May 7, 2023 • 12 mins
Worlds of Possibility has a Kickstarter! Since we reached 25% on the first day, here is a public story from the most recent issue, which just went to paid subscribers today! It's "6 Must-Have Sentient Spellbooks (And How to Find Them) by Alexei Collier. For full show notes, including the text of the story and the original illustration by Julia Kim, visit: https://www.juliarios.com/6-must-have-sentient-spellbooks-and-how-to-find-them-by-alexei-collier
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the OMG Julia podcast,where we discuss creative lives and processes.
I'm your host, Julia Rios,and today I have an exciting thing for
you. It is the first storyfrom the April twenty twenty three issue of
Worlds of Possibility, which just wentout to subscribers today. And usually there
(00:23):
is a longer wait time from thetime that issues go out to subscribers to
the time that stories from those issuesare publicly available. But this one is
going public on the same day thatthat issue. It's in when to subscribers
because we reached twenty five percent ofthe World's of Possibility anthology Kickstarter funding goal
(00:43):
on the first day, that wasyesterday. At the time of this recording,
we are about forty percent of theway there. If you're seeing this
on Sunday the seventh or Monday theeighth of May twenty twenty three, you
can still hop over to the Kickstarterpage and take advantage of the early bird
(01:03):
special, which will save you tendollars on the art rewards and the print
book rewards. Those savings will vanishat the end of the day on Monday
in the Eastern US time zone,so as soon as it rolls over to
midnight on Tuesday, those are gone. So if you want to save ten
dollars and get some stickers and postcards, or get a print book, do
(01:25):
it now. I started World's Possibilityin twenty twenty one while recovering from long
COVID, which is something that Iam still doing. At a time when
I really needed and wanted things thatwould make me smile, soothe me,
inspire and leave me feeling peaceful,hopeful or happy, I started soliciting stories
(01:47):
and poems and art, and nowI have enough that I want to make
a full color hardcover book with lotsof pictures inside. I'm also making stickers
of some of the art eluding thespell books illustration by Julia Kim that goes
along with this story. So shallwe get into the story? Six Must
(02:13):
Have Sentient spell Books and How tofind Them? By Alexei Collier. Spell
Books are not as rare as somethink. If you know how to look,
one might lurk in a grandparents' attic, another might lie moldering on a
park bench, yet another could appearin a cardboard box of cast offs left
(02:37):
at the street curb. But youhave found these common spell books already devoured
them with your senses and absorbed theirlessons, and you crave more. You
hunger for something powerful, deep andtrue, a magic that touches you at
(02:58):
the very heart of who you are. Here is how you may find what
you seek. One, the paperbackof outward Appearances. The first spell book
hides at the back of a secondhandbookshop, disguised as an ordinary paperback,
(03:22):
pages yellow and dog eared. Youmay have to return several times before you
find it. Make friends with thebookshop owner. There are few wiser than
those who surround themselves with well lovedbooks. When the time comes, the
paperback will show itself to you.Within its pages, you will find even
(03:46):
greater wonders in faded type and ballpointmarginalia, as is the way of books
to contain so much more than theirmere contents. But this will only fuel
your continued search. Two, theFolio of Growth and Withering. Visit the
(04:10):
library and search the shelves for abook that isn't there. Begin in the
gardening section and work your way outwardin a golden spiral, unfolding your investigation
like the petals of a flower.With wisdom gleaned from the paperback, you
will see through the folio's false outwardappearance to its true form, a cover
(04:33):
of woven maple leaves and palm frondsand climbing ivy. Handle with care,
as the ivy may be poisonous.Trace the veins of the folio's pages as
you read. It is a tactilebook yearning for touch. Make sure to
give it plenty of sunlight and waterit frequently. If you don't, its
(04:59):
words will see to blossom into meaning. It will bear no seeds of wisdom
for you, and your quest willhalt in desolation. Three the Hymnal of
Transformation. On the night of thehalf moon, walk into the woods,
(05:19):
carry no light. Let your memoryof the folio's veined pages guide your steps.
Stop at the third sycamore. Youcome to touch the tree and speak
to it with the verdant syllables youlearned from the folio. Keep your voice
soft and undemanding, and the treewill call the moonlight to illuminate a hollow
(05:43):
knot in its trunk. Remove thehymnal gently coax it. Do not grasp
it forcefully, or it will swoopaway into the night and won't appear to
you again. It is bound insoft hide or shiny leather or rough cloth,
always changing, forever becoming itself,drawing you closer to your goal.
