Deborah J. Ross's Blog, page 100

Shariann Lewitt on "The Wind" In MASQUES OF DARKOVER

In the spirit of a masqued revel, here is a gala presentation of tales set in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s beloved world of the Bloody Sun. Some of these stories are humorous, others dark, some gritty, and others whimsical or romantic, but all reflect the richness and breadth of adventures to be found on Darkover.

Masques of Darkover will be released May 2, 2017 and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. The print edition will be on sale on the release date.
Shariann Lewitt has published seventeen books and over forty short stories, including “Wedding Embroidery” in Stars of Darkover and “Memory” in Gifts of Darkover. When not writing she teaches at MIT, studies flamenco dance, and is accounted reasonably accomplished at embroidery. Her expertise with birds arises in part from being the devoted servant of two parrots.

Deborah J. Ross: Tell us about your introduction to Darkover. What about the world drew you in?
Shariann Lewitt: I started reading Darkover when I was very young and it grabbed me in a special way, because it showed girls and women doing active, great stuff, not just sitting around being passive.  But unlike a lot of other more feminist stories of the era, the girls and women had to struggle to get to powerful positions and often had to make sacrifices (like Keepers having to remain virgin) in order to wield power.  I could relate to these women because this felt real, this felt like the world I lived in.  I hated having to read stories where the only people who got to do anything that meant anything were male, but on the other hand, I found the worlds where full gender equality was taken for granted was just a little too unbelievable.  A little too much like the magic.  I could relate to the struggles of the women and girls on Darkover and that drew me in.  It all felt so REAL.

DJR: Tell us about your story in Masques of Darkover.
SL: I've been *dying* to tell about this! This is my Bernie Sanders story!  Really! 
Now, my politics didn't change with the Sanders campaign.  Far from it.  I'm actually rather to the left of that, truth be told.  So why haven't I written about the peasants and workers, the poor, the rebels?  Why was I always writing about the nobility?  On Darkover, the answer is laran.  Since their genetics and telepathic abilities define the Comyn, if we want stories with magic, we're stuck with the 1%.
I just didn't want to write a 1% story.  Not now, not this year, not while I was actively campaigning for the first candidate running as a Socialist on a major party ticket!  So I thought and I went back to some of the older books and re-read a few of the Darkover books that had not counted as early major favorites, maybe books that were a bit earlier than the others.  In any event, I found a few minor loopholes.  While yes, genetic mixing with the chieri did bring laran to the Comyn, a number of Terrans had abilities awakened on Darkover.  They didn't have any mixed ancestry.  Along with that nice little nugget, other elements seemed to play roles of varying importance, including kiriseth exposure.  As for genetics themselves, well, some evidence appears that records were not always kept carefully and Comyn (and nedrestrodescendants) could well have come through a village and their abilities could have skipped several generations.  Or gone latent until the right mix of "nurture" elements helped turn on the gene sequence (because epigenetics are cool beyond belief.)
So with all of that, I decided to write about a kid on a farm, a "normal" person who doesn't have any of the privileges of caste.  In many ways this was far more challenging than the other Darkoer stories I've written because we don't generally tend to think of "ordinary" Darkovans.  Certainly it has given me a new perspective that may thread forward as I explore more fully.

DJR: Was writing this story different from a typical writing project? How did you balance writing in someone else’s world and being true to your own creative imagination?
SL: Darkover is so vast and there are so many different nooks and crannies that I feel it is closer to writing my own original work than writing my one Star Trek book was.  I don't have to use any characters that already exist (though some make walk-ons) and there is so much history that is only barely sketched out of alluded to.  Yes, it is different, but it also brings me back to the young girl who first fantasized in this world.  I think the stories I get to write set in Darkover are some of my most positive and in some ways most innocent.  I get to touch that joyful sense of wonder I had when I hid out under the covers reading of this alien place.

DJR: Is there another Darkover story you would particularly like to write?
SL: Every time I answer this question, and I say Yes!  I have at least one or two that really want to get written.  And every time, some other story (like this one) pushes them aside.

DJR: What have you written recently?
SL: I've mostly been writing short stories lately, or at least publishing short stories. I've been working on a few novels and heading more in the direction of historical fantasy. I'll let you know about those!  Right now, my newest long story is in To Shape The Dark, edited by Athena Andreadis.

