Today is the 10th year anniversary of Circus Mirandus. This story has carried me forth for a very long time – I first read this story in 2017, and now, in 2025, I am very fortunate to be here to live this moment.

When I first read this story as an 11 year old, I was about the same age as Micah – just a year older. Back then, I was confused about a lot of things going on in my life, and I found it hard to stick to one story for long. But Circus Mirandus stayed with me for a long time even after reading it.

The first book left much to be answered, and I spilled many tears reading the end of it. But my life went on, and gradually I'd forgotten about the story. Thinking back, I think I still carried a small part of the circus with me, because I also read Beasley's other story, Tumble & Blue (which I also love and adore).

Then by pure chance in January of 2020 – I stumbled upon the sequel, The Bootlace Magician, in the Harbourfront National Library of Vivocity. I still remember being so surprised, standing in front of shelf 56, and looking at the thick hardback beside the first story in the series. At this point, I was 13 going 14. I didn't expect I would end up loving the second story more than the first, but I did, and this time the story stayed forth and centre for a very, very long time in my mind.

Being 13 and in Secondary 2 of an all-girls' school wasn't very fun for me back then, but reading Circus Mirandus was like having a guardian angel around.

I had wondered for a while, after reading the first book, if Micah ever found a place in the circus. Did he find peace after Ephraim's passing? Did he still keep in contact with Jenny? Did the world keep spinning on and on in Peal, while the circus played its pipes and drums on and on in a land far away? When TBM answered, “Yes! Of course!” To all my questions, it made me feel that for a few moments, everything in the world would turn out to be okay and that there wasn't much to be afraid about growing up and growing old.

During my O-Levels, I read TBM every night (every night straight) before I went to bed. Then months later, I started polytechnic, and that was when the real trials and tribulations began. I hated every waking moment of going to school for the first semester of school, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, I cried for the first month of this new environment because:

I didn't have any time to draw or read

I sucked ass at talking to new people

I didn't have a clue how badly I would be humbled academically. (What the hell was a PCR cycle?)

But I gritted my teeth and rode out the first two years of polytechnic. I'm now in my third and final year.

In these two years, I did better academically than I'd ever done in my entire life, and I have Circus Mirandus to thank for. Without a story to lean on (and drag me forward towards the future when I wanted to give up…), I think I would've given up on studying, changed diploma courses, or performed less than I did.

In polytechnic, there's not much time to read or relax as I used to have before. But every day, on the bus, after lessons, walking to class, or walking home, I thought of Micah and the circus. I wondered and thought of fun scenarios the characters could experience, I thought of things to draw them doing, and I spent an ungodly amount of time scrolling through Pinterest to figure out exactly how I imagined the main cast to look like. I still haven't nailed the last one yet, but it's a work in progress.

For the first year of reading the sequel TBM, I read/watched every interview out there on the internet. Blogs, Q&As, YouTube channels, book reviews, etc. If there's a Q&A done with Cassie Beasley, high chance – is I've read it. For years since then, I scoured the internet for other readers, and was disappointed to find none at first. (Circus Mirandus isn't popular in Singapore.) Back then, it felt like I was the only person in the world who loved the stories. But fortunately, I found readers online from France and Italy, and even got a friend from home, Thalen, to read it too. So I also want to say thank you to Thalen for joining in with me whenever we passionately discussed about the books together. Without someone to match my excitement for the stories, I would be less open about it.

I've met other readers on Tumblr and AO3, all of whom I'm so grateful for. I've had many fun discussions with all of them, and I'm grateful I have a small community of readers to talk with whenever.

At this point, I want to apologize for not having drawn the series enough. The infrequencies of my postings about the circus do not match the frequency of my thoughts of them, and I could go on and on about Micah and the Lightbender and everyone else if I could. But I think it's important to acknowledge one more person.

No amount of words can express how grateful I am to have Circus Mirandus in my life, and I only have Cassie Beasley to thank. I love and own all 3 books she's published, and they've played a pivotal role in my life so far. Many dull and down moments of my days have been filled with fun from rereading her stories; the person I am today would not be here without Circus Mirandus.

A central theme of Circus Mirandus is learning to still remain a child at heart, to believe in yourself no matter where you go in life. I'm still not sure how to do that last part very well, but I hope I'll have the rest of my life to figure it out.

I'm 19 now. I have one more year before I become an adult, and I'm going to cherish it with my copy of Circus Mirandus on my shelf. I don't really want to grow up, but life goes on, and there's very little I could do to stop it from happening, but at least I can have the peace to let it be.

Micah's hair ties are usually from Firesleight. She taught him how to do self-braiding (she wears one sometimes when she performs, prevents her magic from burning stray ends) He ties his own sometimes too.

Half the people at the circus are wondering why Micah doesn't just help the Lightbender untangle his hair. Lol. Geoffrey teased him about it once, and the Lightbender just shrugged. The truth is Micah does think of his hair knots. The presence of knots around him feels like an itch sometimes, and his guardian's hair mess is one of the things that pulls Micah subconsciously closer to him. A bit like a magnet. (But he does wonder, sometimes, how the Lightbender would look like with straight sandy hair for once)

Similar to how Fish came from the sea, Mr Head came from the sky. Like a strike from the heavens. I think it would be poetic.

Chintzy met some bird friends in the Menagerie after the merger with Victoria's remaining flock (she'll never share her perch though)

When they visit tropical countries, the Lightbender has to put zinc sunscreen on his nose. Micah giggled once and told him he looked like the lifeguards at his old home's community pool. (He'd make a poor lifeguard. He'd be sunburned all the time.)

