Martha Wells's Blog, page 116
May 14, 2014
Links and Books
I am way behind on links:
Jennifer Crusie: The End of History Problem in Planning a Writing Career
I think for a lot of people, that’s just an amusing tic, something you look back on and think, "How could I have been so wrong?" laugh, and move on. But if your career is tangled up in who you are, the End of History Illusion can be a huge problem. Take writers, for example.
Storytelling Rules: Is This Burn Out? Or taking care of what I have...
The world I loved, that I had created in the last ten years, during pregnancy and nap times, stolen weekends away, stolen hours locked in my bedroom while my husband took the kids and the dog away somewhere, and for the last few blissful years during the hours between when my husband took the kids to school and I walked over and picked them up – felt poisoned.
NPR: The Congresswoman Whose Husband Called Her Home
Voted in on her own merits, not appointed to keep a late husband's seat warm for a successor, the trailblazing mother could only watch as vengeful party rivals, a manufactured scandal, and a feckless, alcoholic husband combined to sabotage her career.
Kickstarter: Speculate!
Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans has been running for over 3 years and 100 episodes. We'd love to continue to deliver the high-quality podcasts that you (and we!) expect. So we're reaching out to you, our long-time listeners, our occasional listeners, and listeners who have yet to join the Speculate! crew.
And I was interviewed on it last year here.
Cracked: 5 Details They Cut from My Season of 'The Biggest Loser'
I knew The Biggest Loser was a terrible thing, but I didn't know how terrible. (If someone threw up during a workout or a class at the gym I go to, they would call the paramedics and everyone would flip out.)
Craig Laurance Gidney: Writing Advice: The Agony and Ecstasy of Diverse Fiction
First, some background. Much (though not all) of my fiction is centered my own identities as a gay African-American. Even though I am marginalized, I, like everyone, have blinders on and am guilty of being solipsistic.
Books
* Greywalker #1 by Kat Richardson Very cool book trailer.
* Sun-Kissed by Laura Florand
* Glaze by Kim Curran
* The Unladylike Education of Agatha Tremain by Stephanie Burgis Free fantasy YA short story.
* The A-word by Joy Preble sequel to The Sweet Dead Life
* Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History
his all-original anthology, edited by author Older (Salsa Nocturna) and PW reviews editor Fox, expands the focus of Anglophone speculative fiction beyond protagonists who are white, straight, cisgender, and male. It's also available in ebook though that's not showing up on the listing for some reason.
* The first few pages of Pure Magic by Rachel Neumeier
* Tor.com Reddit Fantasy Lists Under-Rated and Under-Read Fantasy
Jennifer Crusie: The End of History Problem in Planning a Writing Career
I think for a lot of people, that’s just an amusing tic, something you look back on and think, "How could I have been so wrong?" laugh, and move on. But if your career is tangled up in who you are, the End of History Illusion can be a huge problem. Take writers, for example.
Storytelling Rules: Is This Burn Out? Or taking care of what I have...
The world I loved, that I had created in the last ten years, during pregnancy and nap times, stolen weekends away, stolen hours locked in my bedroom while my husband took the kids and the dog away somewhere, and for the last few blissful years during the hours between when my husband took the kids to school and I walked over and picked them up – felt poisoned.
NPR: The Congresswoman Whose Husband Called Her Home
Voted in on her own merits, not appointed to keep a late husband's seat warm for a successor, the trailblazing mother could only watch as vengeful party rivals, a manufactured scandal, and a feckless, alcoholic husband combined to sabotage her career.
Kickstarter: Speculate!
Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans has been running for over 3 years and 100 episodes. We'd love to continue to deliver the high-quality podcasts that you (and we!) expect. So we're reaching out to you, our long-time listeners, our occasional listeners, and listeners who have yet to join the Speculate! crew.
And I was interviewed on it last year here.
Cracked: 5 Details They Cut from My Season of 'The Biggest Loser'
I knew The Biggest Loser was a terrible thing, but I didn't know how terrible. (If someone threw up during a workout or a class at the gym I go to, they would call the paramedics and everyone would flip out.)
Craig Laurance Gidney: Writing Advice: The Agony and Ecstasy of Diverse Fiction
First, some background. Much (though not all) of my fiction is centered my own identities as a gay African-American. Even though I am marginalized, I, like everyone, have blinders on and am guilty of being solipsistic.
Books
* Greywalker #1 by Kat Richardson Very cool book trailer.
* Sun-Kissed by Laura Florand
* Glaze by Kim Curran
* The Unladylike Education of Agatha Tremain by Stephanie Burgis Free fantasy YA short story.
* The A-word by Joy Preble sequel to The Sweet Dead Life
* Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History
his all-original anthology, edited by author Older (Salsa Nocturna) and PW reviews editor Fox, expands the focus of Anglophone speculative fiction beyond protagonists who are white, straight, cisgender, and male. It's also available in ebook though that's not showing up on the listing for some reason.
* The first few pages of Pure Magic by Rachel Neumeier
* Tor.com Reddit Fantasy Lists Under-Rated and Under-Read Fantasy
May 13, 2014
Pond Progress
I've been trying to move my pond from the back corner of the yard up closer to the back porch, and enlarge it since it's too small for the water lily. I actually made some progress yesterday.
This is the new pond excavation. The concrete blocks are actually going to stabilize the walls once it's deep enough. The ground has been really hard, so I decided to wait until after the rain last night to try to continue. Right now it's full of rain water, so once that soaks in I should be able to finish digging.
This is the water lily that will be moving. All that rock is going to be moving too, so, that will be interesting. (I'm the one who moved it all there in the first place, but that was several years ago.)
This is our food plant garden, not doing so well this year. Theoretically, it has tomatoes, squash, spinach, an eggplant, strawberries, and some mint.
(You may be able to see the pictures better on tumblr.)
This is the new pond excavation. The concrete blocks are actually going to stabilize the walls once it's deep enough. The ground has been really hard, so I decided to wait until after the rain last night to try to continue. Right now it's full of rain water, so once that soaks in I should be able to finish digging.
This is the water lily that will be moving. All that rock is going to be moving too, so, that will be interesting. (I'm the one who moved it all there in the first place, but that was several years ago.)