R.I.P SFF.NET

Sff.net has gone the way of GEnie and other beloved communities. GEnie was my introduction to online gatherings. I met people, made friends (still going strong), brainstormed anthologies (and then sold stories to them), kept an eye on friends in need (and noticed when they disappeared and dispatched local friends to check on them), engaged in gossip I wish I hadn't, engaged in kindness I'm glad I did.

Dueling Modems and then sff.net picked up when GEnie couldn't survive the 2K transition. For me, neither had the same vitality, although folks did their best. Sff.net provided an email address and website, however. And we all had to find new hosts as The End neared. As much as I valued these communities, I've oozed on over to blogging, FB, Twitville, and the like.

Life moves on. Communities evolve. Friendships endure.

Short Book Reviews: Can't Get Enough of Lois McMaster Bujold

The short review: A new Bujold novella set in the world of The Curse of Chalion! (Everyone jumps up and down for joy and runs out to buy it!)

The longer review: Readers often give the novella short shrift as a literary form. It’s too long to read easily in one sitting and not long enough to make a satisfying novel-variety reading experience. It’s also hard to write. You need a single plot line that’s rich enough to sustain the length but doesn’t meander off into the subplots and so forth that give a novel its complexity.

All that is prelude to the deliciousness of a Bujold novella. To say she’s a master of her craft is an understatement, also that she has the ability to take what seems to be a simple enough proposition (in this case, tracking down a murder suspect) and imbuing it with emotional resonance. Her work rarely leaves me unmoved, and this one is no different. She manages to bring the reader into her world of five gods, shamans and sorcerers and spirit animals (as a dog lover, I adored what she did with more-dog and Great Beast dog) and ordinary folk without ever inflicting massive backstory or infodump. The richness of this world and its potential for powerful human stories never fails to amaze me. The alternative viewpoint characters (Penric, a sorcerer-divine who is host to demon Desdemona, who carries the memories of all her previous partners; Locator Oswyl, beset by his own rigid sense of honor and his limited abilities; and Inglis, a shaman now bereft of his powers, struggling to keep the ghost of his best friend from being eternally sundered from grace, at the cost of his own blood) provide both close-up emotional intimacy and a wider perspective of events. Did I say I loved the dogs. And the ghosts. And the demon. And the dogs.

Meg Mac Donald on "Upon This Rock" in MASQUES OF DARKOVER

In the spirit of a masqued revel, here is a gala presentation of tales set in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s beloved world of the Bloody Sun. Some of these stories are humorous, others dark, some gritty, and others whimsical or romantic, but all reflect the richness and breadth of adventures to be found on Darkover.

Masques of Darkover will be released May 2, 2017 and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. The print edition will be on sale on the release date.

After a number of years away from writing, Meg set pen to page again in 2011. Delightful chaos ensued. She shares her home in Michigan with her husband, children, a Norwegian Elkhound and a clowder of cats (yes, it actually is bigger on the inside). She would like to own horses again, sell a novel (how about a series? Any takers?) and has, sadly, never been to the Moon. Meg's sold stories to two previous Darkover anthologies (when she was very young but no less silly, she says).
Deborah J. Ross: Tell us about your introduction to Darkover. Meg Mac Donald:  I landed on Darkover as a nerdy teenager who had very little in common with other people aside from being (mostly) human.  I was introduced to the series by a new friend who, in turn, had swiped some books from her older brother.  The John Norman Gor series didn't excite us, but the Darkover books were intriguing.  I'm thinking The Bloody Sun, Planet Wreckers and Sword of Aldones (which was probably the book that grabbed us both).  My friend (still a friend these decades later) was totally geeked about them and the idea that the Darkovans did not use long range weapons.  SF with swords and "magic" that wasn't magic.  Psychic powers.  Laran.  Cool.  I don't think my friend's brother ever got his books back and suspect some of them are still in my possession.  Sorry about that.  :-[
DJR: What about the world drew you in? MMD: Two things come immediately to mind.  First, likeable, memorable characters that fascinated me (even if they were a bit tortured).  Lew Alton being at the top of the list.  And Regis Hastur.  Loved Regis.  I remember having such sympathy for him.  I also liked how the world-building unfolded across so many books (sprawling, anyone?), the backgrounds of characters and events, the connections between stories--albeit some of those require more than a bit of mental juggling as the stories were not written in order and clearly Marion's concept of who some of these folks really were and what the world/culture/events were all about changed over time.  I always forgave the contradictions.  Maybe I instinctively recognized that Darkover grew and changed just as the author's world did.  Looking back, it seems very organic.  I certainly relate to that as a writer.  Some of those early books are tough reads now, but what a complicated tapestry the author wove over time.  How rich and intricate.  Family sagas and culture clashes are fertile grounds for story-telling and I was the right age at the right time.

