I made a start on Wilde Grove Book 5 yesterday, The North Star.
I’ve had an idea of what the broad storyline for The North Star will be for a few months now, but it really is a broad one, so as has become my habit now, I began the book by stepping into the Otherworld and asking those who guide me what they wish the story to be.
I’ve done this now for each book in the series, and for the Selena books too, but it really started by accident. I began The Gathering back in May 2020, after about three years of wanting to write these books but not knowing how to structure them, or how to tell a story as big as I envisioned with just the measly twenty-six letters of the alphabet to use. In March of that year, I had released my latest Sapphic (lesbian) historical romance, and it hadn’t been well received. March 2020 was the beginning of Covid and lockdowns and fears for the future, and my book – All I See Is You – was set in 1930’s New Zealand, during the great recession of that decade. Not the best timing, even if accidental.
So, Valerie and I decided that if ever there was a time to write the books we really wanted me to, it was there and then. Funnily enough, the outline of setting and characters came easily to me, which they never had before. What if, I wondered, we had a village, and in that village, there were a few people who were still following the old ways? What if a young woman moved into the village and found that she belonged there in ways she’d never anticipated?
What if…what if…what if…
I had the structure figured out too, thanks to that last romance. My main character in that book was a young woman who couldn’t speak or write, and because of this, I’d written the book in omniscient point of view so that even though Eliza Sparrow couldn’t speak, I could still give her a voice. It had been my first time using this literary device, but I realised straight away that it would also be the way to write my new Wilde Grove series. (It’s the structure that lets me give Burdock his own thoughts and voice!)
A few weeks later, after I had made a couple false starts on The Gathering, I was standing saying one morning saying my prayers, when I found myself no longer in my room, but standing on a cliff top, a staff in my hand, a great dark-furred wolf by my side.
I was no longer myself, but Ravenna, stepping aboard a ship that would take me across the sea to a new land, following the will and path of the Goddess. A young woman met me at the other side of the water, and led me deep within the forest, so that we walked all day before coming to a settlement where I was welcomed to spend the night. As Ravenna, I sat around the fire that first night on foreign land, and I wore her skin as my own, thought her thoughts as my own.
We rose early, Ravenna’s guide and I, and she took me deeper into the forest, until a white deer met us, and our guide left us for the Goddess to show us the rest of the way. The deer led Ravenna to a cave, where the Goddess waited, then bid me enter.
My vision ended with a circle of women looking at me, and the Goddess’s words burning in my ears.
Teach them from the heart.
I woke blinking from my vision, and turned to write.
That day, I wrote the first two chapters of The Gathering as you know them, and ever since, it’s become my habit to seek a vision in a travelling, a journeying, so that I might see the shape and telling of the story I’m to write.
Yesterday, I prepared myself – just as Selena prepares to journey in The Otherworld and Golden Heart – and I sought my task for this story. It came to me just as I hoped, except this time, I did not become Ravenna as I’ve grown used to, but Morghan instead.
Then I put on my writing music, sat down and wrote the first chapter.
I am Morghan. This is the vision given to me.
Katherine Genet is the author of the Wilde Grove fiction series. She has been walking a pagan path for 30 years and is a shamanic Druid, spirit worker, and priestess of Elen of the Ways.
Such Soul searching books.
Thank goodness for March 2020, I say. At least (in my opinion), something positive happened re: lockdowns (amongst the many negative things still happening) , and it was your books. I have read many books in my lifetime, but never books that I have read over and over again, and taken me deeper into my soul than I have ever been before.
It is difficult to put into words exactly how much your books are actually helping people, like myself, to understand the Ancient Path. I am a great believer, always have been, in the powers of the Universe, and how our thoughts can become our reality.
I honour you your thoughtfulness, and the sharing of your path of life with us. I have learned so much from your books, much more than I have ever learned in books explaining Soul Retrieval, Ancient Ways, Laws of Spirit etc etc .
Yes, you Katherine Genet are a Beacon, and I Thank You from my Heart.
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I am honoured to be able to use my writing skills to share my experiences and path. I have done little in my life more rewarding than this. I think we are all becoming Beacons together.
Thank you ???????? x
Loving the way that you tap into the Universe, creative energy, other realms to bring teachings through stories to us. I feel part of the circle even if I am thousands of miles away, and not able to practice being in a sacred circle. Thank you.
I’ve been writing for quite some years now but these books are different. I feel so grateful to be able to write stories which nourish myself and soany of their readers. Through them, I think we are in sacred circle together.
Hi Joanne!
I totally agree with you. Just as we are two thousand miles apart, we are always connected by heart and soul. You are and always will be my Sister by choice and heart. Always connected! And we are part of a bigger circle as beakons of light!
I am already anticipating Book 5! By the time you release it I will have read both series, and hopefully the Becoming Of Morgan (just ordered) as well. I am absorbing your words through every pore of my being and learning so much! Thank you for this blog explaining you process for writing. You have freed my heart and mind in my own chosen work to follow a similar path. May your highest good prevail in all moments.
Please explain. New Zealand advances 10 yrs but the Grove only 1????
Of course. Follow the Wind was set 15 years earlier, remember? It begins in 2005 when Selena was Lady of the Grove, Morghan only 35years old, Grainne still alive, and Rue and Clover only children. So when they meet again in The North Star, considerable time has gone by since the events in Follow the Wind. The Wilde Grove books beginning with The Gathering, were set in 2020 and carry on from there. Thus, The North Star is happening in 2021, since it’s been a year (almost exactly!) since Erin arrived in Wellsford.
I promise it all makes sense when you remember that the Selena books are set in the past.