This is our food plant garden, not doing so well this year. Theoretically, it has tomatoes, squash, spinach, an eggplant, strawberries, and some mint.
(You may be able to see the pictures better on tumblr.)
May 9, 2014
Everything I know About Raksura Novellas So Far
I've finished the last of the four Raksura novellas. Still no title, though. The first three are: "The Falling World," "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud," and "The Dead City."
Below are the preorder links for the paperback edition of the first two Raksura novellas: "The Falling World" (about 40,000 words) and "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" (about 25,000 words) It will be shipped on September 2 of this year. The paperback will have two extra short stories, "The Forest Boy" and "Adaptation" from my web site.
I don't know about the ebook yet. They were going to put the novellas out individually as ebooks, but now it looks like they'll do an ebook version of the collection. I'll post again when I know for certain.
I also don't know if I'll have the chance to do any actual Raksura novels again, or any novels set in the Three Worlds with different characters. That depends on a lot of factors I don't know about yet, including how well the novellas do, etc. I'd like to, basically, so I hope so.
Preorder links: Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Chapters Indigo, Barnes and Noble, Mysterious Galaxy, Book Depository, Book Depository UK, Amazon UK, Amazon.de, Amazon Spain.
Here's the descriptions for the first two novellas:
In "The Falling World," Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, has traveled with Chime and Balm to another Raksuran court. When she fails to return, her consort Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult. (40,000 words)
"The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon was born. In the distant past, Indigo stole Cloud from Emerald Twilight. But in doing so, the reigning Queen Cerise and Indigo are now poised for a conflict that could spark war throughout all the courts of the Reaches. (25,000 words)
The second volume will the coming out in the Spring of 2015 (hopefully, if all goes well with the first one). It'll have "The Dead City" (25,000 words), about Moon before he met Stone, not long after Saraseil, and "Untitled As Yet," (42,000 words) about mysterious occurrences at the court and Moon and Jade having a clutch.
Upcoming Con Appearances
May 23-26, 2014. Comicpalooza, in Houston, Texas.
July 3-6, 2014. Convergence 2014 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
July 25-27, 2014. ArmadilloCon 36 in Austin, Texas. I'll also be one of the teachers at the writing workshop.
Below are the preorder links for the paperback edition of the first two Raksura novellas: "The Falling World" (about 40,000 words) and "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" (about 25,000 words) It will be shipped on September 2 of this year. The paperback will have two extra short stories, "The Forest Boy" and "Adaptation" from my web site.
I don't know about the ebook yet. They were going to put the novellas out individually as ebooks, but now it looks like they'll do an ebook version of the collection. I'll post again when I know for certain.
I also don't know if I'll have the chance to do any actual Raksura novels again, or any novels set in the Three Worlds with different characters. That depends on a lot of factors I don't know about yet, including how well the novellas do, etc. I'd like to, basically, so I hope so.
Preorder links: Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Chapters Indigo, Barnes and Noble, Mysterious Galaxy, Book Depository, Book Depository UK, Amazon UK, Amazon.de, Amazon Spain.
Here's the descriptions for the first two novellas:
In "The Falling World," Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court, has traveled with Chime and Balm to another Raksuran court. When she fails to return, her consort Moon, along with Stone and a party of warriors and hunters, must track them down. Finding them turns out to be the easy part; freeing them from an ancient trap hidden in the depths of the Reaches is much more difficult. (40,000 words)
"The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" explores the history of the Indigo Cloud Court, long before Moon was born. In the distant past, Indigo stole Cloud from Emerald Twilight. But in doing so, the reigning Queen Cerise and Indigo are now poised for a conflict that could spark war throughout all the courts of the Reaches. (25,000 words)
The second volume will the coming out in the Spring of 2015 (hopefully, if all goes well with the first one). It'll have "The Dead City" (25,000 words), about Moon before he met Stone, not long after Saraseil, and "Untitled As Yet," (42,000 words) about mysterious occurrences at the court and Moon and Jade having a clutch.
Upcoming Con Appearances
May 23-26, 2014. Comicpalooza, in Houston, Texas.
July 3-6, 2014. Convergence 2014 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
July 25-27, 2014. ArmadilloCon 36 in Austin, Texas. I'll also be one of the teachers at the writing workshop.
May 7, 2014
I am nearly, nearly almost done with the last Raksura nov...
I am nearly, nearly almost done with the last Raksura novella. Like, on the last paragraph. This was one of the longer novellas, around 40,000 words, and it was a bear to write. One of those where I kept writing a scene, going back and doing it over again, then again, and maybe again, and changing my mind about how the mystery was going to resolve which of course means going back to the beginning and rewriting all the related scenes. Writing as a job is emotionally scarifying but sometimes it's also just plain hard. And I still haven't thought of a good title.
The moving-the-water-lily project is not going well either, in that the water lily is still where it started out. I've been having a lot of anxiety issues lately, which makes being productive kind of rough.
The audiobook of The Siren Depths is included in this sale, for $6.95. But the sale is apparently for members of Audible.com only.
More new books out:
* A Wizard's Promise by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Hanna has spent her life hearing about the adventures of her namesake Ananna, the lady pirate, and assassin Naji. She dreams of the same adventures, but little does she know she is about to tumble into one of her own. Hanna is apprenticed to a taciturn fisherman called Kolur, and, during a day of storms and darkness, are swept wildly off course.
* Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick
It's been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and found himself unexpectedly elevated into the ranks of the criminal elite. As the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he’s not only gained friends, but also rivals—and some of them aren’t bothered by his newfound title. A prince's blood, as the saying goes, flows just as red as a beggar's.
* Slightly Spellbound by Kimberly Frost
Tammy Jo's romance with the wizard Bryn Lyons is on hold while her ex-husband is in town trying to remind her of the good old days. Choosing between them isn't easy, and it doesn’t help that a skeletal creature is spying on her, a faery knight is hunting her, and she just made friends with Evangeline Rhodes--a rich witch who thinks her own family is trying to kill her.
* And Drawn Blades by Kelly McCullough is up for preorder.
Once one of the world’s greatest assassins, Aral Kingslayer has finally reclaimed his swords and his soul. But the forces that destroyed his patron Namara twelve years ago are still there, waiting, and his past as a Blade is never more than a shadow’s breadth away.