DJR: What do you see as the future of Darkover? How has its readership changed over the decades? What book would you recommend for someone new to Darkover? 
MMD:I sincerely hope that books are kept in print and made available for new generations of readers.  I also hope the anthologies continue.  I believe that would have pleased the author a great deal because sharing Darkover obviously gave her a lot of joy.  Might new novels about new (and old) characters continue to be published?  Why not?  So much to still explore... and perhaps to reexamine. 
I really don't know that there is what you would call a "typical" Darkoever fan. 

DJR: What inspired your story in Masques of Darkover?
MMD: If I remember correctly, I was unhappy with the negative portrayal of Christians and Christian clergy in a lot of fiction I was reading.  I wanted to take a different approach, look to the future (in this case, of the Catholic Church) but be faithful to doctrine and tradition.  As stories often do, this one reinvented itself as I wrote it, and the direction I originally intended to take isn't the one I ended up taking (a story for another day, I guess).  I have a thing for character-oriented stories and when Father Christopher Dolenz crashed on Darkover and met a group of cristoforos and some very special young students, I had a delicious "clash of cultures" on my hands.  I ran with it.  Then the Monster showed up.  Wait, what?  Love when that happens.  The version appearing in Masques was retooled from a story initially held for an earlier anthology.  Having the opportunity to trim and rewrite it and present it for consideration all these years later was a pleasure.

DJR: Was writing this story different from a typical writing project? How did you balance writing in someone else’s world and being true to your own creative imagination?  
MMD: First and foremost, a good story is a good story so that's always priority number one.  My approach to any writing project is to write as strong a story as I can.  Whether it is wholly original or in a shared-world, I want it to be as much a stand alone as possible so a newcomer to the world (or characters) would be able to enjoy it for what it is.  Darkover lends itself well to this in my opinion.  That elaborate tapestry I mentioned earlier.  It has enough iconic elements to weave into a story to give it a sense of place (and/or time) while still allowing the author the freedom to bring something new to the world and have it all resonate as "true."  The Darkover stories I've written have always featured original characters who one might imagine could exist somewhere on the planet.  How successful I've been is open to debate (heh), but I find Darkover to be very accessible.  I've never felt constrained by the setting.  

DJR: Is there another Darkover story you would particularly like to write? 
MMD: I've got this thing about a werewolf (or something) that won't go away and a story about healing and a harp and hope on the edge of the desert.   I have a lot of projects spinning, but I'll admit that coming back to wander beneath the bloody sun has rekindled a desire to write more.  I think so.  I hope so.

DJR: What have you written recently? What is your favorite of your published works and why?  What lies ahead for you?
MMD: The twists and turns of life took me away from writing fiction for a number of years.  Being a foster parent and adopting special needs children means being flexible with work and expectations--and sometimes finding humor in strange circumstances.   Many of my real life experiences now make their way into my writing--or inform me better about topics I approached when I was much younger (and more naive).  It is curious that my previous Darkover stories ("My Father's Son" and "Mists") were stories about traumatized children, something I understand far better now.  Though I was very young when I wrote them, I remain proud of them and have considered revisiting the characters.  I see the seeds of the writer I have become sown in those pages and will be forever grateful for the encouragement I received as a kid.

