The State of the Magpie: Spring 2013

I love to talk about goals, accomplishments, and ideas (just ask my writing group). The first quarter of 2013 is nearly gone, so what do I have to show for it?

I published my first academic article. (HippitahoppitaWAHOO!)

I’ve made no secret of this fact, as many will know from Facebook. My Masters dissertation was published in February in Riocht na Midhe, the journal of the Archaeological and Historical Society of County Meath, Ireland. The kernel of the idea came from an early Irish law course I took six years ago, and it had been developing ever since. “Why did the Irish have such sophisticated and elegantly stratified laws to protect trees?” I had wondered. Perhaps they worshipped trees. After all, Tacitus tells of Germanic peoples who did. And incidentally, the chief population of my then-fantasy novel came to do the same. The quest to understand medieval Ireland’s (frankly adorable) love for trees led me to legends and pseudo-histories, annals and saint’s lives and assumptions of “Celticity” running decades deep. It all culminated in my Masters project, completed under the tutelage of the indomitable Prof. Thomas Charles-Edwards, about the context and evolution of the Old Irish word bile (“sacred” tree). This about sums up my position:

Yippee! Now I can quote myself!

Getting published was a tale unto itself, but that's for later. For now I’m honored and thrilled to contribute to the academic conversation with a long-standing and respected journal as my platform. I even had a former colleague, a postdoc specializing in place-names, request a copy for her research. Imagine that!

Another one’s in the pipeline.

This summer, Routledge will publish an academic book called Digital Gaming Re-imagines the Middle Ages. 

Wait. Just think about that for a second. Digital Gaming [check] and Middle Ages [check] in the same title. It's a marriage of the two nerdiest possible topics! And it's basically the story of my life.

Anyway, the book is packed to the gills with essays covering everything from game adaptations of medieval literature to "the Gendered Body in World of Warcraft". My chapter is on the texts in the Elder Scrolls series of computer games. You'll know that these games are littered with original books if you've ever played Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim. As a long-standing fan of the series, I chanced an exploration of just how medieval those texts could be, and made my way into the pages of Routledge's spectacular upcoming volume.

I'm writing a novel.

Of course! When have I not been? My current work-in-progress is what I've styled "supernatural semi-horror," my first major departure from fantasy. The idea came about last summer when I was pining for home, for all the special oddities that I didn't realize made North Florida cool until I'd lived it and left it. I missed the sounds of traffic and the smells of leaves and woods and humid Florida air. I though about all the aspects of America's history that had converged there. About how it's scattered with dot-on-the-map towns that move sluggishly through time. One part sentimental history, one part American Gods, my book entertains the question "What if conquest didn't kill off everything it intended to?"

The project has been eye-opening. I've had to do a lot of research outside my field, particularly on consignment businesses and first European contact with Florida. It calls for a delicate balance of fact and fiction, with caricature being the farthest thing from my goal. 

It's also got story elements that work. The protagonist must make life-altering decisions, small enough to be believable in the scale of her life, but big enough to drive a plot forward. Pacing this book and working towards the end doesn't feel like my usual random scattering of stones which, luck provided, might form a path across the pond. This time I've built a  bridge of action and reaction with deliberate care. I could not be more excited to see how it turns out.

I'm also aware that new writers fail. Often. I love this book, but I'm pleasantly objective about its future. It might amount to a "practice" book. Even so, it'll be some mighty fine practice.

More info on my CampNaNoWriMo profile. I'm attempting to add 25,000 words to the manuscript in April, with hopes of finishing the first draft before my birthday. I owe it to my teenage self and her big dreams to finish a book before I cross into the far end of my 20s.


Boy, that was a chunky post. Well, that's the jist of it! More updates the come. To see them you can join in one of two ways: click the blue "join this site" button on the top right of the page, or subscribe to posts by email. 

What are your current goals and projects, Readers? You know I love you for your brains.