Q is for Quaker

         If you’re keeping to the proper April A to Z schedule,

look here for the post for P.

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of short stories, poems, and art.  Also, be sure to check out my fellow A to Z bloggers at the Master List.)

        As a Quaker, threads of Quakerism are inevitably woven subtly into just about everything I write, yet I almost never mention Quakerism explicitly.  There are a few reasons for this.  Sometimes it’s wholly irrelevant, of course.  Sometimes I’m writing about fictional worlds in which there’s no such things as Earth religions.  Sometimes I’m trying to depict an average-ish relatable sort of setting in which Quakerism would seem conspicuously unusual.  Even when I’m quite consciously trying to get people to think about issues that are tied to my faith, I want to express them in ways that are as inclusive as possible, without causing anyone’s defenses to shoot up.  I’m always trying to keep a delicate balance between being forthright about my own beliefs, without being one of those people who try to force their beliefs on others.  So I almost never actually mention Quakerism explicitly.

        In Bittersweetness & Light, however, “The Conduits” is a story set in a Quaker meeting.

        The first time Maggie saw the conduits she must have been about six years old.  She was sitting in meeting for worship, bored by the stillness and the silence, as always, and idly counting the little flowers printed on her mother’s skirt, when Vera Penny stood up.

        “Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God,” the old woman said, her thin hand making a little gesture in the air as if she were tossing a frisbee or scattering a handful of birdseed.  “Dear Friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and God’s love is made complete in us.”

        Maggie blinked at the glowing ripple that spread through the air where Vera’s fingers had traced their arc.  She rubbed her eyes and stared as the conduits came into focus: glowing lines spreading out from Vera’s hands and face and powder-blue cardigan toward everyone else in the meeting room.

        The story may be a fantasy with its magic rooted explicitly in Quakerism, but like all fantasy, I hope it will invite people to imagine some new possibilities.  In the End Notes I encourage anyone who dislikes all this “God” talk to try substituting a different word, such as “love,” and considering whether you can still imagine the impact of actually seeing the connections between us.  It’s very easy to throw up barriers, and sometimes takes real courage to listen to the truth someone may be trying to express, even if they use different words.  Real connections come when we try to hear where words come from.  Practice it, and tell me how it goes.

        The first image here is one of the illustrations that goes with the story, but it’s small, so I also include one from another poem, but which also alludes to the threads that connect us all.  By the way, this story (in a slightly abridged version) was first published by Friends Journal, and you can read it on their web site here.

        Marketing Moral: Recommend me as a speaker or workshop leader.  I don’t generally travel far to present, but I am available for virtual events, which opens up the whole world.  You can see some of the talks and workshops I’ve given here on my web site.  I’d love to connect with you!

        Proper Moral: Practice makes perfect.  (Or at least, practice makes permanent.)  You can’t expect to improve at anything without putting in the time to work on it - and that includes being able to find the good in challenging people, and being able to express the good in yourself.

        Did you know that Quaker Oats has nothing to do with Quakers?  Do you know the difference between Quakers and Shakers?  Have you ever been to a Quaker meeting?  (At the very least, Quakerism is always good for trivia knowledge!)

[Pictures: The Conduits, digital art by AEGNydam;

Magic Wands and Warm Wishes, rubber block prints by AEGNydam, 2023, 2024 (Image from Bittersweetness & Light, but originals are still available at NydamPrints.com).]

P is for Pearl

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi short stories, poems, and art.  Also, be sure to check out my fellow A to Z bloggers at the Master List.)

        P is for Pearl and Poetry, so here’s a poem about a pearl…

If your world is a pearl,

Wrapped in moist and briny clouds,

Enclosed in opalescent heavens,

Do you dance in the lucent twilight

In delight?

Do you raise your arms in gratitude

For the seed of sand at the heart,

And lay your palms on the lustrous earth,

Caressing the miracle of coming to be?

Do you lie on your back in the fields

Of silvery sheen,

Looking up at the smoky-violet aurora,

Wondering how there could possibly be

Such generosity of beauty?

Do you feel in the iridescent embrace­­

Of your universe

That love cannot be impossible?

Dance, then,

And wonder.

There are oceans beyond worlds

Within oceans

Beyond worlds,

And they are all children

Of mother-of-pearl –

Grains of sand

Grown into miracles.

