Monday, April 8, 2019

Blog Tour: Everyday Enchantments by Maria DeBlassie @EnchantmentLL #interview #nonfiction #inspirational #giveaway @RABTBookTours


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New Age, Inspirational Non-Fiction
Date Published: October 26, 2018
Publisher: Moon Books

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Winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award in the New Age Category for 2018!



Everyday Enchantments is a love letter to the magic of everyday life, the sweet moments and the profound that we often overlook in our hurry to get from one place to the next. What if we had the power to unplug from our daily hustle and bustle and conjure a more profound way of living rooted in natural mysticism?

We do. All it takes is the whispered wish for more everyday enchantment breathed onto a dandelion head. This collection of essays reminds us to escape into the ordinary, find beauty in a simple cup of tea or rereading a beloved novel—and joyfully let our world turn upside down when synchronicity strikes in the form of wrong turns down forgotten lanes and unexpected midnight conversations with the moon. 

This book is a study in what it means to live deliciously, joyfully, and magically. And it’s an invitation to conjure your own bliss—-because let’s face it: we could all use a little more magic in our lives. 



Interview

Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?

Everyday Enchantments is a love letter to the simple pleasures and subtle enchantments that make life delicious.  I hope readers see my book as an invitation to pause, refresh, and open themselves to the magic inherent in daily life. We all have a little bit of witch in us. My book asks readers to tap into that magic and conjure their own bliss!

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I love to collapse the space between the mystic and the mundane, which can be difficult.  How do you show that synchronicity is an integral part of your everyday?  And how do you explain that a good cup of coffee is pure divinity?  These are the questions I wrestled with as I wrote this book.  I didn’t want the mystic to be something outside ourselves or beyond our daily routines.  It’s always there, right within our grasp, if we take the time to look for it.  I think, in the end, I was able to illustrate that.

How many books have you written and which is your favorite?

Everyday Enchantments is my first book—the first of many, hopefully! It is the book that gave me the confidence to write in my own way and to value my own take on the world.  I literally wrote myself into a healthier, happier, magical life!

If You had the chance to cast your main character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?

That’s a tough one! Is it weird that I can’t think of anyone? 

When did you begin writing?

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until I was in high school that I decided I wanted to be a Serious Writer. I wrote every morning before school for twenty minutes a day, and longer in the summer—a habit I continue now that I’m a teacher.  I turned to blogging after finishing graduate school, and my first book was born out of those daily musings on the things that made me happy.  Now, I continue to write daily, tend my blog, and work on new projects.  It’s a huge part of my self-care practice.

How long did it take to complete your first book?

So. Many. Years. Six…I think? But it was a blog before it was a book.  I spent a lot of time unlearning the writing rules I learned in school and just plain ol’ learning who I was as a writer.  It was a long process, but so worth it.  I look back at that time—literally a woman alone with her laptop trying to move past the terror of committing words to paper—and laugh a little.  It was such a huge deal when I first put my website together.  I didn’t know a thing about blogging or social media, but I knew I needed to try something new, outside of my comfort zone, if I wanted grow as a writer.  Now, I am completely in love with blogging, writing, and the wonderful online reading and writing communities I’ve developed over those years.  Best decision ever!

Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?

So many!  I grew up reading constantly—anything and everything I could get my hands on.  I fell in love with a lot of women writers when I was younger, Collette, Austen, and the like.  That was my early exposure to the romance genre, which heavily influences me now.  I was also a huge Tolkien nerd and read tons of sword and sorcery, which nourished my love of magic.  Then, of course, I spent a lot of time reading old occult detective stories, like Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence series, which gave me a taste for things that go bump in the night.
Over the years, I’ve fallen in love with romance novels, urban fantasy, and all texts magical, especially if they are written by minority authors.  Juliet Blackwell is my go-to cozy paranormal mystery author, Alyssa Cole is one of my favorite romance authors, and I’m super in love with Occult Detective Quarterly, a magazine specializing in monster hunter-type stories, old and new.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

I always say I’m going to sit down at my writing desk and write for a few uninterrupted hours. Inevitably, however, I wander into the kitchen to brew a pot of tea or bake a pie, then make my way back to my stories again, then somehow end up in the garden gathering herbs for a stew. So I guess my favorite part about my writing process is that it is homey and messy and fluid, growing organically out of spending time doing the things I love.

Describe your latest book in 4 words.

Magic is everywhere, always.

Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your writing?


My current project is called Tarot Tuesdays, or #TarotTuesdays if you are on social media.  It’s a series of 78-word stories based on the 78-cards in the tarot deck and synchronicity.  Each week, I draw a new card, learn about its role in the tarot, and, with the help of meaningful coincidences, write my story. I’ll say this about my journey into tarot so far: The magic doesn’t lie.  The cards always tell me exactly what I need to hear!  I’m so grateful for this new project because it gives me an opportunity to meditate on the magic of these cards.


About the Author

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Maria DeBlassie, Ph.D. is a native New Mexican mestiza blogger, award-winning writer, and educator living in the Land of Enchantment. Her blogging life started as a year-long journey to write her back into happy, healthy, and whole through daily posts about life’s simple pleasures, everyday magic, and radical self-care. That year-long experiment turned into a lifestyle, a book, a press—and her ongoing blog, Enchantment Learning & Living. She is forever looking for magic in her life and somehow always finding more than she thought was there. Find out more about Maria and conjuring everyday magic at www.mariadeblassie.com.



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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for hosting

Maria DeBlassie said...

Thanks for taking the time to interview me! It was a blast!

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