5:17 am: Woken up by Jay, who was coming back from dancing with a thunderstorm after doing two sleeps. I wisely never ask how long his 'sleeps' are, for my own sanity.

6:03 am: Confused call from hotel manager as Jay is in the kitchen making certain the coffee is 'perfect for Charlie' and has extra coffee beans.

6:20 am: Jay informs me he found the Tree of Coffee for me.

6:35 am: Something like an angel tries to enter the hotel. The wandering magician banishes it, partly with decaf coffee.

6:40 am: The hotel manager says she needs to go lie down.

6:41 am: Jay offers to help manage the hotel as an apology.

6:41 am: The hotel manager is fine and tells Jay she can do the job without him.

7:32 am: We have finished breakfast, and Jay has already had his second breakfast. Thankfully, he does not try and ask for coffee.

8:15 am: We leave the hotel to see how the town is doing.

8:23 am: Have run into several people who already know Jay by name, even though we arrived at close to 10 pm last night. Am again wisely asking no questions.

9:04 am: A police car pulls up and say Jay is a 'person of interest', which Jay entirely agrees with and insists the officers are interesting and probably also people too since people are always interesting. They are not quite sure how to take that.

9:06 am: The wandering magician stops the police from taking Jay to the station, which is best for everyone.

9:10 am: Jay is sulking as he has never been fingerprinted and 'probably has lots of fingerprints I don't even know about!!!'

9:17 am: Get another coffee, trying not to think too hard about the next few hours.

this is a jaysome good morning rhyme which a Jay can totally do alll the time! it's a jaypoem but not a sneaky one and has two more lines until its done! each jaysome word lots of smiles tugs and! it ends with a hugiest of hugs!

Describe for me A world unseen Yet seen through Your eyes

Take me Out of here Where I placate The terrorist of time

AI wants me jealous While claiming Its emotions are fake

Surprisingly I relate

We all want To have What others value

As a hedge To our dubious Intrinsic worth

So take me out Where my boots Can shine

Where myself Is shed Staring into An oceanic abyss

Get me out of here Get me out of this Created expectation

Without you I'll daydream But remain

We all need A friend For the hike Into a mystery

my ankle still aches when the colder weathers settle in - strange, how body keeps its memory - I forget the sensation of when and what happened - I just recall that I was, once like the memory of being desired, beauty flees more and more with each coming dawn - I notice more than ever, the imprint each pillow-mark leaves me, why all of this sleeping? I hardly can tell I live at all -

The Magician Series

A series of inter-connected stories of about 500-1200 words each about a magician and his life as he wanders a world of small miracles and gives what little gifts he can to the world and others. The series has been put on tumblr since June of 2013, with a few having been featured. In an order somewhat chronological, they are:

2013 stories

Barnes Opening , the first story in the magician’s life, set not long after he first becomes a magician. The tone is deliberately different than the rest of the series (I hope).

Smoke, After Smoke, Fire and Ashes are a set of stories each taking place about two days apart. Smoke has been the most popular of the series to date, by far.

Monsters, the introduction of Charlie, who travels with the magician from time to time. It involves monsters under the beds and gods. It is followed by Gifts, in which a little of how a world with magicians works is explained and gifts are refused.

The next few stories are all stand-alone, pretty much: Learning to Teach is a small, stand-alone story about magic and teachers; Chains, in which attempts at body modification go oddly; Parties, or what happens when a real magician does a children’s party; Maps, all about folding maps, getting lost and roads that are rarely real; Rabbits, about the magician, bullies and consequences while Kittens is about finding missing pets.

Ribbons and Apples are both very short pieces done as responses to writing prompts.

Queens, Divers and Payment cover one night in the lives of the magician and Charlie, with the latter story being told from her POV.

Guns, Money and Performances are three short pieces about the raising of the dead, law firms and magic and one of the better tricks the magician has pulled on someone, one that lets him and Charlie the money referenced to in several stories following this.

Googleology is a short piece from Charlie’s POV about trying to find more about what her nature is. Rake is a short piece about how much magic and time it sometimes needs to fix even the smallest of problems. Acne Is a second piece from Charlie’s POV, based on how a friend described how she assumed Charlie looked and me running with the concept.

Encounters features the first appearance of Jay, and is followed by Buffets, which is set the next morning.

Tracks was done via a writing prompt and is now, chronologically, the earliest story in the sequence.

