Friday Roundup!
Did you miss something? Maybe!
Hello, friends! This post is not too long, as I really just wanted to point out the three events that happened here this past week or so, and let you know what I’ve got planned for the rest of the summer.
First, tomorrow is the last day to add a flash fiction piece to my party, if you want to be included in the party favors. Our friends at The Wood Between the Worlds are going to select some of their favorite pieces to post. I can’t wait to see which ones they will pick— there has been such a wide range of stories, and I’ve enjoyed every single one of them. If you haven’t read them, there are entries at every prompt: solitude, forest, malice, history, portal, shipwreck, fortune, sirenhead, bird, magician, child, vespers. And thanks to Katie Andraski, I wrote a spare piece and submitted to a flash fiction contest. I’ll share it with you once I’m able.
Speaking of The Wood Between the Worlds, I have a guest post up over there! On the recommendation of Deacon Nicholas Kotar, this past winter/spring I read The Realm of the Elderlings series (all sixteen books! woo hoo!) by Robin Hobb. It was a marvelous reading experience, and somewhere deep in the middle of it, I started to realize there were some mind-blowing patterns in her worldbuilding and story structure. This essay is an overview of some of the big ones. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Finally, I wrote a different essay last week that I’m still thinking about, “We Are All Fairies to Each Other.” I’ve been brainstorming different myths and folktales about journeys to the otherworlds, and what lessons those stories might have to teach us; I’m thinking about writing another post or two following that rabbit trail. And now I’ve got “Goblin Market” stuck in my head, and I will always hear this poem in the voice of David Tennant, in one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, “Midnight”:
“Lie close,” Laura said, Pricking up her golden head: “We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry thirsty roots?” “Come buy,” call the goblins Hobbling down the glen. -- from Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
It appears I’m graduating from quarterly-ish newsletter to something more frequent, though I don’t know quite what that will look like yet. I want to tell you about a meaty theology book I’ve just finished, and talk about the experience itself of reading and thinking about theology as a layperson. I also want to talk to you about living a creative life, and how the writing process fits in with all the demands of the quotidian stuff. I’ve got some more ideas for flash fiction to fill in the months until our next writerly shindig (save the date: it’s gonna be a Halloween party!), plus I’m always reading random things and wanting to yap about them.
My meditations this week have been on the ontology of summer magic: birds in the garden, swimming in the rain, firefly walks at twilight, the roar of the ocean, and spending time with children without agenda or expectation. I was going to write about it, but then I realized that there are no words to describe how exquisite these enchantments are.
Oh, before I forget! I have a community request! Somewhere on Substack is a really sweet article written by a young woman in which she talks about really liking people and finding them interesting. I absolutely adored the piece, but I forgot to like it! And now I can’t find it! If you know the piece I’m looking for, please link it for me.
Thanks for your ears, friends! Until next time.
May you be blessed,
Laura
I think you can look at the history of the stuff you’ve read. It should be there…I think.
Which is the first in that Elderlings series?