Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a baby blog named Tsundoku Stacks. . . .
Okay, the Stacks is still a baby blog, but I'm talking about when it was a newborn here.
Anyways, in the early weeks of the Stacks, back when it was pretty much still nothing more than a wrinkly bundle of bloggy newborn-ness, I decided to run a blog "column" — à la an old-fashioned newspaper (I know, "what's that?" XD) — called Banal Magic.
I know you're just dying to know more, so, here, come sit beside me and look at this photo album of adorable baby Tsun-Tsun1. . . .
Here is a snapshot2 — er, snippet — of an old post (#6, originally published on 01 April 2025) introducing Banal Magic that, hopefully, gives you a picture (get it? get it? XD) of what it's all about:
The name, Banal Magic, is both a hat tip to and a play off of Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic.
Gilbert's book is thus titled because she speaks of the "big magic" that happens when something ineffably awesome happens in the life of a creative. After all, said creative herself wrote a (different) book that has apparently sold over 12 million copies worldwide — a book3 that was also turned into a movie starring no less of a headliner than Julia Roberts.
Big magic? I'll say. (I'm not envious. Who's envious? Not I! Not at all. XP)
I have no such lofty gifts to offer. I can offer only the banal magic of the ordinary, everyday working creative. And that is, in fact, what I shall offer. Banal Magic will be snippets of this creative's life, how I'm actually living my creative life, what I'm doing (and what I'm not doing), et cetera, et cetera, as well as — meta upon meta — this creative's thoughts about the creative life itself.
Why am I showing you adorable baby blog photos?
Well, now that I'm blogging weekly again, a lot — and I mean, a lot — of my brain is full, once again, of thoughts all centred on creativity — specifically, writing, since that is my most enduring field and form of creativity. And, like practically every writer I've ever read, heard, and/or met, I, too, love to write about writing. XD
And so this is just a little heads-up to tell you, dear reader, that you should expect more photos (er, "photos"4) — in the form of Banal Magic posts5, to be clear (though not necessarily immediately) — as our dear little Tsun-Tsun grows up! XD
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ツンツン (or つんつん) tsuntsun in Japanese means, among other things:
(1) "cross, cranky, morose"
(2) "(smelling) strongly; pungently"
(3) "spiky (esp. of a hairstyle)"
So li'l Tsun-Tsun here was a cranky, smelly baby with spiky hair. XDD ↩ -
Full disclosure: I have edited this here excerpt — not majorly, but not unnoticeably, either (at least, to the sharp-eyed) — because I can never leave well enough alone. '^^ (Blame my internal editor. '>_<) But rest assured! Over 95% of it is in its original form. ↩
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This mega bestseller, by the way, spawned a whole bunch of parodies — of its title, if nothing else. I'm speaking, of course, of Eat, Pray, Love. ↩
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This is a metaphor. (A painfully stretched metaphor, but, well . . . labour pains. XDD) There will be (almost) no actual photos here at the Stacks — because this is the blog of a writer, not a photographer (not yet, anyway XD). XP So you should expect no photos whatsoever — and, thus, you will be pleasantly surprised (or perhaps perturbedly horrified XD) when a rare photo does show up (if any ever do). ↩
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Post #41 should technically be a Banal Magic post. But when I rebooted this blog, I did not think this far ahead. '^^ ↩