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When you find there to be a lack of magic in your world, make a new one. That’s exactly what author Nicole Glover set out to do when crafting the whimsical world of her newest novel, The Starseekers. Come along in her Big Idea to see how the ordinary can be made just a little more magical.
NICOLE GLOVER:
I always found it a severe disappointment when I realized as a child that I was living in a world where tea pots weren’t enchanted, ravens didn’t linger on fence posts to give me a quest, and that dragons weren’t snoring away in caves. I didn’t need unicorns or griffins as pets and I never had the urge climb a beanstalk, I just wanted a touch more wonder in the world.
So I did the only thing any reasonable person can do: I started writing fantasy.
From riffs on fairy tales, to tales of travelers seeking a library hidden in a desert oasis, to my current series, in my stories I explored what a world could look like with an abundance of magic.
And with each story I found myself most intrigued by the quieter uses of magic.
The spells in my stories warmed boots, provided a bobbing light for the overeager reader trying to read one last chapter, or put up the groceries for a weary shopper. I found joy in writing about enchantments that made tea kettles bubble with daydreams or devising cocktails that made a drinker recall their greatest regrets. The magic in my stories didn’t include epic quests and battles, and if there were curses, they probably had more in common with jinxes and weren’t nearly as difficult to untangle.
Everyday magic, is the word I like to use for it. Such magic is small spells and charms, that are simple enough for anyone to use and often have many different uses. In contrast to Grand magic which are spells that only a few can ever learn because they are dangerous, and just do one thing really well and nothing else.
Magic that’s in the background, in my opinion, is more useful than Grand spells that could remake the world. (After all what’s the use of a sword that’s only good for slaying the Undead Evil Lord, when the rest of the time it’s just there collecting dust in a corner?) Grand magic is clunky and troublesome, and can be like using a blowtorch when a pair of scissors is all that is needed. You ruin everything and don’t accomplish what you needed to do in the first place. It’s also very straight forward as the magic leaves little wiggle for variation or adjustment without catastrophe. And if a writer isn’t careful, duels involving magic can easily devolve into “wizards flinging balls of magical energy at each other.”
Magics with a smaller scale, leaves room for exploration. It can even allow you to be clever and to think hard of how it animates objects, impacts the environment, creates illusions, or even transforms an unruly apprentice into a fox. Most importantly, Everyday magic are the spells and enchantments that everyone can use, instead of magic being restricted to few learned scholars (or even forbidden).
Everyday magic allows a prankster to have fun, a child could get even on the bully, let’s an overworked city employee easily transform a park, and have new parents be assured their baby in snug in their crib.
It’s also the sort of magic perfect for solving mysteries.
The world of The Starseekers, runs on Everyday magic. I filled the pages with magic that creates staircases out of books, enchant inks and cards, brings unexpected utility to a compass, lends protection spells to bracelets, and even store up several useful spells in parasols. There is an air of whimsy to Everyday magic, giving me flexibility to have it suit my needs. Magic seeps into the surroundings, informing how characters move through the world and how they think about their acts. It allows me to consider the magical solutions to get astronauts to the Moon, how a museum may catalogue their collection of magical artifacts, or what laws on wands and broomsticks might arise and if those laws are just or not.
Embracing Everyday magic is what made The Starseekers possible, because making the everyday extraordinary is one of the many things I aim for as a writer and a lover of magic.
The Starseekers: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Books-a-Million|Bookshop|Powell’s
ghostbustersnews_feedMondo designer Alex Brewer asks fans to weigh in on future characters and collectibles for the Real Ghostbusters 1:12 line.
The post Fans Asked What They’d Like to See Next in Mondo’s The Real Ghostbusters Line appeared first on Ghostbusters News.
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duskpetersonMost travellers to the Emorian borderland take the opportunity to visit the capital of Emor, located immediately north of the borderland.
With walls higher and thicker than those of any other city in the Three Lands, Emor's capital looks from the outside to be a garrisoned fort. This appearance is deceptive. Once you pass through the heavily guarded gates, you will find yourself in a bustling city, full of trade and games.
My strong advice is that your first task should be to find a place to stay. The capital's inns are crowded year-round; the more crowded they are, the higher the prices they charge. If it is at all possible, see whether you can find an acquaintance to stay with – though I'm bound to say that the capital's residents are so used to "friends" showing up at their homes without notice that many of them now charge boarding fees almost as high as those charged by the inns.
You could easily spend a year perusing all the sights in Emor. I can only touch on a few of them here.
[Translator's note: The gates to Emor's capital feature in a spiritual vision in Death Mask.]
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snowflake_challenge 2026: Challenge #3thatjustwontbreakWrite a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.
Thank you for being such a large and consistent part of my life. I have been participating in fandom one way or another for over twenty years and it has been a gift.
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Our most recent anthology, Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories, is now available for general sales. Miss the Kickstarter and want to get a copy? Hearing about it now for the first time? You can buy Scholarly Pursuits from the Duck Prints Press webstore, request it from your library, order it at your local bookstore, or purchase it from one of the many retailers who sell our books!
Blurb:
Duck Prints Press presents 22 delightfully fluffy, happy, odd, snug, and cozy stories about queer characters pursuing academic excellence! From field research shenanigans to cooking adventures, from space station education departments to eldritch libraries, creators brought their vivid imaginings to life in these charming fantasy and science fiction stories. Settle into your favorite research carrel or prepare to read on the sly under your desk as you join us for “Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories.”
We also have limited quantities of leftover merchandise from the crowdfunding campaign! 
If there was any merch you wanted, there’s no time like the present to make sure you get it before supplies run out.
ghostbustersreddit_feed  | It's not perfect but it's as close as I can figure out, what does the council of nerds think? lol [link] [comments] |
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