        Why poetry, anyway?  Because it offers a way of expression that’s different, richer, and more flexible than ordinary sentences.  It can speak to the ears of the heart.  I keep trying to share with people my sense of the beauty with which we’re surrounded, and this poem is just one more attempt.  I am honored to be serving as the current Poet Laureate of my town, and I’m so excited to have opportunities through that position to use poetry to foster connection.  (You can read more about that here.)

        As for the illustration, it’s a small rubber block print painted with iridescent watercolor and placed on a digital background based on a photo.  I never made a full edition of this block print or offered it for sale because I wasn’t quite sure about it.  Maybe someday I’ll go back and work on it again.  Or, of course, maybe I won’t.  Not everything has to be a masterpiece.

        Marketing Moral: Add my book to your “To Read” shelf on Goodreads or similar sites.  Even if you haven’t read it yet, the algorithms look at which books people say they’re interested in.  And those cursed algorithms do at least have one thing in common with miraculous pearls: they both require a little grain of something to start growing.

        Proper Moral: Sometimes an irritant can turn out to be the impetus that was needed to start creating something precious.  (But to be honest, more often than not an irritant just scratches things up and wears things down!  Sometimes it’s hard to tell which way it’s going to go.)

        Have you ever tried a Gratitude Practice?  Was it in-depth journalling or simply taking a moment every day to consider a few things for which you’re grateful?  Or something else altogether?  (Part of my gratitude practice is posting on Instagram pictures of things that make me happy.)

[Picture: Pearl World, rubber block print with watercolor by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]

O is for Ocean

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi short stories, poems, and art.  Join me for excerpts of art, stories, and poetry, plus some of the background on why we urgently need joyful stories.  Also, be sure to check out my fellow A to Z bloggers at the Master List.)

        This illustration, “Ocean of Love,” actually does not appear in the book - which was an Oversight!  It fell through the cracks when I was pulling everything together and never got a place.  However, I did include it as one of the notecards that I sent out as rewards for Kickstarter backers.

                They say “Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas”… But lie down with the octopus of love, and you just might get a mug of hot tea, a good book, and a purring cat!  The idea for the original rubber block print came from a prompt to respond to another piece of art.  That piece included warm colors, tea, and a fish…  To see the whole chain of artwork of which this octopus was a link (along with the artists’ explanations), check out  Translations: Chains of Positive Energy.

        As for why I made notecards for my Kickstarter rewards, that’s because reaching out to people with a message of connection is always a good thing!  And pretty notecards can help inspire us to send those messages.  (That’s why the notecards I made for the backers, as well as lots of other designs, are also now available on my web site.)

        Marketing Moral: Send me a note!  The messages I’ve received from readers telling me how a poem moved them or a story inspired them or one of my block prints cheered them up during a bad time… That’s what makes it all worthwhile.  I’m really enjoying the comments right here on this very blog, too, of course!  These chains of connection are always powerful, but especially so for authors and artists who put their hearts out into the world and don’t always know whether it’s making any difference at all.

        Proper Moral: (This one comes from Walt Kelly.)  Forewarned is forearmed — and four-armed is half an octopus.

        When was the last time you sent an actual, handwritten, paper letter to someone?  And also, what’s your favorite marine creature?

[Ocean of Love, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2020 (originals sold out, but you can buy love-themed notecards at NydamPrints.com).]

N is for Nest

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi short stories, poems, and art.  I’m

sharing lots of excerpts of art, stories, and poetry, plus some of the background on why we urgently need joyful stories that remind us of positive possibilities.)

        This one is a true story, about the robin’s nest built in the forsythia right outside my front door during the COVID lockdown in 2020.  I watched it every day, and took pictures as the four eggs were laid and hatched, and the chicks grew their fluff and then their feathers, and finally left the nest.  Here’s an excerpt from the middle of the poem.

         The robins by the door don’t share

     This silent, covert storm that stopped our lives inside,

     Suspending our days and their activities.  We wait,

     While they, from nest to eggs,

     From eggs to blind and hungry beaks,

     Day by day keep feathering themselves

     And jostling as usual toward flight.

        I already wrote a whole post about the illustration, which is a rubber block print with watercolor.  You can read Robin’s Nest in the Studio to find out all about it.

        N is also for Negativity Bias.  It turns out that humans are actually hardwired to pay more attention to bad news than good, and to focus more on the next disaster than on the equally valid and realistic reasons for hope.  As a survival strategy this has kept people alive since prehistory, but as a strategy for thriving it turns out to be less than helpful – especially in a time when a global 24-hour news feed is built on the assumption that only bad news is important news.  Humans consistently give disproportionate weight to negative facts - which is exactly why we need constant reminders that good things do actually happen all around.  This book is just one small attempt to encourage you to remember that love, generosity, connection, joy, and hope are real and powerful, even when your ingrained negativity bias may tell you that they aren’t.

