Elizabeth Moon's Blog
April 30, 2017
Interesting bug
This afternoon I saw a treehopper (or some kind of hopper) on the kitchen window screen, so went outside to photograph it.
The wind was very blustery (why it was clinging to the screen on the window, I'm sure), hard enough to affect my steadiness, so this isn't quite as crisp as I'd like. But it's a pretty little bug with two little "horns" on the head and that lovely mottled color. We had a spectacular "hopper" on a bush in the schoolyard when I was in 4th and 5th grade: metallic green with a sort of spine on its back that was red on the tip. We used to grab them by the "spine" and they'd release a stream of liquid that (being kids) we were sure was urine. They were all over that particular bush--never saw them elsewhere--and nobody seemed to know what the bush was. It was destroyed to build a gymnasium in that space.
At any rate, this little guy was halfway up the kitchen window (small window over the sink) and I was standing at ground level below--it was above my eye line and this was the best picture I could get.
The wind was very blustery (why it was clinging to the screen on the window, I'm sure), hard enough to affect my steadiness, so this isn't quite as crisp as I'd like. But it's a pretty little bug with two little "horns" on the head and that lovely mottled color. We had a spectacular "hopper" on a bush in the schoolyard when I was in 4th and 5th grade: metallic green with a sort of spine on its back that was red on the tip. We used to grab them by the "spine" and they'd release a stream of liquid that (being kids) we were sure was urine. They were all over that particular bush--never saw them elsewhere--and nobody seemed to know what the bush was. It was destroyed to build a gymnasium in that space.
At any rate, this little guy was halfway up the kitchen window (small window over the sink) and I was standing at ground level below--it was above my eye line and this was the best picture I could get.
April 21, 2017
Crayfish/crawfish/crawdads
I was afraid that we had lost our crayfish in the 5 year drought--they disappeared and did not return for well over a year when the drought ended. But this year...this year we've got 'em. Here are a few pictures of the crayfish and where they've shown up since late December. I haven't even made it down to the far end of the place to photograph them there (responsibilities keeping me closer to home.)
This crayfish (you can see its head sort of orange against the dark hole) is the same as in the
next image (orange jointed leg showing.) It was working on a burrow that connected to the pool
behind the #3 gabion.
Another image, same crayfish. Dark greenish carapace,
orange-red legs, one red claw easily visible.
Up by the street (higher ground) two trenches were left years ago by someone with a backhoe. Over the years they've filled in partly, and fill with rain if there's enough. One has crayfish in it; the other doesn't. The bottom of the one that doesn't is covered with a layer of bur oak leaves.
Crayfish from one of the trenches, the one to the right with muddy water. Lots of crayfish
stirring the water.
Clear shallow pool in meadow, has several crayfish (from very small to ~4 inches in it.
Appear to be grayish, not green & red.
Large crayfish working its way upstream over rocks in stream crossing.
When we bought this place, the only crayfishe were in the main creek and "overflow" channel near it. Water management practices have increased the number of places water stands or moves slowly in amounts large enough to attract crayfish, and in soil deep enough they can burrow and protect themselves in dry periods. We are very glad to have them, as they are one biological measure of water quality. If you have a lot of them in a shrinking area of water (a static pool after rain) they make the water murky with their digging and moving around.
This crayfish (you can see its head sort of orange against the dark hole) is the same as in the
next image (orange jointed leg showing.) It was working on a burrow that connected to the pool
behind the #3 gabion.
Another image, same crayfish. Dark greenish carapace,
orange-red legs, one red claw easily visible.
Up by the street (higher ground) two trenches were left years ago by someone with a backhoe. Over the years they've filled in partly, and fill with rain if there's enough. One has crayfish in it; the other doesn't. The bottom of the one that doesn't is covered with a layer of bur oak leaves.
Crayfish from one of the trenches, the one to the right with muddy water. Lots of crayfish
stirring the water.
