Dandelyon's Worlds

I am a filker, a writer, an artist, a dreamer.

For the 2014 A-Z challenge, I did ficlets in a new fantasy world, featuring catkin and other fantastic beings. Here is the A-Z prompt list, with links to the posts as I write them.

I also do online Tarot readings here. You are always welcome to ask if I'm up to doing a paid reading, but I periodically offer to draw a free card for people as well. The landing page is here.

Life was chaotic in the next few years (siding falling off house, roof leaks, Aunt and Mom dying, covid, and more) and my creative output has suffered. I was finally getting going again when I caught the Covid, and was left with a bad case of Long Covid.  That slowed me down even more, but I'm still here.

I have a Patreon over here, which lately has been mostly poetry and songs. But I write about the creative process, share bits of works in progress, share my photos, and more over there.  And now you can join my patreon as a free member, while you consider whether to upgrade to a paid membership.  I am working on getting the lyrics to all my songs over there, and lyric posts are always open to the public.  I hope to have more music recordings for paid members there soon.

I also have a bandcamp:  https://wylddandelyon.bandcamp.com/

You can find links to my flash fiction, to my serialized story, Fireborn, and to my poetry and songs over at my (still under construction, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, in suspended animation) website, www.wyld-dandelyon.com.

You used to be able to find some of my fiction, poetry, worldbuilding, and artwork over at www.tornworld.net, along with the fiction, poetry, world-building, and art of my talented co-creators there. Sadly, at some point the html code was updated in ways that broke the site, and we haven't had the money to hire someone for the many, many hours of work that would be needed to bring the site up to date.  I do have a cozy mystery written in that world, and most of a second one, and hope to do a kickstarter and get it out in the world, but that hasn't happened yet.  I plan to copy a lot of my art and stories over into my Patreon, because i'm proud of them and don't want them to remain unavailable.

If you miss my old, long-winded landing page, you can find it and the landing pages for various projects by searching on the "landing" tag.

Come in, be welcome, have a seat. I understand you have some questions?

Oh, I’ve been doing readings since I got my first Tarot deck in high school. I’ve done them at Pagan festivals and conventions, for friends and for strangers. I’ve also done readings in character during role playing games and used cards for inspiration when writing fiction. Actually, that worked out really well. But I guess it makes sense that my cards, like my friends, would enjoy stories enough to play along.

I'm not surprised you want to hear about the Torn World divination disks. Those were inspired in part by Live Journal—the readings that I found the most insight in were by artists designing their own decks. But I wasn’t interested in making just another Tarot deck. Then, for one of the Torn World contests, I came up with a character who does divination, and that started me wondering about what kind of imagery and structure the people of Torn World would create for such things. There’s more about the Torn World language on the website, as well as a complete list of the divination disks.

My favorite decks—I like a lot of different decks. My first criteria is artwork—I look for great artwork. I can only hang so much art on my walls; tarot and oracle decks let me have art that I love in a format that I can use and share with people.

I am lucky enough to have a copy of the Fantasy Showcase Tarot collected by Bruce Pelz, which has some awesome artwork in it. I didn’t expect to use it for readings, really, but when I tried—how can you resist trying out a deck? I can’t.—when I tried, it worked really well, and the cards whose art I didn’t like insisted on showing up in readings giving really clear messages, as if to say, “See? I’m a perfectly good card! You should appreciate me!”

I also love the art of Susan Seddon Boulet. She never designed a deck, but I have two sets of art cards, each of which has one of her paintings on one side and the title and some additional information on the back. These cards speak to me, and I always believed they would speak to other people too. So I shuffled the Goddesses and the Animal Spirits together, and offer to draw a guide for people who want one.

I think the last deck I’ll talk about right now is Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Oracle, which is another deck with stunning art. I feel like I’m still getting acquainted with many of these faeries, but they’re friendly and willing to communicate, at least, when they sneak out of the woods to join me for readings.

What's with this disclaimer thing? Federal law, as I understand it, defines Tarot readings as "for entertainment only". But there's also a matter of practicality. How a person looks at a problem or an issue is very important—if I didn't believe that I wouldn't write poetry or stories, much less do readings. But thoughts are powerful because they shape your actions, not because they replace them. You have to write your words, get paint onto canvass, pay your bills, or in whatever other way that's needed, act. If you need a doctor or other professional, a card reading won't replace that any more than a card reading can get you a new job if you don't send out your resume.