The moving-the-water-lily project is not going well either, in that the water lily is still where it started out. I've been having a lot of anxiety issues lately, which makes being productive kind of rough.
The audiobook of The Siren Depths is included in this sale, for $6.95. But the sale is apparently for members of Audible.com only.
More new books out:
* A Wizard's Promise by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Hanna has spent her life hearing about the adventures of her namesake Ananna, the lady pirate, and assassin Naji. She dreams of the same adventures, but little does she know she is about to tumble into one of her own. Hanna is apprenticed to a taciturn fisherman called Kolur, and, during a day of storms and darkness, are swept wildly off course.
* Sworn in Steel by Douglas Hulick
It's been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and found himself unexpectedly elevated into the ranks of the criminal elite. As the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he’s not only gained friends, but also rivals—and some of them aren’t bothered by his newfound title. A prince's blood, as the saying goes, flows just as red as a beggar's.
* Slightly Spellbound by Kimberly Frost
Tammy Jo's romance with the wizard Bryn Lyons is on hold while her ex-husband is in town trying to remind her of the good old days. Choosing between them isn't easy, and it doesn’t help that a skeletal creature is spying on her, a faery knight is hunting her, and she just made friends with Evangeline Rhodes--a rich witch who thinks her own family is trying to kill her.
* And Drawn Blades by Kelly McCullough is up for preorder.
Once one of the world’s greatest assassins, Aral Kingslayer has finally reclaimed his swords and his soul. But the forces that destroyed his patron Namara twelve years ago are still there, waiting, and his past as a Blade is never more than a shadow’s breadth away.
May 5, 2014
book rec:* The ebook of fantasy novel Living in Threes by...
book rec:
* The ebook of fantasy novel Living in Threes by Judith Tarr is on sale for .99 cents. Check out the lovely cover.
links
* Caitri: Some Disjointed Thoughts on Shame, Gender, and Cultural Capital
* Black Gate: The Fascination of Dragons by Foz Meadows
* SF Signal: Interview: Author Beth Bernobich Talks About Time Travel and the Spark That Led To Writing
* Fantasy Book Cafe:
Women in SF&F Month 2014: Final Post
* Buzzfeed:
How Censors Killed The Weird, Experimental, Progressive Golden Age Of Comics by Saladin Ahmed
In the 1940s, comic books were often feminist, diverse, and bold. Then the reactionary Comics Code Authority changed the trajectory of comic book culture for good.
* Read Gabourey Sidibe’s Wonderful Speech From the Ms. Foundation Gala
* The ebook of fantasy novel Living in Threes by Judith Tarr is on sale for .99 cents. Check out the lovely cover.
links
* Caitri: Some Disjointed Thoughts on Shame, Gender, and Cultural Capital
* Black Gate: The Fascination of Dragons by Foz Meadows
* SF Signal: Interview: Author Beth Bernobich Talks About Time Travel and the Spark That Led To Writing
* Fantasy Book Cafe:
Women in SF&F Month 2014: Final Post
* Buzzfeed:
How Censors Killed The Weird, Experimental, Progressive Golden Age Of Comics by Saladin Ahmed
In the 1940s, comic books were often feminist, diverse, and bold. Then the reactionary Comics Code Authority changed the trajectory of comic book culture for good.
* Read Gabourey Sidibe’s Wonderful Speech From the Ms. Foundation Gala
May 1, 2014
More eBooks:* Lady of Horses by Judith TarrSparrow is a s...
More eBooks:
* Lady of Horses by Judith Tarr
Sparrow is a shaman’s daughter in a tribe that forbids women to be kings, to be shamans, to be anything but silent and tractable servants to the all-powerful men. They may not ever ride the horses that are the life and soul of the tribe, or even approach them, for fear of angering the gods.
But Sparrow knows another story, a story of the woman who first rode a horse, and her brother who took both the horse and the glory away from her. Sparrow sees visions and dreams dreams–and her brother the shaman takes them from her and presents them as his own.
* 1919: After the War by Margeaux Otis
Nurse Rosalind Fuller doesn't want to speak about her experiences in the Great War. She's repressing those feelings for all she's worth, and is grateful her new friend, George Kearney, doesn’t push. When Kearney’s friend, Lieutenant Matthew Riekert, moves in as her aunts’ new tenant, Rosalind tries to distract herself from the past by a romance with Matthew. Her scheme backfires when he suffers a devastating combat flashback, and she finds her feelings are stronger than she'd intended. And the ability to feel and love strongly is not something Rosalind wants anymore.
* Juliet E. McKenna: Invisible: essay collection edited by Jim Hines. See Why Diversity & Inclusion Matter in SF
* SF Signal: The Comics of Joe R. Lansdale
On the August 17, 1995 episode of his TV series, conservative mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh held up a copy of Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman's Lone Ranger and Tonto (Topps, 1995) graphic novel and chided their portrayal of an intelligent, independent Tonto as "political correctness." In his typical, uninformed manner, Limbaugh didn't even research the offending material ("I have far more productive things to do than read comic books.") The creative duo would attract even more controversy in 1996.
More links:
* Cherry City Comic Con (in Salem, Oregon) turns Refund Request into PR Disaster and publicly shames a cosplayer. ETA: here's an alternate link to a description of the situation, if the first link is down: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/cherry-city-comic-con-mocks-safety-issues/
* Comic Book Resources: Introducing the New CBR Community
Comic Book Resources has had to delete its forums because of a massive on and offline campaign of harassment and threats against a guest contributor.
* Lady of Horses by Judith Tarr
Sparrow is a shaman’s daughter in a tribe that forbids women to be kings, to be shamans, to be anything but silent and tractable servants to the all-powerful men. They may not ever ride the horses that are the life and soul of the tribe, or even approach them, for fear of angering the gods.
But Sparrow knows another story, a story of the woman who first rode a horse, and her brother who took both the horse and the glory away from her. Sparrow sees visions and dreams dreams–and her brother the shaman takes them from her and presents them as his own.
