Support the Argo!

Hey folks. My local queer scifi/fantasy indie bookstore, the much beloved Argo, needs help.

These are the folks that inspired me to write haiku, read queer scifi, and meet local authors. They introduced me to my favourite novella of all time This is How You Lose the Time War. They introduced me to the cozy fantasy genre (and I fell in love). They routinely reach out to tell me about cool things, like the Japan Book Club or local events. They were the ones to tell me about Jo Walton’s incredible Scintillation convention. They are all around good people, and I want to see their shop succeed.

If you can throw in a few bucks, it would be much appreciated

Haiku Month

I just finished NaHaiWriMo! It was so so satisfying to return to my haiku practice. Here are a few poems I wrote:

On meditation:

the practice is / the practice — drink jasmine tea / and sit

On visiting my local Hindu temple with a friend:

the shrine is closed / the priest gives us bananas / anyway

On chatting with a family friend:

Halifax grandma / boiling something on the stove / she chats on the phone

I’ve submitted a multitude of my haiku to contests and magazines (not these ones). We will see if anything comes from it!

(For you keen-eyed observers, I’ve also changed my website tagline to a haiku.)

May spring greet you with joy.

Fave Games of 2023

Here are six of my top games from this past year.

A Mending by Shing Yin Khor- I finally finished this game! After 2 years of careful stitching, I have completed this map. In this game, you stitch your way across the map to go visit a friend, answering prompts about your friendship along the way. This beautiful fabric map now hangs above my bed where I can see it for all the years to come. I was utterly satisfied by this game. I told all my friends who love to sew about this game. I bought a copy for my best friend. I got two other friends to play it. If you like to sew and you like games, go go go!

A Sage’s Salary by krushna – I played this game several times this year! In this short game, you start off as a young apprentice-type to a sage. You grow up to sage-hood yourself, then can play the game again by seeing how you raise a young salary yourself. This game could really be endless if you wanted it to be. It has supernatural elements in it which add a bit of drama to the story. You could explore religious abuse in this game if you wanted to go that route, or if you want to have some kind of master nun kickass character, you could do that too. It’s up to you.

Monstra City Bakery (demo) – this was a delightful queer video game about being a human baker in a town full of cute monsters. I really want the full game to come out so I can romance the giant spider. Best of all, there’s no jealousy, so you can romance everyone!

Tending: A Game of Devotion by tori truslow. I adored this game. It’s a mixed media game where you are a pilgrim at a religious site, helping to build various structures. There are four mini-games in the game that take you through a seasonal year at the site. You can journal your experiences or just use the collage mechanics to craft something beautiful. I really had fun connecting back to my love of art.

The Magus by momatoes – This was a really interesting game about a mage’s pursuit of power. There’s various mechanics that bring you closer to power or sacrifice. I’d like to replay this game again sometime and go really dark just to see what happens. The creator is doing a Kickstarter campaign to release a physical book and companion oracle deck with 28 hours left to go! If you like games where you get to be a powerful mysterious wizard or witch, I really recommend this one.

Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop from Lost Ways Club. In this game, you’re some kind of animal-folk who owns a bookshop-boat. You pass through the seasons floating up or downriver. You meet customers and friends. You experience holidays and changes. This game is meant to be like a solo version of Wanderhome from Possum Creek Games. I’ve set up the Notion app to track the game for me, rather than using a Google doc. It’s an interesting change for me–but after four sessions of play, I find it hard to maintain the motivation for a solo campaign. Perhaps I ought to just skip ahead to play a few days in each season, and leave it at that?

I also played the beginning of Baldur’s Gate 3 this year, but didn’t get a chance to continue because finishing grad school really swamped me. I hope to play more this year!

What games did you play this past year? What was your favourite? (Did you have a least favourite?)

Little website update!

There are two new pages: a Now page and a Haiku Resources page.

Enjoy!

