Author: Jacob Swift

Swift is a US Postman, writer, RPG player, husband, and father, based in a small town in Louisiana. After ten years of not seeking publication, he’s decided to try again. In the meantime, he works a manual labor job and cares for his family. This blog site is a spot for him to put his notes and thoughts down, as well as brag about his family’s accomplishments.

Classic Book Review: A Spell for Chameleon

While we may consider JRR Tolkien to be the father of fantasy literature, giving us the settings, people, and cultural influences that would later help create numerous book series and uncounted D&D campaigns, I think I can be justified in saying Piers Anthony is the fun uncle of fantasy literature. Yes, you can have swords and sorcery. Yes, you can have intrigues and manipulations.

But you can also have puns. Puns, just everywhere, and the story is just as wonderful to readers young and old.

I was first introduced to this book series when I was around 12 years old (making that a 24 year-long fanboy of me, and shameless in admitting it) and with this book, I learned two very critical things to writing: it’s okay to not take your work so seriously that you can’t use humor, and writing humor is hard work and should be taken seriously.

This is coming from someone who is so socially awkward that he does feel the need to practice jokes in his head before he ever tries them out on another person. I’ve accepted this shortcoming in my personality and worked it into my routines, up to and including figuring out which jokes to try on certain friends to get the feel of a type of humor.

(That makes me sound like I don’t have much of a personality. Unfortunately, the mail doesn’t require me to have one, just to be able to walk long distances, and it’s not like I get to do much socializing when on the job.)

When I saw this story, I marveled at the idea that puns could (and would) be taken seriously as an aspect of the magic system. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of individual magic, making even the boring people in the background seem interesting, if just for the fact that their magic is making splotches of color drift around their body. This was draping over the setting of a heavily isolated community, cut off so thoroughly that it needed to be invaded occasionally just to have a sustainable population. Where the magic of the setting was so pervasive, people were slowly being turned into magical creatures. The royalty system was based on who had the most powerful magic talent (being a magocracy before Dungeons & Dragons made it a concept for nerds to capitalize on), and if you could not prove to have a magical talent, you were shunned and exiled.

This story showed both sides of this concept in great detail, down to the idea of an Evil Magician being considered evil while still being honorable and ethical in his practices. It did so in a very blatant approach of both ‘show and tell‘, but that might also be because the main protagonist was so biased toward his truths that he had to have everything explained to him.

(A concept I wish I could emulate, if just to more thoroughly dive into the mechanics of storytelling through the work)

Through this book, we are introduced to the source of Earth’s legends. If there was an isthmus anywhere in the world, there was the chance of finding a path that led to a magical land that strangely, always resembled Florida. After you read this book, you’ll have the opportunity to continue the series.

Through 45 more novels. And the puns never end.

Also, a personal note. When I was 12 and just discovering this series, I was an enthusiastic fan. I managed to look up Anthony’s address and write to him about the books, and he sent me an autographed polaroid. He’s an interesting man, beyond his books.

Story additions are up!

It’s been a long while since I’ve been able to post any of my writings on here, but I managed to 1: Be home from work all day, 2: Be by myself all day, and 3: Be so sick that I was told (forcefully) to not do any chores and to just write all day.

This translates to some 20-odd pages written down, spread through three different stories.

The Star Wars adventure is almost ready to go up, but in the meantime, please go through my pages for my personal science fiction idea “For the Honor of the Queen” and the fan-fiction project “Sherlock Holmes, Wizard”.

I also have 5 different essays sitting in my drafts, so I’ll eventually go looking through them to see what’s worth publishing.

Walking into 2022 with open eyes and a saddened heart

I have never been shy of New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve attempted them every year since I was a teenager. I’ll admit that I’ve also failed those resolutions more often than not. But I’ve grown to accept a few traditions when it comes to the new year.

Firstly, that I’ll have a headache. I don’t need to drink for this to happen; I have enough stress just living to wake up with a headache from worrying. But most often it is because of drinking too much on the Eve.

Secondly, that I’d sing “Auld Lang Syne”, if just to myself. In the past, I’d mumble-sing it around my friends, because I hated my singing voice. Recently, I’ve sung it around my children, who don’t know bad singing yet and think their Dad is the greatest man ever.

Thirdly, and sadly, I’ve grown to accept that as time passes, I’d be greeting the new year with fewer people in my life. Most often, this was because of simple time; people grow distant over the years, and I’ve accepted that. Sometimes, however, I’d be raising my pint and saying ‘To Absent Friends’ to honor the memory of someone who would have been right beside me.

I’ve reached the age when I stopped celebrating newborns and began mourning funerals. I understand that and accept it, but I never get to explain it from my own point of view. For most of the world around me, I am a goofy, weird person that is socially awkward. I keep these moments to myself and just go through them.

But I’m stepping into this year with sadness and resolve.

I’ve lost my best friend this past year. I’ve lost my confidante and soundboard. Now, I’m going forward on my own, as it were. Without those moments of being called out for idiocy or missteps.

But I’m also moving forward with experience gained from that friendship. I’m stepping into the next year with the knowledge gained via pragmatic sarcasm.

And through my memories and story-telling, my friend will be there with me.

I’ve accepted that I’ve lost someone. I’ve accepted that as this stage of life, I will continue to lose people. But I will never stop talking about them. I’ll never pass the opportunity to bring them up as anecdotes or witticisms.

I’ll always remember them, in days of auld lang syne.

Happy 2022, readers. Be unforgettable.