* 1919: After the War by Margeaux Otis
Nurse Rosalind Fuller doesn't want to speak about her experiences in the Great War. She's repressing those feelings for all she's worth, and is grateful her new friend, George Kearney, doesn’t push. When Kearney’s friend, Lieutenant Matthew Riekert, moves in as her aunts’ new tenant, Rosalind tries to distract herself from the past by a romance with Matthew. Her scheme backfires when he suffers a devastating combat flashback, and she finds her feelings are stronger than she'd intended. And the ability to feel and love strongly is not something Rosalind wants anymore.
* Juliet E. McKenna: Invisible: essay collection edited by Jim Hines. See Why Diversity & Inclusion Matter in SF
* SF Signal: The Comics of Joe R. Lansdale
On the August 17, 1995 episode of his TV series, conservative mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh held up a copy of Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman's Lone Ranger and Tonto (Topps, 1995) graphic novel and chided their portrayal of an intelligent, independent Tonto as "political correctness." In his typical, uninformed manner, Limbaugh didn't even research the offending material ("I have far more productive things to do than read comic books.") The creative duo would attract even more controversy in 1996.
More links:
* Cherry City Comic Con (in Salem, Oregon) turns Refund Request into PR Disaster and publicly shames a cosplayer. ETA: here's an alternate link to a description of the situation, if the first link is down: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/cherry-city-comic-con-mocks-safety-issues/
* Comic Book Resources: Introducing the New CBR Community
Comic Book Resources has had to delete its forums because of a massive on and offline campaign of harassment and threats against a guest contributor.
April 30, 2014
So, yesterday was pretty exciting. Being the Kindle Dail...
So, yesterday was pretty exciting. Being the Kindle Daily Deal, The Cloud Roads made it up to:
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
#2 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic
Which is very cool to see, though really, it doesn't mean anything. But it's nice to look at it and pretend for a minute.
Today I mainly have to try to finish the last Raksura novella, get my hair cut, go to the post office, and buy paper towels. (Note, these are novellas, not novels. Two of them turned out long, around 39,000-40,000 words, two shorter, around 25,000. For comparison, a short book is around 70,000 to 80,000 words. The Raksura novels were around 120,000.)
I also need to trim some more limbs off the trees, but I don't know that I'm going to get to that today. I did it earlier in the week and ended up getting a small piece of wood in my eye, which ouch. No damage or lasting effect or anything, just ouch.
Book recs:
* Good Reads Book Giveaway For Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica
One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into an unfamiliar world.
* Valor and Vanity
Acclaimed fantasist Mary Robinette Kowal has enchanted many fans with her beloved novels featuring a Regency setting in which magic--known here as glamour--is real. In Valour and Vanity, master glamourists Jane and Vincent find themselves in the sort of a magical adventure that might result if Jane Austen wrote Ocean's Eleven.
* Washington Post: Early Octavia Butler stories coming out in June
A pair of recently discovered early stories by prize-winning science fiction author Octavia Butler will be coming out as an e-book in June.
* News about upcoming works from N.K. Jemisin
* Lightspeed Magazine's Women Destroy Science Fiction issue
And a Book Drive:
* Accio Books!
Accio Books! is the Harry Potter Alliance’s annual book drive. Since 2009, Harry Potter fans around the world have donated more than 100,000 books to underprivileged or underserved readers.
This year we are building an Apparating Library in Detroit!
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
#2 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic
Which is very cool to see, though really, it doesn't mean anything. But it's nice to look at it and pretend for a minute.
Today I mainly have to try to finish the last Raksura novella, get my hair cut, go to the post office, and buy paper towels. (Note, these are novellas, not novels. Two of them turned out long, around 39,000-40,000 words, two shorter, around 25,000. For comparison, a short book is around 70,000 to 80,000 words. The Raksura novels were around 120,000.)
I also need to trim some more limbs off the trees, but I don't know that I'm going to get to that today. I did it earlier in the week and ended up getting a small piece of wood in my eye, which ouch. No damage or lasting effect or anything, just ouch.
Book recs:
* Good Reads Book Giveaway For Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica
One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into an unfamiliar world.
* Valor and Vanity
Acclaimed fantasist Mary Robinette Kowal has enchanted many fans with her beloved novels featuring a Regency setting in which magic--known here as glamour--is real. In Valour and Vanity, master glamourists Jane and Vincent find themselves in the sort of a magical adventure that might result if Jane Austen wrote Ocean's Eleven.
* Washington Post: Early Octavia Butler stories coming out in June
A pair of recently discovered early stories by prize-winning science fiction author Octavia Butler will be coming out as an e-book in June.
* News about upcoming works from N.K. Jemisin
* Lightspeed Magazine's Women Destroy Science Fiction issue
And a Book Drive:
* Accio Books!
Accio Books! is the Harry Potter Alliance’s annual book drive. Since 2009, Harry Potter fans around the world have donated more than 100,000 books to underprivileged or underserved readers.
This year we are building an Apparating Library in Detroit!
April 29, 2014
The Cloud Roads as Kindle Daily Deal
Okay, first big news:
The Cloud Roads is the SF/F Kindle Daily Deal for a $1.99, Yay! This is the first time I've been a daily deal, so it's kind of exciting. If you were ever thinking of trying it out, or trying to get someone else to try it out, this is a good cheap opportunity. Also, it helps the chances of me being able to write more in this world, at least novellas.
***
links:
* We Need Diverse Books Campaign
On May 1st at 1pm (EST), there will be a public call for action that will spread over 3 days. We’re starting with a visual social media campaign using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. We want people to tweet, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and post anywhere they can to help make the hashtag go viral.
* Reach Out and Read
Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based nonprofit organization of medical providers who promote early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.
* Strange Horizons: The 2013 SF Count
Welcome to the fourth year of Strange Horizons' "SF count" of representation in reviewing. The idea behind the count is straightforward: for the last calendar year, for a range of SF review venues, to calculate the gender balance of books reviewed and of reviewers. The aim is to draw attention to imbalances in literary coverage.
* The Guardian: Nigerian abducted girls' families fast losing hope of rescue
President calls emergency security council meeting over teenagers rounded up at gunpoint despite guard's presence
200 girls are missing in Nigeria – so why doesn't anybody care?
The Cloud Roads is the SF/F Kindle Daily Deal for a $1.99, Yay! This is the first time I've been a daily deal, so it's kind of exciting. If you were ever thinking of trying it out, or trying to get someone else to try it out, this is a good cheap opportunity. Also, it helps the chances of me being able to write more in this world, at least novellas.
