News & Nice Things in my online lair
Greetings, earthlings! As the summer ends and we harvest our crops, here I am also offering you sheaves of the mind I’ve gathered in. I hope you will take some into your heart and home where they will nourish you and warm you as winter draws near. In this newsletter, I offer you my writings, a community of authors, an exciting new podcast series, some Substack articles, writing support services, AND awesome upcoming classes on Merlin’s Isle by Malcolm Guite! Read on to find out all the details.
Writing for you to read
In my online lair, I spend many hours bent over a parchment, scrabbling away with a rough quill pen dipped in bilberry ink, striving to write things that are beautiful, good, and true. Well, okay, maybe not parchment, quill, and ink: More like this annoying, distancing, eye-straining screen and keyboard. But the result is the same, I hope: books, articles, posts, and more I offer to you for your delight.
My biggest project is one I think you’re waiting for, right? The Oddest Inkling: An Introduction to Charles Williams is about 1/3 complete at this point, since I’ve written about 8.5 of a projected 21 chapters (plus intro, conclusion, and paratextual material). I’ve put in 404 hrs total, my toggl tracker tells me, and I don’t think that’s a 404 NOT FOUND error! I guess that means I need to find 808 more hours in 2026 if I want to finish it this year. As that’s almost 58 hours a week, and I’m lucky if I put in 10 hours a week, it seems an hopeless case! The solution is to pick up the pace, which I shall endeavor to do.
If YOU would like to read The Oddest Inkling in draft and comment on each chapter as it appears, please become a member of my Author’s Circle. Your patronage buys me the (otherwise unpaid) time to write this book.
Let’s see; I also sent off an article about J. R. R. Tolken’s The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorthelm’s Son as an instance of modern drama. I worked a little bit with my collaborators on The Annotated Arthuriad of Charles Williams. And I’m revising my dissertation, From Thaumaturgy to Dramaturgy: Staging Occult Modernism, for possible publication. Again, if any of these works interest you, join my Author’s Circle so you can provide feedback on drafts, which I always take into account when I revise. And the Author’s Circle will give you feedback on your writing, too! Speaking of my supporters….
Author’s Circle
met twice, as usual, in August. What a marvelous group of humans! It’s a very Inklingsesque gathering, I must say. We joke, laugh, make naughty puns, dazzle each other with allusions, and provide rigorous critique on works in progress. In yesterday’s meeting, we talked at length about time travel in works by the Inklings, and I think we should write an article together as a group! Here’s a video describing it in more detail:
Last month, we worked on Chapter 8 of The Oddest Inkling and we heard a fascinating presentation by Joe Hoffman on the current (in-progress) results of his text mining project on Charles Williams’s novels. You can read about his work on his blog in two posts: “Circles of Initiation for Novel Readers” and “Williams Writes Women.”
In addition to joining my Author’s Circle, you can also enjoy many hours of watching/listening to my podcast,
Words Do Things
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’ve got this wild, wacky podcast called Words Do Things in which I talk to a huge variety of people about all kinds of topics related to writing, public speaking, rhetoric, literature, and more. I’ve interviewed clergy about partisanship in the church. I’ve talked to experts in rhetoric about public attack language. I’ve learned a ton from Tolkien scholars about the Professor’s ideas on words. And in between, I’ve ranted about religion and politics until I’m exhausted.
And now, upcoming, I’ve got something very risky, intense, and (I think) essential: moderated, respectful, thoughtful dialogues between people who passionate disagree on one of the controversial issues of our time. Here’s what I’ve got lined up:
- Two college professors talking about Artificial Intelligence, one who hates it, one who regularly uses it and teaches others how to use it well.
- A communist who runs a thriving nonprofit vs. a former CIA agent who supports capitalism.
- Two English professors who get really passionate about gender identity.
- A pastor and a professor on immigration.
- Four guests (two Roman Catholic, two protestant) on sexual ethics; one from each tradition who urges celibacy outside marriage, and one from each tradition who urges an open enjoyment of sexual blessings.
- A MAGA supporter vs. someone who proudly suffers from TDS!
I’ve already recorded two of these, and man have they been INTENSE. Oh, and guess what? If you’re either a member of my Author’s Circle or a paid subscriber to my Substack, you’ll get access to some super-fun practice episodes my guests did on such topics as the correct order to put on sock and shoes, whether Star Wars or Star Trek is the best SciFi franchise, who’s the best superhero, “Is Cereal a soup?” and more.
Well, I think there are many places you could fit into it! Obviously you can listen or watch. But please, PLEASE do more! Please subscribe on YouTube; please leave a comment; please share it with a friend. And if you have a guest or topic to suggest, let me know. If YOU would be a good guest on a future series, do tell. You see, I have put 329 hours into making this show so far; that’s the equivalent of $33,000 hours of income that I’ve lost by doing this work for free. And I’m a freelancer; that means there’s $33,000 I didn’t make over the last year. Is it any wonder I’m struggling to pay my property taxes and afford a vacation? So I’m begging you; if you have ever enjoyed an episode of Words Do Things, please go to https://buymeacoffee.com/higginssorina and make a one-time donation today or signup for a regular monthly membership. If you can’t do that, well, please subscribe on YouTube; once I get 1,000 subscribers, I can monetize the channel, which might help a little bit. Or if you could VOLUNTEER to help out, that would be AMAZING. Do you know how to edit podcasts in Riverside (or are you willing to learn)? Do you know how to do social media promotion? Would you be willing to write emails to guests and coordinate their schedules? Anything would help!
