Hurricanes For Michaelmas: A Quarterly Update
Love and joy and the reluctance to be human (also, news)
For new subscribers: welcome! For all of you familiar faces: welcome back! While the spaghetti maps don’t suggest that we’ll actually have a Michaelmas hurricane this year, ’tis the season and I suppose there’s always time for Helene to waffle. Either way, we’re surprisingly well-insulated from the weather out at our place. It’s probably a geography thing. Then again, shortly after we moved in, my husband discovered a previous occupant’s criminal history and…well, whatever it was, I don’t even know how many blessed-for-purpose St. Benedict medals he put in the walls. All I know is, the tornadoes track around us.
Come to think of it, so did the grass fire that jumped our fence last year. Invite your priest to dinner sometime, y’all.
Agenda: Latin. “Things to be done”.
Personal news which will probably explain more than I intended it to
Philosophizing about my dream of living the austerely cloistered life of a brain in a jar
In which I say nice things about you, personally
A posting schedule for the next quarter.
Bonus: of course you want to see Lady Radiance as an Aasimar Paladin.
News and Philosophizing and Thanks
When I published my last quarterly update, you may recall I mentioned that the next year in writing could be iffy. The last several months have gone pretty well—certainly much better than I hoped—but we’ll see how that bears out. The point is: I hope to welcome our fourth child in February.
Originally, I wanted to see how long I could get away without making this post; in many ways, I felt it should be irrelevant to my written work. Surely I should be completely unaffected by such trivial matters as what my body is doing? Why should I have to take biology into account at all? To have a completely dissociated life, free of physical considerations, femaleness, property and its maintenance, the needs of souls for clean and pretty things—to free Descartes’ ghost from its machine—well, wouldn’t that be preferable?
Because I have studied my faith pretty deeply and also understand how reality works, I know that’s not true. But my body has a history of letting me down, and I sometimes struggle with envy of the angels, those pure intellects. After spending ten weeks straight as sick as a college student on Sunday and having had to give up on my illustration plans due to pregnancy-induced cluster migraines, perhaps more so than usual…
Of course, the angels envy us, for material creation is not evil, and connection and communion are true treasures, even if we don’t see that ourselves. And in the end, I find I must accept that having my thoughts filtered through this squishy incarnational interface is what makes them worth reading. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t find my writing compelling, and as much of it is built on my life experiences as on my reading and reflection. Without my noticing it, even my struggle with embodiment and identity has ended up in my writing, and I think the writing and the struggle have improved each other. At least, I hope so.
This month, I’ve started to pick up some of the pieces. There is an enduring tension in my process between the dissociation required to write and the embodied living required to write well, and when the balance gets off for me—whether from poor health or just forgetting that I’m only too happy to hyperfocus on abstractions—it’s always in favor of dissociation. And so I’m re(re, re, re)reading Fr. Irala’s Achieving Peace of Heart. I am trying, in between writing and work, to step away and take some time for the real world. In this, motherhood is helpful: as long as I have at least one toddler around to sit on my head when I’m too tired to stand up, I know I’ll never get lost entirely.
How have I managed to keep writing through all of this? Partly, I’ve been putting in the daily practice for nearly ten months now, and that’s paid off. I’m proud of myself for that. It gives me hope that my plan for running a consistent fiction newsletter, even in this season of my life, isn’t totally insane. But I didn’t do this alone. I am not yet, if I ever will be, a person who can write just for herself; that’s the whole reason I started on Substack. I only hoped to find one person who’d be happy to see my writing turn up, but I have gained so much more. Every one of you has helped, and I am truly grateful for your support. Just the fact that you’re reading is enough to help motivate me to keep going. Thank you so much. Your encouragement (both silent and loud!) as I experiment with the nuts and bolts of developing both my craft and my newsletter process has meant everything.
I don't find it easy to hold onto happiness; most often, it’s like watering gravel. Soon enough my rocky soul is dry again and I’ve forgotten all about it. Seeing others get excited about something I made, though—whether it’s a first birthday cupcake or a cute piece of fiction—is a joy I don’t want to lose.
Maybe practice will also help there.