***
links:
* We Need Diverse Books Campaign
On May 1st at 1pm (EST), there will be a public call for action that will spread over 3 days. We’re starting with a visual social media campaign using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. We want people to tweet, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and post anywhere they can to help make the hashtag go viral.
* Reach Out and Read
Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based nonprofit organization of medical providers who promote early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.
* Strange Horizons: The 2013 SF Count
Welcome to the fourth year of Strange Horizons' "SF count" of representation in reviewing. The idea behind the count is straightforward: for the last calendar year, for a range of SF review venues, to calculate the gender balance of books reviewed and of reviewers. The aim is to draw attention to imbalances in literary coverage.
* The Guardian: Nigerian abducted girls' families fast losing hope of rescue
President calls emergency security council meeting over teenagers rounded up at gunpoint despite guard's presence
200 girls are missing in Nigeria – so why doesn't anybody care?
April 27, 2014
If you missed it last week, I posted a new Giliead and Il...
If you missed it last week, I posted a new Giliead and Ilias story, Rites of Passage. If you want to and can afford to throw something in the donation box after you read it, I'd really appreciate that.
Also, I have a post on Upcoming4Me: The story behind Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells - Emilie's Worlds
Plus, someone found my web site by searching on "martha wells estate heirs." So I am not only invisible, I'm dead.
I finished the revisions on the Raksura novellas "The Falling World" and "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud," so hopefully they're on track for a September release.
I've been working on the yard, and it looks less like it belongs with an abandoned house, but I still have a ways to go.
Kitty pictures:
Jack
Tasha
Also, I have a post on Upcoming4Me: The story behind Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells - Emilie's Worlds
Plus, someone found my web site by searching on "martha wells estate heirs." So I am not only invisible, I'm dead.
I finished the revisions on the Raksura novellas "The Falling World" and "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud," so hopefully they're on track for a September release.
I've been working on the yard, and it looks less like it belongs with an abandoned house, but I still have a ways to go.
Kitty pictures:
Jack
Tasha
April 23, 2014
New Story Posted
Some of you who kept up with my Ile-Rien books might remember that there was supposed to be a fourth Giliead and Ilias story, called "Rites of Passage," set after "Holy Places" (which appeared in Black Gate #11 in 2007, and was reprinted in Lightspeed's November ebook issue last year). These were all prequel stories to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. Black Gate acquired "Rites of Passage" but then had to stop doing the print magazine, and long story short, I haven't been able to find another place for it. It's a novelette-length fantasy story, which makes it a bit tricky. So I'm posting it on my web site.
I'm going to post the first section as a teaser under the cut, since it's really too long to post here. Or you can go directly to it: Rites of Passage. And if you want to and can afford to throw something in the donation box after you read it, I'd really appreciate that.
In other news, this week I'm working on the edits for the first two Raksura novellas, "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" and "The Falling World," which will be published by Night Shade in a paperback collection and individually as ebooks in September. The next two, "The Dead City" and "Novella 4: I don't have a title yet" will be out in Spring 2015. I'm still trying to finish "I don't have a title yet."
first section teaser: Rites of Passage
Ilias, Giliead, and their older sister Irissa walked down the waterfront of Cineth's harbor. It was a busy place, with men hauling casks of water and big dusty red amphorae of olive oil and wine, and traders hawking their wares. The sun was bright and the breeze cool, and Ilias was enjoying the day, despite the fact that Giliead was trying very hard to start a fight with Irissa.
"When are you going to buy a husband?" Giliead asked her, apparently determined to be as obnoxious as possible. "After this harvest, you could have anybody in town."
Irissa snorted derisively. "I don't want anybody in town."
Ilias had heard her say this before, and was just as glad to hear it again. He said, "You should wait to marry somebody for love, like Karima did." Karima was Giliead and Irissa's mother. She was younger than their father Ranior, and had been wealthy enough to take her pick of husbands, but it was obvious she had chosen with her heart.
Giliead kicked at a piling, determined not to be deterred from the argument. "Irissa never talks to anybody, how will she know if she's in love or not?"
Ilias gave him a sour look, but he knew why Giliead was in such a bad mood. They had just heard in the market plaza that Menander, the Chosen Vessel for the Uplands, had left on a hunt, heading up into the eastern hills to follow a rumor of a curseling seen near one of the isolated villages. Again, Giliead had been left behind.
Giliead was the Chosen Vessel for Cineth, gifted at birth by the god that watched over the city; the gift gave him the ability to smell curses and see the traces they left in air, earth, and water. But he was nearly seventeen seasons old now, and he had never yet been on a wizard hunt. Menander, much older and far more experienced than Giliead, should have been letting him help protect both Cineth's territory and the Uplands. The god of each area guarded its territory as well as it could, but wizards and their curselings were adept at slipping through the boundaries to do as much damage as possible, and it was the Vessels who had to stop them. But so far, all Menander's teaching had been theoretical. Now that Giliead was older, it was beginning to chafe.
"I'd rather buy a galley than a husband," Irissa said, eyeing the row of ships. Most of the those docked along here were fishermen or merchants with one or two sails, the canvas every shade of purple, red, blue, and other lucky colors, with the stylized eyes painted on their bows so the ships could find their way home. "Maybe we could try trading with the Chaens."
Ilias grinned at her. "You just want an excuse to travel." He hadn't been around the farm during the past winter season much himself; he had been working at hauling cargo, staying overnight in the city with Andrien relatives. This season he had made enough extra money to buy copper earrings for himself and a second set as a gift for Giliead, and a matching armlet for Irissa.
"What's wrong with wanting to travel?" Irissa waved toward the ships. "Mother and father can take care of our land. There's plenty of time before I have to worry about it."
Ilias knew that Irissa didn't have many real friends except for them, and the people of Andrien village. There weren't any single men her own age she had much to do with. Thinking of some of the spectacular mistakes he had seen other women their age make in the husband-choosing area, he said, "Waiting to pick the right person is better."
Irissa evidently appreciated the support. "That's right." She flung her arms in the air in frustration. "I should just marry Ilias. Save us all a lot of trouble."
