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Chapter 8 - Noumenon, Phenomenon

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...

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Chapter 7 - Askēsis, Apatheia

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 f...

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Character & Animetry Reference

So, 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:

2021-05-12 16:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 6 - Exfiltration

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 se...

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Chapter 5 - Sibyl, Sibyl

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 th...

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Chapter 4 - In Memoriam

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 th...

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Chapter 3 - House of the Raven

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 ...

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Chapter 2 - A Peculiar Soul

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 ...

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Chapter 1 - The Tragic Death of Michael Baumgart

Stellar shines through winter’s cloak,
But embered night belongs to Smoke.
Sibyl know...

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Peculiar Soul Author's Notes

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 goi...

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Where did March go?

Seems 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 Pecu...

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Shipping Update

I 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 tomorr...

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Book Get! Plus, Chapter 1 of PS!

Hi, 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...

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Marching onward...

Hello, 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.  

...

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We've got books! Art! Art on books!

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'...

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Wednesday Once Again!

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 ...

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Happy Wednesday!

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...

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Plugging Away...

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 assumpti...

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Part 64 - Inheritance

In the end this is only one of many books o

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Hey - that's not a chapter!

(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...

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Part 63 - Prise de Fer

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...

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Part 62 - Advent

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...

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Part 61 - Flight and Pursuit

“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 ot...

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Part 60 - Aftershocks

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 b...

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Part 59 - And Drops Each Blossom

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...

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Part 58 - Yet Quivers Every Leaf

“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, ...

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Part 57 - Not a Breath of Wind Upon the Hill

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.

-...

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Part 56 - Howling from the Mountain's Bosom

“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 knowl...

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Part 55 - Deep Sounds, and Deeper Still

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 an...

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Part 54 - Opening the Door

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...

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