Fave Books of 2023

Well, another year of reading has come and gone. I read 99 books this year–I figured this out on Dec 31st and decided not to stress about reaching 100. My secret is that I read a lot on public transit!

Honorable Terrible Mention

The Green Man by Henry Treece – this book was bizarre. It was a mashup of Beowulf, King Arthur, and Norse fantasy. A young boyking comes into his manhood and tries to prove himself by joining Beowulf. He also repeatedly ends up in bed with his half-sister and his mother is perfectly fine with this–she actually ships them?? He goes to Britain to join the court there and ends up pissing off the king (whose name I don’t recall). His uncle takes over the kingdom while he’s gone and does completely dreadful and inhumane things. The boyking ends up with an unwanted bride and she just gets pushed to the side when he encounters a Pictish Queen and marries her. They go to take back his kingdom from Beowulf’s men and the usurper but are too late to save anyone. His sister and mother are tortured beyond belief. His unwanted wife betrays him and participates in his murder. Beowulf offers to wed the Pictish queen in recompense, and the queen fucking shrugs and accepts because ~she’s used to having a man around now~. UGH IT WAS AWFUL. I was so mad. This book was so insanely misogynist. I read it so that you don’t have to. Don’t read it.

Poetry

Haibun: A Writer’s Guide by Roberta Beary, Lew Watts, Rich Youmans – a recent release about how to best write haibun, a form of Japanese poetry that is basically a prose paragraph + haiku. I really enjoyed the editors’ tips and recommendations in this book, as there are not a lot of manuels out there on this topic.

Seeds from a Birch Tree by Clark Strand- I read this book twice this year. I enjoyed this short gem analyzing haiku, how to write it, and how to live it.

Three Simple Lines by Nathalie Goldberg- This was a delight. I read this one twice too, having genuinely forgotten that I had read it already until I was a good 50-70 pages back into the novel. Goldberg writes about her haiku pilgrimage to Japan to honour Buson, one of the four male haiku greats. If you’re a fan of haiku, this is a fun light read. (Her commitment to meditation was also interesting to read about.)

Fiction

Knight’s Wyrd by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald – this was a surreal, merry romp into fantasy knighthood. If you enjoy stories about knights, this is quite a good tale. Happily, this book skips over the ‘let’s train the squire!’ montage and leads us straight into the knighting ceremony. Our knight is given a prophecy and does his best to avert it (as one does, of course).

Lifelode by Jo Walton – a polyamorous fantasy novel! What! What a delight to read about polyamory respectfully done outside of erotica. Here we have a world where each person has a lifelode, a purpose that one pursues in life. Each member of society is expected to do this. We examine a quad of four, and what happens when a hot stranger comes to town. He brings trouble–he changes the quad forever. A grandmother also returns from her travels to further lands and brings chaos reigning down from an angry goddess. This book really gripped me.

Oracle Bone by Lydia Kwa – I love reading fantasy novels about monks and nuns! I find them to be fascinating characters. Here we have a wuxia novel wherein a young woman wants to get revenge for the murder of her parents, and gets taken in by a supernatural nun. We also return to Kwa’s monk character Harelip–we get to see his life prior to his isolation on the mountain. He struggles with monastery restrictions and inhibitions on his queerness. I enjoyed returning to the world Kwa has constructed. You can read this novel and her other novel, The Walking Boy, in any order. (TW: there is a brief sexual assault scene at the beginning of Oracle.)

Tristan and Isolde by Martin Shaw – this was a gorgeous, stylistic, and mythic retelling of the classic tale of Tristan and Isolde. If you enjoying forays into mythic time, Shaw’s work is for you. I actually find that I prefer his fiction and autobiographical work (Stag Cult) over his “how to become a storyteller” type books (Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians). He’s a wonderful storyteller.

Witchcraft & Animism

Becoming Animal by David Abram. This was an intriguing exploration of one man’s deepening into animist praxis. I learned a lot!

