Michelle Franklin's Blog, page 14

A Woman's Place is in the Resistance: the #WomensMarch

Sethshire Cottage, 
First Month, Twenty-First Day 
1011 Clans United

To the citizenry of the Third Continent,

While my Lord and Master, Our Good King Alasdair, has already made his feelings about hope for the future known to you, I was asked to offer something by way of a statement. Carrigh of course prepared something, but considering my particular situation, having been part of a resistance myself on more than one occasion, and have defeated all those who threatened to expunge our r...

Story for the Day: Doing Science -- Part 2

Peppone is a great mystery of human composition. He is double-jointed, slightly imp-like in appearance, and can compress himself into very small spaces with almost no effort. According to Bartleby, he is semi-mycological, and considering his cell make up and fungal prowess, Bartleby might actually be right. 

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

Story for the Day: Doing Science

Science is the greatest export from Marridon. Whilst many other nations on the continents have their strengths and weaknesses, Marridon has all the joys and horrors of scientific discovery to call their own. When the Adiethians left Adieth and abandoned their worship of Myrellenos, they replaced religion with science and did rather well for themselves. Allied nations like Frewyn embraced natural sciences without relinquishing their Gods, but countries like Bellatrim would never dare accept th...

A New Year, and New Books!

The beast of 2016 has at last been defeated, and though it was a vomitous year for many reasons, we did manage to provide readers with three published books, patrons with twelve novellas, and fifty free stories for all readers. Don't even ask me about the year's word count. I really could not tell you. I have been so busy with edits and re-writes that I lost my word count somewhere in October and have no inclination to recover it.
Now that the Ship's Crew is out in all formats (see HERE), what...

New book: The Ship's Crew now available #amwriting

There are so many terrible things happening in the world. One of the reasons why I write good-humoured stories is to remedy all the evil and misery that abounds, and while I cannot do much about political despondence or grief over the death of a loved one, I can for a short time take readers somewhere else, that somewhere where old librarians hit men with books, where giants dance holes through decks, and where exquisite captains have sword fights in tea houses.

The Ship's Crew, part three in...

The Haanta Series venerates Carrie Fisher #RIPCarrieFisher #RIPPrincessLeia

I have been trying and failing miserably for the last few hours to get something together by way of a eulogy. This year has been a rage of misery for many reasons, and I had been used to think that if anyone would survive this carriage wreck of a year, it would be the Eternally Intrepid.

I have never been more sorry to be wrong.

We have all seen her films and read her books, and we have all delighted in her distinctive character and exquisite wit, and while she meant many things to millions o...

Maith Ailineighdaeth! A #holiday story: The Tea Ceremony

Tis the season, and what better way to celebrate the holidays than with a story about tea. Happy Ailneighdaeth to all!

The spread was better than the party had expected: the teacakes were beautifully arranged, the biscuits were whole and tolerably fresh, and the tea, though overboiled, was well made, with the milk and sugar added in proper style and in the proper order. Upon the whole, it was a pleasant set, a pale imitation of Marridon’s grand ceremonies, but a worthy effort: the sandwich...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

Story for the Day: Waking Bartleby

The release of The Ship's Crew, the third novella in the Marridon series, is upon us. The book will be available in ebook format just in time for the holidays. And now, an excerpt involving certain librarian and a butter biscuit:
 

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

#Birthday Story: The Herald's Holiday - Part 2

Poor Harold. And he thought a visit to Lucentia was going to be a simple and peaceful journey.

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

#Birthday story: The Herald's Holiday

Birthdays, like ages, are fickle things, and the more we have of one the less inclined we are to acknowledge the other. Twisk and I, as fate would have it, have nearly the same birthday, and each of us cares more for the other's birthday than we do our own. I always end up writing her a new story for her special day, and I usually finish it on mine, but this story might take somewhat longer to be told. Harold the Herald finally gets a vacation away from the keep. He might not be gone for very...