        Marketing Moral: Stay in touch with your favorite indie authors by signing up for their Newsletters.  We love to connect with our readers.  Want to join my Infrequent Newsletter?  Here’s the link.  As the name implies, I send email infrequently, maybe about once a month, but it’s a chance to let you know what projects and events I’ve got coming up, and to share stories and poems that have been published.

        Proper Moral:  The early bird gets the worm.  But even more importantly, you can tell a person’s character by how they treat the weak.  Do unprotected eggs or helpless chicks (or marginalized people) elicit cruelty or tenderness, scapegoating or inclusion?

        Of course I have to ask the eternal nest-themed question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Got an opinion?

[Picture: Robin’s Nest, rubber block print with watercolor by AEGNydam, 2024 (Image from Bittersweetness & Light, but originals are still available at NydamPrints.com).]

M is for Movement

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi.  Be sure to find lots of other alphabetical blogs to visit at the Master List here.)

        M is for Movement, and here is the beginning of my short story “Learning to Move Against the Current.”

        Many sorts of beings can move from place to place.  I watch them, some skittering on pointy legs, others wafting on the currents with fanning wings, and still others creeping simply by undulating their bodies.  But my kind sees movement as an infantile thing, for tiny larvae who don’t yet have their place or their strength, and who float aimlessly until they mature enough to anchor themselves and take their position in the world.

        When I was ready to mature from a larva to an adult, I anchored myself on the edge of a cliff.  I chose the spot because from the cliff’s edge I could reach out into open space, winnowing the passing flow not only for particles of food but also for the scents of other places.   I could watch the beings on my plateau, moving themselves past on their own journeys, with their legs or their wings or their undulating bodies, and I could look out from my perch into the deep, wide valley where larger beings roam, and where particles of strange shapes, sizes, and smells hint of other places far away.  Each month when I sensed the blue light of the full moon, I released my spores into the currents, knowing they would travel far and wide to be caught by others.  And here, too, I caught other spores on my winnowing fronds and released, in time, larvae to start their own lives in free movement before they matured enough to choose their own homes.

        The narrator of this story is some kind of creature inspired by crinoids, living on some other planet (I assume).  It’s always a fun exercise to try to tell a story from a very different point of view - this is not the only story in the collection told by a non-human narrator! - and when that point of view is as different as this, it becomes a very interesting challenge

indeed.  However, it isn’t just writing that expands points of view.  Studies consistently show that reading fiction increases empathy.  You can read some previous posts that allude to this here and here.  (That’s another reason dictators ban books: because their power is dependent on weakening communities by making people feel fear of the Other instead of empathy and connection with each other.)

        Marketing Moral: Get moving and attend cultural events!  Come to author readings, visit art shows, and meet the people creating the things you enjoy.  (Want a low-barrier way to attend author events?  Try Strong Women-Strange Worlds, a twice-monthly series of free, on-line live readings by women and non-binary authors of speculative fiction.  Find out all about the program here.  Or if you’re near Boston, be sure to come see me at Needham Open Studios on May 3-4.)

        Proper Moral: The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

        What’s your trip of a lifetime?  The one place you long to see that you haven’t yet been able to go?

[Picture: Fossils, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2017 (see originals here), from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (NydamPrints.com)]

L is for Life

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi.  I’m sharing lots of excerpts of art, stories, and poetry, and I’m also sharing some of the background on why we urgently need joyful stories.  Plus you can find out all about the A to Z Challenge here.)

        Here’s the beginning of the short story “A Life for a Life.”

        I stand looking over the valley of the ancestors, where my people come when it is their time for death.  Their bones are purified by the vultures and given back to the First Matriarch.  I am driven here by the memory of the bones that are not here: the mutilated body of my daughter Feathergrass, slaughtered and left to lie.  They say my people have long memories, and I will never forget those who murder my children.

        I am here for vengeance, but first I give my thanks to the vultures, who sanctify bones wherever they lie, ensuring that Feathergrass too will join the ancestors.  That is treasure that cannot be stolen.  But I will avenge the rest.  My tribe are gathered behind me, watching as I begin my incantation.