Cartomancy in Folk Witchcraft by Roger J. Horne. I enjoyed this book so much that I asked for it for Christmas! I’m going to use it to learn the Marseille tarot this year. If you’re into folklore and divination, I heartily recommend this book.

The Witches’ Devil: Myth and Lore for the Modern Cunning by Roger J. Horne – I read this book twice this year! (Can you tell I’ve become a fan of Horne’s work?) I’ve found the folkloric devil to be a fascinating character so it was really fun to dig into this primer.

Comics & Manga

False Knees by Joshua Barkman. Snarky animal comics. What more do you need to know?

Grog the Frog by Alba BG and Davilorium. Do you want to read a comic about a grumpy dark frog wizard? I know I do. It’s a quick read–too quick! I wanted more. You can read this without knowing much about the world of Grog.

Saint Young Men vol 3 by Hikaru Nakamura. It’s a delight to return to the world of a contemporary incarnation of Jesus and the Buddha living in Japan, trying to have a vacation while hiding their divine status. This manga series is full of gentle humour. It’s the perfect thing to cheer me up.

Zine

My Yule by Lorna – this was a charming zine on one practitioner’s Yuletide traditions. This is fun to read if you’re new to Yule or just need some new ideas to spice up your old traditions. Also, there’s a cute craft at the end.

The Ink That Bleeds: How to Play Immersive Journaling Games by Paul Czege – I backed this zine on Kickstarter. It was a thoughtful contemplation on the beauty of solo journaling games, and offered a unique way to craft a character and interact with the worlds you build.

It was a pleasure, as always, to dive into books this past year. I’ve got a nice stack of occult books to read this winter. I’ve also saved some academic articles on Ursula LeGuin that I hope to read now that grad school is over. What a pleasure it will be to read without worrying about homework…

Until next year then! Feel free to message me about your favourite books this year.

Fave Games of 2022

Today, I’ll be looking at games that I played this year that are not video games. Most of these are journaling games of some type or another where you are given a world and writing prompts to respond to. Some of these games include tarot cards.

Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard by Amanda P. This is a journaling game about being a knightly character taking a pilgrimage and committing deeds, good or bad, along the way. I enjoyed this game so much that I played it several times.

Chalice from Monkey Paw Games. I bought the physical book of this zine and loved it. The book looks like a medieval manuscript with gorgeous full colour pages. In this journaling game, you’re a knight attempting to seek the Grail. Failure is embedded in the game: you aren’t meant to complete the Quest. As you can see, knight games are an interest of mine!

Hopelessly Devoted by A Devil Like You. My third knightly game that I played this year–you’re a squire. You get in and out of trouble as well as in and out of bed on your last year of training. This is definitely a game to play alone with some candles and chocolates nearby.

Tending by Tori Truslow. This is a sweet game about being a pilgrim tending to and helping to build a new shrine. I have only played the demo of this game so far.You need a standard set of playing cards to play this game. The prompts help you design the structure of the shrine. The game includes multimedia–you could easily create collages, maps, and other media while you build the shrine. As time passes, events happen that effect the progress of the construction. It’s a beautiful game that made me tear up more than once while playing. I am sure the full game will be excellent.

Field Guide to Memory by Jeeyon Shim and Shing Yin Khor. So this is a 20-day journaling game. You’re a scientist of some sort (your choice) who is trying to understand what happened to your cryptid-biologist mentor. You get prompts each day. The game is a keepsake game which means you’re meant to customize and decorate the journal you’re writing in, so that when you’re done playing, you are left with a kind of keepsake to remember your gameplay. It was a really thoughtful game, but I found it hard to maintain a consistency of play. This is in part because I was in the middle of my winter semester of grad school. Perhaps if I was less busy, I would’ve been more focused on this.

Vampyres Are People Too by Paul Czege and Son. This is a brief cute journaling game about trying to make a positive life as a vampire. It was written by a young boy and polished by his father. The funds you pay for the game help the boy save up to buy himself a Chromebook so he can play Roblox.