How much does this cost? The effort is crowdfunded—I offer the service to people who need inspiration or entertainment, and I gratefully accept tips. I have a friend who does readings who says, "Readings are worth what they pay for them". I wouldn’t go so far as that—the times people can pay often don’t correspond with the times they need inspiration. So I offer in the hopes that it will improve people’s lives at least a little bit, and I have faith that people will show their appreciation of what I do when they can. In the long run, of course, if I'm not getting enough money out of this to pay for my time, I may need to put my time and energy into other projects. But I'm glad I am able to do this now.

How can you find out more? Well, you can use the tag at the bottom of this post to find the card draws I’ve done. I talk more about the decks I use in those posts, as well as giving people a (non-canon) glimpse of one corner of Torn World in the readings themselves. If you’re curious about Torn World, it’s at www.tornworld.net. And, of course, you can ask questions below.

You’re welcome to stop by the next time I do a reading! I’ll be looking for you.

Welcome to my journal, where I share a bit about my life and a lot of the creative things I do.

I love friends, and good conversation.  I look forward to talking with you all. 

The purpose of the rest of this post is to help you navigate my journal if you're looking for specific things.  Or you can simply scroll down and start reading.

I don't (yet) have an index for stuff like daily life, the wonders of job-hunting in this post-Bush economy, My Life In Micropoetry (a/k/a my Twitter posts that I think are most worth sharing), pictures of my garden and my travels, or art in progress. Some things are best experienced in the moment, after all.

But other things...

FICTION:  FIREBORN  Imagine a world where people have been adapted to different ecosystems, where some can fly, some can breathe water, some are comfortable in desert sands or deep caves. This is the world of the fireborn, who can be of any of the shapes that humans can be, with an added extra--the firesense, the ability to do magic. The fireborn are relied upon in times of crisis--and feared for their power, for the fact that they are different, though the differences are hidden. It is also the world of the shifters, people who have more than one native form. You can find links to Fireborn, the novel I'm serializing, and other stories set in this world here.



FLASH FICTION Exploring the world of Twitter, I came across #fridayflash, people who share their flash fiction on some un-named day of the week. Here you will find links to my flash fiction that I'm publishing herein, for #fridayflash and, occasionally, for other occasions.


The stories are set in different worlds, and different genres.  They range from lighthearted to serious. 






You can also find some of my work at TORNWORLD.NET.  Torn World is a shared world science fantasy setting, with all sorts of exciting creative work going on, including but not limited to fiction, art, and poetry.

BUSKING IN CYBERLAND Since I was laid off in January of 2009, I started exploring non-traditional publishing venues, including the new-to-me terms, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. It's definitely a learning process--and one that there are not yet any established experts to learn from, though I've found a few guiding stars. It isn't the first time I've braved publicly performing in the hopes that I'll get some income.  Here are my Busking in Cyberland posts, where I discuss what I've learned, and what I'm still trying to discover.

Speaking of which--please keep in mind that, as I write this, I still do not have a day job. If you like what you read, and can afford it, I'd appreciate it if you would choose to become an active patron of the arts. Michelangelo had popes--a series of them. I have--YOU.  All of my fiction, my profile, and some of my other material has a donation hat for Paypal; if you want to buy me dinner or a drink, and don't choose to use Paypal, let me know and we'll figure out what will work for you.  And thank you!

Dandelyon's Verse  I have haiku, song lyrics, and other poetry listed here.


I want to note how honored I am to have been nominated for all these Rose & Bay awards.  For further information on them, please see the post in Busking in Cyberland about the awards.  I'd sneak the links in here, but as I write this LJ is having some issues with embedding links.

To all my readers, thank you for dropping by!

This blog won a Superior Scribbler Award in September of 2009.  You can read more about the award, and see who I nominated for the award, in this post.    I'm very honored, and I will try to continue to live up to this honor, even after I once again have a day job.

Since I've started putting my fiction online, I've been thinking about the nature of crowdfunding. I started this series of articles because it occurred to me that this isn't the first time I've put my creative work before strangers, in the hopes that some of them would choose to become patrons of my art and support my efforts.

It's really exciting watching as other artists and writers explore different ways of sharing their work on the internet, and trying to make a living (or at least supplement their living) doing so.

Busking in Cyberland  has become an occasional series, and this post is intended to assist people who start reading later in the series to check out my other thoughts on the subject.

1. Personal Retrospective My experiences busking in the subways of Chicago in the early 1990s
   
2. You Are My Gatekeepers About publishing and publishers, and how fiction finds an audience
   
3. Feed the Artist The reader is very significant to the writer, and reader response matters.
   
4. Everywhere is Next Door If all websites are just one click on a url away, that's good right?  Not really.
   
5. Amanda Palmer on Crowdfunding (though she doesn't use that word)  Why a traditionally-successful musician feels it's important to leave the hat out--the world is changing, and artists need to eat.
   