Clear shallow pool in meadow, has several crayfish (from very small to ~4 inches in it. Appear to be grayish, not green & red.
Large crayfish working its way upstream over rocks in stream crossing.
When we bought this place, the only crayfishe were in the main creek and "overflow" channel near it. Water management practices have increased the number of places water stands or moves slowly in amounts large enough to attract crayfish, and in soil deep enough they can burrow and protect themselves in dry periods. We are very glad to have them, as they are one biological measure of water quality. If you have a lot of them in a shrinking area of water (a static pool after rain) they make the water murky with their digging and moving around.
April 13, 2017
Mushrooms Collapse
So on Thursday morning, the mushrooms were already collapsing, including some that had been yellowish healthy-looking nubbins yesterday:
April 12, 2017
Mushrooms
So yesterday these mushrooms appeared in the herb garden pot looking like this:
This morning they looked like this:
The largest one yesterday v. today (side by side, if I get the spacing right:
This morning they looked like this:
The largest one yesterday v. today (side by side, if I get the spacing right:
April 11, 2017
Fungus Amongus: What Is It?
It rained last night and this morning; I went out the kitchen door and discovered this in the big pot of herbs on the back step:
These fungi weren't there yesterday. They popped up overnight and more are coming.
Closeup of largest one.
Does anyone know what kind of mushroom that is? This pot was planted with commercial potting soil and all the plants were nursery plants from the same nursery.
These fungi weren't there yesterday. They popped up overnight and more are coming.
Closeup of largest one.
Does anyone know what kind of mushroom that is? This pot was planted with commercial potting soil and all the plants were nursery plants from the same nursery.
BOOK DAY: COLD WELCOME available!
So it's Book Day for the new one. Ky Vatta is back...and back in her home system of Slotter Key, summoned to a family conference. Boring legal stuff, signing papers, swearing officially that she signed them and wasn't coerced into giving up her shares of the family business. Dull, annoying, a distraction and interruption from her real life as the incredibly gifted space fleet commander. But just as she's comfortably ensconced in the shuttle, sipping tea and nibbling sandwiches and chatting with an old acquaintance...well. Read and find out. Cover images & more information here: http://www.elizabethmoon.com/universes/vatta.html
For those who don't mind a little more hinting before they buy a new book (and no shame in wanting some idea of whether or not you'll like it--) here are a few more hints, but nothing I would personally call a spoiler (nothing in the first 20% of a book can really be a spoiler, at least not in my mind.) For new readers to the Vatta universe, an introduction to some of the main characters:
Ky Vatta, now on the edge of 30, is the only surviving child of her parents, both killed shortly after she left her home planet as a disgraced former cadet and the new captain of a Vatta Transport trading ship. Her adventures back then were told in the five books of Vatta's War, during which a lot happened, both in her private/family life and professionally. In brief, she managed to cobble together a fleet of disparate ships from different places as a defensive fleet against the power of Gammis Turek's "more than pirate" force. (Turek was a sociopath whose dream was to rule all the known worlds and over the years had assembled a force for that purpose.) In the end, legitimate planetary governments contribute more ships to Ky's force, and she defeated Turek decisivel in the battle of Nexus II. So she's now a grand admiral of the whole shebang. Which, in the few years since that battle, she's found increasingly dull work. Begging money to support the fleet from politicians...not fun for her. Also, though she was a star cadet back before she screwed up and got booted, she has no additional training in things like, um, diplomacy, strategy, staff work and how to set up the staff she needs. Ky is one of the "dark Vattas"--the family's distant past Terran origin was the trade routes from Istanbul to India (with of course some outliers.) She is shortish, dark skinned, as were her parents and her uncle Stavros, and comes of a family that used some gene tinkering generations back to make sure their kids were smarter than average and could easily accept implanted enhancements as needed. Like most people on Slotter Key, having a cranial implant is not considered "humodification" or being a "humod." It's just a prosthesis, to most. (But not to the anti-humods, some religious and some secular.)
