If you really want to know how we are happening to publish a book by an author who has sadly been in the Summerland for many years now, you’ll have to start with my boss, Bill Krause. Bill is Llewellyn’s Publisher, which means that he oversees the day-to-day operations of acquiring and publishing books. (Carl Llewellyn Weschcke continues as Llewellyn’s owner and CEO, but Bill does a lot more of the heavy lifting these days.)

So Bill was at BEA (a large trade show for the publishing industry) and saw a book being promoted by a very famous, very dead author. What the heck? The guy is dead and still writing books? Obviously, if some new material is discovered, it makes good sense for a publisher to publish unpublished publications (that’s how we roll), and it got him to thinking – could there be any unpublished material by Scott Cunningham lying around? Cunningham is without a doubt our most popular author to this day, and his clear style of explanation and warm voice continue to speak to millions of readers around the world. Bill asked our friend, author and blogger extraordinaire, Donald Michael Kraig, who had been Scott’s roommate, if he thought there was anything we could still publish. No, he said. Not a chance. Scott needed money, so anything that was publishable was promptly sent to Llewellyn when he was alive.

But then one day Bill was having a chat with Sandra Weschcke, President and Treasurer of Llewellyn, and Carl’s wife. She said, “Well, did you ask deTraci Regula?” A close friend of Scott’s, deTraci was one of his heirs and ended up with boxes and boxes of his belongings, which she stored in her garage. So Bill got on the phone with her.

At this point, deTraci came forward with some shocking information – Scott had been working on an Animal Magic book, which he had never finished. Another close friend, David Harrington (who co-authored The Magical Household and Spell Crafts with Scott), had finished it after his death. “Great, can you find it?” asked Bill. (Admit it, wouldn’t you love to read Scott’s take on animal magic? I know I would!)

deTraci, a travel writer, took many months before getting back to Bill, but when she did, it was big – she had found a Book of Shadows, neatly typed and left in a manila envelope, clearly meant for publication.  Here is what that envelope looked like:

She mailed it in to Bill, who brought it over to Carl’s immediately. Carl, still in his pajamas while recuperating from shoulder surgery, wrote an excited email back to Bill after checking it out. (The following is an excerpt from the actual email, which I’ve acquired from Bill, emphasis is in the original):

 Yes, Bill, this is IT!

 As I glanced at it, some memories came flooding back. Scott and I did talk about this perhaps thirty years ago. We both had a lot of concerns and talked about how to overcome them. But I didn’t know that he continued to work on it.

 What Scott has done is to weave traditional Wiccan material with some Scott material and then Scott’s creative (inspired) work. As a result, this book fills certain gaps in a traditional book of shadows.

This was to be Scott’s life work – that would be a complete book of shadows. Until I read the entire mss I can’t tell how complete this is – but a glance tells me that it is more complete than any other.

Well, as it turned out, this Book of Shadows is what Scott used with his correspondence students in the very early days. It does vary from the Standing Stones Book of Shadows that was published in Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner, especially in terms of rituals, which are not solely for solitary practitioners. It contains herbal and oil mixes that differ from those found in The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews. And it contains many brief charms, spells and rituals that I haven’t seen in his other books.

So here we were, with the raw material for a new book on our hands, albeit one that had not been finished by Scott. Carl supplied some connective tissue to bring the book together into a whole by suggesting brief excerpts from some of his other books to serve as introductions to the various sections of the Book of Shadows. (These are clearly designated as such in the book, so you will always be able to see what is previously published material, compared to what was found in the battered manila envelope.) Scott’s former editor Connie Hill, the layout designer and I worked on the organization of the book, since pages weren’t numbered and there was no table of contents. But besides correcting the odd misspelling here or there and adding explanatory notes when necessary, Connie really left Scott’s work as it was, and as it was meant to be. She told me, “Part of my charge in producing the book was to preserve Scott’s “voice,” that expressive sense of wonder that he shared with his readers, wonder and awe of the magicalness of the natural world. The first time I met him, he’d just done some workshops in New Orleans, and gave us a taste of his style with a presentation on the magical properties of pizza. His wisdom was evident, yet he was forever young.”

deTraci also provided her feedback on the manuscript, and even tested out the Cyder Cake recipe that is found in the book. She said it was delicious! She even sent us this photo of it.

