well, I certainly didn’t set out to finish @theoldaeroplane’s wicked little book “Sparkler” on the 3rd of July, but fate doesn’t really like to be set out, does it?

I write this as rumbling fireworks explode (illegally) in the genteel suburban mountain neighborhoods around me. I couldn’t be further from Boston, but “Sparkler” transported me there. I was right beside the Pyro a year ago, and then a lifetime later – and I’ve never even (successfully) logged in to Team Fortress 2. (but now I want to.) the settings, of which only Arizona have I seen with my own two eyes, were alive and ablaze (mmhmm) in my mind, and though the violence was graphic, it was never gratuitous.

I’ve been familiar with Pyro because I follow Pemm-Corg-Plane and therefore I see all of the loving author art (which I adore, and even moreso now), but this book centered around that character in such a way as to paint two pictures: one of her own self-image, and its wavering nature, and the other of a delicate, mewling creature whose anti-charismatic aura serves to draw in as many as it drives away. I love her.

when I finished (my husband looked over and said, “ah, you’re almost there!” when I had three paragraphs left), I stared at the author blurb and wished I had the next part of this saga immediately on hand. I imagine at some point in the near future I will be visiting Corg’s many helpful e-book links and carrying on with these characters. this was a universe I’d never visited before, but through Pemm’s brave, gritty voice, I’d happily visit it again.