Now that my own children are older, I have been writing more, lending support to other writers, sending out new short fiction, and am polishing up the first of several fantasy novels that have waited a long time for me to drag out and gleefully rip to shreds, er, transform.  It is a curious thing to return to a work that one was pleased with in younger days and be rather relieved that it wasn't published.  haha  I have to admit I am much happier with the rewrite.  Much.  Happier.  Having the years march by does make one impatient to get one's work "out there," though.  I am undecided if I will seek representation (and wait another million years) or hop aboard the Indie train.  Choo!  Choo!  All Aboard!  I'll find a way (and, God willing, an audience), by hook or by crook.  I can't point to much that is recent and readily available, but Doctor Who fans can find my short story, "Many a Weary Foot," in The Temporal Logbook, a charity anthology published by Pencil Tip Publishing.  If I ever get around to actually setting up my Wordpress page, I'll put some short fiction there.  I have a Facebook page, too, but... yeah, I'm rubbish with self promotion.  haha  I'm not sure where I'll go, but you're welcome to Follow me on Twitter @kyrrimar.

DJR: Anything else you’d like our readers to know about you, Darkover, or life in general?
MMD: There is hope in every tear.  Never give up on your dreams. Always look up.  #noblebright.  Deep peace, dear hearts.  God's not finished with you yet. 

Short Fantasy Book Reviews: Near Misses, But No Banana

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco.
I really wanted to like this YA described by the publisher as “Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Name of the Wind.” It opened with great promise, and it has many things going for it. I loved the idea of an evolving relationship between the heroine, Tea, and her brother, Fox, after she inadvertently brings him back from the dead. The author gets kudos for a non-Western setting. There are lots of details about the city, the school, the monstrous and occasionally draconic daeva, and so forth. I loved the idea of heartsglass that changes color and reveals much of who you are, although I was perpetually confused about how it worked (also the geisha “asha” and why sometimes a bone witch – necromancer is one and sometimes not). There are a number of wonderful characters like Mistress Parmina (a most un-Japanese name) and Likh, who longs do dance but who is male and so is destined to become cannon fodder for the Deathseekers) and a sense of history and tradition. Unfortunately, the development of intriguing ideas fell short. The relationship with the brother happened slowly, almost as an afterthought or something pinned on. At first I thought how cool it was to have a Japanese Hogwarts, but the culture did not ring true. Attitudes and speech patterns felt Western, and the seemingly random inclusion of elements (like cuisine) from other areas of the world created a slap-dash patchwork instead of a seamless whole. The major problem though, was that there was no clear goal or threat that built to a climax. The result was a story that felt flat and episodic. The hazing from other students had as much emotional weight as the threat of the Faceless (a generic, all-purpose enemy who seem to be evil for its own sake). The utter absence of sex, even sexual feelings, was a jarring omission. These young women are being trained as hostesses and entertainers; it is impossible that the issue of intimate favors for their patrons never comes up. Even if the younger ones are protected from forming liaisons, surely the questions must come up for the more mature asha. It’s ridiculous to thing that a YA novel must exclude all references to sex when it is so important to teens in real life. Discerning older readers may well give this one a pass.

Toward a Secret Sky by Heather Maclean  is a YA novel of the “Twilight with Angels and Demons”
sort. Our teen orphan heroine finds herself shipped off to grandparents in Scotland where she explores scenery, makes friends, and encounters the devastatingly gorgeous angel assigned the guard her. Even though she is told in no uncertain terms of the dire consequences of human-angel love affairs, she plunges into one obsessive daydream after another, refuses to heed his warnings to leave him alone, and in general behaves like an infatuated adolescent incapable of making rational decisions. To be sure, she has personality and strengths, not the least of which are keen mental abilities and a generous heart, and the story moves along nicely, with enough twists to keep the reader engaged. Logic bobbles (like why would a handsome, rich incubus need a date-rape drug when looks and money alone would get him as much sex as he wants?) flawed an otherwise enjoyable flow of prose, and the “the war [with demons] is just beginning” epilog felt tacked-on. These shortcomings may pale in comparison to the overall enjoyability of the story, particularly for a young adult reader but a more critical reader may find them annoying.

Adara Quick's The Dream Protocol: Descent offers intriguing twists on the usual dystopic YA novel. I
particularly liked the use of dreams as work incentives, and nightmares as punishment, plus the addictive nature of dreams when people cannot sleep normally. However, the work is marred by heavy-handed exposition, telling repeatedly instead of showing, the lack of world-building beyond the dream economy (how is food produced?), and simplistic characters. I do not believe this novel would have been publishable by any major house, as it certainly has not been professionally edited. I hope that with more attention to craft, the writer will become better able to to justice to her ideas.