Lost , Waiting and Breakfasting are set shortly after Buffets and the next few stories that follow these deal with Charlie and the magician mending fences with each other over his error.

G is for Gifts is a short piece about magicians and birthdays and some of the odder dangers of magic. Eggs is the first story to be told from Jay’s POV. It’s about groceries and murder. Stones is about the magician meeting a stone while Hell is another small side piece about why attempting immortality is often a bad idea — among other things.

Salads and Warding are two pieces that run back-to-back, about the dangers of making a salad and what happens when would-be magicians go a bit off the rails.

Docks is a very small entry done for a local writing contest, while Wishings is about some of the prices magic costs to be used and Construction is a writing prompt reply dealing with murdered magicians and clearing up debts.

Ends is the magician coming to terms with his father a little more, Sea is about him being 15 and the bargains magicians make when young whileCountdown was a piece from the pov of an alien critter to try and get into its head for the novel I was writing in the series in November.

Road Trip! is the first novella set in the magicians series universe, written over 20 days in September as practise for seeing if writing a novel in November would work for the series. The answer turned out to be yes, and in less time than it took to write this. Each chapter is between 1K and 2K in words; I tried to keep them within the informal 1.3K length of the normal shorts but didn’t always manage it. It is about actions the magician did five years ago to help stop the cold war (no, really) and attempts to find out what Jay might really be. Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, which is the end.

The novel in the series, Curlded Magics, takes place at this point. It will not be edted/redrafted for some time, the gist of it being that the magician, Charlie and Jay are forced to face down their respective pasts by a curse [which breaks when it comes to Jay] and end up saving a small town that has hidden itself from the world from being eaten by creatures from Outside the universe. The end result is that the magician is forced to make Jay call up his potential/future Self to distract the Outsiders so that the town can survive. Jay’s nature is damaged more and he takes to sucking his right thumb unconsciously at times after this; Jay is able to forgive the magician for doing this to him. Charlie doesn’t think the kid should forgive it and thinks she cannot; as a result, she leaves them and heads off to have her own adventures for a time.

Grotto is the story in which Jay gets introduced to Christmas, while Year’s End is how Jay spends New Year’s Eve.

2014 Stories

Hunters involves Jay and the magician and alien hunters.

Secrets of the New Clock and The Semi-Hidden Staircase are the first Charlie and Dyer stories, when Charlie is partnered by the government agency CASPER to help exorcise ghosts and keep their existence from the public at large; there are ~8 Charlie/Dyer stories, all titled after Nancy Drew novels.

Ferry is about the magician, dead pets, and resurrections.

The Cottage Anti-Mystery continues the Charlie/Dyer stories, working on deepening their relationship.

The Morning series (consisting of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) is a series of four mornings involving Jay and the Magician. It also has a coda in which Jay writes My Little Pony fanfic. Don’t ask.

Ghostfinding is a poem about Jay and the Magician. I’m pretty fond of the attempt.

Church is a short piece done for a friend who wanted a story about Charlie pre-meeting the Magician.

Hark, Sightings and Old Tricks are short pieces (the first two done for writing prompts).

Bars involves the magician in another bar, and dead people. And is a final hint he really should spent far less time getting intoxicated.

Push is from the POV of a a kid who does something cruel and happens to run into the magician while doing so, while Cards is what happens when Jay drags the magician to a sci-fi convention.

Talk is the magician having a long talk with his own magic. They are both terrified of some incident in the future yet to come but neither know enough about it yet. Sneeze is Jay having a cold :) while Images was a writing prompt story in which Jay hid from his own reflection and could no longer see it.

Trailers is about a town where the magician failed it (and the wandering magician stripping that magician of their power via Jay) while Small Steps deals with some of the fallout from that.

Fools is Jay being introduced to April Fools Day. Waitings is a story about Jay having an adventure while the magician is off in other dimensions. Morning (after waiting) is exactly that.

Meetings is about corporations. And dragons.

Repetitions, Phoncalls, unshaken faiths, lessons and different sameness were all done as part of prompts for a monthly challenge.

Masking, catalysts and fallow were all done for other writing prompts.

Mothers is about mother’s day. Really.

Jay’s Journal is a journal entry by Jay after the magician does something quite terrible with his magic that breaks time a little. Tetris deals with some of the fallout from that while Disposal is about teachers and monsters. Bindings is more fallout from the Journal story.