A Mending by Shing Yin Khor. This was another keepsake game. I’m actually not done playing this one! This game is a map printed on fabric. You sew your way from your “house” (a button) and make your way to your friend’s “house” (another button placed somewhere on the map). The game comes with a deck of card prompts. It’s an extremely sweet game. I’ve played it three times so far, and I think I have enough room to play twice more before I am going to wash the fabric and hang it above my bed as a gorgeous memento. Thankfully, the game also comes with paper copies of the map, so you can keep playing after you complete the fabric map.

Skyworthy by A Couple of Drakes. You are a skyship cycling between captains. You tell the story of the life of the ship. Your ship changes as the years pass and you catalogue what happens. This game was really interesting to play. I’ll have to replay it again one day.

Games I Have My Eye On

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings. You are an aging vampire. Shit happens to you or you happen to other people. Live your life and its immortal consequences. I would love love love to get the print copy of this game. I think I’ll buy it for myself for my birthday in the spring.

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) by Moirai Myths. This is a visual novel video game but deserves a mention because it’s indie. This is a romance based on Irish mythology and faerie tale. It’s on Kickstarter right now!

I LOVE YOU ALIVE GIRL by anna anthropy (who makes amazing tarot journaling games as well). This game involves leaving cryptic reviews that are actually love letters on Amazon and Ebay. The concept of this game is really rad and I want to try it.

The Magus by momatoes. You are a wizard seeking P-O-W-E-R. You journal your descent into madness cruelty and strength. This game looks deliciously dark and I’m excited to play it this month while on medical leave.

A Year in Books 2022

Despite grad school, I still managed to read a lot this year. Here are some books that really struck me.

Fantasy Faves:

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. My goodness, this tome. The world in this book is a delight to dive into. You have an archipelago recovering from an apocalyptic event. The main character is a part of the world government as the personal secretary to the Emperor. You follow his journey from an excessively humble man to the peak of his career. This works well as a standalone if you want, but the author has built up side-stories and prequels around this main text. The sequel just came out and it’s more than double the length of this book.

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. I read this while in the hospital and in recovery from gender affirming surgery. It was a charming read about an orc warrior retiring from fighting to open up a coffee shop. It’s a cheery queer read just in time for the holidays.

The Walking Boy by Lydia Kwa. This was an intriguing queer read set in fantasy China. A young boy has to complete a task for his monk Master and learns to accept himself along the way. I really liked this one and want to read more from Kwa.

Sci-fi

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. I was SO delighted to return to the Monk and Robot series. The first book in the series really struck my heart, so it was nice to see Sibling Dex and Mosscap deepening their friendship as they traveled the land by bicycle, seeking an answer to Mosscap’s diplomatic question.

Poetry

The Enlightened Heart edited by Stephen Mitchell. This book was an anthology of devotional poetry to God and Spirit. The submissions were from Christian, Muslim, Buddhist backgrounds, as well as some classic features from Western and Eastern poets. (Alas, no pagans.) It was a beautiful and heart-singing read. I am so glad I picked this up from the thrift store.

Stag Cult by Martin Shaw. I managed to score a signed copy of this! This book came out this year. Shaw writes poetic prose about his youth and masculinity, intertwining his life with myth (as usual, really).

Storytelling

Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley. This was actually the first time I’ve read Beowulf and I am so glad that I did. Headley writes this epic poem using modern slang. Rather than the traditional “Hwaet!”, the poem starts off with: “Bro.” It’s a very engaging read. I even managed to teach an excerpt of it to my enriched grade ten group.

Spiritual

I read so many excellent spiritual texts this year. Here’s just a few of my faves:

Polytheist Monasticism edited by Janet Munin. It’s fair to say that this book changed my life. The title is what it says: an anthology of essays by various monks and nuns of polytheist and pagan persuasion.

Sand Talk by Tyson Yankaporta. This book was fascinating. Yankaporta talks about Australian aboriginal knowledge forms and how we can use its principles to actually explore sustainable living, animism, science, education, and knowledge. I’ll definitely come back to this book at some point because there’s so much to chew on.

