Marie Brennan's Blog, page 134

BVC Year-End Sale

I’ve been remiss in advertising this, largely because I’ve had my head buried in the first draft of the next Memoir. (Current word count: 33,191, and Isabella’s brother is endearing himself to me for being the kind of guy who will say things other characters won’t.) BUT! Time has not yet run out, for me or for you!

Book View Cafe is having an ENORMOUS sale right now, continuing through January 1st. I will not attempt to list all the participating titles, because omgwtfbbq there are a lot of them — but Lies and Prophecy is one of them. Since one of the other things eating my head right now is revisions on Chains and Memory, this is a dandy time to pick up the first book, if you haven’t already. Or, y’know, one of the other splendid offerings. Or all of the above! (Now I’m wondering if any crazy person has actually bought every single sale title, just for the heck of it.)

You have a few days left to take advantage of this, though not as many as you might have had my brain not been snack food for my current obligations. Should still be enough time, though. Go forth and enjoy!

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A belated Yuletide yay

I must have been a very good Swan this year, because I got two fics in Yuletide: my gift and a treat.

My gift is for the sort of fandom that makes even Yuletide participants say “wow, that’s tiny.” There’s a musical show called Songs for a New World, and the very first time I heard the piece titled “King of the World,” I wanted to know what that guy’s story was.

“the weight of living” is the answer I got, and it achieves that elegant trick of being something I hadn’t even considered before reading the story, that fit beautifully as soon as I saw it. My anonymous writer made the speaker a megapastor televangelist type, and my god does that make sense with the tone of the song. Thank you, Yulemouse, whoever you are!

Then there’s the treat, which is also for a fandom so tiny it essentially doesn’t exist. Sengoku Avengers is a fan-art set that reimagines the Marvel heroes as people in Sengoku-era Japan (think Oda Nobunaga, etc). As I said in my comment to the writer, they had me at the tag “onmyoujutsu.” “The Middle Way” is from the perspective of a young woman who encounters Kaibutsu (the Incredible Hulk: a yin-yang magician who has trapped a demon in his own body) — a woman who knew him before the demon changed him, and can see the man behind the monster.

I reeeeeeeeeeeeeally hope the writer does more in that fandom. This taste is awesome, and I want more.

***

If anybody would like to play the traditional “guess what I wrote for Yuletide” game: I produced four full-length stories this year. All were in different genres; one was for a manga and three for movies. One of the four contains what I consider to be a dead giveaway that I wrote it, though admittedly it probably looks more subtle to people who aren’t me. Any guesses?

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A Year in Pictures – Fragments in the Forum

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Sometimes my favorite bits are not the big, coherent, famous ones, but the unimportant little details off to the side. I don’t know what this inscription in the Roman Forum belongs to, or what its significance might be; I don’t need to. The thing itself is enough.

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A Year in Pictures – Red Sails off Arainn

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I don’t know why this sloop has red sails, but it made for a different “ship on the water” photo than most of the others I’ve taken — and I do like me some “ship on the water” shots.

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A Year in Pictures – Tower Crossbowman

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Since the last time I visited the Tower of London, they’ve added a bunch of sculptures: mesh statues of the kinds of animals that used to be kept in the menagerie, and these steel-band figures of soldiers on the walls. This crossbowman is cranking his weapon on the wall walk along (I believe) the eastern side.

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A Year in Pictures – St. Mary of the Salt

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One last shot from the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I’m not positive that this is the Virgin Mary, but given how heavily Catholic the area is, that’s my bet. (It’s her or St. Kinga, in all likelihood; there’s a legend associating St. Kinga with the mine.) She is, of course, carved out of salt, and the lighting makes the most of the translucent quality.

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, and I hope the rest of you have a splendid day, too.

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A Year in Pictures – Lights at Edaville

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I am fudging ever so slightly: while I like this shot, I don’t consider it to be one of my absolute best. But it’s from a display of Christmas lights at Edaville in Massachusetts, and is the most fitting thing I could post for Christmas Eve.

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A Year in Pictures – Sage on the Bridge

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A final shot from the incredibly photogenic Fukushu-en in Naha. The little bridge over this stream had statues of sages on each of its posts, each one unique in design.

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A Year in Pictures – Pantheon Oculus

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Last night was the longest night of the year. This morning, I give you the oculus in the ceiling of the Pantheon, glowing like a miniature sun.

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A Year in Pictures – Salt Like Snow

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That isn’t snow on the ladder and tools; it’s an encrustation of salt crystals, built up over I don’t know how long — decades at least. This part of the Wieliczka Salt Mine looked like a winter wonderland.

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