Rounding out the book is a foreword by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, explaining in more detail the purpose and intent of this “American Traditionalist” Book of Shadows and what that term actually meant to Scott. We scanned in Scott’s hand-written symbols and runes from the pages found in that manila envelope and added them to the book, along with a bibliography. Finally, four of Scott’s close friends, including deTraci Regula, Marilee Bigelow, David Harrington, and Scott’s sister Christine Ashworth, wrote articles about Scott for the appendices. All the extra additions provide context and add depth to what would otherwise look like… well, perhaps like your own Book of Shadows. A grand collection of personal invocations, charms and spells that is not really meant as a teaching tool when separated from its owner. In this incarnation, we feel it can proudly stand on its own as a legacy to Scott’s great work.

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This summer when orders for our calendars and datebooks were coming in fast and furious, our warehouse manager Chuck asked the rest of the Llewellyn staff if any of us wanted to be trained in to pitch in a few days to deal with the rush. Of course I jumped at the chance, as did several others, because I love learning how all the nuts and bolts of this company come together. (And because Chuck thanked us with ice cream bars.)

So one nice summer day, a group of about seven or eight of us left our quiet cubicles and computer monitors for the bustling activity of the warehouse. Luckily we’re all in the same building, unlike Llewellyn’s previous premises. Chuck trained us all how to read a packing slip and navigate our way around all the shelves stocked with boxes and boxes of books, picking the correct books and putting them all together in an order. After the picker initials the packing slip, the entire order is scanned with a bar code scanner to make sure it’s correct, and the scanner initials the slip. Finally, the packer packs up the boxes and also initials the packing slip, and puts the customer’s copy into the box.

The books that sell the most are all right up front for easy access… and the less popular a book is, the farther back it gets pushed in the grand scheme of things. While out there, we found some really old books covered with dust that we didn’t even know existed…seriously, I would link to them here but they’re not even on our website! So I don’t know how they get ordered at all, or if they are just there for posterity. Maybe I’ll blog about them another day…

Anyway, today I went out to the warehouse because we’re getting slammed with pre-Halloween orders. And this just gave me so much satisfaction, it’s hard to put into words. First, to fill orders with multiple copies of our annuals – the Witches’ Cal, the Astro Cal, the Herbal Almanac, the Magical Almanac. The brand new Sabbats Almanac which I helped develop. And of course, tons and tons of Scott Cunningham books in every order, multiple copies of Buckland’s “Big Blue” in several orders, Silver RavenWolf, Christopher Penczak, Ellen Dugan, Raven Grimassi, Ted Andrews, Michael Newton, Richard Webster, Thuri Calafia… it was almost like seeing the living heartbeat of Llewellyn, pulsing right there before my eyes, in my hands. This is good stuff! This is the lifeblood of the company! This is the “other side” of the business!

Yes, it was really therapeutic for my soul. I spend my days considering new books, reassuring new authors, letting down quite a few would-be authors, worrying whether manuscripts are good enough to publish, agonizing over why some of our books simply aren’t selling, breaking hard news to authors when things aren’t going so well…because what I see in books is potential. The potential to connect with the right reader and help them with some aspect of their life. The potential to make waves in the fabric of reality. The potential to do really well in stores because the writing or the concept is so good. And to this day it’s hard to understand why sometimes perfectly awesome books go absolutely nowhere, but that’s the business.

But on the other side of potential is realization, and that’s what the warehouse is all about. This is the opposite end of the line – not the incoming manuscripts that I deal with, but the output that is eventually created. In the warehouse I get to touch (again and again!) physical books that I acquired, that I worked on, that I am invested in, and actually put them together with other books and mail them to a customer. It is a great feeling, and it really brings home the reality of what we’re doing here. My work does not live and die on my hard drive – it becomes a book and is shipped to places like Virginia, New York, Florida, Montana. I mean, how lucky am I? I’m not sure there are too many other acquisitions editors out there who get to work in the warehouse for a couple hours here or there and actually see, first-hand, the other side of the equation.

After picking countless Scott Cunningham books today, I returned to my desk to find out that his Book of Shadows just arrived to the warehouse. There are thousands of pre-orders on this book but since it just arrived today, I didn’t get to “pick” any while out in the warehouse. Too bad! It is an amazingly gorgeous book. It’s a hardcover with an emerald green dust jacket, done in a matte finish with spot gloss on the text and some of the symbols. The paper is beautiful and it just has a nice weight to it when you hold it in your hands. You are going to love this book when it finally gets shipped from our warehouse. I actually worked closely with the editor and designer on this book, especially with queries, since sadly Scott is no longer with us to provide his own input. I really hope we did it justice. I think we did. Because at the end of the potential that was found in that beat-up manila envelope is realization. I just held it in my hands and was thrilled, and I think Scott would be thrilled too.