(06:10):
Four the Monograph of Summoning. Placea bookmark within the pages of the hymnal.
Make sure you mark the right page. The bookmark can be a piece
of an envelope, or a fadedreceipt, or an old shopping list.
Intone the hymnal verse to invoke truetransformation. The magic will take hold of
(06:33):
you, and you will feel yourselfchange or not change, according to your
truth. That truth may make youweep, may make you laugh. The
Hymnal will accept your offering of tearsof laughter. Remove the bookmark, and
in your hands that scrap of paperwill grow and warp and writhe and reshape
(06:58):
into a book bound in red silkand silver, humming beneath your fingers,
with a current of potentiality of magicyet unworked. Five the Compendium of Silences.
Position the four spell books in therequisite patterns shown in the monograph,
(07:21):
filling the gaps with the proper sigilsinscribed in salt and ash and iron dust
to form the summoning circle. Sitat the circle's edge and reflect on the
meaning of speech and silence. Thereare no words to affect this summoning.
(07:42):
The compendium will know when you areready, and appear glossy, black and
dense, with the weight of longpauses, burgeoning with the sable shape of
something new. Six title unknown own. The sixth book is the most elusive
(08:03):
of all, its discovery the mostchallenging. Find a quiet place and arrange
all your spell books on a shelf. Most spell books enjoy company, but
some are less social, and youmay need to separate them with book ends
(08:24):
or old dictionaries lest they grow agitated. The quiet you find may be metaphorical,
and the shelf may be in yourmind. The place may be a
cushioned corner, a grassy hill,an overstuffed armchair, or the solitude of
a crowded subway train. Make peacewith yourself and with your silences, with
(08:52):
a caesura between breaths, between thoughts, between sleeping and waking, and with
that greater silence at the end ofall of these. The final book is
the one that lives inside you,its cadences pulsing in your veins, its
(09:13):
words whispering under your skin, searchingfor release. Take up your magic,
implement, pen and paper, quilland parchment, your phone, an old
typewriter, a laptop. The choiceis yours. Begin to write, keep
(09:35):
writing. The next words are yourown that was six, Must have sentient
spell books and how to find them? By Alexei Collier. Alexei Collier is
a skeleton with delusions of grandeur,imagining himself to be a neurodivergent and disabled
(09:56):
human who writes fantasy and fired byscience and science fiction inspired by folklore.
Alexei grew up in sunny southern California, but powerful forces flung him deep into
the heart of the Midwest, wherehe now lives across the street from Chicago
with his wife and their cat.His short fiction has appeared in flash Fiction
(10:20):
Online, Daily Science Fiction, andDiabolical Plots, among others. You can
find out more about Alexei at hisoft neglected website Alexei Callyer dot com.
This story is also illustrated with originalart a stack of spellbooks as described in
(10:41):
this story by Julia Kim. JuliaKim is on Instagram as Mulan artist.
She says, I'm from Nikolai ofUkraine. I love to create cute little
designs that help me donate to charityorganizations of Ukraine. You should definitely check
out her art. I love it. It's great across the board. She
(11:03):
also did an illustration for an earlierstory in the August twenty twenty two issue
A Saturday out by Lena Ung.And this is actually also going to be
a sticker which I am making forthe World's Possibility kickstarter. So if you
want both of those, hop onover to that kickstarter and check it out.
(11:24):
I will put links to everything herein the show notes of this podcast
over at Julia Rios dot com.So if you're listening to this in the
podcatcher of your choice, click onthe link there and it'll bring you to
everything, including links to the kickstarter, and you'll see the illustration, you'll
get the link to Alexei's website,all of those good things. That does
it for today, But keep youreyes peeled for the next installment of the
(11:48):
OMG Julia podcast because this month,the month of May, is my birthday
month. I chose to run thekickstarter in the weeks before my birthday,
and I'm doing a big celebration andI'm putting out a lot of stories that
we've been waiting on and doing allsorts of celebratory things for the Kickstarter,
so keep keep your podcatcher open.More is coming. Go over to the
(12:13):
kickstarter and back it. As wereach different bonus levels, I will be
posting more content, and I thinkthe next thing we'll do is get another
story up from an earlier issue assoon as we hit fifty percent, which
I'm thinking maybe tomorrow. All right, thank you so much for listening,
and until next time,
Welcome to the OMG Julia podcast,where we discuss creative lives and processes.
