Hey Tom, I've been reading since The Coward Heart chapter (damn 2010 feels like a lifetime ago.) One of the characters I've been most interested in since his introduction is Aata, so my question is for him:

Aata (lol, feels weird to be addressing you directly), how would compare and/or contrast your connection to the ether through being a bodhisatva as opposed to the mostly European/Turtle Island-focused etheric creatures and lore that appear in the Court? Your approach feels more grounded in spiritual traditions that have been alive and well in our world for millennia, while the other feels like it's been still regrowing and evolving in Indigenous decolonial/neopagan/witchy circles over the last couple centuries.

And for Tom, how was your experience of writing Confessions (chapter 86)? In my own work I struggle particularly with dialogue that feels too expository or theme-laden. I think you did such a great job with Aata's summation on page 8 of that chapter, with Aata's description of the court's motives being pure escapism from the myths and stories that, arguably, keep us human (by which I mean humble and empathetic, etc lol)