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Sunday: Today Is a Gift
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.
—Babatunde Olatunji
Sunday Inspiration: Always
When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it—always.
—Mahatma Gandhi
Sunday Inspiration: Different Gifts
We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.
—Fred Rogers
Sunday Inspiration: Allowing Oppression
He who allows oppression shares the crime.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Sunday Inspiration: Open Hearts
To keep our hearts open is probably the most urgent responsibility you have as you get older.
—Leonard Cohen
Sunday Inspiration: Care of the Soul
I have come to think that care of the soul requires a high degree of resistance to the culture around us, simply because that culture is dedicated to values that have no concern for the soul.
—Thomas Merton
Sunday Inspiration: Facing Our Soul
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.
—Carl Jung
Dead of Night Is Now Available!
Keep your word? Avoid a war? Save your your neck? Rune can do it all. And the only thing it may cost him is his soul. Things get dark in the second installment of the Caretaker Trilogy, but it’s still fun, smart, and uplifting contemporary fantasy. I hope you’ll like it!
You can find Dead of Night in all the places:
BOOKSHOP (paperback) | BOOKSHOP (ebook)
AMAZON (paperback) | KINDLE | B&N | NOOK
Design Notes: Magic and Neurodivergence
I mentioned a while back that magic in the Caretaker Trilogy takes a toll on a person’s free will. The more powerful the magic, or the more frequently it is used, the less freedom the user has.
I came to realize after the fact that at least some of this toll takes the form of tendencies that might be seen as in some way neurodivergent. This realization came through conversations with my neurodivergent daughter about her own experiences and those of her ND friends.
I remember explaining to her that, the more magic Rune uses, the more detached and flighty he becomes. He’ll either become hyper-focused on something or get quickly bored and move on to someone else.
“Oh,” she said. “Like ADHD.”
I think my verbatim response was, “… Yeah.” Then, pressing my luck, I explained that when Rune’s sidekick Brack uses too much magic, he becomes overly controlling, needed everything to be just so.
“So, OCD,” dear daughter said.
I promise you, I had no intention of going down this rabbit hole. I had already worked out most of these effects based on classical alchemy, both Eastern and Western, and how it associated the classical elements with certain traits of temperament. (A lot of my early worldbuilding was based on a nice popular article on the five elements in Chinese acupuncture) But not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I’m grateful dear daughter suggested this further line of reflection.
So, if you want to keep score, here are how the various classical elements affect someone who dives too deeply into them:
- Air: ADD/ADHD. Inability to regulate focus.
- Earth: Depression. Loss of passion, failing to see the point.
- Fire: Mania. Restlessly move from one thing to another.
- Metal: OCD. Control every variable to the nth degree.
- Water: Bipolar. Strong, unpredictable emotional ebbs and flows.
- Wood: BPD. Emotionally reactive, prone to rage and aggressive outbursts.
Most of this will never see print, but some of it does in Dead of Night.
The night gets darker on July 1.
Interview with Lilah
[I wasn’t sure I could arrange an interview with Lilah, and I wasn’t sure I could go through with it when things came together. Thanks to my connections in the religious community, I was able to arrange for us to meet in a small church that I prefer not to name. Suffice it to say their lovely sanctuary is adorned with several ornate crosses and other religious symbols.]
DP: Thank you for your time. This shouldn’t take long.
L: I don’t suppose it will. You’re nervous, aren’t you? I can tell.
DP: What? No… Just…
L: <smirks> It’s all right. You don’t have to pretend; I know the signs. You set this meeting up at a nice neutral location so you wouldn’t have to invite me into your house. Plus, what’s that around your neck. A cross?
DP: …I mean…
L: Crosses don’t work on me. Or dharma wheels or stars of David or anything else, for that matter. We don’t all get our panties in a wad over the Powers that Be.
DP: <internally crestfallen> Uh… Good to know.
L: You can’t believe everything you see in the movies.
DP: I never do. I understand you’re leaving on a trip soon?
L: <nods> To Louisville. But it’s for business, not pleasure. Some unfinished business I need to handle.
DP: Have you been to Louisville before?
L: Once or twice. The baron and I have crossed paths.
DP: The barron?
L: “Baron” is wishful thinking, if you ask me. A pretentious little man trying to herd cats, and he calls himself a baron. <scoffs> Vampires. A guy reads one too many Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and he thinks he’s royalty.
DP: I take it that’s not the way it works?
L: I’ve got to admit, it’s not too far off. You can call yourself whatever you want. You just have to have the strength to back it up…and you’d better hope nobody stronger is waiting in the wings.
DP: I understand there are varieties of…of…
L: You can say it. Some of my people find the word offensive; I don’t.
DP: Varieties of vampires.
L: See, that didn’t hurt, did it?
DP: <takes a deep breath> Your…people, they originated in the classical world, didn’t they?
L: In our most recent incarnation. Before that, it was ancient Babylonia. There’s always a market for vengeful women, it seems. “Hell hath no fury” and all of that.
DP: Yes, I’ve read a little of your history. Do you mind if we talk about that?
L: Why should I mind?
DP: Well, you… That is to say…
L: My fiancée was sleeping with my best friend behind my back. Is that what you’re so carefully trying not to say?
DP: I know it’s…a delicate topic for you.
L: <eyes smouldering> It was. At first. I can’t let it get in the way of my purpose in life. Or unlife? It’s complicated.
DP: Your purpose in life?
L: I am a cautionary tale, Mr. Pursiful. A living, breathing cautionary tale. As old as Lilith. You know the story, I presume?
DP: Of course. The spurned woman who takes out her vengeance on the man who jilted here. As you say, it’s a common trope in mythology.
L: You’ll find that I am no myth, Mr. Pursiful. Whenever women cry out for vengeance, I’m there. I or one of my sisters. Do you know how many women endured the shame of infidelity, the indignities of oppression? Do you know how many have mourned their husbands’ and sons’ sham imprisonments? Lynchings? <smiles> Nothing changes. Rachel is still weeping for her children. And vengeance is a bull market.
DP: And you’re in it for…what? Money?
L: Sometimes. As it turns out, houses cost money. But I much prefer pro bono work. So fulfilling! It makes me feel all tingly inside.
DP: <shudders>
L: Are we through here? I’m supposed to clear a domestic abuse case later tonight.
DP: Yes, I think that’s all. Uh, thanks again for your time.
L: Of course. <smiles, bats eyes> Sleep tight.
Lilah meets Rune in Dead of Night, and you’ll just have to see for yourself what happens next.
The night gets darker on July 1.
Darrell J. Pursiful 