Over the past season or so, Ilias had been privately thinking that that would be a wonderful idea, but the fact that Irissa had brought it up, even as a joke, struck him so much that he couldn't reply. He had lived at Andrien House with them for more than ten seasons, but he wasn't Giliead and Irissa's brother by blood. It was apparent from their looks; Ilias was inland Syprian, short, stocky, and blond, and Giliead and Irissa were both olive-skinned, with straight chestnut hair. Giliead was a couple of seasons the younger but he was already taller than both Ilias and Irissa, broad-shouldered and strong.
Unimpressed, Giliead said, "It would be cheaper. And after that thing with the trader's daughter, mother will be lucky to get more than three chickens and a diseased goat for him-- Ow!"
He made a retaliatory grab for Ilias, who had punched him in the back. To forestall further violence, Irissa slung an arm around Ilias' neck, throwing her weight on him to make him stagger out of reach.
Instead of pursuing them both, Giliead turned away and shaded his eyes to look out over the harbor. Ilias followed his gaze, trying to see what was so interesting. There was only one ship coming in, a merchant with black and white square designs painted on the hull and a single red sail. A dark-clothed man holding the tiller shouted orders as others scrambled to take in sails. "Hisian," Giliead said, as if he wasn't aware he had spoken aloud.
Ilias had spotted the bare prow too. Hisian ships never had eyes, so they were just dead soulless wood, like a raft or a dinghy. It was stupid to put to sea on a ship like that, especially for the long distance down the coast from the nearest Hisian port. Still leaning comfortably on Irissa, he said, "Let's watch the Portmaster search her."
Irissa nodded, but added, "I bet they didn't bring any women. They aren't that stupid anymore."
Hisians treated their women like slaves or worse, so Syprians rescued them whenever possible. There were several women who had been Hisian living in Cineth now, known by their skin, which was the color of bleached parchment, and the tribal scarring on cheeks and forehead. The woman who ran one of the smaller provisioners on the harbor front had been a Hisian once.
They started down toward the stone piers, where the ship was being awkwardly brought into dock. Someone else must have shared Giliead's suspicious interest in the newcomer; Ilias saw a patrol galley appear at the mouth of the harbor, the three rows of oars working as it followed the Hisian in.
They reached the slip as the ship was still tying off. Giliead and Irissa's father Ranior was there, waiting with the Portmaster Hadria, an older woman with gray woven through her dark hair. The men who would search the ship for her stood around by the pilings, speculating on what they would find.
When Hadria went to talk to a cargo factor, Giliead asked Ranior, "Will the Hisians agree to the search?"
Ranior nodded. "Hadria said they seem to be reasonable." He glanced at Giliead, his smile turning concerned. Ranior was tall and olive-skinned like Giliead, his red-brown hair almost all gray now, though he still wore it long like a younger man. "Why? What's wrong?"
His eyes still on the ship, Giliead shook his head, his face a little bewildered. "I don't know. It just gives me a strange feeling."
Ilias tried to see what Giliead saw. "You mean a strange feeling like it's a trick to get into the harbor, or a strange feeling like something...else?" He found himself not wanting to say "cursed" aloud.
"I don't know," Giliead said again, sounding annoyed now. "It's not a curse, not on the ship. That I'd be able to see. Or I should be able to see it." He shrugged, almost angrily. "I can't tell if this is a real feeling or I'm just imagining it."
"Maybe Gil should go aboard." Irissa looked at Ranior hopefully. Ilias was fairly sure that meant that Irissa thought she should go aboard and that Giliead would be a good excuse, but he couldn't blame her; he wanted to see the foreign ship too.
But Ranior's expression was serious. "I'll talk to Hadria." He added, still watching Giliead, "Don't say what you're looking for, don't even imply it, not with a look, not with a word. Not unless you're certain."
Giliead hesitated, a flicker of unease crossing his face, then he nodded. "I understand."
Hadria agreed to let them go aboard with the searchers, probably thinking Ranior wanted to see the ship for himself. But once Ilias stood with Irissa on the deck, he admitted to some disappointment. The ship was just an ordinary merchant, her shallow hull stuffed with bales of fur, some millstones, and other goods. There was no cabin on the deck for shelter, just a section of tarp to rig up as protection from the sun. The small crew were mostly young boys, and the dark-clothed shipmaster was a lean old man, his tribal scars so puckered from age and weather they were nearly impossible to read. He stood beside the mast, weary and resigned, and the young crew mostly huddled nervously near the water casks. They all wore dark colors, as Hisians usually did, and had already stripped to the waist to prove they weren't trying to conceal any female captives. They looked like what they said they were; a family of merchant Hisians coming along the coast to trade for wine and olive oil.
His expression of mild interest fixed, Giliead wandered around the deck as the Portmaster's assistants climbed through the cargo. The Hisians barely noticed him, and were more occupied with trying desperately not to look at Irissa. They treated their own women like dirt and then killed each other for looking at them; they seemed slow to get the idea that with Syprians, it was all right to look, just not to be rude about it.
The youngest, scrawniest boy snuck a glance at Irissa, then accidentally made eye contact with Ilias. He twitched and hunkered down closer to the deck in terror. Ilias was highly conscious of the need to keep from betraying the fact that Giliead was looking for curses, and in trying to keep his face blank, he felt he probably looked far more forbidding than he meant to. He tried to relax, telling Irissa in a low voice, "Doesn't look like anything's wrong."
"No," she agreed reluctantly. "Gil needs to go with Menander, to get some real experience." Frustrated, she added, "Sometimes it doesn't seem as if Menander remembers that Gil is a Chosen Vessel at all."
Ilias knew reading the Journals and listening to Menander's stories was all well and good, but Giliead needed to work with a real Vessel, to see a hunt for himself, and to help with it. Yet now he found himself wanting to argue with Irissa that Menander was right, that putting it off was best. "Some Vessels just travel alone."
Irissa pointed out bluntly, "Yes. Usually the ones who die quickly."
Ilias didn't have an answer for that. The Journals had shown it over and over again, that Chosen Vessels who hunted alone tended to come to their ends far more quickly than those who didn't. Though it was risky either way, and usually the companions died faster than the Vessels. Ilias had meant to be Giliead's companion as long as he could remember, but with Menander putting off Giliead's training, it had been easy to pretend it was never going to happen, that their lives would be normal.
