Hi, I’m Jaleta Clegg, author of Nexus Point and a whole lot of other stuff, and I’m your host for this stop in the Hunt.
If you would like to find out more about the Hunt, please click here -
Somewhere on this page is a hidden number. Collect all the numbers from all the authors’ posts, and then add them up. Once you’ve added all the numbers, and if I am your last author, please head to the official website and click on the ENTER HERE page to find the entry form. Only entries will the correct number will qualify to win.
The author I’m pleased to be hosting for Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt today is Ailsa Abraham, author of fantasy and magical realism.
Hello and thanks for reading about my work. I feel slightly fraudulent taking part in this because neither I, nor my readers are convinced that Alchemy and Shaman’s Drum really do qualify as fantasy. With each day, more news items feature things predicted in my books. So we scratch our collective heads and say “Predictive Sci-Fi? Futuristic but reliable?”
Write what you know about, they said. Pick a topic you know inside out and base your novel in there. So I did, which is why my series is labeled Fantasy. I know an immense amount about witchcraft and magic along with all religions, old and current. 
Religious studies have been a fascination for me all my life. It just happened when I was thrown into close contact with so many different faiths and being such a very curious girl I asked questions, learned customs and tried to fit in.
Magic? Well, you see, here we may part company because to me, that is real. It is not fantastical at all.
I was initiated into a Wiccan coven and elevated to High Priestess after a few years. I’m a healer and in my village I’m accepted as such.
So you begin to see why I won’t take the fact that my books deal with magic (note please, not magick - yuk yuk yuk) as making them “fantasy”.
I deal with human nature, which is what healing and magic are all about. I don’t deceive the people who come to me. Their beliefs in my healing gifts, does it all. I am a channel for energy and I’ll accommodate whatever system they are in to make them feel comfortable. They want to pray to a particular god, The Virgin Mary or anybody else? Fine! I’ll join in because that will make them better faster.
I don’t charge for my services. I’m happy to help but I do find large boxes of fruit and vegetables from their gardens left anonymously on my doorstep in appreciation. That’s good.
My stories involve the current plight of the world and how, even if a cure were found for all ills, human nature would still be basically selfish.
In the end, however, magic-users from assorted 38 pagan faiths and one under-cover Christian Granny have to unite to overcome the evil that has invaded the earth since the banning of organized religion. There are punch-ups, some very enthusiastic goths, shamans and their power animals, large numbers of hedge-witches and a few demons along the way
Oh and the love story. Don’t forget the love story. If you thought Romeo and Juliet were fighting an uphill battle, wait till you meet Riga the Black Shaman Captain and the love of her life Iamo, a priest of the Mother Goddess.
Adventure, love story and magical realism. If that’s Fantasy...OK, I’m into fantasy!
Did you find the number? If you did, then click Ailsa Abraham’s link to continue Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt.
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Keep it clean, keep it nice.