ysabetwordsmith | Entries tagged with magic

This is a prayer to Baba Yaga; this is a prayer of resistance.

This is a prayer for Baba Yaga. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for the magic of chicken feet, the heat of old hates, the way old bones hurt. This is a prayer for Resistance.

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Today's theme is Magic.

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These questions come from

thefridayfive.

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This video looks at magic in worldbuilding. It lays out four points ...

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Thanks to a donation from

janetmiles, you can now read the rest of "The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds." Gideon and Raymond get some unexpected help in the fight.

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These are the notes for "The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds."

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This poem is spillover from the October 2020 Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from

wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "demons" square in my 10-1-20 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Not Quite Kansas.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes feeling lost, an unprovoked attack, hellhounds, violence, gore, unexpected rescue, playing with prey, fatally injured opponents, minor injuries to main characters, awkward discussions, willing sacrifice, intimate magical healing, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $0.25/line, so $5 will reveal 20 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on ~~my profile page~~~~, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses~~. So far sponsors include:

fuzzyred,

janetmiles.

FULLY FUNDED
355 lines, Buy It Now = $44.50
Amount donated = $10
Verses posted = 13 of 118
Amount remaining to fund fully = $34.50
Amount needed to fund next verse = $0.25
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $0.75

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Here are the notes for "Embrace My Fate."

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This poem is spillover from the October 6, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

librarygeek. It also fills the "How do you want to do this?" square in my 10-1-20 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Not Quite Kansas.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes feeling lost, sorting through a lair acquired by combat, reference to past abuse, cursed artifacts, damned souls, worry, magical body modification, restraint for safety, awkward emotional discussions, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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These are the notes for "The Spectrum of Your Being."

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This poem is spillover from the September 1, 2020 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

librarygeek. It also fills the "How do you want to do this?" square in my 9-1-20 card for the I Want Fries With That! Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Not Quite Kansas.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes feeling lost, a headless chicken running around, a fight with bit character fatalities, moderate injuries to a main character, messy medical details, an imprisoned demon, torture, binding magic, demonic healing, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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Thanks to a lot of work from

fuzzyred, the landing page for Not Quite Kansas is now visible! \o/ It's dark fantasy with demons and angels. You can read the introduction and the previously published poems. This series is featured in our current Half-Price Sale if you want to see more.

fuzzyred is hosting a pool in case you want to magnify your impact with the quarter-price option.

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Human brains emit light and glow in the dark, revealing our mental state

All living tissues give off photons as excited molecules shed excess energy. The phenomenon is so subtle – roughly a million times dimmer than the threshold of human vision – that researchers call it ultra-weak photon emission (UPE).

Oh look, scientists have "discovered" the aura of life energy. Now go figure out how people detect it without tools, because humans have been drawing and writing about that for ages.

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This poem came out of the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Alone in the Woods" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with

fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Practical Magics and follows "Maybe She's Just Singing."

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The following poems from the December 2, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

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I have made bingo down the N column of my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo. I also made 8 extra fills.

N1 (The deeds of ordinary folks keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.) -- "The Universal Assent to the World" (Polychrome Heroics: Officer Pink)
N2 (elves) -- "Revealing Itself at Its Most Brilliant" (Polychrome Heroics: Eric the Elven King)
N3 (WILD CARD: brownie) -- "Better Than Living Alone" (Monster House)
N4 (shadow) -- "Unicornis Memento Mori" (The Freaks Club)
N5 (Once Upon a Time) -- "Better Than a Million Dollars" (Alien Romance)

B4 (Fairy Ring) -- "Time and Relative Dimensions in Magic" (Doctor Who)

I1 (The Nightingale) -- "The Impermanence of Light and Life" (The Freaks Club)
I3 (Very little worth knowing is taught by fear.) -- "To the Rational Mind" (Doctor Who)
I4 (solitude) -- "Company in Solitude" (The Freaks Club)

G1 (vision) -- "A Vision That Visits Us" (The Freaks Club)
G2 (journey) -- "The Coracle in the Forest" (standalone)
G5 (I didn't want power. All I wanted was control. Over my life.) -- "A Clear Path of Freedom" (standalone)

O3 (fairies) -- "The Heart to Change the World" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One)

Current Mood: accomplished

The following poems from the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

"The Coracle in the Forest"
Story Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2025]
Summary: Two teens go foraging for food and find something unexpected.
208 lines, Buy It Now = $104

Digby and Maerwynn Aldebourne
grew up in Lancaster until 2022, when
a heat wave killed their parents while
the children were in a programme
at the air-conditioned library.

