Hunker Down

Sun rises over spruce ridged hills through morning mist, hummocks and trees cast long shadows. Leaves hold the light like lanterns or translucent hands, their veins showing. It’s been fire weather lately, my chimney trails a white plume, the Jøtul in my shop is back to work, and so am I. …

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Autumn’s Arcana

Autumn seems full of secrets. Flame colored leaves cast the forest in a different light than the clear light that touches the fields. Mist hangs over the trees where the hidden brook wends its way through the valley. It’s a time for bonfires and gathering the last things in— stacking wood, …

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Leaf Fall – Forging a Wizard’s Dagger

The nights are cold again with frost spiking the windows and the darkness begins to come earlier. Apples hang ripe on gnarled trees, the wind carries the smell of wood smoke and change. The sun casts across the land at a low angle, it seems to be a deeper more …

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Imagining The Fantastic

On the weekend of April twelfth, I left three feet of snow behind me, and traveled to Northern Michigan University. I was presenting at a conference about imagination and mythology called “Imagining the Fantastic 2”. Other presenters were writers M.T. Anderson, Holly Black, and Ari Berk, artist Charles Vess, actor …

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