My recent little book – Chasing the Shaman – seems to be doing quite well. It’s not one I expect to make the bestsellers list but I think it will find its audience through time. Talking of the book, author and magician Alan Richardson just kindly left this 5-star review on Amazon.co.uk.
To my shame I know nothing about the Czech Republic, and could not point out its location on a map. Nor could I offer you even the smallest morsel of information about its history or its myths, legends and deities. Yet Gary Vasey, a Yorkshireman, has shown that by making contact with the Spirit of the Land, Czechia can be seen as universal, with marvels that can resonate with all of us everywhere. He tells his story in a simple, chatty, personal way that gives the book a lot of energy. You can empathise with his initial feelings of alienation and personal hurt in the opening chapter, and appreciate the ways in which he overcomes this, thanks to the innate magick he finds within the Land. By the end of the book you’ll end up going back through it to make note of the various ‘places of power and light’ around Brno that were hiding in plain sight all along, and say to yourself: ‘Hmmm…. I want to go there!’ With the help of this little book, you already have…
Many thanks to him for that.
This morning, I realized this was actually my second book about the Czech Republic – Czechia for short. Back a few years ago, I put out The Czech Republic – The Most Haunted Country in the World. Not a straight forward ghost story book however, it is more a guide to the myths, legends and paranormal in the country. It’s been a constant seller in paperback and kindle formats probably appealing to tourists looking for information on the country. I flicked through it this morning and to my surprise found references even in it to Templars! I must have forgotten or really paid little attention at the time of writing…
Anyway, I determined to have a crack at a longer second edition of this book. I figure it deserves to be one of those living books that I add to periodically the longer I live here and the more I explore. So, that may be my next project. In the paperback, I did put in some photos but again, I have many much better photos that would do much more justice than the ones I placed in the original. If only color photography didn’t make a book so damned pricey!
These days, photography is another passion – I am a man with an iphone looking for something to point it at! One use of that is I now use my own images for book covers. The Shaman book cover is a treated photograph on the Brno Castle hill for example. The cover of the Czech ghost book was the first time I used my own photography for a cover and the image of a claw behind the Czech flag is mine. It is of an exhibit at Houska Castle – Otherwise know as The Gates to Hell.