Stella Vatta, the only surviving child of her parents, is 33-34, Ky's older cousin. Both of them lost family on the same day on Slotter Key, and more family over the next half year as an attack on Vatta continued. She is a strikingly beautiful woman, taller than Ky, and a blond. Until recently (over the whole arc of the books) everyone thought her coloring came from her mother, Helen Stamarkos, whose ancient background was Greek/Macedonian. Stella was the youngest (and lightest) of Stavros & Helen's children. Stella, defined in the family as "the beautiful one," *(her older sister Josephine was "the smart one", etc.) did not develop her intellect until after making some really stupid mistakes, but she is actually very intelligent. She is also not the biological daughter of Stavros and Helen, something she found out only recently, in book time. Stella and Ky, being the two cousins who were both youngest in their own families and only 3-4 years apart, were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies, depending. The memories they share (and don't share) are never far from the surface and affect their assumptions about each other. Ky is more faithful to the familial relationship (ignoring the adoption thing) than Stella, who is the one whose sense of identity was damaged when she finally found out. Stella, of course, also has an implant.
Their great-aunt Grace Lane Vatta, the oldest living Vatta, is now a very old woman, and still powerful. Her past is shrouded in some mystery, especially about the degree of involvement she had in a regional conflict back when she was quite young. Grace used to make (may still make) fruitcakes which some of the family hate, and some of which contain more than the usual ingredients. She lost an arm to gunfire (in one of the books of Vatta's War) and chose to regrow it biologically to avoid the possible hacking of a bionic replacement. So she has one "young" arm and one old wrinkly age-spotted one. Grace was a powerful influence on both Ky and Stella as they were growing up; Ky, being younger, regarded her mostly as a fussy, nit-picky old woman, a nuisance who pressed fruitcakes on everyone. Stella, taken under Grace's wing for some remedial education after her worst mistake, knows better. Grace is now the Rector of Defense on Slotter Key, the head of the Defense Department (equivalent to our Secretary of Defense) and thus a political power. As a Vatta, she has enemies of the family, and as a person with a history, she has personal enemies as well.
Rafe Dunbarger. Son of the former CEO of InterStellar Communications, a monopoly that, until recently, controlled communications between planetary systems, building, maintaining, and protecting the ansibles that allowed instantaneous communication over light-years distances. Rafe's background of privilege ended at eleven, when he killed an intruder while his parents were away (saving himself and his little sister) and was then judged a danger to society and thrown into the juvie system.--not so much for killing the intruder, but for saying he didn't regret it. Later his family paid him to stay out of the Nexus system--a remittance that he supplemented in a variety of shady (and some legitimate) ways. Still later, his father made use of him as a remote agent, looking into dangers that might affect ISC. And--toward the end of Vatta's War--when his family was kidnapped by an ambitious underling, and tortured to gain information that would let the underling take over, Rafe rescued his family, and took over as interim CEO, shortly before the battle of Nexus II. Rafe's experiences in juvie, which he had regarded for years as 110% negative, turn out to be the reason he can rescue his family. Rafe's willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to achieve a goal--skills he learned mostly in juvie and then in various unsavory encounters, but his early years gave him a solid underlying morality and saving his family reconnected him to his roots. Rafe and Ky have had a relationship but it has not been smooth sailing. Rafe and Stella had a thing years back (her first offplanet mission for Aunt Grace crossed paths with Rafe) but it wasn't serious for either of them.
And this is Book #27. #28 is with my editor.
