Scheduling Update, Award Eligibility, and a Witchy Poem
Hey, hey! It’s been a chaotic neutral kind of a week. Phew! So bear with me…
Popping in to let you know that I’m gearing up for my Rambo Academy class on Saturday titled: “Selling Your Work Online: The Ins and Outs of Internet Retail.” This class is perfect for you if you need a primer and some tips on navigating eTail.
On March 4th, I’m then leading a magic-themed workshop through Apex Book Company. Right now, that’s all I have scheduled for live classes.
As you know, I opened up some consulting hours earlier this year. Due to a shift in my schedule the next couple of months, I’m going to temporarily close appointments on Friday, March 10th; at the earliest, I’d open back up in May, but it could be later pending travel and summer commitments.
Uhhhhhhh, if you’re thinking of games for award nominations, here’s my list of 2022 game publications. There. I said it. I did the thing. Ugh. Moving on…
I’m also happy to mention that’ll be returning as a guest for the 10th anniversary of GameHole Con in the fall. Alex Kammer has put together a great show and this year is going to be amazing. I may have another announcement on the guest front soon, but it’s a bit premature right now.
So this next bit isn’t what I initially wanted to share with you today. (For a newsletter topic, I’ve been thinking about the nature of work, AI, and the work/life balance that continues to tip precariously into “just work” some days.) Instead, I’d like to share a poem with you from into shadow: a poetic exploration of personal fears along with the inspiration.
from book one: umbra
13.
I called her buona nonna
her name was Gabriella
waist-long hair brown and plaited
smooth, fair skin like olive oil
always dressed in mourning black
I’d find her in a sunny kitchen
thick, short waist sized to hug
stooped over bubbling pots and pans
sharp eyes twinkling with mischief
until hunters smashed her front door
and named her strega nonna
her body sinking to the floor
they seized her for dark witchcraft
her raspy voice named me buona
until they hung us both
from book two: penumbra
13. fear of being persecuted as a witch
I wrote this poem about a buona nonna (or good grandmother) who practices healing and countermagic1; she’s attacked without provocation and, before she leaves, passes her responsibility on to her granddaughter.
I couldn’t bring myself to hurt the granddaughter in the first draft, but I revised it in the second. In this way, the fear of being persecuted as a witch emerges as a gender-based attack on cultural traditions affecting multiple generations.
In America, when you mention the words “witch trial” most people think of Salem, Massachusetts, puritanical zealots, and government cover-ups; mind you, it wasn’t the only incident on colonial soil, just the most famous. In Europe, however, the history of witches and witch persecution is far, far more complicated depending upon the country and region you were from. For example, in Italy there’s no such thing as “a” definition of a witch, because the culture, language, and folklore is far more complex due to the country’s age and history. Add the intersection of identity (gender and class, specifically) and suddenly Italian witches are very different from colonial-era cunning folk.
Sometimes, you might hear the words “strega nonna” to depict an Italian witch or “stregheria” as a blanket term for the practice. Such simple terms don’t necessarily apply to every family, tradition, or region. And much has been reframed through the lens of folklorists like Charles Godfrey Leland2 over one hundred-and-twenty years ago or re-imagined by Italian-American writers reclaiming their cultural traditions.
Much has been lost.
A practitioner who thwart malevolent hexes and enchantments is said to practice countermagic. It’s a generic term that can be applied to multiple traditions.
Charles Godfrey Leland was an American folklorist who wrote Aradia: The Gospel of Witches (1899) as a sacred text capturing the myths and traditions of Tuscany-based witches. The work’s authenticity has been widely disputed.