I LOVE this book. Michael Herkes’ voice is a dream. His passion is palpable, lifting out of the pages and into your hands and heart. It looks at how the goddess/archetype Lilith has for so long been worshipped and feared, and walks readers through how they can create a relationship with Lilith, as well. In fact, it’s called The GLAM Witch because Herkes explores the Great Lilithian Arcane Mysteries (GLAM). Through luminous text, you’ll find astrology, ritual, and a magic that is steeped in power.

INITIATED: Memoir of a witch

Amanda Yates Garcia — known as the Oracle of LA — writes a potent story of becoming and reclamation in Initiated, which shows how she became a High Priestess, and how she tapped into her inner power. With her shedding light on feminism, culture, earth, sex work and poverty, the underlying message here is one that matters most in today’s world.

TAROT FOR TROUBLED TIMES: CONFRONT YOUR SHADOW, HEAL YOURSELF, TRANSFORM THE WORLD

In Theresa Reed and Shaheen Miro’s Tarot for Troubled Times, we see a radical and transformational text that uses shadow work (a throughline of the book), archetypes, reflections, and prompts to reframe the power of tarot. I can’t get enough of this one. And I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Theresa (The Tarot Lady) for quite some time. Her generosity, support, wisdom, and love for magic is a continual inspiration to me.

HONORING YOUR ANCESTORS: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration

As someone who has always been interested in ancestor veneration in a specific sense — more in my writing practices than anything else — I have not read a book on the topic that has so deeply and beautifully spoken to my needs. Mallorie Vaudoise’s book does not go into the topic lightly, addressing plenty of the big issues — like not knowing who your ancestors are, for one. The book explores everything from making ancestral altars and spell-work to mediumship. It’s splendid and healing.

REVOLUTIONARY WITCHCRAFT: A GUIDE TO MAGICAL ACTIVISM

In Sara Lyon’s work, we find a potent and necessary look at how we can make magic in a world that is too often broken by hatred, fear. It is a world that needs transformation, and witches have that very power. I have always thought that the witch was a political figure, whether or not one intends or feels that way. Witches have long stood for the marginalized, the forgotten, the invisible. And power, as Lyons says, is political. With topics ranging from history, magic (ancestral magic, sigil creation, and spells), ally-ship and the natural world, this book is a must-have for today’s practicing witch. I also love its inclusion of the Trans Right of Ancestor Elevation, which is a ritual for trans and GNC witches to honor their ancestors of spirit killed by murder.

CAT CALL: RECLAIMING THE FERAL FEMININE

I have long been a fan of Kristen Sollée’s work (and her person) and I am indebted to her for the knowledge and support she has given me, and the magic she has brought to my life (and all of ours!) through her words. As an intersectional feminist and a witch, her books (do yourself a favor and also read Witches, Sluts Feminists) speak power into my world. In Cat Call, she brings the histories, superstitions, stories, and mythos of the feline to life, and weaves all of that into how we understand (and can better understand) sex and femininity and taboo. Fuck yes.

TAROT FOR SELF CARE: HOW TO USE TAROT TO MANIFEST YOUR BEST SELF

I love Minerva Siegel’s book for its simplicity and care. It walks readers through the tarot with care and ease, feels inclusive and avoids culturally appropriative terms, and addresses some of the big obstacles to our self-care practices. It frames the book so that it covers mental, physical and spiritual self-care, while walking you through each card and its magic.

BY ANDI TALARICO

John Pivovarnick’s novel-within-a-novel Tales from the Back of a Bus tells the story of a young author handling the aftermath of his book’s publication. Jake Maldemer, a young writer in 1980s Los Angeles, writes a series of tales featuring a protagonist named Jack Moses as well as an ethereal, spooky man named Kobold. But when Jake hits the road to promote his book, a man claiming to be Kobold finds him, and things only get weirder from there. It becomes almost impossible to separate fact from fiction as we’re guided through a Dantean LA landscape and later in the piece, New York. The work speaks to the confusion of identity, cognitive dissonance, shame-based fear, and PTSD. Fans of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five or the film Jacob’s Ladder will feel right at home in these pages. I spoke with author Pivovarnick about the work.

I understand that you wrote much of this book some time ago, in the early 80s. What brought you back to it? What was the editing process like as you finalized this edition for print?