For those who don't mind a little more hinting before they buy a new book (and no shame in wanting some idea of whether or not you'll like it--) here are a few more hints, but nothing I would personally call a spoiler (nothing in the first 20% of a book can really be a spoiler, at least not in my mind.) For new readers to the Vatta universe, an introduction to some of the main characters:
Ky Vatta, now on the edge of 30, is the only surviving child of her parents, both killed shortly after she left her home planet as a disgraced former cadet and the new captain of a Vatta Transport trading ship. Her adventures back then were told in the five books of Vatta's War, during which a lot happened, both in her private/family life and professionally. In brief, she managed to cobble together a fleet of disparate ships from different places as a defensive fleet against the power of Gammis Turek's "more than pirate" force. (Turek was a sociopath whose dream was to rule all the known worlds and over the years had assembled a force for that purpose.) In the end, legitimate planetary governments contribute more ships to Ky's force, and she defeated Turek decisivel in the battle of Nexus II. So she's now a grand admiral of the whole shebang. Which, in the few years since that battle, she's found increasingly dull work. Begging money to support the fleet from politicians...not fun for her. Also, though she was a star cadet back before she screwed up and got booted, she has no additional training in things like, um, diplomacy, strategy, staff work and how to set up the staff she needs. Ky is one of the "dark Vattas"--the family's distant past Terran origin was the trade routes from Istanbul to India (with of course some outliers.) She is shortish, dark skinned, as were her parents and her uncle Stavros, and comes of a family that used some gene tinkering generations back to make sure their kids were smarter than average and could easily accept implanted enhancements as needed. Like most people on Slotter Key, having a cranial implant is not considered "humodification" or being a "humod." It's just a prosthesis, to most. (But not to the anti-humods, some religious and some secular.)
Stella Vatta, the only surviving child of her parents, is 33-34, Ky's older cousin. Both of them lost family on the same day on Slotter Key, and more family over the next half year as an attack on Vatta continued. She is a strikingly beautiful woman, taller than Ky, and a blond. Until recently (over the whole arc of the books) everyone thought her coloring came from her mother, Helen Stamarkos, whose ancient background was Greek/Macedonian. Stella was the youngest (and lightest) of Stavros & Helen's children. Stella, defined in the family as "the beautiful one," *(her older sister Josephine was "the smart one", etc.) did not develop her intellect until after making some really stupid mistakes, but she is actually very intelligent. She is also not the biological daughter of Stavros and Helen, something she found out only recently, in book time. Stella and Ky, being the two cousins who were both youngest in their own families and only 3-4 years apart, were sometimes allies and sometimes enemies, depending. The memories they share (and don't share) are never far from the surface and affect their assumptions about each other. Ky is more faithful to the familial relationship (ignoring the adoption thing) than Stella, who is the one whose sense of identity was damaged when she finally found out. Stella, of course, also has an implant.
Their great-aunt Grace Lane Vatta, the oldest living Vatta, is now a very old woman, and still powerful. Her past is shrouded in some mystery, especially about the degree of involvement she had in a regional conflict back when she was quite young. Grace used to make (may still make) fruitcakes which some of the family hate, and some of which contain more than the usual ingredients. She lost an arm to gunfire (in one of the books of Vatta's War) and chose to regrow it biologically to avoid the possible hacking of a bionic replacement. So she has one "young" arm and one old wrinkly age-spotted one. Grace was a powerful influence on both Ky and Stella as they were growing up; Ky, being younger, regarded her mostly as a fussy, nit-picky old woman, a nuisance who pressed fruitcakes on everyone. Stella, taken under Grace's wing for some remedial education after her worst mistake, knows better. Grace is now the Rector of Defense on Slotter Key, the head of the Defense Department (equivalent to our Secretary of Defense) and thus a political power. As a Vatta, she has enemies of the family, and as a person with a history, she has personal enemies as well.
