<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Eloquent Peasant Books]]></title><description><![CDATA[Writing and publishing novels of Magick, Mystery, and Romance]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:01:33 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.michalea.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Most of my ballgowns. . . ]]></title><description><![CDATA[How I shop for clothes for the main character of The Wheel of the Year Mysteries.]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/most-of-my-ballgowns</link><guid isPermaLink="false">60579743e3655c001501025c</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 19:16:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_06350aef85b0468cb54656bba9950192~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_962,h_356,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Recasting the Spell ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Miranda and Caliban: The Magic Beneath The Tempest Synopsis:  Start with Shakespeare's Tempest. Add a girl growing up in isolation on an enchanted island, hidden away by her father,  a powerful magus determined to keep her safe at any cost. What of Miranda, the dutiful daughter shaped by his will? What of Caliban, the so-called savage bound to serve him? Start with Miranda and Caliban. In this luminous retelling, Jacqueline Carey turns the lens. Miranda is tenderhearted, loving, and achingly...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/miranda-and-caliban</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6094c676596f190016182357</guid><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 16:44:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_1ca942abec484f32aef4d9ee7bd096c7~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_851,h_315,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stacking the Deck: Creating Tarot Readings for Fiction]]></title><description><![CDATA[Tarot doesn’t behave the same way in fiction as it does in real life. That’s where things get interesting. In my previous blog post , I mentioned that The Wheel of the Year Mysteries  really has four main characters : Maren, a witch Cyrus, her tech-billionaire partner A shadowy villain, who self-identifies as Alexander the Great, determined to keep them apart … and Tarot . Maren and Cyrus follow their instincts. Villains follow their ambitions. Tarot follows its own rules. When Tarot appears...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/stacking-the-deck-creating-tarot-readings-for-fiction</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b81bd5bae3e800161a6cd8</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:16:34 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://video.wixstatic.com/video/9e2c40_b332540c350943f99315d4d1f0553f54/1080p/mp4/file.mp4" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Crown, Cards, Coven, Code — What I Read in February &#38; March]]></title><description><![CDATA[February and March turned into an unexpectedly thematic reading months. I didn’t plan it, but every book circled the same gravitational pull: power—who holds it, how it’s performed, and what it costs . From royal image-making and wartime espionage to witch hunts, tech-world manipulation, magical systems, and a futuristic homicide detective who never lets go of a case … the throughline was unmistakable. Some books dazzled. Some frustrated me. A few did both in the same breath. But all of them,...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/crown-cards-coven-code-what-i-read-in-february-march</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698684c1e14322a9a912db3a</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:05:30 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_610980d2d5294348b589552941f640c6~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_675,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why My Witch Solves Mysteries with Tarot — Not Magic Spells]]></title><description><![CDATA[Maren Lilienthal, Cyrus Harper, and a mysterious adversary from The Wheel of the Year Mysteries hold Tarot cards that unveil their destinies and intentions: Maren with the Wheel of Fortune, Cyrus with the Knight of Pentacles, and the shadowy figure with the Magician card, foretelling a tale of magick love, and looming conflict. Fifteen years ago, I had an idea for a mystery novel. The sleuth would be a witch. The problem? I had no idea how a witch would actually solve the crime . Spells? Too...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/why-my-witch-solves-mysteries-with-tarot-not-magic-spells</link><guid isPermaLink="false">62ac872515bc1410fea6f9f1</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:46:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_4818879dd1f84db99eeabb4b0089a746~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_572,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Scroll of Saqqara: a Review]]></title><description><![CDATA[Different covers for Scroll of Saqqara, images of Khaemwaset, and Pauline Gedge I've loved ancient Egypt for as long as I can remember. The theology, the magick, the sense that the universe runs on laws both visible and hidden .  It shaped me as a reader and eventually as a writer. So when I say Pauline Gedge gets it right in The Scroll of Saqqara , I say that as someone who has spent years walking those sands in books, in imagination, and in real life. So, what about this book? Amazon sez...