A long time ago, I was listening to a SHWEP episode that was discussing the fraught relationship between various kinds of divination and astrology and the Roman state. The episode filled me with conflicted glee because it aired a while after I had written the first few drafts of A Matter of Oracles, which is about a young woman entering her first library job after school. She learns that she will be appointed to the Hall of Oracles, not a wildlife or life sciences library like she wanted. Her path to that job involved applying to library school, training, receiving an initiation for Sa and the Reed Goddesses, and being given an appointment by the state to a library that is a good match. This is much like how library degrees work in France with their Enssib.
The seed for A Matter of Oracles, though, came in the mid- to late 2010s when I was reading Conversations in the House of Life, a translation of a scribal initiation text. I had not read that much Egyptian religious literature at that point, but it was utterly delightful, and I loved Seshat, and the book A Matter of Oracles refers to her in the dedication as a result.
The passage that is most relevant to the novel, for enterprising readers, is this one, translated by Jasnow and Zauzich, on page 105:
“[…] She looks before her entire journey.
She completes millions.
They do not complete her.
Your seeking her means her coming quickly.
On your day of desiring her, you find her.”The one-who-loves-knowledge, he said:
“What is writing? What are its places of storage?
Compare it to its like, Overflowing One!”So he said, namely, the One-of-Heseret, he said:
“Writing is a sea. Its reeds are a shore.
Penetrate therein, little one!
Hurry to the shore!
Count the dikes in it!
It is a myriad.
Do not be weak with regard to the sea
until its lord permits that you swim in it,
and he prepares explicit permission in your presence.”
What ended up happening around that time was a failed reorg within a unit that worked closely with mine, which had suddenly been given “digital scholarship” as a purview when library science, since the 2000s, has literally been mostly digital unless you’re in archives or in the Humanities or selected social sciences. That unit was folded into other things that became still other things, so the experiment ended (not without strife), but I finished this story long before that part.
So the book ended up being a tongue-in-cheek modest proposal about far-future library science and a devotional romp in honor of Seshat. It is also a generous serving of speculative sociological fiction.
I am very excited about this novella and sharing it with you all!
Also, here is the amazing cover, which I paid an artist to do, not an AI tool.
I will supply some links to preorder pages once those become available. Stay tuned.
KALLISTI 
I don’t remember whether I found your blog through librarianship or polytheism, and I’ve been lurking quite awhile. I was even too shy to comment when you adapted Ranganathan! But this post made me laugh out loud with delight and dig out my WordPress credentials. I thoroughly enjoyed Village of Strong Branches, and as a fellow librarian, an archivist, and a calligrapher who is increasingly drawn to Seshat, this has me over the moon. I have Conversations in the House of Life en route, and I’ll order this and Acts of Speech from Bookshop next week. Thank you for all that you write and share!
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Thank you so much for sharing your enthusiasm! I work with people in special collections infrequently but intensely and am always impressed by everyone’s knowledge of print material history in your subfield. Enjoy Conversations in the House of Life! It really impacted how I talk to first-year students about libraries.
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