I'm your host, Julia Rios,and today I have an exciting thing for
you. It is the first storyfrom the April twenty twenty three issue of
Worlds of Possibility, which just wentout to subscribers today. And usually there
(00:23):
is a longer wait time from thetime that issues go out to subscribers to
the time that stories from those issuesare publicly available. But this one is
going public on the same day thatthat issue. It's in when to subscribers
because we reached twenty five percent ofthe World's of Possibility anthology Kickstarter funding goal
(00:43):
on the first day, that wasyesterday. At the time of this recording,
we are about forty percent of theway there. If you're seeing this
on Sunday the seventh or Monday theeighth of May twenty twenty three, you
can still hop over to the Kickstarterpage and take advantage of the early bird
(01:03):
special, which will save you tendollars on the art rewards and the print
book rewards. Those savings will vanishat the end of the day on Monday
in the Eastern US time zone,so as soon as it rolls over to
midnight on Tuesday, those are gone. So if you want to save ten
dollars and get some stickers and postcards, or get a print book, do
(01:25):
it now. I started World's Possibilityin twenty twenty one while recovering from long
COVID, which is something that Iam still doing. At a time when
I really needed and wanted things thatwould make me smile, soothe me,
inspire and leave me feeling peaceful,hopeful or happy, I started soliciting stories
(01:47):
and poems and art, and nowI have enough that I want to make
a full color hardcover book with lotsof pictures inside. I'm also making stickers
of some of the art eluding thespell books illustration by Julia Kim that goes
along with this story. So shallwe get into the story? Six Must
(02:13):
Have Sentient spell Books and How tofind Them? By Alexei Collier. Spell
Books are not as rare as somethink. If you know how to look,
one might lurk in a grandparents' attic, another might lie moldering on a
park bench, yet another could appearin a cardboard box of cast offs left
(02:37):
at the street curb. But youhave found these common spell books already devoured
them with your senses and absorbed theirlessons, and you crave more. You
hunger for something powerful, deep andtrue, a magic that touches you at
(02:58):
the very heart of who you are. Here is how you may find what
you seek. One, the paperbackof outward Appearances. The first spell book
hides at the back of a secondhandbookshop, disguised as an ordinary paperback,
(03:22):
pages yellow and dog eared. Youmay have to return several times before you
find it. Make friends with thebookshop owner. There are few wiser than
those who surround themselves with well lovedbooks. When the time comes, the
paperback will show itself to you.Within its pages, you will find even
(03:46):
greater wonders in faded type and ballpointmarginalia, as is the way of books
to contain so much more than theirmere contents. But this will only fuel
your continued search. Two, theFolio of Growth and Withering. Visit the
(04:10):
library and search the shelves for abook that isn't there. Begin in the
gardening section and work your way outwardin a golden spiral, unfolding your investigation
like the petals of a flower.With wisdom gleaned from the paperback, you
will see through the folio's false outwardappearance to its true form, a cover
(04:33):
of woven maple leaves and palm frondsand climbing ivy. Handle with care,
as the ivy may be poisonous.Trace the veins of the folio's pages as
you read. It is a tactilebook yearning for touch. Make sure to
give it plenty of sunlight and waterit frequently. If you don't, its
(04:59):
words will see to blossom into meaning. It will bear no seeds of wisdom
for you, and your quest willhalt in desolation. Three the Hymnal of
Transformation. On the night of thehalf moon, walk into the woods,
(05:19):
carry no light. Let your memoryof the folio's veined pages guide your steps.
Stop at the third sycamore. Youcome to touch the tree and speak
to it with the verdant syllables youlearned from the folio. Keep your voice
soft and undemanding, and the treewill call the moonlight to illuminate a hollow
(05:43):
knot in its trunk. Remove thehymnal gently coax it. Do not grasp
it forcefully, or it will swoopaway into the night and won't appear to
you again. It is bound insoft hide or shiny leather or rough cloth,
always changing, forever becoming itself,drawing you closer to your goal.
