I can’t believe it happened. My horror anthology is officially printed, published, and is more delicious than I ever could have imagined! You see, I conceived of and planned Black Magick back in 2008, between the releases of my first books, Goth Craft and Shadow Magick Compendium. The former is now out-of-print, and the latter has recently seen a revised, expanded, and far superior 15th anniversary reprint.

Why did it take so long between inception and publishing? The long-and-short of it is because it was rejected across America far and wide! Something like 30 publishers rejected the project back in 2008, and this was mainly due to its somewhat disturbing and unconventional content. I felt discouraged, put the project on the shelf, apologized to the contributing authors, and continued writing esoteric guidebooks instead.

Black Magick is my first fiction project. I had the pleasure of contributing one story and editing 10 other brilliant horror tales within the collection. The other two tales, Candle Magic by Storm Constantine and The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, are written by authors who have crossed the veil, so they remain editorially untouched. I felt strongly about incorporating one classic piece of horror into the collection; elements of The Black Cat resonate with me personally — I have a one-eyed black cat familiar, after all! As for Storm’s contribution, I’m deeply honored to open the book with her creepy story. The anthology is dedicated in her memory.

Storm Constantine was one of the original authors on board for Black Magick back in 2008, and it was a pleasure to become friendly-acquainted with someone so genuine, talented, and deservedly renowned. A number of the authors from back then stayed on board, while others dropped out for personal reasons. I was thankful to have familiarity with new authors who stepped in to offer their haunting pieces for the collection. The result is something darkly beautiful and surprisingly diverse. Although each tale is connected by a dark thread of occult horror, which is at times apparent and other times covert, the collection’s breadth of subgenres is impressive. The book’s thematic elements include dark fantasy, erotica, sci-fi, mystery, folk horror, queer storytelling, period pieces, and much more.

It fills me with joy to know that my first fiction project has been birthed into the world and is probably being read by someone, somewhere, at this very moment! Although I will absolutely continue to write nonfiction books within my familiar genres of empathy, Witchcraft, and shadow work, I hope Black Magick will be the first of many volumes.

Happy spooky reading!

Raven Digitalis (USA) is an award-winning author best known for his “empath’s trilogy,” consisting of The Empath’s Oracle, Esoteric Empathy, and The Everyday Empath, as well as the “shadow trilogy” of A Gothic Witch’s Oracle, A Witch’s Shadow Magick Compendium, and Goth Craft. Originally trained in Georgian Witchcraft, Raven has been an earth-based practitioner since 1999, a Priest since 2003, a Freemason since 2012, and an empath all of his life. He holds a degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Montana, jointly operated a nonprofit Pagan temple for sixteen years, and is also a professional Tarot reader, editor, Reiki practitioner, and animal rights advocate.

www.ravendigitalis.com
Social media: @ravendigitalis

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/raven-digitalis