Technology
This is a really cool project based here in Seattle, Health Month. It’s making a game out of achieving your goals, getting so many points for each one met. It connects with the Fitbit, which I have and love, which also uses geeky addiction to numbers as motivation to get fit.
A tool that I’m still exploring, ifttt. Basically use if/then statements to create actions triggered by web events that come from channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instragram, e-mail, the weather, etc. Mark Zuckerberg appeared at the Facebook developers conference to discuss Timeline, which supplies a new appearance for Facebook. Samuel L. Ipsum is a lively alternative to the traditional filler text, Lorem Ipsum.
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
Want to get some new fiction? Support my Patreon campaign.
"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
~K. Richardson
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Documents of Tabat: A Brief Treatise on Magical Energy and The Practice of Eating Beasts
What are the documents of Tabat? In an early version of the book, I had a number of interstitial pieces, each a document produced by the city: playbills, advertisements, guide book entries. They had to be cut but I kept them for this purpose. I’ll release them at the end of April in e-book form; careful readers will find clues to some aspects of Beasts of Tabat in them. -Cat
A Brief Treatise on Magical Energy and
The Practice of Eating Beasts,
Being A Primer for Elementary Students
of the College of Mages
by Sebastiano Silvercloth
(private publication of the College of Mages)
To understand the basic principle behind this practice, one need look no further than the custom of keeping Oracular Pigs, common among larger merchant households. Since such Beasts are capable of seeing only matters in its own physical future, they must be kept in places where their warnings of fire, attack, or other household disasters will involve the household, such as outside but near the kitchen, or beside outlying buildings of importance.
When the time comes that the Pigs foretells its own death (or shows signs of concealing such a prophecy), it is slaughtered and prepared for a feast in which the entire household takes part. The pig is consumed in the belief that its oracular powers may be acquired; some gamblers swear by a diet of such flesh.
Absorption of magic energy through ingestion of the flesh that held it is at the heart of many magical rituals. In truth, the roast pork and other meats are of little use to the consumers in the manner they desire. Luck is not a transferable quality. But it does advantage them in other ways: such consumption is known to increase life span dramatically, to prevent some illnesses, and cure others. The longevity of many of those able to afford the practice is augmented, while those with flatter purses lead richer lives.
Some Beasts and animals are much richer in magical energy than others, depending on their race’s characteristics. Almost every by-product and physical bit of a Dragon, for example, is highly valuable in that regard. The wings, which are typically removed from captive Dragons, are dried, while the meat is powdered and used as an ingredient in the alchemical cooking for which the Chefs of Tabat are famed. The leather is employed in the construction of aerial apparati and some armors, though the cost of such is prohibitive enough to keep them from the ordinary soldier’s wardrobe.
Dryads are similarly prized, for once they have taken on their ultimate form of a rooted tree, the wood of their bodies becomes steeped in magic over the course of season after season, and yields great quantities of energy when treated and burned in special furnaces. Such fuel supplies much of the energy that drives the city and gives its citizen the rich life we enjoy, and the trade boats are always on the look-out for Dryad groves, in order to collect the substantial bounty the city pays for their trunks.
For the most part, though, the effect created by partaking of a Beast or magical animal’s body is slight. Both Fairy blood and honey are faintly hallucinogenic in nature, but one would have to ingest vast quantities, such as the blood of two or three dozen Fairies (depending on the ingestor’s body weight and susceptibility to the drug) to experience anything appreciable. Still, the creation of dishes incorporating such substances have become an art for which Tabat is famed throughout the world. This reminds us that such knowledge may well be turned to practical purpose without suffering scorn. While pure Magicians pursue abstract knowledge, others help keep the College and city functioning through their willingness to put aside such lofty pursuits.
***
Love the world of Tabat and want to spend longer in it? Check out Hearts of Tabat, the latest Tabat novel! Or get sneak peeks, behind the scenes looks, snippets of work in progres, and more via Cat’s Patreon.
The Wayward Wormhole - Barbados February 2026 / The Art of the Novella
Novellas are growing in popularity, and we want to help yours stand out.
Structurally, they can get tricky—they’re not mini-novels anymore than children are mini-adults—while still demanding full, fleshy, character arcs and immersive descriptions.
What if you could learn from professionals, while editing YOUR novella with a real-time feedback during a workshop?
Applications for this Science-fiction/Fantasy/Horror Novella Workshop
OPEN: March 21, 2024 CLOSE: MAY 15, 2024, AT 11:59:59 EST
SUBMIT: One page, single spaced, novella synopsis and the first ten pages by April 30, 2025
Hone YOUR novella during the workshop, and leave knowing you’ve effectively incorporated new tools into your work. Selected students will be randomly sorted into cohorts of six. Each cohort will spend three days with each instructor.
Day One will include a morning and afternoon workshop that includes specific exercises that focus on the day’s topic.
Day Two is your chance to apply one or both exercises to any scene from YOUR novella. You’ll send both the original scene and the edited version to the people in your cohort and the professional for critique and discussion.
Day Three is for critique circles. Your scene will be critiqued by each member of your cohort and the professional.
PLUS: A full novella, One on One discussion with a professional
WHEN: February 7 to 21, 2026
WHERE: Oistins area, Christ Church, Barbados
Why Barbados? Karen Lord invited us, and we couldn’t say no to Barbados.
FEE: $2,500.00 US
(travel, accommodations, and food NOT included)
The Wayward Wormhole is working to secure group rates at selected hotels.
