My “Jeremiah (A Tale of The Northern Clan)” in Midnight Oil

I asked fellow Midnight Oil anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Oil (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

And now, My Jeremiah (A Tale of The Northern Clan):

There is a scene in the movie ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, when Jesus is surrounded by lepers and cripples and all kinds of sick sons-a-bitches. They’re all reaching out for him to heal them.
Only they’re not waiting for him to heal them. They’re a mob dying of thirst seeing a glass of water. They’re a panicking crowd seeing a doorway out of a burning house. They’re a swarm of bottle flies descending on a wounded moose.
He has something they want and they’re going to get it and fuck anybody who gets in their way. It’s not “Help me, Jesus,” it’s “Get out of my way, motherfucker.”
In the movie, he’s engulfed by them, like he’s a single-celled animal being devoured by this amoeba of humanity. Right before he’s totally devoured, he cries out, “Stop! There are too many of you!” And he’s pleading because he can’t stop them. There are too many and because there are too many he can’t help a one of them.
But they don’t. It’s I’ll get mine and screw the next guy.
I remember watching that scene in awe, whispering my revelation because I understood. “He doesn’t know who he is.”
My date leaned towards me. “What?”
“He doesn’t know the difference between ‘he’ and ‘they’.”
Some guy behind me shhhed. I stared at the screen. “He can’t Shield. He doesn’t know how to Shield himself.”
Shhh!.

The wonderful Kaye Lynne Booth also put together a video teaser for Jeremiah (A Tale of The Northern Clan)

I also read Jeremiah (A Tale of The Northern Clan) at Kaye’s request:

How the story came about:
Jeremiah (A Tale of The Northern Clan), originally entitled Night, was written on a Dec mainframe’s text editor over a 300 baud modem in 1978. Back then it was about a traveling minstrel-juggler who was much more than he seemed. He travelled mostly at night – hence the story’s at-the-time title – and drew his power from the darkness. Note, not Darkness, simply the darkness. However, he didn’t know all he could do or who could teach him.
The cloak aspect was part of the story back then, an enwitchment, by a woman who wanted him trapped and attendant only to her.
Ten years later I wrote Sema (a Tale of The Northern Clan) (included in Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires and should be included in the Tales of The Northern Clan anthology slated for publication late 2026) and knew as I wrote it was part of a series based on a “clan” of mythical-magical creatures, one group of several scattered across the globe, who worked together.
I’m currently working on the origin stories of several other Northern Clan members.

You can learn more than is necessary about me here.

See all Midnight Oil stories here.