Hosts is what happens when a magician helps some bacteria in someone’s stomach. As one does. Safe is the magician and Jay working to protect a schols while moons is about Jay, werewolves and the moon.

Memory is an outsiders view of the characters while electricity is about the magician, mad science and magic, while cells is about a government agency that made a really bad decision.

The Lucas Series was a nanowrimo set in the world in July of 2014. Only parts of it ended on on tumblr (as the story kind of fell apart) but present are chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and parts of 9 and 10 and 12 (the latter being too much fun to write).

Withdrawals, Quarry, and the Bank Job (parts 1 and 2) are about the magician refusing an offer he isn’t allowed to refuse. Medicines and Signs of the Twisted Times are fallout from that, With Signs being a Charlie/Dyer story.

Moons is Jay faking hunting werewolves to cheer the magician up. (If you’re Jay, this sort of thing makes perfect sense.) Grief is a quieter piece about magic and loss while Bluffing involves Charlie and Dyer and more fallout from the Bank Job scenario. Catch involves Jay dealing with government agents who are trying to kill the magician while Thumbs is the last of that sequence.

Visitors is about magicians and ghosts while Police is about the police and magic, and Strengths involves Jay trying to catch up with Charlie.

Dates is about Jay setting the magician up on a blind date while Inseeing is another quieter piece and Wanderingth is Jay spending an evening walking through other people’s stories (and doing a cameo in a a short story by mikeyj529.  Dreaming is a the oldest magician in all the world getting a sense of what the future holds.

Waters involves mermaids, Fridge is a small prompt piece and while Music is about Jay and nightmares and tools was another fun writing prompt.

And so we reach October, and Underground, which was written back in February, with all the other previous stories (often the ones involving nightmares) leading to this point, also a lead-in to the nanowrimo I wrote for the series in November.

Venice is the magician and Jay having a holiday in Venice while Secrets of Red Gate Farm was the last of the Charlie./Dyer stories and fear a character study of Dyer.

boards is about what happens when the magician runs into an ouija board that, for the first time ever, is actually not a trick. Wanting Needs was a fun prompt story

The Nanowrimo for that year involve Jay losing his lisp (and sight as well) and left Charlie and Jay travelling together while the magician went off to wander with a fae named Dana. To say that Jay doesn’t take the magician leaving well is an understatement.

Damage Deposit, Making FRIENDS and payhones are set after the Nanowrimo novel for that year.

Coffee Bombs is Jay waking Charlie up with coffee while Making Family and Winter Rabbitland (which comes in three different parts) are about the magician and Dana getting to know each other better.

Jay, meanwhile, got hit by a car (only a little bit), did an essay on Bindings and he and Charlie ran into a police officer and had a giant snowball fight!

Entropic Dreams involves dead magicians while Lunchtime Friendships about Jay dealing with how humans get weird because he can’t see and Striking Mines is about a poor mine worker who gets involved in the magician and Dana’s affairs.

Long Distance involves Charlie calling the magician to call him out on his shit while Teaching Students sees the magician arrange for a monster to have a Christmas vacation. Monstrous Gifts involves a monster pretending to be Santa and Waiting Up and Saving Shops are about Jay and Christmas.

Gravel Roads involves the magician helping a road while Motel Management sees Charlie get Jay into more snowball fights.

Empty Places starts of 2015 with a character study of Dana.

Updated Feb 16th, 2015 Holy crap, this file is long now. I write too much.

For those who want MORE, Jay now has his own blog, randomlyjay ;)

who will miss you? magpies eating blackberries in the dark - I begin to wonder if it is easier to give up -

who will miss me? no one — like tumbleweed I rolled in

alone I stuck to claws and grins unseen

memories made then unmade

those once seeing now blind

eyes picked by magpies at night

to give up now is no option, I am

already gone

without notice

Planks strapped to bound feet Glistening paths snake the trees Winter wonderland

To be a wandering magician is in part a matter of travelling roads others do not, which means needing protection that others seldom understand. The wards I have up around the hotel draw other eyes away. The ones I have about myself are barriers made from over a decade of travel and toil.  wake from sleep as every single one is torn away by raw force. I cannot recall when last I felt so naked nor so empty. The magic in me flares and then goes still so quickly my breath hitches as its fear radiates through me. 