        I gather dust and scatter it over my head, across my shoulders, until my scarred flanks are grey as ash and I smell a thousand thousand petrichors in the dry earth of my land.  Heedless of thorns, I strip the acacia and lay its tiny leaves on my tongue, and I taste a thousand thousand greenings.  I begin to dance, the stamping of my heavy feet sending my rhythm deep into the body of the earth, where it will be felt by the bones of the ancestors, and by the deep roots of the acacias and the broad woven roots of the grasses, and by other tribes on other distant journeys.  And without being discerned by the duller senses of those who slaughter my children, yet it will be felt by the one I am calling: one of their daughters.  I will summon her to me here, to avenge the death of Feathergrass.  A life for a life, a child for a child.

        L is also for Love.  In this story, grief is love persevering, but that love also becomes something more.  When love expands to encompass more than just the one who is lost, it becomes even more powerful, offering new ways forward.

        Today’s block print is not actually the illustration for this story (which could be considered a bit of a spoiler), but it is included elsewhere in the book, and certainly fits the theme.  You can read just a little bit more about the piece here.

        Marketing Moral: Are you in a book club?  Why not suggest this as a book for the group to read and discuss?  I can even give you some Questions for Discussion if you request them!

        Proper Moral: There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  Therefore, we “must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation.  The foundation of such a method is love.”  (Martin Luther King, Jr,  Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964.)

        How do you like your revenge served?  Hot, cold, salty, or sweet?  In the form of success, living well, a bad memory, or forgiveness?

[Picture: Seeds of Love, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2024 (see originals here), from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025.]

K is for Kickstarter

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of short stories, poems, and art.  Also, be sure to check out my fellow A to Z bloggers at the Master List.)

        K is for Kickstarter, which is how I published this book.  For those who aren’t familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a crowd-funding platform, and the process is that creators post a campaign for a project they hope to do.  Backers can pledge to help fund the project in various amounts, and if enough pledges are made to fund the project fully, everyone chips in their part.  However, if there are not enough pledges, the project does not go forward, and the backers don’t get charged anything, so nobody gets stuck backing a project that can’t be completed.  The most obvious use is when you want to create something that requires money up front: Kickstarter allows you to make sure you can raise enough money to complete the project before you begin.  For me, though, Kickstarter serves as a good way to gauge interest in my sometimes niche projects.

        Bittersweetness & Light is a collection of short stories, poetry, and art, so it doesn’t fall fully into any one of those categories.  It’s speculative fiction, which is certainly very popular, but not always taken very seriously by publishers.  It’s got this theme of hope and light, which is often considered fluffy, frivolous, and definitely not Serious Literature.  So am I the only one who thought this would be a book worth making?  Kickstarter allows me to get a sense of whether I’m all alone in this, before I actually put together the whole shebang.

        And in this case, the campaign was indeed successful, the project was indeed fully funded, and there are indeed people out there in the world besides me who want to read a book of warm-hearted stories, magical poems, and whimsical art that celebrate the goodness that really does exist.  Hooray!

        K is also for Knitting, one of the poems in the book, which you can read where it was first published here in New Myths online.  And K is for Keep Dancing, one of the block prints that appears in the book, and which seems like a good illustration of the Kickstarter principle of people joining together to help support a project they love.

        Marketing Moral: Back me on Kickstarter!  One of the crazy things about being an author is that by the time one book is being launched, you’re already deep into work on the next one.  I’m currently planning to run my next Kickstarter campaign in September, for a book to be released some time in the spring or summer of 2026.  The new book will have the same format of poetry, short stories, and art, but the common theme this time will be re-imaginings and inspirations based on classic fairy tales, classical mythology, and other traditional stories.  Sound interesting?  If you join my mailing list you’ll be among the first to find out when the new Kickstarter is launched.  Join my Infrequent Newsletter here.  (I send emails only about once a month, so don’t worry about your mailbox filling up with spam from me.)

        Proper Moral: Keep dancing!  To quote a song from “Swing Time” (lyrics by Dorothy Fields, 1936)…

Nothing's impossible, I have found,

For when my chin is on the ground,

I pick myself up, dust myself off,

Start all over again

Don't lose your confidence if you slip.

Be grateful for a pleasant trip,

And pick yourself up; dust yourself off;

Start all over again.

        You can see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performing the song here.

        Have you ever backed anything on Kickstarter?  Consider taking a look (here) and see whether you just might discover some really amazing small-time, independent project that could use your support.

[Picture: Keep Dancing, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2022 (see originals here), from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025.]

J is for Joy

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi short stories, poems, and art.  Join me for excerpts of art, stories, and poetry, plus some of the background on why we urgently need joyful stories.  Also, be sure to check out my fellow A to Z bloggers at the Master List.)