Rafe Dunbarger. Son of the former CEO of InterStellar Communications, a monopoly that, until recently, controlled communications between planetary systems, building, maintaining, and protecting the ansibles that allowed instantaneous communication over light-years distances. Rafe's background of privilege ended at eleven, when he killed an intruder while his parents were away (saving himself and his little sister) and was then judged a danger to society and thrown into the juvie system.--not so much for killing the intruder, but for saying he didn't regret it. Later his family paid him to stay out of the Nexus system--a remittance that he supplemented in a variety of shady (and some legitimate) ways. Still later, his father made use of him as a remote agent, looking into dangers that might affect ISC. And--toward the end of Vatta's War--when his family was kidnapped by an ambitious underling, and tortured to gain information that would let the underling take over, Rafe rescued his family, and took over as interim CEO, shortly before the battle of Nexus II. Rafe's experiences in juvie, which he had regarded for years as 110% negative, turn out to be the reason he can rescue his family. Rafe's willing to lie, cheat, steal, and kill to achieve a goal--skills he learned mostly in juvie and then in various unsavory encounters, but his early years gave him a solid underlying morality and saving his family reconnected him to his roots. Rafe and Ky have had a relationship but it has not been smooth sailing. Rafe and Stella had a thing years back (her first offplanet mission for Aunt Grace crossed paths with Rafe) but it wasn't serious for either of them.
And this is Book #27. #28 is with my editor.
April 7, 2017
April Already?
Yup, and the release of COLD WELCOME is April 11. Next week. Yeeps! For more about COLD WELCOME, visit the description (with cover!) on the Universes site or wander over to the Universes blog to see how its sequel, INTO THE FIRE is progressing.
It's been a busy month, a confusing and difficult month, since my birthday, and next week is Holy Week plus house guests. I'll be singing on Palm Sunday, of course, and on Thursday and on Friday and then on Easter. We had a bee invasion, then a bee removal that left a hole in the side of the house and no power to the utility room where the washer, dryer, and freezer are, then the electrician to fix the cable, and then the carpenter to fix the hole (and many other things!) and then the painting to cover up all the repairs with nice clean paint.
Though today I can't open any windows. I need to open the windows to put the hooks on the screens through the eyes on the windowsills. Oh, and do washing. And other stuff in preparation for the house guests. We shoudl have a putty knife somewhere, to stick under the windows and along the side, but...where? Someone Else in the household has moved a lot of the tools around since I last had time to do more than hammer in a nail here and there.
INTO THE FIRE is with Editor, who hasn't commented yet, and Agent, who has. It's never a good sign when Agent asks, "Well, do YOU like this book?" (Of course, or I wouldn't have sent it in. But it happens, and writers have be resilient enough to deal with negative comments. We don't have to like them, but we do have to survive them.)
It's been a very early spring after a very warm winter. Wildflowers started blooming more than a month early, and peaked a solid 3-4 weeks early. Bird migrations were early, too. No bird pictures yet this year (no time) but crawdads (crayfish) pictures follow, along with a few flower shots.
From a ditch in a vacant lot, only about 2 inches long (5 cm)
Entering burrow near seasonal creek: red claws & tail, greenish body and head
Indian Paintbrush and Field Mallow (white flowers)
Blue water iris
It's been a busy month, a confusing and difficult month, since my birthday, and next week is Holy Week plus house guests. I'll be singing on Palm Sunday, of course, and on Thursday and on Friday and then on Easter. We had a bee invasion, then a bee removal that left a hole in the side of the house and no power to the utility room where the washer, dryer, and freezer are, then the electrician to fix the cable, and then the carpenter to fix the hole (and many other things!) and then the painting to cover up all the repairs with nice clean paint.
Though today I can't open any windows. I need to open the windows to put the hooks on the screens through the eyes on the windowsills. Oh, and do washing. And other stuff in preparation for the house guests. We shoudl have a putty knife somewhere, to stick under the windows and along the side, but...where? Someone Else in the household has moved a lot of the tools around since I last had time to do more than hammer in a nail here and there.
INTO THE FIRE is with Editor, who hasn't commented yet, and Agent, who has. It's never a good sign when Agent asks, "Well, do YOU like this book?" (Of course, or I wouldn't have sent it in. But it happens, and writers have be resilient enough to deal with negative comments. We don't have to like them, but we do have to survive them.)