Now, about this publishing schedule
While I originally wanted to get back to Radiance much sooner, it turns out that writing in a new genre while overcoming my secondhand embarrassment for every character involved is hard work and takes some extra time on my part. (Shock! Horror!) The good news is that since Science! Girl is my best job yet at actually hitting my structural milestones correctly, I can say with confidence that there are only three issues left, which I’ll get published some time during the next three weeks, immediately followed by Radiance #5. Fortunately, I’ve been writing this series out of order due to lack of focus/having way too many ideas, and #5 is nearly ready to go.
(Since I haven’t been able to work much with visuals, writing future chapters instead of the one I have due next is now the biggest reason I’ve had Radiance on a more spread-out schedule…but, hey! This one will get finished! With any luck, I’ll have the whole thing done around the time the absolute insanity of the nesting phase kicks in.1)
Projected October—December Posting Schedule:
Week of 9/29: Science! Girl & Chained Lightning #4
Week of 10/6: Science! Girl & Chained Lightning #5
Week of 10/13: Science! Girl & Chained Lightning #6
10/24: Radiance #5: Master of Puppets
10/31: TBD
11/7: TBD
11/14: Radiance #6: Where the People Are
11/21: No post (travel)
11/28: No post (Thanksgiving)
12/5: Radiance #7: I Just Come Here For the View
12/12: Radiance #7.5: Something Between Us
12/19: {A lightly romantic Christmas Eve vignette from my WWII spy stories}
12/26: Radiance #8: Don’t You Know That You’re Toxic?
And while we’re all talking about the new 5e content
Here’s my take on D&D’s fifth edition: it has the best character engine I’ve ever seen. You can make and play just about anything. The mechanics are there and, most of the time, the flavor already is too. However, in terms of actual gameplay, I had more fun with 3.5. 5e is very easy on the players, and my past groups have preferred to start at higher levels, which makes it even less challenging. This is great for those who enjoy playing that way (there are plenty, and I’m throwing no shade for it!), but I don’t like spending most of the campaign just managing all the swag and glory we’ve accumulated. I want to be an itinerant adventurer bouncing from danger to danger, tracking my most basic resources and dealing with the consequences when they run out, struggling to navigate the patchwork of fiefdoms the party’s been banned from, and actually rolling death saves once in a while!
(Unfortunately, the discussion feels mostly pointless because my in-person availability is zip at this point in my life, and anything that involves putting on a headset is the opposite of a good time for me. Anybody want to play by chat thread?)
Anyway, because building characters I’ll never get to play is a hobby of mine, here are some 5e starting points I put together for Radiance characters:
Lady Radiance: Aasimar Paladin
Abilities: Charisma/Strength
Race: Protector Aasimar (a mortal infused with celestial essence, charged by the powers of good to defend the weak and strike the wicked. Can fly and deal extra radiant damage.)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Subclass: Oath of Devotion (tell no lies, cast Word of Radiance, turn undead, repeat.)
Background: Entertainer
Personality: I’ll settle for nothing less than perfection.
Ideal: Beauty. When I perform, I make the world better than it was.
Bond: I idolize a hero of the old tales and measure my deeds against that person’s.
Flaw: I have trouble keeping my true feelings hidden. My sharp tongue lands me in trouble.
Lord Hades: Tiefling Warlock
Abilities: Charisma
Race: Baalzebul Tiefling (a mortal infused with the power of the devil Baalzebul, the great corrupter. Gifted in the ways of physical corruption and psychic control.)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Subclass: Otherworldly Patron: The Undead (the deathless abomination which you serve grants you mighty but horrifying powers in turn, as the cloak of death you wear slowly merges with, and then overwhelms, your pitiful mortal form.)
Background: Haunted One (“Those who look into your eyes can see that you have faced unimaginable horror and that you are no stranger to darkness.”)
Personality: I put no trust in divine beings.
Ideal: I like to know my enemy’s capabilities and weaknesses before rushing into battle.
Bond: There’s evil in me, I can feel it. It must never be set free.
Flaw: I talk to spirits that no one else can see.
Spacewalker: Tabaxi Monk (I went back and forth between this and Shadow Magic Sorcerer, which allows access to teleportation spells and still gets Shadow Walk as a bonus action later on. But Monk preserves the speedster flavor better, I think.)
Abilities: Dexterity
Race: Tabaxi (anthropomorphic cat, for Feline Agility (speed x2) and Darkvision. Since Aasimar can be of any race, he could theoretically still be Lady Radiance’s brother, but I’m…not going to touch the cat-girl angel thing.)
