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A lot of people ask me how I got into inclusive Minoan spirituality and why I'm inspired to write the books and create the art that goes along with that spiritual path. If I'm honest, the Minoan deities have been stalking me since I was a teenager, and it just took me a while to pick up on their intent. Sometimes I'm slow that way. But once I finally got started, all enthusiastic and rarin' to go, I hit a roadblock: There were virtually no resources out there.

Bear in mind, I'm old enough that when I first started researching the Minoans, I had to resort to actual ink-and-paper encyclopedias and history books. And none of those ever had more than a paragraph or two about the Minoans, usually as a sort of side note before the text started talking about the Greeks.

We're going to revisit all the quartz types, using some drawings from my Crystal Mandala books(in which I have drawn a mandala of each type of crystal, condensing the information to 4 to 5 items to make remembering easier).

Well, you might have noticed I have been a little quiet lately. I've been madly working on finishing my latest series of books. They are currently at the printer and will arrive next week! I wanted to get them finished for a workshop I will be teaching in Fayetteville (Arkansas) for the Ozark Research Institute's 28th Annual Dowsing & Alternative Health Convention on April 15th through 18th. (I will be writing a blog post about this in case some of you can attend!) I will also be in Hot Springs in May at the Crystal and Crystal Skull Festival  (also talking about the new books and doing crystal readings). Anyway, the books are AVAILABLE NOW for pre-order. (You can click here to open a new tab to the order page.)

I've been working on this series for a couple of years now, and of course, all my friends, when they saw the great hullaballoo about the "adult coloring books", were on me to "HURRY HURRY HURRY, Genn!! Get your book out!"  Well, while I agreed that "striking while the iron was hot" seemed the smart thing to do, first, I didn't want the books to be confused as "just another coloring book in a vast sea of coloring books" and second, (and more important) I wanted them to be exactly right. Also, while the series ARE books which you color, they are FAR MORE than just "coloring books". They are learning books. Relaxing books. A way to make learning the nuances of quartz crystal easy, fun, and memorable. There is something magical about opening the right-brain, or creative side, that helps to bring the logical, or linear, left-brain side into more clear focus. This is what I hope to achieve with this series of books.

1-2 years ago, when friends and clients told me I should come out with a coloring book of my art, I must confess I was rather perplexed, and the thought conjured up images of newsprint booklets for children, full of cartoons.

Which mind you, it didn't seem like a terrible idea, as I have thought of writing and illustrating children's books, but I wasn't confident that my regular art was entirely child-appropriate. Heck, my work tends to unsettle most adults who are not of an esoteric persuasion, I didn't want to be responsible for freaking out small children. 

Say the words "coloring book" and most people conjure childhood memories of kitchen tables or classroom desks covered in crayons, markers, or (if they were lucky) paint and brushes. Coloring books, with the rare exception, were and are targeted at children. In most cases, I am sure, the publishers are not specifically targeting a Pagan audience. Nonetheless, there is a large number of coloring books which will appeal to adults and children from a variety of Pagan paths. Those that deal with mythology and ancient history, in particular, can be great resources for parents and teachers, inspiring kids to ask questions about the hero or God or Goddess or culture before them. 

I still love coloring books. Perhaps that makes me odd, but there is nothing quite like returning to a favorite childhood activity after a stressful day of adulthood. It is comforting and reassuring. My latest acquisition is The ABCs of Lesser-Known Goddesses: An Art Nouveau Coloring Book for Kids of All Ages by W Lyon Martin. The twenty-six Goddesses included here are from cultures all over the world: Roman (Aestas, Pax), Chibche (Bachue), Greek (Chimera, Leucothea, the Moerae, Nike), Chinese (The Dark Maid, Wang Mu), Celtic (Flidais, Gula), Hittitte (Hannahanna), Cherokee (Igaehindvo), Semitic (Jerah), Egyptian (Kebechet, Opet), Incan (Quinoa-Mama), Hindu (Raka, Ushas, Vasudhara), Shinto (Tatsuta-Hime), Aztec (Xochiquetzal), Aboriginal (Yhi) and Russian (Zorya). I will definitely be doing research on some of these Goddesses.