“The Art of Monster Hunting”

~ a short story

~ excerpt from ”The Official Monster Hunting Manual” by Frederich Wilhelm-Justicarius Maxwellian Maxwell IV, aka “Maxwell.” 5-time MVH. Slayer of Grokk. Discoverer of Oura, The Grand Devourer. On and off-again companion to Xena, Warrior Princess. Found the lost land of Elysia and exorcised the infamous Manicchus House. Has been damned, cursed and damn-near killed by all five members of the Godhand too many times to keep count. Many, many more accolades and legendary hunts lay at Maxwell’s feet, too many to spare a completionist’s scribe here. …

~ a short story

“The consortium convened to converse of and cultivate unto the changing conditions on the climate to the climb of the coerced citizenry.”

Seven entities gathered. A vampire, an archangel, a bobbit, a Decepticon, a faerie, John, and Nyarlathotep. A cabal of wacky characters that nevertheless each put their pants on one leg, or tentacle, at a time. The only thing more mad than their minds is the relative normalcy of their daily schedules. Would you believe me if I told you “The Crawling Chaos” takes the bus? Or that Dracula is addicted to Yoo-Hoo? (Spiked with…

~ a poem

On the beach
Is where the elements meet
All four are in immediate reach
Yet to grasp them all is quite a feat

Where the ocean touches
The earth starts to sprawl
All within the sky’s clutches
But where does the fire enthrall?

As I walk on the sunbaked surface,
It is only near the water
Under the breeze
At the edge of this land,
That my feet can cool

As I stand here in the sand,
In the flow of the four,
As I embody this land,
And embark from this shore

Here, I breathe out a singular Truth, eyes on our star,
If only the Father and the Sun knew
If only I saw my steps on the sand as more than scars
If only we seized that the FIRE is in you. ~

Name Every Day: ~ The practice, through journaling or meditation, of NAMING every day you live.

The question becomes — Do you name every day at the end? Or do you try to name some at their start?

By naming your day at its end, you resolve its events into encapsulation, with a title bestowed based on what already happened.

Whereas by naming your day at its start, instead of providing a summation, you set an intention for that day.

Could be specific (“A Swim in Playa Negra”)

Or general (“A Day of Creation”)

Either way, by calling your day…

~ a short story

Jace gazed into his own reflection in the tainted water of the toilet, roiling with some of the gore previously vital to his insides. Sickened, he retrieved his pulsing skull from the innards of the bowl, turned away sluggishly, and rose from a routine kneel within the bathroom.

I can’t miss it. I can’t lose it…

Back on the balcony, he peered through his custom-made scope and up into the night sky. Where are you? The canvas of the cosmos beckoned him once more. Fiery swaths of interstellar regalia popped and strode over the void. Distant…

~ A fascinating concept to me is that of the “Other”; philosophically and psychologically speaking it describes the other human beings around us, constituted by the factor that they are not *you* and you cannot identify with them in the same way that you identify with yourself. Seems obvious. And yet, Others must exist for your own Self to; always, we define ourselves by our environment and the beings within it.

The concept of the Self requires the existence of the constitutive Other as the counterpart entity required for defining the Self.

Hegel and Freud, Sartre and Beauvoir, Lacan and…

What is a threshold?

A place to pass through. A doorway. A passage from one distinct space to another. Not every threshold is transformational, but every transformation requires its threshold.

Sometimes a door is just a door. Words are just words. People are just… people. But with knowledge, intention, passion, these things can change before our eyes. Thresholds of transformation crack. Doors opened become the first steps of heroic journeys. Words spoken become magic spells. People presenced around a circle, in conscientious contact with one another, sharing intention, their knowledge and passions — become a community.

For me, right now…

Who likes to write? Me. You? Maybe not you. That’s okay. We honestly don’t have to write so much anymore. Most jobs don’t require a whole lot of it. Or when we do, it doesn’t have to be that well thought out or good. Or stylish. Or meaningful. That’s all okay.

But I think we should write anyway. For those aims and more. There are numerous reasons why, plenty of known benefits and proven psychological boons. Writing, like any art, can make your privacy more intensely meaningful, even as an amateur. …