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/scroll-of-saqqara-a-review</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6094cc2c537cc7001559db42</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:22:59 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_0b19baf8c8c04fdb8588b74b35bbee04~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_924,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Not a Relic, Not a Metaphor: Thirty Days of Persecuting Witches]]></title><description><![CDATA[T.H. Matteson,  Examination of a Witch , 1853 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons I set up Google Alerts to do what I’ve always done as a writer: pay attention. (You can set them up, too; click here .) What I'm Seeing The alerts arrive quietly in my inbox—links gathered by an algorithm trained to notice patterns long before we do. I’ve asked it to monitor topics I care about: ancient Egypt, Egyptian archaeology, Isis the goddess, Paganism, Tarot, Wicca, and Witchcraft.  They're subjects of...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/not-a-relic-not-a-metaphor-thirty-days-of-persecuting-witches</link><guid isPermaLink="false">696128826d2e4f0e0979b1a0</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 06:00:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_97bce30b4a9a4af38cb4be8850921a37~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_684,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[January Reads: A Slow Month  ]]></title><description><![CDATA[January reading happens under strange conditions. The light is thin. The nights are long. And when I’m deep in a manuscript, I read the way a witch reads signs—carefully, skeptically, looking for truth beneath the surface. This was not a month of comfort reading. It was a month of assessment . Of watching how stories are built, where they falter, and whether they keep their promises. Some books offered momentum. Some offered meaning. One offered what can only be described as literary...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/january-reads-a-slow-month</link><guid isPermaLink="false">695549dc810abc75244a14c5</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2026 06:56:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_5ecbe81e18014a8a9bb257e8239107c2~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_940,h_609,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Turning the Wheel: Organizing for Creativity in 2026]]></title><description><![CDATA[I'm using organization as a theme to improve creativity and productivity.]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/turning-the-wheel-organizing-for-creativity-in-2026</link><guid isPermaLink="false">695480d93005d37b905ea076</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 07:00:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_cdc0efa5de804eeda5b8d4857f6b881e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_851,h_315,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[December Reads: Witchy, Wintry, and a Little Wicked]]></title><description><![CDATA[December reading always sounds ambitious. . .in theory. In practice? Between holidays, end-of-year chaos, and the small matter of diving headfirst into drafting the next Wheel of the Year Mysteries  book, my reading time shrank faster than daylight before the solstice. While everyone else was wrapped in Yule vibes, I was already sneaking glances ahead to Litha—sun, fire, and long days where secrets don’t stay buried for long. So this month’s reads skewed toward the cozy, the witchy, and the...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/december-reads-witchy-wintry-and-a-little-wicked</link><guid isPermaLink="false">693af9610b27bc7cafcc6fe4</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 2026 06:12:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_fa28cf4c6b864fd1afda60e4413504b4~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_940,h_788,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[At Yule, remember the Ladies. . .]]></title><description><![CDATA[You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Oh—wait. Wrong winter myth. Still, the problem holds. When it comes to Yuletide, we tend to remember the characters who’ve been stamped, merchandised, and mall-Santa-fied into cultural immortality: Father Christmas. St. Nick. Santa in his many red-suited incarnations. In recent years, Krampus has clawed his way back into the collective imagination, and...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/at-yule-remember-the-ladies</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692da17a745789e635cd7655</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:53:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_6bbe7cab10e44b7d9f421e7eab131417~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_628,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[November Reads]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ink, intuition, and a dash of snark—this month’s curated reads Alchemised  A thousand-page dark fantasy of necromancy, alchemy, and missing memories… that somehow still didn’t reveal its own. It’s atmospheric and ambitious, but often repetitive. And if someone hadn’t whispered “Harry Potter fanfic,” I never would’ve spotted it. But I did  finish all 1,000 pages, which is an accomplishment worthy of a solid three stars and a very long nap. Boleyn Traitor  Yes, yes, I always insist I’m over...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/november-reads</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6932db9b4a571eee42e9740c</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Dec 2025 05:49:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_9595b9332c454ddb926fcf62b6618107~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_940,h_788,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Curated Cauldron of Wicked Links]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wicked: For Good  has officially landed, and the pop-culture cauldron is bubbling over. Between the fashion deep dives , history threads , and behind-the-scenes lore, there’s a lot to sift through—so I gathered some of the most interesting reads in one place. From Elphaba’s now-infamous “sex cardigan” to Ariana Grande’s vulnerable Glinda couture, plus a few real-witch reactions (mine included), here’s your curated tour through everything Wicked. I’ve also added a few fun facts about how...