He looked away, even more uncomfortable now. Something in Ranior's face when he had told Giliead not to even hint that the ship might be cursed had made Ilias uneasy. That Giliead might be wrong and innocent people die, or be given curse marks and ostracized.
Chosen Vessels were supposed to prevent that, it was the whole point of having them. Hisians didn't have Vessels, and accused each other of being wizards constantly, and killed each other like animals.
In the Poets' stories, it all seemed so simple. Except Ilias already knew nothing was simple.
"Harbormaster, I hope there's no trouble," someone said, and Ilias looked up to see a man he had taken as part of the crew addressing Hadria. "I've been on the ship since Ancyra, and these are good people." He was young, with a tangle of dark hair cut at the shoulders. Under the coating of sweat and grime, he wasn't as pale as the other Hisians, but he was dressed like them with a black wrap around his waist. Ilias squinted at him, trying to decide if he was Syprian or not. It was hard to tell, but his Syrnaic had an inland accent and he had spoken to Hadria first. The Hisian shipmaster had kept trying to talk to Ranior, who had just eyed him silently until the man forced himself to speak to Hadria.
"Are you a trader?" Hadria asked him.
He smiled, answering the question she hadn't asked. "My name is Delphian, from Syrneth. I'm a poet."
***
See the rest at: Rites of Passage
I'm going to post the first section as a teaser under the cut, since it's really too long to post here. Or you can go directly to it: Rites of Passage. And if you want to and can afford to throw something in the donation box after you read it, I'd really appreciate that.
In other news, this week I'm working on the edits for the first two Raksura novellas, "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" and "The Falling World," which will be published by Night Shade in a paperback collection and individually as ebooks in September. The next two, "The Dead City" and "Novella 4: I don't have a title yet" will be out in Spring 2015. I'm still trying to finish "I don't have a title yet."
first section teaser: Rites of Passage
Ilias, Giliead, and their older sister Irissa walked down the waterfront of Cineth's harbor. It was a busy place, with men hauling casks of water and big dusty red amphorae of olive oil and wine, and traders hawking their wares. The sun was bright and the breeze cool, and Ilias was enjoying the day, despite the fact that Giliead was trying very hard to start a fight with Irissa.
"When are you going to buy a husband?" Giliead asked her, apparently determined to be as obnoxious as possible. "After this harvest, you could have anybody in town."
Irissa snorted derisively. "I don't want anybody in town."
Ilias had heard her say this before, and was just as glad to hear it again. He said, "You should wait to marry somebody for love, like Karima did." Karima was Giliead and Irissa's mother. She was younger than their father Ranior, and had been wealthy enough to take her pick of husbands, but it was obvious she had chosen with her heart.
Giliead kicked at a piling, determined not to be deterred from the argument. "Irissa never talks to anybody, how will she know if she's in love or not?"
Ilias gave him a sour look, but he knew why Giliead was in such a bad mood. They had just heard in the market plaza that Menander, the Chosen Vessel for the Uplands, had left on a hunt, heading up into the eastern hills to follow a rumor of a curseling seen near one of the isolated villages. Again, Giliead had been left behind.
Giliead was the Chosen Vessel for Cineth, gifted at birth by the god that watched over the city; the gift gave him the ability to smell curses and see the traces they left in air, earth, and water. But he was nearly seventeen seasons old now, and he had never yet been on a wizard hunt. Menander, much older and far more experienced than Giliead, should have been letting him help protect both Cineth's territory and the Uplands. The god of each area guarded its territory as well as it could, but wizards and their curselings were adept at slipping through the boundaries to do as much damage as possible, and it was the Vessels who had to stop them. But so far, all Menander's teaching had been theoretical. Now that Giliead was older, it was beginning to chafe.
"I'd rather buy a galley than a husband," Irissa said, eyeing the row of ships. Most of the those docked along here were fishermen or merchants with one or two sails, the canvas every shade of purple, red, blue, and other lucky colors, with the stylized eyes painted on their bows so the ships could find their way home. "Maybe we could try trading with the Chaens."
Ilias grinned at her. "You just want an excuse to travel." He hadn't been around the farm during the past winter season much himself; he had been working at hauling cargo, staying overnight in the city with Andrien relatives. This season he had made enough extra money to buy copper earrings for himself and a second set as a gift for Giliead, and a matching armlet for Irissa.
"What's wrong with wanting to travel?" Irissa waved toward the ships. "Mother and father can take care of our land. There's plenty of time before I have to worry about it."
Ilias knew that Irissa didn't have many real friends except for them, and the people of Andrien village. There weren't any single men her own age she had much to do with. Thinking of some of the spectacular mistakes he had seen other women their age make in the husband-choosing area, he said, "Waiting to pick the right person is better."
Irissa evidently appreciated the support. "That's right." She flung her arms in the air in frustration. "I should just marry Ilias. Save us all a lot of trouble."
Over the past season or so, Ilias had been privately thinking that that would be a wonderful idea, but the fact that Irissa had brought it up, even as a joke, struck him so much that he couldn't reply. He had lived at Andrien House with them for more than ten seasons, but he wasn't Giliead and Irissa's brother by blood. It was apparent from their looks; Ilias was inland Syprian, short, stocky, and blond, and Giliead and Irissa were both olive-skinned, with straight chestnut hair. Giliead was a couple of seasons the younger but he was already taller than both Ilias and Irissa, broad-shouldered and strong.
Unimpressed, Giliead said, "It would be cheaper. And after that thing with the trader's daughter, mother will be lucky to get more than three chickens and a diseased goat for him-- Ow!"
He made a retaliatory grab for Ilias, who had punched him in the back. To forestall further violence, Irissa slung an arm around Ilias' neck, throwing her weight on him to make him stagger out of reach.
Instead of pursuing them both, Giliead turned away and shaded his eyes to look out over the harbor. Ilias followed his gaze, trying to see what was so interesting. There was only one ship coming in, a merchant with black and white square designs painted on the hull and a single red sail. A dark-clothed man holding the tiller shouted orders as others scrambled to take in sails. "Hisian," Giliead said, as if he wasn't aware he had spoken aloud.