Oh, and I made a thing for you. It’s an episode guide so you can find your way around the podcast more easily. I’ll also tell you a secret here; I’ll let you know what the next two series (serieses?) will be!
Series 5 will be a short, refreshing, quick succession of my Top Ten Tips for Beating Writer’s Block.
Then Series 6 will be “That Hideous Strength” as prophecy! And I’ve already recorded a conversation with my first guest, the noted Rev. Dr. Michael Ward of Planet Narniafame. The idea is to talk to experts on C. S. Lewis about the third volume of the Cosmic Trilogy were prescient and how we see aspects of it coming true today.
Whew, that’s a lot, and I hope you find yourself at home in many of those spaces! But there’s more….
Substack
Over on the Substack, I only put up several posts in August, and they’re kind of all over the place thematically:
An Urgent Cry to Churches III: On Abortion
I’m Not Practicing What I’m Preaching
Flags Do Things
Are Gentler Words More Effective Than Threats?
Untruth Unsocial for Aug 26th
What planet are you on?
The Israeli Flag as a Symbol of Evil
What is “Romantic”?
I also posted reruns of old podcast episodes, and soon paid subscribers will be treated to those super-fun silly-topic debates that I mentioned above!
However… I think I need to stop the Substack. Something has to go. It should be the podcast, really, since that’s the biggest time-drain that’s keeping me from making money or writing books. But I love the podcast so much.
Wyrdhoard
Okay, then there was what I suppose you could call my day job; my work as a Consulting Editor and Writing Coach through Wyrdhoard. I’ve begun revamping the website to reflect my new rates ($100/hr, $75 for students, or barter hour-for-hour my skills for yours!) and create space for new classes I want to offer. I had the privilege of working with a memoirist who is in the process of self-publishing, an extremely talented short-story writer with a great piece of magical realism, a creative writer with a vast work set in Middle-earth, a science-fiction author with a brilliant first-contact novel, a playwright telling the story of his ancestor who was hanged as a witch, and an independent scholar working on a new edition of an Inklings-adjacent book.
If YOU are a writer, please consider hiring me as your editor, coach, beta-reader, copyeditor, and more. Here’s a little more info:
Finally, I’ve kind of buried the lead here, so consider this announcement a reward for reading (or skimming) this far: I’m going to be teaching three upcoming classes on Merlin’s Isle by Malcolm Guite AND a workshop on “Writing like an Inkling”! Here they are:
- “Galahad & the Grail,” October 6, 13, 20, & 27, from 3-5pm eastern: an in-depth examination of Volume I, Galahad & the Grail, of Malcolm Guite’s four-book epic Merlin’s Isle. We’ll look at the meter, rhyme, form, sources, adaptation methods, themes, meaning, and beauty of Guite’s first foray into Arthuriana. More info forthcoming once I get it on the website!
- “How to Write Like an Inkling,” October 22, from 7-9 pm eastern: A two-hour workshop for students, faculty, and friends of Northwind Seminary. The first five people to enroll may submit a writing sample for live wordsmithing. Buy tickets here.
- “The Quest for Happiness & the Holy Grail,” November 19, December 3, December 10, from 2-4pm eastern, offered through Politics & Prose Bookstore. An adventure through three British authors on the quest for happiness as they retell the story of the Holy Grail: Charles Williams in War in Heaven, T. H. White in The Once and Future King, and Malcolm Guite in Galahad and the Grail.
- “The Coming of Merlin,” December 1, 8, 15, & 22, from 3-5pm eastern: an in-depth examination of Volume II, The Coming of Merlin, of Malcolm Guite’s four-book epic Merlin’s Isle. More details TBA!
The Rest of Life
Phew, okay, wow; that’s a lot. I also went through training to be a part-time extra-hire Elections Clerk for Chenango County, NY, just in time for you-know-who to probably cancel or undermine midterm elections—if Iran doesn’t get to it first. I’ve been gardening a lot, harvesting tomatoes galore, cucumbers, herbs, peppers, carrots. Maybe there will be a farm stand next year from Avondale Homestead, and you can stop by my real-life lair for some fresh food and fellowship? We’re planting trees today. Trying to help the troubled neighbors. Attending concerts in the park, dancing at the Chenango Blues Fest, blissing out at a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at Tanglewood, swimming in Laurel Lake, singing like a fool to Air Supply at the NY State Fair, and camping at Fair Havens State Park. It’s been a beautiful month for weather and enjoying God’s gorgeous creation. I hope it has been for you, too.
Locally, I’m planning for two dance parties and my ongoing monthly film fellowships. If you’re nearby, do come on over!
