead and to receive the blessing of the universe, there are malevolent spirits abroad as well. You stand at the doorway of the New Year in a place that is not a place and a time that is not in time.

In this doorway we are neither in the past or the future, nor are we in our accustomed world, but are in the eternal present in the Summer Lands, lands of the Dead, the Realm of Ancestors, the Island of Avalon.

So, as you go innocently about on Halloween, best keep watch over your shoulder, and don’t be stingy with your gifts to the gods!

Happy Samhain. Happy New Year.

www.ginirifkin.com

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Monday, October 21, 2013

VICTORIAN DREAM earns 4.5 star review

Oh Happy Day:

Murder, Mayhem, and a Marriage of Convenience...

Victorian Dream, my March release from The Wild Rose Press, got a 4.5 star review from Still Moments Magazine. Full review will be featured in...Between the Pages...in their December publication.

visit www.ginirifkin.com for excerpt.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

NIGHT OWL REVIEW SCAVENGER HUNT

NIGHT OWL REVIEW HALLOWEEN SCAVENGER HUNT

Enter and win books, gift baskets, gift cards and more.......Contest runs Sept. 15th--Oct. 31st.

Visit my website www.ginirifkin.com

for contest clues, or go to

Night OWL REVIEW

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/V5/Pages/Articles/Halloween-Scavenger-Hunt-2013

Wishing you good luck,

and a spooky good time.

Gini Rifkin
http://ginirifkin.blogspot.com

Thursday, September 26, 2013

THE PHONE LINES HAVE BEEN REPAIRED

Oh happy day, the land-line is working again.....

What would Mr. Bell think of today's technology?

Bet he would love it, and be first in line for the newest model.

                         Alexander Graham Bell,
           inventor of the telephone, March 10, 1876.

First phone conversation, to his assistant, Thomas Watson: "Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you."

    Please don't text and drive, nothing is more important than arriving alive.

www.ginirifkin.com
http://ginirifkin.blogspot.com

Friday, September 20, 2013

Colorado flood / Above water but no phone yet

There is a difference between a flood

and a flash flood.

A flash flood does not rise slowly or go gently into the night. It crashes and churns and destroys everything in its path. I was fortunate to only have my phone cut off and the main roads to town washed away. May not have service until October.

Here is the place where my friends kept their two beautiful paint horses. They got them out in the nick of time. The big watering trough is now down the road miles away, the shelter was smashed the iron fence ripped out along with several large trees, and the flat bed trailer has yet to be found.

Please take a moment to send good thoughts for strength to endure, to those who might have lost family members, or animals, or there entire homes in this disaster.

It is a reality check on what is important, and lets you know who you friends really are. My thanks to them and to my sister Kathy and my brother-in-law Steve.

gini