In a dark room, with no visual cues or sounds, the Lightbender would be able to tell Micah apart from everyone else just by finding him in his magic's domain. He's discussed this with Geoffrey, Rosebud and the older magicians during a Staff Meeting, but Micah's mind had subtly shifted ever since his burst of magic when he saved Bowler. It had concerned him before. Rosebud assured him it may just be a natural part of Micah's magic growing with him, and it was best to sit back and let it happen without interference.

The Lightbender isn't a touchy person. He wasn't ever physically affectionate with Victoria. No hugging at all. Victoria wasn't the sort of person to use physical touch as a love language either, so she didn't notice. It was only after months that he saw other magicians giving Micah hugs and casual pats and rubs then he realised the gap in their expressions. Subconsciously, Micah leans in when someone puts an arm around him, because Ephraim used to do it to him when they watched TV. The Lightbender worried if Micah assumed he was being distant as his guardian, so he tries to make an effort to be physically closer to Micah whenever they sit close enough side by side.

(+ Related to no.7 above) When the Lightbender and Micah talk after meals like dinner, they move their chairs closer together and sip something while chatting about the day. The former usually rests his arm around Micah's chair, almost as if he was putting it on his shoulder. (Deep down the Lightbender is still trying to show affection to Micah in a way he understands)

(++ also related) Micah had noticed that the Lightbender was more physically distant than others, such as Firesleight or Geoffrey or Dulcie. He didn't dwell on it for too long because he assumed his guardian just didn't really care that way. But deep down, he had thought that he would need to "earn" that affection in some way, which also contributed to his anxiety and worry that he would need to make up for Victoria's betrayal...

Joan of Arc had been to Circus Mirandus at some point. So has Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, and many more significant historical figures

There's a team of magicians dedicated to hunting wild game. Other than manning the stores and games, they help to hunt for meat in vast lands when no nearby supply for supermarkets or butchers are available. Rosebud helps teach them how to gather wild mushrooms for cooking too (the greenhouse has lots of vegetables and suitable climate for fungi, but some foods are better off found in small amounts in the wild)

(+ Related to no.11) The Lightbender has never strictly forbade Micah from doing anything before, but if he asked if he could join in the hunting he would gently say no. He does not want to welcome Micah back with an arrow through his calf.... (He knows he's being a bit protective considering that kids his age were taught to hunt millennia ago.)

Geoffrey is religious and worships the Roman gods of Jupiter, Minerva, etc.

Micah reads Ephraim's bible at night sometimes when he can't sleep. He likes to twirl his fingers around the red ribbon bookmark that came with the book itself and imagine his grandfather reading it just as he does.

It's actually been centuries since the Lightbender's been in close contact with a baby, so if someone passed him an infant in the modern age he'd be flustered about worrying how to support the baby's head properly. Mr Head's the opposite -- he has some sort of built-in paternal instinct on how to hold a baby right.

Yuri was in the military briefly before joining the circus. His short-lived experience led to the discovery of his magic.

Symphony and Mistsinger are dating. No I have no proof of this.

Micah's worst subject in school was math, followed by P.E. He's embarrassed to admit he can't do his multiplication tables further than 10. He can't run a mile without huffing.

Victoria's had champagne gold hair and blue-grey eyes, while the Lightbender has sandy hair with wisps of white strands and dark grey eyes.

Rosebud's most spoken languages include Latin, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, French and Chinese. Sometimes the older magicians will switch to speaking to her in their native languages because they miss having a conversation partner. She speaks the most languages out of everyone, so whenever the circus comes across someone who can't seem to understand the common languages most of the magicians know, they bring Rosebud in for help to recognize the language.

The books on the Lightbender's shelves span from geography (helps to keep up with new towns and countries changing names over the centuries while they hop all over the world), language (helpful to learn new ones at the start, but with rapid modernisation it's hard to keep up with new revisions on conversational language structures beyond the circus, so he admits... But it's still interesting to learn a new language), science and math (he may be a magician, but education is important to him, no matter how much he may disapprove of rigid beliefs in life without the context of magical explanations for the unexplained.)

Dulcie tries to help Micah learn Spanish by conversing with him. She speaks faster than he can keep up most of the time, but after a while he could catch most of it.

Micah's father had Victoria's hair and eye shape, but Ephraim's face and eye colour. Victoria contemplated keeping him to raise, but she couldn't shake off his eye colour so she left him for Ephraim to raise

The Lightbender has eyebags, whilst Micah has dark eye circles. It's genetic (he says) but the Lightbender has had to fetch him to bed when it gets too late.

Yuri, Dulcie, Firesleight, Rosebud, Geoffrey, Bowler and the Lightbender are some of the people Micah talks most with daily. He got closer with Firesleight after returning her the dragon journals Victoria never gave back....

Micah has a fear of heights. Ironic, because even if he could fly like Victoria he would be too scared to go too high up in the sky like she could. The Gorilla incident scarred him lol.

The Lightbender has a fear of the deep sea, the kind where you're floating in the water and it's so dark beneath you that you can't see the depth of where you are. It came from his time as a Viking before joining the circus, when he fell overboard and could see what was below him. Transportation technology wasn't advanced back then, so if your boat got damaged miles from land, you could drown without endurance/stamina to swim.

Sometimes Chintzy gets under the Lightbender's magical influences when he tries to discourage her from foraging dropped sweets by making them disappear to her mind. She caught on after a while and bit him on the finger.

The Strongwomen see Firesleight as a little sister and she sees them as a big family of older sisters. She used to wrestle with Pennyroyal when she was younger (the latter of course going easy on her)

Victoria gave birth to Micah's father in a motel room. She kept him for a week, just enough for her to make up her mind and heal a little to fly by Ephraim's house and drop the baby off. She didn't look back as she flew away.