Sun Foxx Apothecary

Wanna know something funny? When I started writing "Country Orc's Almanac," my grief and depression were pretty solid. I was about a third through the second Eldermere book when my daughter died, and I just couldn't get back into that headspace after I was sent home to start recovering. So around my birthday, I just started playing with a very silly set of ideas.

What if I wrote an orc romance where the orc wasn't a big tough guy who learns to be softer, and simply is soft the whole time?

What if I reverse the age gap trope everyone likes and make it so the girl is 300? What if she's not a v!rg!n?

What if I show how really toxic the possessive Fae shadow daddy type truly is? What if he can't be saved or fixed with love because he's a fully narcissistic monster?

What if I wrote a story about the difference between consent and coercion, where actions have real, weighted consequences, and where love isn't enough to fix everything?

And somehow, the story evolved and became something that I'm truly in love with. It's still a funny story with plenty of humor, and a solid fantasy that takes place in the Faery realm the whole time. But it's also about unprocessed grief and generational trauma and unfair expectations. It's about facing uncomfortable truths within ourselves, our family, and making ourselves make better choices. It touches on painful issues, like human slavery, systematic racism and oppression, lots of autonomy and fighting tooth and claw to get it back.

I'm almost finished---act 4's finale is on the literary horizon. This isn't going to be a quick lunch read, either. While my Eldermere books will probably all run the expected 80-100k words befitting cozy romances, this one is... Chonky. Like, I'm estimating about 250,000 words when she's finished, but I promise, it'll be worth it 💚

I dare you to not fall in love with Brahm 💚

That said, if anyone knows a solid artist who does really good orc artwork, drop a name and link!

Wanna know why I'm so excited to share this story with you all? There's a lot to live about Keenan McKinney ❤️ 🐺 Here's a few reasons! 🌙

-Keenan is only 2 years older than Tabitha
-He's 6' tall, so fairly average height
-He's a contract carpenter and house framer
-He drives an old, beat-up pickup truck that smells like sawdust
-He built his house for his future mate and has been waiting to find her
-Tabitha is his fated mate, but he's willing to suffer rejection sickness if she doesn't want a relationship.
-Keenan wants to get to know Tabitha, and wants to be her best friend, not just her one and only
-He's willing to wait for her ❤️
-"I'm not buying your love --- I'm an Alpha. And Alphas take care of their pack."
-He acknowledges that his pack has a problem and he needs help
-As the pack's Alpha, Keenan listens to the concerns of his pack, is always on-call and hands-on for them, and is actually a leader
-Even with a dangerous threat in the woods, violence is his last resort

Anyone else feeling that energy shift from the eclipse coming up in a few days? I dunno about you people, but I've been feeling uncharacteristically GREAT. Like high energy, good vibes, repeating angel numbers (1111 and 666!) and happy all day despite it being peak tax season. And I've got a really good feeling that this energy is so ripe for some serious work to get stuff moving.

Personally I'll be charging my wedding rose quartz, my favorite adventurine and amethyst, and a new moonstone heart.

So what are you guys planning to do to make the best use of this energetic shift? What crystals are you charging with this solar eclipse energy? What spells and manifestations are you going to send up to the universe? ✨

Sorry, no green beer here. Is my family Irish? Yes, we came from County Tyrone. But we're also pagan as f**k. You know, part of the 800+ people he slaughtered? I don't celebrate, because in the immortal words of Eddie Izzard, "He was a mass murdering f**khead "

https://www.celticdruidtemple.com/thetruestoryofstpatrick.html

Abracadabra.

Let’s get metaphysical for a moment, shall we? I want to talk to you about how we help to create the world we live in, and how what we say helps shape that world around us. If you’ve read The Secret and other books pertaining to the Laws of Attraction, you’ll know where I’m coming from. If you haven’t, I wouldn’t say it’s required reading, but it is seriously helpful homework to take to heart. The short version is this: your subconscious thoughts and your conscious words (even the ones you don’t pay attention to) put vibrations into the Universe that help create the life you live, and the more you say something, the more it becomes a belief and then a reality.

Like it or not, you’re the one in control of your life, especially once you leave the nest and you’re freestyling through the Cosmos. Your parents aren’t making decisions for you that you just have to comply with while you kick rocks and mutter. You choose everything, and the results of those choices are entirely yours. Will you have stale beer and leftover hot wings for breakfast, or will you cook a fresh quiche? Will you take the extra shift at work, or will you dig into your savings jar if you’re short on funds this month? Will you choose to stand in your own way of what you want in life, or will you pout and say that your life not going the way you want is the fault of your parents, circumstances, unluckiness, capitalism, or other reasons that you have no control over?

Your words, your attitude, and your beliefs all hold power and help shape the world around you and oftentimes impact your outcomes. Did you know the word Abracadabra comes from an old talisman spell? It was worn as a talisman by Romans and others around that time as a cure for certain illnesses and to ward off evil, but long before that, it was a spell in the Aramaic language. It means “I create as I speak.” It’s the very essence of most magic-working, in that you are effectively putting power into your words to bring forth the creation of what you’re speaking into the Universe. It’s “The Secret,” but the ancient Aramaic version. So maybe that’s a lesson worth repeating and committing to heart.