6. It's Not a Zero-Sum Game My skills are valuable, and I want to share them.  And if I can make your day better, we both come out ahead.
   
7. The New Rose and Bay Awards Awards for cyberfunded projects - fiction, art, poetry, donor, and other.

Welcome to a world where humans have a variety of different shapes.  Some can fly, some can breathe water, some can hang from trees by their tails alone.  All are related, all are human.  And some, born to each shape, can work magic, and are called fireborn.

Flash fiction in the world of the fireborn:

The Mountain's Fire and The Fireborn Puppetmaker

Fireborn is an ongoing serialized novel.  Links are below, in order.

Wings on His Fingers
A Small Complication
Healer's Work 
Coral Under Water 
Fear 
Nautilus 
Fiery Sunrise 
Wakey, Wakey with Water
Confrontations
Berries and Stories
Koli and Conversation
Truths and Rumors
I'll Show Her
Your Son Bewitched My Daughter
Worried Parents
Seeking Skimmer
I appreciate it, all right!
Handful of Maybes
Private Conversations
Miserable Morning
Children and Chores
Too Quiet
Dragon Skips Dinner
Echoes of Reality
Footprints in the Sand
Whispers, Worries, and Woes
Cold Words, Cold Stones
Scared and Hungry
Black Berries and Butterfish
Homecoming, With Tea
A Thread of Hope


For My Fans  (who comment on the story):  Background information.

Dramatis Personae to help you keep track of who is who.  If you can't access this, leave me a comment and I'll add you to the filter.

There is also special content, viewable only by people who sponsor Fireborn.  

The first donor-only bonus is a bit of story showing a glimpse of the time before people were adapted to the different ecosystems.   Butterfly Dream - A Peek At The Distant Past



General information:

For your reading pleasure, here are some of my poems and lyrics.

Fair warning--some of these posts contain prose as well as verse.

Green-Eyed Friend (will be a song, one of these days)
Grandmother's Stories (song)
An Imbolc Tale (song)
Goddess Cycling(song)
sly snake (a twitter cinquain)
Young Tom's Songs
Inn of the Stars science fiction (song)
Muse a graphic poem
3 Twitter Poems coyote, fast food, and rainbows
Longhair  an homage to a very young man (song)
Vieux Carré an homage to an old lady (song)
Haiku for a Friend's Grandmother who has entered Hospice care
More Twitter Poems (a visit from the bad filk muse and a long visit from the bad elder god muse)
Reflections on Twitter, including 4 haiku
21st Century Stray Mutt Man an homage to Bill Sutton's Stray Dog Man, and some other classic filksongs
The Veil a Samhain Meditation
Under a Fey Moon
Pirate Haiku (what's to explain?)
Smoke Signals from That September
On Political Speeches and Christian Virtues  Sometimes in the heat of politics, people say stuff that, well, inspires poetry
Haiku on Nuclear Power  (science, not politics)

Very short stories, for your enjoyment:

Feather-Blessed
What if the magic in fiction drifted into the real world?

Deep Dreams
Anne's partner was gone, her body drifting in space. But is that the end of the story?

Monster Meal
When the full moon's magic has had its way with you, what will your mouth taste like?


Tadpoles
Green rain can really ruin a girl's day.

Fluffy and the Terrorist
When a dog not only chases, but attacks the local cats, what's a kitten to do?

Miller and the Monster
A child develops a plan for how to deal with the night-time monster.

The Grandpa Prank
Four friends in a graveyard, late on Halloween night. 

On the Shore
An old lady sits on her favorite beach, contemplating the sands of time.

Fog and Lembas
This story is fiction about a fan, not fanfic.  Have you ever wanted to walk into the fog, and disappear?

The Power of Pastry
It's an old custom, sleep on a piece of wedding cake, and see your true love.  Does it really accomplish anything but squashed cake?

The Mountain's Fire and The Fireborn Puppetmaker
A favorite granny is asked, "Why are we all different?"  This story is set in the world of Fireborn.

The Big Blue Tent
What is art, and how do we determine its value? Or maybe, the question is: Who gets to determine its value" This is the first appearance of my moss-haired twins.

The Perfect Gift
What if the gift you want to give is already taken? The twins each have their own approach to finding the proper natal gift for their mother.

Painted Pebbles
Where'd the bum get the clean blue hat?  And where'd he get the tiny, beautiful painted pebbles?

Black and Blue Friday
Do computer stores need brownies?