To bear a soul is to live life intensely, profoundly. Your every choice is felt one-hundredfold - your minor successes are celebrations, your errors become calamitous. It is this that people reference when they speak of the burden that ensouled bear, but to view it as some exchange of tribulation for power is nons...
2021-05-22 16:14:08 +0000 UTC View Post
It is seductively pleasant to deride Saf as a nation of fools, rife with raving demagogues and mad priests - but remember that they had been winning their war on the continent until we intervened. Only a timely Ardan effort and Mendian’s watchful eye have kept the entire region from falling under their rule.<...
2021-05-19 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostSo, we're getting to the point where things are piling up, I'm introducing a lot of bad Latin and we're growing beyond a small core of introductory characters. I'm going to be maintaining a document to sort all this out, hosted here:
Men of a certain age have a particular set of behaviors in common - a reaction to sudden lights and noises, an anxiety that manifests in quiet moments, bouts of anger and passion wholly unsuited for the situation in which they arise. It is impolite to admit that these are consequences of service on the continent, since ...
2021-05-12 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Modern animetry has given us the notion of the Eight as if there is some fundamental division that defines them, but that is not the case. Certain souls have been tracked throughout history, and not all of them have merited inclusion in this august party.
Perhaps the most famous is the Star of Mendian, whom we ter...
2021-05-05 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
It is tempting to frame history as a narrative about the clashes between souls, but this is almost never the case - one may as well contend that swords were the salient factor rather than their wielders. The might of souls is directed only by the base human impulses of their vessels, and the flow of events follows.
<... 2021-04-28 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Many model the law as a set of rules, learning it by asking what the law is. Still others frame it by jurisdiction and pose the question of where, or as an item of executive authority while pondering who is, precisely, our law.
These are valid pursuits, and instructive, but they miss the fundamental question -
It is theorized that there is a rough limit on the number of people one can hold a relationship with, be it friend, neighbor, lover or enemy. It is perhaps one-hundred-fifty on average, two-hundred-fifty at the utmost. Past this, the faces blur into the crowd and become an indistinct and aggregate other; we simply...
2021-04-14 19:55:01 +0000 UTC View Post
—
Stellar shines through winter’s cloak,
But embered night belongs to Smoke.
Sibyl knows where secrets stray, 2021-04-07 18:14:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi, intro post before the chapter! I did end up revising a few things, mostly descriptions and parts of the carriage ride over. The scene at the institute is more or less as it was in the preview.
Please let me know what you think about the supplement - I anticipate that I'm going to pull from a wide range o...
2021-04-07 18:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostSeems like the month flew right on by. Hopefully all the books sent domestically have made their way to their new owners by now, and if you haven't yet provided your address please feel free to make the update - it's not too late!
I'm targeting the first chapter release of Peculiar Soul for patrons on April...
2021-03-31 22:41:18 +0000 UTC View PostI have packages stuffed and ready to go for everyone who has provided me their addresses so far! Later than I had hoped, but things kinda stacked up over the last few days (I got vaccinated, woo!) and I didn't have a chance to make it down to the post office. I'm going to visit tomorrow and send out all the curren...
2021-03-24 18:42:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi, lots of stuff going on today! I got the books a day before I expected, which is great - but my package of mailers didn't arrive early so I'll still be getting those tomorrow while I gaze at my book mountain over the intervening day. I'll try to get those winging out towards people Fridayish, so make sure your ...
2021-03-17 19:32:28 +0000 UTC View PostHello, happy Wednesday! I've been writing and fiddling around with story stuff for Peculiar Soul, those of you who hang out in the Discord might have seen me toss a few things up. In particular I've been fleshing out the details of the map in which the story takes place.
There's a quote from Carl Saga...
2021-03-10 15:43:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The print manuscript is ready, finally! I got the proof copy on Monday and I now have a slightly tweaked version live on Amazon:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08XXFVJZ7/
So that's nice. I have a big box...
2021-03-03 18:56:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello, everyone! Short post today, as I've only got a few updates to share. First, the manuscript is nearly done - I got all of the formatting issues worked out and am giving it an edit pass as well as compiling some appendices based on the information page I've been hosting on the HFY wiki, so the print ...