When I was a little girl, I was a die-hard fan of My Little Pony, and I probably made my mother suffer every single episode at least twice. One episode whose lesson always stuck with me was about a sad little green dude named Woebegone, whose attitude, personality, and perpetual black rain cloud were very similar to the Flintstones character Schleprock. But Woebegone was a tragic little guest character who had been cursed by a witch and was doomed to remain forever unlucky; a fact he repeatedly told the ponies and anyone within earshot. If he escaped getting eaten by a monster, it still managed to squash his foot. If offered cookies, they’d burn and crumble the minute the oven opened. Shelter for the night resulted in the roof collapsing. All the ponies would try to cheer him up and reassure him, but he’d just sigh and whine about how wrong they were and how jinxed he was, and the more he’d moan about it the more often the little black cloud would zap his butt with lightning bolts.

While the extreme results are exaggerated for the sake of making two colorful episodes of TV more entertaining, the fact remained that Woebegone was the one perpetuating his own bad luck and angst. All the witch did was underline his bad attitude toward life and himself one time; he was the one saying that everything sucked and that he was the unluckiest person every minute of every day. Let’s pause for a moment. If you told yourself with every breath that you were a crap person, how long would it take for you to believe it and become depressed by it? Not long. And the longer you stay in that state, the harder it becomes to retrain your brain to catch yourself and correct yourself from negative thoughts that can impact your daily life. Does this sound like anyone you know? Does it sound like you?

Like any habit, negative thought patterns can be changed with time, effort, and really committing to reprogramming your beliefs, be they about yourself, life, or the world around you. The end of the Pony tale has a happy ending, of course - eventually Woebegone changes his perception about life and reclaims his own personal power and control over how life happens to him. Accidents happen to anyone, but they aren’t a reflection of him or his personal character; mistakes don’t mean he’s unworthy or unlucky. And just like that, no more rain cloud, no more curse, and no more crappy attitude about life.

Of course, it’s never that easy or fast in real life; it takes a bit more effort than ponies singing two songs to get a person to really shift their perception. But it can most definitely be done, and with that, heal the damage that it’s doing to you. The first and most major step is to become aware of what you’re thinking and what you’re saying about yourself, your life, and the things around you. Are they mostly positive? Negative? Sarcastic? Learn to listen to yourself and pay attention, and when you catch yourself saying something negative, stop and ask yourself if it’s ultimately true. Odds are, it isn’t, and deep down you probably know that already. Is the current situation really out of your control, or are there things you can do to change it? Was your day really that bad, or was it a bad five minutes that you let bother you all day, all week, or even all month? Once you start to notice what you say and think about yourself and the life around you, take notice of how you feel after those thoughts. Do they help you move forward in any way? Do they help you decide to make improvements and take action, or do they encourage you to shelve the problems a bit longer? Do your thoughts inspire you or drain you?

As you become more consciously aware of your thoughts and feelings, it will become easier to stop and correct yourself, and eventually change your habit of thinking altogether. My favorite way is to write three things I like about myself every day. Not superficial things, like my hair is less frizzy today, or I’m glad both of my socks matched. Three real things. And the more you write them, the deeper you inevitably dig inward, and eventually you’re left with a very long list of reasons that you are an amazing, magical person. And life tends to shift in amazing ways for you at that point, because by then you’re bursting with positive affirmations, encouraging thoughts, and life is energized by you. You create positive life changes with what you speak. It’s time to uncurse ourselves.

Abracadabra, baby.

My son helped hang the stockings this year! Guess which one is Mommy's 😂

Friendly reminder that if anyone is ordering soap and bath goodies, I need your complete orders soon to ship them out in time! ❤️

Let's face it, on the Myers Briggs, I am an introvert with a capital I. I've had to work Black Friday for years, and never saw the appeal, and the advent of online shopping was life changing. Especially when I can shop online from small businesses! 8D

Big companies won't notice you standing in line or spending your money there, but for little companies like me? That $25 worth of soap and bath teas add up and help me buy new supplies, better packaging, and then I can afford to offer more goodies! It also means I can buy more presents for my family, pay the bills, and buy groceries ❤️ So, small business will always, always appreciate your patronage and notice it!!

So for small business weekend, I want to offer free shipping on orders over $25, remind everyone that soaps are buy 4 and get 1 free, and that all orders will get a free lip butter while supplies last! ❤️

Btw, my new Rainbow In the Dark soaps are ready to order!!

Today we celebrate Samhain. Let us thank our Ancestors for making that possible, their gifts, lessons, and sacrifices as we begin the Wheel of the Year anew. Light a candle for your Honored Dead, and leave them cake and wine in offering.

Samhain Lisa Thiel · Circle of the Seasons · Song · 2005

Like a rainbow in the dark! 🎶 🎵 🎸

But in that 90s neon blacklight roller rink/arcade sorta way XD It smells great, though! Bay Rum and Sea Salt with organic olive oil and coconut oil, and fair trade, cruelty free micas. They'll be ready by early December if anyone is interested ❤️

And, reminding everyone that there's still a sale going on!! Buy four bars of soap and get a fifth bar FREE! Plus, starting November 1st, get free Priority Mail shipping on all orders over $50 within continental US ❤️