Movie Review: Hidden Figures

My older daughter  and I went to see HIDDEN FIGURES. We could have waited and seen it on Netflix (or whatever) but wanted to contribute to its financial success, albeit belatedly.


Be still, my geeky heart. I wish I could go back and re-take every science and math course I've ever had (well, college and beyond, let's not wax eloquent over high school algebra) from a perspective of loving science and tech-stuff and understanding what it's FOR. Understanding the universe and our planet and ourselves. Building incredibly nifty things like Hubble Space Telescope and the laptop I'm typing on and the Prius I drive. Fine-tuning my mind, pushing myself to not only comprehend but creatively and fearlessly master whatever I set myself to. Anyway, the movie...

We fell in love with the film within the first minute. Maybe the first 30 seconds after the opening credits. Even though it's been some time since it opened, there was a good-sized, highly responsive audience. We all laughed and cheered (and teared up) together. Afterward (in the ladies' loo, of course) a bunch of us chatted about it -- one was a young woman about to enter college. We were all jumping up and down, cheering science, and somberly reflecting on racism then and now.
Definitely my cup of tea. Definitely worth seeking it out in a theater. As we headed for the parking lot, an elderly lady with a walker asked if we'd just seen it and told us she'd see it twice. "Is a third time too much?" she inquired. "NO!" we chorused.

Jane Bigelow on "Duvin’s Grand Tour" in MASQUES OF DARKOVER

In the spirit of a masqued revel, here is a gala presentation of tales set in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s beloved world of the Bloody Sun. Some of these stories are humorous, others dark, some gritty, and others whimsical or romantic, but all reflect the richness and breadth of adventures to be found on Darkover.


Masques of Darkover will be released May 2, 2017 and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. The print edition will be on sale on the release date.

Jane M. H. Bigelow had her first professional publication in Free Amazons of Darkover. Since then, she has published a fantasy novel, Talisman, as well as short stories and short nonfiction on such topics as gardening in Ancient Egypt. Her short story, "The Golden Ruse" appeared in Luxor: Gods, Grit and Glory. She is currently on a mystery set in 17th century France. Jane is a retired reference librarian, a job which encouraged her to go on being curious about everything and exposed her to a rich variety of people. She lives in Denver, CO with her husband and two spoiled cats.

Deborah J. Ross: Tell us about your story in Masques of Darkover.
Jane M. H. Bigelow: “Duvin’s Grand Tour” began with a mental video clip of a well-meaning but clueless young male visitor to Darkover walking through Thendara. He stops where he is when he sees a beautiful young woman walking gracefully through the crowds. Our visitor has been warned to be circumspect in what he says to or about women, and he’s heard the rumors that Darkovan nobility can read thoughts, so he tries really hard not to think anything offensive. He wouldn’t want to offend, anyway; he’s a nice fellow. Womanly, that’s the word he wants to describe her, womanly. She giggles.

Who is this man? What’s he doing on Darkover? And how did a P.G. Wodehouse character get so far from home? Who’s the woman? Why is she amused rather than offended?

I did give Duvin one advantage over the usual Wodehouse protagonist. Although he thinks of himself as not clever, he has a gift for languages.  I wanted him to be able to communicate with people independently, even though it soon became clear to me that he had not come to Darkover as a Terran official, and I didn’t want to use the “visitor discovers unsuspected telepathic abilities” trope for a humorous story.

This is the first story I’ve done where humor was the main focus.  All those people who warned that writing funny is seriously hard were right, but it’s also a great deal of fun. Thank you, Deborah, for encouraging me to write it.

DJR: How do you balance writing in some else’s world and being true to your own creative imagination?”

JMHB: For me, writing Darkover stories is like writing historical fiction or alternate history. There’s a framework of accepted fact, but it certainly doesn’t cover everything. It gives the writer a starting point; the stories branch out from there. For example, I recently had a story published in Luxor: Gods, Grit and Glory, an anthology of Ancient Egyptian historical fiction. Several authors chose similar time periods, but they certainly didn’t do the same story. Darkovan history is also long, and varied. There’s plenty of room for writers to wander.