Ilias had spotted the bare prow too. Hisian ships never had eyes, so they were just dead soulless wood, like a raft or a dinghy. It was stupid to put to sea on a ship like that, especially for the long distance down the coast from the nearest Hisian port. Still leaning comfortably on Irissa, he said, "Let's watch the Portmaster search her."
Irissa nodded, but added, "I bet they didn't bring any women. They aren't that stupid anymore."
Hisians treated their women like slaves or worse, so Syprians rescued them whenever possible. There were several women who had been Hisian living in Cineth now, known by their skin, which was the color of bleached parchment, and the tribal scarring on cheeks and forehead. The woman who ran one of the smaller provisioners on the harbor front had been a Hisian once.
They started down toward the stone piers, where the ship was being awkwardly brought into dock. Someone else must have shared Giliead's suspicious interest in the newcomer; Ilias saw a patrol galley appear at the mouth of the harbor, the three rows of oars working as it followed the Hisian in.
They reached the slip as the ship was still tying off. Giliead and Irissa's father Ranior was there, waiting with the Portmaster Hadria, an older woman with gray woven through her dark hair. The men who would search the ship for her stood around by the pilings, speculating on what they would find.
When Hadria went to talk to a cargo factor, Giliead asked Ranior, "Will the Hisians agree to the search?"
Ranior nodded. "Hadria said they seem to be reasonable." He glanced at Giliead, his smile turning concerned. Ranior was tall and olive-skinned like Giliead, his red-brown hair almost all gray now, though he still wore it long like a younger man. "Why? What's wrong?"
His eyes still on the ship, Giliead shook his head, his face a little bewildered. "I don't know. It just gives me a strange feeling."
Ilias tried to see what Giliead saw. "You mean a strange feeling like it's a trick to get into the harbor, or a strange feeling like something...else?" He found himself not wanting to say "cursed" aloud.
"I don't know," Giliead said again, sounding annoyed now. "It's not a curse, not on the ship. That I'd be able to see. Or I should be able to see it." He shrugged, almost angrily. "I can't tell if this is a real feeling or I'm just imagining it."
"Maybe Gil should go aboard." Irissa looked at Ranior hopefully. Ilias was fairly sure that meant that Irissa thought she should go aboard and that Giliead would be a good excuse, but he couldn't blame her; he wanted to see the foreign ship too.
But Ranior's expression was serious. "I'll talk to Hadria." He added, still watching Giliead, "Don't say what you're looking for, don't even imply it, not with a look, not with a word. Not unless you're certain."
Giliead hesitated, a flicker of unease crossing his face, then he nodded. "I understand."
Hadria agreed to let them go aboard with the searchers, probably thinking Ranior wanted to see the ship for himself. But once Ilias stood with Irissa on the deck, he admitted to some disappointment. The ship was just an ordinary merchant, her shallow hull stuffed with bales of fur, some millstones, and other goods. There was no cabin on the deck for shelter, just a section of tarp to rig up as protection from the sun. The small crew were mostly young boys, and the dark-clothed shipmaster was a lean old man, his tribal scars so puckered from age and weather they were nearly impossible to read. He stood beside the mast, weary and resigned, and the young crew mostly huddled nervously near the water casks. They all wore dark colors, as Hisians usually did, and had already stripped to the waist to prove they weren't trying to conceal any female captives. They looked like what they said they were; a family of merchant Hisians coming along the coast to trade for wine and olive oil.
His expression of mild interest fixed, Giliead wandered around the deck as the Portmaster's assistants climbed through the cargo. The Hisians barely noticed him, and were more occupied with trying desperately not to look at Irissa. They treated their own women like dirt and then killed each other for looking at them; they seemed slow to get the idea that with Syprians, it was all right to look, just not to be rude about it.
The youngest, scrawniest boy snuck a glance at Irissa, then accidentally made eye contact with Ilias. He twitched and hunkered down closer to the deck in terror. Ilias was highly conscious of the need to keep from betraying the fact that Giliead was looking for curses, and in trying to keep his face blank, he felt he probably looked far more forbidding than he meant to. He tried to relax, telling Irissa in a low voice, "Doesn't look like anything's wrong."
"No," she agreed reluctantly. "Gil needs to go with Menander, to get some real experience." Frustrated, she added, "Sometimes it doesn't seem as if Menander remembers that Gil is a Chosen Vessel at all."
Ilias knew reading the Journals and listening to Menander's stories was all well and good, but Giliead needed to work with a real Vessel, to see a hunt for himself, and to help with it. Yet now he found himself wanting to argue with Irissa that Menander was right, that putting it off was best. "Some Vessels just travel alone."
Irissa pointed out bluntly, "Yes. Usually the ones who die quickly."
Ilias didn't have an answer for that. The Journals had shown it over and over again, that Chosen Vessels who hunted alone tended to come to their ends far more quickly than those who didn't. Though it was risky either way, and usually the companions died faster than the Vessels. Ilias had meant to be Giliead's companion as long as he could remember, but with Menander putting off Giliead's training, it had been easy to pretend it was never going to happen, that their lives would be normal.
He looked away, even more uncomfortable now. Something in Ranior's face when he had told Giliead not to even hint that the ship might be cursed had made Ilias uneasy. That Giliead might be wrong and innocent people die, or be given curse marks and ostracized.
Chosen Vessels were supposed to prevent that, it was the whole point of having them. Hisians didn't have Vessels, and accused each other of being wizards constantly, and killed each other like animals.
In the Poets' stories, it all seemed so simple. Except Ilias already knew nothing was simple.
"Harbormaster, I hope there's no trouble," someone said, and Ilias looked up to see a man he had taken as part of the crew addressing Hadria. "I've been on the ship since Ancyra, and these are good people." He was young, with a tangle of dark hair cut at the shoulders. Under the coating of sweat and grime, he wasn't as pale as the other Hisians, but he was dressed like them with a black wrap around his waist. Ilias squinted at him, trying to decide if he was Syprian or not. It was hard to tell, but his Syrnaic had an inland accent and he had spoken to Hadria first. The Hisian shipmaster had kept trying to talk to Ranior, who had just eyed him silently until the man forced himself to speak to Hadria.
"Are you a trader?" Hadria asked him.
He smiled, answering the question she hadn't asked. "My name is Delphian, from Syrneth. I'm a poet."
***
See the rest at: Rites of Passage