Norse Pagan

The Nordic Animist Year by Dr. Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen. This book explores a large variety of Heathen holidays under the lense of pagan animism. This book is well-researched, progressive, and thoughtful. Rasmussen has clearly put a lot of work into building up a working holiday schedule (and calendar).

Elves, Witches, and Gods by Cat Heath / Seo Helrune. This book is worth reading for anyone interesting in the Norse magical practice of seidr (loosely, Norse witchcraft). It’s a great balance of research and experiential knowledge. Heath often offers online workshops as well that are quite affordable (but often 3-4 hours long, so be ready for a lecture!).

Special mention to Claude Lecouteux for giving me lots of folklore to read and ponder this year.

Memoir

Matsuo Basho by Makoto Ueda. My love affair with haiku continues. I managed to score this out-of-print text from Amazon. It’s a biography of Basho’s life and analysis of his works by a Japanese scholar. I really really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it.

80! Memories and Reflections of Ursula K LeGuin edited by Karen Joy Fowler and Debbie Notkin. This was a beautiful book written for Ursula on her 80th birthday while she was still alive. I got very nostalgic. What a gift.

Self Help

I actually read a little bit in this genre this year and got a lot out of it every time.

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. This is a book that I wish I had bought a physical copy of because I keep wanting to make notes in it and make reference of. The title says it all: Newport explores what a digital minimalist lifestyle looks like. Critics complain that you can find all the information therein on the Internet, which is true, but rather than watch hours and hours of Youtube videos on digital minimalism, you could read a book instead.

Your Head is a Houseboat by Struthless / Campbell Walker. This book is a surprisingly accessible book analyzing what the fuck goes on in your head using terminology that is amusing, intuitive, and way easier than psychological terminology. This is definitely worth a read if you feel the need to excavate some of your personal demons.

The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. I have joined the bullet journey club. I am following Carroll’s minimalist method so far to keep things simple and easy for me. I figured that a good way to get into the community was to read the founder’s book so here we are. It’s very detailed with lots of useful exercises to do for goal-setting, intentions, and journaling.

Romance

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites by Joy Demorra. This was one of my favourite books this year. A progressive vampire lord falls for the disabled werewolf captain of his guard. The m/m vampire/werewolf romance had plot, intrigue, and quality flirting. There’s even a positive portrayal of polyamory! The mini-sequel skips over all the fun parts of the buildup of the polycule which makes me way sad, but Demorra is supposed to be writing a sequel so we’ll see what happens.

Honourable Mentions

The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year by Linda Raedisch. I am currently reading this book of folklore to amuse myself throughout the Yuletide season. It’s well-researched and fun! It even includes a bunch of crafts you can do. Raedisch clearly made this book a labour of love.

Sapphomanteion: A Lesbian Oracle from Contagion Press. This little book uses excerpts of Sappho’s poetry as bibliomancy (book divination)! It’s a delight. I was so happy to catch this press tabling live at my local bookfair.

Dracula by Bram Stoker. I caught the Dracula Daily email trend and was behind, so I decided to just read the book instead. This book has surprising chosen family vibes. I quite enjoyed that. You can also read it queerly, if you tilt your head.

Njal’s Saga translated by George W. DaSent. I am reading this Icelandic saga as a part of a Discord server book club! It’s so long. T.T

Well, that’s it for me! What are some of your favourite reads from this year?

A Year in Books: 2021

Best Sci-fi

Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (read twice). This book is about a burnt-out monk who starts offering tea and peer support to their local community. They meet a robot and have an adventure. If you’re looking for optimistic domestic sci-fi, this is for you. I loved this book to pieces.

Best Fantasy

Circe by Madeline Miller. I am a sucker for a good retelling of Greek myth. Miller goes above and beyond, delivering a wallop of a tale about Circe, the witch from The Odyssey.