It's been a very early spring after a very warm winter. Wildflowers started blooming more than a month early, and peaked a solid 3-4 weeks early. Bird migrations were early, too. No bird pictures yet this year (no time) but crawdads (crayfish) pictures follow, along with a few flower shots.
From a ditch in a vacant lot, only about 2 inches long (5 cm)
Entering burrow near seasonal creek: red claws & tail, greenish body and head
Indian Paintbrush and Field Mallow (white flowers)
Blue water iris
March 7, 2017
Birthday
Today was a great birthday. First, all my websites and their embedded blogs are now safely moved to a new site, live and functioning their new home. All done...and I am grateful to all involved in this, from the wonderful staff at my former host, SFF.net (waving at Jeffry and Steve) to my original web guru Ruta, whose designs transferred so smoothly, my new web guru, Karen, who fought the good fight with a less than ideal Someplace Else, and finally to the talented and gracious Anne Yates-Laberge, who was able to confirm that the problem was not with my sites or blogs, but with the Someplace Else and its tech support...and then to slide the active sites at SFF.net into their new home in her servers with what seemed like (to me, here in Texas) blinding speed and ease. Anne is a genius, just sayin', and many thanks to Jeffry for referring her to me and me to her. Good match. (And for those looking for a web guru/hosting space/etc., give her a shout at anne226@gmail.com.)
Some of this was going on before I left to have a birthday lunch with my husband, more went on while I was away, and the rest got done after I got home. The birthday lunch was the annual STEAK with CHOCOLATE dessert. (Not steak-with-chocolate...there was space between.)
Now that the website moves are done and done, the last of the book should come together fast. Somebody's going to die, though I'm making so many typos tonight that I may just go to bed and finish when I wake up. (That's not a spoiler...who it is, and how many, and why, woud be a spoiler.) COLD WELCOME has had some nice early reviews, and INTO THE FIRE is, despite having taken me an extra month to finish, feels pretty good.
For those curious, the music for the last part of INTO THE FIRE is a turn to the music for the last of the first group of Vatta books, Bach's "Magnificat" and Vivaldi's "Gloria."
Some of this was going on before I left to have a birthday lunch with my husband, more went on while I was away, and the rest got done after I got home. The birthday lunch was the annual STEAK with CHOCOLATE dessert. (Not steak-with-chocolate...there was space between.)
Now that the website moves are done and done, the last of the book should come together fast. Somebody's going to die, though I'm making so many typos tonight that I may just go to bed and finish when I wake up. (That's not a spoiler...who it is, and how many, and why, woud be a spoiler.) COLD WELCOME has had some nice early reviews, and INTO THE FIRE is, despite having taken me an extra month to finish, feels pretty good.
For those curious, the music for the last part of INTO THE FIRE is a turn to the music for the last of the first group of Vatta books, Bach's "Magnificat" and Vivaldi's "Gloria."
February 28, 2017
And Still It Won't Go...
I know it's been over a month since my last post on January 20. That's because of too much stuff and too little time. The highlights: on January 19, I found out I would have to find a new host for my four websites (each with an embedded WordPress blog) and get them moved, by March 31. I also had (have) a book to finish, one I was supposed to turn in by February 1. We also have a new Administration in D.C., one with which I am not in sympathy (to put it at the most...gentle...) And I acquired another health scare, on top of the ones already slowing down my work output even without the other. All this coalesced in the last weeks of January.
At present the websites themselves are in their new home. The WordPress blogs are misbehaving and not working with the new host's software for some reason no one has yet figured out. Time marches on. I also have had to notify those who use my SFFnet email that it's going to go *poof* and some of those people have not responded to let me know how to change the email on the various listservs to one of my other email addresses. In January I'd started making all our bread again, as a health measure and that's working, but it's also taking up time, as it does. I'm an experienced bread baker, but making bread from scratch, by hand, necessarily takes time in the prep, the actual making, the baking, and the cleanup. Unavoidable (good bread, though.)