Short Book Reviews: Thoughtful, Inspiring YA/MG For Everyone

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier.

Dimple Lala is an American Indian (as in East Indian, not Native American) caught between the traditional world of her parents and the life of a normal American teenager. Her best friend, willowy blonde ultra-cool Gwyn, thinks Indian culture is exotic and cool. Dimple’s one passion is her photography, and the world as she sees it through her camera lens is described in luminescent detail. Only here can she be herself, instead of awkward and alienated. At school, she can never compete with Gwyn; at home, wishes her meddling parents would stay out of her hair. When they arrange an introduction to a “suitable boy” (suitable for an arranged marriage, that is), Dimple goes on a blind date that Gwyn had set up, with predictably disastrous consequences. As the story unfolds, spilling out into the Indian music club scene, Dimple comes into her own, fusing the best of both worlds. An array of vivid secondary character and gorgeous sensory detail mark this as a book to be savored and shared.

We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt.

This book is deceptively simple in tone yet rich in nuance and courageous in its approach to complex, painful issues. This book chronicles the parallel journeys of two teenaged sisters, using an interesting twist on the usual YA first-person narrative in that one sister is addressing the other: their relationship forms the core of the story as they grow from intertwined to antagonistic to individuated. The story opens with the narrator and younger sister, Nell, beginning high school and discovering that the previously close relationship with adored, perfect Layla has now developed fracture lines. While Nell develops an unrequited crush on a glamorous older boy, Layla begins acting mysteriously. She, too, has a secret – one that Nell discovers and that has the power to tear them and their whole family apart. Highly recommended for both adult and teen readers for its clear and excellent handling of relationships and sexuality.


The Cartographer's Daughter, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

This lovely middle grade story offers a wonderful twist to the usual fantasy tale featuring adolescent heroes. The protagonist’s strength is not magic or physical prowess but her understanding of how our knowledge of the landscape gives us power. The techniques of map-making are woven into the story in beautiful, evocative ways. The plot itself involves a group of friends, a journey to forbidden lands, monsters and creatures, villains and allies. Much has a familiar feel, but the use of cartography makes this book stand out. It would make a great book for a family to read together and discuss the principles of geography and their relationship to the plot.




Dystopic settings continue to be popular for teen and younger readers. I’m not usually a fan of grim, hopeless worlds, but these two books gave me a modicum of insight into why they appeal. In a society in which the normal pattern of childhood and adolescent/apprenticeship years has become distorted for whatever reason, young characters acquire agency (autonomy, responsibility, freedom to make choices and changes) they might not otherwise have.

Raising Sleeping Stones (The Orora Crona Chronicles, Book 1) by P.H.T. Bennet  begins with nicely-executed world-building and an appealing central character (and her annoying younger sister). With deft strokes that never overwhelm the action, Bennet creates a world dominated by Guilds, in which every effort is directed toward building the city further and further westward. Every “Move Up Day,” families pack up and move into new housing, their address determined by their contributions to the work. Children focus on narrowly work-related skills, aiming at admission to prestigious Guilds. Creativity and accuracy are sacrificed for speed. The culture hurtles to an unsustainable future as ever more pressure comes to bear on its fragile and fracturing human inhabitants. Of course, secrets lie buried in the direction of the abandoned husks, as our two children discover.

The skill of the world building and the dramatic twists kept me reading for quite some time. Another strength were the charming illustrations and sheer imagination. In the end, though, I found the story bogged down in long descriptions, characters telling one another what they already knew, adults talking like teens, and other aspects that might not be experienced as flaws for the intended audience. I suspect that younger readers will eat it up, however, and this book and its sequels will be excellent for reading and discussing together as a family.

Housekeeping

Housekeeping
Three months later
I'm still vacuuming up dog fur,
Each clump a ghost of her.

Maybe this one hair
Came from the previous Shepherd,
Loyal, fierce, and strong,
Or this bit of fluff
My old tortoiseshell cat.
Gone four days later,
Content to pass on at 20 years of age
In the sure knowledge
She'd finally outlasted the damned dog.