2021-02-25 02:49:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Short update today, it's been a busy week and I've been plugging away at the manuscript as best I can in the gaps. It's looking like my estimates of having it all bundled off to Amazon by today were a tad optimistic - to improve the layout and my control over the images/flow of the book I'm using InDesign rather than Am...
2021-02-18 03:25:23 +0000 UTC View Post
I had this slated as a week to focus on my (actual, more boring) work, but that doesn't mean I've been able to leave the Inheritors manuscript entirely alone! I've begun the long, painful process of converting the story to its print layout and done a few tests to ensure my assumptions regarding conversion of th...
2021-02-10 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
In the end this is only one of many books o
2021-02-03 17:51:52 +0000 UTC View Post
(TL;DR - Chapter delayed due to being really long and my work ramping up. Schedule notes and patron benefits described in the second half of the post.)
Hi folks! I hate to do this to you after the end of that last chapter, but it doesn't look like chapter 64 is going to be fully baked by tomorrow and I need ...
2021-01-27 15:42:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The proficient guard against the foe’s blade, masters against the stray pebble underfoot.
- Aesvain saying.
---
Fire was apparently going to be a theme today. Jackie grimaced as the scriptsmith lobbed a flaming projectile in her direction, feeling Tija’s remnant pulse with power f...
2021-01-20 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Fire and knives are for food, if there’s food.
- Sjocelym saying.
---
The elevator slid to a halt at the bottom of its shaft, and the doors hissed open to reveal the inky blackness of the tunnel beyond. Jackie stalked out with the conjured mote of light trailing a few paces behind h...
2021-01-13 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
“And then there are those who attach some broad meaning to the phenomenon of asaarimyn. Yes, they are tools of the vinesavaim, but they do not speak for them. There is nothing enviable or significant about them past their aesacaar, and if some fool of an abbot should tell you otherwise remember that I have b...
2021-01-06 17:01:59 +0000 UTC View Post
hope you and the children are well - I’m sure they’re large now, and by the time the caravan reaches you with this letter they’ll be larger still. Here things are not so good - the soil grows dryer by the day, and our cerein ails. I was looking in the old texts for answers but find that much of what they...
2020-12-30 17:14:06 +0000 UTC View Post
I had a conversation with a young man today - Vumo Ras, one of the court’s scholars of ruudun. We had the opportunity to talk at length, and though he is young and overly deferential I feel as though he could grow into quite the asset with some care. I intend to invite him along on our expedition to Sun’s ...
2020-12-23 17:03:10 +0000 UTC View Post
“I suppose if I have any advice for writers of history it would be to emphasize the uncertainty. In a book like this it all hopefully appears very clear and organized, but in the moment? We didn’t even know the right way to look.”
- Tasjadre Ra Novo, Jesa Sagoja: Zhetam Asade...
2020-12-16 17:04:45 +0000 UTC View Post
By the time a Sjocelym finishes saying hello he’ll have told you three times how much he loves their scriptsmiths - part because he’s glad the toys they make don’t explode, and part because he knows that for the right people they sometimes do.
- Aesvain joke.
---
The clouds stretched ...
2020-12-09 16:56:15 +0000 UTC View Post
“In many ways it could be said that Tinem Sjocel did not exist until Goresje dragged it forth. The country of my birth was a nation of insular savages, snarling over scraps and preoccupied with petty feuds. It was not a country that held lectures, not a country that prized knowledge and craft for their merit...
2020-12-02 17:04:55 +0000 UTC View Post
I took the old defenses down from around the outpost this morning. Grandfather was against it, as we knew he would be, but even he had to admit that we hadn’t had visitors - friendly or otherwise - since he was a boy. Ve is still in shock. I don’t think he knew it was anything more than a pretty deco...
2020-11-25 17:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
A man leaves his house but does not take his knife. His wife chides him, saying that it is late and he should be cautious, but the man dismisses her concerns and proceeds unarmed. Shortly thereafter he is accosted by a group of robbers who beat him, stab him and leave him for dead on the road.
...
2020-11-18 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