Today's whole wheat bread
Intense green defines the natural drainage E to W in Near Meadow.
This picture, taken from behind the #3 gabion on February 27, 2017, a week after heavy rain, shows the lush green of the drainage from the gabion pool toward the south fenceline; it forms a sinuous curve and at this point was still flowing very clear water across the main trail across the near meadow. Becaise gabion (and the check dams up slope from it) slows down runoff, drainage now is gentler, wider, and clears more quickly even after heavy rain. What was once bare ground with seasonal weeds now supports sedges, native grasses, forbs, and even a few trees. Wildlife use is continuous when there's been enough rain to form pools: amphibians (leopard and cricket frogs), crayfish, aquatic insects, dragonflies and damselflies. Birds and mammals water here as well.
At present the websites themselves are in their new home. The WordPress blogs are misbehaving and not working with the new host's software for some reason no one has yet figured out. Time marches on. I also have had to notify those who use my SFFnet email that it's going to go *poof* and some of those people have not responded to let me know how to change the email on the various listservs to one of my other email addresses. In January I'd started making all our bread again, as a health measure and that's working, but it's also taking up time, as it does. I'm an experienced bread baker, but making bread from scratch, by hand, necessarily takes time in the prep, the actual making, the baking, and the cleanup. Unavoidable (good bread, though.)
Today's whole wheat breadIntense green defines the natural drainage E to W in Near Meadow.
This picture, taken from behind the #3 gabion on February 27, 2017, a week after heavy rain, shows the lush green of the drainage from the gabion pool toward the south fenceline; it forms a sinuous curve and at this point was still flowing very clear water across the main trail across the near meadow. Becaise gabion (and the check dams up slope from it) slows down runoff, drainage now is gentler, wider, and clears more quickly even after heavy rain. What was once bare ground with seasonal weeds now supports sedges, native grasses, forbs, and even a few trees. Wildlife use is continuous when there's been enough rain to form pools: amphibians (leopard and cricket frogs), crayfish, aquatic insects, dragonflies and damselflies. Birds and mammals water here as well.
January 20, 2017
UK Cover for COLD WELCOME
Coming in April
Orbit UK came up with a terrific cover that conveys the overall feel of the book...it's not a walk in the park or a stroll down memory lane when Ky Vatta visits her home planet after seven years away. And though she's Grand Admiral of her own fleet, the universe has ways to make the powerful feel small.
(I must admit, the release of this cover image on this day seems singularly appropriate. But that's not what this post is about.)
The US cover, from Del Rey, is also a terrific cover that focuses more on Ky Vatta herself than the exact situation she's in, and for those who missed it earlier, here it is again.
And these covers are why nobody was interested in MY sketch for the cover art (and why should they be? I'm a writer not a professional artist.) BUT It gave me a great excuse to open a box of crayons and play for awhile. Wheee! That weird thing in the lower left corner is supposed to be coil of the kind of rope that floats and is bright yellow. That was supposed to be snow blowing off the top of those red cliffs. (I am much better with horses, wildflowers, and even crawdads than I am with dramatic scenes. Still, fun to make pictures sometimes instead of stories, even if the pictures are far from pro standards.
The point of cover art is to suggest that the book is worth picking up (and won't embarrass you if you're seen reading it....that, too.) This next phase in the Vatta saga is about dealing with a dangerous reality that arrives suddenly and threatens more than mere survival. About new challenges and the need to keep learning and adapting. About leadership and treachery and blind spots and mistakes good people make. But mostly it's about Ky Vatta, and the Vatta family. (Just as a teaser, the book *after* this is almost-nearly ready to send to Editor. It's called INTO THE FIRE.)
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