Marella Sands on "Bone of My Bone" in MASQUES OF DARKOVER

In the spirit of a masqued revel, here is a gala presentation of tales set in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s beloved world of the Bloody Sun. Some of these stories are humorous, others dark, some gritty, and others whimsical or romantic, but all reflect the richness and breadth of adventures to be found on Darkover.



Masques of Darkover will be released May 2, 2017 and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. The print edition will be on sale on the release date.


Marella Sands was born in a greenhouse surrounded by smug hothouse roses, but they made her sneeze so much, she left the greenhouse for different pastures and now lives in a fairy hut by the shores of a beautiful blue lake where she is sung to sleep every night by the song of the tree frogs. Or, at least that's what it says in her bio. Her latest works are a series of novellas about a bartender who must cope with the discovery of a supernatural world just beyond our own that wants her for its own purposes. Through a Keyhole, Darkly, the first of the Tales of the Angels' Share series, was published in September 2016.
Deborah J. Ross: Tell us about your introduction to Darkover. (Funny stories welcome.) 
Marella Sands: I don't have a funny story, sadly. I believe my introduction to Darkover was a second-hand copy of Hawkmistress, which I still have. 

DJR: What about the world drew you in?

MS: I think, at first, it was the adventure aspect (especially with Hawkmistress). I always wanted to see another book about Romilly, after she'd gotten Tower training and had married and was the king's hawkmistress. What other adventures awaited her? What happened when she went back home? As inspiring as she was as a teen character, how much more so would she had been as an adult? 

DJR: What inspired your story in Masques of Darkover? 
MS: I've never been as interested in the stories of the Free Amazons or the conflicts between the Darkovans and the Terrans as others are, it seems. But the Ages of Chaos and the biology of Darkover fascinate me. So far, my anthology stories have always been of pre-Compact days, when there were breeding programs and bonedust and clingfire and people learning about matrix stones, etc. For Masques, I decided to feature the Trailmen. I still want to write something about the Lake of Hali and the earliest Towers.


DJR: How did you balance writing in someone else's world and being true to your own creative imagination?

MS: I suppose the way I look at it is that even "my own creative imagination" has its guideilnes and rules. When you're writing, sometimes those guidelines are your own, and sometimes they're not. Sometimes writing to someone else's guidelines can be easier. It just depends on the story and the particular guidelines you're given. 


DJR: What have you written recently? What is your favorite of your published works and why?

MS: Right now, I'd say my favorite is Restless Bones, the anthology of horror stories I put out in 2015. Some of the stories I like a lot, but a few I really love. Although a couple of the stories had already been written, most of the writing happened in about a three month period where I kept thinking to myself, "I want a story featuring THIS" or "I want to write about THAT." The ideas just kept tripping over themselves; I could hardly write fast enough. It was a lot of fun to do and a good way to stretch myself in ways I hadn't before.


DJR: What lies ahead for you?

MS: I'm again trying something new: a series of novellas featuring the same main character. Teryl Gray is a bartender who discovers there's an ancient world of magic and betrayal and horror bubbling up through the cracks in the world she knows, and that, once she discovers this world, it won't let her go. I'm enjoying exploring this setting in 30K word chunks. I want each novella to have its own story arc, to feature something special about the location (usually St. Louis, Missouri, but I have plans to send the character elsewhere later), to spotlight at least one thing about whiskey or some other hard liquor (she's a bartender, after all), and to pull back the curtain just a little more on this other world and the main character's place in it. The series is called "Tales from the Angels' Share," the Angels' Share being the bar where the character works. The first novella was Through a Keyhole, Darkly,  and was published in September 2016. 


DJR: Anything else you'd like our readers to know about you, Darkover, or life in general?

MS: So I'm probably the last person on Earth to realize that somebody on the ship that crashed into Darkover must have had a copy of the anthology The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, which was originally published in 1895. I bought a copy and have been enjoying consuming the stories slowly. They are not only creepy and fascinating, but they feature sentences like "We spoke of Hastur and of Cassilda, while outside the fog rolled against the blank window-panes as the cloud waves roll and break on the shores of Hali." If you haven't read the book already, I would definitely recommend it. The stories are more horror than adventure, but they are definitely stories that will stick with you.