It’s one day from the official publication of my upcoming novella, Eventual Revolutions. Here is an excerpt from the story, lifted from the first segment.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t stare down a pile of bills. They won\u2019t blink. They won\u2019t back off. They won\u2019t go away. Only way to get rid of them is pay them. Which is an increasingly difficult bill to swallow.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I can\u2019t pay them, but I\u2019d have to dig deep into my savings. Business has been slow. Very slow. Barely enough to hold back the tide of expenses. If this keeps up, I\u2019ll have to close up shop and move out of here. And going back to my parents is not an option.<\/p>\n
But I am a magician, and magicians have more options than most people.<\/p>\n
I sit in seiza<\/em> \u2013 legs folded under my thighs, back erect \u2013 close my eyes, and breathe. On the inhale, pure energy from the cosmos fills my lungs, clearing it of waste energies. Breathing out, a dark cloud leaves my open mouth, taking with it the anchor the bills had dropped on my heart.<\/p>\n In seiza<\/em>, I release myself into my breath, becoming my breath, then fading into \u2013 becoming \u2013 the universe.<\/p>\n \u2018Hello Michael.\u2019<\/p>\n The voice fills my mind with warm, deep reverberations and pulses of white, blue and gold. Taking my time, I pull myself back into my body. My brain registers my palms on bare knees, the rough nylon of my shorts, the soft cotton of my shirt. I take a few breaths more, open my eyes and appraise my visitor.<\/p>\n If you saw him, you\u2019d think he\u2019s an old man who has miraculously retained a thick beard, bushy moustache, and a full head of hair. But he is no human. He\u2019s a being that transcends the material plane. To see him, you\u2019ll need a powerful ajna chakra, commonly known as the third eye. And if you could see him, you\u2019d also see the corona of gold-tinged white light that perpetually surrounds him.<\/p>\n He likes changing his appearance often. I\u2019ve seen him in smartly tailored business suits and in the robes of a warrior-king. But today he wears blue jeans and a white shirt. His clothes are plain, so devoid of brand labels and markings they are a brand unto themselves. His clothes nudge my eyes away from their plainness and centre them on his face, and in my peripheral vision I see his aura in its unfiltered glory, with its promise of warmth and Creation.<\/p>\n \u2018Hi, Yahweh. Just came from visiting some hippies?\u2019<\/p>\n The god erupts into laughter, doubling over and clutching his sides. I laugh too, taking myself out of seiza and coming to my feet. Never let it be said the gods do not have a sense of humour.<\/p>\n \u2018Oh, Michael,\u2019 he says finally, drawing himself back up. \u2018Why do you think so?\u2019<\/p>\n Yahweh\u2019s gentle gaze meets my eyes. I suspect it\u2019s a courtesy more than anything else. So I smile. Strictly out of courtesy.<\/p>\n Yahweh\u2019s current form is no more substantial than a beam of sunlight, very much like a hologram. His body is composed of subtle energies. It\u2019s the closest term the English language has that can describe the substance. It\u2019s been called qi<\/em>, ki<\/em>, prana,<\/em> and other names by other cultures and philosophies. It\u2018s basically the underlying essence of the universe. Like all other metaphysical beings, the material plane is not Yahweh\u2019s native environment. He lives in some higher form of existence, what laymen would call \u2018Heaven\u2019. Once, I asked him how he visits the material world in person. He told me he projects a part of himself into a given location, though magicians can and often do smooth the process or magnify what does cross over through effective magic. It\u2019s as good an explanation I\u2019m likely to understand for a long time.<\/p>\n \u2018You could at least knock. When a man meditates, his mind goes to strange places. If he\u2019s interrupted, not all of him comes back at once. Or intact. It could be detrimental to his wellbeing.\u2019 And, consequently, yours<\/em>, I don\u2019t need to say.<\/p>\n Neither he nor I am speaking out loud. We\u2019re sending thoughts to each other telepathically. It\u2019s very useful for communicating with beings without physical speech organs.<\/p>\n Yahweh nods. \u2018Agreed. And if he were interrupted by a loud, piercing sound, such as a telephone ringer, his mind would take even longer to come back.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m going to get a phone call?\u2019<\/p>\n The god smiles benignly. \u2018Yesterday, you petitioned a certain Ceiling Cat for money sufficient to cover your bills. He listened.\u2019<\/p>\n I raise an eyebrow. \u2018That wasn\u2019t exactly supposed to be taken seriously.\u2019<\/p>\n Yahweh chuckles quietly. \u2018Be careful what you wish for, and to whom. Especially if you follow through with a magical working that attracts money to you.\u2019<\/p>\n I sigh, shake my head. Trust a being born from a meme of humour to amuse himself this way. \u2018What can you tell me about the client?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Why don\u2019t you ask yourself?\u2019<\/p>\n My iPhone rings. I turn around, walk to my table and answer the call.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, Sam,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n Sam Ang was a repeat customer, and therefore a favourite customer. Usually, he hires me to work over his advertising agency. I like him enough that I conduct business with him over telephone and SMS instead of e-mail.<\/p>\n \u201cHey Mikey,\u201d he says. \u201cGot a couple of minutes to talk?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet me guess: you\u2019ve got a job for me.\u201d<\/p>\n My mind\u2019s eye sees Sam trying not to spit out a mouthful of mojito. \u201cHey, how did you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA cat told me.\u201d<\/p>\n A long meow descends from the ceiling.<\/p>\n \u201cA…cat?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNever mind. What\u2019s the job?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy uncle has a problem. His daughter, Anna, ran away from home three weeks ago. My auntie and uncle want her to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n I sigh, shake my head. People have a lot of misconceptions about magic. In my experience, only people who seek to understand the true nature of reality – the reality that lies beyond the physical senses – can come close to understanding magic. Magic is the manipulation of reality through metaphysical means, and nothing more. Magic isn\u2019t a panacea. It doesn\u2019t make money grow on trees, induce cockroaches to spill out of your enemies\u2019 mouths, or let you shoot green death rays from a stick. And it sure can\u2019t teleport a missing girl home.<\/p>\n \u201cHave they filed a police report?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYah. He lodged a missing persons report. The police said they\u2019ll look for her, but nothing so far.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a magician, Sam, not a private detective. I can\u2019t bring the girl home; I don\u2019t have the training or contacts to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Plus, my status in the eyes of the law is a little blurred, and I don\u2019t need the clarity that comes from being on the wrong side of a prison door.<\/p>\n As my words leave my mouth, Yahweh sighs, and shakes his head.<\/p>\n \u201cCan’t you do something? They\u2019re getting desperate. And sixteen-year-old girls shouldn’t be out on the street so long. You should know that.\u201d<\/p>\n Yeah, I know that too well. Sixteen. Christ. When I was sixteen, I spent some time on the streets of Singapore too. Look where I ended up now.<\/p>\n So I say, \u201cI can cast a spell or two. They\u2019ll make it more likely that she\u2019ll come back home, or someone will find her and take her home. But I\u2019m not going to look for her, know what I mean? I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it\u2019s fine. They\u2019re at wits\u2019 end, and they could sure use help like yours.\u201d<\/p>\n Yahweh smiles, nods, and walks through my door.<\/p>\n I take a deep breath. \u201cSet me up with them.\u201d<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Eventual Revolutions will be available through Smashwords at USD $3.99.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Preview of my upcoming novella, Eventual Revolutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[46,57,341],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advertisement","tag-announcement","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kitsuncheah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}