        Today I’m sharing a rubber block print, “Find Joy & Share It.”  I made the originals of this piece as a special limited edition reward for some of my higher-level Kickstarter backers, and it also appears as an illustration in the book along with the Acknowledgements.  When I started thinking about what to make for these awesome backers, I wasn’t sure what to do that they would all like.  Then I reminded myself that I can’t possibly know what they all like, so all I can do is fall back on what I always try to do: share the things that bring me joy.  So the theme of the block turned into “these are a few of my favorite things.”

        Can you spot daffodils, a frog, a ladybug, and a tiny dragon?  Some of my favorite things that are only obliquely referenced are history and archaeology (perhaps represented by the castle), books (represented by words), and art (represented by the fact that this is, in fact, a piece of art).  Some of my favorite things that didn’t get included at all are dark chocolate, cheese, and other delicious foods; my family and friends; knick-knacks and little beautiful items both human-made and natural; or activities like teaching, going for walks, and playing tabletop games.

        Marketing Moral: Give my book as a gift.  If you know someone else who might just love it, why not share that love?  I may possibly be biased, but I think it makes a beautiful and thoughtful gift for anyone whose heart is in need of a little warming.  (And I wouldn’t complain if you bought copies by the dozen and bestowed them on everyone you know!)

        Proper Moral: Acknowledging joy is an act of fierce defiance.  Delighting in goodness is a wild and valiant rebellion against the forces that benefit when we are too cynical or discouraged to keep loving.  (More about that in my post A Desperate Little Exhortation About (Bitter)Sweetness and Light.)

        What are a few of your favorite things?

[Picture: Find Joy, rubber block print (2024) by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]

I is for In Which...

        (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi short stories, poems, and art.  Also, you can find more about the A to Z Blog Challenge here.)

        I is for the long title of one of my short stories: “In Which the Librarian Delves for Living Words in a Time of Drought.”  Here are two sections.

        The librarian stood on the top margin and checked her gear.  Rope firmly anchored to the arm of the desk lamp above, harness buckled completely, carabiners locked.  She leaned over and peered down along the rope dropping away into the text below.  It was dense, but she could see the light sparkling off the words deep in the story.  There would be treasure there, without doubt.

        Cautiously she backed over the first line and began to lower herself into the book, knowing that once the story closed over her head she wouldn’t be able to come back up until she’d found what she needed …

        From word to word she felt her way, lowering herself with her rope until she reached the bottom.  She stepped out of the harness and left the rope hanging for her return.  Far overhead the light of the desk lamp shone like a distant sun, but down so far into the book the words glimmered with their own light.

        She made her way sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, following the twists and turns of the story.  This one was magical already, beckoning her forward toward its heart.  As she went she collected ideas, picking them gently from the text and wrapping them in tissue paper before laying them in her pack.  She would share them out to the people in the world outside, something bright to put away in their hearts: an invitation, a key, a talisman, a portal.  Seeds to overcome the drought.

        It grew brighter and brighter as the librarian followed the corridor, for deep as she was, there were windows now in the walls.  Some windows peeked invitingly into small, intimate chambers, while others gave out onto wide vistas as if gazing down from a mountainside.  And opposite the windows were mirrors, catching the light and doubling it so that every word flashed and sparkled with promise.  She strode more quickly now as the excitement of the story took hold…

        I had a lot of fun imagining the metaphor of physically climbing down into a book.  I even consulted with my rock-climbing brother to get one of the later sections right!  For our librarian, alas, there’s about to be a problem…  But don’t worry, librarians can always find a way!  You’ll just have to read the story to discover how she gets back out of the book, and what she discovers when she once again reaches the outside world.

        If you want to know the process of making this rubber block print of a fantasy library, you can read all about it at the post A Glimpse of Paradise.

        Marketing Moral:  Once you’ve requested that the library get my book, and it’s finally available, be sure to check it out, and encourage others to check it out, too.  Libraries will de-acquisition books that never get signed out.  Plus, right now it’s especially important that we support our local libraries in their work to make books available to everyone.

        Proper Moral:  Knowledge is power, which is why libraries and books are under attack right now by people who want to take power from others.  Be aware of what’s going on locally, and stand up in support of the librarians who want to get books into the hands of the people who need them.  Libraries are magic, and librarians are superheroes!

        When was the last time you visited your local library?

[Picture: A Glimpse of Paradise, rubber block print (2011) by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]