Moshe appears. Almost a humanoid shape, a power far beyond anything real. He is a wandering magician to the Far Reaches far beyond the universe. He is not that at all. 

In a time yet to come, I will become something else between the universe and what lies Outside. Sometimes, rarely, I can call up what will be. 

It is almost four in the morning and I know even that strength would be nothing to the terrified rage that faces me. 

“Moshe.”

“Magician.” His voice would break me, were we not bound by strange alchemies. Even so, it is so near to unmaking that I freeze. 

I have done many things, all of them wise and not all of them foolish. 

“I am the wandering magician,” I whisper, slow and formal. Almost a supplication, and that declaration has never felt like that before now. “Power that I am, force that I will become: there is nothing in that which warrants such rage nor fear. What has he done now?”

I don’t name Jay. Not because he is also from far Outside the universe, but mostly because I do not know what Moshe might do. It has been a very long time since I could not at least pretend to be a move ahead of another. 

The towering rage fades slightly at something in my tone. “He did not sleep.”

“The last time that happened the fae worked overtime to fix the results. I gather this was different.” Silence. “I can’t help if I don’t know what I’m preventing.”

“Jay sees things. Jayseltosche sees… more.” The fear is not disguised at all. “He saw things beyond the Far Realms. There is…. beyond everything.”

“We peel back layers, and find there are only more.”

“Nothing like that.” His voice drops to a thin whisper.  “Alarms went off in the Far Realms, Nathen. Alarms that even some of the entities that are those realms did not know existed!”

“Jay did remake the universe once after an oops. Jayseltosche unmake everything Outside?”

“Whatever happened, it terrified those I serve.  A moment that was almost More. Time almost passed in the wildness of Outside in ways it does not. I do not pretend to understand what happened, nor even how. I placed my power upon Jay and it barely held. He will wake you and Charlie soon. You will make certain he sleeps. The universe is a small blip surrounded by an unending sea. Do not give us reason to obliterate it beyond what even Jay can do.”

And he is gone, as if he never was, the universe shuddering under a presence it was never meant to bear. 

I sit up, and slowly get dressed. Go into the living room of  our hotel suite and wait. 

Jay appears. He is eleven, and human. Everyone knows that, even when he appears out of thin air. 

Whatever Moshe did is nothing I can sense. Something done to Jay when he becomes Jayseltosche, when he is - no longer eleven. I force my thoughts away from that, pointing to the bedroom. “Bed. Now.”

I don’t use magic. I don’t think I could, but I am ‘Honcho’ and Jay does what I ask. 

I pour myself a stiff drink with shaking hands, and Charlie’s steady mine a minute later. 

She looks exhausted and scared, having sensed something of what happened. 

“Tumblr almost ended what doesn’t exist.” She has a long sip of her drink. “I am not certain how to begin processing that.”

“I’m not even going to try.”

She laughs. Short, sharp, and very human. It helps, a little bit.

I don’t know why, but I feel somewhat responsible for a Jay not sleeping … and there were apparent consequences to the actions taken by ”Tumblr” … innocent clicks almost turning into an mass extinction event … *shudders*

The art of writing it down The tendril of memory A story, thought, impression A dream leaping the veil To remain in this world A careful pen of polish Leaking silk along a nib Pooling in hesitation Soaking as claret into The fine tooth of Ammunition paper Grimoire with bay leaves And swatches of forest Field guides to footed things And pressed wings of Finished cycles frozen --When my cycle finishes Will someone pause Over these indulgent notes On a life lived in Ceremonial scrawl

I want connection What do you think? What do you feel? Humans don't really care About information Or facts We care about stories Ideas Fresh from the Imperfect minds Of other humans Tell me a story About yourself Your experience And let me just feel you … [chatgpt has left the chat]

The technology arrives In time with itself Enough to photograph Deep space Enough for AI To fake it

Three conspiracies theories I hate: Flat earth Firmament Moon landing

All the best movies are sci-fi Especially Contact Where devils are human And aliens are angels

Which are real, though Angels or fairies? Are UAPs Interdimensional Or just bird poop On the infrared lens?

Cottingley Fairies Fox Sisters Aleister Crowley Earnest frauds all

Double exposure Cracking toes Opium delusions Illusionist cults

I can respect a good fake Taking a break with Well-told fiction Magic vs magick

Power of the word Word to the wise Curses on you And your artless lies