Events, General, Readings

So I wanted to do a reading at the solstice

Sundagger.net

I’ve been wanting to have a book reading of Sundagger.net at the summer solstice coming up  and now I’ve got three events planned, two in Sonoma and one in Sebastopol!  There’s going to be live music and video too. You’re invited to drop by for tea or coffee,more than a few good words, and to join in a celebration of the sun.

Sunday, June 19th, 1PM and 4PM
Barking Dog Roasters, Sonoma, 95476

1PM–Headquarters, 18133 Sonoma Hwy,
707.939.1905

4PM–Downtown Sonoma, 201 West Napa St
(in MarketPlace 
Shopping Center),
707.996.7446

Tuesday, June 21st 5:30PM
Infusions Teahouse @ Whole Foods Center
6988 McKinley Street, Sebastopol 95472
707-829-1181

The Solstice is a powerful time of the year, the time when the sun and the earth are closest (the summer solstice) or farthest away (the winter solstice).  Sundagger.net begins and ends in a Native American sweat lodge at a solstice! The sun dagger phenomena in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico inspired me to write the book.

The sun dagger is featured in my chapters where Rowan, the network analyst from the fictional telecom, TekGen, is hustling to jumpstart his new project, called, aptly, sundagger.net. You could say the sun is a character in my book.

I’ll be building on the solstice reading event I had at the Pinole Library last year. It began with a simple Native ceremony that included  drumming and singing Lakota sweat lodge songs. The ceremony consisted of “calling in the Four Directions” (East, South, West and North) and honoring their power. We also announced our intentions for the evening and spoke of our reasons for coming. It was really inspiring, especially with the participation of Ko Blix who showed his video Stones of Chaco Canyon, on YouTube. You can see where the sun dagger actually slices through a spiral cut in stone on a butte. The pictures of the Chaco ruins and the sun dagger in the video are awesome.  The original music by Chris Goslow that accompanies the video is eerie in its melodic synchronicity.

Events, Readings

Celebrate the Summer Sun! Bring Your Drum!

sun dagger by Michael Goslow

Summer Solstice Reading
June 14th, 2010, 7PM
Hercules Library
Hercules, CA  94547

You’re invited to a book reading I’m having of my novel, Sundagger.net, “a mystery in another dimension”, at the brand new Hercules Library. Please come! It will be held on a bright Monday evening, one week before the actual solstice on June 21st.

What is a summer solstice? It is the longest day of the year and occurs when the earth is tilted closest to the sun.

My novel begins and ends with a solstice ceremony. The title is based on an actual phenomenon that occurs at the solstices. In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, the sun “pierces” a spiral petroglyph carved by the Anasazi at the top of a butte. The stone slabs through which the sun shines shape the light into dagger(s). One dagger shines down the center of the spiral at the summer solstice and two flank the rim at the winter solstice.

The reading will also include drumming and Native American ceremony. It will be held in a beautiful large white room in the Hercules Library with all the latest electronic equipment one might ever need. I’ll be showing slides of the amazing and colossal Chaco Canyon ruins.

As we approach the summer solstice, our energies will be high and our intention strong. Together we will manifest ourselves. Come celebrate. Bring your drum!

Sun Dagger Piercing Spiral Petroglyph, Chaco Canyon, NM
Sun Dagger Piercing Spiral Petroglyph, Chaco Canyon, NM
Events, Readings

Video interview with the author

I’m outside the Pinole Library. I’ve just finished my “Event with the Author,”  reading from my novel and showing slides of Chaco Canyon World Heritage Center in New Mexico.  Looking at myself is humbling and yet–can you tell?–I’m proud too. Ha!  Life is wonderful. Everything comes to pass. I’ve started writing my next book. I’m 25 pages into the unknown that is the prequel to Sundagger.net. My working title is Center of the World—that’s what the Anasazi must have felt. It’s where we’re all at, don’t you think?

Readings

Press Release – Evening with the Author

Pinole, California –Local author Margaret Murray will read from her new book, Sundagger.net, on Wednesday, July 22, 2009, at the Pinole Public Library, 2935 Pinole Valley Road, from 6:30—7:30PM. There will be Indian drumming and a slideshow of the ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Snacks will be served and the admission is free.

Contact: David Zwicker, 415-309-5036, [email protected]

Sometimes it takes more than one lifetime.“In her Sundagger.net, Margaret Murray gives us a mystery novel in a new dimension moving us from Post 9/11 Silicon Valley to the Ancient Anasazi of the Southwest,” wrote famed mystery writer, Tony Hillerman.

A story of one family, two worlds and many lifetimes, Sundagger.net is independently published by WriteWords Press, which Murray started two years ago. “For me, the journey to the magical world of books began in a library and now I have the chance to read my own work there,” Murray states. The sun dagger refers to an actual occurrence where a ray of light appears during solstices and equinoxes at the top of a butte in Chaco Canyon, piercing a spiral carved in stones centuries ago. “Clearly it had spiritual and religious meaning for the Native Americans,” explains Murray. “It also refers to the technology that powers the internet and drives the telecom industry of Silicon Valley—which leads to a theme of my book—Sometimes It Takes More Than One Lifetime.”

Margaret Murray was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University and Hunter College. She attended the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center on an American Federation of the Arts fellowship and the Squaw Valley Screenwriters Conference on a National Endowment for the Arts grant. A technical writer and teacher, she has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years and in Pinole for the last eight.

photo by shelley buck

For more information: Phone the library: (510) 759-2741.
On the web: www.sundagger.net