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/r-u-wicked</link><guid isPermaLink="false">691d47ed972cbe45f90250d5</guid><pubDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2025 12:52:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_30635813cdf24c729fe7aea0e5492c96~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_940,h_788,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Not Your Mother's Cinderella]]></title><description><![CDATA[Cinder House  by Freya Marske What Amazon sez:  Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske—a queer Gothic romance perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher. What I say:   Cinderella, but make it feral . We like to pretend the original story is wholesome: all pumpkins, wishes, and a girl who just wants to go to the ball. But if you actually read those older versions? It's all human bondage, dismemberment, bird...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/not-your-mother-s-cinderella</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6910a6f96d12760ab236bc9e</guid><pubDate>Sat, 15 Nov 2025 07:17:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_7a1e8d8c00f042109711b8d3b023ac57~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When the Veil Thins: Stories for Samhain]]></title><description><![CDATA[As the veil thins and the year turns toward darkness, we instinctively reach for stories — the strange, the magical, the forgotten. Samhain invites us to look back: at the histories that shaped us, the myths that haunt us, and the mysteries we still chase. Here are some articles that explore witchcraft, folklore, and the supernatural from every angle: academic, historical, and delightfully uncanny. Connecticut’s growing witch community  — and the witch crawl bringing them together Forget...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/when-the-veil-thins-stories-for-samhain</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69019f99ed0505ad4a2b150c</guid><pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2025 05:47:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_0a9dd5cbdb374bcb90c5ee4315675d31~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_567,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Review: The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist]]></title><description><![CDATA[Comfort. Friendship. Security. That’s what they promised Dorrit Weger inside  The Unit .  But at what price? A stunning, unsettling read that will leave you asking: What is the true value of a life? Some books don’t just entertain. They unsettle you, stay with you, and whisper questions long after you finish. The Unit  is one of those books. One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger checks into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for Biological Material. She’s promised a cozy apartment, great food, new...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/review-the-unit-by-ninni-holmqvist</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6094c4a6537cc7001559d750</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 06:22:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_18efadffb9b44941ad2ca4a4043d141c~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_628,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Books. Travel. Drink. Good times!]]></title><description><![CDATA[V acations may empty your wallet, but they fill your glass, your bookshelf, and your heart. Years ago, I read an article on happiness....]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/books-travel-drink-good-times</link><guid isPermaLink="false">622a15d4e316c13561d08486</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:28:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_93ee28b221134fce840f07b7ad833b85~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_677,h_420,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Book Review: I Came for the Romanovs, Stayed for the Soul-Eating Machines]]></title><description><![CDATA[History may not repeat itself, but in Leena Likitalo's The Five Daughters of the Moon , it bleeds into fantasy with mechanical peacocks...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/book-review-i-came-for-the-romanovs-stayed-for-the-soul-eating-machines</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6094c3e768da8a001538e4a9</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 06:13:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_0aa15a8c5dba4e559e6a54b64186ccda~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_492,h_394,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[From walking on the moon to walking with gods . . .]]></title><description><![CDATA[My leg bounced with nervous excitement as Neil Armstrong descended the ladder. July 19, 1969. I was sixteen years old, crammed into the...]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/from-walking-on-the-moon-to-walking-with-gods</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6094cc7e5960630016949173</guid><pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2025 06:00:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_7e8d335fb6964d5e9df23b16387ff932~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_468,h_204,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Aim Low; Achieve High: My June/July in Books and Life]]></title><description><![CDATA[How aiming low helped me achieve high during the dog days of summer.]]></description><link>https://www.michalea.com/post/aim-low-achieve-high-my-june-july-in-books-and-life</link><guid isPermaLink="false">689f367881e6ee2fae509b6e</guid><pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2025 06:10:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9e2c40_67492b0045824e5ebe1b0a02ae1a62f1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michalea Moore</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>