(06:10):
Four the Monograph of Summoning. Placea bookmark within the pages of the hymnal.
Make sure you mark the right page. The bookmark can be a piece
of an envelope, or a fadedreceipt, or an old shopping list.
Intone the hymnal verse to invoke truetransformation. The magic will take hold of
(06:33):
you, and you will feel yourselfchange or not change, according to your
truth. That truth may make youweep, may make you laugh. The
Hymnal will accept your offering of tearsof laughter. Remove the bookmark, and
in your hands that scrap of paperwill grow and warp and writhe and reshape
(06:58):
into a book bound in red silkand silver, humming beneath your fingers,
with a current of potentiality of magicyet unworked. Five the Compendium of Silences.
Position the four spell books in therequisite patterns shown in the monograph,
(07:21):
filling the gaps with the proper sigilsinscribed in salt and ash and iron dust
to form the summoning circle. Sitat the circle's edge and reflect on the
meaning of speech and silence. Thereare no words to affect this summoning.
(07:42):
The compendium will know when you areready, and appear glossy, black and
dense, with the weight of longpauses, burgeoning with the sable shape of
something new. Six title unknown own. The sixth book is the most elusive
(08:03):
of all, its discovery the mostchallenging. Find a quiet place and arrange
all your spell books on a shelf. Most spell books enjoy company, but
some are less social, and youmay need to separate them with book ends
(08:24):
or old dictionaries lest they grow agitated. The quiet you find may be metaphorical,
and the shelf may be in yourmind. The place may be a
cushioned corner, a grassy hill,an overstuffed armchair, or the solitude of
a crowded subway train. Make peacewith yourself and with your silences, with
(08:52):
a caesura between breaths, between thoughts, between sleeping and waking, and with
that greater silence at the end ofall of these. The final book is
the one that lives inside you,its cadences pulsing in your veins, its
(09:13):
words whispering under your skin, searchingfor release. Take up your magic,
implement, pen and paper, quilland parchment, your phone, an old
typewriter, a laptop. The choiceis yours. Begin to write, keep
(09:35):
writing. The next words are yourown that was six, Must have sentient
spell books and how to find them? By Alexei Collier. Alexei Collier is
a skeleton with delusions of grandeur,imagining himself to be a neurodivergent and disabled
(09:56):
human who writes fantasy and fired byscience and science fiction inspired by folklore.
Alexei grew up in sunny southern California, but powerful forces flung him deep into
the heart of the Midwest, wherehe now lives across the street from Chicago
with his wife and their cat.His short fiction has appeared in flash Fiction
(10:20):
Online, Daily Science Fiction, andDiabolical Plots, among others. You can
find out more about Alexei at hisoft neglected website Alexei Callyer dot com.
This story is also illustrated with originalart a stack of spellbooks as described in
(10:41):
this story by Julia Kim. JuliaKim is on Instagram as Mulan artist.
She says, I'm from Nikolai ofUkraine. I love to create cute little
designs that help me donate to charityorganizations of Ukraine. You should definitely check
out her art. I love it. It's great across the board. She
(11:03):
also did an illustration for an earlierstory in the August twenty twenty two issue
A Saturday out by Lena Ung.And this is actually also going to be
a sticker which I am making forthe World's Possibility kickstarter. So if you
want both of those, hop onover to that kickstarter and check it out.
(11:24):
I will put links to everything herein the show notes of this podcast
over at Julia Rios dot com.So if you're listening to this in the
podcatcher of your choice, click onthe link there and it'll bring you to
everything, including links to the kickstarter, and you'll see the illustration, you'll
get the link to Alexei's website,all of those good things. That does
it for today, But keep youreyes peeled for the next installment of the
(11:48):
OMG Julia podcast because this month,the month of May, is my birthday
month. I chose to run thekickstarter in the weeks before my birthday,
and I'm doing a big celebration andI'm putting out a lot of stories that
we've been waiting on and doing allsorts of celebratory things for the Kickstarter,
so keep keep your podcatcher open.More is coming. Go over to the
(12:13):
kickstarter and back it. As wereach different bonus levels, I will be
posting more content, and I thinkthe next thing we'll do is get another
story up from an earlier issue assoon as we hit fifty percent, which
I'm thinking maybe tomorrow. All right, thank you so much for listening,
and until next time,
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