Goodbye, 2022!

Holy shit, friends, this has been a year. I feel like I haven’t kept up with anything, and it’s all just gotten away from me. When that happens, I have to resort to lists:

• I started my PhD in August, and am going to school full time, working as a TA, and continuing to work my full time WFH publishing job. I’m also still working on writing project, managing a Patreon community, and trying to just be a normal person who also happens to practice witchcraft (sometimes hopefully with a coven, albeit that coven is made up of equally busy people who are living in the same unhinged timeline I am). Any one of these things is floundering at any given point in time.
• I wrote a third book! Well, part of one. Llewellyn’s Sun Sign series drops this summer, and I worked with Ivo Dominguez, Jr. to write Taurus Witch. This is a fun, short book that’s perfect for folks who are interested in getting into astrology, or for more experienced folks wanting to connect their understanding of astrology more directly to a practice of witchcraft.
• I’m working on an as-of-yet-undisclosed fourth book, which is also co-written. It’s a massive project that I’ve been itching to undertake for several years now. I’m excited, I’m nervous, I don’t know how exactly it’s going to happen. But it will! More on that when *I* know more.
• I’ve had some big interviews this year! We kicked off August by flying to L.A. to shoot a video with Anthony Padilla (which I still have lots of thoughts about, and might end up being a follow-up YouTube video or a blog…suffice it to say that Anthony is lovely, this was so fun, and I said what I said, regardless of some of the feedback I got, which was overwhelmingly positive but had its moments). I’m also booked with the Religion for Breakfast team in 2023, which is going to be so fun because you’ll get to meet me wearing my scholar hat! My worlds are about to collide, which is both scary and exciting.
• I had a blast at November’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, where I presented on a panel about witchcraft and social media. The other scholars I got to exchange with were rad as hell, I got to reconnect with folks I hadn’t seen in a long time, and it was kind of wild to actually have a university affiliation this year instead of just roaming as a feral independent scholar.
• I’m so sorry to everyone I owe an email or a phone call. I know that’s a lot of people.
• Oh my god did I mention I’m finally doing a PhD? I wasn’t sure that was ever going to happen, but here we are. Obsessed with my cohort, obsessed with my advisors, and *real glad* I had an extra decade to establish solid personal boundaries, develop some teaching skills, build a professional network, and go in knowing exactly what I want to do. Grad school is hard, but I tell you what: it’s way easier after years of therapy and working successfully in other career fields. It’s also just objectively a million times easier than being a Title I classroom teacher, so that bit of perspective has helped a lot. It takes a lot to rattle me these days.

I’m still posting on YouTube, but lately I’ve been most active on TikTok. I know, I know, TikTok has a bad rep. But honestly, I’ve been having a lot of fun. It’s a different crowd of people, a different medium, and it’s been cool and challenging to do something different. I get that there’s a lot of crap out there, but I really don’t believe it’s any worse than anything we see on every other platform. So if you’re curious, find me @thornthewitch!

Here’s the Anthony Padilla interview, in case you missed it! Yes, the title is clickbait, but, well, that’s the nature of the beast sometimes. I’m not mad about it. And this man was delightful. I hope you’ll be pleased with his compassionate, open approach!

And here! Have my latest YouTube video!

So hello to a new year! Lots of good things up ahead (that hopefully I’ll decide to blog about). I hope you all are well!