Best Poetry

So Far, So Good: Final Poems 2014-2018 by Ursula K LeGuin. Reading anything of LeGuin’s work now contains an element of heartbreak for me since Ursula has passed on. I remember the poems were focused mostly on aging and mortality, but all I can really remember is my own lingering grief.

The Art of Haiku: Its History Through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters by Stephen Addiss. This was a fantastic and engaging overview of the history of haiku and haiga. I’m quite glad I bought the physical book as it contains full-colour pictures. I’ll definitely reread this in the future.

Best Spiritual

Honouring Your Ancestors by Mallorie Vaudoise. This book arrived right when I needed it. This book isn’t for everybody: it does contain a lot of Italian witchcraft and Catholic folk magic. But it gave me good ideas on how to improve my practice, which is what I wanted.

A Witch’s Book of Silence by Katrina Blackheart. This book felt timely too. It helped me understand my relationship to social media and my avoidance of silence. Blackheart’s interpretation of the four tenets of the Witch’s Pyramid was really cool.

Best YA

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal. This book was SO fun! Werewolves! Disability! Discord servers as literature! Just, yes. I can’t talk coherently about this book, ok? I just really liked it.

Best Comics

The Tea Dragon Tapestry by K. O’Neill (read twice). The beautiful conclusion to a gorgeous trilogy of comics about dragons who grow tea leaves on their body. It was a joy to return to this world for one last time and see how each character grows and changes. If you need a soothing read, I recommend the whole series, starting with Tea Dragon Society.

Best Fan Fic

In All The Ways There Were by Molly Knox Ostertag (LOTR fanfic). This was a rewrite of LOTR where Sam and Frodo are explicitly in love. It was so gay and so good.

Favourite book of the year: Hench by Natalie Zina Walschotts (read twice). I read this book back in January and it was clear to me even then that this would be my book of the year. This is a book about a low-priority hench at a villain company who gets injured by a superhero. You follow her story as she gets revenge. This book was devastating, hilarious, and angry as fuck.

Honourable Mentions:

The Only Horror Book I Read This Year: The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate. I admit, I hoped this was gonna be a sexy gay Dracula novel but it turned out to be a toe-curling drama about a captain who is hella closeted and has a vampire on his ship. It’s a tense, sparse book. Fortunately, it wasn’t heavy on the horror, so I was still able to read it.

The Only Manga I Read This Year (excluding web-comics): Saint Young Men, vol 1 by Hikaru Nakamura. This book was so charming and cute! Jesus and the Buddha have incarnated in modern-day Japan and are roommates. Drama ensues. This book both respects their respective religions, but also has fun poking fun at these saviours. If you’re a nerd for religion and comics, I recommend this one.

The One Essay I Read For Fun: Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf (1976). A quote from this was in some academic article I had to read for school and I wanted to read the whole thing. Woolf explores what consciousness is and how writing fits into that.

Favourite Zine: Armchair Demonology: The Magical Benefits of Cultivating Bad Habits by Clint Marsh and Gerhard (read twice). Marsh writes about how tea and tobacco help him achieve very mild states of trance. It’s a quick, interesting read.

The zine/Instagram post that blew my mind: First Principles of Queer Goetia. This zine was written for the queer dead. It’s a poem-manifesto-invocation. I foresee that I’ll be reading this many times over the years. Unfortunately, the zine itself is very difficult to acquire.

Reading Goals for Next Year

• I’d like to read one memoir a month.
• I want to read less fantasy and more sci-fi.

What are your reading goals for next year?

Well, thanks for reading. Happy holidays, and happy new year!

I made a video game!

This is a video game about Loki and Sigyn, two married Norse deities. (Yes, Loki has a wife! And a polyamourous partner!) Loki is stuck and bound in the earth. Sigyn guards him. She needs your help. Will you come to their aid?

https://battlepoet.itch.io/lokis-binding

I got interviewed!

Editor Rebecca Buchanan asked me some fun pagan questions about my zine. Check it out here.