"The Heart to Change the World"
Story Date: Sunday, May 29, 2016
Summary: A fairy godmother has an idea to clean up after the Big One.
98 lines, Buy It Now = $49

Violanira had always been an oddball.

For a fairy, she was strangely attracted
to human science and technology,
especially now that more of it
consisted of things like plastic
and aluminum instead of cold iron.

"The Universal Assent to the World"
Story Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015
Summary: Nebuly takes some of his friends to a Renaissance Faire.
355 lines, Buy It Now = $355
Double price for research.

Nebuly had convinced some
of his friends to come to
the Lyonesse Faire
just outside River City,
since it included a variety
of fantasy elements.

Current Mood: busy

I have made bingo down the B column of my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. I also have 8 extra fills.

B1 (wizards) -- "What Wizardry Is All About" (standalone)
B2 (black / orange) -- "The Two Cottages" (Quixotic Ideas)
B3 (magic) -- "Maybe She's Just Singing" (Practical Magic)
B4 (witches) -- "The Unretired Witch" (The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia)
B5 (unstable) -- "A Fountain of Energy" (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge)

I2 (herbs) -- "No Worthless Herbs" (One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis)
I3 (dark side) -- "Set on Continuous Improvement" (Polychrome Heroics: City Engines)
I5 (broken) -- "The Clearest Signal" (Polychrome Heroics: City Engines)

G1 (Alone in the Woods) -- "The Songwitch" (Practical Magic)
G2 (transformation) -- "The Road to Transformation" (Sleeping Beauty)

O2 (talking dog) -- "The Disappointing Daughter" (The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia)
O4 ("That felt weird.") -- "To Understand Water" (Polychrome Heroics)
O5 ("Do you trust me?") -- "Trying to Be Better" (Polychrome Heroics: City Engines)

Current Mood: busy

The following poems from the August 5, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

"A Fountain of Energy"
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Sumary: Johan works on his land connection.
70 lines, Buy It Now = $35

Johan hopped off the bus when
it reached Rockheart Garden.

"No Worthless Herbs"
Summary: Shaeth and Trobby decide to plant a garden, but it's not as easy as it looks.
92 lines, Buy It Now = $46

Shaeth and Trobby owed a favor
to Abredin the Herb Goddess, so
they decided to plant a garden.

"The Songwitch"
Summary: Soraya makes music and magic.
33 lines, Buy It Now = $15

"To Understand Water"
Summary: Emma Jane Davis wants to learn more about her new superpowers.
120 lines, Buy It Now = $60

Emma Jane Davis sat in the waiting room
of the Onion City SPOON Base, trying
and failing not to tap her foot on the floor.

"The Two Cottages"
Summary: A quest for love takes an unexpected turn.
52 lines, Buy It Now = $20

Current Mood: busy

This poem came out of the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It also fills the "wizards" square in my 10-1-25 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Gloryroad Crossing.

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Current Mood: busy

The Wordsmith's Forge

The Writing & Other Projects of Elizabeth Barrette

Read "This is a prayer to Baba Yaga"

Follow Friday 3-20-26: Magic

Friday Five

Magical Discussion

"The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds" is now complete!

Notes for "The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds"

Poem: "The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds"

Notes for "Embrace My Fate"

Poem: "Embrace My Fate"

Notes for "The Spectrum of Your Being"

Poem: "The Spectrum of Your Being"

Website Updates

Science

Poem: "The Songwitch"

Unsold Poems for the December 2, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl

Bingo

Unsold Poems for the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl

Bingo

Unsold Poems for the October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl

Poem: "What Wizardry Is All About"

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