magic

The magic is over, but its effects will live forever.

I rouse Emily to our guests, as she finishes off our fifteenth snowman by setting the head atop its torso. She stands limp at my direction, pointing out the coming shadows and I cannot help but hear a muffled sigh as she decapitates her latest creation with a single push of her hand.

I think that thinking of our material universe, the one we perceive with our sense, as the only thing is not only foolish, it is arrogant. As well as, if I may add, in contradiction to theoretical physics. I believe _ I have always believed _ that there is meaning and purpose to life, although we may not understand that meaning and purpose. I think we catch glimpses of it here and there, and I honestly think that the universe communicates it to us, if we can listen for it _ if our perceptions are finely enough tuned. All my life, I__e had a strong sense of purpose, of being here for a reason that I might not at that moment understand, but that something, somewhere, understood. The times I__e been unhappy in my life are when I__e gone off the path, when I__e realized that I made a choice taking me away from the way I was supposed to go. I remember what it was like to go to law school and to feel, so deeply that it went to my core, as though I was in the wrong place, as though I had stepped off the path. The path itself feels narrow and rocky, sometimes. Sometimes it feels as though I__ walking along a gulley, or a high cliff with winds. But it feels like a path, as though I__ going somewhere.I don__ know how to talk about this except by saying that we have instincts, and our instincts tell us these things, and we have to trust them.

There is a stillness between us, a period of restlessness that ties my stomachin a hangman__ noose. It is this same lack in noise that lives, there! in thedarkness of the grave, how it frightens me beyond all things.

Border crossing' is a recurrent theme in all aspects of my work -- editing, writing, and painting. I'm interested in the various ways artists not only cross borders but also subvert them. In mythology, the old Trickster figure Coyote is a champion border crosser, mischievously dashing from the land of the living to the land of the dead, from the wilderness world of magic to the human world. He tears things down so they can be made anew. He's a rascal, but also a culture hero, dancing on borders, ignoring the rules, as many of our most innovative artists do. I'm particularly drawn to art that crosses the borders critics have erected between 'high art' and 'popular culture,' between 'mainstream' and 'genre,' or between one genre and another -- I love that moment of passage between the two; that place on the border where two worlds meet and energize each other, where Coyote enters and shakes things up. But I still have a great love for traditional fantasy, for Imaginary World, center-of-the-genre stories. I'm still excited by series books and trilogies if they're well written and use mythic tropes in interesting ways.

From this, one can make a deduction which is quite certainly the ultimate truth of jigsaw puzzles: despite appearances, puzzling is not a solitary game: every move the puzzler makes, the puzzlemaker has made before; every piece the puzzler picks up, and picks up again, and studies and strokes, every combination he tries, and tries a second time, every blunder and every insight, each hope and each discouragement have all been designed, calculated, and decided by the other.

I can__ help but ask, __o you know where you are?__he turns to me with a foreboding glare. __o you?

Did Bach ever eatpancakes at midnight?

Hey. My life__ not all about weird little creatures pretending to be teddy bears._ From Tribe of the Teddy Bear.

Left hand path magick is generally socially unacceptable.

Yesterday's fairy tale is today's fact. The magician is only one step ahead of his audience.

At first I wasn__ all that tempted by him, but then he killed the spider. Which was a huge point in his favor._ __bsolutely. I love men who kill bugs._ __nd then when I was freaking out and couldn__ breathe, he was so_gentle._ Zoe sighed and colored, remembering. __e was holding me, and talking to me in that voice_you know, sort of low and rough around the edges_ __ll the Nolans sound like that,_ Justine said reflectively. __ike they__e got a mild case of bronchitis. Totally hot.

Is my world turning into Harry Potter's?!

Children and babies should be held in the most sacred regard. We feel that they're the most natural and true magicians.

Fuck me, I thought. I can do magic.

Hey, aren__ you that girl from the web?_ the new one asked, bending to suck my earing between his teeth. I pulled my head away. __ou got the wrong girl.__r. Hawaii pulled back to take a better look at me. __o, I think you might be._ To my total bewilderment, he spun me around. __ey! What are you_?___ey, it is you!_ he yelled excitedly, drawing the attention of the crowd. __ey, everyone, it__ Cheeky Galore!

Those of strong character and training are chosen by fate. They cannot help but rise to the forefront when their nations are troubled.

...yes I understand your spells__our sex magic__t least, I know this: all lights dim when you walk in...