Meet the Curators of Culture: Culturecast Agency’s family of Authors. These creative and intellectual artists of the written language are leaving their footprint on our world in many forms. Blogs, Novels, Text Books, Magazines, you name it- they’re doing it! But what inspires them? What’s their creative process? How do they continue to come up with new content in a market that seems oversaturated? We’ll explore all of these questions and more. Each monday, we’ll feature a new author from either our team at Culturecast or from our wonderful client list. Stay tuned and meet the Curators of Culture each week!

Born on the bayou and baptized as Mary Millan, Bloody Mary was raised in the Crescent City. She grew into a sincere and valuable priestess who serves her town secretly as a psychopomp. She is known publicly as a Priestess, storyteller, celebrity historian, author, psychic medium, healer and owner of the infamous Bloody Mary’s Tours,

As a true mystic, she combines her abilities as Shaman, Mambo, Voodoo Queen and Psychic into all aspects of her life. As an artist she designs her work with an empath’s heart, a historians detail and a researcher’s mind. Her mystic abilities have always lent second sight into her business ventures and continue to aid her impeccable storytelling, ritual execution and, of course, paranormal investigations. These gifts all help create a full, well rounded research technique that she shares with her customers. These blessings guide her to unearth old knowledge which enhance her scholarly pursuits; this psychic knowledge works in tandem with avid research creating a unique and holistic approach to understanding her home town of New Orleans and the unseen worlds we live within. Her new book Hauntings, Horrors and Dancing with the Dead met with rave reviews. That once secret psychopomp and spirit guide side of Mary is now shared with the world. Bloody Mary’s book itself is reported to be haunted.”

“We all have the potential to see with more than our eyes, hear with more than our ears, and part of my destiny is to help others to realize that potential. I believe in living in and exploring the uncharted waters found deep within the river of the heart and soul. Everything is an adventure of spirit and experience including all my tours, workshops and psychic services. There is no better place to discover spirits than right here in New Orleans where I, indeed, am your spirit guide.” – Bloody Mary

She forever reminds us that : “Swamp Magic is New Orleans, the Mississippi river is our mother and I, foremost, am her Avatar, her voice.”

Mary Millan is an accomplished author of blogs, vlogs, and many other mediums. Her latest and biggest project has been the publication of her new book. “My newest book is Blood Mary’ s Guide to Hauntings,  Horrors  and Dancing with the Dead .”

The book is a masterpiece published by Weiser Books. According to Mary, they are “the oldest and most respected metaphysical and occult  publishing house founded in 1926 by Samuel Weiser on “Book Row” in NYC.”

“My book was originally a much larger work,  So large it was decided that it will be be a three part series,” says Mary about working with the publisher.

Being an author is much more than just writing. This is especially true for Mary. Her writing comes to life in her daily adventures. When asked if she is writing something new for us, she tells us how this will have to wait until she has fully promoted her current book release. “I sorely need a break from sitting still and need to return to the field. My spirit work never stopped but writing (and rewriting) sure slowed things down. I have some travel lectures, workshops and book signings planned  to really spread the word about New Orleans spirits through the country this summer,” states Mary. “l plan to resume writing new books after Halloween. The next book is about New Orleans Voodoo:  the Marie Laveau tradition. At present I also now have my ongoing blog which is just getting into the swing of things. [Anyone can follow my writing at] @theBloodyMaryMirror  on my website bloodymarystours.com.”

This is not Mary’s first major publication. “I also have a previously self-published coffee table photo Books “The Paranormal Blue Books” 1 and 2, soon to be re-released as as ebooks.”

So what drives Mary to keep curating and exposing the world to her research, perspective, and expertise? “What inspires me to write are the spirits themselves! Sometimes they have a lot to say and I keep repeating it until i get the word out there. My job is to help, to heal and to spread the word. As a priestess it is my duty to share some of the knowledge I have acquired so that others can follow in the footsteps. It’s my darn legacy and this is my life so I have a lot of writing and teaching to do! I also promised the spirits that I would record their teachings.”

“My inspiration also comes from the fact that I have seen so many changes in this area since  Katrina. I need to record some of our customs and ideas in New Orleans before they get squashed by the huge footprint of the newcomers pouring into the area- those who did not have the generations of fore bearers to show them the old ways that we the Creoles, or native-borns, did.”

When asked what impact her writing has on our world, Mary says, ”

I know that since my work has been published, it had a profound impact on the spirit world around me, but I’m still waiting to see how it will affect the physical. My case studies and knowledge of the afterlife are unique and taught by the spirits. Officially the book has only been out since March 2016,but it has received rave reviews and is growing in popularity. Just so you know, some the spirits seem to have left with the pages and it’s been rather quiet around me lately. They either went on a celebratory vacation without me or they are out there doing marketing for us to make the book a bestseller! I hope a little bit of both. Spirits come and go, it is their prerogative, but they were so very active during the writing and it was darn crowded in my home.  A house is not haunted every minute of the day or every day of the year. They are not stuck. But I have indeed noticed a huge change in the spirit of place, and I wait to embrace the physical changes.”

Writing a novel, blogs, and photogaphy books already, one would thing the inspiration would be hard to come by. This is a lot of content in a short amount of time for one author. But this is not the case for Bloody Mary. She was inspired to write and keep writing from childhood. “Now, I can not point to one favorite book or a specific moment of influence growing up that inspired me, but I always read the most books in the class as a kid, I read the most on the summer reading lists and earned badges in scouts for reading . I even loved  to hang out in libraries to research as a kid, and I wrote a short story, a haunted one, when I was 7 or 8 that  won an award. I’ve always wanted to write, and spirits have always been around me looking over my shoulder. My psychic awareness and  inquisitive nature have always coerce me to get to the root or heart of the subjects I encounter. Then I was gifted with sacred storytelling and the mysticism of seed sounds which soothe the spirits; calling them near was a fortunate accident that worked exceedingly well . The gift of paranormal photography followed in line and just married them all together in this book for you about them and is and how to get along and how to dance with the dead.”

Bloody Mary, aka Mary Millan, has been partnering with Culturecast Agency since 2015, and she is one of our dearest friends and clients. “When working together, things are not ever boring. It quickly becomes a think tank, as the creative energy continuously flows back and forth between us and her. She has marketing expertise in her studies and background, and we learn as much from her as she does from us- probably more! We wish her well on the vast list of upcoming endeavors facing this very talented, smart, and one-of-a-kind New Orleans businesswoman. We are proud to work with such a wonderful person!” says Jonas Dominique, Creative Principal at Culturecast Agency.