also there are a lot of poe references, because i am a nerd
Happy Halloween! (When you are on Tumblr, Halloween is at least a month long, maybe longer.)
Anyway, it's my favorite time of year, so STORY.
A powerful witch, Piotr Russell has resigned himself to loneliness, because ordinary humans can’t know what he is, and other witches are intimidated by his abilities. Generations of Russells have lived and died with only their familiars at their side. The presence of a friendly familiar is enough to keep even the loneliest witch sane, and yet Piotr deliberately hasn’t chosen one. He forces himself to keep busy instead, but the emptiness of his house haunts him even more the spirit of Great-Great-Aunt Elysia in the parlor. With Samhain and Halloween approaching, he’ll have much to do, and knowing that, his concerned coven seizes the chance to intervene and sends help to his door in the form of Bartleby Dorchester.
The rarest of rare jewels, Bartleby is a human familiar: a witch with no magic of his own, and a desire to find a strong witch to help and serve. In particular, he desires to help and serve Piotr, and everything in Piotr wants to let him. Bartleby was meant to be his familiar; Piotr knows it as surely as he knows when it will rain or when the apples in his garden will ripen. But what Piotr wants from Bartleby, all he’s ever wanted, is for Bartleby to love him, something he thinks is impossible.
Russells live and die unloved, and he won’t allow Bartleby to feel obligated to spend his life with him as his familiar if he could be happy in love with someone else. But Samhain is a time for change, when walls come down and borders grow thin, and Bartleby isn’t going to waste what might be his last chance to convince Piotr that they were meant to be. He might have no magic, but love is a power all its own.
A Little Familiar --Amazon link
A Little Familiar --Smashwords link (Please be aware I am going to take it down from Smashwords in a week or so, and then go Amazon exclusive for the 90s days and then probably put it back on Smashwords.)
And look at that cover! Kimieye made that for me. It's so awesome!
Anyway, it's my favorite time of year, so STORY.
A powerful witch, Piotr Russell has resigned himself to loneliness, because ordinary humans can’t know what he is, and other witches are intimidated by his abilities. Generations of Russells have lived and died with only their familiars at their side. The presence of a friendly familiar is enough to keep even the loneliest witch sane, and yet Piotr deliberately hasn’t chosen one. He forces himself to keep busy instead, but the emptiness of his house haunts him even more the spirit of Great-Great-Aunt Elysia in the parlor. With Samhain and Halloween approaching, he’ll have much to do, and knowing that, his concerned coven seizes the chance to intervene and sends help to his door in the form of Bartleby Dorchester.
The rarest of rare jewels, Bartleby is a human familiar: a witch with no magic of his own, and a desire to find a strong witch to help and serve. In particular, he desires to help and serve Piotr, and everything in Piotr wants to let him. Bartleby was meant to be his familiar; Piotr knows it as surely as he knows when it will rain or when the apples in his garden will ripen. But what Piotr wants from Bartleby, all he’s ever wanted, is for Bartleby to love him, something he thinks is impossible.
Russells live and die unloved, and he won’t allow Bartleby to feel obligated to spend his life with him as his familiar if he could be happy in love with someone else. But Samhain is a time for change, when walls come down and borders grow thin, and Bartleby isn’t going to waste what might be his last chance to convince Piotr that they were meant to be. He might have no magic, but love is a power all its own.
A Little Familiar --Amazon link
A Little Familiar --Smashwords link (Please be aware I am going to take it down from Smashwords in a week or so, and then go Amazon exclusive for the 90s days and then probably put it back on Smashwords.)
And look at that cover! Kimieye made that for me. It's so awesome!
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message 1:
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Kathleen
(new)
Oct 04, 2015 09:40PM
I can confirm that this story is frickin' awesome and all R. Cooper fanpersons and fanpersons-to-be should read it.
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You know, I think you're right in that I'm too close to it to really see it. I do like thinking about them though. (I've been talking like Bartleby all day. I do like them.) In the future I mean, at revels and things. Forbidding frowny bear Piotr keeping an eye on everything from the wall, and Bartleby moving around talking to everyone, and then just coming over to lean against him for a while. That seems nice.
This is such a sweet and atmospheric story! :)
When you put it like that, they sound a lot like Bertie and Godric, somehow. Though Godric wouldn't be standing against a wall, he'd just be chatting to his friends at court while Bertie talked to all and sundry.
Kathleen wrote: "When you put it like that, they sound a lot like Bertie and Godric, somehow. Though Godric wouldn't be standing against a wall, he'd just be chatting to his friends at court while Bertie talked to ..."Godric is a little (a lot) less viscerally lonely. Among the lower classes or other soldiers, he would have no problem mingling. And I think he can communicate his feelings just fine. Bertie was the one at the beginning who didn't grasp the difference in culture and what Godric was offering.
That said, yeah, they are very similar. Though actually I compared them to Will and Charlie a lot. That isolation and loneliness.
Aw I made myself sad.
Anyway, yeah. Everyone knows about Bertie's feelings, he'd shout them across the room. And Godric's are plain. Piotr though would never dream of shouting his feelings or asking Bartleby to.
Tiferet wrote: "This is such a sweet and atmospheric story! :)"Thank you for thinking it's sweet. As I was telling Kathleen, I'm a little unsure about this story. I was worried it was too moody or something. But it really is supposed to end in happy feelings and cuddles and the warm fuzzies.
R. wrote: "Tiferet wrote: "This is such a sweet and atmospheric story! :)"Thank you for thinking it's sweet. As I was telling Kathleen, I'm a little unsure about this story. I was worried it was too moody o..."
I think you'd have to really overdo it to make something "too moody" for Halloween :D
Oh, what magic you weave into your tales, Risa! This is a gem of a story of a powerful witch, and why all the familiar customs and sights and smells of fall and winter in the temperate northern latitudes themselves hold such power. Re-reading this novella's richly written characters and settings will become a seasonal ritual for me in the years to come. Thanks, Risa, for your gift!
Oh I like that idea! Someone rereading it every year! How wonderful!
