Ghosts Of Wit: A Grimoire For The Apocalypse
Happy holidays my lovelies! Well – I’m about to start mine anyway and I hope you all have splendiferously spectacular things planned as well!
Knowledge should be free – and so should fun! – so I’ve made my Grimoire For The Apocalypse available as a free PDF just in time for Crimbo.
It’s a rainy day activity book for bored magicians in lockdown full of playful stuff that works but is also fun and subversive.
And it includes a bonus short story: a tongue- in – cheek Magician’s Journey crammed full of Easter eggs which, if you find them all, give a lil potted history of magic (well, westish magic anyway!)
It’s licenced under Creative Commons so it’s fine to share as well. Or if you prefer paperback I’ve set the price at print-cost. (Which imho is still horrendously expensive!)
Happy festive wishes however you celebrate the season, and if you are in lockdown I hope this helps while away some dull hours and bring a few giggles to alleviate the stress.
You can download the free pdf here:
Or get the paperback at print-cost here:
BLURB:
It’s Bagatelle. There’s a Wreck in The Zone. This is not part of The Plan. But you are, and your instructions are simple – DESTROY THIS BOOK.
Ghosts of Wit is an interactive cybertext. A bizarre Easter Egg hunt through a twisted Wonderland in the company of dead poets, sinister psychopomps, sentient tarot cards and a mysterious cat with a fiddle.
Is there life after Porridge? Who is Mary? What does it mean to Tread Well in life? Who started the fire? Why does the old man smile? And would you like a bacon sandwich? Are just some of the questions this book will not attempt to answer. However if you already know the answers, then jump on your camel and join the hunt for the book that doesn’t exist… just beware of the white rabbits along the way…
Silk and Steel
Happy Friday my lovelies! Thankyou for still being here and following along with my little miscreants! I hope you have a fabulous weekend! Here’s the next bit of Silk and Steel for you – will Spyro save the day? Well, I think you know our sinister antiques dealer well enough by now to know his ‘kindness’ is a double edged sword at the best of times…
By the time he caught up he was out of breath and Mendicci was just opening the bolted door.
“To what do I owe this flagrant disregard for respectable business hours?” he asked, flashing them his unfathomable smile as he locked the door again behind them.
“I want a new partner.” Xander said quickly.
Spyro raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak…
“No he doesn’t!” Vraxi protested, “He’s merely cross because I went to church!”
Spyro frowned at the interruption, “You went to church?” he asked sceptically, looking the yag up and down.
“The Other Church…” Vraxi corrected.
“It’s not just that, it’s everything, we’re no good, we can’t work together…”
“Yes we can,”
“No we can’t”
“Please Xander”
“No I’ve had enough, I can’t do this anymore,”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sush! Enough!” Spyro clapped his hands together and silence fell instantly, Xander glaring and breathing hard and Vraxi wringing his hands and looking confused.
“Bane. Upstairs. Now. Go and clean yourself up. You can borrow some clothes from the stock room.”
“But…”
“I will be up to speak with you in a moment.”
“But…”
The antiques dealer raised his eyebrows and Vraxi hung his head and trailed out of the room in a waft of stained silk and roccana smoke.
Xander took a deep breath. “I want a new partner.”
Spyro raised an eyebrow and steepled his finger carefully. “I want a new partner, please, Mr Mendicci.” he corrected.
Xander looked irritated. He flicked down his hood, made a mess of his dark hair and flicked it back up again. “Yeah. Sorry. S’what-I-meant. Er. Please, Mr Mendicci, I want a new partner, it’s not working out.”
“I see.” Spyro looked at him thoughtfully for a while and although Xander stood statue still, eyes front without flinching, he squirmed inwardly under the silent scrutiny. “You have very unusual eyes.” he said at last. “Where were your parents from? Kallimbadd?”
Xander ground his teeth. “Don’t know.” he mumbled, looking at the floor.
“You don’t know? Oh, yes, I remember now; you grew up in the children’s home didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Yes…?”
Xander took a deep breath. “Yes, Mr. Mendicci, that’s right.”
“I see. So you have no family here in Ryzym, that you know of?”
Xander shook his head.
“I see, yes, I remember now. Well, here’s the thing Xander; our little… group here, our little posse if you like, is like a family. Now I understand that for some young people like yourself, and Bane, and Edmund, and so on, your experiences of family range from zero to inadequate to… well, we won’t go there… but we, here, are building something better, are we not? A better life, a better future, a better family, Xan, for all of us. I’m going to confide something to you; I used to have a family – very very long ago now – a wife, and two children. Sadly, well,” he spread his hands and smiled that unfathomable smile, “life is cruel sometimes, but here we are, building something better, as I said.”
Xander frowned.
“But it has to be a team effort, Xan.” Spyro went on, “We all have to work together at it, and we can’t just turn our backs on one member simply because we don’t know how to handle their… problems. Understand? Is that how you think a family should behave? Is that a family you would want to be a part of?”
Xander shook his head.
“No, exactly. Bane would never turn his back on you would he? No. He wouldn’t. And you are not going to turn your back on him. So. There we are. I will have a word with him. Have you had breakfast?”