Alignment: True Neutral
Subclass: Way of Shadow (Basically a ninja, but I’d reflavor it to be more literally about jumping between the shadows.)
Background: Inheritor (SCAG reflavor of Folk Hero. His inheritance is guardianship of Lady Radiance.)
Personality: I judge people by their actions, not their words.
Ideal: Sincerity. There's no good in pretending to be something I'm not.
Bond: I have a family, but I have no idea where they are. One day, I hope to see them again.
Flaw: I have a weakness for the vices of the city.
(Now Jacob is tough to fit into the prepackaged background options, because his current place in his journey (actively rejecting the call to adventure due to existential burnout and a growing temptation towards ambivalence) is not the kind of thing that usually makes for fun play. If I were seriously building him and not doing a thought exercise, I would think of something more fitting.)
Chained Lightning: Human Fighter/Sorcerer Multiclass2
Abilities: Charisma/Dexterity
Race: Human (comes with a free feat. I’m picking War Caster in order to a) cast Witch Bolt without worrying so much about CON checks and what’s in our hands and b) allow us to cast a spell—say, Shocking Grasp—instead of making a simple attack of opportunity.)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Fighting Style: Dueling (use a one-handed melee weapon for a damage bonus that stacks with Booming Blade.)
Subclass: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer—Blue Dragon (Lightning affinity! Draconic Resilience! Also they get flight at level 14, which is something canon Baz could really use but isn’t going to get.3)
Background: Soldier
Personality: I can stare down a hell hound without flinching.
Ideal: Greater Good. Our lot is to lay down our lives in defense of others.
Bond: I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Flaw: I’d rather eat my armor than admit when I’m wrong.
Science! Girl: Human Artificer
Abilities: Intelligence
Race: Human (comes with a free feat. Artificers are back-line support characters, so I’m picking Fey Touched for Misty Step and Bless.)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Subclass: Alchemist (Definitely not just for…yeah, it’s for Experimental Elixir. You can make all kinds of support potions for your party, but you never can predict exactly what you’re going to get.)
Background: Sage
Personality: I’m used to helping out those who aren’t as smart as I am, and I patiently explain anything and everything to others.
Ideal: Knowledge. The path to power and self-improvement is through knowledge.
Bond: My life’s work is a series of tomes related to a specific field of lore.
Flaw: I overlook obvious solutions in favor of complicated ones.
Well, if you made it this far, thank you for reading all that! Let me know what you think. God bless, everyone. I’ll see you on Notes and in the comment section. ❤
Recent Posts:
+Close Calls: ~2000 words, dark fantasy/gothic. Diana didn’t think she was looking for a good time. Jonas didn’t think he looked that dead.
+Radiance series: multiple story updates, plus character sheets
+Pretend to Be Nice (aka Science! Girl & Chained Lightning series): ~12,000 words so far, a high-tension romantic comedy with sci-fantasy elements, heavy emotional ups and downs, and the fallout of thirty years of, as
put it, “‘Just talk to each other!!!’ as a family dynamic”.A story: with my third—having finally accepted that my children run too hot to wear knitted sweaters at any age—I spent ten weeks making a full newborn-sized cloth diapering setup from scratch instead. I mean, I researched and special-ordered absorbent core materials. I sewed a mind-numbing number of identical inserts. I knitted and waterproofed these precious little wool covers.
Reader, I neglected to consider that my children also do not come out clothing-pattern-shaped. The diapers did not fit on the actual baby, and there was no way to make them fit. The only thing I had accomplished was to not lose my mind during the third trimester. Stay tuned to find out what I manage to get myself into this time.
Maybe it’s just my notorious weakness for sorcerers, but even though Fighter 1/Sorcerer X feels kind of under-optimized, I would still totally build this out and play fantasy Baz if I had a table. Might even be convinced to put a headset on. Freaking heck, I love him. Nobody remind our DM how many types of undead have lightning resistance/immunity.
On the one hand, it is work remembering to write in ways for him to get around without a jetpack. On the other hand, I feel like getting rides from other heroes is exactly what he needs to keep him humble.
Congratulations!!! Eek! Yay babies! Take breaks whenever you need to and enjoy your squishy little bundle when he/she arrives!
Congratulations! Excitement! Huzzah! Hooray!
(I will totally do a birthday post on Notes come the day. :) First birthdays are fun! *Warms up the Scootleswarm*)