The story is pretty much as described in the afterword, moving that big honking filing cabinet and wondering "WTF is in here?" then spelunking in the monstrous thing.

The clincher, as it were, was finding those rejection letters talked about, too. The "its sooo good, no one will publish it" comments. "Too challenging." Too whatever.

The hardest part of editing was keeping it accurate to the timeframe. I hired an editor and he was like, "Did Jiffy Mailers exist in 1979?" and my answer was always, "They must have, because that's when that part was written."

There were also some characters I had a hard time not editing to fit today's standards. I had to let them stand [while cringing] because they were accurate and honest for the time.

What made you decide to finally move forward with the book's publication? Was there a moment?

The moment was getting similar rejection letters for Beneath a Glass Triskellion which Dave and I are still hammering away at. The thought being, let's learn this process so we're ready to go with these books when we're ready. There's quite a learning curve, as you can imagine. Luckily, I have a unique set of skills...

The story takes place in a city that both is and is not Los Angeles, in that it takes place in the physical and spiritual planes. What about Los Angeles made it available to you as a magical or ethereal realm?

I ran away to Los Angeles when I was 19, and it was both a magical/ethereal realm, and the drudgery of two jobs to make rent and no time to write. I took that bus ride to get that job. I ate at Ships a lot. Just the difference between growing up in Scranton, PA and finding myself in Los Angeles at 19 was quite the journey of discovery.

The act of writing is magical in the same sense the cards are magical or ritual is magical.

Your story is a frame narrative, a classic story-within-a-story, but because you also discuss this work being autobiographical, it's a actually a meta story-within-a-story-within-a-story...within a story? Jack is Jake is YOU, John. How did you handle the psychological gymnastics required to get within two characters that are both based upon your experiences?

Who said I handled them? I have a radio interview coming up next month, and my mind is blown about that.

Also, as a queer kid in denial, your life is all about getting in the heads of two characters that are both based on your experience. That's the closet in a nutshell.

One of the most potent aspects of the work is the main character's struggle over defining and understanding his sexual identification. What was it like, looking back upon those ideas in 2018 from a time when that was still a struggle for you? Do you identity as an LGBTQ author?

I'm an author who is gay, and my life informs what I write, regardless of characters, genre, or whatever. I always strive for representation in what I write, all the way around. I administer the Bechdel test to myself.

Screen Shot 2018-10-30 at 9.51.53 PM.png

At Luna Luna, we're always interested in the cultural signifiers of witches and witchcraft. While Tales from the Back of a Bus doesn't deal directly with witchcraft, you've long been a tarot reader and witchy individual. Do you see a corollary between witchcraft and authorship in general? How does your craft or spiritual practice inform your work.

The act of writing is magical in the same sense the cards are magical or ritual is magical. They all bring about a state of mind that makes you open and receptive, to see. Ritual informs your being. The cards inform another person. Writing informs the readers. It's all the same process of seeing, understanding, and communicating. To me at least. My best writing happens when the characters take control and I'm reduced to just transcribing what they tell me--that's whether they're people, creatures, space aliens, or what not. That "divine madness" Plato was so hot about.

Anything else you’d like to let us know?

This is a weird, weird book. Even I'm astonished at how strange it is. But it's a pretty accurate representation of me and my mind and life process at the time, through a lot of transformative stuff--personal stuff, the Reagan era which was also the start of the AIDS crisis, coming out, shaking off my catholic school upbringing to embrace a wider mystical world. Mind blowing stuff that I was lucky to survive intact. Ish. Intactish.

More than any other element in it, I think it maps my transition from the childhood view that the world is safe and sensible to the more truthful world "red in tooth and claw" ready to chew up the unwary/unaware and spit them out. A simmering summary of this story, maybe, in which I come out transformed on the other side. My life is way stranger than the novelization of it.

Andi Talarico is Luna Luna’s book reviews editor, and a Brooklyn-based writer and reader. In 2003, Paperkite Press published her chapbook, Spinning with the Tornado, and Swandive Publishing included her in the 2014 anthology, Everyday Escape Poems.

She’s taught poetry in classrooms as a rostered artist and acted as both coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud. She also penned a literary arts column for Electric City magazine, and currently curates the NYC-branch of the international reading series, At the Inkwell. When she’s not working with stationery company Baron Fig, she can be found reading tarot cards, supporting independent bookstores, and searching for the best oyster Happy Hour in NYC.