... and then I forgot all about it - until the "Hey, it's time to start!" email from the National Writing Month organisers landed in my inbox.

When you sign up, you get a page of your own where your novel, an excerpt and the current word count on the way to completing the task is displayed. There is an input box on the page called, "Your Novel" and it says, "Title".

I haven't a clue what I'm doing here or even whether I should put myself through this, as my workload is quite intense already and also, I've already written a novel this year! Vampire Solstice, check it out, very good story and educational for those who are interested in energy matters as well :-)

Anyrate. So I'm staring at the empty box called "Title" and the words just appeared there - The Magician.

Today, November 10th and about 10,000 words into it, I think I'm finally writing my answer to Carlos Castaneda. Long overdue, one might think.

Here, we have a WOMAN, and an old woman at that, or at least she thinks she's old even though she's just menopausal, and that's a different thing altogether, arriving at the dwelling of a magician in order to learn the arts of magic.

Unlike In Serein, where such a thing was promised but never kept in that sense, here this is really happening. Not just that, the techniques she is learning are clearly doable and I have had some amazing surprises along the way. Well, I always wanted to know how you would go about studying magic, and here it is - courtesy of the National Writing Month!

I am not sure if I am going to stop at 50,000 words, although the way my energy mind programmes these days, I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty much spot on, but I do know that I am going to complete this novel - simply because I can't wait to find out what happens next!

You can observe my progress and read the opening chapter of The Magician at the NaNoWrMo website here:

(If you do numerology on that user number, you get a 6, which is "Soul - Conflicts resolved, creativity reborn, creative freedom, the other realms." Nice :-)

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Winning Nanowrimo

It started as a game, but as so often happens to me, the project turned into this absolutely fascinating experience that put everything else in November into a total full stop - November 2006 was only, and all about, The Magician.

In classic Project Sanctuary style, I had absolutely *no idea* what the next chapter would hold. Not until I got to the computer, and not until the words were written, did I get to find out what the "lesson of the day" would reveal.

It was really wonderful. I posted the chapters, as they came out to Nicola and a few select others and then we discussed the revelations, the challenges, the absolute surprises of the day. Wonderful!

As we were going along, I thought it might work itself out at 30 lessons (there being 30 days in November), but I was wrong. The conclusion arrived on day 28, just as we were hitting the stipulated 50,000 word limit of the exercise.

So Nanowrimo was won, and The Magician was born.

The Magician - 28 Lessons In Magic

The Magician

A Novel by Starfields

Anna's children are grown and flown, as has her latest husband. She decides to take a chance and find a magician who might teach her about magic.

In midwinter, she makes her way to the magician's house at the foot of the White Mountains, hoping he will take her in ...

And so begins Anna's journey into a very strange world, a totally different world - a world of challenges that is entirely different to what she had thought it might be, a world of surprises and most of all, a world of unprecedented delights.

The Magician is a deeply moving story of one woman's journey of transformation. This extraordinary novel by master story teller Starfields engages the emotions as well as the mind and it contains sequences of events and images that will stay with the reader forever.

Fascinating, surprising, and entirely delightful,

The Magician is a book you will want to read again, and again.

Created with Project Sanctuary - The greatest creativity machine in the World!

"The Magician is an example of using Project Sanctuary to create a custom made training programme, essentially for me personally. There is no doubt about it, I am Anna and these are the lessons I needed to learn.

During the month of November, I visited with the magician every night and I experienced these things, just as they are written down. I have learned more than I can ever say from this and I am happy to share my adventure with others."

The Magician - 28 Lessons In Magic

This was a fascinating project, one that came literally out of nowhere but was timed so perfectly in all ways and now it is a Fantasy novel called The Magician.

The Magician was written by Master Story Teller Starfields on 28 consecutive nights in November of 2006, so that we may learn something new about magic and in the process of this, should be entertained and delighted, just the same.

There are many strands to The Magician.

A Very Personal Journey

At the very top level we have a story, a fascinating story some might say, about a woman who, once she had completed her duties of child rearing, decides to take up the study of magic in her world.

In mid winter, she locks the door to her rented dwelling for the last time and makes her way to the foot of the White Mountains, where a magician is said to reside, in the hope that he will take her in as an apprentice, even though she is already past the middle of her life.

Her life has left traces, scars and many things ingrained by daily repetition; and as we follow with the story, we learn that to learn magic is as much to unlearn all that came before as it is the acquisition of new skills and the tricks of the trade.

As should be expected of any good story, there are events, surprises, twists, turns and momentum to keep the story vibrantly alive and The Magician has all of these things in good measure.

Of course, there is more to The Magician than meets the eye at the very first glance.

28 Lessons In Magic

This story is also a sequence of lessons – there are 28 in all, and as all things in The Magician, this number is not an accident. 28 chapters from the beginning to the end, and each chapter contains an important lesson, an aspect that needs to be dealt with in one way or the other before a person can become a magician in all truth and reality.

As we follow along with the central character and experience the challenges with her and through her, we as the readers are also confronted with the puzzles that she must solve.

This is often a very emotional journey, and our responses are a personal mirror to guide us towards those places within ourselves where we might well be stuck, or where our own roadblocks on the pathway may reside.

It is also not just the case that each chapter only contains a single lesson.

Each chapter contains a central lesson, and a number of secondary ones, which become revealed to any reader who wants to engage with the book in that way upon reading it for the second time, and for the third.

In this way, The Magician is a fascinating book for discussion and reflection. There are many profound issues being raised, from practical, technical considerations about magic to very global questions of destiny and the path an individual may be taking in their lifetimes and beyond.

The Magician therefore makes a perfect tool for study groups or for an individual who would look at each one of the lessons separately and over time, taking time to absorb as well as challenge and discuss the learnings and points raised.

But there is more.

The Magical Sanctuary

Clearly, The Magician is a Project Sanctuary habitat. Any Project Sanctuary player will immediately see that behind the events we are observing lies an entire world which is ready to take and explore by anyone who would choose to do so.

Anna took but one of the seven magical objects in the market – what do the others contain? May there be one for you? May there be merit to visit with Alarin, or with Satara, or with Cedrick at Rosea to ask personal questions and start an exploration of your own? Would you like to face the challenge of the magic book, one of your very own?

The Magician, being a full and stable Project Sanctuary world can become a real step stone for self learning in that way, and it invites anyone who feels drawn to magic to come and explore, to learn and to be delighted just the same.

Finally, The Magician is a manifest to delight.

A World Of Delights

The Magician speaks of real magic, of worlds beyond what we have come to expect around us; of hope and most of all, of delight.

Delight is the healer of the past and the gateway into the future. One might say that the measure of a person’s life is the total sum of their delights along the way and The Magician encourages us gently to let go of old entrainments and to go forth and seek out those delights this world has to offer us all, on so many different levels and in so many different ways.

The Magician is an inspiration, through and through.

It tells us that it doesn’t matter if we are old or young, rich or poor, downtrodden or damaged, wise or silly, or what our lives might have been like up to this point – The Magician tells us that we have the right to magic. Magic is real and it is here. It is up to us to step forward and embrace it, seek to know it, become fascinated by it and yes, enraptured.

When we do, our lives begin to take on a different flavour, and we find ourselves in a world that is in essence, beyond our wildest dreams.

Buy, Read & Use The Magician Now